Spiced Cider

As the days turn colder and the season barrels full-speed toward Christmas, you may want something warm to drink after a hard day of playing in the snow, cutting down a Christmas tree, or napping on the couch. Enter: hot spiced cider!

 First, you'll need apple juice, preferably something with such an ingredient list as: "Apples, water." (I.e. not from a can.)

Pour your apple juice into a saucepan and add the following spices:

Cinnamon sticks

Whole cloves

Freshly grated nutmeg

And a dash of cardamom. Go easy on this stuff; it's a potent flavor.

Then, just turn on a low heat and let the cider heat up and steep, infusing all those holiday flavors into your cider as well as kitchen and the entirety of your oddly shaped long apartment. For a holiday party, pour into a Crockpot on low to keep it warm. Just remember to fish out the cloves and cinnamon before serving! A clove is not a sufficient snack.
Spirits, such as AppleJack, rum or Buttershots, added to the cider make it especially festive.

Merry ChrisKwanzaaKuh!

Farmers' Market Fresh: In My Glass

One of my favorite cocktails as of late is the Strawberry Royale from one of my favorite Happy Hours as of late. Blue Hill is within walking distance of our house, and they have a lovely outdoor patio with great specials, so what's not to love? 

I wanted to recreate this drink at home, so when Cookie Monster and I picked up a pint of fresh strawberries at the farmers' market, I did. 

I muddled 3-4 strawberries with one shot of vodka, then dumped into a champagne glass. Then I simply filled the rest with sparkling wine. Voila! It was a pretty good replication, especially with the fresh berries.

A lovely happy hour cocktail, or something delicious for Sunday brunch.

Tres Chic Salad

I was craving something light yet filling on one of our most recent 71-degree days. Though they were short-lived, they were certainly welcome springtime days, and they made me long for my quaint little patio deck, shaded by an ancient, enormous tree, where I would set up the hammock and nap in the lulling summer air. It was also the site of many a dinner al fresco.

I didn't want anything heavy for dinner, so I made a light yet still filling salad. Very French. Also inspiring the salad was an orange that needed to be eaten. These oranges are from our gentle neighbor to the south, the Sunshine State. SoSo good! I could not let it go to waste.

So, into this salad went:

*A bed of romaine lettuce (I would've preferred spinach or other mixed greens, but we were out)

*Aforementioned delicious, juicy orange segments

*Garbanzo beans

*Dried cranberries

*Chopped pecans

*Bleu cheese

*A homemade vinaigrette of honey mustard, lemon juice, S&P and a little olive oil

 So, as you can see, this salad is light, yet still calorically dense enough to satiate your appetite for dinner. I served it with a piece of leftover homemade Irish soda bread (exactly the same recipe I made last year) spread with a little of my mother-in-law's todiefor homemade jam.

And normally, on a weeknight, I don't drink wine. But this tres chic Frenchy salad, along with the 70-degree weather, just begged for a nice, crisp glass of Pinot grigio.

I picked this up for $6.99 I think, and it was really good. Especially alongside the salad!

I poured myself a small glass, taking a page from my previous post by paying homage yet again to another fabulous thing from my home state in my choice of drinking vessel. 

Especially for one of the first warm springtime days after a winter of a record-breaking 54 inches of snow, this was a tres chic and delightful dinner.

Just wish I could've enjoyed it on my patio.

Irish I Were Drinking Coffee!

A certain Irish holiday just passed, and just before said holiday, it was a bit cold here. So, with the inspiration of the Irish, Cookie Monster and I made some delicious coffee. With a hint o' the Emerald Isle. 

Enter the cast of characters: 

*French press Stumptown coffee (some of the very best you can get)

*Irish cream

*Jameson Irish whiskey

*Whipped cream

Pour the whiskey. Notice the measuring device? Actually purchased in Ireland!

Then the coffee. Pay homage to your home state in drinking vessel (optional).

Next, the Irish cream. 

Concede the camera to your husband, who will randomly take pictures of your butt.

Admonish husband for taking said butt photos and resume camera duties. Yes, there are more. No, they will not be published.

Top Irish coffee with whipped cream.

Admonish husband again for sucking down copious amounts of whipped cream directly from can into mouth. Laugh at his slight propellant high from said sucking down of whipped cream.

Delight in a delicious, warming beverage. Slainte!

Snowpocalypse 2010 II: The Sequel

More snow. Lots of snow.

Check out the crazy icicles.

I swear, there's a car under there somewhere. . .

 

And here's a good thing to survive Snowpocalypse 2010 II: The Sequel:

Caramel AppleTini

Cookie Monster had a frustrating day at work yesterday, so I made him a cocktail when he got home. It's particularly fall-ish and, unlike most of my previous bartending endeavors, it didn't suck! It was really tasty, actually. Here is the "recipe." Make one tonight and celebrate the crisp weather and impending rainy days.

