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

honey/brown butter/bourbon-glazed carrots with crispy sage

omg you guys, thanksgiving is just around the corner! luckily, we at chez living awesomely are part of the best thanksgiving tradition ever - a group of food- and drink-loving pals gets together every year to try to out-dazzle each other with tastiness.

potluck is totally the way to go for thanksgiving, by the way - you get to taste different people's traditional family dishes and bring your own favorites, ensuring that it's never boring and that no one has to do everything (only to become bitter when guests don't fully appreciate the work that went into the puff pastry swan placecard holders that took 17 hours to make).

in that spirit, this is an easy and quick little side dish that would be more than welcome at any holiday gathering (or a regular old weekday dinner - it only takes like 15 minutes). sage, carrots, brown butter, honey, bourbon - what could be more autumnally appropriate? nothin', that's what!

first, peel the carrots. or don't. i prefer them peeled, and if you have a good peeler it doesn't take long. you also get all the joy of watching your dogs fall over themselves to grab up the peelings, never realizing that they have like 10 stuck in their fur at any given time. let the hilarity ensue!

you can cut them up however you like, although personally i find discs to be rather kansas-city-split-level-1987, but maybe that's just me. i was going to do this faux tourné cut, but apparently i lack the basic sense of spatial relationships that this requires, so i just made ~45 degree cuts facing alternate ways down each carrot. does that make sense? the picture above is meant to demonstrate this, but you could always try the other way (particularly if your parents acceded to childhood demands for a video game system - that might give you better hand-eye coordination than i ended up with).

once they are all cut up in whatever way you figure out for yourself, heat 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat in a pan big enough for all of the carrots. once the butter melts, add some small sage leaves, stirring a little to make sure they aren't sticking together. this isn't an absolute requirement, and i think the carrots would still be good without it, but the little crispy sage leaves are really pretty delicious and provide a nice counterpoint at the end.

my sage leaves got crispy just as the butter was starting to brown, which was rather perfect. you may remember brown butter from such desserts as brown butter cherry berry clafoutis. it is a delicious marvel in everything it touches, and these carrots are no exception. it adds just the right nuttiness to bring out the sweetness of the carrots and honey.

so when the butter browns and the sage leaves crisp, remove the leaves and set them aside on a paper towel or something. then add the carrots, 1 tablespoon or a little more of honey, 1 tablespoon (or more) of bourbon, a cup of water, and some salt and pepper. you don't want to totally overdo it on the salt at this point, since the water will be evaporating and might make it too salty. i put in probably less than a teaspoon. i also put some more sage in - another 5 or so leaves.

then you turn the heat to high, cover the pan, and cook those beauties on up - it only takes 10 minutes or so. stir it pretty frequently - every couple of minutes is probably a good rule of thumb. you might have to kind of see what works for you with the lid - basically you want the water to evaporate enough to make a glaze and the carrots to cook through all at the same time.

once the carrots are done enough for your taste (mine were in fairly large chunks and took 12 minutes), take them off the heat and add a couple of teaspoons or so of lemon juice and some more salt, if it needs it. this'll brighten the whole thing up.

when you're ready to eat these, sprinkle them with the fried sage leaves - they add crunch and a lightly sage-y buttery flavor that brings it all together into a perfect distillation of the holidays.

*ingredients*

~ 1 1/2 pounds carrots (~5 large)

2 tablespoons butter

10 or so sage leaves

1 tablespoon honey (+)

1 tablespoon bourbon (+)

1 cup water

2 teaspoons lemon juice

salt & pepper

other good thanksgiving dishes:

mike's famous pecan/chocolate/bourbon pie

spicy carrot cake

sweet & spicy roasted squash

the best kale salad

also, pretty much any cocktail here would be good, particularly pear/ginger/lemon/bourbon. word on the street is that we will be having some kind of pear/rosemary/prosecco concoction at our festivities. i am All Sorts of excited.

pineapple-sage gin and tonic

say hello to an easy and delicious way to fancy up a classic g&t!

sage and pineapple go together amazingly well. the effect is a heady mix of tropicalia and some herby bitterness from the sage. with the sweetness and bitterness of tonic and the herbal juniper notes of gin, this is a great go-to for summer tipples on the patio.

in whatever glass you have handy, muddle 3-4 chunks of fresh pineapple with 3-5 fresh sage leaves (depending on how big they are and how much you like sage).

if you have a real muddler, so much the better, but a wooden spoon or its handle also works. just make sure to get them nice and smooshed and the sage bruised up so that its oils get all mixed in with the pineapple.

pour in a healthy glug of gin (a nice clean-tasting gin works best - you don't need anything too fancy or something like hendrick's which, while tasty, is expensive and has flavors of rose and stuff, which is unnecessary here).

add tonic (fancy tonics like Q or fever tree would be great, since they use real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, but something like schweppes is totally fine and is usually what i use, because i am poor).

add ice and perhaps a straw so you don't end up slurping some sage leaves (although personally i don't mind that).

drink up! repeat as needed.