January 2012
1 post
6 tags
Mulled Wine: Sangria's Wintertime Alter Ego
I love sangria. Love it. But, there is something about it that decidedly says summertime, or at least spring. Point being, as much as I love sangria, I always hesitate to make it in winter, which is why I have such a soft spot for mulled wine.
Mulled wine is easy and low fuss. Done right, it’s also dangerously drinkable — just like sangria. It’s a great way to serve a crowd, and...
December 2011
1 post
4 tags
Lost and Found: Samuel Smith Organic Fruit Ale
My first couple years of graduate school, I developed an affinity for Melbourn Bros. Cherry Ale. I’d buy myself a bottle now and then as a reward for surviving some of the small indignities of day to day life — I worked retail at the time, and there were many to be endured. I picked up the stuff by the bottle at Whole Foods, and then, inexplicably, they stopped carrying it.
I asked...
6 tags
Mulling things over
I was going to mull some wine tonight — the air has a snap to it, and it took me an hour to drive home from work, so I figured the project would be relaxing and the wine would be a treat. However, because nothing is going my way, really, today, we don’t have adequate brandy for me to go about this in my preferred way. So, I will tell you nothing of how to mull wine, and instead tease...
November 2011
1 post
2 tags
Caramel Sauce
I wanted to post the caramel sauce recipe I used for the ill fated drink I posted about last week. It isn’t mine, so I’m going to link to it, but the recipe does give delectable results. Try it yourself here.
I should be back with an actual drink sometime later this week. And, I may try to figure out something drinks-related to do with this sauce, although after the last failure,...
October 2011
2 posts
1 tag
On Cocktail Failures
See that drink above? See how decadent it looks? How creamy? How it’s topped with caramel sauce? Well, I have a secret: It’s terrible.
The drink above is so terrible that there is still still about half a blender of it sitting in the freezer nearly a month after I made it. It is so bad that we have turned to nearly every other tipple in the house rather than empty that pitcher. The...
September 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Field Work: New Republic Skylight Dunkelweizen
Last Saturday, we went to check out the resurrected Texas Craft Brewers Festival. I’d done some lead-up coverage for Austinist, so it was nice to actually go check the event out.
The drought meant the usually lovely venue — Fiesta Gardens — was a bit of a dust bowl, and the sun was pretty brutal. But, we survived. We wound up trying just a handful of beers, including a couple...
3 tags
Field Work: The Spicy Bee's Knees at Peché
I talk about Peché more than perhaps I should, because I love it more than perhaps I should. But, I met up with Kathryn of Austin Gastronomist for happy hour Tuesday, and I was reminded all over again why I love this bar. Case in point: The Spicy Bees’ Knees. I’m sure its days are numbered, since it’s a summer menu item, but it’s such a perfectly balanced drink. I love...
August 2011
2 posts
4 tags
CHeRiTH VaLLeY Farms Spirited Cherries
Now, I don’t think this is a bad thing, but many of the cherries I received in my jar of CHeRiTH Valley Farms Spirited Cherries looked like they’d had a bit of a rough life. There are no stems. The cherries are not plump and round, instead looking a bit deflated. They are red, but not overly so. They look a bit like good, fresh homemade pie filling.
And this, my friends, leads us to...
4 tags
Field Work: The Palace Kitchen
At the tail end of our honeymoon (a word which always makes me think of the bit in Gregory Corso’s “Marriage” where the narrator talks about running around screaming “I deny honeymoon! I deny honeymoon!”), we wound up spending some time in Seattle. I say wound up, because our intention was not in fact, to dawdle three days in Seattle, but to trek across most of the...
July 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Field Work: Rohan Meadery
Several weeks ago — before the wedding was looming too badly — my then-fiance and I took off for Burton, Texas to stay at the Knittel Homestead Inn. We had a voucher from flash-sale site, and we desperately needed some time to ourselves, so it seemed like a fine destination.
