Jen Caputo

The Velvet Roof

You’ll remember last time I checked in, I was begging you to vote for Adam’s cocktail in the Pama Home Bar Star competition. Hopefully you’ll be glad to know that Adam won 1st prize in that contest! Unfortunately, 1st prize does not equal grand prize, so instead of a trip to Aspen, we’re getting some Pama swag (cocktail shaker, glasses, blanket, hat, etc.)

Well I’m back to beg again. Adam is now entering the IWSB Star of the Bar contest. Voting only goes till Thursday at noon and there are only 20 entries. The 6 finalists will get a trip to Chicago to demo their cocktail live at the National Restaurant Association IWSB show!

Adam invented this cocktail for the competition and I’m not exaggerating when I say it is my favorite cocktail he’s ever created. It features my homemade black raspberry jam (we just opened our last jar – eek!) and a grind of black pepper floating atop a velvet roof of egg white froth (so you get the aroma of the pepper without getting it stuck in your teeth). I’ve been drinking a lot of them lately while Adam has been perfecting the recipe – in fact, I’m drinking one right now as I asked Adam to make them again so I could snap a photo of the finished product.

I’m going to of course, ask you to go vote for Adam again. It takes 2 seconds (unless you want to stick around and watch the video of him making one!) So if you wouldn’t mind, please head over here and vote for Adam’s The Velvet Roof. Bonus points if you know where he got the name from! http://iwsb.restaurant.org/star_of_the_bar.cfm

Want to make one yourself?  Here’s the recipe:

The Velvet Roof
1oz Broker’s Gin
1oz Aquavit (we used North Shore)
.25oz Gran Classico Bitter Liqueur
1oz Grapefruit Juice (Fresh Squeezed)
.5oz Lemon Juice (Fresh Squeezed)
1 Egg White (it’s how you get the roof)
Large Barspoon of black raspberry jam (or blackberry jam)

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker without ice. Shake hard for 10 seconds to emulsify the egg white. Add ice, shake hard for another 10 seconds – you really want to break up the jam. Double strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a crack of fresh ground black pepper.

It’s a Rosy Jack World

Look at this beautiful cocktail

See all those pretty red bubbles?  What if I told you that when you slurped one into your mouth they exploded into delicious Pama Liqueur? Yup, it’s as awesome as it sounds.

Adam and I created this cocktail for the Pama Home Bar Star contest. OK, it was mostly Adam but I’m giving myself credit because I helped with the chemistry needed to create the Pama caviar (aka “pama”-granate seeds).

We’ve already managed to make it to the top 25 (out of 200+ entries) but now we need your help to get to the top 10. We would absolutely LOVE to win this contest – we’d get to go to Aspen for the Food and Wine classic!! If you’d be so kind, or you’d like the recipe or something, PLEASE click over here:

http://www.pamaliqueur.com/homebarstar/voting.php?show=85

to vote for us! You can vote once every 24 hours and we would be eternally grateful, in fact, we’d even make it for you next time you stop over (FYI, you do have to enter you birthday so that they can validate you are 21 before letting you vote)!  And if you’re wondering about the name, it’s because the cocktail is a bit of a riff on the classic Jack Rose, and one of our favorite bands from the 90’s – the Blake Babies – have an album named “Rosy Jack World”.

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.

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.

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!!!

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.

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/

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.

Cocktail: Corpse Reviver #2, and our citrus press

We drink a lot of fresh citrus.  So much. We usually have 2 refrigerator drawers stuffed to the brim with citrus fruit. Our friends always tease us. Lime, lemons, oranges, grapefruits - there is never a moment when we don't have these on hand.

But until recently, we'd been using these not so efficient hand squeezers to get our fresh juice.

We were in the market for a real citrus press. Something like the Jupiter Large Commercial Juice Press

But at $120 we weren't quite willing to bite the bullet yet.

Then one day, while browsing the aisles of the Salvation Army looking for some cool vintage cocktail glasses, I spotted it out of the corner of my eye.

"What is it?" asked Adam.

Why, it's a Super Juicer! We did a bit of research, and this particular juicer is from a die-cast company that was right here in Chicago. Over 70 years ago.

And the price tag?  $4.

I snatched it up in a heartbeat, brought it home, and cleaned the s#!% out of it.

