A few weekends ago, I was the unofficial bartender at a friend's place for a Carnival Party, fulfilling a long-held desire to try a real Mai Tai...which, by the way, is really good. Reaalllly good. I headed over to Serious Eats to find the recipes for the difficult-to-find ingredients for tiki drinks, because, really, making these things for just yourself is silly. It's nice to find an excuse, or, failing that, to simply make up an excuse. And always juice more limes than you think you'll need. That is my best lesson from the evening, I think.
Though I didn't end up making allspice dram, it's a recipe worth trying, I think. Both orgeat and falernum weren't difficult to make, but time-consuming, absolutely.
Orgeat
2 cups raw almonds, sliced or chopped
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon orange flower water (available at Indian or Middle Eastern grocery stores)
1 ounce vodka
1. Toast almonds at 400°F for 4 minutes, shaking after 2 minutes.
2. Cool almonds and then pulverize them with a blender or food processor.
3. In a saucepan, cook the sugar and water on medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture starts to boil, about 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Add pulverized almonds and simmer on low heat, stirring frequently. When mixture is about to boil, remove from heat and cover. Let it sit for a minimum of 3 hours and no more than 12 hours.
5. Strain steeped mixture through three layers of cheesecloth into a bowl, squeezing the cloth as you go.
6. Add orange flower water and vodka, then stir. Funnel into glass jar or bottle.
***I used the leftover sugary almond bits as as a mix-in for my yogurt, but if you spread it on a silpat and bake for a bit, I have a feeling it'd make wonderful brittle.***
Falernum
1/3 cup sliced, raw almonds
30 whole cloves
1/2 cup of light rum
8 limes
2/3 cup of water
1/2 cup of sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F and toast the almonds on a cookie sheet until slightly darkened and fragrant, about five minutes. Be careful not to let them burn. Let cool before using.
2. Place the almonds and cloves in a sealable glass jar and pour in the rum. Shake and let steep 2 days. (For a less intense clove flavor, steep 1 day.)
3. Zest the limes, being sure no white pith is included. Set aside four of the limes for use in the rest of this recipe, and reserve the rest for another project. Add lime zest to the jar. At this point you can also add other spices, if desired. Shake and let steep for 1 day, and then strain through cheesecloth, pressing to extract as much liquid as possible.
4. Juice four of the limes, and strain the juice into a sauce pot. Add water and sugar, then bring to a boil on medium heat. Cook until sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Let syrup cool, then combine with the strained almond and clove infusion. Strain mixture through a coffee filter, if desired, then let it rest for an additional 12 hours before use.
The signature drinks of the night were printed out so party-goers could find one they liked:
Planter's Punch
...probably called such because, as a three-shot drink, it packs a punch.
3 ounces dark rum
1 ounce simple syurp
3/4 ounce lime juice
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Combine ingredients in a tall glass and fill with crushed ice. Swizzle with a bar spoon until a frost forms on the outside of the glass. The ice will settle as you do this; add more crushed ice to fill.
Mai Tai
2 ounces rum
1 ounce lime
1/2 ounce curaçao***
1/4 ounce orgeat
1/4 ounce vanilla simple syrup
Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker and fill with ice. Shake well for 10 seconds and strain.
***poor dyslexic me finally found out that curaçao, I thought was pronounced cur-akk-ow, is actually pronounced cure-a-so (it's also the oft-dyed liquor found in bright blue tropical drinks at your neighborhood Applebee's). But--there's another drink called cachaça which I confused it with, pronounced ca-sha-sa. I knew a friend of mine had cachaça that she used to make caipirinhas, so when I read the Mai Tai recipe I thought we were set! ...alas, I think the moral of the story is that ç and I do not get along, but that substituting cachaça in a Mai Tai is not a bad thing.***
The Saturn
1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 ounce passion fruit syrup (passionfruit juice from Trader Joe's boiled down into a syrup)
1/4 ounce falernum
1/4 ounce orgeat
1 1/4 ounce gin
1 cup crushed ice
Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour unstrained into a tall glass.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Saturday thoughts
You know you're at MIT when simultaneously on different quads on a Saturday morning, Jedi Knights are being trained in lightsaber combat and the local Quidditch team are having a scrimmage.
Pantone tarts---my favorite. (from Emily Grillotes, via Craftzine)
It snowed briefly last night and this morning, but didn't stick around. I miss winter.
