Jen Caputo

Homemade Ginger Liqueur (in less than 3 hours!)

UPDATE: Tried again with Brandy - way better! See bottom of post.

 Koval Distillery here in Chicago makes an organic Ginger Liqueur that I've come to call "crack". It is delicious and once I open a bottle, it's hard to put it down. I like it either on the rocks or with a splash of club soda.

Last weekend, we started a few batches of Limoncello and Pompelmocello (grapefruit flavored) and it made me wonder... what else could I make this way. My mind went immediately to my "crack" so I began researching ginger liqueur recipes, all of which required 2 weeks to infuse. But you see, I'm out of "crack". And I don't want to wait 2 weeks for more. Then I remembered reading about doing infusions en sous vide. And how it can cut down infusion times from 2 weeks to 2 hours. Meaning with cooling and prep time, I could probably be enjoying some homemade ginger liqueur in just 3 hours.

You can't vacuum seal liquids in a traditional foodsaver type vacuum sealer. You can only do that in the commercial $1000+ chamber sealers. So in order to seal the liquids you need food-grade plastic bags (that are safe when heated) like these from Sous Vide Supreme, and then you can use the Archimedes principle to displace the air. But I didn't have any. What I did have was one of these  Lekue 1 Liter Fresh Bags. They are reusable and dishwasher safe but I'll be honest, they are pretty tricky to seal while getting the extra air out.

Anyway, here's how you make ginger liqueur in under 3 hours!

Ingredients

• 3.5 oz fresh ginger
• 375 ml vodka
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

Pre-heat the Sous Vide Supreme to 135 degrees F.

Peel and grate the ginger

add it to the bag

Top it off with the vodka.

Remove all air from the bag  and add it to the Sous Vide Supreme. I used the rack to weight it down just to make sure it wouldn't float.

Set the timer for 2 hours. When the time is almost up, make the simple syrup by adding 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar to a saucepan. (I like to use this kettle because it has a spout for easy pouring)

Bring to a simmer, stirring until all sugar is dissolved. About 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

When the timer goes off (or anytime after, nothing bad will happen if you leave it in for longer), take out the infused vodka.

Prepare a bottle and line a funnel with a coffee filter (or double layer of cheese cloth)

Filter the mixture into the bottle

And then add the simple syrup to taste. If you like it sweet, add all of the syrup, I personally used a little less.  It won't really taste right until it's chilled though so I would add about 75% of the syrup, throw it in the fridge, when it's chilled taste it, then decide if you want to add the rest.

Your liqueur is done. Again, I prefer to drink it over ice or with a splash of club soda. 

Things to try:

• Use higher proof liquor to make it more shelf stable. I'll be keeping this one in the fridge since it's probably only about 40 proof. Will probably require the addition of more syrup or water.
• Use more ginger. This one has a really nice bite on the end but I can never get enough ginger so I think next time I'm going to try to add even more.
• Don't have a sous vide machine? Throw the vodka/ginger in a jar and let steep for 2 weeks instead. Then filter and add the syrup. 

UPDATE:

Ok, I tried again since this was so easy. This time I used Brandy instead of Vodka, 4.5 oz of ginger instead of 3.5oz, and a little less simple syrup. I like it soooo much better! So my new recommended recipe is this:

4.5 oz fresh ginger

375 ml brandy (I used Presidente Brandy. It's an awesome value)

.75 cup sugar

1 cup water

Follow the procedure outlined above, adding the simple syrup to taste. Like I said, I LOVE the bite of fresh ginger so this may be a little heavy handed for some, but for me - Oh Em Gee (I don't get that, why did we decide to elongate OMG? I'm assuming it's to stress our emotional reaction so I'm leaving it 'cause I'm excited) Yup, making this with brandy is something I believe I will be doing on a fairly regular (weekly?) basis!

Here is a (really crappy cell phone) side by side photo of the vodka based vs. the brandy based:

The brandy-based is a lot darker, but man, I LOVE the flavor so much more! Make it with Brandy! Heck, make it with vodka too, do your own comparison... brew a half batch of each and decide for yourself.

Well...since I was talking so much about Sous Vide

While checking out black friday deals from the comfort of my couch I saw that Sous Vide Supreme is giving away a free vacuum sealer when you buy the Sous Vide Supreme Demi (Which is the one that I have). This is an awesome deal, especially if you are looking for an amazing gift for that special aspiring chef loved one. Check it out:

See how I use mine here or here.

What I've been cooking

I've been pretty crummy about posting lately but that's because I've been pretty busy cooking.  Our friends bought us a Sous Vide Supreme as a late wedding gift (which I talked about here) and it's inspired me to want to cook every night.

Check out some of the things I've made recently:

Sous Vide Belly of Pork with Soy Bean and Udon Stir Fry with Momokawa Diamond Sake

We sous vide the pork belly Tuesday night, chilled it, then seared it Thursday night. Stir fry of shitaki mushrooms, udon noodles, Swiss Chard (from the backyard), and shelled edamame. Reduction of soy sauce, red wine, garlic, and bay leaves. Based of a recipe I found here. 

