Beverages

Cucumber Gin Coolers

April 28, 2011 by Rebecca 7 Comments

I’m not a very accomplished bartender. The sum of my barkeep experience was stalling the patrons at the restaurant where I worked on the late shift while the real, honest-to-goodness bartender ran into the back to make a personal phone call. When she returned to her post, I gratefully returned to mine; the deep-fryer and flat top pub-grub station in the kitchen.

I’m also not much of a drinker. The first few sips of a glass of wine or a beer leave me pink-cheeked and the last couple sips leave me looking for a pillow on which to lay my sleepy head.

For the most part, my indulgences are confined to a glass of red wine or home brewed beer. I couldn’t tell you what goes in most mixed drinks without the assistance of Google, but there is one cocktail I love in the summertime that I do very, very well: The Gin & Tonic.

As with most foods and beverages to which I am partial, there’s back story. The Evil Genius and I honeymooned in August of-way-back-when on a cruise that went up the East coast of the United States. We had used all of our funds on the wedding and the trip itself and had very little left spending money to take with us. In order to save our cash-ola for goodies in port (like lobster dinnahs in Maine and Nova Scotia, thankyouverymuch), we bought a bottle of Tanqueray Gin in the on-board duty-free shop, a bag of limes and a six-pack of tonic in the first town where we disembarked. For the remainder of the trip, instead of buying two twelve-dollar drinks in the evening, we mixed our own chi-chi hot weather G & Ts in our commemorative cups in the room before wandering around, pinkies in the air, enjoying the ship and our frugal triumph.

Those Gin & Tonics tasted like relaxation and summer. On super hot days, there’s really nothing like it. Or at least there wasn’t until I saw these Cucumber Gin Coolers over on Saveur. I knew right away that this was going to be good. A lot of gin tastes faintly of cucumbers already, so the pairing was inspired and natural. They mixed theirs a bit stronger than I like (using a 1:1 ratio of gin to lime juice with a splash of tonic) but the idea of combining my beloved Gin & Tonic with lime and seedless cucumbers caught hold of my brain. When our first legitimately warm day burst onto the scene yesterday, the evening was pre-destined to end with one of these…

To better suit my lightweight tastes, I changed Saveur’s ratios to a one part gin to two parts tonic to one quarter of a fresh lime and boosted the amount of cucumber in the drink. I fully intended to wait until the drink was finished to nibble those gin and lime and tonic soaked cucumber slices. The wait was worth it. Sitting in the glass, almost pickling a bit in the liquid left the slices crisp, bursting with flavour and a treat in themselves.

Since there are so few ingredients in this drink, it is important to use the best ingredients you can. Use a good, dry gin. I’m partial to Tanqueray, Bombay or Hendricks. Do not skimp and buy the el-cheapo stuff. For the love of all that is good in this world, do not use bottled lime juice here. I understand that a good lime can be hard to find occasionally, but this is one instance where you’re better off waiting than settling. The oils in the skin of the lime are crucial to the outcome of the drink. Tonic water is a matter of preference. I like Stirrings for a multitude of reasons; crisp, clean, quinine-centric taste and no high fructose corn syrup or aspartame. Use whichever tonic water flicks your Bic. And as for the cukes, use a nice, firm seedless variety with an edible skin. The skin of the cucumber stays in place for both visual and taste appeal here, so a thick, wax-coated number is going to be a giant sour clunker of a note in your symphonic cocktail.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Cucumber Gin Coolers

Author: Rebecca Lindamood (adapted from Saveur’s Helen Rosner)

Recipe type: Beverage, Cocktail, Mixed Drink

Prep time: 3 mins

Total time: 3 mins

Serves: 2

This cucumber and lime infused Gin & Tonic takes refreshing to a whole new level. Wait ’til you reach the end of the drink to nibble on the flavour soaked cucumber slices for an extra treat!

