Life is the Pits!

It was one of those weeks where Friday couldn't come soon enough. Wednesday morning I went out to head for work and discovered that my car had been broken into. The driver's door window was broken out and shattered glass was all over the interior of the car. Apparently they thought they needed the things in my car more than I did. I've seen enough of the PPB talks on car prowls that I didn't have anything of value in view and very little of value in the car. The value of the items taken was less than $25 - the window was $155 to replace.

Late last summer I ate apricots at a furious pace and managed to collect an ounce of apricot pits to make apricot kernel liqueur. An ounce of apricot kernels is about a 1/3 of a cup. Doesn't sound like much but it represents a lot of damn apricots!

The inspiration for this came from Matthew Rowley's Whiskey Forge Blog

Please Note! Apricot kernels contain cyanide in trace amounts! The minimum lethal dose is about 3-4 ounces of raw apricot pits. In other words you'd have to drink in excess of three 750 bottles of this liqueur to approach this. I think most of us would pass out or throw up before we reached that level and if we didn't we'd probably wish we were dead when we woke up later.

Amaretto is considered to be an Almond Flavored Liqueur, but in fact it can be made with apricot kernels or almonds or both.

Housemade Apricot Kernel Liqueur

Ingredients:
16 oz 100 proof vodka plus a bit more
1 oz shelled apricot kernels - you can buy them by the pound on Amazon or eBay
12 oz agave Syrup
12 oz water

Method:

Put the apricot kernels and vodka in an air tight glass jar and stash away in a cool dark place for several months.

Strain the resulting extract through a coffee filter and add additional vodka to bring the total back to 16 ounces.

Add the 16 ounces of filtered extract to the water and agave syrup and mix thoroughly. Pour it into bottles and seal tightly - store it in a cool dark place.

Godfather

1 oz Blended Scotch
1 oz Housemade Apricot Kernel Liqueur

Mix in an old fashioned class filled with ice cubes

There are more drinks and links Here

Yin and Yang

Yesterday was such a beautiful day. It was pretty nice outside too.

I went down to Salem to make sausage with my friend Daryl. Daryl earns his keep as a caterer (he and his wife Leslie own Loustic Catering in Salem), but we started making sausage together before he got back to cooking professionally. He's catering a big Superbowl party and we used the sausage making as an excuse to get together.

We made four kinds of sausage yesterday, two with pork and one each with lamb and chicken. We've developed a couple of our own recipes over the years but all four of these were from Polcyn and Ruhlman's book "Charcuterie".

There are several things I enjoy about sausage making; first and foremost is getting together with a friend, but beyond that is the ability to control the ingredients and tweak the flavors to our own tastes.

The breakfast sausage recipe needed a bunch of tweaking after tasting a bit - we added more sage, a bit of nutmeg and a bunch of red pepper flakes. I had some this morning for breakfast and the seasoning was all good except for too much garlic! I'm not a garlic fan first thing in the morning. We've got our own recipe for breakfast sausage that I much prefer. The one thing I did get from this recipe is how much fresh ginger you can put in and not have it dominate the flavor. I'm going to add more ginger to our breakfast sausage recipe the next time I make it.

The other pork sausage we made was the Sweet Italian Sausage. I've been told that traditional Sweet Italian Sausage has no garlic in it. This has plenty! It makes a very flavorful sausage that is great grilled or used in spaghetti sauce or in a lasagna.

We made a lamb and rosemary sausage the was chock full of rosemary. I'm really looking forward to throwing some of these on the grill when it warms up. I think this sausage would really pair well with a Zinfandel, Southern Rhone wine or a jammy Las Rochas Garnacha.

The final sausage we made was a chicken sausage with roasted garlic and oregano. I have to say I'm not usually a fan of chicken sausage, but this one turned out pretty well. The original recipe called for duck and substituting chicken was just the first of many deviations we made from the recipe as written. The final result bore little resemblance to th e original. We had some left over and were throwing some ideas around about how to use it and we came up with using stuffing a chicken breast with it, wrapping it in prosciutto and baking it or using it as a stuffing for mushroom caps. You could serve the stuffed mushroom caps with a lighter Pinot Noir or a Sauvignon Blanc and it would be pretty tasty.

