We made candy-corn infused vodka the other week, and here are the results. I’d call it a mild success, but I probably won’t do it again next year now that we’ve done it once. We ended up leaving the candy corn to soak overnight. By the morning, it was mostly dissolved, and the vodka was a beautiful, bright orange color, but there were all these weird looking pieces of the candy still floating around looking like stalagmites in the liquid. It kinda looked like a science fair project. I’m guessing that’s the high-fructose corn syrup that even alcohol couldn’t break down. Anyways, it was almost (almost) enough to make me want to avoid candy-corn for a little while. But then Jill came over with the rest of a bag she had bought, annnnd that hiatus was over.

ANYWAYS! We made the cocktails that night, and they were… ehhh, ok.
   

   
Usually something with egg in it would turn me off a little, but since it was just the whites, it was actually nice and frothy. I guess it was really just too boozy tasting to me. We ended up adding a splash of tonic water, and that made all the difference. So, if you want to try it at home, I’d recommend adding the tonic, or maybe a splash of ginger ale or sprite to take the edge off.
   
Anyways, we strained and bottled the rest of the vodka, and it IS a really pretty color. The bottom of the batch was realllly sugary and thick as it poured out. Without all the floaties in it, I’ll say it does look very tasty. I think the plan for the rest of the batch is to use it to make some orange jello shots for our upcoming Halloween party. That was Matt’s idea, and I think it will be perfect for it!
   

Somehow I ended up on a website called yumsugar.com (shocking, I know), and decided I had to make this recipe for candy corn infused vodka. I am a sucker for sugary things, so candy corn is naturally one of my favorites. Truthfully, it’s sad that it starts showing up in stores wayyy before October and starts testing my willpower a whole month before Halloween. Anyway, we skipped the proper recipe proportions and just went with it — 2 bottles of vodka and most of a bag of Brach’s, minus the handful that I tested for flavor. I debated over getting the little pumpkin-shaped ones at first, but didn’t want to get too crazy. I think we’re going to give it a few days to marinate in there, and once it starts turning orange give it a little taste test and then bottle it back up until Halloween!! I’ll be sure to write about how it turns out, as long as it’s good. I think now we need to plan a little Halloween costume party.

Put candy-corns in your vessel.

   

add vodka.

   

wait.

   

drink up! We finally bottled and labeled our first official batch of Near Northeast Hooch. It’s an infused combination of spiced rum, red apples, and cloves. Here’s the recipe that we followed, if you care to play along at home. Pretty easy stuff. Combine ingredients in a jar and then wait… If only you could make dinner this way. Oh wait, you can, it’s the equivalent of the crock-pot!

The results were pretty good, I suppose. We overdid it on the length of infusion time, but I don’t think it mattered. (note: check your calendars for long-planned vacations before you start doing something like this) I’m not a big fan of rum in general, so I will pass on any further judgement of our own infusing skills until we get to our next recipe… berry vodka.

Anyways, we already gave away the two bottles pictured, and saved a smaller one for ourselves. Here’s what I’m going to make with it tonight – apple cocktails. If this drink doesn’t immediately bring on fall weather, I’m not sure what else to try.

What do you guys think of the labels? It’s probably one of my dream jobs to design wine bottle labels, so this was a pretty fun little exercise in Photoshop for me. I don’t know about you guys, but in this house we pick out wine by 1) what’s on the label and 2) price. It goes like this when Matt picks it out: does it have a bicycle or scantily clad woman on the bottle? Is it less than $12.00? Then we can get it!! And when I’m the one shopping: Does it have a friggin’ adorable animal on it or some sort of polka dot theme? Is it less than $8.00? (I’m the cheaper one). It’s not easy having such discriminating tastes. How does everyone else pick out wine?

…because everyone’s Irish today.

Last weekend when Ty and Val were visiting, we checked out the chocolate and coffee shop ACKC on 14th Street. We’d walked by there many a time, but never poked our heads in. As it turns out, it’s a cute little place owned by Rob Kingsbury (the chocolatier) and Eric Nelson (the artist). When you walk in, you are bombarded with bright colors from the artwork on the walls and tons of tiny little morsels to make you drool. The photo above is a closeup of one of the many custom tabletops painted by Eric, which are pretty much awesome.