Gin

I broke out the new bottle of Bombay Sapphire and that Maraska and made a few drinks I’d been eying in my little recipe books.  The first one was the Aviation cocktail.  It was strong.  It tasted terrible.  I had to dump half a can of pineapple juice in it just to get it down.  The second was a Gin Ricky, and it was equally bad.  Again, more pineapple juice and some grenadine just to be sure.

So perhaps I don’t like gin.  I’ll assume that’s not the case and that I just don’t like these two cocktails particularly.

Stocking My Liquor Cabinet

I’m a girl-drink drunk.  And by that I mean I like sweet drinks.  After a few years of tee-totaling and having some babies I’m ready to start exploring the world of cocktails again.

I’ve been working on building up a respectable liquor cabinet the last few years. Still, I don’t have much to show for it. I’ve come to a few conclusions quite recently, which I hope will help me spend wisely on future acquisitions of liqueurs.  The first conclusion I’ve already mentioned, which is that I like sweet drinks.  The second conclusion I’ve come to is that I don’t like anything that’s been cask-aged.  I don’t like most wine particularly.  I detest cognac. And I’ve concluded that I don’t care for brandy, either.  Not matter how much cream and chocolate liqueur I mix with it, it’s’ still not good.  Forget Wild Turkey or any of that ilk. The third conclusion is that I don’t really like things that taste medicinal.  Or mouth-washy.  Or that aren’t well-balanced.  Now that may rule out particular liqueurs, or it may be due to bad proportions in a cocktail.

For example, I usually like a Grasshopper when I order them, but my attempts to make them at home with some Hiram Walker creme de menthe and Godiva chocolate liqueur were disasters.  Then I stumbled upon a recipe that calls for about half the amount of creme de menthe as all the others, and it is much closer to what I typically get at bars and restaurants.  So I may not give up on making that drink yet, although I still think it tastes more medicinal when I make it myself.  Perhaps it is the cheap creme de menthe, or (gasp!) that a fancy brand like Godiva’s just really isn’t that good!

My favorite liquor is vodka, for it’s neutral flavor.  Someone recently suggested to me that gin would also be a good one to try, as it is fairly neutral.  So my most recent acquisition was a bottle of Bombay Sapphire.  And since a lot of the recipes that sound interesting to me call for a maraschino liqueur, I picked up a bottle of Maraska too.  I already have some brandy, rum, tequila and triple sec in my collection.  I may get some different types of rum next, or continue to expand my collection of liqueurs.  Midori and an amaretto are on my list. So is Cointreau, which I hope will be a good replacement for some cheap Hiram Walker triple-sec.  After that, maybe Galliano and some of the other more obscure liqueurs.  We’ll see.  I may decide I’m satisfied to drink Cosmos the rest of my life.

Analysis Paralysis

I’m very prone to Analysis Paralysis – too much research keeping me from making a final decision.   Milad and I did finally get a new vacuum, though.  I made a lunch-time foray over to Stark’s vacuums one day and looked at the Miele and Simplicity models.  Then I dragged Milad back over there that weekend and had him look at the two Simplicity models that I’d narrowed it down to.  We decided to go with the newer model, the Verve.  It has all the bells and whistles and a somewhat longer warranty than the older model, but was a bit more expensive. But I don’t want to have to buy another vacuum anytime soon!

The Simplicity Verve is a cannister vacuum with SR-type HEPA filtration.  It has all the attachments we need and can do the upholstery and stairs and dusting.  We finally put it through its full paces this weekend.  We did the horrid carpet downstairs, all matted down and ugly.  It fluffed up pretty well for what it is.  Then I did the sofas, and Milad dusted all the electronics and lamps and window sills in the living room.  (We found some missing DVD’s under one of the stereo speakers – Omar was looking for his favorite cartoon, but couldn’t remember where he’d put the disc. We’d searched high and low for it, so we were happy to find it.)

Milad did the stairs and upstairs.  The biggest bonus was using the crevice tool to do the vinyl lounge chairs in the dining room, which have this raised piping around the seat edges that catches every crumb.  I’ve gone over those chairs with a toothpick (literally) and all manner of brushes trying to get them clean, but was always suspicious that I wasn’t really getting the job done all that well.  But they look great now.

