champagne cocktail

“Writer’s block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they can have an excuse to drink alcohol.”
— Steve Martin

Elderflower Champagne Cocktail

As a kid I didn't have lots of luxuries.  

 We would have a bit of money and then it seemed to disappear.

 We didn't go without food or anything like that, there was always ho-ho's and ding-dong's in the freezer and my Mom even bought bran cereal before it was all the "rage."  

One thing though that I never saw much of was alcohol.  Mostly because my parent's didn't like the taste.  Pepsi was much preferred over a martini at home.  

 Having a drink 🍸 out was much more sophisticated.

 I remember having my first taste of Rosé wine 🍷 at the famous steak house in the area.  I think it was probably White Zinfandel but let's pretend it was a French Rosé, okay?  No need to burst the bubble now.😉  I didn't like it.  I preferred the Texas style beans from the "Bean Lady," another story for another day.😉

So when I first started trying different kinds of drinks I started with the sweeter stuff. Don't most of us?  

The whiskey sour,

Lynchburg lemonade. Where do they come up with these names?  This was my first taste of legal drinking...Canada love.

 Of course I had already started my world travels ✈️✈️✈️ (aka: Europe) by then, so Beer 🍺 from Germany 🇩🇪 was already on the list, but this was different.

 This was the "hard stuff."  

It was good.

 I liked it.  

And then I tried a Gin and Tonic.  Gag!  I know, weird.

 I will tell you a little secret  just between you and me:  I still can't/won't drink Tonic Water.  Metal in my Mouth doesn't do it for me.

 Gin, however, that's another story.  I think it is my favorite alcohol if I have a choice.  It's interesting with the woodsy juniper berries and goes well in many drinks.  It plays nicely with many citrus fruits and goes floral or woodsy if needed.  And for those guests of yours who are Tonic water lovers well it's an easy drink to make.  

Makers Mark Cherries
$13.45
Inclan Enterprises, Inc
Buy on Amazon

My tastebuds have expanded now that I have been exposed to different flavors and a nice warm smooth French 🇫🇷 Cognac tastes great on a Winter Day but for a little taste of  whimsy I always resort back to Gin.  

Maybe it takes me back...

or maybe I love saying "Whimsy."

Either way, this drink is for the

cocktail hour, 🍸

the Tonic water hater, 🚱

or the friend who likes their drink  "Whimsical."✨💫

Bourbon Soaked cherries

 

Ingredients:

  • 2 shots Gin

  • Top with Elderflower Champagne (or see Tips below)

  • 1/2 shot Lemon Juice

  • Dash of Bitters

  • 1/4 shot Bourbon soaked cherry simple syrup

  • Lemon peel optional

Instructions:

Step 1:

Place all ingredients except bitters and champagne in a shaker and add ice.  Shake until cold.  Pour into a Glass and put the dash of bitters and then top with the champagne.  Place lemon peel in drink.

Drink, Sip and Enjoy!

Tips:

  • Make some Bourbon soaked cherries and then make them into simple syrup from them...smashing!

  • If you don't have elderflower champagne you can use regular champagne but also use half st germaine

 

 

 

 

 

Source: homecategoryfood202620drink

leftover mashed potatoes?

“The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found”
— Calvin Trillin

Lamb and Lenti Shepherd's Pie

To be perfectly honest I have always had an upturned nose 👃 to Leftover's.  Maybe because it always made me think of the spaghetti sauce in the fridge that was turning green that often just had a bit of scraping done before it was served again.  Or maybe it's because pizza that most people love cold and leftover always has a rubber in the mouth feel for my palate. 👅  And then their is always the "You're just a snob"  😏because the rest of the world loves all things on day two.  

It is an unsettling thing being the only person at a dinner table who has no interest in taking that super yummy plate of food home but knowing in my heart of hearts I just don't want to look at it the next day.  Can you imagine if I ever went to this New York Restaurant?  I would be the only person saying, Thanks but I will skip the  le gourmet doggie bag.  Yikes.  Who came up with the term doggie bag anyway?  It screams at me "this is food for my dog or for me?"  So when presented with...

 Cold...

Gelatinized...

Gray matter...

it doesn't appeal.  I have even known myself to take something home from someone's home because of, yep you got it, peer pressure.  Knowing in my heart of hearts that I won't eat it, touch it, open it, or go near it until I have that weekly let's make sure the refrigerator is clean day.  

Therefore, if you, like me  know full well that the cold lumpy white glob of mashed potatoes is gonna hit the trash in a week this post is for you.  I am helping you face the fear, confront the elephant, take on the tiger...okay, I have run out of metaphors.