Caramel AppleTini

1.5 shots vodka

.5 shot Buttershots (butterscotch liqueur)

2 shots spiced apple cider

Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake ya' booty for awhile, then strain into pretty martini glass (while being grateful said extremely fragile glass did not break in its 3,000 mile trek across the country in a large metal box). Garnish with an apple slice.

Ta-da!

Cinco de Mayo

I made a lovely, delectable feast for Cinco de Mayo. 'Cuz, you know, we white people take any excuse to celebrate a holiday involving foreign cuisine and traditions. Ole!
It included taco salads: sauteed vegetables and pinto beans over romaine lettuce, topped with salsa, avocado and sour cream for me. With a tortilla on the side, it was really delicious. Unfortunately, I have two pictures of the cuisine prepared that night. The first may explain to you why this occurred:

After *cough, cough, ahem* three of these, the only picture I remembered to take was the flan after coming out of the oven--here it is cooling before I inverted it.
This was my first venture at making homemade flan, and I gotta say, it turned out awesome. The recipe was really simple; it was mostly inactive time.

This flan kicked burro. I certainly did not eat almost half of this container. Nope. That is not something I would do after three margaritas.
*burp*

Here is the recipe, in case anyone's still reading. I don't even think my mom reads anymore. But just in case, Hi Mom!

Caramel Flan
Recipe courtesy of Eagle Brand
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 3/4 cups water
1 14 oz. can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (mine actually came from Mexico!)
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°. In heavy skillet over medium-low heat, cook sugar, stirring constantly until melted and caramel colored. Pour into 9-inch round dish or baking pan, tilting to coat bottom thoroughly (you want to do this quickly, as the sugar starts to harden right away).
In a medium bowl, beat eggs; stir in water, condensed milk, vanilla and salt. Pour over caramelized sugar. Set dish in larger cooking vessel and fill larger pan with 1 inch of water. (This is what's known as a water bath. I know you're thrilled by this knowledge. We here at ChezVCK are here to inform.)
Bake 55 to 60 minutes or until center is just set (mixture will still jiggle). (I found this took more like 70 minutes.) Move smaller dish to wire rack, cool for one hour. (You better believe I stuck this in the freezer to cool so I could eat it sooner.)
To unmold, run a knife around edge and invert onto serving platter. Proclaim Ole!

Shaken, Not Stirred

But James would not approve: it's gin, not vodka.

Slainte! Happy St. Patty's Day!

A certain festive holiday was recently celebrated by many. This holiday is mainly an excuse for anyone of the Caucasian persuasion to adopt a foreign heritage, drink a bunch of beer and then vomitously pass out. I think I have some Irish in me somewhere (my surname is actually really common in present-day Ireland) but count myself among the people who find it really annoying when people say "Oh sure! I'm [insert nationality with which one may be loosely associated]" when it's convenient. So, really, I'm an American mutt with distant ties to the land o' green, along with several other countries in the vicinity whose descendants have no need whatsoever for any melanin in their skin. Seriously, I am freakin' white.

But that sure doesn't mean I don't like to join in the Americanized bastardization of said holiday. So bring on the beer! This is Guinness (what else?) but in a Carlsberg glass that is actually from Ireland.

Seriously. I stole it from a pub in Galway. Sadly, my beloved Bulmer's, one of the Best Drinking Substances in the History of the World, is not sold in the state of Oregon, so I had to do without. Woe is me.

Here is my special St. Patrick's Day shirt that I made myself about six years ago. Awww... ... So... sweet?
Into my Crock pot went about 2.5 pounds of Corned Beef, along with the corning liquid and about half a Guinness, and 9 hours later, here is what it looked like.

And, because I am apparently in fifth grade, I had some fun with me onions and me parsnip. It was a very large parsnip. Tee hee!

Here it is, along with some cabbage and celeriac.

For dessert following my Irish feast, I opted for Guinness gingerbread cupcakes.

They really had Guinness in them! Cupcake recipe at the end of the post.

Here they are, ready to get baked! Ha! Stoner cupcakes!
And here they are fully cooked, but still naked. Not unlike many St. Patrick's Day revelers.

Wanting to take in the full cheesiness of the holiday, I dyed some beer green.

And then I drank it. And it was good.

Fully clothed cupcakes!

They are frosted with Irish cream cream cheese frosting. And a green mini M&M for good measure.

Also, I baked some authentic Irish soda bread.