It wasn't perfect (but oh so close). But it was pretty damn good and we learned a ton. It was also pretty quick (besides the 12 hour sous vide and 2 day rest), less than an hour of work total. We'll definitely be making this again.

 

Sesame-Crusted Tuna with Ponzu Sauce over a fennel-frond, grapefruit, avocado, and cucumber salad.

I'm proud of the way this dish came together because it was totally unplanned and just thrown together with stuff we had in the fridge. All the flavors matched beautifully. But the tuna was originally for Wednesday's dinner so it wasn't the freshest and dragged the meal down.

 

Sous Vide Seared Scallops and Oyster Mushrooms over a Soy-Ginger Butter Sauce.

At $25 a plate for a homemade meal (not counting the wine), the most expensive thing I've ever cooked. Delicious. Wine: 2010 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc from Kim Crawford, New Zealand. Recipe from Bon Appetit.

The scallops were beautiful, but $3 a piece. Didn't want to take any chances over cooking them so we washed and dried them, and sprinkled with salt and pepper, then vacuum packed them with olive oil and sous vide them.  We dropped the bag in ice water to quickly cool them before searing them (again, to avoid over cooking). The Soy-Ginger Butter sauce was ridiculous. This was also my first time dealing with Oyster Mushrooms.

 

Sous Vide and Skillet-Roasted Chicken over Barley Risotto with Acorn Squash and Spinach topped with a pan gravy.

Recipe: from Bon Appetit (adapted, I didn't have farro so I used Barley, I made a pan gravy instead of the herb Pistou the recipe makes. I had leftover spinach so I didn't buy kale.)

This is one of the best meals I have ever made in my life. You start by splitting a whole chicken in half and then vacuum packing it in olive oil and a ton of herbs and letting it marinate over night. The next day, you throw it in the sous vide for a few hours (I did 4 but I'm sure it's fully cooked in 2). Then you crisp the skin in a skillet and throw the whole pan in the oven. In the meantime, you make a risotto type dish with Barley and roasted acorn squash. The flavors are incredible, the meat is so moist and tender... Make this!!!!

 

Greens, Dates, Walnut, and Bacon Lardon salad (from a friends' homemade bacon), Porterhouse steak done sous vide at 133 for 6 hours and then pan seared in the rendered bacon fat. Regular 'ole baked potato.

Our friend makes his own bacon and always brings us in a slab. I cut it into lardons to crisp, I then made a warm vinagarette using the bacon fat in place of oil. Awesomesauce! 6 hours sounds like a long time but remember, the meat is just sitting in the water bath, you are doing no work. It's like a crock pot, you can go to work and leave it and it'll be fine when you get home. No overcooking is possible because it can't ever get above the temperature you have the bath set of (so 133 degrees for a medium rare steak).

 

Rib-Eye, Truffled Broccoli, Garlic Rosemary Potatoes.

All cooked sous-vide over 2 days, topped with a red-wine sauce. Man, would you look at that edge to edge red meat!  The only way you can achieve that kind of perfect consistency is by cooking it sous-vide. I undercooked the potatoes.. they weren't so good. I have yet to perfect my sous-vide veggies.

 

Homemade Pasta, Spinach Pesto, Garden Tomatoes, and Herbs with Garlic Bread

I made the bread and pasta from scratch. I mixed the pasta dough before work and left it in the fridge to relax until I got home. I then used my kitchenaid attachment to roll it out. I always keep bread dough in the fridge (using the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day recipe) The tomatoes and herbs are from my backyard. The pesto was made and frozen when my basil was in its prime a few months ago. This dish is divine.

 

Rabbit Two Ways over Celery Root puree w/poached apples. Served with Lagunitas Bavarian Styled Doppelweizen. The most perfect pairing in existence.

The two ways: The loins were cooked sous vide, then bacon wrapped and seared.  The hindquarters were braised in apple cider. Based on this recipe. This was my first time making celery root puree. I'm in love!!!!!! (Also my first time cooking rabbit)The apples were poached in the braising liquid. The greens are watercress.

 

Mussels and Frites w/homemade garlic aioli and Goose Island Matilda

I had just learned to make my own aioli from scratch (who knew it only took 5 minutes from start to clean up!) so was looking for ways to use it. This is an awesome 20 minute meal.

 

Sous Vide Short Ribs over Celery Root Puree & Peas.

I told you I loved that celery root puree. Also, these short ribs were f'ing ridiculous. Cooked to perfection over 72 hours to 134 degrees in my Sous Vide Supreme . Believe it or not, this dish took about 30 minutes to put together.  I bought a bunch of short ribs when they were on sale a few weeks ago. As soon as I got them home I seasoned them with salt and pepper, vacuum packed them in groups of 4 and threw them in the freezer. So when I want to cook them, all I have to do is throw them in the water bath and walk away for 3 days. Obviously the peas steam in about 5 minutes and the celery root puree takes about 20.  A quick sear of the short ribs takes 2 minutes as well. See, you can have an amazing dinner in less than 30 minutes and it can be completely from scratch!

