The Amigo, or the Rand Paul

Tea Partier Rand Paul has come out of the closet on immigration reform! But looking at his effusive remarks in this Washington Post article about how he "lived, worked, played and grew up alongside Latinos" working shoulder-to-shoulder as a teenager "alongside immigrants mowing lawns and putting in landscaping around businesses," one could hardly be surprised at this sudden coming out. Ay Guero! He's practically an immigrant himself! This might be Rand's own "Ich bin ein berliner!" moment, save it being more like Soy un inmigrante!  But hey, this makes total sense.  With more above-board taxpayers it's easier for radical Tea Partiers to hold their hardline ideological stances on taxes. 

This week's homemade concoction is The Amigo, or the Rand Paul, made completely with ingredients from south of both the Mason Dixon & the Gadsden Purchase. It's gonna sound a bit shocking, but oddly enough the mix of silver tequila & some honey bourbon kinda works. Thank goodness. After all, it wouldn't be a true homage to Rand Paul without Kentucky's native spirit.  That said, the effect of the drink as you sip is much the same as the Tea Party itself.  On the surface, it sounds good.  The initial pulls are palatable enough.  Still, like the Tea Party, there's something that doesn't sit quite right the more time you spend with it.  And like US immigration policy, with some minor tweaking, it could be quite good.

The Amigo, or the Rand Paul
2 oz. silver tequila*

1 oz. honey bourbon

1/2 bar spoonful agave nectar

4-8 dashes grapefruit bitters

1 good squeeze of fresh lime juice

Fill a bar glass with lots ice.  Add the ingredients and stir well with a bar spoon.  Adjust the lime juice to taste.

*:  I imagine the use of añejo might make for a smoother tipple.  But the silver adds a smokey touch and keeps the hue of the beverage from looking too mestizaje.

Corpse Reviver #3, or the Marco Rubio

I’ve been getting bored lately with posting mere reviews of new beverages and quips from The Partner (hysterical as they are).  But recently, I had a brainflash. Let’s give it some time and see how it works. Here's the story of my brainflash. 

There is so much in the media that makes me sad or angry lately that this NPRoholic can't even listen to super-high quality news shows like Morning Edition or All Things Considered anymore.  And don't get me started on The Partner's fave: Today.  At least in the former it's the news that disturbs.  In the latter it's the cast that makes me apoplectic.  (Yes, cast.  I will not besmirch the Fourth Estate by suggesting that biased Matt; bland, insipid Female Sidekick; bland, insipid Female News Reader, or clownish Al are even remotely related to professional journalists. But I digress...somewhat.)  Then there's "reality" TV.  Talk about man's inanity to man.  If we take these shows as a reflection of society, then as a nation we must be a bunch of developmentally stunted adolescents who can't get enough of the trumped up drah-mah more characteristic of middle school classrooms and high school drama clubs.  I'm digressing again. But bear with me. It's all about to come together here.

So The Partner and I were catching up on our TiVo queue and I felt like getting mixologically experimental.  I looked at the bar and saw two lone Florida oranges about to skip past their expiration dates.  I also had a sudden jones for something akin to a lemonade.  Then it occurred to me.  I'll riff on the Corpse Reviver! I whipped one up with fresh OJ and found it worth repeating.  (Look here to learn more about the Corpse Reviver and here for the Corpse Reviver #2.)

As we sipped, a news tease featuring Marco Rubio and his filibustering ass zipped by as we fast forwarded through a commercial block.  If you’ve paid any attention to the news over the past couple weeks, the message (for now) is clear:  Marco Rubio is the savior of the Republican party!  In fact, just try Googling “Marco Rubio savior”.  In a mere .27 seconds you’ll get about 58,000 results.  Scoffing at the TV, I took a sip and it hit me.  The media, and probably even Marco himself, see him as the reviver of the Republican party corpse.  And thus the latest incarnation of Dilettante is conceived.  Cocktailing as social commentary!

