Strawberry banana chia smoothie

Strawberry banana: perhaps not the most creative smoothie combination of all time. But hey! It's still tasty and easy, and it's certainly strawberry season right now. Why not?

Besides, the chia seeds make up for it.

I've been experimenting with chia seeds for a few months. They're excellent as a simple oatmeal topping or made into a pudding such as Gena's basic chia pudding. But I think my favorite way to eat chia seeds is to soak them and use them to thicken smoothies.

It's easy to adjust the amounts of seeds and liquid to make a thicker or thinner smoothie. This time, since I was using the classic smoothie thickener, banana, I kept the amount of chia seeds fairly low -- 1 tbsp of seeds for 1/2 cup total of milk and yogurt. It would definitely be possible to double the amount of seeds, eliminate the banana, and add in a bunch of different fruits and vegetables, though. Experiment and see what you like!

I strongly prefer smoothies made with fresh banana to those made with frozen. However! If you happen to have a freezer full of smoothie-destined bananas, you could absolutely use them here. You may need to add some extra liquid or switch out the yogurt for milk to adjust for your desired texture, but otherwise, you should be good to go.

If you make this in a regular-mouth mason jar, you can screw it onto a standard blender base and blend in the jar itself. Fewer dishes = yes please. This also means you can always put a lid on your jar and save the leftovers for later. Super easy.

Strawberry banana chia smoothie

1/4 cup milk or non-dairy milk of choice
1 tbsp chia seeds
1/4 cup plain yogurt or non-dairy sub of choice (or more milk)
4-5 strawberries, chunked
1 fresh banana, sliced
1 tsp flaxseed meal, optional

At least two hours before you want your smoothie, mix your milk and chia seeds together in your jar of choice. Refrigerate. Stir to mix twice at rough 10-minute intervals. This will keep your seeds from sticking together in one big lump at the bottom of your jar. Then just leave the jar in the fridge for 2 hours or more. I leave mine overnight.

In the morning, your chia seeds will be ready to go. Add your yogurt, strawberries, banana, and flaxseed meal to the jar (or put everything in a standard blender). Blend until fully pureed.

Drink it! Breakfast!

Do you eat chia seeds? What's your favorite thing to make with them?

PS: I have a sprained ankle. WHY. (It's because the moles dug a hole right in front of the back door. Jerks.)

Hot citrus drinks for cold winter nights

You guys, we finally have a fully operational furnace. YAY.

So now is the perfect time to talk about what I was drinking to combat the creeping cold over the past few weeks.

When you're trying to use a beverage to keep warm, tea is the clear winner. Coffee is way too full of acid and caffeine for constant consumption, hot chocolate is super sweet and can become oddly filling, hot toddies are a bad idea in any quantity over two. Tea, in contrast, includes a great variety of flavors and levels of caffeine, and is neither sweet nor alcoholic unless you actually add sugar or alcohol.

But even tea can pall when you're drinking it constantly for weeks at a time. I needed to find some other hot drinks.

At the same time, a storm front came through California, and the wind and rain knocked quite a bit of citrus (not to mention leaves and branches) off the neighborhood trees. Our backyard was suddenly full of oranges, ranging from tiny and green to black and shriveled. In between, an overabundance of perfect oranges needed to be eaten.

So, after eating a lot of oranges and drinking a lot of tea, I decided to combine the two into a new hot drink, and it was good. I tried it with a white grapefruit, and that was good too. And so the hot citrus drink was born.

These drinks are the easiest things ever and provide a nice change from whatever else you might be drinking this winter. All you have to do is mix the freshly squeezed citrus juice of your choice with hot water, and adjust to taste. Bonus: they are perhaps the most frugal drinks possible if you happen to have an orange or grapefruit tree!

These do bear a strong resemblance to the traditional morning hot water with lemon that has become a byword with many detox programs, but I'm not using them to detox! They're tasty, warming, and a welcome addition to my hot beverage library, and that's plenty for me.

Hot water with orange

Put your teapot on to boil. Juice a large orange and pour the juice into your mug of choice. Fill the rest of the cup with just-boiled water. If your orange is very sweet, add the juice of a quarter of a lemon too. Stir and drink.

Hot water with grapefruit

Put your teapot on to boil. Juice a large grapefruit (white or red -- our local grapefruits are white) and pour the juice into your mug of choice. Fill the rest of the cup with just-boiled water. If your grapefruit is particularly tart, swirl in a spoonful of honey. Stir and drink.

What are you drinking (or eating, or otherwise doing) to keep warm and toasty this winter?

Chai nog and coffee nog

It's December! Time to break out the nog!

I tend to veer away from the traditional "nog + brandy + rum" concoctions as long as it's not actually Christmas Eve. Instead, nog has become a tasty treat with which to spike my usual dose of hot caffeine action.

Now, I am not one for making very fussy coffee drinks at home. There is no espresso machine in our house, and no milk foamer, and we don't really want to acquire them. So that means these drinks are super simple: just a cup of strong, spicy chai or serious coffee, with a creamy nog addition. They're really easy and really delicious.