We put the old Hoover bagless with the broken wheel out by the curb and it was gone in 40 minutes.  The only good thing I can say about that vacuum was that it still rolled well with only three wheels.  It just didn’t really suck.    Omar was fascinated with the idea of putting the vacuum out by the road.  He doesn’t seem to miss that vacuum, though.  It was really loud compared to the new one.  But he is scared of the new one, too.

I’ve been looking at toaster ovens and reading toaster reviews for far too long, too.  I finally made up my mind to go with a cheap one, since I don’t make toast often, and I haven’t ever owned a toaster, so I don’t really know what I want in one for sure.  So the $15 Proctor Silex was looking good.  For a few weeks now I’ve looked at some local stores for a certain model that got good reviews.  Thought I saw it in passing one day, but it turned out to be a different model when I went back to check.  So I didn’t buy it.  I realized this weekend that if I’d just gone to Proctorsilex.com I could have ordered the exact one I wanted and it would have been here by now.  So after one more look at Fred Meyer this weekend, since I happened to be there, I made up my mind to just order it today since they didn’t have it.

And while I was on their site I decided to get a new waffle iron too, mainly because they had a free shipping offer on larger orders.  I was only somewhat interested in a new waffle iron, since I rarely make waffles.  It’s another thing I hadn’t really made up my mind about.  But the nice-looking Cuisinart waffle iron  I have is broken and slightly dangerous, and the Proctor Silex one was cheap enough to not agonize over.

The Cuisinart was a nice-looking waffle iron, but didn’t last long.  It had some annoying features, like a ridge around the side that was hard to clean, and it looks like stainless steel but is mostly plastic.  The plastic knob that turns the thing on and off, and selects the color setting, is what broke off.  There is a metal pin that sticks out that one could use to turn it, if you can figure out the settings.  But it also gets blazing hot when the thing is on.  And there’s no way to tell if it’s off or on when you plug it in without the markings on the knob.  I haven’t used it in a long time, since I burned my hand on the metal pin last time I tried to use it.  I called Cuisinart to see about getting a new knob.  It looks like the kind of thing that would be easy to just snap on.  But they didn’t have replacement parts, and it’s out of warranty.  They offered me 20% off a new one.  I thought about that and decided I just don’t want another Cuisinart.  I’m not super happy with their brand rice-cooker that I have either.  It says it will make 6 cups of rice, but if you try to make that much it overflows – especially with brown rice.

Turkey Meatballs

Ingredients:

1 small onion, minced (or about 1/4 of a large onion)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 egg

1/4 cup crushed saltines

1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves (or 2 T. dried)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan (optional)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 pound ground turkey

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 jar (26 ounces, about 3 cups)  marinara sauce

Pasta of your choice, cooked.

Directions: Add the onion, garlic, egg, cracker crumbs, parsley, cheese, salt and pepper to a large bowl and blend. Mix in the turkey. Shape the turkey mixture into 1 1/4-inch-diameter meatballs.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs and saute until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes.

Pour off any excess oil.  Add the marinara sauce.  Turn the heat to medium-low and simmer until the sauce thickens slightly and the meatballs are cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes.  Season  to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve with cooked pasta.

Notes: A bit of poultry seasoning won’t hurt these meatballs.

If you have a food processor you can crush the crackers and mince the onion and parsley all together.  Then throw in the egg, garlic, cheese and spices too.  Very fast!

Omar and the spinach casserole

I made a Spanikopita Greek spinach casserole the other night.  It is a lot of work, being that there are layers of Phylo dough on top and bottom with the filling in between, but I like to make it once in a while.  Omar helped me paint melted butter between the Phylo dough layers with a pastry brush.

He was really doing a good job for being 2.5 years old, until he decided it was just as much fun to paint melted butter on the table.  Then he decided he wanted to poke holes in the casserole when I was doing the top layer of phyllo dough.  I told him not to do that anymore after he gouged a particularly large hole in it and sat there laughing about it.  I told him he was going to get a time out if he did it again.