 

This last one I made at a friends house so they are crappy camera phone photos but this is also the very best thing I've ever made so I'm posting them anyway.  Here I am making them:

And cracking them open.

Ricotta and Egg Yolk Ravioli

Get the recipe right here, and make this immediately. Everyone you serve it to will love you forever. You only need one per person as an appetizer. 2 is good for a main course.

 

So, that's what I've been up to. Has anyone else been making anything amazing? Does anyone have a sous vide machine yet? I'm always looking for blog recommendations, especially those cooking sous vide, I always need more ideas for my new toy!

Honeycrisp Breakfast Sausage

Pork Butts were on sale, honeycrisp apples are in season, and with the frost soon approaching, our sage wasn't going to last too much longer in the garden. Seemed to be the perfect time to whip up a big 'ole batch of breakfast sausage.  You should too! Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients:
10 lbs Pork Shoulder (aka Pork Butt)
6 large honeycrisp (or similar) apples
1 sweet onion
1.5-2 cups fresh sage leaves
8 tsp kosher salt
4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 tsp fennel seeds (Optional)
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Before you start, take your meat grinder attachments and stick them in the freezer. Also take a large metal bowl and stick it in the freezer or fridge. 20 minutes before you grind the meat, stick it in the freezer as well.

Begin by peeling, coring, and dicing the apples. I got to try out my new Pinzon Apple Peeler, Slicer, and Corer. I bought in on a whim because last time we made this sausage, prepping the apples was the worst part. This thing is a dream! I had all of the apples done in probably 5 minutes. Highly recommend it even if you only peel apples once a year. The machine slices them horizontally while it's peeling them so then all you have to do is give it a few chops in the vertical directions.

Peel and chop the onion too

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.  Throw in the onions and saute until soft and translucent (3-4 minutes)

Add in the apples and continue to cook until the apples begin to soften (but you still want them to be kind of crunchy) and brown slightly.

Set aside in a large bowl to cool. They need to be completely cool before you mix it in the sausage so consider putting the bowl in an ice bath or in the fridge or maybe even doing this step the day before.

Go to your backyard and pick a huge bunch of sage leaves. We grow regular and golden sage. If you don't grow it, try to find the fresh stuff in the supermarket. Use 1/2 the amount of dried sage as a last resort.

Stack up a bunch of leaves and chiffonade them.

then dice the chiffonades.

Now we need to crush the fennel seeds. You can do it with a mortar and pestle if you want, or try to crack them with a knife, but I've found the easiest thing is to slightly grind them in a spice (aka coffee) grinder. I keep this one just to grind spices and it is awesome. (Just before I ground the fennel, I used it to grind the peppercorns that were going into the sausage too. I wasn't worried about cross contamination because it would all end up in the same spot, otherwise I would have cleaned it in between).

You aren't creating a powder or a dust, you just want to slightly crush the seeds to release their aromas and flavors. Just a few pulses until you get something that looks like this:

Some people hate fennel so you can skip this step if you want.

Now it's time to grind the meat. The secret to the perfect textured sausage is to make sure none of the fat melts prematurely. This is why at the very beginning we froze our grinder attachments, bowl, and made sure the meat was as cold as possible (without being frozen).

We had two pork shoulders, if you do too leave the second one in the fridge while you work on the first. Using your grinder of choice (I use the kitchenaid food grinder attachment), cut the meat into strips and then pass through the grinder. Don't throw out the fat, grind the fat, you need the fat. You are looking for a ratio of 20% fat to 80% meat.

Once all of the meat is ground, cover it with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes. Remember, we want it to be super cold before we mix in the rest of the ingredients since the mixing process will warm it up.

While the meat is chilling, retrieve the apple mixture and add in the spices

and the sage

Mix well

After the meat is well chilled, dump the apple mixture into the meat bowl

And use your hands to combine. Don't overmix, remember, you don't want to melt that fat!

Once the meat mixture is combined, it's time to make breakfast! No really, this is a crucial step. Before you do anything with the sausage you need to cook up a little patty to make sure the flavor is right. We were starving for breakfast at  this point so we threw 2 patties in a cast iron skillet.

Added them to a toasted baguette and topped them with a fried egg.

Divine!!!! But we were glad we did the taste test because we decided it definitely needed more salt and a tad more pepper. (Recipe above was adjusted to account for this). Since the salt and pepper we were adding didn't have the benefit of being mixed with the other ingredients you need to dissolve them in a tiny bit (tablespoon) of water and then mix thoroughly.

Then it was time to package up the sausage. We opted not to stuff it in casings since we figured we'd mostly want to make patties. I tried a few methods of storing them.

First I laid out some plastic wrap

And dropped a bunch of meat in the center

And shaped a log

Which I then vacuum packed.