Any nog of your choice should work well here. Dairy eggnog, soy nog, homemade almond and date nog -- any and all are good.

Even without any alcohol, the sweetness and thickness of nog makes these drinks perfect for a dessert nightcap. Just use a decaf spiced chai or coffee and you should be all ready for a fragrant, spiced trip to sleeptown.

And if you do want to add a slug of brandy, go for it!

Chai nog

Brew 1 cup strong chai of your choosing. I use a standard tea bag and let it infuse for at least 5 minutes for serious flavor. Top up your cup with eggnog. If you like nutmeg, a little sprinkle is a good garnish.

Coffee nog

Brew yourself a cup of strong coffee. Top up your cup with eggnog.

Drink and be happy!

What festive holiday drinks are you drinking this season?

The Derby cocktail

It's actually been starting to get grey and rainy on occasion here in otherwise super-sunny California. So, in honor of fall, let's put down the gin and start thinking about bourbon cocktails.

This drink is simple and nicely balanced, with echoes of the classic bourbon sour, and is a good use for that bottle of sweet vermouth that otherwise only gets broken out for Negronis. A great way to mark the seasonal transition.

And as an added bonus, I got a full ounce of juice out of one single, solitary lime. Yes! Leftover lime juice! This never happens. I'm going to credit leaving the lime on the windowsill to warm up for a day before making the cocktail, and also rolling it on the counter before juicing, to break the membranes inside. Yay!

The Derby cocktail

1 oz bourbon
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz sweet vermouth
1/2 oz Cointreau or other orange liqueur

Shake all ingredients well in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Strain into a lovely glass.

I think a lime twist would be a nice garnish. I myself had no garnish. It was still delicious.

What seasonal cocktails are striking your fancy lately?

Nocino: Italian black walnut liqueur

Green black walnuts are clustering in the trees and staining the sidewalks in our neighborhood, so I foraged a few nice specimens and brought them home to make a batch of nocino.

What is nocino, you ask? Well. Nocino is an Italian black walnut liqueur flavored with lemon zest and cinnamon. It's traditionally made at the very end of June, since that's when the walnuts are fully formed but still green enough that you can easily chop them up. But for those of you who live in a climate a little less balmy than that of Italy, I'm guessing now is the perfect time to go find some green walnuts and start your own batch.

I still have a huge selection of homemade schnappses and liqueurs hanging around our kitchen cupboards, but I couldn't resist adding at least a tiny batch of authentic nocino. So here's what I'm doing to make one pint jar's worth of nocino this year. The results are going to be small, but so worth it.

Caution: walnuts stain! Be sure to wash your cutting board and knife immediately after chopping your walnuts, or you will have some serious fluorescent green to deal with in the future.

Small batch homemade nocino

5-6 unripe black walnuts, quartered (to fill ~2/3 pint jar)
zest of 1/2 lemon
1-inch piece cinnamon stick
about half a 750 ml bottle of vodka
mason jar with lid
simple syrup to taste

Put your walnuts, lemon zest, and cinnamon stick into your jar. Cover with vodka up to the rim of the jar. Lid the jar, label it, and put it into a dark cupboard to steep.

Agitate the jar every few days for the first week or so of steeping, and once every week or two after that. The walnuts will oxidize and the vodka will turn disturbingly dark within a few days. Don't be alarmed! This is normal! You'll want to take off the lid every once in a while to introduce fresh oxygen and promote the oxidation process. As you continue steeping, the color will mellow to a rich dark walnut brown. So pretty.

Steeping time varies from recipe to recipe. I'd recommend you steep your nocino for at least a month, and up to three months if you can stand the wait. Then, when you're ready to bottle, strain out all the solids through a fine sieve or coffee filter. You may need a second or third straining to remove all the organic material.

Flavor your nocino with a simple syrup made from 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. I'd suggest starting with about a tablespoon of simple syrup per cup of liqueur. Then taste and consider whether you want to add more syrup. Pour your final concoction into the jar or bottle of your choice.

Put your finished nocino in the liquor cupboard to age for at least a few weeks before you drink it. The last time I made black walnut schnapps (a very similar liqueur, just omitting the lemon zest and cinnamon), I aged it for a full year before drinking. That produced an excellent liqueur! But if you are impatient, you are definitely free to taste your nocino and drink it when you think it's sufficiently delicious.

How should you drink nocino? Well, you can certainly have it plain as a totally different and delightful aperitif, but I suggest you experiment with some cocktail recipes, such as Savvy Housekeeping's black walnut manhattan. SO good.

Are you making any interesting infusions this summer?

Plum orangeade

For the last installment of plum week (or is it three weeks now?), we have the easiest possible thing to make: a drink.

Just as the plums were at the top of their game, our next-door neighbor brought us a grocery bag full of oranges from her tree. On the one hand, great! Double fruit harvest! On the other hand, we suddenly had twice as much fruit to eat before it all went bad.

The obvious solution was to combine them. Thus, plum orangeade was born.

This simple blender drink is sweet and refreshing. It's excellent served over ice all by itself, but you can also add a shot of vodka or rum, or just make a simple sparkler with half juice and half sparkling water.

