The Experiment

 Actually I have to qualify this post, I wrote it about a year ago as a guest post for another blog... When I wrote it I just put a random date on it in my blog.  I just noticed that the date is here!   which is cool, I like this one, read on...

Most weekend mornings I am the first human to wake in our house.  I putter around the kitchen with my cup of coffee and get ready for the day.  Usually I do the dishes and clean the kitchen a bit in the morning, the kitchen is really my area.  This Saturday morning I was exhausted... I slept in until almost 7:00 before I stared my day.  I got up and checked my blog then made a pot of Coffee and started cleaning off the counter while watching Food Network and loading the dishwasher.

Since I woke up a little late this day everybody was in various stages of being awake and active.  Miss Lu came into the kitchen and asked for a bowl, a big one.  Requests like this always scare me a bit especially when they are immediately followed by a request for a bottle of water.  I let it go this time and started to load the dish washer I put in three pieces of flatware and one sippy cup then it starts:

Miss Lu: Can I get some apple juice?
Bryan: you asked for a bowl and water... now Juice what are you doing?
Miss Lu: A food experiment, duh! can I get some juice?
Bryan: Ok, here you are.

Then I loaded another couple of dishes and found Miss Lu getting the pitcher of pink lemonade out of the the  refrigerator.  Again the question comes up..

Bryan: A food experiment? Where are you working? and why the lemonade?
Miss Lu: I'm at the table, it is really a drink experiment.

Then I go through the house  to figure out which table she was using, Kris stopped me and reminded me that she wasn't doing anything different that what I do... experimenting with food.  I said that I was just worried that she has water, lemonade and a big bowl and all this can lead to a heck of a mess.  Then Kris said, "sometimes you make a mess."  She is right, well except the word "sometimes" should be "usually."

So Miss Lu walked in and out of the kitchen for the next few minutes and got some V-8 Splash, Fruit punch mix, more water. I managed to keep my mouth shut even when she asked me for 2 glasses.  While I was getting those she grabbed a bag of marshmallows and ran.  By the time I got the dishwasher loaded she and Mr.Man, as kids will do, were on to other things.  It wasn't until about an hour later that I found her experiment... created on the baby doll changing table... duh Dad!

Does it look familiar?

Not quite.. Maybe

Nope here it is, can I just say "apple... tree... how far?"

Oh this one is added for fun... about a year ago I went to Wisconsin to see Miss El and MS R. in a play... While I was gone Miss Lu missed me so much that she drew a Martini for me.  I keep it up on my office wall!

Oh, you know that a recipe follows...

My Holloween Martini

Juice from half an Orange

2 1/2 oz of Black Strap Rum

1 tsp blood Orange Bitters

Ice

Splash of sprite

Mix the first three ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake well then pour into your skull and crossbones Martini glass.  Top with a splash of sprite and garnish with an orange wedge, best served next to a pumpkin.  Happy Halloween everybody!

Coffee Martini!

Tomorrow we embark our first ever family vacation Kris, Miss Lu, Mr Man, Miss El and I will be piling into a car and making the 9 hour trek to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  We have mess of activities planned including a shipwreck tour of Lake Superior but biggest on my list though is a course in pasty making from the master, Kris' mother...

Since we both work and have only been picking at the pre-vacation list we have quite a bit to do today and probability just a little bit of stress.  I have the potion to get through the day though.  It started about a week ago I read an article on Coffee Infused Vodka...

OK if you follow this at all you know I was obsessed. 

The Vodka was easy
2-3 TBS whole bean coffee
1 tsp Sugar
2 Cups Vodka
Smash up the coffee beans between two spoons put that into a bottle add the sugar then the two cups of Vodka.  Cover and set aside.

Two things to note here:

1. Everything I read said that the sugar is necessary, then offered some explanations that involved chemistry, instead of reading a whole lot about it i just trusted them.
2.  When it comes to infusing the vodka I read everything from setting it on the counter for 6 hours to in the freezer for 8 days.  I left my bottle on the counter overnight the tossed it in the freezer for a couple of days then back on the counter for another overnight.

After it was ready  (by ready I mean smelled like coffee) I strained it through a coffee filter.

For the Coffee Martini
3 oz Coffee Infused Vodka
1 oz chocolate Liqueur
Sweetened Condensed Milk (as a garnish)

Poor a light stream of sweetened condensed milk into you martini glass then drop in a couple of coffee beans as a garnish.  Pour your Coffee Vodka and Chocolate Liqueur into a shaker with plenty of ice shake and serve.

