key lime pie
August 8th, 2012
This has got to be one of the best recipes I’ve ever tried – mostly because it was supremely easy and everyone liked it. WIN-WIN. Plus, I like buying a gigantic bag of limes at the grocery store… makes everyone wonder what in the world you’re up to. For what it’s worth, this recipe took 8 juiced limes. I also got to use my new zester, what a grownup I am.
Ingredients:
1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
3 cups sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup key lime juice
1 tablespoon grated lime zest
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice, and lime rind.
Mix well and pour into graham cracker crust.
Bake in oven for 5 to 8 minutes, until tiny pinhole bubbles burst on the surface. Do not brown!
Chill pie thoroughly before serving. Garnish with lime slices and whipped cream if desired.
bitters and infusions
June 18th, 2012
Matt and I took a “Bitters and Infusions” class through the Libations Bar School, held this past Wednesday night at The Spice and Tea Exchange in Georgetown. In the most basic terms, we learned that you can add almost anything to an over-proofed liquor (like moonshine), let it soak for a few weeks, shaking it daily, and then voila! You have yourself a bitter than can be added to a cocktail. They were traditionally made as medicines to cure all sorts of ailments, then people commonly started adding them to gin or wine, and that’s where the cocktail came from.
We got in small groups, and chose several flavors from throughout the spice shop to put in tiny flasks of moonshine. I think ours ended up with ginger, some sort of berry (looked like a blueberry, but smaller, can’t remember its name), and gentian root. Not sure what that is going to end up like, but it was fun to concoct. We got to sample a variety of other bitters that had already been marinating for while… I am talking “sample” as in one medicine dropper worth on the tongue — that stuff can be POTENT. Whew. For someone who loves to smell strange things, this class was awesome for me, I was in my own little happy place. So if you happen to start seeing all sorts of little strange bottles popping up in our kitchen, don’t think it’s all weird and all, just ask for a taste.
candy corn infused vodka – the results…
October 9th, 2011
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.
1 1/2 cups vodka
2 ounces orange liqueur
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 large egg white
Candy corn, for garnish
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!
candy-corn infused vodka
September 27th, 2011
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.