The texture of the finished product is up to you. I don't mind pulpy juice, so I just threw my oranges into the blender in big pieces. If you are a non-pulp person, you will probably want to juice your oranges instead. To get two cups of juice, you may need a third orange.

As you can see, the orangeade is pretty foamy right out of the blender. If you like, you can always pass it through a sieve to eliminate the fragments of plum skin and other fibrous bits. I just left mine as-is and drank it. Why throw out any of the fruit? It's all good.

Makes approximately 6 cups.

Plum orangeade

2 cups plums, pitted and quartered
2 oranges, peeled and quartered
1-2 cups water, depending on the juiciness of your fruit
simple syrup to taste

Liquefy your plums, oranges, and water in your blender. Taste the resulting orangeade and decide if you want to add any simple syrup. My fruit made a perfectly sweet orangeade all by itself, but if you have less sweet fruit, you can always adjust.

Drink over ice, with or without the added alcohol of your choice. Super refreshing!

What are you drinking to beat the heat this summer?

Joe's cinnamon orange tequila shots

Our friend Chrissy filed her dissertation paperwork and will be receiving her PhD in two weeks. This calls for a celebration! Tequila shots all around!

Yes, tequila shots: those things with which you and all your friends probably had at least one bad experience in college. (Second place: Jägermeister.) But! When you go for a nice bottle of añejo silver instead of the ubiquitous Jose Cuervo, somehow the experience improves. A lot.

The typical tequila shot requires salt and lemon. You lick the back of your left hand in the flat space at the junction of thumb and index finger, sprinkle on some salt, and pick up a wedge of lemon. In your right hand is the shot of tequila. Lick the salt, take the shot, and bite the lemon. One tequila shot.

That's okay if you want to strip all the enamel off your teeth. This method is better.

Instead of salt and lemon, we use cinnamon and orange. This combination was pioneered by our friend Joe, again during the much more tequila-centric days of college. And what a huge difference it makes.

Needless to say, you'll want to do this on a full stomach. These are tequila shots, after all.

(Yes, our grout is indeed 80 years old. Fun times!)

Joe's cinnamon orange tequila shots

cinnamon
orange wedges
good añejo tequila of your choice

We're going to do this step by step.

First, pour a shot of your tequila. Set it aside for a moment.

Lick your hand and sprinkle on some cinnamon. Not too much -- this is not the cinnamon challenge. Just get a tap or two out of the bottle.

Pick up a piece of orange in your cinnamon hand. It should look like this.

Pick up your tequila shot with your other hand. Lick the cinnamon, take the shot, and eat the orange.

Have you ever had such a good tequila shot?

If you object to getting cinnamon on your hand, you can change up the situation by simply sprinkling a little cinnamon on your orange slice. Then just take the shot and bite the slice, no licking required. Either way is delicious. This second way just won't leave your hand smelling charmingly like a pastry shop.

A fitting celebration for achieving a PhD.

Strawberry rhubarb vodka sparkler

It's super hard to find a lot of specialty northern fruit and veg in California. By "specialty" I mean things that aren't really grown here: ramps, fiddleheads, and rhubarb. The ramps and fiddleheads never show up no matter how hard you look. But lo! Finally, after several no-dice grocery store searches, I got my hands on a couple stalks of delightful ruby-red rhubarb. Yay!

(I totally just had to use my iron will not to call those searches "fruitless." Er. Clearly my will is not all that iron. ANYWAY.)

The question was what to do with it. John suggested rhubarb scones, but it suddenly got too hot to bake. Clearly, refreshing spring cocktails were the answer. So I made a rhubarb-infused simple syrup and started mixing.

Rhubarb simple syrup

2 cups chopped rhubarb
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water

Combine rhubarb, sugar, and water in a small saucepan. Cook slowly over low-medium heat, covered, for about 20 minutes. Strain out the solids and chill the syrup thoroughly before using.

Check out the ultra-pink results! OH MAN.

Now I just had to decide what to do with it. Fortunately, we had a handful of beautiful spring strawberries in the refrigerator. What could possibly pair better with rhubarb?

Strawberry-rhubarb vodka sparkler

per drink:
2-3 strawberries
3/4 oz rhubarb simple syrup
2 oz vodka
~1 cup sparkling water
mint or lemon to garnish
also lots of ice

Wash and roughly chop your strawberries. Muddle them well in a cocktail shaker with your rhubarb syrup. Add ice and vodka, and then shake for as long as you can possibly stand it, preferably for at least a minute. This is especially important if your strawberries didn't want to muddle.

Strain into an ice-filled pint glass. You may need to clear strawberry seeds out of the strainer midway through the process. Add sparkling water, garnish with a mint sprig or lemon twist, and drink.

If you want to serve this as an ultra-lethal martini, just leave out the sparkling water and serve up in a martini glass. Be careful, though! It's going to taste like candy and be super alcoholic. So, you know, the sparkling water version is a better idea for a hot day when you just want to gulp down your drink as fast as possible.

