Sunday, July 12, 2009
All the way back in May, (see I'm really behind!), I hosted a Memorial Weekend BBQ. A couple days beforehand, I spent an afternoon in the backyard of Nita Nita enjoying a few drinks. My drink partner ordered an Arnold Palmer - a mix of bourbon, lemonade, and iced tea on the rocks - that was perfectly refreshing for the hot summer afternoon. Then we saw the bartender come out and snip off some sprigs of mint from one of the many herb planters in Nita Nita's backyard for someone else's drink. Guerilla-style, we went and picked off some mint of his own to add to the Arnold Palmer, which transformed it from just good into total perfection.
So inspired, I cooked up a similar cocktail for our party, except instead of making lemonade, which would have been too much work, I just used iced tea as the mixer and added a squeeze of a wedge of lemon to each drink. I made cold brewed mint-infused iced tea for the occasion by steeping black tea in growlers of water in the fridge overnight, straining out the tea leaves in the morning and adding chopped fresh mint leaves.
I - and my guests - enjoyed the drink so much that we made it again for our Fourth of July BBQ. Do you have a favorite summer cocktail?
The Lazy Minty Arnold Palmer
1 part bourbon
1.5 parts mint-infused iced tea
ice cubes
1 wedge of lemon
1 sprig of mint
Pour ingredients into a cocktail glass and stir. Squeeze in the wedge of lemon and add to the glass with mint.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
As you read this, I'm currently in a car on a 5-6 hour drive upstate for my friend Elaine's wedding at a fingerlakes winery. I just got an SLR camera so hopefully I will have some amazing photos to share when I return. In the meantime, here are some photos from her fabulous bachelorette weekend last month.
Originally we had planned on a winery tour in the Ithaca area for her bachelorette, but our plans changed and we ended up at a casino outside Syracuse instead. It was kinda ironic because none of us are wild party n gambling types. In fact we tried to gamble for the heck of it but couldn't even figure out how to work the slot machines (which are now computerized) so we got our money back and moved on to other activities. aka gambling FAIL
It seems like just yesterday we were BFFs in high school, but somehow 10 years have gone by since those days we went by the name "The Hefs" (we're not heifers we just eat a lot)
We brought way more snacks and drink for the hotel than the four of us could actually ingest.
Getting ready for our night out
Our dinner out was a long, enjoyable, and memorable meal at the resort's nicest restaurant. Excellent service and pretty excellent food, with some strange twists in there that had us laughing our a**es off. For example, here we have Elaine grimacing at the dessert amuse bouche "chocolate surprise" which turned out to contain pop rocks!
Our last stop of the night was Club Lava, which tries to be hip and trendy, with bottle service and soap flake confetti falling from the ceiling, but they played music from our high school era.
We had fun dancing anyway. Leave it to Caitlin to start a dance off!
It was a great weekend with great friends!
Originally we had planned on a winery tour in the Ithaca area for her bachelorette, but our plans changed and we ended up at a casino outside Syracuse instead. It was kinda ironic because none of us are wild party n gambling types. In fact we tried to gamble for the heck of it but couldn't even figure out how to work the slot machines (which are now computerized) so we got our money back and moved on to other activities. aka gambling FAIL
It seems like just yesterday we were BFFs in high school, but somehow 10 years have gone by since those days we went by the name "The Hefs" (we're not heifers we just eat a lot)
We brought way more snacks and drink for the hotel than the four of us could actually ingest.
Getting ready for our night out
Our dinner out was a long, enjoyable, and memorable meal at the resort's nicest restaurant. Excellent service and pretty excellent food, with some strange twists in there that had us laughing our a**es off. For example, here we have Elaine grimacing at the dessert amuse bouche "chocolate surprise" which turned out to contain pop rocks!
Our last stop of the night was Club Lava, which tries to be hip and trendy, with bottle service and soap flake confetti falling from the ceiling, but they played music from our high school era.
We had fun dancing anyway. Leave it to Caitlin to start a dance off!
It was a great weekend with great friends!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Garlic scapes are the edible curlicue shoots that emerge out of the ground as the top part of the plant in springtime, before the garlic bulb itself is edible. Here in New York, scapes came into season in late May and are still around now, so you might be able to find them at your local farmers market.
Scapes have a spicy garlic flavor, which you can mellow out by sauteeing them, but I prefer to turn garlic scapes into pesto.
I spread the pesto on sandwiches as a spicy alternative to mustard...
Add it to mayonnaise for a dipping sauce that feels like the essence of springtime...
(Here it went especially well with roasted potatoes, asparagus, and grilled soft shell crabs)
And freeze it in an ice cube tray so that I can defrost only as much pesto as I need later in the season.
