tropical iceland - pineapple & basil frozen g&t

maybe there should be a whole line of cocktails with names based on fiery furnaces songs. blueberry boat offers the most obvious possibilities, but i'm sure there are many more. it'll be nice to have a mission to keep me occupied as this summer slogs on, sticky and hot and not altogether optimism-inducing.  

i have to admit, i try not to watch the news. i think at this point i have a fairly good idea of how much information i can take in before succumbing to what mike calls a German mood (which is kind of ironic since he's the one with the Teutonic heritage) and my mom has referred to as "that morose Irish blood of ours." i don't claim to be more sensitive than the average person, but knowing the details of tragedy while lacking the power to change anything is a sure ticket to a gloaming dark apathy and pessimism that a) are not fun to experience and b) sure don't make me a treat to be around. 

all that to say, i try to be aware of what's going on in a broad sense, but shy away from learning more than i have to. i'm sure that's not the best way for everyone, and i'm not even sure it's the best for me, but in a world of randomness and sadness and, it's true, great joy, it's what i need to do to maintain some equanimity in my day to day life. otherwise i just get my heart broken open again and again and it all feels too hard.

finding a balance doesn't mean sticking my head in the sand entirely, though. it's more like taking in the broad strokes of the bombings and the plane crashes and all of the conflicts and and and

but then not reading too many of the smaller, more personal, more 

"and this child who got blown up loved her dog and the color red and wanted to be a marine biologist when she grew up." that kind of thing doesn't help me understand the world better and DOES make me very sad.

anyway, this is turning a little (lot) too downer-y for something that was supposed to be about a nifty tropical drink that you eat with a spoon. oops. sorry. to be fair, i made it before the world totally fell apart. however this IS a nifty tropical drink you can eat with a spoon. so that's something! it's bracing and chilly and bitter from the tonic and herbal from the basil and pineapple-y from the pineapple.

you just chop up the pineapple into little bits, chop the basil into even littler bits, and dump both into a shallow-ish dish along with gin and some (preferably fancy) tonic. toss it in the freezer and stir it a little with a fork every few hours, as if you were making a granita (which you basically are). it gets slushy after 4 or 5 hours (at least in my freezer) and you can eat it then, but it's even better if you leave it overnight. at that point, instead of being slushy, it's crispy and crunchy and tastes like eating magic snow. but slushy's good, too. you do you.

also you can pour coconut cream over it like they do sometimes with snow cones - it makes it more like a delicious sweet creamy piña colada that way.

the only sad thing about this drink is that you have to wait for it to freeze. in an uncertain and sometimes grotesquely terrifying world, i appreciate that simplicity. and i can wait.

*tropical iceland*
~ 1/3 of a pineapple, cut into tiny bits (you could probably use canned, but i feel like it wouldn't be as good. if you must, i think i had like 1 1/2 cups of pineapple, once chopped. but it's pretty flexible)
1 small handful of basil - again, flexible. i used maybe 2 tablespoons
1 cup gin
~ 3 cups tonic (i used 2 bottles of Fever Tree and 1 of Q tonic, since that was what we had. i figured out it totaled about 2 2/3 cups, but probably you won't have the exact random mix of tiny tonic bottles that we did, so use whatever. personally, i prefer the Fever Tree, but whatever kind you have is fine)
a tablespoon or so of coconut cream is not out of place if you like that sort of thing

this actually makes a lot of servings, because you put it in little glasses so it won't melt too fast and a little goes a long way. if you want it to be less strong, add another cup or so of tonic. it sat happily in our freezer for over a week and was still good at the end, so it's not like you have to eat it all at once.

let's all clink our glasses to better times ahead. sláinte.

