Ginger Lemon Martini

I feel like I am on the backside of a trend because I keep seeing this Domaine de Canton at all the restaurants around town and I keep meaning to try it, but I never do. Not wanting to have this cool new booze trend completely pass me by, I seized the opportunity to try it at a Thai restaurant in Charleston, SC. We had just bellied up to the bar (after putting our name on a waitlist - they didn't accept reservations) and I spied the familiar bottle that I kept meaning to try. I asked the bartender to make me some kind of cocktail with it, his choice. Of course I didn't see exactly what brand of sake or what amounts he put in, but this is my home version of what he made:

Ginger Lemon Martini (makes 2)

4.5 ounces of Domaine de Canton

4.5 ounces of dry sake

juice of one lemon

Chill two martini glasses with ice and water.

In a shaker, mix Canton, sake and lemon juice. Give it 20 shakes.

(Knowing nothing about sake, I totally guessed at Randall's. My guess was good!)

Strain into chilled glasses and garnish with a twist.

With its ginger lemon goodness, it's a perfect cocktail for summer. Beware though. It's almost all booze and it'll sneak up on you.

Canton is also delicious mixed with green tea on the rocks and when used to fortify an unoaked white like a nice Sauvignon Blanc.

Coke Addict (Iced Green Tea)

I am by no means a heath nut. Never have been, and most likely never will be. I do, however, object to eating highly processed foods. Luckily, I've got the time and inclination to cook from scratch. The one notable exception to this "no highly processed food" rule that is a daily struggle for me is Coca-Cola. I love it. I REALLY love it. Put a cold six pack in front of me and I can't chug down a couple mindlessly. And easily finish the rest of the 6 throughout the course of the day.

About a year ago, I made the switch over to Mexican Coke, which is made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Mex Coke comes in a real glass bottle, in a smaller serving than it's American bottled counterpart, and is more expensive than regular Coke. It's so delicious. There's something special about it that makes me want to savor every sip. I've been able to cut back to about one Coke a day since the switch to Mex. I've also become a snob. I'm no longer interested in drinking the overly fake sweet tasting regular Coca-Cola anymore.

So The Captain and I go on a couple of trips - right in a row. I don't have access to Mexican Coke in either location, so I just don't drink any soda at all. Which is completely crazy for me. My soda is the first thing I drink the the morning. No coffee for me. Soda is my caffeine delivery system.

Anyhoo, one of the cities that we travelled to was Charleston, South Carolina. While there, we visited the only domestic tea plantation. Now, The Captain and I aren't tea drinkers, but since I was visiting the ONLY place in the US that actually grows tea, I figured I would pick up a souvenir box of green tea.

When I got home, I realized that it had been a couple of weeks since I had consumed a Coke. I decided to see how long I could go without drinking one. I would need another source of caffeine. A freshly unpacked box souvenir box of green tea was starting at me from the counter top. Hello, green tea. Nice to meet you.

Iced Green Tea

6 cups of water

3 bags of caffeinated green tea

1 inch knob of ginger

1 citrus fruit (lime, lemon, or orange)

honey

I have to make this in batches because we don't own a tea pot. I peel the knob of ginger and slice it. Add it to the water and bring it just barely to a boil. Add the tea bags and let steep for about 6 minutes.

In the meantime, add some ice to a pitcher. Slice citrus and add. After the tea has steeped, add honey to taste. (I only add a little, I don't want it super sweet.) Pour tea into pitcher.

Serve over ice.

Now, in addition to replacing some absolutely empty calories, there are health benefits associated with ginger tea and green tea. Ginger tea (which is just ginger steeped in water) aids in digestion and has been traditionally used to ward off colds and flu. And green tea studies show that it has the potential to fight cancer and heart disease. I don't know about all that, but I do know it has the ability to fight addiction.

Hey, speaking of ginger...

This Granola Tastes Like Blueberry Pancakes

I'm beginning to think I am losing my mind. Ever since I have discovered that I love oatmeal, I have been looking for ways to use it in my cooking. I could have sworn that I read a granola recipe in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living, but when I went back to look it up to actually make the recipe, it was nowhere to be found. I hope this isn't some strange side effect of my new daily oatmeal habit.

Anyhoo, I googled some recipes for granola and put together my own recipe. Who needs Martha anyway? (Just kidding. I do! I do!)

Blueberry Granola

4 cups thick cut rolled oats

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1 cup dried blueberries

2 heaping tablespoons ground flax seed

salt

cinnamon

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup maple syrup (the real stuff)

1/2 cup brown sugar

vanilla extract

Preheat over to 325F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Lightly coat foil with some vegetable oil. Mix oats, nuts, berries, flax seed, a dash of salt and a few healthy dashes of cinnamon in a bowl.

Combine oil, syrup, and sugar in small pan. Cook over medium heat until it boils. Remove from heat and add a little vanilla.

Mix the liquids with the oat mixture until thoroughly combined. Spread on baking sheet.

Bake for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally until the house smells fantastic and the oats are brown. Remove foil to cooling rack.

Seriously, yum. Tastes like blueberry pancakes.

I Make A Really Good Margarita (Blood Orange Margaritas)

The other day Oprah had a show on aging gracefully. Just before commercial breaks she had little mini Q&A segments with older women. One of the questions was something like "What do you know?" Were Oprah to ask me that question, I would say, "Oprah, I know how to make a killer margarita." In this day of bottled premixed margs, it is a skill of which I am most proud.