So here’s the first such entry:  The Corpse Reviver #3, or the Marco Rubio.  During the late 19^th early 20^th Centuries, revivers were hair of the dog bevs after excesses of the night before.  After the excesses of the party of frightened, angry, old, straight, white men-in-denial, the media and the party are hanging all their hopes on Rubio.  He’s young, Hispanic, telegenic, from Florida.  What do you know?  Everything Tea Partiers and the rest of the party have been saying is true.  The Republican party really is a big tent!  I love it when they point to one or two people going against type and call it proof of their rhetoric. 

But more importantly, as I sipped I was thankful, thankful that God sent us Marco.  See, recently I haven’t been sleeping very much out of fear that a drone might come crashing through the window of our Chicago condo and take us out.  But now I can sleep at night, feeling safe that my president and his justice department have promised not to dispatch us from a distance in the middle of the night.  Phew!  Marco, despite your tweeted protestations:  

There is only one savior, and it is not me. #Jesus
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 7, 2013

...you are my savior! 



Corpse Reviver #3 or the Marco Rubio
equal parts:
gin
Cointreau
Lillet Blanc
orange juice

Shake over ice and pour into (an Absinthe-rinsed, if you must) coupe.  No garnish.

Gone Fishin'

A hectic weekend with social events, family obligations, and prepping for a crazed week ahead of  12- to 15-hour days Monday-Friday.  So we're taking a week off from creative cocktailing & blogging.  Instead, it's coasting with easy-breezy martinis & manhattans at our favorite sushi joint.  (Remind me sometime to tell you about a friend's $200 bowl of noodles!)

Have a good week, everyone!

Smoky Grove

PDT Interview

Personal preferences: Something new & warming
Style of drink: cocktail
Spirit of choice: whiskey, bourbon, brandy
Last drink: Siesta

Despite the fact that I've stumbled upon the tactic of letting The Partner select the tip, I thought I'd do a little reconnaissance earlier in the day. I was gonna run it past him, but ... nah.

While I was prepping, he snuck a peak over my shoulder at the Smoky Grove, "Hmmm...interesting." Still, I think it's something he'll like.

Made with a single malt scotch, this bev comes by it's name honestly. It's a mouthful of smoky peat. The charred orange twist only adds to the effect. It's not unpleasant, but it is powerful. At first one might expect it to be rough, but despite the smokiness, it's nice and smooth with notes of vanilla & orange (so The Partner detected). Just like one ought to do with a good scotch, this is a sipper, maybe one or two before dinner, no more. The rave of the night? The Partner: "This is good. I could have a couple of these. It's my kind of drink: not overly citrusy or acidic. Nice and smooth & smoky. I like it."

Validation. Date Nite can proceed.


Smoky Grove

2 oz. single malt scotch whisky
1/2 oz. sweet vermouth
1/2 oz. dry vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters

Stir ingredients in a mixing glass over ice. Serve in a chilled coupe. Garnish with a flamed orange twist.

Siesta

Last night was Kitchen Warming #2.  The guest list included friend & kitchen remodeler, T., so we needed the signature cocktail to honor him & his fine work.  Since of all the intoxicants on the planet one can imbibe he only drinks tequila our choices were limited.  Or perhaps it's better described as "focused".  Enter PDT's Siesta.  

On the page it looked decent.  The reality was something we haven't had in a while-- a cocktail worthy of the "Make it again Sam" label and unanimously positive reviews.  The Partner & I took it out for a test drive on Date Night, just to make certain it was something our guests would enjoy.  Such sacrifice....

The best way to describe the Siesta is a grapefruit margarita with depth & dimension brought by the Campari.  Think of it as the ultimate American cocktail.  Where else in the world can a Mexican, an Italian, and a Jamaican come together and make such beautiful offspring? 

How did our warming guests take to it?  Well, let's put it this way.  Of our four guests, J. & E.  don't really drink.  T. only drinks tequila, as mentioned.  And his partner, C., is orbital by the bottom of his second glass.  As I mixed one round, I'd look up to find the other couple's glasses empty.  Upon refreshing those, the ones I'd just filled were only moments away from needing refills.  No one should be surprised to hear that there were several "These go down way too easys" spoken throughout happy hour.  This is how we killed a bottle of Patrón in about an hour's time.  Good thing dinner was shrimp étouffée with andouille spoon bread.  The total fat from half a pound of butter, 3 cups of heavy cream, four eggs, and a pound of pork sausage provided an effective firewall to all that firewater!