Ingredients

½ of a fresh lime, sliced into two wedges
½ cup of seedless cucumber, sliced into ⅛”-thick rounds
4 ounces of good, dry gin (Tanqueray, Hendricks, or Bombay are good choices.)
8 ounces of very chilled tonic water
½ cup plain ice cubes

Instructions

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker or large pitcher.

To prepare with a cocktail shaker:

If using the shaker, shake hard five times before dividing the contents of the shaker between two chilled glasses.
Serve immediately.

To prepare with a large pitcher:

Use a long handled wooden spoon to stir vigorously for about 20 seconds before dividing the contents between two chilled glasses.
Serve immediately.

Notes

Try to make yourself wait until you’ve finished the drink to nibble the cucumber slices. It’s completely worth it!

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

Filed Under: Beverages, Rebecca, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: Beverages, cocktail, party food, Vegetarian

Banana Nutmeg Smoothies

March 14, 2011 by Rebecca 7 Comments

Warning: This post is going to discuss bodily functions. Sorry, butt there’s no getting around it, and everybody does it. This has been a Foodie With Family P.S.A.

When you have little kids, life seems to develop a tendency to revolve around… Hmm. How to say this nicely and in a not-unappetizing way on a food blog? Let’s put it this way. When you have a room full of moms of young children or doting pet owners, what does the conversation turn to eventually? Unexpected Anterior and Posterior gastro-intenstinal functions*. Without fail. And I mean it. All you moms of human and animal babies out there are nodding your heads.

*Brilliant! Now I don’t actually have to say poop. Oh crap. I mean crud. Oh geez… I’m going back to bed now.

When my first baby (Help me. He’s a teenager now!) was young, his tiny gut had quite the time adjusting. At two months old, he had stopped gaining weight and needed surgery to correct Pyloric Stenosis. I was a first time mother with a very overactive morbid imagination and a baby who was not growing courtesy of an unseen and heretofore unheard-of disorder. Cue hardcore panic. Thankfully, the hospital and neo-natal intensive care unit proved to be staffed entirely by saints and angels who were also preternaturally patient*.

*I know they were angels because they saved my baby (Mah Bay-bay!). While he was in recovery and before I could see him, my lips were (courtesy of crying and nervous lip-chewing) raw, red, cracked, chapped and ready to fall off of my face. The nurses tried rousing out every lubricant handy on the unit to help me. That’s saying something. Hospitals are well stocked in that department. Nothing helped until relief came in the form of my Dad arriving with his ever present tube of Chapstick. The moral of the story is never have a family health crisis without a tube of Chapstick.

In the grand tradition of my family, I have not yet gotten over this trauma and am still obsessed with maintaining the proper order of digestion (in one direction and out the other with no untoward activity. You understand me? I’m looking your way intestines…) Mercifully, our now former pediatrician* was also wonderfully patient and forbearing and put up with many a panicked conversation about the state of, er, internal affairs in my children.

*Former only because she retired from practice. Something about being almost seventy and blah, blah, blah. I’m about sick of people I count on retiring. First Uncle Wong, then the woman who grew my storage potatoes and now the pediatrician. Who’s next? My UPS guy? This is getting old.What?!? Is that selfish?

Early in the kids-eating-solids-portion of parenthood, Dr. Ang advised me and equipped me with the two best pieces of advise for restoring normal business when things were out of whack.

The B.R.A.T.T. Diet: If you have kids and you have encountered any of the numerous ways children have digestive distress you’ve heard of this. Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Tea and Toast. When things go wrong, eating a diet composed of these four items will restore balance in the Force, young padawans.
Sweetened Rice Water: Every so often, when the stomach bug struck, and the kids felt too ill to consume anything else, Dr. Ang’s go-to solution was a brew made from boiling plain long grain rice (she recommended Jasmine) in three to four times the normal amount of water until very soft. The rice was strained and set aside for later or fed to the chickens and the liquid was sweetened to taste and spoon fed to the kids. This was the easy-to-digest calorie boost the kids needed and fit into the aforementioned diet. With all due-respect to the rest of the field, this pediatrician was a find the likes of which I don’t expect to see again. Sigh.