I also tried just throwing the meat in the bottom of a food saver bag

and then kind of forming logs before sealing them.

I think I prefer the shape of the ones I did in plastic wrap better.

The plan is to pull out a log when we need one, cut off a few slices, and then seal it back up. We're also going to try to sous vide a log as is in the bag, removing them from the water bath, slicing, and quickly searing them in a screaming hot pan. We're actually going to try that at the Michigan/Northwestern tailgate next weekend so I'll be sure to update with the results.

So what do you think? Have you ever made your own sausage before? Thinking about trying it?

Abeja Libre Cocktail

Ingredients

2 oz Pisco (Italian Style)
.75 oz Barenjager Honey Liqueur
.5 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice
4 sage leaves
1 small egg white

Directions

1. In a cocktail shaker, lightly muddle three sage leaves with lemon juice, bruising the leaves but not chopping them
2. Add pisco, Barenjager and egg white
3. Dry shake (no ice) for 10 seconds
4. Add ice, shake again
5. Double strain into chilled cocktail coupe
6. Slap remaining sage leaf between palms and place on top of the froth

 

This is the Abeja Libre Cocktail that Adam invented this evening. It's a bit of a riff on a Pisco Sour and mighty tasty.

Our First Sous Vide Dinner!

We have these amazing friends. Quinn, Kristin, Harper, and Dave, knowing how much we love cooking, decided to get us a Sous Vide machine for our wedding. They thought we needed one. And we didn't know it at the time, but they were right, we did.

It showed up about a week ago and we tried a few soft-boiled eggs in it (they were great), but we hadn't tried a piece of meat until tonight.

In case you aren't familiar with Sous Vide, I'll explain quickly. Sous Vide means "Under Vacuum". If you vacuum seal something and submerge it in water held at a constant temperature, it will never get hotter than that water temperature. So, if you want a piece of medium rare meat (134 degrees Fahrenheit), you seal a piece of meat, drop it in water that's held at a constant 134 degree temperature, and after an amount of time, the meat will emerge perfectly cooked. So after 45 minutes, a 1 inch thick steak is perfectly medium rare. But after 4 hours, it's also perfectly medium rare. In fact, you can keep it in the water for up to 8 hours and it will only get better and never be a degree over medium rare.

So why didn't we all own one of these machines?  Because up until a year or so ago, machines that could accomplish this were completely un-affordable for the home cook. I'm talking several thousands of dollars. It's just recently that they've come down in price. And they are still really expensive but they're down around several hundred dollars now and if you are really into perfectly cooked meat, this is the way to do it.

Ok, enough talking.

We started with a super cheap piece of meat. This is a top round steak. It cost $7 and easily serves 4.  But what makes sous-vide so awesome is that you can take the cheapest cut of meat and make it taste like filet.

I started by well seasoning (with salt and pepper) both sides of the steak. Then I vacuum sealed the steak with 4 cloves of garlic, 4 sprigs of rosemary, 4 sprigs of thyme, and 2 tablespoons of butter. (I actually did this as soon as we got home from the grocery store yesterday and just threw it in the fridge this way)

Today, I set my Sous Vide Supreme for 133 degrees (they recommend 134 but since I knew we were going to sear the meat later, I opted for a tiny bit undercooked).

Then I dropped the meat in and ran out to a 6:30 beauty salon appt I had.

When I got back about 45 minutes later, it looked like this

 

it's really not this pretty at this point. But it was technically done cooking. I could have taken it out right then and it would have been delicious, but I still had to finish our sides.

We had a ton of cherry tomatoes in the garden so I worked in a Cherry Tomato and Blue Cheese Salad and I'd also just picked up a bag of fingerling potatoes from the farmers market so I made my very favorite potato recipe. It's a variation on this one from Martha Stewart, but instead of salt and vinegar, I add fresh rosemary and garlic from the garden along with plenty of sea-salt.

When these the sides were just about done, I had Adam go heat up a skillet on the grill burner. I removed the bag from the machine, cut it open, pulled the meat out and handed it to Adam on a platter. It looked like this:

Kinda gross, huh?  Gotta be patient dude, it'll get awesome soon.

Out on the piping hot grill, (after a small splash of oil) it soon looked like this (by the way, you could totally do this on your stove, we just were trying to keep the inevitable smoke out of the kitchen).

After 30 seconds (literally) we flipped it.

After a 10 minute rest under foil, it was time for the moment of truth.  We crossed our fingers and Adam began slicing.

Oh my God. Do you see that edge-to-edge pinkness? The perfect medium rare across the entire steak? The beautiful crust we achieved by a 30 second sear in a hot pan on each side. And do you remember that this is a super cheap, $7  hunk of meat?

Yeah, this was an absolutely delicious dinner and probably the best cut of beef we've ever made. Adam thought the tomato salad was a bit too rich so he ran out to the back of the garden.