Voila! A delightful, refreshing, seasonal, and beautifully pink cocktail. It's an excellent plan for a bright and sunny afternoon.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest of the simple syrup. Ideas:

- Add lemon, mint, or ginger to the strawberries and rhubarb syrup before muddling. All the flavor variations!
- Add some freshly ground black pepper. You know strawberry and pepper can be great together. Why not?
- Try using the rhubarb syrup in a mojito with lime. Yes, rhubarb mojito!

Some of these are going to have to happen in the near to immediate future. I'm just saying.

What refreshing drinks are you making with your spring rhubarb?

Strawberry ginger yogurt smoothie

It's spring and my system wants all the fresh berries as immediately as possible.

That means it's time for...a smoothie with no banana!

I don't know about you guys, but I cannot stand frozen bananas in smoothies. For a long time, this made me think I didn't like smoothies. (Well, this plus my continued distaste for washing the blender.) But I was wrong, because guess what I can sub in? Yogurt.

So the ubiquitous vat of plain yogurt isn't just for curries, garnishes, and labneh anymore -- it's also my standby for cramming my face full of as much fresh fruit and veg as possible. Hooray!

I broke out the new spring strawberries and went to work.

Strawberries and ginger are an amazing combination in my book, so I punched up this smoothie with a chunk of fresh ginger. If you find the zing of ginger too strong, you can add a small apple, peeled and chopped, but be aware that the yogurt will tame it a bit too. Personally, I prefer the full-zing version, but both are very good. It's up to you and your taste buds. And of course you can always add more ginger for the most exciting smoothie in the land!

I used a standard plain full-fat yogurt for this smoothie. If you happen to have Greek yogurt instead, you can halve the amount and thin your smoothie accordingly with the milk of your choice. It's all good.

Strawberry ginger yogurt smoothie

3/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced or grated
1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries
(optional apple)

Put everything in a blender, with the yogurt on the bottom and the strawberries on top. Liquefy thoroughly. Pour into the glass of your choosing and drink. Makes approximately 1 pint.

This smoothie makes a perfect breakfast or mid-morning break on those days when you can't quite bring yourself to eat something hot. So good!

How are you eating your fresh spring strawberries? Any fantastic smoothies in your current rotation?

Rosemary lemon gin sour

The lemon tree next door has been dropping fruit into our driveway for several weeks now. What better way to use up both zest and juice than in a delightful cocktail?

My cocktail of choice is the sour. (See: the Fields of Gold, the Fitzgerald.) A basic sour recipe goes like this: combine 2 oz of the liquor of your choice with .75 oz of lemon juice and .75 oz of simple syrup. It's super easy to switch it up, either by trying different kinds of liquor or by flavoring your syrup. So I decided to make a gin sour and punch up my syrup with extra lemon and a branch of rosemary. The result was tangy, slightly sweet, and herbaceous: perfect.

My simple syrup recipe makes a very small batch, which I prefer because sugar syrups don't tend to last much longer than a week or so in the refrigerator. It's definitely easy to double or triple if you want to make a big batch of cocktails, though. The color is also really pretty--almost like a very light olive oil.

Keep in mind that your zest should be free of bitter pith. I read about removing extra pith from zest on a blog a few days ago, and I can't find it ANYWHERE now, but. Just use a spoon to scrape off any pith: totally easy and 100% effective. Why didn't I think of it before? Thank you, whoever mentioned this!

Rosemary lemon gin sour

2 oz gin
.75 oz rosemary lemon simple syrup (see below)
.75 ox lemon juice

Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously for 2-3 minutes, or as long as you can stand it. Strain into an ice-filled cocktail glass of your choice, garnish with a strip of zest or rosemary sprig if you so desire, and drink.

Rosemary lemon simple syrup

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 large sprig rosemary
zest of 2-3 lemons

Combine your sugar and water in a small saucepan. Chop your rosemary roughly and add it to the pan. Zest your lemons, taking care to avoid the white pith. Scrape with a spoon to remove any large bits of pith before you add your zest to the pan.

Bring the pan to a gentle simmer over medium heat, swirling occasionally. When all the sugar has dissolved, lid the pan, turn off the heat, and let steep for 30 to 45 minutes.

Strain your finished syrup through a fine-mesh sieve and cool completely before using.

What's your drink of choice this month?

New Year's hot pepper, ginger, and orange syrup

New Year's usually gets me in a "Where did we get so much STUFF?" frame of mind.

So the other day I sorted through the mishmash of random ingredients stuffed into our pantry cabinet and got rid of a lot of expired and otherwise not so great stuff. And along with the cans of tuna (which I made into an entirely delightful spicy tuna melt) and ancient half-eaten packages of rice noodles, I found a bag we'd bought at the farmer's market when we lived in New York--a bag still mostly full of dried hot cayenne peppers.

Obviously, spices are better when they're fresh, but these peppers are still usable. The real question is how we can use them up before they truly get too old. I definitely have some future soup broths in mind, for one thing. But in the meantime, how about a spicy syrup for delightful hot drink purposes?

