Category Archives: recipes

friday o’clock – a date with bourbon

Written on April 27, 2012 by admin in food, friday o'clock, recipes

hello hello. The past month has been incredibly full of cocktail experiments and frantic illustrating (including another cookbook, a CD cover, and blog logos).

Over the last few weeks, my friend Dan and I have been geeking out over cocktails, particularly infusions made with his spiffy ISI charger. The method allows one to rapidly infuse liquor with your spice, fruit, or other flavoring of choice using whippits, uh, I mean nitrous chargers. We’ve made Chinese five spice, szechuan peppercorn, celery/celery seed, and urfa pepper, all with great success. (The five spice in a manhattan is a treat).

But I like old school infusions too — fill a jar with fruit, add booze, wait. My stock of japanese ume plum bourbon is perilously low, so another infusion was imminent. A trip to Palm Springs a few months ago inspired me to finally make date infused bourbon. The bar at TWO on Hawthorne Lane in SF (may it RIP; it’s now fancypants Benu) used to feature a Manhattan variation, made with date bourbon, and subbing in nocino (walnut liqueur) for sweet vermouth. The result was nutty, sweet and warm. Rest assured it will be the first drink I make once this infusion is ready (oh, about 2 weeks from now).

Date Bourbon

15 dates
bourbon to fill (likely a little less than 750ml)
jar

1. Wash and pit the dates. (I know some folks skip this step, but there are sometimes bug eggs and/or worms in dates. See??

2. Add to jar.

3. Pour in bourbon. ( I used Bulleit, because this is was TWO used)

4. Wait (2-4 weeks, tasting periodically until it tastes right to you)

5. Strain into clean jar.

6. Drink.

0 Comments - a pork chop for your thoughts?

friday o’clock – pineapple pisco-jito

Written on October 7, 2011 by admin in food, recipes

It’s Fleet Week here in San Francisco, which means two things: 1) jittery nerves from forgetting that the deafening rumblings are the Blue Angels, and not an attack, and 2) beautiful weather. It’s odd, but Fleet Week and Pride Week are always blessed with warm sunny weather.

And that means it’s time to raise a glass to the weather gods. Last week, I served this cocktail at our monthly Biz Ladies meeting. The Biz Ladies group is an awesome group of fellow makers and biz owners who meet once a month to spitball ideas, share advice, and well, just generally interact like co-workers. The group includes Samantha of Noteify, Kendra of Kendra Renee Jewelry, Sharon of Casa Murriguez, Alana of Etta + Billie, Marja of Lemonade Handmade Jewelry, Liz of 1.by.Liz, and Giselle, owner of Rare Device. Oh, and Steve was an honorary “biz lady” for the evening.

For food I used this recipe for short rib chili to make “frito pie”, and a jicama, avocado, and grapefruit salad.

Oh, and if you’re wondering why it is a pisco-jito …. I found some pisco at Trader Joe’s, and well, I just had to buy it. I based the recipe on this one on yumsguar. It’s awesome because you can make it ahead of time, which is great for the muddling-intensive mojito.

Pineapple Pisco-jito

by the pitcher-full, makes 8 drinks

2 cups Pisco (or rum, if you’re feeling traditional)
1 cup mint leaves
3/4 cup sugar
1 lime, in quarters
1/2 cup lime juice
1 cup club soda
4 pineapple spears

1. Using a wooden spoon or muddler in a bowl, crush the mint with the sugar and lime quarters until the sugar starts to dissolve.

2. Add half of pineapple and crush into mixture

3. Add 1 cup of the club soda and stir until the sugar dissolves completely.

4. Strain the mixture through a coarse sieve into a pitcher.

5. Stir in the lime juice and rum. ** You can chill the mixture now, and serve it later**

6. Fill glass with ice and add a mint sprig to each. A

7. Add chopped pineapple to glass.

8. Pour the mixture over the ice, top each glass with club soda and serve.

Serves 8.

1 Comment - a pork chop for your thoughts?

friday o’clock

Written on September 30, 2011 by admin in recipes, Uncategorized

It’s time for a cocktail, am I right?

A few weeks ago when Steve and I embarked on the Great San Marzano Canning Experience 2011, we procured a bottle of lemon juice. Apparently lemons vary considerably in acidity, so most canning recipes suggest using bottled lemon juice. The recipe only called for a few tablespoons, so we’re left with a mostly full bottle of lemon juice. Oh, and I had bought thyme to make the mythically delicoius Zuni roast chicken. What to do?

Make one of my favorite cocktails of all time. This was one of the first cocktails I ever drank, and it is still awesome. Many recipes use a 1:1:1 ration of brandy, cointreau, and lemon juice, but my tastes lean away from something so cointreau heavy. Using less means that you need to make up for the loss of sweetness with simple syrup or gum syrup, but the result means a cleaner lemon-y cocktail. But play around with the ratios to your taste.

And the thyme? Crazy good.

It’s About Thyme, Sidecar

makes 1

2 oz Brandy
1/2 oz Cointreau
1 oz lemon juice
1 teaspoon gum syrup (this stuff is amazeballs. Use whenever you’d use simple syrup, especially in citrus based drinks. Gives a smooth mouthfeel. I have a locally produced one from Small Hand Foods)
few springs of thyme
sugar and salt*

1. If you’re using fresh squeezed lemon juice, take a wedge of lemon, cut a notch in it and rub it on the rim of your glass. If you’re usingbottled juice, it is messier, but pour some juice on a shallow bowl and moisten the rim of your glass

2. mix equal parts salt and sugar on a plate or shallow bowl, and dip your moistened rim (yeah, I know) into the mix.

3. Combine all other ingredients in cocktail shaker, including a spring of thyme. Shake it. Shake it good.

4. Strain into old-fashioned glass. Add a sprig of thyme to be beautiful.

*very untraditional I know, but adding the salt gives this a little something special. You want to be special, right?

0 Comments - a pork chop for your thoughts?

friday o’clock

Written on August 24, 2011 by admin in recipes

I’ve always loved a good cocktail, but perhaps even more so now that Steve has adopted beer brewing as his hobby of choice. I LOVE beer, but there’s only so much one woman can take. I’m definitely a brown liquors kind of gal, and love concocting new recipes with whatever I have on hand.

This “Pretend It’s Summer Bramble” cocktail was inspired by the pints of blackberry shurb syrup I have stashed in my fridge. I became mildly obsessed with the idea of shrubs after reading about them on Serious Eats. It’s basically just fruit, sugar, and vinegar, but the resulting syrup is lovely in cocktails or even just with sparkling water. I’ve also been using them in my salad dressings this week. (And if you’re wondering, I’ve been doing the cold shrubing method)

The blackberries were harvested from a roadside in Menlo Park. Gotta love free fruit.

“Pretend It’s Summer Bramble”

1.5 oz rye (I use “Ri” brand)

.5 oz blackberry shrub (I made mine iwht apple cider vinegar)

1/4 tsp blackberry preserves

dash bitters

Combine in cocktail shaker with ice. Serve in glass over ice. Maybe throw a few frozen blackberries in for good measure. Drink up.

Lately, I’ve been pondering the direction of the blog, and decided I want to have more frequent posting, more behind the scenes, more recipes, and more inspiration generally. So this friday o’clock feature is part of that. strap yourselves in for awesomeness.

0 Comments - a pork chop for your thoughts?