Archive for the 'beverages' Category
When I was 15, my family went to Europe. Belgium, mostly – which is where my Dad was born and lived until he was about as old as W is now. I was smitten with it – mostly the white sand Belgian beaches and Italian boys – and the warm buns and hot chocolate that was typical for breakfast totally trumped the Muffets we got back home. While the grown-ups sipped coffee and tea, we kids got mugs of warm, drinkable chocolate unlike anything I had experienced in Canada.
Because at some point someone decreed it was simpler to stir a packet of mix into boiling water to make a brownish beverage that tasted somewhat of chocolate, with or without dehydrated marshmallow bits, and that became the North American standard. I realize I’ve already gone on a rant about the stuff, listed the nasty ingredient list and how to make your own real hot cocoa mix. I’ve shared the recipe for salted peanut butter hot chocolate we chugged in a chilly park in NYC a little over a year ago. But it never hurts to get a midwinter reminder, right?
This past weekend we had the opportunity to stay in Lake Louise – and ski, even – and on Sunday morning, because six year olds neither appreciate the concept of the weekend in terms of extra sleeping hours nor do they tend to linger in bed AT ALL when their little eyes open and they realize they are in a hotel room, I found myself lying in bed watching Ina Garten. She took us on a tour of Paris, and made hot chocolate.
Really – if you’re going to drink hot chocolate, it may as well be the good stuff. And while you’re at it, stir in a spoonful of creamy peanut butter or Nutella. For reals. You’re welcome.
Real Hot Chocolate (With or Without Peanut Butter or Nutella)
Adapted from Ina Garten via Food Network
4-5 cups whole milk – Ina uses half milk, half half & half
8 oz. chocolate, chopped – Ina uses half semi-sweet, half milk chocolate
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. instant espresso or coffee powder (optional – it intensifies the chocolate, but won’t make it taste like coffee)
a few drops of vanilla (optional)
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter or Nutella (or more, to taste)
In a medium saucepan, heat the milk and cream until it’s steaming (don’t bring it to a boil); remove from heat and add the chocolate. Let it sit a minute, then whisk until it’s smooth. Whisk in everything else, stirring to melt the peanut butter or Nutella if you’re using it.
Serve warm. Serves 4.
February 08 2012 | beverages | 3 Comments »
Bit of a gloomy last day of the year-looking forward to a drink tonight after a dry-ish holiday season.
It was weird this year, with Christmas on a Sunday. It came up quickly, without a buffer of days between between the busy week before and Christmas Eve. I had made a vow to get cozy with Bailey’s on ice or boozy milk punch before bed on the last few nights before Christmas, but only managed one glass on account of the arrival of our Christmas stomach bug.
The last of a bottle of Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey Whiskey had been left behind after our polyester & cheese Christmas party, and a slushy milk punch seemed like a good use for it. It couldn’t be simpler – milk, with a generous dose of cream, powdered sugar and whiskey, stirred together in a pitcher and chilled or partially frozen, then topped with a dusting of nutmeg. I made this last Thursday night for Friday, the day it turned out I could barely manage sips of water – I found it in there this week, bashed it up with a spoon, tasted it, and stuck it back in the freezer for New Year’s Eve. Hey, that’s today! Shouldn’t we be reminiscing? Cheersing? Yes, lets.
Happy new year everyone – may all good things come your way in 2012.
Slushy Milk Punch
Adapted from Canal House, v.2, via SmittenKitchen
5 cups whole milk and half-and-half (4:1 is suggested, but I went with equal parts 1% and half & half)
1 1/2 cups bourbon, another whiskey or brandy, or Jack Daniels honey liqueur
1/2 cup icing sugar (or to taste)
2-3 tsp. vanilla
Freshly grated nutmeg
Whisk everything together in a pitcher and freeze until slushy, which will take 3 to 4 hours, but you can leave it in there up to a week. (It may need to sit on the countertop for a bit – mash it around with a wooden spoon to break up the ice.)
Serve topped with freshly grated nutmeg. Serves 2-10.
December 31 2011 | beverages | 11 Comments »
I planned all sorts of things for this summer’s trip to Tofino. Beaching! Sobo! Tacofino! Kayaking! Books! Long healthy runs on the beach (maybe)! A monster head cold was not part of the plan. It moved in, set up camp and is showing no signs of budging.
I have produced enormous quantities of phlegm and gone through boxes of Kleenex. At the beach, I’m the one with wads of damp Kleenex in the pockets of her fleece. Fortunately, my mom is here.
She’s making me poached eggs on toast, and ensuring I drink lots of water. But there’s only so much water I can muster, and so I started drinking her summer bevvy of choice, the one she brings out to the garden with her: a key lime, which are those little round ones the size of a large marble and come by the bag, squeezed over ice and then topped with green tea she steeps once in awhile and then pours into a pitcher in the fridge to chill. She rubs the cut halves of the limes over the rim for added flavour – like rimming a margarita – simultaneously scraping some of the pulp into the glass.
Damn, but it’s refreshing. And far tastier than water when you’re forced to chug a glass an hour. It’s tart, but clean – she doesn’t add sweetener, but you could stir in a spoonful of honey. This is what I do at night, when it’s hot green tea (or just hot water) and a squeeze of key lime in a mug by my bedside. I have been known to take this with a nap at 10am. This one, she’s a doozie.
