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.

Hot Buttered Rum

Wow it has been a great holiday!  My now 12 year old, Miss El, came to visit for the week between Christmas and New Year so we are hanging out...  We have an unusual amount of snow for this time of year, I have mentioned before that around our neighborhood we are kind of renowned... maybe infamous for our snow antics strange snow creatures come up often.  The four of us decided to go at snow painting this time.  Just some spray bottles from Walgreens, food coloring and water and away we went.

We hit the neighbor's bush

Made a driveway beacon (no missing the turn now)

and some random spots on the lawn...

But it was COLD out so we didn't get as much done as we wanted,  we weenied out one at a time, until I was standing in the yard with four spray bottles of colored water which is, face it is kind of weird.

That was OK though I had a special treat on the stove for me and some hot chocolate for my under 21 teammates.  Hot buttered rum was going for me, one of those drinks that soothes you from the inside and just makes the evening warm.

Makes two servings
1/2 cup apple Cidar
1/2 water
2 TBS brown sugar
2 TBS unsalted butter
3-4 whole cloves
1/8 tsp (isn't that a big pinch) of cinnamon or 1/2 a cinnamon stick
small pinch of salt
1/2 cup dark rum

Heat all of the ingredients in a small saucepan until it starts to simmer then serve.

Are you serious?

I am going to blog on a slightly different subject than I usually do but stick with me for a little bit I promise to bring it around in the end, today I am going to talk about cars, specifically ones that I have owned. These days I drive a Toyota Rav4 I really love the way it feels to drive; it is comfortable, has air conditioning that works the sound system is great, good gas mileage I spend about 3 hours a day in it and think that all around it is a wonderful car. It is also the first grown-up car that I have ever had. The car that I was driving when I met Kris was a 13 year old Mercury Tracer, my mom had given it to drive me while I was going through my divorce, this car and I have about 1000 stories.  From changing a tire at 3:00 am (in a tux no less) to two lug nuts flying off on the way to work one day, people often ask me to share some of these stories, most of them are funny in a dark sense of the word.

Let me describe the car here so you get a good picture, it was an inexpensive car that was 13 years old it had a banged up fender from a small accident further damaged by falling off a jack at the above mentioned 3:00am tire change (turns out that you should park on a level surface when you change a tire). It had one hub cap; the lock on the driver's side door didn't work so I had to unlock it from the passenger's side to get in. The air conditioner didn't work at all in fact, because it had a tendency to overheat if the engine idled for more than a few minutes, I kept the heater on low all the time. Oh and the transmission was a mess, I had to start this automatic transmission in first gear and work it up to drive. It had a maximum cruising speed of 60 mph which started to become frighteningly fast on the $22.00 tires that I put on it.

Short side story here, one day I was parked on the street outside of work and somebody walked past all of the cars in the area, looked at mine and said to himself "Four bald tires, banged up fender, no hubcaps... yeah we break into this one we got it made!" Broke out my window and took all of the cash from my ash tray (almost $3.00) and a CD player with a Hello Kitty Motif (retail value $12.99 at Wal-Mart). Because I live in a rather nice suburb I decided to replace the window with a Hefty Force Flex bag, not just any crummy old garbage bag, just until the weekend when I could get an appointment for a mechanic to make fun of me while he replaced it. The next day, parked in the same spot someone actually tore open my garbage bag window, I have to assume just to kick me while I was down.

I mentioned above that the heater had to remain on at all times if I got caught in bad traffic, even on a relatively cool day, the engine would overheat and I would end up pulled over on the side of the expressway while it cooled down a bit. About four years ago the Chicago area was suffering a heat wave similar to the one we have going on now. It had been in the mid 90s and humid for several days and I was trekking home on a Friday after work, hot air blowing on my face. My afternoon commute is usually about an hour but due to construction I was looking at almost two hours that day.  I was listening to one of my favorite radio programs the hosts were just starting to mix their drinks on air (a regular Friday tradition on WLS AM) when they cut to he weather.  "It is sunny out there today and HOT the temperature is 93 but when you figure in the heat index it feels like 115."

That was it!   I was about to explode!  I screamed in anguish and pulled off my tie, took off my shoes and socks then unbuttoned my royal blue dress shirt so that maybe just maybe I could take a little just a breath of air that didn't weigh more than I did and make it home alive.  A full 45 minutes later I pulled into the lot of my favorite liquor store and was met by an angel.  I walked in  wearing untied dress shoes (no socks, I just couldn't do it) and an unbuttoned shirt, undershirt exposed, I was covered in sweat  and was greeted by a wonderful woman who said to me just as the automatic door opened, "would you like to try a spicy cucumber margarita?"  

I could only think, "cold, wet, YES!"  I got my little paper Dixie cup of margarita then picked up my Vodka, came back and got another paper cup of margarita then went to get a couple of bottles of wine then just one more drink on my way to check out.  OK maybe I wasn't in hell...  I picked up a copy of the recipe put it in my binder then lost it ... until last weekend!  As recipes often do in my house it had vanished without a trace then suddenly resurfaced just when I needed it most, during our current heat wave.

I know what you are thinking, "Spicy Cucumber Margarita?  did you cook off some brain cells in your trek to Binny's Beverage Depot?"  My only answer is, you try it and tell me.

1/2 cucumber diced
1 or 2 slices of Jalapeno about 1/4 inch thick (be careful here)
1/2 cup Taquila
juice from 2 limes
1 TBS Triple Sec (to taste really I don't like it sweet)
a handful of ice


Kosher Salt 
Chipotle Chile Powder

Put the cucumber and Jalapeno slices in a cocktail shaker and muddle with a wooden spoon then add the next four ingredients and shake until ice cold.  Poor the salt onto a saucer then sprinkle a little chili powder on that, be careful a little goes a long way.  Moisten the rim of your glass and dip into your salt mixture, pour the mixture over ice and enjoy.

A weekend off

Ok so I have 3-4 posts kind of in the works, some started, some with pictures, but really none of them seem appropriate for a holiday weekend especially the unofficial opening of BBQ season.  You will see in the next couple of weeks what I mean but for today they just aren't right.  I tend to make things when they suit me not really in association with the weather, I mean I cooked out when my grill looked like this:

Anyway as the weather warmed up I have made some recipes more suited to cooking inside instead of out, it just seems out of place for Memorial Day weekend.  So what do I do?  Well drink recipe of course.  I don't really have a name for the recipe, once I had a drink I didn't care really if you want to call it something you can or you could just drink one and well you won't care either.

Here it is:

The Tea:

4 Green tea bags

2 big bunches of mint (maybe 15 leaves)

Steep in about a quart and a half of hot water.

The Sweetener:

Ginger infused simple syrup is 1/2 cup Sugar 1/2 cup water and about an inch cube of ginger cut up.. here is the process.

The rest is simple in a pint glass put in a handful of ice cubes, then add

1/4 cup dark rum

2 TBLS ginger simple syrup

Top off with the cold green tea, add a slice of lime and a sprig of mint for a garnish, sit back and enjoy.