I didn’t know what to do about the hole, really, so I tore off a piece of phyllo dough and wadded it up and stuffed it in the hole.  Omar said, “You stuffed a napkin in there?”  Phylo dough does look like paper.  So now Omar thinks I’ve stuffed a napkin in the middle of the casserole!

He wanted to poke more holes and I wouldn’t let him, so he decided he wanted to ask Daddy about that.  Milad had gone to bed already, so Omar went upstairs to consult him.  Milad called me at work this morning to ask what the heck Omar was talking about last night.  He’d been up there rambling something about poking holes and Momma getting mad and sitting on the stairs, and Milad couldn’t figure out what he was talking about, but thought it was quite funny.

Christmas 2009

I set out to make some felt Christmas stockings embroidered with snowflakes this year.  I didn’t finish them by Christmas.  I got as far as getting the snowflakes embroidered on one side of the felt for four stockings.  The other side, which I also planned to decorate, has not been finished yet.  I did draw the snowflakes on in chalk to sew over, though.  It rubs off the felt pretty easily and keeps me from going astray as far as positioning them.

We got a tree this year.  A small noble fir.  It smelled great.  It was about 5′ tall, which seemed like a great size for our apartment.  The tree was decorated with faux birds and tinsel and pink and white lights this year.  I kept the breakable ornaments hidden away this year.  Sure enough, my 2-year-old spent many an hour redecorating the tree.  The faux birds didn’t look as subtle as I hoped.  Many of them were bright, garish colors to start with.  I added a few pine cones later.  I didn’t do much decorating other than the tree this year.

We went to my folks for Christmas dinner.  Steaks – my favorite.  My dad even grilled outside.  Omar got into a bowl of chocolates.  We have been keeping him ignorant of sweets pretty well up until now.  He did not learn of cookies this year (he thinks cheese-flavored fish crackers are cookies).  They were on the table.  He didn’t reach for or ask for any.  He was already aware of pie, but only took a few bites and then went off to play.

Pies 2009

I don’t make pie much anymore since my husband isn’t a fan.  But I did for Thanks giving and Christmas this year.  For Thanksgiving a tried an apple-cranberry-current pie from Sunset magazine.  Usually find winners there.  This one didn’t turn out so good.  First it called for soaking dried currents in brandy, but then it said to add all the soaking liquid to the pie!  This sounded wrong to me, but I did it anyway.  Sure enough, the pie was too runny and the bottom crust was so soggy it tasted raw.  The overall flavor of the pie was good, though.  The brandy definitely added some tang to the apples, but I’m not sure I’ll make this again  as a pie.  I might use the filling recipe with some kind of steusel topping, though – something where it wouldn’t matter so much about the wateriness.

For Christmas I made a blackberry pie with cornmeal crust.  It was pretty good.  Pretty average for my berry pies as far as wateriness and taste.  I could have used a bit more corn starch.  The cornmeal crust was a new thing for me.  It tasted fine, but the cornmeal had some large chunks that stayed a bit too gritty after cooking for my taste.  I could probably find a finer cornmeal or try to sift out the big bits next time.

Parsnips

I cooked parsnips this weekend.  I decided to just go ahead and peel and dice all the parsnips from the garden.  Most of the recipes I wanted to try called for chopping them up, anyway.  I ended up with about 1.5 lbs of dice.

The first recipe I tried was Parsnip Muffins.  I wasn’t really sure if they would be good or not, but my 2-year-old was pining for muffins.  It turns out that they are pretty similar to zucchini bread muffins, but with just nutmeg for the spices and less oil.  I had to grate the parsnip for this recipe, which I did in the food processor since they were already diced.  The batter was pretty thick, and the recipe said it would make 12 muffins.  It filled each muffin cup up to the top, which made me kind of nervous, but they did not overflow.  They rose very nicely into perfect, tall pro-bakery-looking muffins! Mine never turn out that good!  The parsnips are slightly peppery and they tasted great with the nutmeg.  My son liked them.