Blood Orange Margaritas
1 cup sugar
4 limes (more for garnish)
3 lemons
1 blood orange
Sauza Hornitos
Grand Marnier

I begin by making a sweet and sour mix. Start with the simple syrup. In a sauce pan, mix 1 cup of sugar with 2 cups of water and stir over medium heat until dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool.


Juice the limes and lemons. Mix the juice, the simple syrup and 4 cups of water in a pitcher. Taste and adjust. It should taste like a nice tart lemon/limeade. (If you want to skip this step, Simply Limeade is a perfectly reasonable substitute. I use it all of the time. I don't really care for any other sour mix though.)

Next, juice a blood orange. Reserve.

This is an optional step. If you have a fancy freezer that crushes ice for you, you don't need to do this. Otherwise, here's how I crush mine. Ice goes into a plastic bag.

I cover it with a towel, and beat beat beat it with my muddler. (Rolling pins work too.)

After a minute or so, I end up with some lovely crushed ice.

Fill a couple tall glasses with ice. Add an ounce and a half of Sauza Hornitos and an ounce and a half of Grand Marnier (uh, these are gonna be strong)to each. Not to be picky here, but no substitutions on the booze. I use Cuervo in margs sometimes, but I think it gives a dirty after taste. Sauza Hornitos is a nice middle of the road tequila that isn't super expensive, but isn't rot gut either. It tastes clean. And Grand Marnier is the trick to making any margarita taste like a Top Shelf marg. Add sweet and sour leaving a little bit of room for the blood orange.

Top each with the reserved blood orange juice.

Garnish with a lime wedge or wheel, stir and consume.

These margaritas are also perfectly delicious without the blood orange juice.

Homemade Hummus (Chickpea Dip)

Well, this post is long overdue. My parents gave me a really nice food processor for Christmas and I haven't featured it in this blog yet. I've made bread in it and used it to slice potatoes for gratins and chips, but for some reason, I'm not taking pics and posting recipes. Today that changes.

I've never understood why the little tubs of hummus at the grocery store are so pricey. It's easy to make at home for about a dollar. And you know exactly what's in it when you make it yourself.

Hummus
1 can of chickpeas, rinsed
3 cloves of garlic (more to taste)
olive oil
juice of half a lemon
salt & pepper


The chickpeas and garlic go into the food processor.
Add a little bit of salt and pepper. I whirl it a bit to get everything chopped up, then add...

...this....

...and this....

I usually bowl it up and top it off with more olive oil and black pepper. We eat hummus with celery or carrots like a dip.

And also on toasted bread or pita.

The great thing about hummus is that it has a nice creamy kind of fat feeling texture while packing quite a nutritional punch. Chickpeas contain lots of fiber, protein, and iron.

A San Francisco Treat (Not Rice A Roni)

I mentioned to my friend Erica that I would be travelling out to San Francisco this fall. Erica lives in SF and said, "I'm gonna send you something to get you excited for your trip out here." A few days later the FedEx man arrived with a rather large box. Inside was this <-. Unbelievable. I'm am getting completely inspired by this bag of goodies and we are working our way through tasting everything. For the curious, the box contained the following:

• A really awesomely sized bag perfect for a trip to the farmers market
• Maps of San Francisco and Napa Sonoma (really nice laminated maps)
• San Francisco Magazine (saving it for the plane ride to San Antonio)
• Susan Rice truffled popcorn
• Far West Fungi Dried Wild Mushrooms
• Humphry Slocumbe Duck Fat Pecan Pie
• Humphry Slocumbe Pork Fat Caramels
• Eatwell Farms Thyme Salt
• Stonehouse California Olive Oil
• Recchiuti Burnt Caramel Sauce
• Recchiuti S'Mores (those are long gone)
• Casina Rossa Truffle & Salt, Porcini & Salt, and Fennel & Salt
• Marshall's Farm Marin Wildflower Honey
• Humphry Slocumbe Bacon Peanut Brittle
• Gianna's Chick Cookies
• Botanical Interests seeds for Delicata Squash, Lemon Cucumber, and Catnip
• Boccalone Orange and Wild Fennel Salame
• Range Brothers Smoked and Seasoned Pork Strips (think pork candy)
• Sweet and Spicy Beef Jerky (I don't have the brand on that cause it all got eaten and the bag got thrown away)

An incredible gift. I felt like a kid at Christmas opening everything up. Thanks, Erica!

New Favorite Thing (Steel Cut Oats)

So after I made my mushroom veggie burgers, I had a lot of oats left over. One morning I was looking at the bag and thought "I should have some oatmeal for breakfast." Now, when I was a kid, I tried the packets of instant flavored oatmeal and found that I didn't really care for the texture or taste. But I popped a 1/2 cup of those rolled oats in the microwave with a cup of water. After two minutes, I added a little salt, a little butter, some cinnamon, a spoonful of brown sugar and some banana. And those oats were magnificent.

I decided to look up the nutritional info on my new favorite breakfast treat and was shocked at how good oats are for you. They have iron, protein and about 20% of the daily RDA of fiber. The soluble fiber helps prevent your body from absorbing cholesterol. I personally found that a bowl of oatmeal keeps me filling full all morning long.

Anyhoo, after spreading the oatmeal love to some friends, someone suggested that I try steel cut oats. They take about 20 minutes to cook on the stove top, so I put them on, made the bed, emptied the dishwasher and fed and watered the cats. By the time I was ready, so were my oats. And now I am a steel cut convert. These oats have a nuttier texture with more bite. The oats pictured above are steel cut, with a pat of butter, some salt, a half of a banana, a few walnuts and some Marin County Honey that a friend sent from San Francisco. Which reminds me....