And came back with some Swiss Chard that he rinsed off and then tore up into our tomato salad. (sorry no pics of the finished salad)

When we got back in, Adam sliced up the remainder of the steak, I baked a homemade baguette, and we're going to make steak, tomato, and blue cheese sandwiches for lunch tomorrow.

Can you even begin to get over that perfect edge-to-edge color?  Or how awesome Quinn, Kristin, Dave, and Harpster are for hooking us up with this machine?

Tomorrow we're making Olive Oil Poached Salmon.

Harvest Monday

Every Monday, Daphne's Dandelions hosts Harvest Monday. All of the blogging gardeners post their take for the week and I've never played. Because frankly, my harvest is wimpy compared to theirs. But today, I got my first tomato and my first cucumber so I had to join in!

I harvested Swiss Chard, a Boston Pickling Cucumber, a Honey Bunch Tomato, a teeny tiny Black Pearl tomato, 2 sugar snap peas (ha! I'm pretty sure it's my last 2).

Loads of basil and parsley

The basil and parsley got added to the blender with a clove of garlic, salt, pepper, balsamic, and olive oil. Blended up it became a hybrid chimichurri/pesto sauce to top our steaks.

The swiss chard, tomatoes, peas, and cucumbers became a salad dressed with balsamic and topped with homemade croutons.

Dinner consisted of bacon-wrapped filets topped with the chimichurri/pesto, truffle fries (ore-ida fries tossed with truffle oil and sea salt), and my salad.

While dinner was cooking, I made a harvest cocktail too!

 

I started with some mint and a few slices of that cucumber.

 

I added them to a jar with a teaspoon of sugar, a dash of ango bitters, and a squeeze of lime juice. Then I muddled. In went two ounces of gin and some ice, stirred well, topped with club soda. 

Garnished with some spanked mint and a cucumber slice. So refreshing!!!

Our New Patio Set

I had been searching for the perfect patio set for 2 years. I couldn't decide between a couch/sectional set or a dining set. I really wanted the perfect combination of the comfort of a couch AND the usefulness of a dining set. As far as I could tell, there was no such thing. So when we received money and gift cards for our wedding, I promised I'd set aside some of it to buy us a new patio set, just as soon as I could find one I loved.

And finally I found it - it does exist! The perfect combination of sectional and dining set. It's comfortable, all-weather wicker, from Target. To make the price a little more palatable, I went through ebates to get an extra 3% back ($30! Not bad!), plus we managed to get $40 for our old one (which was more than a little rusty) through craigslist.

It arrived a few weeks ago and so we've had a few opportunities to put it to use.

Here is the first dinner we ate at it:

But let's rewind a bit so I can show you more of that delicious dinner.   I was growing Pak Choi in my window boxes and it was starting to bolt.

So I cut it all down (isn't it gorgeous?)

 

And we sauteed it out on the grill with sesame oil and soy sauce

It was fantastic and I'm so sad it's all gone. Since it won't grow in the summer heat, I'm definitely going to grow more in the fall. Meanwhile, Adam grilled these bacon wrapped filets:

We also had fries dressed in truffle oil. The meal was accompanied with a Predator Zinfadel. We loved our first dinner on our new table :)

It also got exercised at our recent 3rd annual Sausagefest Memorial Day party. Adam and I make 25 pounds of various sausages (italian, spinach/chicken/feta, sage/apple/cheddar breakfast) over the weekend, everyone comes over to eat it, and at the end of the night, we throw a projector up in the backyard and watch a movie under the stars (movie tradition inherited from our Lost Finale party last year). We were super impressed with the amount of people it could sit. The benches that claimed to sit 1 person comfortably sat 2 and those that were supposed to sit 2 sat at least 3, meaning we can easily accommodate 10 people for an outdoor dinner.

See the mason jars holding the candles hanging from the umbrella? I got the idea from Martha Stewart:

Source: marthastewart.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

 

Ok, hers looks better... but here's a few more pictures of mine anyway :P

And here's our hot tub being put to good use as a buffet!

I forgot to take pictures of the movie watching set up so picture 14 bag chairs + 2 princess chairs around a big screen (pretty much just like our Lost Finale party setup).

So a huge thank you to everyone who gifted us cash for our wedding, we love our new patio set and think it brings such a sense of warmth to the backyard. And for anyone who is curious, I bring the cushions in when we are not using the set to prolong it's life as long as possible.

PTI Blog Hop: June 2011

It's been a long time since I've played around with a Blog Hop but since I'm home sick instead of at the Green Music Festival with Adam, I decided to jump in.

Nichole gave us this photo as inspiration:

{photo credit}

I loved the way the colors all blended into each other so I focused on that as my inspiration. I took a piece of vellum and used Alcohol Ink in stripes, blending as I went all over it. This left me with a full sheet of striped paper so I cut it into quarters and used it as the background for 3 cards.

The artist in me really wanted to add some buttons to this card but I am sick of my recipients telling me they arrive damaged due to the buttons getting stuck in the machines at the post office so I restrained myself and went embellishment free.

All of the white stamped designs are embossed (after letting the alcohol ink background dry for a few hours).