ALSO i am fully aware that it's an incredible privilege not to have to live in areas of conflict and not to have to worry on the level of those that do. that is obvious, and you do whatever small things you can.

la paloma rosa

often in a relationship you're exposed to new things because of your partner's enthusiasms. i'm pretty sure that without me, mike would not have acquired quite so much information about weird animal facts, food, or health care policy (and he might have been better off for that). 

similarly, i wouldn't know as much about the horse-race intricacies of local and national politics or the publishing world, and i certainly wouldn't be watching football on a saturday afternoon. yet here i am. 

i grew up in small-town/rural texas, where high school football really does rule the scene on friday nights (surely you're familiar with Friday Night Lights, right? if not, FIX THAT IMMEDIATELY. you're welcome.). as a disaffected and contrarian teen, i only went to one football game in my entire high school career, and spent plenty of time bemoaning football's prominence and the lack of local culture (i was kind of a jerk about my hometown. although i live 30 minutes from it now and haven't been there in like 10 years, so i guess i haven't really changed my mind about it, actually. see you in hell, bastrop!). my undergrad years were spent at southwestern university, which at the time didn't even have a football team. it just reinstated football this year, actually, which is weird but i'm getting used to the idea.

anyway, my point is that despite being a native texan, i'm not much of a football person. but mike went to texas a&m, which has a ... robust football heritage. they take it seriously and they're very good at it. so thanks to his influence, i've started semi-watching games once in a while. i still don't really know what's going on (really, soccer's more my thing), but i'm happy to hang out and cheer when the aggies score and yell at the tv when the other team does something mean.*

*technical term

**

of course, all this moral support is thirstifying, so it's never a bad idea to have ingredients for a paloma rosa at hand. palomas are gaining a following here, after long enjoying popularity in mexico. they're dead simple and very tasty and just might become your favorite refreshment in the waning days of summer (at least, i really hope they're waning. it was like 100 degrees yesterday. IT IS MID-SEPTEMBER, WEATHER. COME ON.).

the paloma rosa differs from the original in that it includes pink grapefruit soda and some fresh grapefruit juice, instead of the regular grapefruit soda (squirt, fresca, etc) that normally goes into it. i found this pink ting (!) at our local liquor/food/awesomeness center, spec's, but i think similar things are found pretty much wherever. or use fresca, etc! then it wouldn't be rosa, but it would still be a paloma. 

and that's the important thing. that and spending quality time hanging out with your loved ones and learning more about the things they like. or at least getting more adept at nodding sagely when people talk about "incompletes" and "sacks."

** i had to include my la paloma magnet, which my friend beth gave me years and years ago and which to this day i cannot look at without saying out loud, "que maravilla de tortilla!" which i think is the best slogan ever. 

also, you may have noticed the ro*tel, velveeta, and chips in the background. i may not be as football-crazy as some, but by god i'm a texan and i know how to make queso. 

-ingredients- one drink

• 1/2 - 2/3 bottle pink ting (!) or 6 oz or so of your grapefruit soda of choice
• 3 tbsp or so fresh pink (or other) grapefruit juice
• 1-2 ounces tequila (i don't know much about tequila aside from that you absolutely have to get one that's 100% agave. i used a blanco one, but probably the more aged ones would be good, too - maybe a little more intensely flavored?)

stir gently, add plenty of ice and maybe a curl of grapefruit zest, if you think of it. 

listening to: explosions in the sky, now that i started thinking about Friday Night Lights. also lots of yelling from kyle field. gig 'em! i don't know football, but i  know that much.

rye thyme for a collins

the name of this drink is further along the spectrum of ridiculousness than i'm normally comfortable with, but after a weekend which included the unwelcome discovery of a discomfiting little visitor from the past in our car's a/c vent, it seemed fine for now.

after all, it's after 5 on a hot summer sunday - it IS high time for a drink of some sort, and it might as well be this.

i usually think of whiskey as more of a fall/winter drink, but when you add citrus and herbs and sparkling water, all of a sudden it makes sense as a summer pick-me-up+cool-me-down. a tom collins typically uses gin, but all we had was rye and silly old texas doesn't allow one to purchase liquor on sundays. 

other things that were handy included thyme and grapefruit, whose bitterness made it seem like they would go together. i've since looked up the combination and both marcus samuelsson and martha stewart have cocktails that use it, so i'm in illustrious company, i guess? the peppercorns were an attempt to complexify it and respond to the pepperiness of the rye.

just peel a grapefruit, taking care not to dig deeply enough to get the extra-bitter white pith with it. i ended up using maybe 15 sections that were about 3/4" x 2" or so, but it's not an exact thing. then add it and some thyme and peppercorns to 1 cup each of water and white sugar and bring to a boil. let it boil for 3 minutes or so, then turn it off and let it cool. 