We love it! We've had it about 6 months now and it makes the job of getting fresh juice so much easier.  We probably will upgrade to one of the fancy models eventually but for now, our $4 Super-Juicer is the apple of our eye :)

So how about a cocktail that can put its talents to good use?

The Corpse Reviver #2.  So named because it could wake a corpse.  If a corpse was a fancy word for a super hung over person. This is a cocktail you would sip the morning after some heavy partying. Why #2? Because there was already a #1.

Here's what you need.

• 1 dash of Absinthe
• 1 oz Lillet Blanc (We were out at the time so we substituted Dubonnet Blanc - these are dry white aperitif french wines)
• 1 oz Orange Liqueur (Controy is a Mexican Cointreau knock off, any good Triple Sec will work)
• 1 oz Gin
• 1 oz Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
• Maraschino Cherry for garnish

Shake all ingredients with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish with the cherry.

Yum!

Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation

I was lucky enough to win two VIP tickets to Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation charity event, thank to POM! The event featured some of our favorite Chicago culinary favorites like Rick Bayless, Stephanie Izard, Graham Elliot, and Adam Seger.  All in all there were 65 chefs and 25 mixologists. It was hosted at the Aragon Ballroom where you got to help yourself to anything they had to offer!  The theme was street food.

 

We got there a bit early so while we waited in line, that foodtruck behind Adam delivered us our first taste of delicious tacos. Nicely wrapped (meaning I stuffed one in my purse and we ate it for lunch the next day!)

 

Beautiful displays of fabulous food lined the entranceway.

Thanks for the tickets to POM!!! They were serving up a sweet mocktail.

As we entered the ballroom.

Goose Island was representing with lots of beers including Sofie and Matilda.

 

This is Sonja, from North Shore Distillery (here in Chicago), we love her and her garden fresh cocktails!

Rick Bayless's booth.  He topped everyone's dish with some cilantro just before serving.

Stephanie Izard (Top Chef winner) takes a break with a beer while her sous chefs furiously work to plate delicious goat tacos.

Three Floyd's Beer booth.

 

Adam Seger is mixing up a Hum punch with lots of fresh goodies from his garden.

Look at the garnish, edible flowers, basil leaves, yum!

We only took this picture because we couldn't get over all the buttons this guy in the background had undone.  Granted, it was super hot in there, they didn't turn the air up because it would have taken $10K away from the charity.

The view from the balcony

Posing with a cocktail in front of one of our favorite mixologists.

Who, in this next series of photos, will teach you how to shake your cocktail like you mean it!

These two were mixing up cocktails in the same booth.  Both were delicious! The guy on the left made a strawberry mint vodka drink.  On the right, a grapefruit, brandy, and elderflower one - yumm!

 

 

Rick and Deann Bayless accept their 2010 Share Our Strength Sustaining Communities Award

 

Adam Seger (of Hum Spirits) on the left, and a lawyer by day mixing up a delicious strawberry cocktail on the right. See that bottle he's filling up, he gave that to us to take home!!!

Here's that strawberry cocktail as served with mint:

This event was ridiculously awesome.  Like I said, we were lucky enough to win the VIP tickets this year but there is no way we aren't going back next year.  100% of the ticket price benefits Share Our Strength's efforts to end child hunger.  Anybody who is anybody in the culinary world in Chicago is there. And you get goodie bags when you go home! Totally loved it!

POMgroni & New Bar

I'm sure there are quite a few of you who will like the "before" picture better than the "after" here.  But oh well, you don't live in my house, I do :)

We have a bar in the basement but we always make our cocktails upstairs.  This leads to 2 things:

1. Always running up and down the stairs to get whatever we forgot
2. 1/2 of my counter space being occupied with spirits because nobody wants to take them back downstairs (refer to #1)

So I decided to transform my bakers rack which used to hold lots of glassware (only 20% of which we used) into an upstairs bar.

I packed up the glasses we don't use and moved them to the basement.  Then, I brought up all of our favorite bottles.  Here's the after!

Much more functional for us!  I used my Kate Spade green polka dot bowl to hold all of our different bitters (and the agave syrup we use as a sweetener when needed).

So, that's our new upstairs bar.  How about a cocktail to go with it?  This one makes a great Aperitif, Adam calls it a POMgroni.  It's perfect to enjoy while you are making dinner.