There are all sorts of things other than the flu that can cause stomach upset or distress, not just for kids, but for adults, too. Antibiotics, medical treatments, other prescriptions, stress, and exhaustion are among the myriad nasty little devils that can play Old Harry with your insides. Honestly, it’s a wonder we don’t all walk around doubled over most of the time.

Made with only four ingredients (frozen bananas, yogurt, ice and nutmeg), Banana Nutmeg Smoothies are exactly the thing when you’re feeling out of sorts. Gently sweet, cool and smooth, they are a delicious way to sooth and satiate. When the inevitable happens this is the first thing I turn to for relief.

After all this talk of intestines and being green around the gills, I wouldn’t wonder if I’ve made a few of you queasy. I’m sorry. I am. Hey! At least you can fix it with a batch of Banana Nutmeg Smoothies. Do I know how to solve a problem or what?

Really, though, all talk of that other nasty stuff aside, this is a smoothie-second-to-none in its simplicity is its charm. It doesn’t scream banana, but the sweetness of the banana comes through. The slightly-tangy yogurt makes it as creamy as can be. The ice (and pre-frozen bananas) make it thick like a milkshake. The nutmeg? That’s the crowning glory here, so use freshly grated nutmeg if you can. The heady scent and delicate flavor of fresh nutmeg is unlike any pre-ground nutmeg you’ll ever find. It is worth whatever effort it takes to find. If you cannot find nutmeg, you can substitute ground cinnamon.

Honestly, they’re so good that I don’t wait until we’re feeling poorly to make these. They’re part of the regular rotation. But remember that they’re more than just a tasty and healthy snack, they’re a weapon in the arsenal of comfortable life. Who couldn’t use that?

Banana Nutmeg Smoothies

Scroll to the bottom for an easy-print version of this recipe!

Yield: 4 small or 2 large smoothies

Ingredients:

4 very ripe (but not over ripe) bananas, peeled and frozen
2 cups vanilla or plain yogurt (If using plain, add 1/2 teaspoon real vanilla extract and up to 2 tablespoons sugar or honey.)
1/4-1 cup ice (preferably crushed) depending on the thickness you prefer.
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Optional: A splash or more of milk to help move things along in the blender

Add the yogurt to the carafe of a blender. Break the frozen bananas into chunks and add to the blender. Put the lid on the blender and process on “HIGH” or “LIQUIFY” until the mixture is smooth. If you need to, turn the power off, remove the lid and stir with a long handled wooden spoon to re-distribute. Add desired amount of ice and milk along with the grated nutmeg, replace the lid, and blend on HIGH just until smooth. Pour into serving glasses, garnish with a tiny scraping of freshly grated nutmeg and serve immediately.

4.0 from 1 reviews

Banana Nutmeg Smoothies

Author: Rebecca Lindamood

Recipe type: Dessert, Breakfast, Snack

Prep time: 5 mins

Total time: 5 mins

Serves: 2

Made with only four ingredients (bananas, nutmeg, yogurt, ice) these smoothies are a gently sweet, cool, smooth way to soothe and satisfy.

Ingredients

4 very ripe (but not over ripe) bananas, peeled and frozen
2 cups vanilla or plain yogurt (If using plain, add ½ teaspoon real vanilla extract and up to 2 tablespoons of honey or sugar.)
¼-1 cup ice (preferably crushed) depending on the thickness you prefer.
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Optional: A splash or more of milk to help move things along in the blender

Instructions

Add the yogurt to the carafe of a blender. Break the frozen bananas into chunks and add to the blender. Put the lid on the blender and process on “HIGH” or “LIQUIFY” until the mixture is smooth. If you need to, turn the power off, remove the lid and stir with a long handled wooden spoon to re-distribute. Add desired amount of ice and milk along with the grated nutmeg, replace the lid, and blend on HIGH just until smooth. Pour into serving glasses, garnish with a tiny scraping of freshly grated nutmeg and serve immediately.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