As much as I hate leftovers, I hate wasting food as well.  Hungry people around the world always need to be fed so throwing out healthy food tugs on my heart as it should no doubt.  Overcoming the leftover battle as become the Great War in our house.  Except when I have company who love taking leftovers home...I usually push that one first. 😉  

The overwhelming urge to eat "new food" has made my strategy for preparation begin to change.  I don't come from a culinary background of making paté so this new resolve to "use up all the food" as had me experimenting in the kitchen.

Admittedly a friend of mine who is vegetarian made something similar to this Shepherd's Pie and didn't of course use meat so I went from memory on what I remembered and added my favorite meat lamb.  Beef can be substituted but if you have access to ground lamb it's a favorite in our house.

 So here goes:  Leftovers made Lovely!  

And if you make it the mashed potatoes from scratch and don't use leftovers don't worry, your secret is safe with me. 😉

Ingredients:

Serves 4-6

Ingredients for Shepherd's Pie

Mashed Potatoes:

  • 1 pound Russet potatoes peeled and chopped (if you are not using leftover mashed potatoes)

  • 3 oz Butter cubed

  • 1 oz Cream, Half and Half or Buttermilk

  • salt and pepper to taste

 Lentils:

  • 1 cup dried lentils (soak in water for at least 30 min)

  • 2 cups water

  • 1/2 onion

  • 1 bay leaf

  • 1 tsp olive oil

Lamb or Beef:

  • 1 pound ground lamb or beef

  • 1/4 tsp baking soda

  • 1 Tbsp water

  • 1 red bell pepper diced and seeds removed

  • 1 yellow or white onion diced

  • 1 carrot peeled and diced

  • 2 cloves garlic minced

  • 1 Tbsp ground cumin

  • 2 tsp ground coriander

  • 3 Tbsp fresh chopped mint

  • 3 Tbsp fresh chopped flat leaf parsley

  • 3 Tbsp fresh chopped dill

How to make Mashed Potatoes instructions (Unless using leftovers) :

Step 1

Rinse potatoes under cold running water agitating in a pan and draining until water runs clear and is not cloudy. This helps decrease any extra starch which will make them gummy. Don't skip this step!

Step 2

Cover potatoes with cold water in a pot and bring to a simmer.  Cook until tender with a fork, usually about 10 minutes.

Step 3

Have butter chopped up into cubes and cream at room temp.  Drain potatoes. Using a potato ricer push potatoes through ricer and place back in warm pot. Add butter and cream to potatoes and stir just until incorporated.  Add Salt and White Pepper if you have it to taste.  Set aside.

How to Make Lentils:

Step 1:

After soaking lentil, place in pot with 2 cups of water or chicken broth, 1 bay leaf and half of an onion and 1 tsp of olive oil.  Bring to a boil then, simmer lentils for 15 minutes or until tender but not falling apart.  

Step 2:

Remove  lentils from stovetop to stop cooking.

How to Make Lamb:

Step 1:

While lentils are cooking, add 1/4 tsp of baking soda and 1 Tbsp water to pound of lamb or beef and blend with your hand and let sit in a separate bowl. Preheat broiler  oven to High.

Step 2:

Using a large saute pan heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and then saute chopped onions, carrots for five minutes or until translucent.  Make sure to salt vegetables with a pinch of kosher salt.  Next add garlic and saute for about 30 sec to 1 minute until smell is released but don't burn the garlic. Add lamb and break up lamb into small pieces in the pan.  While cooking add cumin and coriander.  Cook lamb until just slightly pink.  Add lentils to mixture and if any extra liquid from lentils add up to 2 Tbsp but no more. Remove from heat and fold in fresh herbs of mint, dill and parsley.

Step  3:

Place warm lamb/beef and lentil dish on the bottom of a 8x10 pan and spread over the entire pan covering the bottom of the pan.  While still hot place mashed potatoes over the lentil and lamb or beef filling and spread using a flat spatula until lamb filling is covered evenly and smoothly.

Step 3

Add an X to the top of the middle of the potatoes allowing the lamb/beef filling to heat if using cold mashed potatoes.  Cook in center of oven under the broiler until mashed potatoes are lightly browned and lamb/beef filling is warm.  Approx. 8-10 minutes.

 

Enjoy and remember you saved yourself some time, some money, and  without a doubt made your momma proud!😘😉

Tips:

  • Meat blended with the baking soda will not add flavor but cuts cooking time and creates less liquid so that meat is not being steamed.

  • Garlic mashed potatoes will work well with this as well.

  • It is okay to use mashed potatoes that have not been put through a ricer, it may just not look as smooth but will still taste delicious.

  • If you have a large flat bottom steel pan this works even better than a casserole pan as it heats the bottom filling nicely as shown in the photo below.