You'll need:

• 2 oz gin
• 1.25 oz Pomegranate juice
• .75 oz Lillet (a french aperitif wine)
• .25 oz Campari (an italian bitter aperitif)
• Lemon twist for garnish

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker.  Add ice. Shake it up. Strain into a cocktail glass and twist your lemon peel over the cocktail so that the mist falls on the drink.

Enjoy!

Cocktails with Adam & Jen: Grapefruit Margarita

Now here's a crowd pleaser that doesn't rely on fake sugar mixtures.  It's all fresh, and all delicious.  It was actually inspired by something we saw Ina Garten do (but she put too much Triple Sec in which made it too sweet.)

We made it for Adam's parents, brother, and his brother's girlfriend and everyone enjoyed it so much, we had to make another batch right away.

Like any drink, fresh squeezed juice is crucial for the best possible flavor. If you don't want to squeeze grapefruits you can use a good juice from the store but there's simply no substitute for fresh lime juice so don't even try.

To make a batch:

• 1 Cup Tequila
• 1 Cup Grapefruit Juice
• 1/2 Cup Lime Juice
• 1/2 Cup Cointreau/Triple Sec
• Stir in a pitcher with ice (or better yet - shake it up if you're doing individual servings)
• Garnish with a grapefruit twist and a salted rim if you're saucy.

(Or if you are just making a drink for one, substitute parts for cups)

It's not very busy but it's absolutely delicious!  Enjoy with your favorite people on a warm sunny day.

Milwaukee in a weekend

It was a few days before Memorial Day and we realized we were without plans.  So we hopped on priceline and a few minutes later had booked the Hilton in downtown Milwaukee for just over $50 a night. Not too bad!

Saturday morning we stuffed our bikes in the car and took the quick drive up.  Our first stop (after lunch) was at Great Lakes Distillery.

It was the perfect first stop! 

They have a lovely tasting room and a great bartender who pretty much pointed us in the direction of everything we did that weekend. 

We started out by trying a little sample of each of their spirits:

A gin, vodka, citrus vodka, rum, Kirsch, Grappa, and 2 kinds of Absinthe's.

The absinthe's are getting ready for us to drink them.

But first, they need some ice cold water dripped in so they do their magic!

 

See it changing colors? See the oil slick on top?  That means it's almost ready to enjoy!

After a tour, our bartender offered us a cocktail.  He could tell we were into the good stuff so he brought out all of his homemade bitters and syrups.

And then he mixed up this puppy which contained lime juice, pepper infused vodka, and rose water (along with a few other things...)

Yum! 

Next stop -  Sprecher Brewery.

We took a tour

And then did their 10 course Reserve Beer and Cheese Pairing.

These were all the beers we tried:

I highly recommend the Reserve tasting but all-in-all, the beer's were just ok. 

I can't remember where we went next... maybe just back to the hotel to relax for a little bit.  But pretty soon after we found ourselves with more cheese...

... at the Wisconsin Cheese Mart Cheese Bar.

I had a wine flight, Adam had a few beers, and we enjoyed this delicious aged cheddar flight

 

Next, we went back to the hotel and found the series finale of Lost was re-airing on ABC.  I refused to leave the room until it was over and then refused to leave the room because I was crying so hard but I finally cleaned myself up enough to head out for a nightcap and a late dinner.

At the recommendation of our new friends at Great Lakes Distillery, we walked over to Bacchus where Ira, the mixologist (who used to work at the Violet Hour in Chicago) crafted us a few amazing cocktails. 

Ira sells his line of Bittercube bitters at Bacchus so we picked up a few flavors. I didn't get any pictures here but we highly recommend it, especially if Ira is working the bar!

Sunday morning we went to breakfast at Honey Pie. Oh My.  Let me show you what Adam ate.

You start with a giant pile of handcut fries.  You top them with BBQ pulled pork.  And cheese sauce. And 2 eggs.  And Bacon.  And pickled jalapeno's if you are feeling saucy. Adam is always feeling saucy.

Nothing like a nice healthy breakfast to start the day off right!

Our big plan for Sunday was to take one of the Riverwalk Boat Brewery Tours. It was a 4 hour ride that took you to 3 breweries.  You could take a tour and enjoy 2 pints at each one.