Siesta
2 oz. tequila*
1/2 oz. Campari
1/2 oz. grapefruit juice**
1/2 oz. lime juice
1/2-3/4 oz. simple syrup

Shake with ice and pour into chilled coupes.  Garnish with a grapefruit twist.

*:  On Date Nite we tested the Siesta with Patrón Silver.  For the warming we used Patrón Añejo.  The Añejo makes a much smoother cocktail.
**:  We used ruby reds and squeezed the fruit ourselves.  We then strained it to remove the pulp which, while delicious and adds healthful fiber to any cocktail, also makes them cloudy.  It's a sweet, fresh ingredient as opposed to the odd quality even the freshest "fresh squeezed" store-bought variety generally has.

Algonquin

PDT Interview
Personal preferences: Partner's choice
Style of drink: Partner's choice
Spirit of choice: Partner's choice
Last drink: killer Manhattans & Old Fashioneds

I am so into this new strategy for drink selection.  When The Partner picks it the odds of approval go way up.  This was a great Friday & Date Nite.  We both knocked off from work around 2ish.  Went to the gym.  Came home and showered up.  We sipped on C's. suggested "pre-cocktail" while The Partner made dinner.  I delivered the PDT Bible to the kitchen with instructions for him to select the evening's beverage.  It was duly returned to me with a sticky marking the desired page.  PDT says the Algonquin "was named after the historic Manhattan hotel where a number of famous writers, artists, and actors (members of the Algonquin Round Table) gathered for lunch before Prohibition went into effect."

As for me, I'm reminded of the "mean streets" of my childhood, with names like Monhegan, Pawnee, Hiawatha, Massasoit, Manito, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Shoshone, Ramapo, and of course, Algonquin.

Light and sweet with some notes of vanilla from the bourbon, this wasn't too bad.  The dry vermouth soft-pedals the sweetness of the juice & bourbon.  On the first sip The Partner, savored -- lower lip jutting out, eyes to the ceiling.  "Not bad," as he went for his second sip.  "Though I'm surprised so many of the cocktails in this book are up."  Thanks to my new selection strategy I'm now able to respond with a smirk, "Well, you selected it!"

Algonquin
2 oz. Rye
3/4  oz. dry vermouth
3/4 oz. pineapple juice

Stir with ice & strain in chilled coupes.  No garnish.

Nicole's Rosemary Refresher

PDT Interview
Personal Preferences: Something new, aperitif, to get Date Nite going before we head out to dinner
Style of Drink: Short Drink
Spirit of Choice: no preference
Last Drink: Morango Fizz

This month's Chicago Magazine's cover feature is "100 Best Bars".  We've been reading it all week.  I was excited to try my hand at one of the many featured cocktails in the article.  But wow, is green chartreuse en vogue right now!  I know in the Dilettante's house we don't like the sickeningly sweet, dessert-like bevs, but does the new trend have to be towards licorice flavors?  Yuch!  So many, while fulfilling our desires in the PDT interview, were just going to be too much licorice, too medicinally herbal.  So...

Plan B:  The Partner's dear friend and colleague -- who we humorously refer to as his wife (with a respectful nod to her actual husband) -- shared the basic recipe for this cocktail several months ago.  She had had something very similar at an event and wanted to share the idea with me with suggested tweaks from how the original was made.  My notes have been sitting in a Word doc on my desktop ever since.  I must admit to enjoying a certain positivity from The Partner lately -- putting him in charge of sipping selection, giving him a placeholder bev while I do the photo shoot.  I figured, if we mix up the wife's tipp, he can't complain too much!

After mixing it up we texted her saying it was a success and needing a name.  Between the 3 of us, we've settled on Nicole's Rosemary Refresher which consists of vodka, pineapple juice, simple syrup & fresh rosemary. Yeah, that last ingredient is a bit of a surprise.  But it works.  The piney herb adds a complimentary-if-unexpected dimension to the tropical sweetness of the pineapple juice.  But be very careful with it.  It's a powerful herb that will quickly cross a thin line and go from interesting accent to tasting like a Christmas tree.