i like making simple syrups with lots of things in them. i think it gets to the same childhood idea of cooking that making chicken stock brings out - just toss things in a pot with water and voila! it's magically something much better. 

once the syrup is cool, strain it and mix a couple of tablespoons with an ounce of rye and 1-2 tablespoons of grapefruit and/or lemon juice in a short highball or old fashioned glass. as per usual, this is all to taste. then add a couple of ice cubes and fill the rest of the way with sparkling water or club soda. we often get that water that has pink grapefruit flavoring (it's not sweet - just grapefruity), so if you have that you might as well use it. 

then just kick back with a magazine and let your cares lift away. try not to think about how hot it is or how gross that mouse in your a/c vent probably definitely was. 

 *ingredients*

grapefruit/thyme/pepper syrup

peel from 1 medium grapefruit

7-10 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons dried (my thyme plant is a bit sad right now, so i augmented the 5 or so fresh sprigs i had with a couple of large pinches of dried lemon thyme)

12-15 whole black peppercorns (just grab a large pinch. sichuan pepper might be really interesting here, too, though i'd probably use less)

1 cup water

1 cup white sugar

rye thyme, etc., collins

2 tablespoons syrup

3 tablespoons rye whiskey (we usually get old overholt or bulleit rye)

2 tablespoons grapefruit and/or lemon juice

sparkling water or club soda

listening to: beirut

3-2-1 pomegranate!

the pet gods have not been smiling upon us here at chez livingawesomely these past few months. first maeby decided to eat something she shouldn't have and ended up in a cone of shame, then the dogs en masse decided to attack their cat housemate, which resulted in a cone for her PLUS a feeding tube and wired jaw (Not Fun + Very Expensive). finally darwin, above, has developed his first hot spot of the year and requires his own much larger cone.

so i guess basically if you need to borrow an elizabethan collar in any of several sizes, we've got you covered. also, we will be paying off vet bills for the foreseeable future. but i guess it'll still be cheaper than college, etc., for a kid, so i shouldn't complain.

to help me refrain from boring complaints about the pets and the weather (which, OH MY GOD it's so hot and humid already), i have taken the liberty this Memorial Day to fix a drink before the socially-accepted hour of 5 pm. but what's the point of having a monday off if you're not going to have a drink during the day? (aside, of course, from thinking about the sacrifices people have made for our freedom and other solemn and important things)

pomegranate molasses is what happens when you boil pomegranate juice down with some sugar until it's quite thick. it's not really molasses - it's more like cooked-down grenadine (real grenadine, not that fakey pink stuff). it isn't that sweet and definitely has a molasses-y rich flavor that i find very appealing. you can use it in any number of things - last night we had some in a dressing for grilled eggplant and zucchini and it was quite good.

i've never really seen it in drinks, but i try not to let that stop me. this is a very simple cocktail that i like to serve in a tall glass with lots of sparkling water - this makes it refreshing and not-too-strong, which is perfect for when it's hot.

which it is. TEXASSSSSSSS

i used tangelo juice, as this tangelo has been lumping and bumping around in the fridge for a while now. oranges or grapefruit would also be good. or maybe meyer lemon, although i don't think it's currently the season for those. something fairly sweet and citrus-y is what you want.

then it's really a 3-2-1 kind of deal - mix 3 tablespoons (aka 1 shot) gin, 2 tablespoons juice, and 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses, then fill the rest of the glass with sparkling water. get out a straw, if you have one, and sip up while trying not to think of going back to work tomorrow.

at least it's a short week! (if, of course, you're in america. if not, you're probably going about your monday as per usual. sorry.)

you can also do a little folderol of citrus zest if you feel fancy.