Filed Under: Breakfast Foods, Desserts, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, kid food, Recipes Tagged With: Beverages, Breakfast, budget friendly, Frugal Food, kid friendly, kids, quick and easy, Vegetarian

Chai Lattes and Hot Caramel Apple Cider

October 1, 2010 by Rebecca 31 Comments

Welcome to my third entry post for Project Food Blog on Foodbuzz.com. The theme of the challenge for this round is “Luxury Dinner Party”. The good folks at Foodbuzz.com prompted thusly: “Celebrate! You’ve made it this far, and the next challenge is to hold a party for your friends and family (at least four guests). Whether you’re an experienced host or an entertaining newbie, get creative and host a luxurious dinner party. Share your hosting secrets with readers. ” I ran into a bit of a snag but the show had to go on! How did I do? I’ll let you judge…

“…[Weed] out what you yourself like best to do, so that you can live most agreeably in a world full of an increasing number of disagreeable surprises.”

~MFK Fisher

While planning our fabulous dinner party we all got the flu.

There was no reason at all to let a disagreeable surprise like the flu stand in the way of living as agreeably as possible. Clearly our previous plans were waylaid*, but the family gamely agreed to carry on when I solemnly pledged not to include any pictures of snuffly noses or red-rimmed eyes in the post. Luxury is a state of mind, after all, and we were of a mind for some luxury.

*Would you attend a dinner party thrown by a cook who looked and sounded as though you might find her lung in your soup? Exactly.

We respected the rules of the competition. And so invitations went forth…

The children all R.S.V.P.’d.

Then we hiked up our softest jammy pants, adjusted our fuzziest socks, combed our hair and generally made ourselves presentable (to keep ourselves in the spirit of the thing) for a Flu Fighting Feast of the First Degree.

Our first course was, naturally, a soup course. We indulged in a velvety chicken soup with light-as-air dumplings made from my grandmother’s “Never-Fail Dumplings” recipe. Everyone knows that nothing cures the flu faster than homemade chicken soup and Grandma’s dumplings. I do believe lungs started clearing.

Our second course was our hot drinks course. We harnessed the season and pampered ourselves with steaming sweet apple cider dressed with a spoonful of dulce de leche and a hearty dollop of whipped cream. The warmth of the drinks soothed our throats and quieted the chills. While whipped cream isn’t traditionally recommended as a flu curative, it certainly helped mend our spirits if not our respiration.

There were also spicy, hot Chai Lattes for the tea lovers among us. Topped with a cap of frothed milk and a cinnamon stick they warmed parents and children alike. Believe me, that felt like a million bucks.

We retired to the den for the dessert course; Vanilla Scottish Shortbread…

Lots of cuddles, and an ibuprofen.

