Visas, part 2

Well, Robert's visa arrived safe and sound on Friday, so today I filled out forms, got scans, printed things and mailed off paperwork and passports for visas for me and the kids. Keep your fingers crossed! It's a slightly nerve-wracking process, especially because they remind you repeatedly that any mistakes will invalidate the entire application. So, you know, no pressure! Of course I understand that they need to do this to encourage people to be careful and check their work, but it still makes me nervous.

At any rate, I got all the paperwork done and we walked to the bank (to get cash) and the post office (because you have pay for your visas with money orders, which it turns out can only be purchased with cash. Who knew?) and finally deposited the lot in the FedEx drop box. Breath holding will now commence.

Once we get our visas, the good folks at Fulbright India will buy our plane tickets!

Visas, part one

After several days of preparation (needed for gathering documents, writing up requested materials, and getting pictures taken and printed) Robert submitted his visa application on Friday. Now we're holding our breath and hoping it gets here soon! The kids and I can't apply for our visas until Robert has his you see, so this is only step one in getting us all legal.

The most confusing bit on his visa application was that item 3 indicated that he needed 9 copies of a passport photo for the application, but item much further down the list (11? 12?) required 7 copies. We were unsure if the 9 photos from uplist included the 7, or if the 7 were additional. We asked the folks who handle the visas and they said the 7 was included in the 9, but in that case there were only listed uses for 8 photos. So, just to be safe, we glued the 8 into their respective places, and sent another 9 along as well. So. Many. Passport. Photos. And we've since been told we'll need them for just about everything once we land, including buying mobile phones. Eeep!

Cocktails (non vintage)

Ok, so, I'm getting cocky. Or perhaps, more accurately, I've been pretty cocky since the day I was born. Either way.

More to the point I invented a drink! Two, really. But I'm only telling you about one today, cause I gotta hold something back for the future. Don't want to blow my wad all at once, you know?

So here it is, my totally un-vintage drink (now with no pictures!).

The Hudson Valley Special

-Prosecco
-Pear brandy

Mix them together; drink and enjoy. We usually mix them somewhere between 1:1 and 1:4. Yes, I realize that this the vaguest of recipes, but trust me, it's delicious. We use pear brandy from Warwick Valley Winery, which is part of what makes this a Hudson Valley special. The other part is that I live in the Hudson Valley, and suck at naming things. 

In further cocktail news, B & Y came over for lunch yesterday and I made tostadas and Robert mixed up some French 75s. It was a most triumphant lunch.

In totally unrelated news, Robert's visa application has been received by the government outsourcing agency. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Vintage Cocktails: the Bronx Cocktail

Ok, so I'm not doing the best job at this whole "blogging regularly" thing. I mean, I'm not awful or anything, but I'd hoped to be blogging at least once a week, which hasn't happened...yet. Still gonna plug away at that goal, though!

This week's cocktail is the Bronx Cocktail. I had a soft spot for this drink before I'd even tried it, mostly because both Robert and I work in the Bronx. We also nearly moved to the Bronx, but at the last minute the family from whom we'd arranged to rent a house changed their mind and decided to sell it instead. That was pretty frustrating at the time, but it's also what brought us to our current home, so it ended up being fantastic!

A few things I've learned about my taste in mixed drinks so far:

1. I really like brandy
2. I do not really like vermouth (dry or sweet)

And now, without further ado, I present: The Bronx Cocktail!

Robert styled the drink with the best Yankees gear we could come up with, which is to say: none.

Bronx Cocktail

1/2 dry gin
1/4 dry vermouth
1/4 sweet vermouth
1/2 orange juice

Shake well with cracked ice, strain into cocktail glass and serve.

Thoughts- I like this drink. I like it, but I don't love it. I think it's the vermouth (see above). It is quite strong, as you might guess from the ingredients list, and has a flavor that is kind of like a really alcoholic creamsicle or orange julius. In my mind the Bronx Cocktail is like a bridge between the old school drinks that should remain in the past (Fibber McGee, I'm lookin' at you!) and those that are so delightful they should be revived immediately. It's a curiosity drink. It's worth trying-- after all, you might really enjoy it! and even if you don't you probably won't regret it-- but won't be in my regular cocktail rotation.

Vintage Cocktails: Fibber McGee

This week's cocktail is the Fibber McGee! Robert and I decided to try it for two entirely grown up and well thought out reasons. Firstly, we had all of the ingredients on hand, and secondly the name was funny. Good enough reasons, right?

A quick bit of internet research revealed that there was a very popular radio show in the 1930's and 40s called "Fibber McGee and Molly", and although there doesn't seem to be an explicit connection between the drink and the show my guess is that the drink was inspired by the show in some way.

Interestingly, this drink is not well attested on the web, nor apparently in print. The primary source for it is the Internet Cocktail Database, and only two cocktail bloggers that I found had made it and blogged about it. Both of them say that they found the recipe on the ICD, and one, Sonja at Thinking of Drinking, says that as far as she's found, the drink was only mentioned in print twice- once in a NYTs article from 1990, and once in this edition of The Ultimate Little Martini Book.