Bright and tropical with a light sweetness & savory depth, this can easily become a regular -- especially with our large crop of fresh rosemary that we've kept alive from last summer's herb garden!   

Nicole's Rosemary Refresher
2 oz. vodka
3/4 oz. pineapple juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
fresh rosemary

Use a short sprig of rosemary with only about 6-8 needles on it to start.  Modify the amount to suit your tastes.  Muddle rosemary with a few drops each of simple syrup & vodka until it becomes aromatic.  Add ice, vodka, juice, remaining simple syrup & shake.  Strain into iced martini glasses.  No garnish.

Variation:  The Partner requested the second round be made with some lime juice to counter some sweetness.  His wish = My command ∴ I added 1/2 oz. lime juice. He like it.  I found it added a level of bitterness.   We'll continue to play with the recipe.

Morango Fizz

First use of awesome vintage Collins glasses: a Christmas gift from The Partner!

PDT Interview
Personal Preferences: A tasty tipp that everyone will like to get the evening rolling; a multiple rounder
Style of Drink: Buck, Collins, Fizz, or Long Drink
Spirit of Choice: Something out of the ordinary
Last Drink: Hotel Nacional Special


Each year we have two large parties of 50 guests or more.  A swank Winter Solstice party alternates years with a Mardi Gras bacchanal while each year we celebrate Pride.  They're fun.  We love the frenetic activity the week before.  The menu planning, the prep, the cooking, the baking, the decorating.   When the parties themselves unfold, we love having friends in our home, watching and listening to them enjoy themselves.  But when you throw a party that size you don't even get a chance to see everyone, never mind visit with anyone.  So we've decided that throughout 2013 we'd have a number of smaller, more casual dinner parties to enjoy the company of our friends as well as entertain.  In this way we could also properly warm the new kitchen.

Our first such evening was last night.  Just 4 friends to enjoy a dinner of homemade chicken pot pies, twice-baked mashed potatoes (topped with cheddar cheese & whipped cream!), and roasted broccoli and cauliflower.  The Partner made a devastating crème brûlée for dessert.  The perfect comfort meal for a kitchen warming on a windy, 20-degree Chicago night.  So I needed a cocktail to kick this evening off well.  Initially, I was looking at rather classic-sounding bevs.  But not everyone would be into brown liquors.  Then I came across the Morango Fizz.  It couldn't have been more perfect given my PDT Interview parameters.  And what it lacked in seasonality, it more than made up for in it's less-than-ordinary ingredients.  To boot, its base liquor would be a nice homage, given my friend, M., would be one of our guests for the evening!  It would bring a little warm weather sunshine into our mid-winter evening.

All agreed, this should be a feature on the roof this summer.  The Morango Fizz is bright & sparkling.  A summer sipper that goes down easier with each pull.  What's nice is that it's sweet and refreshing without being cloying.  It's pink lemonade-like hue is appealing without being pepto-y.  All-in-all, a delightful tipple that's as fun to make as it is to sip.

Morango Fizz
2 oz. strawberry-infused cachaça*
3/4 oz. lemon juice
3/4 oz. simple syrup
1 egg white

Dry shake ingredients, then shake with ice and strain into chilled fizz glass.  Top with 1 oz. club soda.  No garnish.


*:  Cachaça can be hard enough to find in the traditional variety, depending on what your liquor store carries.  So don't waste time trying to find strawberry-infused.  Better to make your own.  A good infusion takes anywhere from 12-hours to 3 days.  I had about 8 hours before our guests arrived, so here's a "quick" infusion:

• Remove the stems from a pint of fresh strawberries and do a medium-fine dice.
• Put the berries in a large non-reactive bowl.  
• Pour a full bottle of cachaça over them, give a stir, and let stand at room temperature.
• Stir once or twice an hour while infusing.
• After 8-12 hours, strain fruit from the booze and decant.

I was curious as to what this concoction would yield.  Cachaça is a strong liquor.  So I was amazed to notice throughout the day how the mixture slowly transformed from its sharp, alcoholic sting to a softer, lighter berry infusion.  At this time interval, the finished effect was a pleasant balance of a softer cachaça and a light essence of strawberry.  Nothing like the current trend of heavy-handed flavoring of rums & vodkas.  And that's a good thing.