It's easy peasy to make if you have a food processor or blender. I use almonds because that's what I tend to have on hand, but you could also sub in walnuts or pine nuts - it's flexible. And I like to add vinegar for an extra kick, but you could leave that out. Other great optional ingredients include: parmesan, lemon juice, basil, parsley, other herbs.
Garlic Scape Pesto
1 lb garlic scapes
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vinegar
salt
pepper
Combine ingredients in food processor until smooth. Add additional oil or vinegar until it reaches a creamy consistency and desired taste.
first photo via flickr
Scapes have a spicy garlic flavor, which you can mellow out by sauteeing them, but I prefer to turn garlic scapes into pesto.
I spread the pesto on sandwiches as a spicy alternative to mustard...
Add it to mayonnaise for a dipping sauce that feels like the essence of springtime...
(Here it went especially well with roasted potatoes, asparagus, and grilled soft shell crabs)
And freeze it in an ice cube tray so that I can defrost only as much pesto as I need later in the season.
It's easy peasy to make if you have a food processor or blender. I use almonds because that's what I tend to have on hand, but you could also sub in walnuts or pine nuts - it's flexible. And I like to add vinegar for an extra kick, but you could leave that out. Other great optional ingredients include: parmesan, lemon juice, basil, parsley, other herbs.
Garlic Scape Pesto
1 lb garlic scapes
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vinegar
salt
pepper
Combine ingredients in food processor until smooth. Add additional oil or vinegar until it reaches a creamy consistency and desired taste.
first photo via flickr
Among the many backlogged updates that await you...my boyfriend got another puppy! (Yes there are now two dogs living in our apartment).
One morning last month my boyfriend couldn't sleep and was browsing puppies on the internet. He woke me up around 6am, brought over the laptop and showed me a very cute blurry looking puppy (to my groggy eyes). "Yeah he's cute," I said but thought little of it. But surprise! once I got to work, he called to say that he really really wanted the puppy and so...
Milo arrived at the apartment late at night, plucked from the wilds of the Adirondacks. He has two different colored eyes, is fairly mild for a puppy, loves to hide under things, and is good at some commands (sit, down) but not so good at others (Off!) The other dog Spencer was depressed for a few days, but he finally started smiling again earlier this week. The two dogs are getting along surprisingly fine. And oh it is such a pleasure walking a dog who gets along with everyone (ie. not Spencer who has to kept on a short leash lest he bite someone/thing).
But let me tell you, if you are thinking about getting a puppy, it is a LOT of work...a lot of cleaning up...keeping a close eye on him so you can use every opportunity you can get to train...hiding things so they don't get chewed...feeling like the house is a kennel with dogs running around and jumping all over the furniture (since we currently have no yard for them to play).
Anyone out there have any advice or good books on training puppies?
One morning last month my boyfriend couldn't sleep and was browsing puppies on the internet. He woke me up around 6am, brought over the laptop and showed me a very cute blurry looking puppy (to my groggy eyes). "Yeah he's cute," I said but thought little of it. But surprise! once I got to work, he called to say that he really really wanted the puppy and so...
Milo arrived at the apartment late at night, plucked from the wilds of the Adirondacks. He has two different colored eyes, is fairly mild for a puppy, loves to hide under things, and is good at some commands (sit, down) but not so good at others (Off!) The other dog Spencer was depressed for a few days, but he finally started smiling again earlier this week. The two dogs are getting along surprisingly fine. And oh it is such a pleasure walking a dog who gets along with everyone (ie. not Spencer who has to kept on a short leash lest he bite someone/thing).
But let me tell you, if you are thinking about getting a puppy, it is a LOT of work...a lot of cleaning up...keeping a close eye on him so you can use every opportunity you can get to train...hiding things so they don't get chewed...feeling like the house is a kennel with dogs running around and jumping all over the furniture (since we currently have no yard for them to play).
Anyone out there have any advice or good books on training puppies?
Welcome to Color Me Green, now at http://colormegreenanew.blogspot.com
I merged my food blog, The Wounded Chef, into the new Color Me Green, which will meander through my slow food, DIY, eco-friendly life in Brooklyn. Please remember to update to this new URL (http://colormegreenanew.blogspot.com) on your blogroll, list of links, following, reader, subscriptions, bookmarks, etc. Welcome and feel free to take a look around!
I merged my food blog, The Wounded Chef, into the new Color Me Green, which will meander through my slow food, DIY, eco-friendly life in Brooklyn. Please remember to update to this new URL (http://colormegreenanew.blogspot.com) on your blogroll, list of links, following, reader, subscriptions, bookmarks, etc. Welcome and feel free to take a look around!
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