So, rather surprisingly, I can contribute something! My cocktail writings are total newb stuff, but my little blue book can be considered an authority- it says so right inside! And I can report that the 1947 Professional Mixing Guide, put out by the Angostura Bitters Company, includes a recipe for a Fibber McGee cocktail. The era is right for the radio show, too.

The proportions for the drink in my book differ slightly from those given at the ICD- I've noted them below.

Fibber McGee cocktail

1.5 oz gin
1/2 oz sweet vermouth
1/4 unsweetened canned grapefruit juice (internet recipes call for twice as much grapefruit juice. Also, the ICD does not specify the type of grapefruit juice. Thinking of Drinking calls for fresh (probably much tastier); we used some from a jar.)
generous dash of (Angostura) aromatic bitters (internet recipes call for 2 dashes of bitters)

Stir in a mixing glass with cracked ice, strain into a cocktail glass, twist a lemon peel on top and serve. As you can see, I kept my ice in.

Thoughts: Meh. I might like this drink if it were made with loads of fresh grapefruit juice I suppose, but it was exciting enough that I feel inclined to try. It was herbal-y and kind of medicinal. Robert actually poured his out, marking the first time in 12 years I've ever seen him chuck perfectly good alcohol. I dig the murky past on this cocktail, but having tried it I can see why it has been more or less consigned to history.

Vintage Cocktails: Sidecar

I had a rather exciting day yesterday, and um, forgot to blog. So let's just pretend it's still Monday, OK?

At any rate, we're on a brandy roll! The Sidecar was actually the cocktail that got me into this whole vintage drink schtick, which is funny because I'd never had one until a few days ago. But my dear chef friend, Rachel, mentioned them a while back and my ears pricked up. They sounded so classic and sophisticated. Cocktails. Sidecar. I was hooked without even taking a sip.

I know that some Sidecar recipes call for cognac. My Little Blue Book does not. So this Sidecar is made with brandy.

1/3 brandy
1/3 Cointreau
1/3 lemon juice

Shake over ice, strain and serve.

Verdict: delicious. I was right to fall in love with this drink! Definitely worth a spot in your regular rotation. Not too sweet, not too boozy- just right. I had thought of this drink as an autumn or winter cocktail (in the days of our imaginary courtship), but now I'm not so sure. This drink is wonderful in the summer, and I could see drinking it into the fall, but maybe not winter. Brandy is a more versatile spirit than I'd realized! I probably need to consider hot toddies for the winter editions.

And now I present you with: a knitted fish! Riding a motorcycle! With a Sidecar as her sidecar!

Pretty awesome, right?

Pickles!

I've been wanting to make my own fermented pickles for ages now, but I've been thwarted by a lack of equipment. I don't own a pickling crock, and had heard that fermenting without one was a hit-or-miss endeavor. 

But, we picked up a CSA box from our friends this week (they were out of town, so we got to keep the bounty), and it had a lot of cucumbers in it, along with a huge bunch of dill. And this only days after someone on Ravelry had posted her recipe for making fermented pickles at home without a pickling crock! I know there are tons of recipes like this out there, and I've read many of them, but someone having it come from someone in my internet community gave me courage. Clearly the Fates were speaking to me.

So, on Thursday morning I washed two pounds of cucumbers and sliced them into spears. I put them, along with the brine, in a glass bowl, and after tearing apart my kitchen looking for something I could use as a weight, finally topped them with a stainless steel bowl with a bag of rice in it. Elegant it was not, but I hoped it would do the trick.

And it did! Robert and I both tasted the pickles today and agreed they were delicious. R wishes they were crisper, but they're not mushy, so I'm pleased. About half the cucumbers I used were yellow cukes, hence the color you see here.

Here is the recipe I used (I included a raspberry leaf to help ward of mush-syndrome).

½ cup kosher salt
1 cup boiling water
2 lbs. small cucumbers, washed, and cut into halves or quarters
5 cloves or more garlic, peeled and smashed
1 large bunch dill with flowers OR 2 tablespoons dried dill and 1 teaspoon dill seeds OR a tablesoon of coriander seeds

1. In a large bowl, combine the salt and boiling water; stir to dissolve the salt. Add a handful of ice cubes to cool down the mixture, then add all remaining ingredients.
2. Add cold water to cover. Use a plate slightly smaller than the diameter of the bowl and a small weight to hold the cucumbers under the water. Keep at room temperature. (If you don’t have a/c and it is above 80 in your house, put them in the basement or somewhere cooler.)
3. Begin sampling the cucumbers at 24 hours. It will probably take 48-72 hours for them to taste “pickly,” but it depends on the temperature conditions of your home. When they are to your liking, refrigerate them in the brine. The pickles will continue to ferment, but more slowly in the refrigerator.