[Food + Drink Wednesdays] Fruity Fun

Now that I am home for a couple of weeks, I want to start cooking again. It's something I used to do so much and I'm not quite sure why it stopped. Here are two goodies I am going to make sure I do this week:

Blueberry Coconut Bars from Brunch at Saks

And Honey Rosemary Lemonade from Shutterbean

[Friday Link Round-Up]

1. I am quickly becoming addicted to LC's new beauty site, The Beauty Department. It's filled with amazing tutorials for hair, makeup, nails, etc. I never really knew how to put on my red lipstick until I read their post about a week ago. Who knew!

2. The sun is shining! It's time to drink up with friends in your backyard. Or, if you don't have a backyard, drink while looking out the window into your neighbor's apartment or something. 

Wine Jello Shots via Martha Stewart

Raspberry and Key Lime Margaritas via Tokyo Terrace

3. I just found one of my new favorite lookbooks. It's by Rachel R., a girl from Madrid. Her style is bold and unapologetic, and if I had enough money lying around, I'd wear those badass Louboutins too. 

Image via lookbook.nu

4. Last week, I found Thought Catalog, and I am so smitten. The stories are succinct, personal, and informative. I'm especially addicted to the Love and Sex articles. 

[Food + Drink Wednesday] Make Your Own Infused Vodka

Photo via Pitchfork Diaries

One time in New Zealand, I visited the house of some Kiwis who had a large bottle of blackberries sitting in a bath of cheap vodka. The husband told me that it had been sitting there for three weeks, and they were preparing it for holiday gifts for family and friends.

How genius is that? It's homemade, it's from the heart, it's from the kitchen, and it has about a 35% alcohol content.

I just found this tutorial on Pitchfork Diaries, which reminded me of this fantastic idea for a gift or a party (or, you know, just a gift for yourself after a really long Monday).

Tutorial Re-Posted: 

HOMEMADE INFUSED SPIRITS

EQUIPMENT & INGREDIENTS
Clean glass containers: mason jars, empty wine bottles, apothecary jars, hermetic jars, etc. Just make sure they are very clean and free from any residue or odor of what was in them previously.

Alcohol base:  Vodka is most common, primarily due to its somewhat neutral flavor.  However, light or dark rum, gin, and tequila also work great.  I have tried it with 100 proof vodka, instead of the more common 80 proof, and found the higher alcohol content was too aggressive to experience any of the flavors in any pleasant way.  Since you will be flavoring it, and probably experimenting some, I don’t think it is necessary to break the bank and buy super high end alcohol, at least until you find a combination you love.  But along with that, the better the ingredients, alcohol and flavors, the better the product, and lousy vodka is just going to taste like lousy vodka that’s been flavored.

Freshest, and best possible, ingredients:  Fresh fruit, fresh herbs and fresh spices are all the best choice, and you will notice the difference.  This is not the project to substitute frozen produce, and if you can get items that are in season and at the height of their flavor, all the better for this recipe too.  I have used dried fruit in some cases, as a specific choice to go for that flavor, which also ended up working beautifully.

Optional:
Small kitchen funnel
Fine strainer, lined with cheesecloth

PROCEDURE

CHOOSE AND PREPARE CONTAINERS.
Thoroughly clean and dry your chosen glass container.

GATHER AND PREPARE YOUR DELICIOUS INGREDIENTS.
Add fruit, spices, herbs or other flavoring ingredients.  Use your judgement as to how strong the flavor of the ingredient is for how much you add.  A good rule for fresh fruit is to fill the container half way up with the produce and then add liquor to fill the bottle.  With herbs, a good handful or two should be plenty.  With something strong, like ginger, a three inch piece should be enough for a 750ml bottle.  Good quality vanilla beans should work with about four.  You can always add more of the ingredients after a few days if you want a more pronounced flavor.  Remember to cut the pieces small if you are using a small necked bottle, so you can remove them eventually and to give you more surface area in general, and know that they will expand as they soak up the alcohol.  Peel fruit if you wouldn’t generally eat the peel (i.e. mangoes and melons), with the exception of citrus, which have loads of very flavorful oils in their skin.