*ingredients*

1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
2 tablespoons citrus juice (if you want to use lemon or lime, they'd prolly be fine, but you might want to add a little sugar or honey or simple syrup to taste)
3 tablespoons gin (1 shot/1.5 ounces)
sparkling water to fill

listening to: oh god, i love aesop rock so much and was moderately excited about his new album with kimya dawson (of moldy peaches fame-ish), but i tried to listen to it and it was not my thing. for instance, there's a song that just lists a bunch of sandwiches - Turkey! / Montecristo! /  Grilled Cheese! / Meatball! / Liverwurst! / Shrimp Po'boy! / Fluffernutter! / Shawarma! / Reuben! / Cuban! / BLT! / Eggplant parm! / Chicken! and etc. ad infinitum.

gin z'herbes

it's almost 5 on a friday here and after the week we've had in casa livingawesomely, it's not strange that one's thoughts turn to cocktails. 

this one could be celebratory or sorrow-drowning, which not-coincidentally makes it perfect for a week of ups and downs in which i finally got a job (!) and our darling pug maeby had to have emergency surgery to remove the felt furniture floor-protector thing she appears to have eaten (dogs will eat the stupidest things, honestly).

luckily she's fine (staples and sad-face aside), the job will help pay for her $$$ surgery, and i don't start til monday so i can be home with her for a few days as she recuperates. i'm also extremely lucky in that the job is basically my dream position and i will be able to do a lot of good for the community while putting my legal training to good use. so, overall we're ending the week on a high note.

i'm also a bit surprised to note that the ol' herb garden is still going strong. i haven't been doing a lot of cooking over the past couple of days while the pup was in the hospital, so i've been craving green things and freshness. we already had some gin in the freezer and simple syrup (1:1 sugar:water, boil, let cool) in the fridge, so making this was a snap.

i wanted this to be extra-herby and i like a little salad in my drinks, so i just muddled mint (a couple of sprigs each of chocolate mint and orange mint), mexican tarragon, pineapple sage  basil and italian parsley in the glass with about 1 tablespoon of simple syrup. it was maybe 1/4 cup total herbs, not packed down. you can of course use whatever you have handy, but i like a mix of at least a couple of things so you get the variety of flavors - some savory, some less so.

then just add some gin (more or less a shot, depending on your week!) and fill the rest of the glass with sparkling water. you could also use tonic instead, and leave out the simple syrup. but i really like not having other flavors (like bitter quinine) getting in the way of all those herbs. you could also muddle and then strain out the leaves, but as i said, i like the swampy gardeny aspect of it and i enjoy eating the different leaves as i come across them. as ever, go with your lights.

so cheers to everyone surviving this week and let's all cross our fingers that next week and the weeks after that give us some more normal old boring wonderful times to be grateful for.

*ingredients* (roughly)
1/4 cup mixed fresh herbs - mints, thyme, parsley, cilantro, basil, sage - whatever you've got
1-howevermanyyouneed shot(s) gin
1 tablespoon (or to taste) simple syrup
sparkling water to fill the glass

indian summer

and now we've come to the weird interstitial time between summer and fall. here in texas, summer doesn't really give up the ghost until november sometimes, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to get out the scarves and start wearing boots again. this year, however, i'm trying to stop and enjoy whatever weather we actually have, since it's been a few years since i've experienced a texas fall.

the greatest thing about autumn in texas is cold fronts. the air will be still and sticky and you can't believe it's late september and then all of a sudden there's an electrical charge in the air and the wind starts blowing briskly from the north and the temperature drops 20 degrees in 20 minutes. it's very exciting.

this drink kind of reminds me of that, since it's full of summery gin and citrus and warming spicy ginger. it's refreshing, but not too light. the ginger and the use of the rinds of the citrus gives the whole thing some heft that's usually lacking in summer cocktails. thus it's perfect for this weird liminal time when you don't know what kind of weather the day will bring.

basically you probably need a food processor for this. all you do is cut the citrus into medium-sized chunks, cut the ginger into coins, and blend the whole thing up with some sugar. process it for a minute or so or until everything's well-blended.

then put the delicious sludgy mass into some cheesecloth to strain it. gather up the edges of the cloth and bring them together (if you don't have cheesecloth you could use a really fine strainer, probably).

then just squeeze the juices out as hard as you can. it's quite therapeutic. 

mix a little gin and some club soda and a few tablespoons of the citrus-ginger syrup (it's pretty thick and intense, so go with your tastes), and you have a friendly but assertive drink to keep by your side as we wave goodbye to summer and hello to fall.