This one uses Background Basics: Stars and Tiny Tags.

For this one I stamped various circles from Borders & Corners: Circle. The sentiment is from an anniversary set a few years ago. I really wish this one had a few buttons :)

Finally, I stamped a bunch of whales (they are so cute!) from Whale Wishes.

The color is off in all of these photos, the olivey green strip of paper is actually "Simply Chartreuse" but I took these pictures at 7pm so it's about all the natural light I could hope for.

Anthro-Inspired Yellow Beaded Necklace & Earrings

I came across this necklace at Anthropologie and thought I might try to make my own version.

Source: anthropologie.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

 

My supplies:

• Chain
• Earring Wire
• Beading Wire
• Round Beads
• Focal Beads
• Wire Snips
• Needle nose Pliers
• Crimp Pliers
• Flat nose pliers
• Clasp
• Jump Rings
• Head pins
• crimp beads

I started with my focal beads. I strung a wire through it and curled both ends into a loop. I did this three times, once for the necklace, and one for each earring.

Then I started on the necklace. I strung two crimp beads, a jump ring, then back through the two crimp beads. Using the crimping pliers, I closed the beads.

Then I just strung the round beads with the focal bead in the middle.

Two more crimp beads and another jump ring.

Here's how the necklace looks finished.

Next I worked on my dangles. I threaded a single bead onto a head pin

Trimmed down the pin and bent it at a 90 degree angle

And used the needle nose pliers to create a loop

 

I cut a bunch of random segments of chain, opened up the loop, strung them on the chain, and closed the loop. I did a bunch of these.

 

I opened up the loop on the focal bead and threaded on all of the chains.

And here's my finished set. Total cost was less than $10 compared to $58 for anthro's, and mine came with earrings!

Fathers Day Cards

Happy Fathers day going out to my dad, father-in-law, and grandpa. These are the cards I sent them this year.

Here's a peak at the inside of one of them.

All of the paper strips are embossed.

All supplies are Papertrey Ink.

Salad Box Update

A few weeks ago, I shared how I made a salad box. But I never showed what I did with it. Well, here it is after about 3 weeks planted with various greens and one broccoli plant. It lives in my driveway for now as that seems to be our sunniest spot.

Broccoli is the big guy. That's arugula on the right.

Joining the salad box in the driveway are the super sugar snap peas. I started these guys indoors and didn't plant them out until they were about 6 inches tall. Everyone says you aren't supposed to transplant peas but I'm so glad I did because they are certainly happy!  I believe we will be enjoying peas much earlier this year than last. To compare, I direct sowed lincoln peas in the planter behind this one (visible on the right side of the picture) and they are only a few inches tall. Both pea planters are sharing their pots with more salad greens.

These are the greens I harvested for a dinner salad tonight.

And these are the rest of the ingredients for our salad.

This is my current favorite salad. It hits all of the food groups, is delicious, filling, and so healthy! Clockwise from top left corner (ending in the center)

• 1/3 C. Walnuts chopped
• 10 Asparagus spears, blanched for 3 minutes and then plunged into ice water, cut on the diagonal
• 2 celery spears diced
• 1 apple diced
• 3oz. Aged Gouda diced (the aged gouda goes so well in this salad, I wouldn't dream of replacing it with anything else)
• 2/3 C. Red Quinoa (which is packed with protein) rinsed and cooked to the package instructions, then cooled.

This made enough for 2 large dinner salads and a full size lunch portion for me to eat tomorrow.

I dressed it with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette of garlic, brown sugar, dijon mustard, balsamic, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Margarita Birthday Gift

Thomas accompanied us to Mexico for our wedding so we decided he needed Margarita making supplies for his birthday. We started off with a bottle of 100% Agave Blanco Tequila. We still had some of our favorite Mexican triple sec left (Controy) but we'd already opened the bottle and thought it was tacky to gift that, so I dug around in my supply of liquor bottles that I'd saved and found a nice 375mL bottle. I cleaned the label off of it, stamped a new one, and used a funnel to fill it up with the perfect amount of Triple Sec to go with the Tequila.

Added a handful of limes and a matching card and had a fun and easy birthday gift that anyone who loves a good Margarita would love!

 

Our perfect Margarita recipe follows.

Margarita

• 2 oz tequila
• 1 oz triple sec
• 1 oz fresh squeezed lime juice (no substitutes!!!)
• 1/4 oz agave syrup (simple syrup may be substituted, add more or less to taste)

Shake all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a glass, half rimmed with salt. If ice is desired in the cocktail, add fresh, not the tired stuff in the shaker. 

 

All stamping supplies by Papertrey Ink.

Bacon Sage Popcorn

One of our favorite Chicago-area brewpubs has been open less than 2 years but is already leaps and bounds above most of the others. Revolution Brewing. Not only are their beers delicious but they have a unique menu full of fantastic pub fare. One menu item sticks out above the rest. Ask anyone who has been there. Their Bacon Fat Popcorn is the thing dreams are made of. Bacon, crispy sage, & parmesan, don't you want some right now?

