Kahlua, Strawberry Liqueur, and Vanilla Extract

So why not just by Kahlua, Strawberry Liquor, and Vanilla Extract from the store? Because there is something great about making it yourself. There is a smile that comes to your face every other day when you have to shake your mason jars knowing that you are creating a delightful drink that will get you through the long cold winter that is approaching. Plus, there is just something about making your own liquor.

As for the vanilla extract, yes it is cheaper to make your own vanilla extract, it just takes a while to do so. This is because it takes at least 3 months for it to be usable in baking, although from the batch I made last year I saw it is more like 5 months. I have two bottles still that from my first batch that have been steeping for a year in bourbon. One will be a present for Joel's mom the other will have to be for a special baking occasion. But this time, I have three different versions of vanilla extract going. One is a vodka mix (w/Smirnoff) one rum (w/Bacardi light rum), and one with a bourbon (w/Makers Mark). The problem with the bourbon mix is that it probably isnt cheaper than the store bought version on a per oz unit because of the price of Makers, but hey, it will be really good extract!

Anyway, here are the recipes. I have some swing top bottles on order and hope to fill them up with my concoctions when they are ready come the beginning of December.

Kahlua - per mason jar
- 1/2 cup of coffee beans
- one vanilla bean
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup rum
- 1 cup vodka

Strawberry Liqueur - Makes approx. 4 mason jars
- 2 1/4 cups vodka
- 2 1/4 cups rum
- 3/4 whole strawberries mashed with 2 cups sugar

Vanilla Extract - per mason jar
- 2 cups of your liquor of choice
- 8-10 vanilla beans split down the middle.

Pictures - Recipes to Come

Pictures! Recipes to come:

Right - Kahlua
Left - Strawberry Liquor
Roasted Pork Chop Stuffed w/Spinach, Garlic, and Herbs

Dorie Greenspan's World Peace Cookies - Crunchy! I <3 crunchy cookies!

Espresso Muffins

Just made some Dorie Greenspan Espresso Muffins!


First, baking these from Dorie made me fall in love all over again with her book From My Home to Yours. (Thank you Beth for this amazing present). Personally, I can't wait to try every recipe in this book. I don't think I will have a problem with the muffins, scones, cookies, and the like as I can easily bring it into work. The cakes and other things might be more of a project to do as they are harder, with having to ride the metro and what not, to bring in and therefore harder to fat princess my co-workers.

Second, baking these made me think of the old roommates (Jason and Anthony), Curtis, Jenny, Marjie, the Ryan's, Robbie, and Meghan (from here on out known as the Durham Crew). I miss feeding those guys.

So here are the beautiful muffins. I put a chocolate chip on the top of each one. LoL.

Just needed to share as baking with Dorie is magical. I still need to write about my strawberry liquor, kahlua, world peace cookies (also by Dorie), and pork stuffed spinach adventures. But these might have to wait as work is still taking up nearly 10 hours of my day and I have to go to Boston this weekend for Anthony's wedding (YAH).

Oh, and before I sign off...I just need to share I'm currently obsessed with Chris Thile and Chatam County Line. Check them out. Particularly Wayside by Thile and The Carolinian by Chatam County Line. These are going to be played on my iTunes just as much as Wagon Wheel I think.

Cheers and happy hunting!

Veggies, Granola, Roasted Chicken and Tomoato in a White Wine Sauce, and World Peace Cookies

So I haven't updated in two weeks. Sorry it has been crazy at work and Joel was up again this past weekend, which meant food adventures in DC! But let me start from last week and go in chronological order.

The weekend before this past one was a new adventure for me. I made my own granola! It was really easy and exciting, and an adventure I look forward to trying again with different ingredients (dried pumpkin, dried strawberries, gingersnaps, etc.) Inspired partly by my cousin Bev and the fact that I love granola and whole foods granola is totally over priced I thought I would venture into making my own. With great success I made about 8 cups and have already gone through it all. So this weekend will be making another batch. Now if I can only start making my own yogurt. I found a recipe so I can make it in my crockpot but Joel is a bit skeptical of the whole idea. I think I need to prove him wrong. Anyway, see below for the granola recipe Bev shared with me. To reduce to the calorie count, and because real maple syrup and honey is a bit out of my weekly budget for the amount I needed, I used apple sauce and regular pancake syrup (e.g. high fructose corn syrup). Can't wait till I'm bringing in the big bucks to afford real honey and maple syrup for my granola.

Unfortunately forgot to take pictures of the granola, but I have some in the oven right now and will post them when I blog about my homemade strawberry liquor, kahlua, spinach stuffed pork chops and world piece cookies!

In addition to making granola a couple of weekends ago I was inspire to make some ratatouille. I looked at a few different recipes and adapted them to my own taste and I was pretty happy with the results. The recipe below is my version. My ambition to make ratatouille however led to me buying more squash and eggplant then I needed. So for dinner I did a squash and eggplant Parmesan.

But the real highlight was last weekend Joel came up again and we did this roasted chicken thighs with heirloom tomatoes in white wine. It was simple and easy. And though I am not a fan of tomatoes the heirloom tomatoes that I got at the farmers market were delicious. I just may have to start eating tomatoes.

Granola Recipe:
4 heaping cups of old fashioned oatmeal
1 tsp of cinnamon (or more)+1tsp of apple pie or pumpkin pie spice
Pinch of salt

3 oz of apple sauce
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla

Mix first group into a large bowl. Add second group into a measuring cup. I suggest measuring out the oil first and then the honey. Combine the wet ingredients into the bowl. Transfer to a jelly roll pan or cake pan. Distribute the mixture evenly on the pan.

Bake at 310 degrees. I bake for 60 minutes - every 15 minutes I stir the mixture and then distribute evenly.