Hotel Nacional Special

Another night to go out -- this time to a friend's birthday gala.  So happy hour tonight is a warm-up.  Our friend L., of "He Shot, She Shot" fame, is joining us for a cocktail before we all head out the party.

I knew tonight I didn't want to have to deal with The Partner's puckered faces and comments about my evening's bev selection.  So I handed him my copy of PDT and said, "You're in charge of selecting tonight."  He started to protest.  "Nope.  You pick.  I mix."  Why haven't I done this before?!?  He couldn't complain about his own selection.  I think this is how it goes from now on!  You pick, I mix.  Indeed.  The Partner has a new job :-)

What's funny is how the Hotel Nacional Special became a communal tipple, in that the three of us sipped from a single coupe before moving on to other bevs.  The recipe below calls for Bacardi 8, which is  essentially dark rum that's aged 8 years.  The equivalent we have on the bar is a spectacular aged rum that The Partner's sister & brother-in-law brought us from Guatemala five years ago.  We've been savoring it a sipped shot at a time ever since, making it last as long as possible, it's just that good.  So I wasn't about to make multiples cocktails with  such a fantastic spirit.  So I made one for us to split.  If it was Sunday this could've been a kicked up Holy Communion!

I was surprised at The Partner's pick.  According to PDT, this sweet tipp was created by Will P. Taylor at the Nacional bar in Cuba and was the last manager at the Waldorf before Prohibition closed the bar.  But, as it turns out, a nice balance of sweet & sour.  I don't think this is one you could have many of before a meal, unless you like sweet things.  It wouldn't be bad as a dessert bev, as a matter of fact.  Here's to The Partner's future picks!

Hotel Nacional Special
2 oz. Bacardi 8 rum
1 oz. pineapple juice
1/2 oz. lime juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1/4 oz. apricot liqueur

Shake with ice & strain into a chilled coupe.  Garnish with lime wheel.

White Lady

Happy New Year!

Has there really been no post since November??  Well, we've gotten through Thanksgiving, all the holiday parties, Chicago Christmas, New Jersey Christmas, both of us down with a winter cold, and a first week back re-entry.  And while last night wasn't exactly a Date Nite, we did eek out a cocktail from PDT that we sipped while we got ready to meet friends for dinner.

Say hello to the White Lady.  A staple offering from the 1920's at the infamous Harry's New York in Paris, this looks and tastes like the old classic it is.  I thought it would be a good one for The Partner given that the ginny, juniper, citrusy qualities would be mediated by the silky sweetness of the egg white & simple syrup....  Not so much.  A little too classic for his tastes.  While I wouldn't make this a regular for us, it is an easy classic sipper when you have a few friends over and want to impress with a single round that's classy looking, classic flavors, and introduces some  variety beyond the usual bowl of vodka.  A good aperitif to wake up palates before dinner...(and subsequent rounds!).  

**A note to C:  To start 2013 off on the right foot, The Dilettante took your advice.  To keep everyone happy while The Dilettante did the mix-n-shoot, The Partner got a short Tito's & soda sipper.  You were right!  No complaints, not whining, no rushing while the drinks were mixed, staged & photographed.  You're a genius! 

White Lady
2 oz. gin
3/4 oz. Cointreau
3/4 oz. lemon juice
1/4 oz. simple syrup
1 egg white

Dry shake, then shake with ice.  Serve in chilled egg coupes with no garnish.

Martinez

I find I'm not terribly inspired to write about the Martinez.  It wasn't all that pleasant, though I tried to rationalize it as an aperitif.  But neither The Partner nor I felt like finishing it.  It tasted very familiar and was not unlike the Leap Year or the Sensation.  

Below is the recipe.  But don't dwell here.  Instead, click to read a Cocktail Chat entry on bitters.  I needed to do a little research into Boker's bitters to see if I had what I needed to make substitutions.  As it turns out, reading about Boker's was much more interesting!

Martinez
1.5 oz. gin
1.5 oz. sweet vermouth
1/4 oz. Maraschino liqueur
2 dashes Boker's bitters*

Sir with ice and strain into a chilled coupe.  Garnish with an orange twist.