I'm not much of a beer drinker, but I thought an earthy Belgian Ale would be good with these chicken sausages. I need to see if I can get a couple of more bottles of Gilgamesh Cranberry Saison - the tart cranberry component and lack of hops makes this beer easier for me to match with food (their Hopscotch Scottish Ale is also very good). It's a seasonal product and they don't yet have wide distribution, but if you live in the Salem or Portland area you may be able to arrange for a delivery by contacting the folks on the website.

Daryl threw together a wonderful bright squash soup for lunch. He served it up with a tossed salad with a miso vinaigrette (I need to get the recipe!) and a really good bottle of 2007 Bethel Height's Gewurztraminer. I have to say that it is the best American made Gewurtz I've ever had - I might have mistaken it for an Alsatian version if I hadn't seen the label.

I brought home some of the left over soup and had it for dinner last night. It was so good I decided to make it again today. It's equally good on a warm, bright day (Yang) or a cold dark day (Yin). Daryl used Sweet Meat Squash and the soup was canary yellow. I used a couple of small Kobucha squash and the soup has a much oranger hue. I think you could probably make this with carrots or sweet potatoes and it would be pretty darn good.

Daryl's Yin Yang Winter Squash Soup - I'm drinking cheap TJ's dry sherry with this as I type!

4 cups Winter Squash - peeled and cut in to large chunks
4 cups chicken broth - homemade if you've got it
4 large cloves of minced garlic
4 T minced ginger
1 cup cream, half and half or milk - of course it will be richer if you've got cream, but you suit yourself.

Throw the squash, broth, ginger and garlic in a pot and cook until the squash is tender

Blend it with a stick blender or in batches in a blender.

Add the dairy and warm it up if necessary.

Add salt to taste if necessary.

A follow up to a cocktail recipe I posted a couple of weeks ago

Modified Lion's Tail

• 2 ½ oz. Bourbon Whiskey
• ½ oz. Allspice Dram
• ¾ oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker, fill with ice and serve.

I find this is more to my liking than the original and very tasty original recipe posted below. I like the match of the lemon with the vanilla notes of the bourbon and with the lower acidity of the lemon, the additional simple syrup isn't needed.

Lion's Tail

• 2 oz. Bourbon Whiskey
• ½ oz. to ¾ oz. Allspice Dram
• ½ oz. Fresh Lime Juice
• ½ spoonful of Simple Syrup
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Late Night Reading

My reading usually tends towards mind candy like mysteries or the occasional science fiction and the occasional smattering of how to books and cookbooks. I also enjoy magazines, but I've stopped buying or subscribing because once I get them in the house I can't seem to get rid of them.

Lately I've been reading a couple of biographies; Paul Shaffer's "We'll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives" and Craig Ferguson's "American On Purpose: The Improbable Adventures Of An Unlikely Patriot". Both of these books are written by late night personalities. While both are naturalized American citizens and stars in their own right; the similarity pretty much ends there.

Paul Shaffer's book is quite entertaining. It's full of anecdotes and stories of his youth and his career. I hadn't realized the extent of his involvement with Saturday Night Live and how his career was so entwined the likes of Martin Short, Eugene Levy and other show biz Canadians. Shaffer's life started comfortably middle class and he's really never seemed struggle on his journey. The book is sweet little bites that can be enjoyed chapter by short chapter. While there are no earth shaking revelations; it's a worthwhile read.

Craig Ferguson's story is quite a bit grittier. He grew up in government housing and seemingly always made the wrong choices. His bawdy sense of humor is apparent from the start and his ironic tales make me laugh out loud. While Shaffer's tale is light and airy, Ferguson's book is darker and much more intense. I usually need to read a bit of something else afterward for a change. Don't get me wrong the book is funny, just dark and stormy as he describes his alcoholism and failed relationships. I'm only about a quarter of the way into the book, but it's a much more compelling read than Shaffer's book. I may have to start watching Ferguson's show again. I've found his humor a bit repetitive in the past, but I may appreciate and understand it more after reading this book.