We had a few slices of bacon left over from breakfast recently so I decided to try to make my own. And it turned out awesome. Revolution's is better but I'm sure they are much more generous with the bacon fat than I was willing to be in my own kitchen.  So here is an ever-so-slightly healthier version of Revolution Brewing Company's Bacon Fat Popcorn.

As I said, we had a few slices of bacon left over from breakfast. I chopped it up and set it aside.  I also strained the bacon fat left in the pan through cheese cloth and saved it in a jar in the fridge.

You're going to need: popcorn, bacon, bacon fat, fresh sage, salt, parmesan cheese.

Stack up about 15 sage leaves and run your knife through them to create small strips (a chiffonade).

Take your leftover crumbled bacon and throw it in the toaster oven at 350 on a foil lined sheet until it's nice and crispy again.

Add a tablespoon of bacon fat to the bottom of a heated heavy bottom pan. drop the sage leaves in and fry them for a minute or so until they are crispy. Set aside.  Please disregard my heavily stained dutch oven. It's in need of a little softscrub therapy session.

Yum, crispy sage!

Now, add a few more tablespoons of bacon fat to the pan along with 3 kernels of corn, put the lid on, and heat on medium heat until you hear at least one of the kernels pop. Remove the pan from the heat, add 1/3 cup of kernels, return the lid, shake well to coat the kernels in the bacon fat, then return to heat. Heat until pops are more than 1 second apart.

Transfer popcorn to a bowl, add the crispy sage, bacon, and parmesan. Go ahead and be naughty - melt another tablespoon of bacon fat (or butter), and toss that on as well. Salt to taste.

 

Enjoy with a fresh, hoppy IPA!

Mmm... bacon fat popcorn!

Ingredients
4-5 Tbsp. Bacon Fat (divided)
3-4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
15 sage leaves
1/3 Cup popcorn kernels
2 oz Parmesan Cheese
Salt (to taste)
Butter (optional)

Instructions

1. Chiffonade sage. Re-heat bacon in 350 degree toaster oven until crisp.
2. Add 1 Tbsp. bacon fat to a heavy bottom lidded pan. Add sage and fry until crisp, 1-2 minutes. Set sage aside.
3. Add 2-3 more Tbsp. bacon fat to pan along with 3 kernels of popcorn. Put the lid on, heat on medium heat until you hear at least one of the kernels pop. Remove the pan from the heat, add 1/3 cup of kernels, return the lid, shake well to coat the kernels in the bacon fat, then return to heat. Keep on heat until more than 1 second passes between pops.
4. Transfer popcorn to a bowl, add sage, bacon, parmesan, and salt to taste.
5. Optionally add another tablespoon or two of melted bacon fat or butter.
   

Vote for Adam, Star of the Bar!

Please spare a second to head over here and vote for Adam in the Star of the Bar competition. Grand prize wins $5000 but 6 finalists get a trip to chicago (woohoo! ha!) and to demo and serve it at the National Restaurant Association conference. You don't have to register or anything, just click the link, then click the Vote button.

Click here to vote.  Adam's entry is the second one:

Thanks! He'll be happy to repay you by making you one next time you visit us ;) Tell all your friends.

http://iwsb.restaurant.org/events/starofthebar/

Building a Salad Box (and checking on the seedlings)

I mentioned the other day that I would be building this salad box (basically a box I can move around to an appropriate location for salad greens depending on the season). I actually followed this tutorial. Since lettuces only need about 3-4" of soil depth to be happy this box will be perfect for them while freeing up the garden bed for deeper rooted crops.

 

Materials:

1x4 board (mine was 8 feet so I cut 2-21" pieces and 2-28" pieces)
Aluminum Screen
Hardware Mesh (1/2" mesh)
Galvanized Screws (mine were 1 5/8")
2 Drawer/Cabinet Pull Handles
Sandpaper
Wire Snips, Drill, Staple Gun, Drill Bits, Staples, Scissors

I started by laying out my boards and figuring out where I would attach them.

Then I screwed my handles to the short boards.

And pre-drilled my holes on the long boards

I used the basement coffee table to help me hold the boards while I screwed them in.

Once everything was screwed in, I stapled the aluminum screening to the back, overlapping by 3 inches on the long sides. (And then I ran out of staples 4 staples in so I took a 24 hour break)

Then I repeated that process with the hardware cloth. The aluminum screening keeps the dirt in, the hardware cloth helps support its weight.

All done!  This weekend I'm going to fill it up with some compost amended organic potting soil and get my greens situated in their new home.

A salad box is a great place to grow lettuces, herbs, and other shallow rooted things.

Now, let's check on those seedlings, some of which will hopefully be moving outside this weekend.

These tomato seedlings are really taking off

These are the greens that will live in the salad box. Lots of varieties in here including mizuna, arugula, oak leaf, spinach, etc.