*ingredients* (syrup for 6 - 8 drinks or so)

1 lime

1 lemon

1 small orange (i would spring for organic on all of these, since the rinds get included in the drink. no one wants a pesticide cocktail)

~3 inches of fresh ginger root

3/4 - 1 cup sugar

gin

club soda or tonic

instead of what i'm listening to, here's something else i wrote: http://thebillfold.com/2012/09/texas-london-texas-portland-texas/

it's about the many (many!) places i've lived over the last few years. also you should probably read the billfold and its friends the awl and the hairpin anyway, because they are good. 

buffalo gals - bourbon with meyer lemon & rosemary

you don't have to call this drink "buffalo gals." you don't have to make it with buffalo trace bourbon, for one thing. making it with a different bourbon would make the name make even less sense than it already does.

also, it isn't just for gals. i don't even ever say "gals," even though i am from texas and some people expect that. although it does have a nice bright floral thing going on with the meyer lemon syrup, this is not a stereotypical girly drink.

this drink means business. or lounging on a sunday afternoon/evening. it is flexible.

although you could just use regular lemon sorry, you really need meyer lemon in here. or maybe something similarly complex, like cocktail citrus or possibly mandarin oranges with lemon juice as well.

anyway, peel the lemon zest in long strips, trying not to get too much white pith. a little is not a big deal, but don't like dig down in there.

sorry, my brain isn't working well. too much studying and not-studying. when i'm stressed out, i like to play stupid games that don't really require you to think that much. things like solitaire and, lately, asteroids. do you know that game? basically you're a little spaceship and you shoot asteroids and flying saucers and try not to get blown up. it's mindless but also vaguely entertaining, even though i am pretty bad at video games. i don't generally play them, since i don't like doing things i'm not good at, but for some reason, asteroids doesn't bother me like that. i guess i just figure that sure, i'm not particularly skilled at shooting space rocks, but that's why i went to law school rather than asteroids school.

i suppose the same could be said for games where you're a spy or whatever, but i've always sort of imagined that i'd be pretty good at being a spy, so i don't like the idea of discovering via video game that i would suck at it.

but anyway.

once you've peeled the lemon (it does take a sharp peeler, as they have very thin skin), add it, a smallish sprig of rosemary or two (see above) and half a cup each of sugar and water to a pan. bring it to a boil, let it boil for ~ 1 minute or so, then turn it off and let it cool.

this is a very simple drink, so you're almost done already.

bourbon. this one's good. there are also other ones.

once the syrup is cooled, mix the juice of 1/3 - 1/2 a meyer lemon, 1 1/2 - 2 ounces bourbon (to taste), and maybe 1 ounce or so (also to taste) of syrup. the amount of syrup you use depends on how sweet you like your drinks. the amount of bourbon you use depends on how bourbon-y you like your drinks.

that's it! stir, add ice, and sit out on the patio and enjoy the spring. i'll just be in here, alternately studying wills & trusts and playing asteroids.

*ingredients* for 2 drinks (you'll have syrup left over)

syrup

peel/zest from one meyer lemon

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

2 smallish sprigs fresh rosemary

drink

2 ounces bourbon (+/-)

juice from 1/2 meyer lemon

~ 1 ounce lemon-rosemary syrup (to taste)

*if you want to make it a little more afternoon-y and a little less Serious Whiskey, add some club soda or sparkling water

listening to: explosions in the sky

adventures in fruit

look! it's a cherimoya! they were on sale at the grocery store, and i've heard that they are also called custard apples, which sounds good.

the lady behind me in line was very complimentary re: my cherimoya-choosing skills until i told her that someone who worked there had picked it out for me. that kind of lowered me in her estimation. but she cheered up when she started telling me about her time in spain where she first tasted the wonders of the cherimoya and apparently ate it for dinner for like two weeks or something. people always like to talk about their travels.

ever since i bought it half an hour ago, i keep thinking the word in my head with different syllables emphasized. CHERimoya. cheriMOYa. cherimoYA. i haven't cut into it yet, but i'm excited. CHERIMOYA!