The second recipe I tried was curry parsnip soup.  I had high hopes for this recipe.  I was really in the mood for a nice, creamy soup.  But it didn’t taste that great.  And it was not soupy!  It turned out to be the texture of mashed potatoes.  The curry flavor was pretty much the dominant flavor on top of the sweetness of the parsnips.  My husband hated it.  I wasn’t too wild about the strong curry flavor either.  I had a huge bowl full of it, so I decided to freeze most of it for a Thanksgiving side dish.  Even if I can’t get rid of it all at Thanksgiving, at least I’m hoping I won’t have too much of it left to take home.  And who knows – maybe somebody there will be into it.  My dad was really gung-ho about curry cornbread stuffing a few years ago.

That used up all the parsnips from our garden.  I’m kicking myself for not making a half-recipe of that curry “soup.”  Then I would have been able to try a different recipe.  I was torn between trying that curry one, or a different one that had paprika for the main spice.

Now I need to find some recipes to use up the six delicata squash I have.

Crepe-y Weekend

I made three batches of crepes this weekend.  I have a little cookbook that is nothing but crepe recipes and I’ve been putting some mileage on it.

First I used up the last of the spinach from our garden to make some spinach crepes.  They were good.  The batter was pretty thick and green, but they cooked up a nice tan color.  They are thicker than a usual crepe.  They were good.  I didn’t know what to fill them with, though.  I may just eat them like bread.  The cookbook suggested something creamy for the filling, but creamy stuff doesn’t sound very appealing to me right now.

I also made dessert crepes.  I was not especially impressed with them by themselves.  I imagined they would be sweet, but they were not.  The batter was super thin, too.  It cooked up fast and got crispy around the edges.  They taste pretty similar to regular crepes too, just thinner.  There are some other “flavored” dessert crepe recipes in that book that I’ll try next time.  I filled these with another recipe from the book, flambed figs in brandy cream sauce.

The figs started out promising and my first attempt at igniting brandy was way less scary than I thought it was going to be.  The flames were not very tall.  I was afraid it was going to create some enormous fireball in my kitchen, but instead it was just a dull blue flame that danced around the pan for a minute and then died out.  Whew!  The sauce was tasting pretty good, and the last ingredient was cream.  That’s where it went south.  The cream really didn’t make it taste better to me.  In fact, it went from being a pinkish figgy and carmely sugar syrup to tasting like sweetened condensed milk.     Yuck!  If I make that again I’ll skip the cream.  The cream really ruined it for me, since I hate condensed milk.

I made a half-recipe of regular old crepes for breakfast the next day.  My two-year-old likes them with peanut butter.  “Want more crepe,” he kept saying, even though he’d only eaten half of it.

Death to Fruit Flies

I didn’t find a single fruit fly in the kitchen this morning.  There were at least a dozen of them in there last night.  Maybe they were hiding in the house plants.  Maybe they don’t like to get up early.  Maybe they were sleeping in today.  Or maybe my husband finally had enough and killed them all.

It’s hard to get rid of all their food sources. We finally made room in the fridge for all the tomatoes from our garden, so now it’s just some pears and bananas in the fruit bowl, and the jar of sourdough starter that they seem to like.  My husband really hates fruit flies.  He saw them swarming around the fruit bowl yesterday and was seriously thinking about refrigerating the bananas, even if it does make them turn black.  I tried to talk him out of it.  The lid on the sourdough jar is not tight, so I put a towel over the whole jar to keep them out of it.  So now they just land on the towel and bask in the odor.

I haven’t had any luck trapping them in dishes of vinegar or alcohol or any of the other organic home remedies.  They tend to migrate to the damp soil of the houseplants once we get rid of all their other food and water sources.  It’s hard to convince my husband to let the soil dry out between waterings.  Watering the plants is sort of a comforting daily routine for him.  He even waters the cacti every day.  He claims I never take care of the plants and they’d all be dead if he didn’t water them.  Never mind that some of them have been with me for decades – long before we got married.  Sometimes he’s as fruity as the flies around here, but I still love him.