We started the tour at Lakefront Brewery (which is also the best of the three)

This also happened to be the best brewery tour we'd ever been on (and trust me, we've been on a lot!)

This guy is what made the tour so great.  He was hilarious.  And poured a mean pint.

After about an hour at Lakefront, we got on the boat.

The next stop was Milwaukee Ale House which has an awesome outdoor space.

 

And finally, we went to Rock Bottom, which is a chain.  Some Rock Bottoms (Chicago, for example) are amazing.  Some are not. 

Either way, we were feeling pretty good when the boat pulled away from RB.

We rode our bikes back to the hotel and relaxed for a little while before trying to track down some dinner.  Which sounds easier than it was.  A lot of places were closed Sunday nights and we are too picky to just go anywhere without a recommendation, so instead, we went to the place that all of the other bartenders recommended (but which didn't have food) - Bryant's Cocktail Lounge.

Walking into this place is like walking into another time.

Like... 2am maybe?

Seriously, pitch black.  You walk in and just stand there for a minute while your eyes try to adjust because you cannot see anything.

This place mixes up some amazing cocktails though.  You just tell them what you like to drink and they will whip you up something brilliant!  They make three types of drinks there: ice cream, tiki-inspired hurricane, and depression-era cocktails.  I'm going to go ahead and insist you order a depression era cocktail ;)

Like I said, it's pitch black in there but I did get this picture of our awesome bartender

And this is with a 2 second exposure (ISO at 800)!

Since we seemed to be doing so well with our bartenders recommending the next place we went, we let him pick our dinner location: Lulu

Yup, Lulu also made great cocktails.  I had the Mid-East Falafel Pita for dinner and loved it. Their Asian Slaw was awesome! I don't remember what Adam had but I know he didn't like it as much as I enjoyed mine.  Guess he picked the wrong thing!

Well, that's our quick weekend tour of Milwaukee.  We loved it!  Who knew Milwaukee was such a classic cocktail haven?  Can't wait to go back!

Cocktail Party: The Food

Ok, getting back to that Cocktail Party. So far we've covered:

• Party Overview
• Ginger Cardamom Syrup
• Brandied Maraschino Cherries

So, I thought tonight I'd talk about the food.

First of all, when it comes to cocktail parties you don't want to be slaving over the stove while you are entertaining a dozen guests.  So everything I choose to prepare was make-ahead so that I could just pop 'em in the oven at the last minute.

In the hours before everyone arrived, I made these things, wrapped them in plastic wrap, wrote the time and temp in marker on the plastic wrap (so I wouldn't have to get the recipes out again when everyone was over), and stuck them all in the basement fridge.  I took them out of the fridge about 45 minutes before it was time to heat them up so that I wasn't putting cold stuff in the oven.

Almond Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Dates

First off, a classic with a twist.  Everyone loves Bacon Wrapped Dates.  I switched them up by stuffing an almond in them.

Ingredients

• 1/4 piece of bacon per date (I had long bacon, you might want to bump this up to 1/3 to 1/2 piece per date if your bacon is shorter than mine)
• 1 raw almond per date
• pitted dates

Process

1. Start by stuffing almonds into each date. Assembly line baby!
2. Lay out your bacon strips and drop a date on each one
3. Roll 'em up and poke each one through with a toothpick
4. Wrap a cookie sheet in foil and place your skewered dates on the sheet.
5. At this point you can wrap them up and stick 'em in the fridge.
6. Take them out of the fridge about 45 minutes before it's time to eat 'em.
7. Put them in a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until the bacon is crisp.  These are actually a good thing to put in the oven with other things because they can pretty much go in at any temperature so long as you watch them and take them out when the bacon is done.

And after you let your friends eat most of them they look like this.  What crappy presentation huh? 

 

Goat Cheese with Sauteed Garlic and Herbs in Olive Oil

This is my new favorite last minute appetizer to make.  It takes roughly 5 minutes to throw together and it is HEAVENLY!!!!