And a luxuriously good time was had by all.

~~~~~~~~~

If you find yourself hosting a Flu Fighting Feast, take advantage of these simple tips to make your evening sparkle:

Put cushy pillows on the seats.
Have a blanket draped over the back of each person’s chair so they can wrap up when overtaken with the chills.
Make sure to put out place markers with names clearly written in case you forget who you are because of fever.
Above all, remember to ditch the whole plan and snuggle on the couch while watching a movie if you find it’s just too much to remain upright.

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of these recipes, click here!

Chai Lattes

Recipe adapted from the Stash Tea Company

Ingredients:

10 standard-sized Chai teabags (I prefer the Stash brand.)
7 cups cool fresh water
1 cup whole milk plus additional milk for frothing
1/4-1/2 cup sugar, depending on how sweet you like your chai
Optional: whole cinnamon sticks for a flavorful garnish

Combine water, milk and sugar in a large, heavy-bottomed pan. Add the teabags to the liquid and bring to a boil, partially covered. Remove cover and let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove and discard tea bags. Pour chai into a tea pot (or into a Mason jar with a lid for storage in the refrigerator.)

To froth milk, use a handheld frother or pour at least 1/4 cup of milk into a blender and process until fluffy. Put milk in a microwave safe container,uncovered, and heat for between 30 seconds and 1 minute, depending on the strength of your microwave. Watch closely, because the milk expands and wants to boil over.

To serve, fill a mug 2/3 full with the hot chai. Spoon the frothed milk over the tea until you reach the rim of the mug. Garnish with a cinnamon stick. Use the cinnamon stick to swirl the hot milk and chai together.

Hot Caramel Apple Cider

Ingredients per serving:

6 ounces (3/4 of a cup) fresh apple cider
1 Tablespoon dulce de leche or caramel sauce
Heavy whipped cream, to taste

Heat apple cider in a saucepan or in the microwave just until steaming. Stir in a generous tablespoon of dulce de leche or caramel sauce until it is completely melted. Top the cider with whipped cream just before serving.

This is my third entry in Project Food Blog over at Foodbuzz.com.Did you like this recipe and the post? I’d appreciate your vote of support! I will let you all know here when voting opens up on October 4th! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for getting me this far and for your continued support!

Pssst… Are you still with me? I have a favor to ask. The next challenge, if I make it there, requires a photo tutorial. So I’d like, if I may, to get your opinion. Would you like a photo tutorial on Scottish Shortbread? Homemade Chicken Soup and Dumplings? How to open the new-fangled ibuprofen bottles? Something else entirely? Do let me know!

Filed Under: Beverages, Project Food Blog 2010, Recipes Tagged With: #pfb2010, Beverages, Challenge #3, hot drinks, kid friendly, Luxury Dinner Party, Project Food Blog

Homemade Grand Marnier Clone

April 26, 2010 by Rebecca 13 Comments

Mmmmm. Oranges. I love them. Dearly.

I’ve even been known to eat the peels of oranges, candied or not; minus the pith, of course! Orange is one of my favorite flavors to add to baked goods, hot drinks, custards, and more. Sometimes that’s easily accomplished by squeezing a little wedge of orange into or over a dish, but sometimes it requires a little more finesse. Sometimes it requires Grand Marnier.

This classic liqueur is basically the essence of oranges blended with cognac (fancy-pants brandy). There are times when that small addition of alcohol is necessary to release flavors that otherwise would remain sadly locked away in their little alcohol-soluble encapsulated molecules*. And there is no substitute for a little nip of something potent at those times.

*Think tomatoes, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, etc… All of those have flavors that cannot reach their full potential unless joined with alcohol. I’m not saying you have to drown your food, I’m just saying a judicious glug added to a recipe can make the difference between ‘great’ and ‘spectacular’.

A couple weeks ago, I shared my recipe for Blueberry Tiramisu and a quick, informal poll showed that most of you wanted to know how to make a Homemade Grand Marnier Clone. This means one of two things:

You want to refill the bottle of the ‘real’ stuff you bottomed out when you generously made margaritas for your entire neighborhood. Or…
You, like me, just want to prove that you can do it better than ‘the man’ does. You know. The ‘Grand Marnier’ man. Sitting in his fancy chateau in Les Alpes, sipping his apéritif and laughing haughtily at all the hoi polloi paying big money through the nose for something that can be made so easily at home. *Insert snooty Gallic snicker here.