... later that day ...

so. we ate some cherimoya. you guys, cherimoya is SO WEIRD. at first it tastes like blue cheese (?!), then it changes to tasting all fermenty (??!), then it tastes sweet with a weird background of something savory.

i cannot in all good conscience recommend it, exactly, but it was a taste sensation. it's worth trying, but we could only really eat a few bites of it. very interesting. cherimoya!

luckily i also got some exciting citrus, which was much better. above is a lovely meyer lemon. these are the best ever. they're extremely fragrant and slightly sweet. i use them in cocktails (peel some zest and add it to a martini or add it and some of the juice to a gin & tonic) or things like lemon curd. they're also good with fish - you can slice one into thin rounds and lay it over halibut or something. fantastico!

the other citrus thing i got was called "cocktail citrus" at the store. it's apparently part pomelo and part mandarin. it has a lot of seeds, but i liked the slight bitterness. it was great in a gin & tonic and i could see it being good in some kind of tequila drink as well. time to get some more and do some experimenting.

listening to: red house painters. trying not to think about cherimoya.

that's my jam (whiskey/jam/lemon/ginger ale)

well i wouldn't be a very good part-irish person if i didn't have a drink to make for good old saint patrick's day, to be sure. but i'm not super-into green drinks in general so i'm not going to make some kind of unholy wheatgrass-vodka thing or an equally unholy green beer. i guess you could make this green if you use mint jelly, but it would be disgusting so i can't recommend it.

there are a lot of other colors in ireland besides green, anyway. stone, for instance. and sheep-color. but green does predominate.

irregardless, this is a drink that you can probably make from the things you have sitting around already (aka The Best Kind of Drink). all it takes is roughly equal amounts lemon juice and jam or jelly, mixed vigorously with a fork (or, if you fancy, a whisk). i was lucky to have some very tasty blackcurrant jelly that my wonderful coworker made, but you can use whatever you have around. maybe not grape. but maybe! necessity and invention and all that... then add an appropriately irish amount of whiskey (note the "e") and fill 'er up with ginger ale.

goes down a treat! sláinte!

*ingredients*

1 tablespoon jelly or jam (your choice - i think marmalade would be great, as would raspberry or strawberry)

1 tablespoon (+ or -) lemon juice

an amount of whiskey

ginger ale

listening to: it probably should be the pogues. let's go with that.

(secretly i was listening to clearlake, who are english, but it made me feel too guilty)

kalimotxo - spanish red wine cocktail

it has been Too Long since we talked about cocktails.

this is not due to a dearth of cocktails in my life, so please don't worry your pretty little head about that. there has been a notable lack of new cocktails, though, as mainly i've been sticking to tried'n'true equations such as bourbon + ginger = best. even when we went out to a fancy cocktail place last night i stuck with good old bourbon/ginger. it didn't hurt that they make their own ginger ale and augment it with generous shavings of fresh ginger. that didn't hurt at all.

but sometimes you want to go in another direction, i guess, so today i saw that there was a small amount of red wine that was just sitting around bored and then i remembered that we had coke (normally we don't - we are a proud diet coke family) and - ta da! - kalimotxo! (aka calimocho)

i first had this in spain, at a little bar in barcelona. it was incredibly hot and we'd been walking around forever. the ice-cold red wine and coke served in a cool dark courtyard was just the thing to refresh and revive us for another round of sightseeing.

this is kind of a weird cocktail. it tends to divide tastes. mike, for instance, thinks it's gross. i like it, but it's something i get a craving for maybe once a year. it's probably best in the summer, because it's not-very-alcoholic and is sort of refreshing and i could see taking a pitcher of them to the beach or on a picnic or something.

but here we are in the dead of winter and it's raining somberly and it was still pretty good. so.

making a kalimotxo is dead easy. just mix equalish amounts of red wine and coke and squeeze some lime in! you've just made a cocktail! i didn't have any limes, but lemon worked a treat. you can also leave the citrus out, but i think it adds a lot.

clearly, this is not something in which you want to use your best red wine that you've been saving for a special occasion, but if you have some indifferent and cheap wine and some coke lying around, this is an interesting way to use it. the wine and coke combine to make a beautiful dark ruby-colored drink that is somewhat sweet but has some savory deeper flavors from the tannins in the wine. it may not be an earth-shaking experience, but it's well worth a try.

mix some up, sit back, and pretend you are in beautiful spain, looking out on the mediterranean and thinking about having some jamón, a siesta and going out to dinner at 11 pm.

the above is some vodka that is patiently awaiting its time in the sun. i'm steeping some lemongrass and ginger in it and plan to make something like the cocktail equivalent of tom kha soup. but it still has some sitting around and infusing to do, so it will have to wait. in the meantime, enjoy your coke-and-wine!