I had forgotten that I spent some time in Burton several years ago while working on Republic of Barbecue, but...
3 tags
A Wrinkle in Time
I’ve been absent. I don’t usually get into my personal life too much here, but among other things, my grandmother passed away, my mother entered treatment for breast cancer, and I got married. Actually, I got married last Saturday. That was fun. But, the rest of it hasn’t been. To call this a difficult summer would be the grossest of understatements.
What I actually wanted to...
June 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Luxardo “The Original” Maraschino Cherries
I still haven’t managed to rip the lid off my fourth jar of cherries (no joke), but at least today I’ll get to the third: Luxardo “The Original” Maraschino Cherries.
Luxardo’s cherries are immediately distinguishable from other cocktail cherries because (a) they are very, very dark in color, a deep bloody red verging on brown (b) they are packed in a rather thick...
7 tags
Amaretto
For this month’s Austin Food Swap, I was going to make irish cream. Then, I forgot to buy whiskey before it was Sunday, and, sadly, you cannot buy whiskey on the Lord’s Day here in the great state of Texas. This was rather disappointing. I had a handle of vodka and no specific ideas, so I started poking around for vodka-based liqueur recipes and hit on a few amaretto recipes that...
May 2011
2 posts
4 tags
Whipped Lightning
I’ll be back to the cherries next week. Consider this an aside as I recover from having moved — I can’t even get to my bar at the moment, because it’s been boxed in. I’m sure the bourbon’s getting lonely.
And, so, today, I present to you Whipped Lightning. Whipped Lightning has roughly the best product name in history. It is exactly what it sounds like it...
5 tags
Maker's Mark Bourbon Flavored Cherries
Maker’s Mark Bourbon Flavored Cherries, much like the Sable & Rosenfeld Tipsy Cherries I wrote about previously, look more or less like standard-issue cocktail cherries. They’re bright red. They have stems at least some of the time.They look like candy.
However, their smell reveals a key difference: the Maker’s Mark cherries smell like booze. Go ahead and bite in, and...
April 2011
6 posts
3 tags
Sable & Rosenfeld Tipsy Cherries (Whiskey)
I thought this was going to be one post about four kinds of cherries, but instead it’s four posts, each covering one type. The reason is that this post would be rather long to do all at once, and I’d rather let each of the products I’m considering stand alone before I start considering them in context of one another.
So, first out of the gate: Sable & Rosenfeld’s...
4 tags
The Contenders: Cherries Four Ways
I realize I sound like a total incompetent — which might not be too far from the truth — but I injured my foot and am on my way out of town for a conference, so all I have is a second teaser about cocktail cherries. Also, when I first tried to pick up Luxardo cherries over the weekend at Spec’s, they only had one giant, dented can left. Price tag? $103 and some change....
3 tags
Not Very Cherry
I had this whole post planned out about different kinds of cherries and why some are better than others and how the cherry is such a wonderful garnish. I even had this awesome picture planned out in my head, and the lighting this morning is just ever so perfect. But, then I spent 15 minutes trying, unsuccessfully, to open a jar of spirited cherries. I tried all the tricks. I hit the jar lid on the...
7 tags
Whiskey Cocktail
The cocktail is older than old-fashioned. This particular cocktail in particular most definitely is. The Old Fashioned, usually made with bourbon, always with the slice of orange, is newer than the cocktail. According to Imbibe!, the Old Fashioned exists because cocktails started getting really fancy and inventive — and likely sometimes quite bad and silly. People who wanted a proper...
3 tags
Austin Bakes for Japan Post-Mortem: $11,400 for...
Austin Bakes for Japan, held just this past Saturday, was a resounding success. The effort raised over $11,400, all of which has already been sent along to AmeriCares for relief work. That the sale was so successful says tremendous things about the community here in Austin. Dozens of bakers and bloggers stepped up to donate their wares — and to stand around outside all day on a rather hot...
5 tags
Austin Bakes for Japan
Before you get all, “Why am I looking at cookies on a cocktail blog?” just let me say that this is an overt plug for Austin Bakes for Japan, which will be happening at five locations across the city this Saturday. So, the reason you’re looking at cookies is that I baked cookies. Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies, to be exact. If you really want some, they’ll be...
March 2011
4 posts
4 tags
Welcome Spring (and Highballs)
Just a quick one today, as we’ve got family in town, and it’s just about all I can handle. The first official day of spring was this Sunday, which I’m rather grateful for. Summer is my favorite season, but I’ll settle for spring. The farmer’s market is going mad with strawberries and snowpeas and all other kinds of seasonal delicacies. I snagged a patio set off...
4 tags
My Life Originals: Iced Irish
When I call something a “My Life Original,” it does not mean no one has ever done it before, only that this is a way of doing it that I came to on my own. So, for example, I’m sure there are 8 million variations on Iced Irish Coffee, but, this one is mine.
I have had a lot of things passed off to me as Irish Coffee, many of them completely silly. These have included a cup of...
3 tags
Garrison Brothers Texas Bourbon Whiskey in Stores
Just like the title says, folks: Garrison Brothers Texas Bourbon Whiskey hit stores today. This will be the first time I’ve tasted the stuff, since I completely missed the previous releases. If you want to grab some, I recommend hopping right on it, as this batch will probably sell out, too — it’s bigger, but word’s gotten out a bit.
Emma Janzen has a good list of where...
4 tags
Field Work: Anvil Bar & Refuge
A while back, I heard about Anvil Bar & Refuge in Houston via Tipsy Texan. I was intrigued, partially because I used to live in Houston, and that city will forever occupy a rather soft spot in my heart. So, while in Houston a few weeks ago to take a stop-motion animation class from SWAMP, I dragged a few folks along with me to check out Anvil.
The bar is well worth visiting, although I was...
2 tags
Austin Food Swap
My friend Melanie introduced me to the Austin Food Swap. It’s a fairly self-explanatory event: people get together and exchange foodstuffs. Last month’s event was the first I attended, and I was rather impressed by how friendly everyone was and what an amazing, creative, diverse spread of homemade things there were.
I brought ginger syrup with instructions for making ginger ale, and...
February 2011
3 posts
4 tags
Foodways Texas Symposium: Feb. 25 & 26 in...
If you are not familiar with Foodways Texas, and you live in Texas, and you like, well, food, you probably should be. The organization, modeled in part on the example set by the Southern Foodways Association, is “a grassroots effort dedicated to studying, documenting and honoring the Lone Star State’s unique food culture.”
Foodways Texas will be holding their first annual...
7 tags
My Life Originals: the Broiled Grapefruit Punch
I’ve been pondering this punch for a while. The name is a bit of a misnomer, as the punch is not broiled, rather, it’s flavor profile is based on broiled grapefruit, which is a favorite brunch fixing of mine. Given that even Texas has been sucked into the snowpocalypse now, it seems like a fine time for a hot drink.
Broiled Grapefruit Punch 4 oz. grapefruit juice (preferably ruby...
January 2011
1 post
3 tags
Organizational Methods
So, in the time that I’ve been MIA, I got engaged, which has sparked the Great Household Combination of 2011. Neither my fiance (whoa) nor I are especially young, nor are our lifestyles particularly spartan. We’ve accumulated a lot of stuff over the past umpteen years. The fact that we both lived alone in fairly large places has only aggravated matters. Since he’s aided and...
November 2010
3 posts
5 tags
Chartreuse and Chocolate
I know, I know. It’s not a cocktail. It’s a week late. But, there was a stomach bug and a conference, and neither was particularly conducive to drinking. I don’t even have anything to report from the hour I spent in a hotel bar, because it was the kind of hotel bar that is both very expensive and very uncreative. Sigh.
I have before mentioned my love Chartreuse and Chocolate....
3 tags
Hot Chocolate Mix
Ok, this post may seem like a total departure given my usual subject of cocktails and drinks and such, but hot chocolate is an important base for many a find cold-weather drink. There’s no point in pouring good booze into inferior hot chocolate, and if you’re not quite up to making hot cocoa from scratch any time the need strikes, this mix is a good substitute.
The recipe I’m...
2 tags
Giveaway Results: MUJI Ice Ball Maker
The results of last week’s giveaway are here. Hooray! To choose a winner, I assigned a number in order from first on up to each entrant. I only included entrants who had left all the necessary information. If you entered but forgot to leave a URL or e-mail address, sorry. I’ll do another giveaway in a few weeks, and you can try again.
So, the entrants were:
Carrey
Allyson
James
...
October 2010
7 posts
5 tags
Beer & Cheese Pairings at FINO
It’s Austin Beer Week this week. What does that mean? It means there are beer-related events all over the place. On Tuesday, I went to the beer and cheese pairing event at FINO, featuring Tim from the Real Ale Brewing Company in Blanco and John from Antonelli’s Cheese Shop here in Austin.
Each of us tried six beers and six cheeses. John had sent Tim a selection of roughly 30 cheese...
2 tags
Giveaway: MUJI Ice Ball Maker
And, in the spirit of Halloween, my very favorite holiday, and in the spirit of fulfilling promises and whatnot, here is a giveaway. I will be giving away one MUJI ice ball maker at random. I bought the thing myself, just for giving away here. It’s still in the box, unlike the one shown above, which is all mine, and which you can’t have.
To enter: Just leave a comment on this post...
3 tags
MUJI Ice Ball Maker
As the title of the post has doubtless already given away, the object shown in the above image is not a space-age housing solution, a poor rendering of Spaceship Earth, or anything else related to mid-century visions of a brighter future for humanity.
No, instead, it is a contemporary solution to the problem presented by the fact that most of us lack the skill to carve ice balls on demand. This...
3 tags
The Old Fashioned (A Love Story)
Either the photo above has been edited to suit the topic of this post, or I was just having a wee too much fun editing photos in Picnik. Maybe it was a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B.
What you’re seeing above is the set up last Friday night for the Old Fashioned Bar I put together for my friend’s birthday party. Taped up above were two old fashioned recipes...
4 tags
Take Your Bitters
I’m setting up an old fashioned and bourbon highball bar for tomorrow night for a party. So, what do I forget at the liquor store? Bitters. I bought these three bottles (Angostura, Peychaud’s, and Fee Brothers Cherry Bitters) earlier in the week at my neighborhood Twin Liquors. Twin was out of Fee’s Orange Bitters and didn’t appear to stock any other kinds, so I had...
5 tags
Field Work: the Gin Mill and Chesapeake Wine...
I stayed sort of between Baltimore and Washington, DC with some friends while visiting the Library of Congress. On Friday, when I had completed all my Xeroxing and could endure no longer the pains of papercuts or the pure abject ugliness of the Performing Arts Reading Room, my friend Jen took me to see the American Museum of Visionary Arts and then for drinks. All I will say about the AMVA is that...
Field Work in Earnest
I’ve been a little absent as of late, because I have been traveling. The first destination was Reno, NV. I was glad to see the city and finally have some point of reference for what it’s like other than Jonathan Richman’s song “Reno” and the film King Pin.This was also the first time I’d been in a casino and been old enough to gamble and enjoy comped drinks.
...
September 2010
4 posts
6 tags
Mixology Monday: Brown Sugar Basil Mojito
This post is my contribution to September’s Mixology Monday. This month is hosted by Doug at Pegu Blog, and the theme is Lime. [announcement here]
While the weather has been dull gray in a way that would suggest that there might be a fall looming on the horizon, I’m more inclined to believe that we’re heading for another few weeks of heat. It’s central Texas. We have no...
3 tags
Picture Post: State Liquor Dispensary
As I mentioned in my post on Bardenay in Boise, Idaho, that particular state has “state liquor dispensaries.” This is the exterior of the one I visited. The interior was clean and bright and not that much unlike some of the smaller private stores here in Texas. The best part of this store was a shelving unit with sides shaped like the great state of Idaho.
I’ll have to do a...
4 tags
Off-Book: Pimm's Cups
I love a good Pimm’s Cup. I also really, really hate a bad one. I am always baffled when a drink that has exactly two ingredients is bad. Confronted with a bad Pimm’s Cup, I always assume one of two things has happened: either the bartender has inadvertently used plain soda instead of whatever they were trying to use, or they’ve gone and done that horrifying thing where people...
4 tags
Field Work: Bardenay
Do you see that sign? I mean really see it? It says restaurant and distillery. When Bardenay opened in Boise, Idaho in 2000 (and later in Eagle and Coeur d’Alene), it became the first restaurant/distillery in the U.S. There may be more now, but the novelty is still front and center in my opinion; then again, I live in a state that had exactly zero legal distilleries until a few years ago.
...
August 2010
5 posts
7 tags
Mixology Monday: Bill's Manhattan
This post is my contribution to August’s Mixology Monday. This month is hosted by Lindsey Johnson at Brown, Bitter, and Stirred, and the theme is Brown, Bitter, and Stirred. [announcement here]
I love Manhattans, but I never get around to making them; I also hardly ever make martinis, but I love them less — my intense aversion for olives has served as a general turnoff. I’m...
7 tags
Ginger Ale at Home
Nearly everything is more delicious with real sugar — see, for example, the persistence and cult-life following of Dublin Dr. Pepper. Real sugar is probably the crux of what makes this ginger ale so much better. The intense volume of real ginger certainly helps, too, though.
The instructions here are adapted from those here. I didn’t follow them precisely, and I tweaked the...
5 tags
Barware: Napoleon House Pimm's Glasses
At Napoleon House in New Orleans, they sell these lovely souvenir glasses. They also make a really great Pimm’s Cup. I should get to using them — especially now that I’m all wound up about making ginger ale at home.
I went to New Orleans for a few days vacation at the beginning of the summer, and I keep thinking I’ll post all about all the things I drank, but by now...
6 tags
Syrup: Blueberry Syrup
The syrup in the Blueberry Gimlet is easy to make up fresh if you can find blueberries in sufficient quantities. I got mine in bulk, because they would have been a bit rich for my blood at the grocery store.
Blueberry Syrup 2 c. fresh blueberries 2 c. sugar 1/2 c. water 1/2 tsp. vanilla juice of 1/2 lemon
Put all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for...
7 tags
My Life Originals: the Blueberry Gimlet
This is something I’ve been thinking of obsessively since I read about a dessert consisting of blueberries cooked in gin and then poured over vanilla ice cream. I haven’t tried the dessert, but I have this instead.
Blueberry Gimlet 3 oz. gin 1 oz. blueberry syrup* juice of 1/4 lemon
Stir together gin, syrup, and lemon juice. Pour into a short bar glass full of ice. Garnish with a...
July 2010
3 posts
4 tags
Austin Events: Chef Adam Gonzales's Margarita Tour
Chef Adam Gonzales, co-founder of the Serrano’s chain in Austin and VP and executive chef of Mama Ninfa’s in Houston, is launching a margarita and Mexican martini mix. I normally wouldn’t be too jazzed about this, but it’s an “organic all natural” mix, which I’m really hoping means real flavors instead of the usual citric acid and high-fructose corn...
3 tags
Barware: Tom's Peanuts Country Store Jar
I got a sinus infection in July. I’m not going to claim to be particularly unlucky or anything, because I don’t particularly believe in luck, and I mostly have a perfectly nice life. However, I got a sinus infection in July.
This is a roundabout way of saying I haven’t been drinking at all because I’m on antibiotics. I realize you can, technically, have a drink or two on...