Ingredients

• Log of Goat Cheese (The number of people you are serving will dictate the size of the log. I used about 6 oz)
• Olive Oil
• Minced Garlic
• Chopped fresh herbs (Rosemary, thyme, sage, etc.)
• Chopped fresh basil

Process

1. Take your goat cheese out of the fridge at least 20-30 minutes before serving to soften it.
2. Mince your garlic and herbs ahead of time.  Put the garlic and all of the herbs except for the basil in one prep bowl and the basil in another.  Refrigerate these till it's time to go.
3. In a small skillet heat up a bunch of olive oil.  Maybe 1/2 cup or so?  Enough to dip lots of crusty bread in!
4. Toss in the garlic and all of the fresh herbs EXCEPT for the basil
5. Sauté everything for about 5 minutes until everything is deliciously fragrant.
6. Plop your goat cheese in a serving dish and pour the hot olive oil herb mixture right on top.
7. NOW it's time for the basil, sprinkle it in and watch it kind of deep fry itself in the hot oil.  This part is what makes the dish I think... oh wait, maybe it's the goat cheese... or the perfect olive oil... or the garlic?  What are you waiting for, make this already!
8. Serve with a big basket of toasted crusty bread and then watch it disappear.  Because it is heaven on earth.

Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

I'm going to have trouble with this recipe... because I just kept tossing stuff in until it looked good... So I guess I'll tell you what I put in them and just trust you to eyeball it, I think it would be pretty hard to go wrong.

Ingredients

• 2 cartons of portabella mushrooms
• dried bread crumbs
• grated pecorino romano cheese
• minced garlic
• chopped fresh parsley
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• italian seasoning
• salt & pepper

Also, butter to saute mushrooms.

Process

1. De-stem and clean all of your mushrooms with a damp paper towel.  Save about 1/2 the stems and dice them up.
2. Toss the diced stems in a bowl.  Add the rest of the ingredients in whatever proportions you feel like and stir it all up.
3. Melt a few tablespoons of butter in a pan and when it's good and hot and melted throw in the mushrooms.  Saute for a minute or two, then flip them over and get the other side so they are basically totally covered in melted butter.
4. Place all of the mushrooms in an oven proof dish and then spoon some of your mixture in each one
5. At this point you can cover in plastic and throw it in the fridge until your guests arrive.  Write this on the plastic wrap in a sharpie: 400 degrees, 20 minutes
6. But keep an eye on them when they're in the oven and take them out whenever they look done.

I'm pretty worthless for providing an accurate, repeatable recipe, huh?

Rachel's Ultimate Crab Dip

I totally copied Rachel's recipe so just go see it on her blog.

Ok, I didn't totally copy it.  I made the following modifications

• Out of guilt for possibly giving my guests a heart-attack with the other recipes, I used Low-Fat Cream Cheese, Sour Cream, and Mayo.
• But then I went and doubled the cheddar cheese.... oops.

 

And the rest of the stuff I didn't take pictures of but I also offered a large tray of crudités & humus as well as a dish of Ikea's Swedish Meatballs (by the time I walked over to the table to take a picture of them there were only 2 left... and I did take a picture of those two, it just came out horribly).

And with all of this heating up of food I only burnt my hand once! (Picking up the cast iron enameled lid of the Dutch oven holding the meatballs with my bare hand)

I'm proud to say there was not a single bite of any of these appetizers left!

Cocktail Party Recipe: Brandied Maraschino Cherries & Manhattan

 

Next up in my series of recipes from our latest cocktail party: Maraschino Brandied Cherries.  But first, how about a history lesson? 

Maraschino cherries started out as a delicacy for royalty and the wealthy.  They were such a treat, served only at the finest bars and restaurants!  They were produced by soaking wild sour marasca cherries in maraschino liquer (which does not taste like cherries. It is made from the pit of the marasca cherries so it tastes more like almonds).

They made their way over to the states in the late 19th century and by the early 20th, people were trying to come up with more frugal ways to make them so that everyone could have them.  These knock-offs had to be labeled as "imitation" though. Eventually Mr. Ernest H. Wiegand (a professor of horticulture) figured out how to use sodium metabisulfite to preserve the cherries (because of Prohibition, alcohol couldn't be used), and thus that horrible dark time where booze was illegal birthed those day-glo red cherries you'll find all over the place today.  And ever since 1940, "maraschino cherries" have been defined as "cherries which have been dyed red, impregnated with sugar and packed in a sugar sirup [sic] flavored with oil of bitter almonds or a similar flavor".^[1]

LOL!  (They left out the part where they bleach them first, and then dye them red).