listening to: santigold, MIA, more santigold.

sparkling wine & apple sorbet

happy new year! new year's eve at living awesomely headquarters was a very sedate affair, just as i'd hoped. after countless years of going to parties and/or bars for the big night, i found myself wanting most of all to just relax last night.

it was all i'd hoped it would be - mike made migas, we drank a little whiskey and a little champagne sparkling wine à la méthode champenoise and watched movies. at midnight, flame-happy portlanders set off dozens of pretty fireworks and i fell asleep soon after.

if you had a party for new year's, however, you might have ended up with some leftover sparkling wine. perhaps a guest brought some that ended up being sweeter than you'd like for regular drinking, or maybe you got some that looked pretty in the bottle but ended up being way too sugary for your taste.

basically, if you have some sweet sparkling wine lying around (or a sweet still wine would probably work, too), you could do much worse by it than making it into an apple-y refreshing sorbet (it looks very melty in the picture, but it hardens up a little more than that.).

we had this lambrusco languishing in the fridge for a couple of days. it was just too sweet to drink on its own, and i am not one to throw away wine, even if i don't particularly want to drink it. i'm not crazy, after all (and i should note - this was the only goodish light i could find to take this - i'm not just trying to show off our all-black book collection. jealous?).

when i started eating an apple that tasted great but had an unfortunately not-so-crisp texture, it all came together - i decided to try making a wine sorbet with bits of apple and a little splash of cider to tie it all together.

i cut the apple into little bits - they were each about the size of ... hmmm, like a bean? like a few grains of rice stuck together? it's not that big a deal.

once you cut up the apple, it's simplicity itself - just pour the bottle of wine into your ice cream maker along with some cider (the juice kind, not the alcoholic kind. although that could be good... maybe?). i used about a quarter of a cup of some pear cider, as that's what we had on hand, but apple cider is of course fine as well. if the wine you have is on the less-sweet side, use more cider. or you could leave the cider out altogether and just use the wine.

let the ice cream maker do its thing for a while, until the wine looks like a delicious alcoholic slushy. then you can add the apple bits and let it go for another 5 minutes or so. then pack it into a freezer-safe container and let it harden for a few hours. then enjoy!

you probably want to be somewhat careful with this, of course - i wouldn't give it to children, for instance. unless they were being particularly screamy. it might calm them down...

but no. probably still not a good idea. it is basically just frozen wine, after all. delicious, appletastic frozen wine.

i think that a little smidge of rosemary might be a good addition to this as well. we have a huge bush of it, but i didn't think of it in time. also, if your apple is nice and crisp and unmushy, you could cook it down with the rosemary and cider a bit (maybe like 1/4 teaspoon of rosemary - that stuff is strong) and get it cold before adding it to the wine slush. that would be good. next time.

this would be great as a palate cleanser between courses of Fancy Dinner or as a tiny ending to a big meal. you could also eat it with a cheese course, i think. but then, i don't really know from wines OR cheese courses, so follow your lights.

happy holidays to you and yours this season. the sad wreath below was our only real decoration this year (as the animals are prone to climbing, leaping on and/or otherwise wrecking any indoor decorations we might try - they're why we can't have nice things), but it's helpful because now i can just open the door to pick off bits of rosemary. so handy!

*ingredients*

1 bottle sweet sparkling wine or sweet white wine

1 smallish apple (or a pear would be great, too)

1/4-1/2 cup pear or apple cider

it's not really germane to wine slushies or sorbet, but while writing this i've been listening to cat power and i like this song and video. the end.

pear/ginger/lemon/bourbon

i know it's officially been fall for awhile now, but somehow late october is when fall starts seeming real to me. i think partly that's because in texas it's generally ridiculous-hot until then. here in portland, it's been pretty cool for awhile, but over the last couple of weeks the trees have started getting really colorful and the smell of woodsmoke is in the air. that's how you know.

fall has always been my favorite season. in texas, it means you lived through another summer (no small feat). in portland, it means scarves, boots, and brisk walks where you crunch through leaves and can see your breath. then when you get home, you can drink this to warm up!