John thought up this flavor combination. He originally wanted to make it into candy, but we don't have a candy thermometer, so. Syrup was a perfect backup plan, especially since it means that now we get to doctor our tea and hot whisky drinks at our leisure. It's definitely a great plan if, for instance, you have the other classic response to the new year: a sore throat and a stuffy nose.

The process is a takeoff on basic simple syrup. All you have to do is melt sugar in water and infuse it with hot peppers, fresh ginger, and orange. Strain your syrup, tip a spoonful into your cup of tea, and get ready for a blissfully warming sip.

Hot pepper, ginger, and orange syrup

1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup water
3-4 dried hot peppers (or 1+ tbsp red pepper flake?)
2-inch piece fresh ginger, roughly chopped
juice of 1 orange

Start the same way you'd make any simple syrup. Put your sugar and water in a small saucepan and simmer, swirling occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved.

Add your hot peppers, ginger, and orange juice to the syrup. Cover the pan, leaving a small crack to let some steam escape, and continue to simmer slowly for about fifteen minutes. Check occasionally to see how much liquid has evaporated. When your syrup has thickened slightly, put on the pot's lid, turn off the heat, and let steep for another fifteen minutes or so.

Strain out the solids in a fine-mesh sieve, and you're done! You'll need to cool your syrup completely if you want to use it in cold cocktails, but otherwise, a spoonful or two of hot syrup can go straight into tea or toddy at your discretion. Pour the leftovers into your jar of choice, refrigerate, and use within a week or two.

Happy new year! What are you planning for 2014?

Did I say white grapefruit mimosas?

Yes, I did.

White grapefruit mimosa

freshly squeezed white grapefruit juice
dry sparkling wine

Combine equal amounts of juice and wine in champagne flute or coupe.

Don't even bother garnishing this. Just drink it.

SO GOOD.

If you have a mimosa tradition on Christmas morning? Try this. You won't be sorry.

Liquid Christmas: cranberry orange liqueur

Okay! Who's ready for holiday cheer? I certainly am. So, to kick off the season, let's make a batch of liquid Christmas.

What is liquid Christmas? It's a beautiful sweet-tart BRIGHT RED liqueur made with fresh cranberries and citrus zest: super festive and super delicious.

I first heard of this combination about two years ago on a certain Ravelry message board. The original version called for cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg along with the cranberries and zest. My version is stripped down to the bare essentials--cranberry, orange, and vodka--for a clean and versatile liqueur. After all, you can always make a spiced simple syrup for future cocktail application, right?

This liqueur is great in all kinds of cocktail applications. Tiny chilled sips are excellent straight, and a simple mix with tonic works perfectly. Best of all, add half a shot to a champagne flute, top it up with the sparkling wine of your choice, and garnish with a twist of orange peel. Beautiful pink champagne cocktails for everyone!

Making liqueurs, as always, is easy. The only real requirements are patience and forethought, since they do take time to infuse. I like to give this one approximately three weeks to steep, but you can go a little shorter or longer as you prefer. Two weeks should be fine, and will ensure drinkability by Christmas. And if you want to steep yours longer, never fear! There's always New Year's Eve!

Liquid Christmas
(aka cranberry orange liqueur)

1 lb fresh or frozen cranberries
zest of 2-3 oranges
up to 750 ml vodka
simple syrup to taste
quart mason jar or other receptacle of your choice

Wash your cranberries and give them a rough chop. Zest your oranges, taking care to avoid the white pith. You can leave your strips of zest in big pieces with no problem.

Put everything in a mason jar or two, filling each container approximately 1/2 to 3/4 full of fruit. Add vodka to fill to the top of the jar. Lid and stow in a dark cupboard to age. Shake occasionally during the steeping period.

When your steeping period is over, strain out and discard the fruit. You may need to strain a few times through coffee filters or other very fine sieves to ensure that you eliminate all the solids.

Sweeten your liqueur to taste with simple syrup. I'd start by adding 1/4 of a cup, taste, and adjust from there. Since this liqueur is cranberry-based, it will be tart to begin with, so you may decide to add quite a bit of syrup. It really depends on on your personal tastes.

Makes approximately 1.5 pints of liqueur.

Basic simple syrup

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
(or any equal amount of sugar and water)

Combine your sugar and water in a saucepan. Heat over medium swirling occasionally, until sugar is dissolved. Let cool and decant into a bottle or jar. Use to sweeten your liqueur to taste. Any leftovers can be used in the cocktail recipe of your choice.

What concoctions are you drinking this holiday season?

Pear schnapps and subsequent pear liqueur

Fall fruit, you guys. Let's preserve it in alcohol for a winter's worth of imbibing!

The trendy term "infusion" came into widespread use after I started making liqueurs, as far as I can tell. Instead, I use the term "schnapps," which is...the older term for an infusion in vodka or other alcohol! SHOCKING. The only difference I'm aware of is that contemporary infusions usually only steep for a day or two, while schnappses start out at a few days of steeping (for intensely flavored things like herbs), but often go on much longer. Since I'm all about aging my concoctions, the schnapps term is doubly appropriate.

Okay then! Let's make some schnapps!