This odd little concoction really did it!  It is like all of my favorites mixed together and and served up cold!  Plus on a so many levels it gets me ready to face the day.

S'more Martini

These are the situations that only happen to Kris and me... A couple of weeks ago we had Mr. Man's preschool parent teacher conference. His teacher is almost exactly what you would expect as a leader of 4-5 year old children, very nice, a little loud and just bursting with energy. Kris and I both like her; she takes great care of Mr. Man and overall seems like a good person. Our parent teacher conference went from her telling us how well Mr. Man is doing, he is ready for Kindergarten by the way, to how his academic performance has improved over the past year, and we talked a lot about his social interactions. As the conference started to wind down we were all starting to get a little silly, we were the last one of the day. So as we were heading to the parking lot Kris had said something to MS D. about going out some evening after Mr. Man was out of her class and a few weeks into Kindergarten.


Then MS D. showed us a picture of a drink she had a few days earlier, a S'More Martini. Kris gave me the look and I knew that I was going to be figuring out a new drink. You all know that I enjoy gaining new knowledge… OK you have probably figured out that I like the chance to drink more than I should and call it a learning experience. I tried a few, but as I am pretty sure I have mentioned in the past, you only get maybe 2 attempts at a Martini recipe in a day, after that the taste buds just aren’t as sensitive as you need them.

After a few attempts I came down to this one
3 oz Vodka
1 ½ oz Chocolate Liquor
Marshmallow Cream
Graham Cracker Crumbs
Mini marshmallows on a skewer

Take the marshmallow cream and spread it around the rim of a martini glass I spread it on the top quarter of an inch inside and out, then roll it in the graham cracker crumbs. Put your vodka and chocolate liquor over ice in a cocktail shaker and shake until chilled. Toast your mini marshmallows over the stove top until slightly burned. Pour the chocolaty goodness into your martini glass, garnish with toasted marshmallows. This exact one is below.

How did that go over? I liked it, for Kris it was a bit much… Martinis can be a bit much if you don’t have them often. So I wend back to the drawing board (see the sacrifices that I make). Actually one simple addition made it. Put the vodka and chocolate liquor into your shaker then add a good tablespoon of marshmallow cream and mix with a stick blender (or mix in a blender I suppose) then add ice and shake, every thing else is the same. That is the one pictured at the top of the page, defiantly sweeter and smoother than by original.

Caprese Martini

It has been a heck of a few days at work again, I am beginning to think that it will never calm down.  Well that isn't unexpected business usually picks up this time of year and keeps going until the holidays are past so I imagine things will continue to get busier.  I can handle it though I have a new secret weapon ...

If you follow this blog you know that I have spent a fair amount of time this summer messing with my hooch.  Infusing vodka has been quite a bit of fun.  I have learned a couple of things too.  First, vodka can take on flavors of many fruits, vegetables and aromatics.  Second, you only get to try a new martini recipe once (maybe twice) in a day then the experiment gets a out of hand.  This one is by far my favorite from the summer! I started with basil infused vodka.

The vodka was easy, about 2 cups of vodka with a good stem of basil (7 or 8 leaves) let them "steep" for 3 or 4 days.  Once that is ready you just need set it up. Take about a third of a cup of your basil infused vodka, a splash of dry vermouth and a splash of lemon juice and put them into a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice.
shake away and pour into a martini glass.  I took a couple of grape tomatoes and put them on a bamboo skewer then froze them to use as a garnish, along with a sprig of fresh basil.  That is all there is to it, this one tastes like summer in a glass.

Come home from the crappiest  day of work and shake this baby up and you can relax a bit, at least until the kiddos start the yelling.

Bluberry Vodka

I have been looking at my posts for the summer and the two things that seem to be getting a heck of a work out are my martini glasses and pork tenderloin.  I am sitting here on my day off thinking of what to blog about and all I seem to have ready is a martini and a smoked pork tenderloin recipe.  I have plans to start some other things today but I am so busy...  My plans today include:

Take the kiddos to daycare

Go to Menards

Watch The Next Food Network Star and a 43 year old episode of Star Trek

Eat lunch with my beautiful wife

Get some stuff together for another blog post

Go to the grocery store

Lay in the pool reading with a drink in my hand

Pick up kiddos and make dinner

As you can see my day is full, my thinking is blog about the Martini today then when I am working this weekend take a few minutes of slacker time and post about the Pork Tenderloin, I know the meat comes up a lot, but this the best one that I have done in a while so come back in a couple of days!