this drink has a wealth of classic fall flavor - the sweet pear, spicy ginger, and, uh, lemony lemon combine with bourbon to make the perfect pick-me-up après-hike. or après-thrift-shopping. or après-whatever-you-like-to-do-on-a-saturday.

plus, you can make a batch ahead of time and then if people drop by unexpectedly, you can nonchalantly be like, "oh, would you like a fancy cocktail? i just whipped this up, no biggie." and they will be all, "wow, you are the fanciest!" and you will smile demurely and pass the cheese straws.

anyway. ginger:
you definitely want some fresh ginger for this. i use a spoon to scrape the papery skin off and then just slice it up (probably not with the spoon, unless it is one of those weird grapefruit ones). it doesn't really matter how thick they are, but think coins, rather than chunks.

i leave the skin on the pear and slice it from the top, also into coins. but you can totes slice it into wedges or whatever. i just think the extra surface area of the coins makes it easier to get it infused into the bourbon (yeah, that's where this is going). but follow your bliss.

then just put the pear and ginger into a thingy, add some strips of lemon rind (you can use a vegetable peeler or knife - just avoid the white pith part) smash them a few times with a wooden spoon to get the oils and whatever started, and add some bourbon.

i ended up using about a cup or so of bourbon, one small pear, maybe an inch and a half or two inches of a thinnish ginger root, and about 1/4 or 1/3 of a lemon's rind. then just cover it and let it sit for awhile. it doesn't have to be too long, but i would leave it for at least a few hours. overnight would be good as well.

then you can strain it, put some in a glass, maybe add some lemon juice if you aren't a fan of the sweetz, top it off with ginger ale or (preferably) ginger beer (it's stronger and much more gingery) and ice, and add a sliver of pear if you want to feel super-fancy. you could also use rye or another kind of whiskey or maybe even dark rum. hooray for fall!

*ingredients* for a number of drinks (4? 6? it depends on how much bourbon you want in yours)

1 small ripe pear

1 1/2-2 inches of ginger root, cut in coins

peel from 1/4-1/3 lemon

1 cup (+/-) bourbon

ginger ale/ginger beer

lemon juice, to taste

cherry/lime/ginger/bourbon

wow, it's been more than a month since i featured a cocktail recipe.

lest you be concerned, this in no way relates to the frequency of my cocktail-drinking. that is still going on, but i've been sticking mainly to classics; namely, the gin + tonic. i haven't even been making my own elderflower gin cocktail. what can i say? i don't think g+ts can really be improved upon too much as far as balance and tastiness.

that being said, woman cannot survive august's heat on gin alone. this past weekend, portland's temperature got up past 90 degrees for the first. time. all. summer.

let us (particularly those from warmer climes) pause and marvel at that for a minute. i still can't believe it myself. being from texas, i am used to 90 degree days in march. to pass the bulk of the summer in cooler temperatures is nothing short of a miracle to me.

that being said, i think my blood has thickened or something, because it felt really hot in our house. even the dogs were moping around everywhere searching for somewhere cooler to flop. this drink was a great help in the general cooling-down effort (note: we did not give cocktails to the dogs).

it combines fresh (or you could use frozen) muddled cherries with lime juice, ginger beer, and bourbon. when you sip it, you feel immediately as though you're in jamaica or something. although i've never been to jamaica myself, i assume that's due to the ginger beer and the relaxation that washes over you as you drink up.

cut the cherries in half (maybe 4-5 per drink) and remove the pits (if you don't much care for your guests, leave the pits in for a nice surprise!). add the juice from a quarter of a lime and smash them together with a muddler or a wooden spoon or something like that. add bourbon and ice and fill the rest of the glass with ginger beer. you could use ginger ale instead, but ginger beer is way more gingery and delicious. it makes ginger ale look like sprite in comparison. and sprite is really not what you want for this drink. if you can't find ginger beer, you could use ginger ale and some fresh ginger, muddling the fresh ginger with the cherries.

whatever you do, make this soon. it is extremely refreshing and may just usurp gin + tonics for the all-too-brief bit of summer we have left. i am thinking of calling it "the chillax" - ask for it by name!

*ingredients*

4-5 cherries

juice from 1/4 lime

bourbon

1/2 or so bottle of ginger beer

lots of ice

*after you finish the drink, make sure to eat the gingery bourbon-y cherries - they're perhaps the best part.