Well, one way or the other, I’m your gal. There is one really difficult thing in this recipe, though; you’re going to have to wait 2-6 months after putting it together before you start sipping if you want it to taste like the real deal. Of course, if you’re popping it in a blender with a bunch of ice, some sugar syrup, lime juice and tequila, you have my blessing to cheat on that time frame a bit. I mean honestly. Is it REALLY going to make a difference how ’round’ a flavor you have if you’re going that direction?

But if you want to sip on this or use it in cheesecakes or dunk ladyfingers in it for tiramisu or add it to pastry cream or drizzle it over crêpes prior to flambéeing the tar out of them, you may want to go that extra mile. Trust me.

Psst. Hey. Want to impress your favorite food or wine or cocktail aficionado? Decant the finished liqueur into a beautiful bottle with a cork or stopper, wrap with a lush (pun intended) ribbon and watch their jaws drop and eyes pop when you tell them what’s in it. I tried this out on my favorite wine snob (her description, not mine) friend and asked her whether she thought it measured up to the real thing. Her response? “This is amazing! This is BETTER than Grand Marnier! Grand Marnier WISHES it tasted like this.”

For a photo-free, printer-friendly version of this recipe with no blah-blah, click here!

Homemade Grand Marnier Clone

While this is a project that is simple, it is definitely one that requires forethought. At a bare minimum, this liqueur takes 2 months to be ready. And yes, it will be delicious at 2 months, but if you go all out, whole hog, pedal to the metal and give it the full six months to age you will be rewarded with an amazing depth of flavor and smoothness. Of course, if your patience is anything like mine, you’ll want to try it sooner, so do what I do: divvy the batch into two containers, one for now and one for later. ~or~ Double the batch! You could quadruple it for the same price as a 750ml bottle of the real deal. And I think you’ll find that this is not only just as good as the ‘benchmark’ but even better!

Ingredients:

The zest of 8 oranges (gently washed and toweled dry before hand). Take care to get the zest only- no white pith!
1 cup granulated white sugar
4 cups brandy (Using a better quality brandy or cognac will result in a much smoother sipping finished product.)
optional, 1 teaspoon liquid vegetable glycerine (This creates a finished product with a more velvety mouth feel.)

Sprinkle about 1/4 cup of the sugar over the zest in a mid-sized bowl or mortar and squish together with a pestle or the back of a heavy spoon.

Continue smooshing and adding sugar 1/4 cup at a time until the sugar and orange zest are almost paste-like.

Transfer this mixture to a large, clean jar with a tight fitting lid.

Pour the brandy over the mixture and stir well.

~And here is where the photos stop. Honestly, I’m all out of the aged stuff and I’m not willing to wait 6 months before I post this recipe for you. Take my word for it. It’s pretty and it’s delicious. I’ve made it many times before. Remember my amazing yet ill-fated Blueberry Tiramisu? That *sob* work of art used the very last of my Homemade Grand Marnier Clone. (Blasted dog!) So if you make this now, we’ll have it available at just about the same time. To your health!

Cap tightly and age 1-3 months, shaking weekly, in a cool, dark place. (Basements are usually perfect for this!)

After at least 4 weeks (the longer you let this age, the better it will be!) shake the jar well and pour the mixture through a fine mesh stainless-steel strainer into a bowl or large measuring cup with a spout. Rinse the strainer and the jar that you used to age the liqueur. Line the strainer with cheesecloth or a clean tea towel and pour the liqueur back into the aging jar. If using the liquid glycerine, stir it in at this point. Cap tightly again and continue aging for an additional 1-3 months.

Filed Under: Beverages, Holiday Food, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: Beverages, drinks, Food gifts, Frugal Food, frugal gifts

Eggnog Liqueur

November 11, 2009 by Rebecca 18 Comments

If I were to list the five foods that I thought of as being most representative of Thanksgiving and Christmas I’d wager that my list would be pretty similar to those chosen by most North Americans; cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, turkey, cookies and eggnog. And while I love each of those foods individually, my heart is devoted to eggnog. Whilst others entertain visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads I have glistening punchbowls of creamy, yellow, spice-flecked eggnog tripping the light fantastic in my brain.

I am no eggnog snob. I love it in every form; from the kid-friendly light yellow stuff in the cardboard quart at the grocery store to the adults-only, deep yellow, super thick homemade stuff laced with whipped cream. I have even enjoyed Rice Nog And Soy Nog (the key I found with those was not to think of them as a ‘real’ nog, but as a ‘nog’ product.) After much consideration -which included the consumption of indecent amounts of all sorts of eggnogs- I realized what makes me love it so; magic.