I chose pear, because pear is one of the best of all fall fruits. Who doesn't want pear in cocktail form? I ask you.

Pear schnapps

1.5 chopped bartlett pears
up to 750 ml vodka

Wash, core, & chop your pears. Put them in a quart mason jar or the other steeping vessel of your choice. You want to fill the jar approximately 2/3 of the way with fruit, but more is ok too. I more or less said TIME FOR FRUCT (not a typo; "fruct" is slang for "fruit" at our house) and filled the jar with as much pear as I could cram without crushing anything.

Pour in vodka to cover the fruit, all the way up to the neck of the jar. Then lid your jar and stick it in a dark cupboard to age.

Give your jar a gentle shake whenever you think of it. Every few days or so is fine.

The question of when to remove the fruit from the schnapps is up in the air. I'd leave this for at least two weeks, and up to three months for a deep & full pear flavor. It depends on how strong you like your schnapps, and also on your patience.

When you're ready, strain your pears out of your schnapps. I find it easiest to do this by putting a fine-mesh strainer into a canning funnel and filtering the whole shebang into a second mason jar. Canning funnels: get one.

Strain your schnapps a second time through a coffee filter-lined strainer or other extremely fine mesh to make sure you've removed every bit of sediment. It's possible that some more bits and pieces will settle as your schnapps sits in the cupboard; if this happens, you can just re-strain whenever it's necessary. Real talk: I routinely strain my stuff through tissues or paper towels, since our coffeemaking equipage consists of a french press and nothing else. It's all good.

Voila! Pear schnapps!

At this point you have a choice. You can either use the schnapps as-is, or you can sweeten it with simple syrup to create a liqueur.

Of course, since simple syrup doesn't have to be just sugar and water, this opens up a whole world of possibilities. Rosemary? Cardamom? Vanilla bean? Ginger? Cinnamon and nutmeg? What would be tastiest with pear?

I have a little rosemary simple syrup left over from making Tracy Shutterbean's pear cornmeal cake with rosemary syrup (note: it was awesome & you should make one), so I'm planning on trying that when my schnapps is sufficiently steeped. Ginger and pear also sounds like a really good plan.

In any case, here's how to make a basic flavored simple syrup. The amount of herb or spice components will depend on what you want to use and how strong an infusion you prefer. Several branches of herbs, 3 or 4 cracked cardamom pods, or a single split vanilla bean would all produce delightful results. However, I'd err on the side of strength to make sure whatever flavor you choose can stand up to the pear without getting too sweet.

Infused simple syrup

1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
Herb, spice, zest, etc. of your choice

Put everything in a pan and simmer gently until the sugar is completely dissolved, swirling occasionally. Turn off the heat, lid the pan, and let steep for about an hour. Taste your syrup and see if you want to let it steep further.

Strain out your solid ingredients and let your simple syrup cool completely. Use it to sweeten & flavor schnapps to taste or make the cocktails of your choice. I find that simple syrup can last in the refrigerator for a shorter time than most people say. Try to use it within 2 weeks.

Who else is making liqueurs this season?

Post-Portland: tea, tea, and more tea

One thing that happens when you live in someone else's house for any significant time is that you start eating like them. And cooking like them. And drinking like them.

This is definitely a good thing, especially when said someone elses have a big box of Tetley tea bags and a jug or two of whole milk in the house at all times.

I started drinking many gigantic mugs of serious black tea with milk, and I like it.

I like it so much that I bought a second box of tea for the house at approximately the 1 week mark of our stay in Portland.

Now that we're back home, we went to the store and got a box of Tetley and another of PG Tips, largely because the only Tetley in said store was decaf. I got some of it anyway, because another thing that definitely happened in Portland is that my caffeine intake went through the roof, but still.

We also bought a quart of whole milk. I can't remember the last time I bought any amount of whole milk that wasn't immediately destined for a white sauce.

I've had approximately three cups of strong milky tea in the ten or so hours since we were at the store. There looks to be at least one more in my future tonight.

Portland bars and the drinks thereof

Ok ok! I am catching up with what we've been doing in Portland. One thing is visiting bars and drinking delicious beverages. Here are some of them.

Most of the time I've been drinking beer in dark shadowy places, which means I have very few pictures. Oh well. We all know what a pint of beer looks like anyway, right?

The Old Gold, 2105 N Killingsworth

We went to meet friends here for not only drinks but, as it turns out, also a giant plate of kale with bacon and a platter of house-made pickles including cucumbers, beet, and even pears. SUPER interesting. I had a red ale, which was excellent, and then a cocktail called the Birds & Bees, which is "Aviation Gin, Aperol, grapefruit juice, fresh lemon juice, grapefruit bitters, served up." DELIGHTFUL.

The Old Gold is actually a whisky/ey bar and has an entire blackboard full of options, if that's your thing. It is actually my thing, but it was a gin night. It's all good in any case.

bottles, 5015 NE Fremont

Possibly my favorite new discovery of this trip. bottles has both a multi-roomed, multi-purpose bar, with a variety of both indoor and outdoor nooks, and an array of cases filled with bottles available to drink there or take home. It's super relaxing and neighborhoody, and you can easily escape the drone of tv sports with a simple change of room. Win win!