On a cold winter evening, with the fire in the woodstove dying out, a mug of hot chocolate with a wee dram of demerara rum is just the ticket to accompany your late night read and it just might even be good for you!

Spiked Cocoa

• 6 oz of hot milk - I heat mine up in the microwave in a microwave save mug
• Housemade Chocolate Syrup to taste - Recipe follows
  
• 1 oz of Lemonhart 151 Rum - stir this in after you've heated the milk and mixed in the chocolate syrup

Housemade Chocolate Syrup

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups organic evaporated cane sugar - this can be purchased at Trader Joe's or Costco
• 2/3 cup premium cocoa powder - I used Dagoba
• 1 tsp. real vanilla extract

Method:

1. Bring sugar and water to a boil in a two quart sauce pan - this stuff want to foam up so use a larger pan rather than smaller.
2. Add the cocoa and stir continuously for 3 or 4 minutes - you'll need to turn the temperature down a bit, but keep it boiling. I use a flat whisk the reaches the corners of the pan.
   
3. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla
4. Let it cool a bit and pour it into a clean glass jar.
5. You can't get all the syrup out of the pan, so pour in a bit of milk and return the pan to the heat and stir to mix and make your first cup of cocoa with the pan drippings!
   

Makes a generous two cups. Refrigerate

Happy New Year!

It's Friday. It's the weekend. It's time to clean house!

It would have been nice to start the New Year with a clean house.....but let's face it Pig Pen is my idol. The kid made a career out of being a mess; if only I could do the same.

I've been washing dishes; all by hand, no dishwasher but me in this house. Washing and folding laundry. Cleaning out the refrigerator and finding a few buried treasures including some that are usable and the inevitable science experiments.

All of this would be easier if I'd stayed home last night and gone to bed at a reasonable time. But no, I went out, had a wonderful time and finally made it to bed at 0330. Fortunately I passed up on most of the wonderful selection of alcohol and partook modestly of the extravagant bounty of food available last night. So while I'm moving slowly today, I'm not in pain.

It was a wonderful time last night. Ringing in the New Year with a small group of friends. The people and the conversation were eclectic. Solving the worlds problems, a bit of reminiscing and a lot of laughing.

The treasure in the refrigerator were a couple of bags of cranberries. I'd bought them the day before Thanksgiving when I thought I was responsible for making the cranberry relish. They've been hiding in the back of the produce drawer ever since. When life hands you lemons, make lemonade - when life hands you cranberries, make Cranberry Liqueur!

Cranberry Liqueur - Gunther Anderson's recipe with minor variations

Ingredients:

• 2 - 12 oz bags Oregon cranberries
• 2 Satsuma Mandarins - peel and all
  
• 2 1/4 cups vodka - I used 80 proof
  
• 2 1/4 cups sugar (use good organic evaporated cane sugar)
• 1 1/4 cups filtered water
• 4 cloves
• 8 allspice berries
• 1 cinnamon stick
• peel of one small lemon

Method;

1. Process cranberries and mandarins in a food processor until finely chopped - do it in two batches
2. Put all ingredients into a half gallon jar
3. Store in a dark corner of the kitchen for four weeks and give a shake or two daily
4. Line a colander with cheese cloth and strain.
   
5. Squeeze the cheese cloth to extract as much liquid as possible
6. Let it settle for a few days and then pour off the clear liquid and strain through a coffee filter.

According to the recipe this is based on it should make about 6 cups. For more information on making Liqueurs visit Gunther Anderson's liqueur pages

Here's a cocktail that looks like it would be good - I'll report back later!

Gundalow

2 1/2 oz Vodka or Gin
1 oz Cranberry Liqueur
2/3 oz freshly squeezed lime juice
1 lime slice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and stir. Double strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with lime slice


Happy New Year!