*: Read the Cocktail Chat entry linked above.  I approximated the Boker's with a dash each of orange bitters and Jamaican #1 (allspice, ginger, & black pepper).

Cocktail Chat-Bitters

Bitters today

So if you've landed here from the link in the Martinez entry, you know that this Cocktail Chat is a result of the research I had to do to find out exactly what Boker's bitters are.  In doing so, I thought I'd also post some interesting cocktail trivia about bitters in general given they're such the rage these days.  

If you've spent any time in a trendy drinking establishment lately, you know that bitters are the hipster fetish du jour.  You can see evidence of the fad in even the most bare bones liquor stores.  Not long ago, Angostura bitters would be all you found, with Peychaud or orange bitters -- if you were lucky -- in the more "withit" shops.  Now you can walk into almost any liquor store and find shelves of bitters ranging from Aztec chocolate to "Tiki" -- whatever the hell that would be.  From the sublime to the ridiculous.  Gotta love a trend.

In general, bitters are infusions of herbs, spices, roots, and fruits with alcohol. They started out in the 19th century as tinctures and marketed for their purported health benefits.  Eventually, their use migrated to the mixological arts where they became exceedingly popular in drinking culture.  The lighter ones would be mixed with soda alone and served with ice.  Stronger ones were used in accents in more complex cocktails.  Their use in a beverage was the mark of elevated cocktailing and a bartender who knew what he was doing.  But, between the FDA lowering the boom on unproven medicinal claims and Prohibition, bitters were largely wiped out until only a few years ago.  Until the recent trend, Angosturas were the only kind available.

Sidebar: I for one, can testify to the curative powers of Angostura bitters.  Once, while out with friends in a crowded happy hour bar, I got a most debilitating and frustrating case of the hiccups.  I was the stereotypical drunk, sitting on my bar stool, wracked with intermittent convulsions accompanied by that telltale chirp that could be heard over the din of the bar.  My drink would slosh out of the glass if one hit while I was holding it, they were that bad.  I wasn't even drunk, for Pete's sake!  Embarrassed and uncomfortable, I was about to leave when the bartender approached me.  He saw me getting ready to take off when he motioned for me to sit.  He leaned over the bar:  "Hiccups?"

"Yeah."

He put his palm up to me in a sign to wait a moment.  His hands disappeared below the bar, working something in the well.  A moment later he slid a cocktail napkin across the bar to me.  On it was a lemon wheel with some amber liquid soaking into the top of it.

"Eat the whole thing.  Rind and all."

I did.  And as sure as I'm sitting here, the instant that thing hit my stomach I felt my diaphragm relax.  "What was that?"  I shouted.
"Lemon & bitters.  Works every time."  Cured, I didn't have another spasm the rest of the night.  To this day it's my go-to remedy for singultus!

Bitters bottles from back in the day

Back to my research on Boker's.  As it turns out, they were produced by a company in New York.  With Prohibition, the company went belly up nearly a century ago.  Just recently a bottle was found still holding a small portion of the stuff which was characterized by notes of cardamom, cassia, and bitter orange peel.  Sounds pretty good, in fact.  With renewed interest in classic cocktails and the bitters craze, a company has reconstructed Boker's.  They are available from Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Boker's Bitters.

With all the different flavors out there, the wrong variety can significantly alter the taste of a drink.  However, the difference between a cocktail with and without them is noticeable.  As an accent, only a few drops add all kinds of dimension.  A simple comparison:  Make two Manhattans, one with and one without.  Do a side-by-side taste test.  You will see the difference and will never want a bitters-less Manhattan again!  

Leapfrog

Friday night's brief happy hour started (and ended) with the Leapfrog before heading out to our fave neighborhood Mexican joint for dinner.  What made this drink so interesting, given its ingredients, is how much it tasted like grapefruit juice-- with the slightest finish of mint.  