Bar of the Gods, 4801 SE Hawthorne Blvd

"Darker than Plato's cave, but only in terms of lighting." BA HA NERD JOKE

I love a good dive bar, and one called Bar of the Gods definitely deserves a visit or two. There's a double-sided bar with booths along one side and a couple of pool tables down the other: good for all your beer-drinking and socializing needs. Bonus: faux-Olympian gold columns flanking the door and sparkly grape lights hung from the rafters!

We were thinking we'd go a second time last Friday, but we discovered a quite loud band was playing. While this is probably what a lot of people want out of a bar, I'm not really at that place anymore. Be aware! Instead, we decided to go back to our airbnb with a couple bottles of our own, and spend the evening accidentally about forgetting said beers in favor of code. Yeah.

The Sapphire Hotel, 5008 SE Hawthorne Blvd

This place was dark--dark red, to be precise, with a cascade of philodendrons curtaining the doorway--and crowded, with many carefully dressed hipster customers and a substantial menu of fancy cocktails with fancy names to match. It was loud, but not unbearably so, and the drinks were certainly delightful.

The highlight of the evening was a cocktail called the Retrosex, because of course. It's the drink at the top of the page with the gigantic basil leaf: gin and basil and grapefruit, served in a freezing cold copper tumbler full of ice. Hey, did you hear that metal conducts heat? Yeah. The cup was cold, and that absolutely added to its charm. I wouldn't spend every weekend here by any means, but if you want a fancy cocktail or two--and maybe dinner besides--it's definitely a good candidate.

We still have awhile, so I'm sure we'll go to some more exciting places in the future.

In conclusion, the Portland bar scene is numerous and worth it. Hooray!

A NE Portland mini coffee tour

Man, I am really falling down on the foodblog front this week! But I guess that's what happens when you're essentially learning a new city, working full-time, suddenly increasing your biking from near-zero to 10+ miles per day (with HILLS), hanging out with multiple groups of friends, celebrating multiple birthdays (I am now a power of six! A really small power, but still) and living in a house with two kids under the age of seven. And did I mention I fell down the stairs yesterday? I'm fine, but it's just another thing to tackle--not to mention another dimension to my already existent biking soreness.

So why don't I start by talking about all the coffee I've drunk over the past week or so?

I generally start off my workdays with a trip to the coffeeshop, a regular coffee with milk or cream, and a lot of laptop work. Portland, if you were unaware, has all the coffee everywhere, so I have been having an excellent time trying out all and sundry coffees in the land.

Barista, 1725 NE Alberta

This is the only shop on the list that I've been to before, and the only one at which I ordered anything besides just plain coffee. Although I suppose an Americano could be considered plain coffee...but regardless, it was delicious. My favorite thing about this place is the bar that curves around the back of the barista stations: beautiful wood with plenty of stools for all your coffee-and-work needs.

It can be a little tough to get a seat in the crowded front of the shop, but isn't that the case at all the best coffeeshops? Frequently, yes.

Half Pint Cafe, 537 SE Ash #108

We've been working in the same space as our friends Danny and Bethany, the founders of Beeminder, and this little coffeeshop is just up the street from their office.

We had a marginally hard time finding it because both their site and Maps list them as "Mudd Works Roastery," but everything worked out perfectly once we went inside. There is indeed Mudd Works coffee available approximately one step from the front door, in a totally charming, narrow space. We got our coffees to go, so I can't comment on the working-there situation, but the tasty caffeine experience was all it should be.

Case Study Coffee, 5347 NE Sandy

I really like working here because of the long library table that runs down the room. The smaller tables are copper-topped, which is super appealing as well. The excellent coffee doesn't hurt either.

This is the only place I've gone back to more than once so far, which definitely says something about what a great space it is for work. There's just something about a big library table.

Heart Roasters, 2211 E Burnside

I picked this shop to visit because it's at a good location to take a break on the bike ride to or from the office. Coffee: delicious. Their roaster is right out in the middle of the shop, looming with the delightful promise of more coffee, more, MORE. My shop of choice at home has their roaster out in the shop as well, so this made me feel extra at-home.

This was the most crowded shop I've been to, but it was still totally possible to grab a seat and get some quality work-doing and coffee-drinking done. Hooray!

These shops have a couple things in common.

1. Good coffee. I mean, I am not a connossieur by any means--I will totally mix different blends of self-serve to make a half-caf in my normal shop at home--but I still know what tastes good. These coffees definitely taste good.

2. Communal tables. I'm not sure about the Half Pint, since I didn't go back to the actual seating area, but every single other shop has some kind of communal seating arrangement. This makes it a bit easier to find a seat while also giving you the chance to easily meet people if you so desire. However, nobody was pushy, either, so it's a win-win situation all around.

Obviously we've mostly been in one quadrant of Portland so far, but never fear--there will be more exploring in the future!

Next up: food. Or bars. Maybe both? We'll see.

Fields of Gold cocktail

Is it sufficiently fall-y out for me to start posting bourbon drinks? Yes?