Well once we'd learned all this, we decided we needed to try the real thing.

We'd looked up the cost of buying real Maraschino Cherries like the ones that Luxardo sells. But they were almost $20 for a jar.  Ok granted, these don't wind up being much cheaper but we made them ourselves!!!  I decided to combine 2 recipes.  This one for Maraschino Cherries and this one for Brandied Cherries.

Brandied Maraschino Cherries

Ingredients:

• 1 jar of Trader Joe's Morello Cherries in light syrup (This one is 24 oz. You are looking for a more sour preserved cherry)
• 1/2 Cup Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
• 1/2 Cup Brandy
• 1/2 Cup evaporated (raw) cane sugar

Process:

1. Strain the cherries, pouring all of the liquid into a small saucepan
2. Put the strained cherries in an airtight jar.
3. Bring to a boil and add the sugar.  Stir (so it doesn't burn) until the sugar is dissolved and then simmer until the liquid is reduced by half.  Let cool
4. Add the cherry syrup, luxardo, and brandy to the jar.  Top off with more luxardo as needed to fill the jar.
5. Let sit overnight and store in the refrigerator.

The next day, your cherries will be ready and will keep for quite some time in the fridge.  Once they're ready, how about a classic cocktail to go along with it?

We're gonna make a Manhattan!

Manhattan

• 2oz Rye (or Bourbon) Whiskey.  (We used Bulleit Bourbon which contains Rye)
• 1/2 oz sweet vermouth
• 2-3 dashes bitters (Angostura or Old Fashioned Aromatic)
• 1 brandied maraschino cherry

Process

1. Chill cocktail glass.
2. In a mixing glass, combine whiskey, vermouth, and bitters.
3. Add ice and gently stir the drink (NO SHAKING!!!! You'll bruise the spirits and get a cloudy drink)
4. Drop the cherry into the bottom of the chilled glass and strain cocktail over the cherry.
5. When you finish the drink, offer the boozy cherry to your special lady friend.

Cocktail Party Recipe: Ginger Cardamom Syrup

Meet my new favorite soda mixer.  As I've mentioned before, I'm a Club Soda fiend. And thanks to my new SodaStream, I get to make club soda at home whenever the heck I want it. 

And if you think I don't make it every night you don't know me at all :P

My other favorite thing is ginger.  A few years ago, we saw Miss Flighty whip up a batch of this thing she calls Ginger Sugar and our cocktail party seemed the perfect opportunity to try it out.

This recipe isn't exactly how Miss Flighty makes it but we adapted it to meet our tastes.

Ginger Cardamom Syrup

1 pound of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
1/3 cup green cardamom pods*
2 cinnamon sticks**
2.5-3 cups raw cane sugar (depending on how much of a sweet tooth you have)***
3 cups water

* You can find green cardamom in Indian stores or the Indian food aisle of a good grocery store
** Try to use real cinnamon sticks (look for the label to say Ceylon. Most of what you find at the store is actually Cassia - we got ours at a speciality spice store)
*** I found mine at Trader Joes.  You can substitute regular sugar though if you can't find it.

Bring 3 cups of water to a boil
Add ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom and let simmer for 15 minutes
Add sugar and stir until dissolved.  Seriously, keep stirring, don't let it burn! 
Let it simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour, stirring periodically.
Let cool completely.

Now you have some choices.  Whatever you decide, toss out the cinnamon sticks.  They'll just fall apart and make a mess.

You can strain the mixture and just keep the syrup, or you can do like we did and keep it all together so that you can dish our some of the ginger and cardamom in each glass as a garnish.

Store it in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks (if it lasts that long!).

If you are a ginger ale fan, you have to make this syrup!  Add a tablespoon or two to a glass of club soda and you have fresh homemade ginger ale in a few seconds that is better than anything you could buy at the store! Sooooo refreshing!

But of course, this syrup is also perfect in cocktails so expect some of those recipes very soon!

Last Minute Cocktail Party

We didn't have anything exciting going on this weekend so at the last minute we rounded up whoever was around and hosted a big cocktail party.  Over the next few days I'll be sharing some of our appetizer, syrup, garnish, and drink recipes that we whipped together for about 15 folks this Saturday.