This particular drink starts a few weeks ago I made a Green Tea, Mint and Rum drink and a Blogger Friend of mine (I hope that I can call you that) TKW said something along the lines of "I love the way that you take something like green tea, loaded with antioxidants then add hooch to it."  I was joking about her comment at work one day and a Dietitian friend of mine mentioned that Blueberries were filled with antioxidants too.  So I think that it would be perfectly reasonable to say the the following recipe is both Chef and Dietitian approved (maybe without their consent).

Actually after my mind was made up about how healthy this drink would be, this drink was a few weeks in the making.  I started infusing my vodka with blueberries right before my trip to the Surgeon.  Oddly for about three weeks after abdominal surgery I didn't feel like drinking much.  When I found myself, for the most part, recovered I pulled this bottle out of the cupboard and mixed it up.  Here is how it goes.

Mix about a half cup of fresh blueberries and 16 oz of Vodka in a bottle then let them steep for a month until it is a beautiful pinkish purple color, hopefully without a trip to the hospital, but if that is what it takes to keep you out of the hooch then you may have to.

This is the simplest part pour it into a cocktail shaker with some ice and a splash of triple sec then shake.  Garnish with a lemon peel and there you have it.  This is a very sturdy drink, mostly vodka, remember that as you savor the fruity taste, one may be enough, two if you aren't driving... Three will lets just not go there.

Here it is made with Blue Curacao

Greentini or maybe Greenteane

Ok a few days ago I posted a recipe for a green tea and rum cocktail... it is a really good beverage for a summer afternoon, imagine laying on an Adirondack chair and slowly drinking this.  After I posted this a good blogger friend of mine TKW mentioned how she appreciated me taking something full of antioxidants and adding rum to it. 

Then my brain started going...What if?  

I have infused Vodka with different flavors before but I have never done this.  Here is, the base... Green tea and mint infused Vodka:

12 oz Vodka

1 1/2 green tea bags broken open

1 big sprig of mint (about 10 leaves)

put these into a bottle together and shake up and let it sit in your cupboard for 24 hours or so.

When it is all green and tasty you have your Vodka ready, pour that through a paper towel in a strainer and what you have left is essence of green tea vodka

Now my drinking friend here is where it gets cool!  Take about a half cup of your infused vodka and pour it into a cocktail shaker with a good amount of ice a Tablespoon of simple syrup and shake.  Put this elixir into a martini class and garnish with a sprig of mint.  Now if you follow this blog you probability know that I have been known to imbibe a bit of drink sometimes but I have to say that this one knocked me on by butt... wow!  Bright, minty and an icy smack of sunshine in a cocktail glass.

Cocktails for the Cookout

My lovely bride and I both had kind of hard weeks this week which got me thinking about a Friday afternoon cocktail. It is spring bordering on summer so a Martini is the first thing that I think of. It seems like only a few years ago the Martini stopped being an"Old Man" beverage (think Manhattan or Old Fashion people make fun of me when I order these). In recent years Martinis have become trendy again. Since it is almost Memorial day I thought I would do Red, White and Blue Martinis. Mix them for your guests as they arrive for the cookout or make them up ahead and keep in the refrigerator. All of these are made with Vodka because I never did learn to like Gin. I use a Cocktail Shaker because I like to. Some people say there is a difference between shaken and stirred Gin Martinis but I can't tell.

White is simple I use a "Dirty Martini" because I like them.

3 oz Vodka

Splash of Dry Vermouth about 1/2 oz

Splash of Olive Brine

Put all ingredients into a shaker with a generous amount of ice cover and shake. Poor into a Martini Glass and garnish with a few olives.

Red is the new classic "Cosmo"

2 oz Vodka

1 oz Triple Sec

1 oz Cranberry juice

a splash of lemon or lime juice

Put all ingredients into the shaker with ice, Shake and Poor into a Martini Glass and Garnish with a Lemon zest. Sometimes I add a little Grenadine to intensify the color.

The Blue one doesn't have a name that I know of so call it what you like:

3 oz Vodka

1 oz Blue Curacao

Splash of Lemon or lime juice

Again Shake, Strain and Serve ice cold usually I garnish this with a Lemon zest too.

I have to say that Martinis, especially the sweet ones can get away from you, if you know what I mean. Be sure to eat well while you are enjoying them (I will have some cookout recipes later this week) and drink lots of water. Wow I never thought I would lecture about that!