The other night I wanted a single bourbon drink to sip slowly before going to bed. Since we still have two big bowls of tangerines hanging around, a bourbon-tangerine cocktail seemed like a good plan. So we did a bit of poking around the internet and discovered the Fields of Gold cocktail: a variation on a bourbon sour with honey and orange. Perfect.

The title is especially apt, since the color of the finished cocktail reminds me vividly of California poppies, and particularly of a bit in the very beginning of East of Eden where Steinbeck describes them: "These too are of a burning color--not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of the poppies." So if you haven't read East of Eden, there's one good reason to go get it.

Here, honey gets mixed with warm water to make an instant simple syrup. I normally use standard granulated-sugar-based syrups in my cocktails, so I was pleasantly surprised to see how well this worked. The honey dissolved easily, and the flavor was smooth and distinct. Now I want to experiment with some other simple syrups--maybe with maple? Something in the maple-bourbon-cranberry family definitely sounds like a worthwhile experiment as we move toward actual fall.

Look at all those seeds! These guys are really good, but every single one of them has at least ten seeds. That actually makes them perfect for cocktail-making instead of eating, since the strainer catches all the seeds of its own volition.

Switching out the orange slices for tangerine slices worked well, but made the overall result a bit more sweet than I'd prefer. If you're using a sweet tangerine, I'd recommend taking the honey down to 2 tsp, or even a bit less.

Fields of Gold cocktail

1 tbsp honey
1 1/2 tsp warm water
3 orange or tangerine slices
1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 oz bourbon
ice to shake & serve
garnish: another orange or tangerine slice

Start by mixing your honey and water in the bottom of a cocktail shaker until the honey is dissolved. Add the orange slices and muddle well. Add ice, lemon juice, and bourbon, and shake well. Strain & serve over ice, garnished with the last orange slice.

What are you drinking as the weather starts to turn?

All infusions all the time: chive blossom vinegar & lemon vinegar

Speaking of home infusions: I've spent quite a bit of time steeping various ingredients in vodka or brandy to make schnappses and liqueurs in the past few years. They're delicious and easy, and it's super satisfying to mix up a drink featuring your own personal concoction.

That walnut schnapps? I made an amazing black walnut Manhattan from it, with a little help from Savvy Housekeeping. Since it wasn't actual nocino, I doctored the recipe with lemon peel, cinnamon, and simple syrup. The results were all I could ask for in a cocktail: rich, interesting, and super luxurious. See?

But there's a catch with all this infusing. Guess what my cabinets look like now? That's right: they're full of random bottles of schnapps, many of which are a little challenging to use. I can't make much more without going completely overboard.

The solution? Infuse other things. How about vinegars?

For my first experiment, I decided to follow a tried-and-true method and infused champagne vinegar with chive blossoms. This sounded especially good because 1. we already had chives blooming in the side bed and 2. a nice oniony vinegar would clearly make some of the best & simplest salad dressings in the land.

Chive blossom vinegar

handful of chive blossoms
champagne vinegar

Start by gently rinsing your chive blossoms and laying them on a towel to dry overnight. The next day, put your chive blossoms in a glass jar and cover with approximately twice their depth in vinegar.

Steep for a week before straining your finished vinegar through a fine sieve, preferably lined with cheesecloth or a coffee filter, to remove all plant material. You may need to filter more than once if you notice sediment in the finished product.

Voila! Bright pink vinegar, ready to liven up your salad dressing at a moment's notice.

So that takes care of our salads for the next month or so. What's next? Well, I like the idea of cleaning with vinegar, but its strong scent is not so great. So I decided to steep a bunch of lemon peels in white vinegar to see if I could tame the beast.

Lemon vinegar

lemon peels
white vinegar

Cut your peels off your lemons in wide strips. Pack them into a glass jar and cover with twice their depth in vinegar. I actually used a bit more vinegar than that, as you can see, but I think the end result would be better with more lemon. Certainly it would be more lemony.

Steep for a week or two, or until you remember that you have a jarful of vinegar and lemon peels in the cupboard. Strain through a fine sieve as above, removing all vegetable matter.

Use in DIY home cleaning applications with baking soda. Actually, this would also make a great salad dressing. Two for the price of one!

Hooray for infusions! Are you infusing anything at home lately?

Walnut schnapps unveiled

Last summer I put some split unripe black walnuts in a jar, covered them with vodka, and waited.

Now it's the moment of truth. After a full year of aging and oxidation, I get to try my homemade walnut schnapps.

The original recipe mentioned an end result similar to cognac. Oh really? Let's see.

It's dark, dark brown, so dark it was almost impossible to get a picture that looked anything but black.

It's smooth and serious. Check out that sheen.

The walnut taste is deep, but still a touch sharp and young. As the schnapps continues to age, it'll mellow out, becoming even richer and darker.

I can't say I mind waiting for something like this.

It looks like I need to get my hands on some more green walnuts, doesn't it? Especially considering I'd like to try out a batch of traditional Italian Nocino as well.

Have you ever made your own liqueurs? How did you like the results?