It's quite possible there could have been a second round of these.  The Partner did have something witty to say and commented how he looked forward to seeing his humor immortalized on the blog.  However, it was the evening before the week's grocery shopping and I used the last fresh lemon we had in the house to make the one round.  And then there were the gigundo margaritas at dinner.  So I don't remember what he said that so hilariously summarized the bev and whether or not other rounds were even desired had the necessary ingredients been on the bar .  Gotta love Date Nite :-P


Leapfrog
2 oz. gin
3/4 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. apricot liqueur
1/4 oz. simple syrup
2 dashes orange bitters
6 mint leaves

Muddle the mint with the syrup.  Add the rest of the ingredients and shake with ice.  Strain* into a chilled coup.  No garnish.

*:  You may want to use a fine strainer.  Small bits of mint, as you can see in the pic, will get through the standard bar strainer.  But since this has no garnish, I thought the few vivid green flecks bobbing around gave it some visual interest.

Dr. Feelgood

Tonight's cocktail results from a couple  influences.  Friday was our first Date Nite since returning from BFF, J's., quiquagenary cruise.  It was a gay cruise, so perhaps that's one reason why the boisson de choix is white.  But the real influence had to do with the fact that I made mulligatawny this week and couldn't let the rest of the coconut milk go to waste.

There's a dearth of good cocktail recipes online that make use of coconut milk.  That's where I had to go to source this drink.  So we can't lay blame a the feet of my usual sources.  No, the Dr. Feelgood was lifted from the internet (Alex's Cocktail Recipes).  That said, this looked the most palatable on paper, which isn't saying much.  There are a lot of nasty sounding cocktails online with coconut milk as an ingredient.  That is, unless your tastes are in line with current cocktail vogue and prefer thick sweetness in an up glass.

Is this unappetizing-looking?  Perhaps it's the context from which we recently debarked, but I found it challenging just to look at. On tasting, The Partner and I agreed:  it's essentially a thin pina colada.  But only a single shot of vodka up against nearly 6 oz. of fruit juice will do that. One was all we could stand.  No need to rush to try this one.  Unless you're looking for a "dietetic" bev, have some light coconut milk on hand, and can't stand the thought of putting money in Bethenny Frankel's pockets by purchasing Skinnygirl anything, then this could be a lighter choice than a real pina.

Dr. Feelgood*
3 oz. coconut milk
3 oz. pineapple juice
1 oz. vodka
1/4 oz. lime juice

Shake and serve with a lime wheel as garnish.

*: Measurements were originally in ml's.  So I converted and actually used about 2-2.5 oz. of juices.

Sipping at Wood

Wood's Rusty Nail

It was a gorgeous fall day as we drove back from Michigan yesterday.  And the Wolverine State was in full fall color to boot.  Simply gorgeous.  As we drove through the city on a fine Indian summer afternoon, The Partner and I were not ready to settle in for a Sunday indoors.  So we unpacked our suitcases, loved, fed, and watered the Old Man, and walked on over to Boystown.  

We decided to try our luck at Wood, the restaurant that has replaced Fire Fly -- one of our regular haunts when we were dating.  When we got there they were in the midst of a power failure.  I said, "If you can pour a cocktail without needing electricity, we'd be glad to sit at the bar and see if the lights come back on."   With a fun esprit about there being no lights save the bright fall sun we were seated at the bar and made quick friends with our mixologist, Gustavo.  


The bar was stocked with some amazing spirits.  Looking to get a "baseline", I ordered a classic off the classic menu -- a Rusty Nail.  It was warm and herbal -- just enough to balance the smoky sweetness of the whiskey.  It was also a generous serving that sipped well through dusk.

Wood's Cherry Wood

The Partner decided to let Gustavo have his way with him. A Brazilian, Gustavo couldn't help but proffer a Cachaça-based beverage in the void of our initial indecision. In the end, The Partner capitulated and was mixed an original tipple, the Cherry Wood. A mix of Cachaça, a raspberry liqueur, and I believe I caught a whiff of Chartreuse, the cocktail was flavorful and smooth without being overly sweet. It did indeed taste like cherry wood -- in all the good ways (and I'm certain there's no irony in the name, what with the restaurant being in the heart of Boystown!)