The bewitching comfort that results from the physical closeness to loved ones who you don’t always get to see as often as you’d like. The conjuring of flavors that reach so far back into our collective cultural memories. The alchemy of the holiday spirit on everything around us. Everything tastes just that much better, looks just that much more beautiful and seems just that much more meaningful.

This one is for the grown-up eggnog lovers.

Eggnog Liqueur is everything that is good about eggnog; plus a little extra kick. It is mellowed in the fridge for two weeks before you can start sipping, so do plan ahead to have this available at your holiday goings-on. And there are worse things than putting your feet up in front of the wood stove with a good book and a small glass* of Eggnog Liqueur and a bite or two of something sweet.

*Oh yes, my friends. A small glass. This is rich, velvety and smooth and goes down just a wee bit too easily.

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of this recipe, click here!

Eggnog Liqueur

Inspired by the Advocaat recipe in the book “Classic Liqueurs” by Cheryl Long and Heather Kibbey

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups brown sugar (lightly packed) or raw sugar
1 vanilla bean, sliced in half lengthwise
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
1 cup vodka
5 whole eggs
1 additional egg yolk
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 scraping of fresh grated nutmeg

Using the blunt edge of your knife, scrape the insides from the vanilla bean.

Have another look at the ‘guts’ of the vanilla bean. There are few things more beautiful than this… Can’t you almost smell it?

Set vanilla pod aside** and add the vanilla scrapings to the blender. Add remaining ingredients and blend for about 45 seconds on high, or until thoroughly combined and smooth.

You have frothed this up a good deal by this point. Take this into account when choosing whatever you will use to store it. Pour into a clean bottle with a tight fitting lid or a clean canning jar with a tight fitting lid.

Place in the refrigerator and allow it to mellow for at least two weeks prior to serving. The longer it ages, the smoother the flavor will be. Another little bit of magic; as it ages, it will deepen not only in flavor but in color. If you use eggs from your own chickens -or from the chickens of a generous farmer friend- the liqueur will reach an almost orange color. This is good for two months in the refrigerator. Look at my bottle after two weeks in the chill chest…

And what to do with this golden elixir? Oh. Oh me. Look at all those flecks of vanilla.

How about a scoop of whipped cream and a little dusting of fresh grated nutmeg and a little extra from me to you… I dunked my poundcake in the eggnog liqueur and whipped cream. It was heavenly.

**Take your scraped vanilla bean pod and put it in a jar with a couple cups of plain sugar. Put a tight lid on it and stick it in a dark place. In a week you’ll have vanilla sugar. As you use it up and start running low, just add additional sugar and shake the jar. Voila! Never ending vanilla sugar!

Filed Under: Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Rebecca Tagged With: Beverages, liqueur, liquor, party

Simple (and Frugal!) Homemade Hot Chocolate: Foodie Christmas Gift #3

December 4, 2008 by Valerie 2 Comments

Years ago, when I first was looking seriously into making homemade gifts for sharing at Christmas, I stumbled across a newsletter that had recently begun publication–a housewife in Maine had started sharing ideas on frugality (a.k.a. “tightwaddery”) and I was hooked on some of those ideas from the very beginning. Amy Dacyczyn and all of the issues AND books connected with the Tightwad Gazette became a permanent part of my life!

One of the simple gift ideas that I’ve used repeatedly over the years is a recipe for homemade hot chocolate mix. I enjoy both the simplicity and the versatility of this mix–you can add cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spices (must put in a good word for my garam masala here) to suit the taste of whomever you are gifting with this, and some instant coffee added to the mix will make the mocha-lovers in your family smile. (Yes, Christina, I’m thinking of you!) I’ve not tried this yet, but with some adventurous chocolatiers out there putting curry powder, chili powder, cardamom, lavender and other unusual herbs and spices in their chocolates, it might be fun to play around with some of these and see if you can come up with something new that you might really love.

The mix can be put in a jar or plastic bag for gift-giving, suitably decorated, of course! Last year I made homemade marshmallows for the first time, and they were a welcome additional gift, perfect for floating and melting into a cup of steaming hot cocoa. (I’ll be sharing the Marshmallow recipe with you all tomorrow.) So, without further ado, here is the recipe: