Now with more cocktails!

Cocktail, anyway.

It was one of those serendipitous occasions. There I was, on Facebook, and there was the post from my friend Lucy, describing the drink she was having at the Atlanta airport.

"One of the more peculiar cocktails I've drunk", she wrote, "bourbon, vanilla syrup, fresh raspberries (so far, so good) topped up with Stella. Atlanta airport is a strange place."

Well, when I read that I sat up a little straighter in my chair. Raspberries? Vanilla?? Bourbon??? Bourbon is a booze I'm trying to learn to like, and I figured that pairing it with raspberries and vanilla couldn't hurt. Stella, Lucy tells me, is a beer that in the UK is associated with "drunken lads getting violent." I suggested that swapping the Stella for prosecco would be more civilized and more delicious, and she agreed.

But when, after writing up my freshemen's final for tomorrow, I wanted a celebratory drink tonight, I found that we had no prosecco. Robert suggested leaving it out, and thus a new drink was born.

We call it the Ginger ATL. It's sweet, smokey, and slightly tart, and you should try it straight away.

Here it is, posing with our vampiric basil plant (seriously, this plant wilts in the sun, and perks up in the shade. So weird). But really! Look at the gorgeous raspberry color of the drink!

If you'd like to make it at home, here's how. Makes 2 drinks.

5 oz bourbon
1.5 oz simple syrup, infused with vanilla (we used my homemade vanilla extract for this, which is extra strong and extracted into vodka. We used about 1tsp of vanilla, but you may need to add considerably more if you're using a regular store vanilla.)
2 T rasberries
1/2 lemon

Put the raspberries in the bourbon and muddle them, but don't totally destroy them. Add the vanilla infused syrup, and add it.

Stir.

Pour over ice.

Squeeze some lemon juice into each drink, serve, and be happy.

More gluten-free baking

I've left out some important gluten-free baking staples up to this point. Mostly that's because I found recipes that I like and I use them. Since I didn't make them up myself I didn't bother to post them, but it occurs to me that having everything in one place will be useful for me, if not for anyone else. Plus I have another of my recipes to post!

First up is gluten free, egg free, dairy free, and soy free bread. I found this recipe about 9 months ago and I've been really pleased with it. When fresh it is delicious for eating plain, with butter, or with olive oil. I've even brought it to departmental parties, not told anyone it was gluten free, and had it eagerly devoured with many a compliment. It does go stale rather quickly, but makes nice toast on the second day.

Next is pizza crust. I tinkered with the recipe just a little bit, because this one, from Gluten-Free Goddess, uses egg whites, which Zion and I can't tolerate. She does note that you can use egg replacer, and I've made this recipe with both Ener-g egg replacer and flax seeds and water, and in the end I've found it's better if I just increase the water and oil slightly. I've also omitted the rice vinegar, as it didn't seem to make any difference. But it really makes a delicious crust, so delicious that gluten-eating friends have said that they prefer it to wheat crust. Admittedly only a few of them, but still. We can't all have good taste AND a sense of humor, right?

And finally, one of my recipes! This one is for pancakes. I tried a number of gluten-free pancake recipes when we first went gluten-free, and none of them were particularly good. My kids ate them, because they are pancake fiends and not particularly discerning, but I felt sure I could do better. Or rather: I felt sure that I could instruct Robert on how to do better, since he does most of the pancake making these days. And I did!

Gluten-free, vegan pancakes

2 cups GF flour (I use a blend of brown rice, potato and tapioca for this)
1-3 T of sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp each baking soda and salt
1/2 tsp xanthan gum

Mix all that together.

Combine 2 cups of liquid (could be all water, all milk of any kind, or a mix. I usually do about half water and half rice milk)
3 T grapeseed oil
1 T vinegar or lemon juice

Mix that with the dry ingredients. If it seems too thick, add more water. If it's too thin you could add more flour I guess, or just call it crepes.

I like cooking the pancakes in grapeseed oil too. Nom. If I turn a burner on to medium under my huge cast iron skillet right before I start mixing ingredients it's usually ready to go when the batter is.

Deodorant, Toothpaste, and Cocktails

About a month ago I decided that it was time to un-lazy and start making/using more natural products in my mouth and under my arms. Generally speaking I like to drag my entire family along with me when I make such changes, but the kids don't use deodorant (yet), and Robert has been very, um, resistant to natural deodorants, as he hasn't had the best experience with them actually working. So I switched the whole family's tooth product over, and my deodorant.

For teeth I decided to go with tooth powder, since glycerin is so sticky and coat-y. That shit can't be good for your teeth, it just can't. I bought some tooth powder from Etsy first, to see how we liked it before I bought a bunch of ingredients, and we liked it! The brushing experience is different, as you'd expect, but we all agreed that our teeth felt much cleaner, and stayed cleaner longer. Win! So I bought stuff and started making our own. So far I'm making a clove one for Liel and a peppermint one for Zion. I use both (clove at night, peppermint in the morning). Robert is still finishing up the original Etsy batch, which contains activated charcoal (mine doesn't) and which Robert seems to prefer. I might look into getting some activated charcoal so he can be happy. Since I wasn't kidding about dragging the whole family along with me I sent some of each kind to Kenny and Jenny to try out a few days ago. I'm also thinking of bringing some to my tattoo artist (along with homemade marshmallows) when I see him in a few days. Hey nothing says, "You're a rockstar and I appreciate your work" like homemade candy and tooth powder, right?

Sadly, the deodorant has not been the unmitigated success that the tooth powder is. I've used natural deodorants before (and I'm not talking about Tom's of Maine kind of "natural", but stuff made with ingredients you can buy at the grocery store), with mixed results. My brother has long been a fan of Weleda's spray deodorant, but I never felt it lasted long enough. Deodorants with baking soda work fabulously, but give me a horrible, itchy rash, which is so not worth it. So this time I tried a recipe I found on Crunchy Betty for a deodorant containing clay. The good news: it doesn't give me a rash! The bad news: the first time I wore it to work it did not deodorize as well as one might like. Thankfully my students don't get too close to me, so they were none the wiser. I upped the amount of EOs I was using and that improved things, but I still found that it wore off about half way through the day. So a few days ago I tried this recipe that first coats the underarms with a coconut oil/EO mixture and THEN dusts with baking soda and cornstarch. I'm only on day 3 of using it, but they've been pretty hot days here in NY, and so far so good! No rash, and no horrifying moment when you realized that the smell is actually *you*. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Finally, my dear friend Rachel, who is a crazy talented chef (she catered our wedding! Surely one of the highlights of her career), posted an article on cognac today. To be honest, cognac hadn't ever really crossed my mind, but after reading a little bit about the history of the sidecar cocktail I've decided that I must try one. In fact, I've decided that I want to devote a little time this summer to making and drinking WWI-WWII era cocktails. For science, you understand. So if you'd like to contribute to my research, please tell me about some of your favorite old-school cocktails!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Since today is Thursday, and I don't teach on Fridays, I thought I should celebrate the end of another work week. Also, it's my half birthday, and that is clearly deserving of recognition, no? I mean, 35 1/2 is kind of a big deal! So I decided to make a pineapple upside down cake.

But, as you know, we don't do gluten or eggs in my house. And also, while I love to bake, I often find myself choking a little at the amount of sugar and butter (or oil) that many recipes call for. I mean, I like fat and sweet as much as the next person...especially fat...but man. There's gotta be balance, you know?

Anyway, I read a few pineapple upside down cake recipes, compared proportions in a half-assed way, and did the following.

1. Melted 2 T of salted butter in a 7x11 pan. Then added 4 T of brown sugar, and topped it all with pineapple chunks.

2. Mixed 2 T of salted with somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 c of granulated sugar. I beat them a little while, then added some vanilla, and some rum.

3. Added 1.5 cups of GF flour mix (for this kind of thing I use a blend of brown rice, potato and tapioca), 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, and somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 tsp xanthan gum. Mixed that all up with the butter, sugar etc.

4. It was not battery, not in the least.

5. So I used an idea from Smitten Kitchen and added pineapple juice til it looked battery. This did double duty actually, as I'd been planning to add some vinegar since the acidity, combined with the baking soda and baking powder, provides lift and fluffiness in egg free recipes. But pineapple juice is acidic too, and adds sweetness and pineapple flavor!

6. Then I spread the batter on the pineapple and put it in a 350 oven and cooked about 35 min.

Verdict: Yum! The amount of sugar was totally fine (maybe even more than needed). Next time I'm going to up the butter a bit, but over all, a success. I'd post a picture but, you know. We ate it.

Rellenos

The lovely Paige (another Californian in diaspora here in New York- we gotta stick together!) asked for some of the relleno recipes from Saturday. Here you go!

Poblano Chiles Stuffed with Beans

This recipe is from a 1955 Spanish/English cookbook my brother picked up when his college library was dumping it. I don't remember the title, but if I come across it I'll post. It's not much of a recipe, actually, more of a guide. The chile prep instructions are mine, I learned them when I lived in New Mexico.

Poblano chiles
cheese (mild- queso fresco or muenster or something)
cream
beans (we cooked pink beans (pintos would be good, too) and then simmered them with espazote, diced tomatoes, onion, and salt).

Roast the chiles over a flame (like on your stove, as long as it's gas!) until their skins are nice and charred. Put them in a paper bag to sweat, and then peel the skin off when they are cool enough to handle. Cut a slit up the side and remove the seeds and veins (try to keep the opening small, but don't fret if it splits all the way open). Stuff the beans into the chiles.

Now you have a choice to make. You can either bake them as they are, which is what we did (just sprinkle with cheese and poured some cream on them and baked at 375) or you can batter and fry them. To batter you'll need eggs (say, 2-3), flour, salt, and oil. Separate the eggs and whip the whites until the form stiff peaks. Mix the yolks in, and then fold in a few spoonfuls of flour and a pinch of salt. Be gentle- this is a very frothy, fluffy batter. Oh, if you're doing this you should dust the chiles with flour before you stuff them. Then put a spoonful or two of the batter on a plate. Lay a stuffed chile on top and carefully coat the rest of it with batter too. Slide it into hot oil (about 375) and fry. Repeat with other chiles. Then put them in a baking pan with some cheese and cream and bake til the cheese melts.

The next recipe is from Diana Kennedy's "My Mexico".

Chiles Anchos Rellenos de los Andrea

THE CHILES
6 large ancho chiles (we use about 12 medium)
3 T vinegar
3 T dark brown sugar (or piloncillo if you can find it)

THE FILLING
2T vegetable oil
1 small white onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
12oz ground pork, inc a little fat
12oz lean ground beef
salt to taste
8 oz chopped tomatoes (we used canned diced since it's not tomato season yet)
4 peppercorns
2 cloves
1/2" cinnamon stick
1/8 tsp dried thyme
1/8 tsp dried marjoram
1/3 c raisins
2T (heaping) slivered almonds or pine nuts
1T vinegar

TO SERVE
1 1/2 c creme fraiche (used sour cream) diluted with a little milk
parsley
pomegranate seeds (if you can get them. yum.)

Slit the chiles and de-seed and vein as I described above. Put them in a pan with water to just cover and the vinegar and brown sugar. Simmer 5 min, then set aside to soak for approx 30 min- until they are plump and soft.

Heat oil in skillet and saute the onions until translucent but not browned. Add the garlic, saute 30 seconds or so. Add the meats and salt and cook, breaking up lumps, for about 3 min. Add tomatoes, cover pan, and cook on medium 5 min or so. Add spices and herbs and cook, uncovered and stirring occasionally another few minutes, then add the raisins, nuts, and vinegar and cook until the meat is well cooked and shiny but not juicy.

Stuff the chiles with the meat until they are very fat. Pour the sour cream over them and sprinkle with parsley and serve at room temperature.

You will be very, very happy.