JUST ADD ALCOHOL.
Fill the rest of the container with the alcohol.

…AND, WAIT.
Cover or cork the container, and allow it to sit and infuse for two to five days, in a cool place out of direct sunlight.  This can be in the refrigerator, or simply on your counter, just not next to your stove.  Occasionally tip the bottle gently to redistribute the alcohol.  The longer you leave it, the more prominent the flavor, but it will level off eventually.

STRAIN
When it has infused to your liking, you can strain it and transfer to smaller, prettier bottles.  Most produce will breakdown and discolor eventually, so for gift giving or aesthetics, you may want to do this step.  It is less necessary with vanilla beans, ginger, cinnamon, and spices.

STORE & SERVE
Store in a cool place, where you would other alcohol. It should keep for about a year.

SAFETY NOTE:
First, make sure all of your containers and ingredients are thoroughly cleaned. The high alcohol content should inhibit harmful bacteria from growing, but if at any point the concoction has an “off” smell, or starts to rapidly discolor or get cloudy, err on the side of caution and discard it.

[Friday Link Round Up] Oops - a day late

1. Try these delicious winter cocktail recipes from food52 - ready for weekend imbibing!

Hot Drunken Apple Cider

2. I want a Diana camera - check out Dianaminilove for gorgeous photographs and inspiration

3. Buy this gorgeous lingerie - too bad I don't have a boyfriend at the moment. I'm just going to buy it anyway - too pretty. From the loved one via calivintage

[Food + Drink Wednesdays] Cocktail Time!

Everyone needs a pick-me-up when the middle of the week rolls around. So mix up a cocktail, kick up your feet and enjoy the fact that you are that much closer to the weekend.

Recipes and photos from Coco+Kelley

Grapefruit Mimosa

1/4 cup cranberry juice
1/4 cup pink grapefruit juice
Champagne

Pour cranberry & pink grapefruit juice into a champagne flute or thin glass. Top with your favorite champagne or sparkling wine. Serve immediately. Serves 1.

Rosemary Infused Greyhound

1 oz Grapefruit Juice
1 oz Herb’s Rosemary Infused Vodka (or make your own!)
1 tsp Organic Sugar
1 Sprig of Fresh Rosemary for garnish

In a shaker, add rosemary vodka and grapefruit juice. Stir and serve over ice in a sugar-rimmed (technically this makes it closer to a Salty Dog - don't sugar your rim for a more classic Greyhound) rocks or martini glass. Serves 1.

[Nightlife] Bottomless Mimosas, Pitchers of Margaritas

This Sunday was supposed to be dedicated to the lost art of mimosa-drinking in the morning (or at least it's a lost art in my life right now). I wanted a chill brunch in the city with my girls. What I got instead was a two and a half-hour line to wait in, inside of which I was pressed against all kinds of people who were still drunk from the previous night's debauchery in the Castro. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and if it had been a nice summer's day, I would have even enjoyed it. But it was pouring rain out, and everyone's raincoats and umbrellas were all over the floor. The bathroom was even flooded. Gross. When we tried to let loose and dance, even the thoroughly-Castro gay men looked at us like we were crazy. They were blasting house-infused Usher at 11AM, what else are you supposed to do, people?

When we finally got sick of people squishing up against us, we decided to take things a bit easier and move on to margaritas (it was no longer the morning by this time, okay!? That was a very long line!) and my friend brought us  to a fabulous Salvadorean restaurant called Playa Azul in the Mission.

Playa Azul was way more low-key and way more my pace. It also happens to be down the street from El Rio, where every Sunday is Salsa Sunday and every Saturday night hosts a different ethnic food (priced at "donation only" prices). We sat down and ordered a giant plate of nachos covered in shrimp, crab ceviche, cheese, and avocado, and we waited for our big pitcher of margaritas.

Me + Margaritas + Cheese + Crab Ceviche = State of Splendor

Anyway, I'll take Playa Azul over Lime any day, even if I can't have a bottomless mimosa brunch there. I should probably start waiting until the afternoon to have my first drink anyway. Probably.