For the locals, go park yourself in front of Gustavo and strick up some conversation. He's friendly, mixes a good drink and has fun doing both. Then order up some of the small plates. The power did come back on about 20 minutes into our visit and folks were lined up at the door in an instant. The pork belly was very good. The risotto was average. But hands-down, the best item we had -- and we had seconds of it -- is the Tarte Flambé flatbread. Rich, creamy, crunchy, chewy, caramel-y. Run, don't walk

Maple Scotch Glazed Apples

This will be the last of the cooking posts this week.  The Partner's Gram turns 90 and celebrations are planned for the weekend with family jetting and driving to Michigan from all over the country.

So while we're away celebrating Gram this weekend, I'd love to hear back from readers.  Recently, D. mentioned that he looked forward to my making him a featured bev.  I remarked that I'd hoped readers were trying things out for themselves.  So jumping in to Web 2.0, I'm putting a call out for a little interactivity.  

Your assignment: This weekend, try out a recipe or two or three from the blog.  Cocktail or cooking, doesn't matter.  Then leave comments on the post (or posts) you tried.  Leave them in Comments on the blog post so we can all participate.  Some of you have been subscribing and commenting via email, which I love.  But I'm the only one who sees those.  Then we'll all discuss.  (Once a teacher, always a teacher!  :-)

Ok, on to today's post.

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A bit mono-chromatic, but tasty!

A decidedly fall dish, dinner last night consisted of pork chops, cabbage slaw & apples.  Tonight both the pork and the apples got the treatment.  For the pork I used the somewhat Asian flavored marinade featured in the very first Cookin' with Booze post.  Here's the card for the apples:

Maple & Scotch Glazed Apples*
2 baking apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 oz. scotch
1 oz. butter
fresh lemon juice
salt & pepper to taste

Peel, core and slice the apples.  Toss them with the juice of half a lemon to keep them from browning.  In a medium sized sauce pan, bring the syrup to a low simmer, stirring occasionally so it doesn't burn.  Remove the pan from the heat and add the scotch.  Stir it into the syrup and place back on the heat.  Simmer until it reduces slightly.  Add the butter and stir constantly until it is completely melted and the sauce begins to thicken.  Take half a lemon and give it a gentle squeeze.  You're not going to want all the juice because you've already put some on the apples.  Just a couple drops to brighten up the flavor.  Salt and pepper to taste -- again, just to balance flavors.  Add the apples to the pan and gently stir to glaze them with the sauce.

This will keep warm over a low/simmering heat until ready to serve.

Serves 2

*: A nice variation on this would be to add a 1/4 t. of cinnamon, nutmeg, or 1/8 t. clove, or allspice to these.  I did not, however, as it would not have gone with the pork marinade or what I did with the cabbage.

Cooking with Scotch

I was inspired by a sauce I saw Jose Garces prep on Iron Chef the other night.  Thought I'd give it a whirl.  My original plan was to glaze some white acorn squash with a maple, scotch sauce. But the steak I made as the entree was marinated in EVOO, lemon, garlic, & thyme.  These flavor profiles seem to clash, the former being fall, the latter being summer.  So I improvised.  Here's the recipe.

Baked Acorn Squash with Orange Marmalade, Scotch & Fresh Thyme Glaze

1 acorn squash- seeded, peeled, & cubed

2-3 T. orange marmalade

2 1/2 oz scotch*

1 T. butter

2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed

Bake the squash at 375 in a lightly (canola) oiled cookie sheet until tender -- about 15 minutes or until tender depending on the size of the dice.

While the squash is baking, melt the marmalade in a sauce pan over medium-low heat.  When melted, remove from the flame and add the scotch.  (Remember what happened to Roz if you don't take it off the open flame before adding the booze!)  Stir until combined.  Return to the heat and add the butter.  Stir until melted and the sauce thickens and comes together.  Sprinkle thyme leave over and taste.  Add salt if needed.  You could also brighten it a bit with a half-squeeze of fresh lemon.

When the squash is done, toss it with the sauce and serve.  Deep, warm, citrus flavor with the cake-like goodness of acorn squash.  Mmm-mmm, good!


*:  We have 15 different bottles of every kind of scotch & whiskey under the sun on the bar.  Single malt, Irish, Tennessee, Kentucky....  The "youngest" bottle is probably 5 years old.  At this rate we'll be cooking with it until the crack of doom!