  • ENJOY with a bottle of Light Red wine such as a Barbera from Italy 🍷😋

Red Wine and Comforting Shepherd's Pie

Red Wine and Comforting Shepherd's Pie

Thomas Keller's Brioche

“All sorrows are less with bread. ”
— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

It started with the pan & a trip to San Francisco.🌉

 Thanks to a tip from a favorite blogger 101cookbooks  on where to go to find a few special finds for the kitchen.  I am not talking your everyday williams&sonoma or sur la table not that I don't love those as well but this place is unique, vintage, old and just down right a find.  

I had something else when I read about this shop specifically a vinegar pot with the perfect spout, still hunting for that (another story for another day) but nonetheless I was rewarded on my treasure hunt to this beautiful brioche pan.

I say Hunt because that is what you have to do at Cookin' it is a treasure for cooks looking to find that perfect something.  Yelp reviews were all over the board on this place and it was unique to say the least.  The owner was gone in Paris I believe shopping for more finds, although not sure how she could honestly fit anything else in the place but to each his own.  And better for those of us not visiting France on a yearly visit.

 The man who read the paper and glanced up as I asked questions occasionally seemed to also know the shop like the back of his hand.  It would have made for a great mystery novel.  Shopper enters store and finds a body under stacks of Le creuset pots that have not moved in about 10 years or something along those lines.  I have been binge watching Hercules Poirot way to often.

- I digress.

So after about two hours of scouring,

I found the pan,

and another pan 

and well way too much to discuss in one blog.

Deciding upon the brioche pan didn't take long but the real question was how do I make brioche?

I have never made it before.  I have a friend who loves it and a husband who says "aah, it's okay" when I flaunt my discovery at him later that day.  It seemed like a challenge for the baker in the kitchen and I wanted to be that or maybe I just wanted to use the gorgeous mold and say I DID IT.  Either way, it's done and frozen and will be coming back into something else again soon. 

Bread Pudding?

Croutons?

French toast?

I think the list will continue onward but until that happens I leave you with the perfect Brioche recipe from Thomas Keller's Book Bouchon.  

You can't go wrong and I should know it was my first attempt:) Score!

 

Tips:

  • Start this dough the day before you want to make it, as it so needs to rest

  • Use a thermometer to test the bread you want the inside to be 190 degrees

  • If getting too golden on top lightly cover with foil until done baking.

  • Spray a little water in the oven to get that perfect golden crust.

thomas keller's-brioche3.jpg

Recipe from Thomas Keller's book Bouchon

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup water (110-115 degrees Fahrenheit)

  • One 1/4-ounce package active dry yeast

  • 10 1/2 ounces (2 cups) All-Purpose Flour

  • 1/3 cup sugar

  • 2 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt

  • 6 large eggs, at room temperature

  • 20 tablespoons (10 oz) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes, at room temperature, plus butter for the pan

Step 1

Combine the water and yeast in a small bowl. Let stand for 10 minutes, then stir until the yeast is completely dissolved. Set aside.

Step 2

Sift together the flours, sugar, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the eggs and beat for 1 minute at low speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.  Slowly add the dissolved yeast and continue beating at low speed for 5 minutes. Stop the machine, scrape any dough off the hook, and beat for another 5 minutes.

Step 3

Add about one-quarter of the butter cubes at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each addition. Once all the butter has been added, beat for 10 minutes more.

Step 4

Place the dough in a large bowl dusted with flour and cover with plastic wrap. Set the dough aside in a warm place until doubled in size, about 3 hours.

Step 5

Turn the dough out onto a generously floured work surface and gently work the air bubbles out by folding the dough over several times while lightly pressing down on it.  Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.

NEXT DAY

Step 6

The dough is now ready to shape. Generously butter your brioche pans or if you don't have one a 8 1/2-by-4 1/2 inch loaf pans.

Step 7

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface, divide the dough in half and shape it into two rectangles that fit into the pan or shape to fit in your brioche pans.  Check out this video on how to shape the head for brioche pans. Place the dough in the pans.

Step 8

Let the dough rise uncovered in a warm place until it is about 1/2 inch thick above the top of the pans, about 3 hours.

Step 9

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit

Step 10

Bake the brioche in the center of the oven until it is well browned on top and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, 35- 40 minutes.  Mine took closer to an hour as I did not divide the dough but remember just use the thermometer to check the temp inside. Remove the brioche from the oven and immediately turn out onto a wire rack.

Step 11

If serving immediately, let the breads cool for 10 minutes, then slice.

If serving within a few hours, wrap the hot bread in aluminum foil and set aside at room temperature until ready to use. To freeze wrap the hot bread in foil and promptly freeze. The bread can be frozen for up to 1 month; when ready to use, reheat (without thawing and still wrapped in foil) in a 250 degree oven until heated through about 20-25 minutes.

Happy Baking & Bon Appètit!