Basils (and a little dill on the far right

More tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants

Umami Pizza

This truffled mushroom pizza I made the other night just oozes umami and is a total feast for the taste buds!

I started by rolling out about a half pound of the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day master recipe onto a floured pizza peel.

Then I brushed on some olive oil and fresh garlic

And dropped on a bunch of fresh mozzarella (the kind in packed in liquid)

And then, the mushrooms. This is a few cups of cremini and shitake mushrooms, first sauteed in butter with garlic and then cooked down with red wine and finally tossed with a few tablespoons of truffle oil. The smell of these mushrooms is mind bending! (I actually made them for a vegetarian lasagna I served last weekend but set aside a little extra with this pizza in mind.

Flake some goat cheese all over the top too.

This entire time you want your oven cranked up as high as it will possibly go (mine goes to 550) and you want a pizza stone in there the pre-heating with the oven. I like to pre-heat mine for about 45 minutes so that everything is piping hot.  Then use the pizza peel to deliver the pie to the stone. I use the Lodge Pro Logic Cast-Iron 14-Inch Pizza Pan and the EXO Super Peel Pizza Peel

Now don't go anywhere because it doesn't take long to cook. Here it is after about 5 minutes. The crust has already risen, the cheese is melting, and it's starting to brown.

After 8 total minutes in the oven, it's done! Time to grate some fresh parmesan over the top.

Then for some color, texture, and deliciousness, I grabbed some of my micro greens

And cut them close to the soil line right over the pizza.

I think I need to cook down a batch of these mushrooms about once a week so this pizza is always an option!

2011 Seed Starting

I built myself a little grow system in the basement and most all of my babies have sprouted (thus the greenhouse lids are all off)! I pretty much followed the instructions on You Grow Girl.

I've got lettuces and other leafy greens.

10 different varieties of tomatoes, 3 peppers, and 3 eggplant.

Herbs, marigolds, and Pak Choi

And various other things.

Even the kitties have their own 'seedlings' to take care of (their favorite nom-noms, cat grass)  

And I've already gotten one harvest of delicious micro greens.

 

They were sown in an empty strawberry carton.

 

Next weekend, my plan is build a garden box and get some lettuces outside.

Brunneous Cocktail

1.5oz Bourbon
1.5oz Pimm's #1
.5 oz Cynar
5 drops Bittercube Cherry Bark Vanilla bitters
Large slice of grapefruit peel

Stir bourbon, Pimm's, Cynar and three drops of bitters in a mixing glass with ice.  Strain into rocks glass.  Add large ice chunk.  Squeeze grapefruit peel over a lit match to express the oils in the drink. Garnish with flamed grapefruit peel and two more drops of bitters.

My Husband, The Award Winning Bartender!

The events in this blog post occurred just before Christmas, I'm really behind :)

Prairie Fire was hosting a contest a few months ago to find Chicago's Best Amateur Bartender. I encouraged Adam to enter and after a little prodding he agreed. To enter, you had to craft a cocktail using at least one local ingredient and post it on Prairie Fire's facebook page along with instructions on how to make it.

2 finalists would be chosen to come into Prairie Fire and guest bartend for the night. Whoever made the most tips would be winner (with all tips going to charity - Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry campaign).

Since the title of the post kind of already gave it away, it's not too much of a spoiler to tell you that Adam was the big winner!  Here's out it went down.

Check out the menu for the night with Adam's name at the top and his cocktail listed! So cool!

 

Roger was the other finalist. The competition started with the two of them making one of their cocktails for the other  one so that they could both see what the competition was.

Adam working his mixing magic.

Adam is crowned the winner, looks like he spilled a bit...

Some of our friends that came out for the night to cheer him on.

All in all, they raised over $300 for charity that night.  For winning, Adam was invited back to bartend again with tips going to the charity of his choice as well as to head down to the Green City Market to demonstrate with the head chef of Prairie Fire (which he didn't get to do because it was during work hours)

Here's how to make Adam's award winning White Winter Whiskey Sour.

The Polaroid frame is by Flergs.

White Winter Whiskey Sour
2 oz Death's Door White Whiskey
.75 oz Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
.75 oz Rosemary Simple Syrup (DD Whiskey is a little sweeter than your standard bourbon or rye so I don't use a full ounce of syrup)
1/2 Egg White (enough to make a good froth without weighing down the drink)
Fresh Rosemary Sprig

Rosemary Simple Syrup
3/4 cup White Sugar
3/4 cup Water
4-5 Rosemary Sprigs

Simmer sugar and water until sugar is dissolved. Pour over rosemary and let steep for at least one hour or until cool. Strain out rosemary
Add spirit, lemon juice, simple syrup and egg white into cocktail shaker. Mime shake (no ice) hard for at least 30 seconds. You are looking for the egg white to emulsify and create a really frothy liquid. Open shaker, add ice then shake again until very cold. Strain into chilled cocktail coupe. Take rosemary sprig, slap it hard between your palms to release aroma then place it on the froth.