Like this website will tell you, real Irish soda bread does not contain nuts, seeds, raisins, candies, sugar or any other shit. It has four ingredients: flour, baking soda, buttermilk, salt. The end. It is ridiculously easy to make and is hella good with just butter. Or some Irish cheddar. Or butter and Irish cheddar.

I roasted the root vegetables in the oven, then stir-fried the cabbage and onions together.

See my corned beef? I could've cut it with a spoon. That's why Crock pots are lovely inventions. It's really hard to fuck something up in the Crock pot.

Cookie Monster attempted to make gravy from the corning liquid by boiling it and adding flour directly to it. This resulted in some lovely floaters on top of the liquid that looked and tasted gross. But since they were whole, they could easily be fished out, and we settled for a more viscous "gravy."

All together! (Oh yeah, I mashed some potatoes too). Soda bread, mashed potatoes, root vegetables, corned beef!


Slainte! (That's "cheers" in Gaelic. It is pronounced slon-chuh. Don't ask me why.)

As promised, here is the recipe for the Guinness gingerbread. If you're still reading, you get a gold star! I got this from ye old Internets, and I have no fucking clue from where. So if you own this recipe, you can have the credit.

2/3 cup (160 ml) Guinness Stout

2 cups (240 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1-1/4 teaspoons baking soda

2-1/4 teaspoons ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper (I didn't have any of this and just left it out)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 large eggs

1/2 cup (88 g) granulated sugar

1/3 cup (37 g) firmly packed dark brown sugar

2/3 cup (160 ml) molasses

3/4 cup (180 ml) canola oil (I used applesauce instead)

Place rack in center of the oven and preheat to 350° F. In the microwave, warm the Guinness Stout in the glass measuring cup, or you can warm it on the stove in a small sauce pan. Bring just to a simmer then remove from heat. (This seems like a really pointless step. I would leave it out next time.) In the medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, ginger, white pepper, and cinnamon. In the large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and molasses until smooth. Add the canola oil and whisk until thoroughly combined. Add the dry ingredients alternating with the beer (dry, beer, dry, beer, dry). Whisk as you add, then mix at the end just until combined. (Phhhhtttttt. This is too fussy. I just dumped dry into wet.) Do not overmix. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Place cake pan on a wire rack to cool. (I made cupcakes, and they baked for about 25 minutes or so).

Irish Cream Cream Cheese Frosting a la VCK
I softened a block of cream cheese overnight on the counter, then simply added powdered sugar and Irish cream to taste, until it was sweet enough to frost cupcakes (but not too sweet). I would say I used probably 1.5-2 cups of powdered sugar and maybe 3/4 cup Irish cream? I used this kind of Irish cream. Cookie Monster bought it because of the whimsical name. Fucking adorable, right?

Sun Tea(se)

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we don't see a lot of sun between the months of October and April. Now, usually this doesn't really bother me. I'm a true Oregonian--I like the rain. But lemme tell ya, when it's the middle of March and it's fucking SNOWING, it doesn't make me happy. In March I'm ready for chirping birds, flowers in my yard, warmer air and a visit now and then from that magic, bright orange thing in the sky. I think people in other parts of the world call it sun.

About two weeks ago, we got a huge tease from summer. It was nearly 80 degrees. The sun was out, birds were chirping, there were flowers in my yard and it was warm. Hot, even, since if you can't remember what warm air feels like, anything over 60 feels like a heat wave. Now, of course, it's back to rainy with highs of 60, if we're lucky. Summer descended upon us, teased us, then vanished. That fucker.

To celebrate the loveliness that was this day, Cookie Monster and I loaded up a truckful of dirt (for our garden) and did some manual labor around the yard. For post-yardwork refreshment, I decided to make some sun tea.

I put a family-sized tea bag into a pitcher, along with a regular-sized raspberry tea bag. See? See the reflections and the color? That's from sun!

Then I just filled up the pitcher with water and left it in the sun for about two hours. Here's how it turned out. Pretty! And delicious.

The magic ingredient was sunshine.

My favorite Beer

So here we have my favorite beer to date: It's Rogue Chocolate Stout. Normally I'm a lighter beer kinda gal, like a Hefeweizen or something in that realm. I really don't dig IPAs--the hops are too intense a flavor and after 2-3 sips, all you can taste is HOPS. And I like other flavors in my beer.

Rogue Chocolate Stout is really dark and yet I still like it. It's very rich and it's very chocolately. Cookie Monster dislikes it, actually, because it has too much chocolate flavor. But what's not to like? It's chocolate. And beer. Together. A match made in Heaven!


Of course, my Rogue Chocolate Stout is no Bulmer's, but then I live absolutely nowhere near Ireland or the UK, so I'm SOL on that.

I love beer. Beer-y beer beer.