In the meantime, here are some of the party goers.

 

Thomas is inspecting one of the 2 bottles of Absinthe that people brought to share.

Erin and Kristin squeezed 2 bags of lemons to make ginger-mint lemonade. Which they then deemed too sour so we made them into cocktails instead:

By adding bourbon to the ginger-mint lemonade concoction we had drinks a plenty for a good hour.

Dave and Hugh sample some Absinthe Drips

 

Everybody gathering in the kitchen to whip up more drinks.

 

Dave contributed an ice cream cake to the party.  We decided it needed a candle but with no birthdays to celebrate we dedicated it to Kristin's doodlebonger.

Dave eats his piece right off of the butchers knife we used to cut the cake.

The hosts

Me and my favorite girl

Brent & Anj keeping the couch warm.  Where are your cocktails?

 

So stay tuned for some amazing recipes.  I'll start with the garnishes and syrups!

Lost Cocktail & Closet Redo

Figuring that tonight's episode of Lost would feature a bloodbath or two, I told Adam we had to make our cocktails with blood oranges that I picked up yesterday.

I'll spare you the gigantic mess squeezing these puppies created and just share the drinks they yielded.

Not much of a recipe here.  It's just Blood Orange juice shaken with Tito's Handmade Vodka.  Sure was tasty though!

 

One of our basement bathroom closets has been out of commission for about 8 months now so as boring as these pictures are, it's a huge accomplishment in this house.

Last July, the linen closet in our basement looked like this:

We'd already taken the shelves down at this point because we needed to get inside of that wall. 

Shortly there after, all of the drywall was ripped out of this closet and it had been completely non-functional ever since.

While the closet was torn apart, the basement guest bedroom floor looked like this:

mm... now that's a guest room to be proud of!

Anyway, with the summer, and then vacations, and then Christmas, and then more vacations, and lots of work in between, we hadn't really had time to deal with this closet but over the last few weeks, Adam finally tackled it!  He re-drywalled, re-hung the shelves, and re-organized not just this closet, but the one next door to it too!

He even doubled the depth of the shelves in here!

It's very exciting :)  You should see the guest room floor now!  Soooo clean!

And look how he re-hung the shelves and organized the 8 million paint cans in the electrical closet next to this one!

I'm feeling some major organizational zen in the basement bathroom right now - of course it just makes me even more eager to call up my kitchen contractors and ask them to tackle this bathroom and remodel the entire thing... but we won't tell Adam that...

Cocktails with Adam and Jen: Coronation 1937

Since we're very in to whipping up classic cocktails lately I decided this should be a new blog feature.  So stay tuned for more posts in the Cocktails category.

It's Friday, so why not unwind after work with a classic 1937 Coronation Cocktail (as published in Whisky Magazine and modified by Adam).

Here's what you'll need. (Measures below are to make 1 serving)

Chilled Cocktail Glass
1½ oz whisky
1 oz grapefruit juice
½ oz lemon juice
½ oz peach nectar
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Add all of your ingredients to a chilled cocktail shaker.  Squeeze your lemon and juices fresh.  We used this peach bellini mix by Stirrings which is all natural and surprisingly delicious!

Add ice cubes to your shaker and give it a whir for about 10 seconds.

Tada!

What we changed: The original recipe only called for 1oz of Whisky.  We didn't think that was enough.  The original also called for a 1/2 oz of grenadine. We didn't add it for two reasons: 1. We didn't have any pomegranate juice on hand to make fresh grenadine.  2. It seemed like there was enough sweet stuff in here already. We also used Peach nectar as opposed to peach bitters... we have no idea where to get peach bitters and are guessing you'd need to make your own. But the sweetness of the nectar probably took the place of the missing sweet grenadine.

What we thought: This was definitely a refreshing cocktail.  The lemon was kind of overpowering though so we might opt for a tad less next time. We did probably add more than a half oz though so that was probably our fault.  I think we'd like to try it again with the grenadine next time we pick up a bottle of Pom.

What we paired it with: The latest episode of 24.  Because you need a cocktail when you're dealing with Jack Bauer.  And you need several more when you are trying to get past the absurdity of this season so far ;)

What we should have paired it with: Brunch.  It's not really an evening drink...