Ratatouille:
4 zucchinis
4 small eggplants (approximately the same size as zucchinis)
1 big + 1 small red onion
1 small tomato
1 clove garlic
olive oil
dried herbs: rosemary, thyme, parsley, chives, marjoram
sea salt
ground black pepper

Slice zucchinis, eggplants, larger onion and peppers as thin as possible. Line them in concentric circles on an oiled round baking pan in the following order: eggplant, zucchini, and onion. Place de seeded and sliced tomatoes on top with slices of red onion. Continue until you have the ingredients. Dimension of the pan depends on the amount of vegetables. Pour oil over. Sprinkle with herbs, salt and black pepper and pour very little water so the vegetables don't burn inside the oven. Bake in a preheated oven on 220°C for about 15-20 minutes. This time is for very thinly sliced vegetables, if you slice them thicker, you should probably bake it a bit more, until the eggplants are done.

Roasted Chicken Thighs w/Tomatoes in White Wine:

• 1 1/2 pounds combo of chicken drumsticks and thighs
• 1 tomato (or more if you want)
  
• 4 cloves garlic roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 tablespoons dry white wine

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Rinse and pat dry the chicken.
3. Place chicken in a baking dish. Place tomatoes around chicken. Sprinkle with chopped garlic. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and white wine. Cook for 45 – minutes or until chicken is cooked through. If it starts to brown too much place foil on top to prevent burning.
4. Serve.

Two Dinner Dates

So Joel was in town this past weekend and we had two amazing dinners together. I must say the things that Hawaii, Denver, and Durham cannot offer is a nice French dinner and a stroll around the Capitol at night.

For dinner Saturday night we headed down to Eastern Market to eat at Monmarte. We started off with a feta, avocado, beet, and tomatoe salad. Joel had braised pork cheeks and I had a braised rabbit leg. We shared a nice red wine (syrah blend) and a slice of lemon tart.

But the big highlight of the weekend was the herb crusted pork loin we made from Bill Neals cookbook (if you don't know Bill Neal look up Crooks Corner in Carrboro, NC. It is by far either my first or second favorite place to eat in the Triangle). But before the pork we started off with a glass of wine each and some french bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. In addition we made a ricotta and squash tart to go with the pork, and had a simple spinach salad. I also broiled some peaches with honey and made some fresh whipped cream with some homemade bourbon vanilla extract for dessert.

Personally, I think Joel and I need to work on perfecting how we made the pork loin as we didn't use bacon fat, which it called for, but substitued with olive oil and crisco. The herb crust was a little thick, and I think we need to find a thicker pork loin next time. I definitely think this will be in our repertoire though. It was just absolutely moist, tender, and flavorful pork I have eaten. Plus the onion gravy we made with it wasn't that fatty or greasy, as it comes to gravy, and not salty at all. Sadly, it is also filled with fat.

Zucchini Tart

Crust - or just use your favorite pie dough recipe

- 1&1/4 cup flour

- 1/4 tsp salt
- 8 tblspns cold butter
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 tsp lemon juice

Filling
- 3 zucchini or summer squash
- 2 tblspns olive oil
- clove of garlic (minced)
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 grated parmesan
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 egg yolk.

1. To make your own galette, first whisk together the flour and salt in a larger bowl.

2. Sprinkle bits of the butter over the flour mixture.

3. Using a pastry blender (or just a simple fork), cut the butter in until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, lemon juice and water…
5. …and add this to the flour/butter mixture.
6. Now use a rubber spatula to gather and combine the mixture into a ball-like shape.
7. Then bath your hands in flour up to your shoulders (kidding! palms are enough!) and form a nice ball out of the dough.

You don’t need to knead or work too much on this dough – it’s perfect when it just holds together.
8. Refrigerate the dough for about 1 hour.

9. Meanwhile, slice the zucchinis into 1/4 inch thick rounds.
10. Spread the rounds out over two layers of paper towels.

11. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt (or as needed) and let drain for 30 minutes or until dried out.

12. Blot the tops of the rounds dry with paper towels before using.
13. Now, press the garlic into a small bowl.

14. Add the olive oil and whisk together.

15. Mix all other filling ingredients together in large bowl.
16. To assemble the galette, remove the dough from the fridge and place it on a well floured surface.

17. Roll the dough out into a 14-inch (35 cm) round.

18. Transfer to an ungreased, round 6 x 2 inches (15 x 5 cm) baking dish.
19. Spread the ricotta mixture evenly over the bottom of the galette dough,…
20. …leaving a 2-inch border.
21. Shingle the zucchini attractively on top of the ricotta in concentric circles, starting at the outside edge.

22. Drizzle the remaining garlic and olive oil mixture evenly over the zucchini.
23. Fold the border over the filling, pleating the edge to make it fit (the center will be open).

24. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for about 1 hour (or until the zucchini is slightly wilted and the galette is golden brown).

65th Anniversary

It's the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japan. A great op-ed by Oe, nobel prize winner, and great auther of many short stories and novels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/opinion/06oe.html?hp

"Brewing a better world"...or not?

Interesting read from the NYtimes about those single use coffee pods and there eco-friendlyness. Interestingly, they are trying to make these things bio-degradable and some of them have recycling programs. I'm a bit skeptical of the recycling programs though.

We have these individual pod coffee things in my office (although I am unsure which brand, will need to check it out), and while I do love having fresh hot coffee, it does make you stop and think. Maybe I should mention it to someone that we should switch over to a coffee company like Green Mountain that is going to make biodegradable them more eco-friendly. Right now ours is just thrown in the trash, but I think we have a brand with a recycling program. Don't think we will be doing that though.

Read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/business/energy-environment/04coffee.html?ref=business