Also, I decided it was as good an excuse as any to try this green tea infused gin I heard about at a tea tasting at Silk Road in Victoria last weekend – they handed out cards with recipes on it, and one of them was for Earl Green Gin & Tonics. Yes, please. Their Earl Green – tea of metamorphosis (appropriate, no?) is green tea with bergamot fruit essence, delivering the best of both tea worlds. You could, I’m sure, steep any loose tea you fancy would go in a g&t, and did you know you get more antioxidant benefits from the tea when you drink it with alcohol? It’s true.
Essentially what you do is steep leaves in gin – no need to heat it up – about 6 Tbsp. per 2 cups.
(I experimented with a smaller batch.)
Stir it in, let it sit for 20 minutes while you go to the ice cream shop, come back and strain it.
And that’s it – you have green tea-infused gin with which to make gin & tonics.
Hopefully without the phlegm.
July 29 2011 | beverages | 17 Comments »
This is going to be my bubbly pink patio drink this holiday weekend. Fo sho.
It’s a good thing you can’t clearly see my oh so foxy reflection in the glass, all gussied up for a Canada Day Eve night in PJ bottoms and an old shirt I only wear to bed since a slice of peanut butter toast landed goods-side-down on my chest. (Which kind of reminds me of this Flight of the Conchords video.)
Thanks to my foxy ladyfriend for sharing her Grandma’s cocktail. Partly, I’m just envious that a) her Grandma is still around, b) she lives on Galiano Island, c) her nickname is Foxy Lady and d) she thusly has a boozy pink drink named after her.
Mostly C. And A.
Gwendolyn makes hers with vodka and soda water. Gin works. Or drizzle it straight into Prosecco.
The only problem with the Foxy Lady (besides the obvious) is that it uses up your stash of rhubarb so that you may not have enough left to make pies. But you won’t be able to bake after all those foxy ladies anyway.
Really, you should know how to make rhubarb syrup whether or not there is a Foxy Lady in your future. It’s divine drizzled into soda water or ginger ale, or ice water to make rhubarbade. Next on the agenda: pink rhubarb milkshakes.
You’ll need some rhubarb. The red stuff is best. Chop it up.
Add sugar and water and simmer.
It will turn soft and mushy, at which point scrape it into a fine sieve set over a bowl and strain it.
You’ll wind up with something that resembles the juice from a maraschino cherry jar but tastes far better. Don’t toss the leftover pulp – eat it with plain yogurt and granola. Trust me on this. Or turn it into ice cream. More on that later.
Put a lid on it and keep it in the fridge. Or throw it in your bag and bring it along to that Canada Day party, with a bottle of Prosecco. I’m not against pouring it over pancakes.
Pour rhubarb syrup into a glass, top with Prosecco or ginger ale or vodka and soda water. Drink. Repeat.
Foxy Lady Rhubarb Cocktails: 1 part vodka, 2-3 parts rhubarb syrup, 1 part soda water. Tall glass + ice.
Rhubarb Syrup
Thanks to the foxiest lady I know.
4 cups chopped rhubarb
1 cup water
Sugar to taste (up to 1 cup, depending on your taste and how tart the rhubarb is)
Bring everything to a simmer in a saucepan. Cook until the fruit is very soft. Taste it and add more sugar if it needs it. As Gwendolyn says, it should be a little tart. (That is, your Foxy Lady should be a little tart. Ha!)
Set a fine strainer over a bowl, pour in the rhubarb and let it sit to drain off the liquid. Once it’s done, scoop the stewed fruit into a container and eat or refrigerate for later.
June 30 2011 | beverages | 11 Comments »
I’m not going all hardcore California health club wheatgrass shooters on you, but I’ve just discovered that I can deliver large handfuls of leafy greens – in the form of fresh parsley – into the boys (and myself), completely undetected. And I wanted to share the happy news.
In fact, they did bust me stuffing about half a bunch of curly parsley – stems and all – into their smoothie, and said little more than “oh wow! check it out!” I didn’t really intend to be sneaky about it – I don’t hide all their veggies – but I’d likely turn my nose up a bit if I caught someone stuffing a bunch of leaves into my smoothie. And you know how easily 5 and 8 year old boys can be grossed out. After that, there’s no turning back.
Of course fresh parsley, being dark and green and from the ground, is incredibly good for you. Among it’s other virtues it’s one of the foods highest in iron, which it turns out is good for gout and restless leg syndrome (known on Seinfeld as jimmy legs). Mike is the lucky host of both.
Do you think there are any other food blogs with open discussions about lice infestations and gout? And now jimmy legs? But wait, it’s relevant.
So the other day, in an attempt to ward off gout/jimmy legs, I jammed an enormous handful of curly parsley into the blender, poured in some orange juice and a few spoonfuls of plain yogurt, not to full-on smoothify it, but to make it a bit creamy and more palatable. I was just trying to get a largish quantity of parsley into Mike without him having to choke it down.
I handed him a glass. He said, “this tastes like something you’d drink in California.”
It wasn’t awful. I drank some, just to get the shot of nutrients (I like getting vitamins from my food, if at all possible), and it tasted fresh and green and slightly sweet. I think I liked it. The second time ’round I added some to the boys’ smoothie, which I generally make with a banana, plain yogurt, any miscellaneous squishy fruit that needs using up, and a good shake of frozen berries – the strawberry-blueberry-blackberry blend. Its purpleness masked any green bits, and it didn’t taste any different, and so parsley now sits in a glass of water in the fridge and is a key player in the production of all smoothies. Drinkable salad.
February 27 2011 | beverages | 24 Comments »
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