I was novocained for the first time on Thursday, completely by surprise. To me, when a dentist says he's going to seal up a divot on your molar, that means sealants, the gross-tasting stuff they paint on your teeth...instead, I get in the chair and suddenly there's a giant needled syringe in my mouth. The dentist saw my surprised terror and kept asking, as he continued to apply novocaine, "Are you all right?" ---a difficult question to answer, mostly because of the syringe in my mouth. Apparently to get the best bonding of this divot he needed to drill into the tooth a bit, which I guess requires novocaine? I have never been numbed in my mouth before, and the sensation was frightening. I knew my face and my lips were still there, but something was terribly wrong. I could look at myself in the mirror and touch my face, and know perfectly rationally everything was fine, but trying to convince my brain that everything is fine, well, that was impossible. I'm sure I sounded quite drunk trying to explain how it felt to the dentist. It took about six hours to wear off completely, and now I just feel like someone threw a punch to my jaw. The best part about this, though, was that I came home that night and listened to the episode of Radiolab called Where Am I? --and about three minutes in, Oliver Sachs started to describe disorders related to proprioception, our perception of where our self and our body exist in space--and how most people experience a loss of proprioception during application of anesthetics like novocaine. Radiolab, you are suspiciously good at being relevant to my life.
My family sent me tulips for my birthday, and gosh, are they ever gorgeous!
It snowed briefly last night and this morning, but didn't stick around. I miss winter.
I was novocained for the first time on Thursday, completely by surprise. To me, when a dentist says he's going to seal up a divot on your molar, that means sealants, the gross-tasting stuff they paint on your teeth...instead, I get in the chair and suddenly there's a giant needled syringe in my mouth. The dentist saw my surprised terror and kept asking, as he continued to apply novocaine, "Are you all right?" ---a difficult question to answer, mostly because of the syringe in my mouth. Apparently to get the best bonding of this divot he needed to drill into the tooth a bit, which I guess requires novocaine? I have never been numbed in my mouth before, and the sensation was frightening. I knew my face and my lips were still there, but something was terribly wrong. I could look at myself in the mirror and touch my face, and know perfectly rationally everything was fine, but trying to convince my brain that everything is fine, well, that was impossible. I'm sure I sounded quite drunk trying to explain how it felt to the dentist. It took about six hours to wear off completely, and now I just feel like someone threw a punch to my jaw. The best part about this, though, was that I came home that night and listened to the episode of Radiolab called Where Am I? --and about three minutes in, Oliver Sachs started to describe disorders related to proprioception, our perception of where our self and our body exist in space--and how most people experience a loss of proprioception during application of anesthetics like novocaine. Radiolab, you are suspiciously good at being relevant to my life.
My family sent me tulips for my birthday, and gosh, are they ever gorgeous!
Friday, March 2, 2012
February Reads
A busy month...and let's not lie, there were many hours in airports/on planes spent reading Time Magazine and Entertainment Weekly.
The Physics of the Ponytail. (from the New York Times)
Longform.org, seriously the best essay aggregation site of the internet. (thanks Aimee for the recommendation!) --a group of girls and I have been getting together for dinner and do a bit of homework beforehand, reading a longer article and having it as a jump-off point for discussion. It's like a book club...but less of a commitment!
What's even funnier is that almost all of us read Joanna Goddard's blog, Cup of Jo, which is where Aimee got the idea for the articles club in the first place...and we talk about her like she's a close girlfriend that we visit in New York City, as if we've actually met. Obviously, we've babysat her son Toby, we tell people, oh, my friend Joanna gave us the idea to try out a new pink lipstick, etc. It's very surreal. This hit even closer to home because one of my favorite standard recipes is actually the eggplant parmesean from Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP newsletter, and I casually mentioned that the recipe, well, "oh, it's from Gwyneth!" ...as if I know her. I don't. But the internet kind of makes it seem that way. I'm sure that if you read my entire blog archive (don't, please)-- you could get a pretty good picture of who I am, what I love to eat, who I want to become (Frizzle!). But it does floor me that we have these shared experiences with people and topics when we haven't met them in person. That, to me, is what makes the internet age the internet age. It's not the flashy graphics or the processing power, it's the fact that all of the new technology together makes it so easy to connect the lives of very disparate people (me and Pioneer Woman? Four kids, ranch in Oklahoma, vs. a grad student in engineering...nothing in common except I read what she writes, and my family loves her BBQ meatballs just as much as hers does).
Anyways, our first article was about Chinese tourism in Europe, and our second was about a murder on Cape Cod...both fascinating, for completely different reasons. And because of this, I've gotten more into reading longer articles online, including one about the economics of Trader Joe's, a story about body image from a poet named Lucy Grealy who died of an overdose in 2002, some shorts essays from a woman who moved her family to Brazil for a year, and a slightly frightening one about the woman who murdered the doctor behind the Scarsdale diet.
Finally, one of my books from the old Ashdown at MIT is called Crainquebille...back in the day, when my room was still quite empty, I picked up a bunch of books to fill out my shelves (which led to the most wonderful mystery to unravel about Harold Fairchild) ---and lately, as my shelves are more full of books, I've been trying to make sure that all of them are books I will use, and this is one I hadn't read, so now I have. It's a large-print version, with really beautiful black and white illustrations. I'm such a sucker for pretty pictures.
The Physics of the Ponytail. (from the New York Times)
Longform.org, seriously the best essay aggregation site of the internet. (thanks Aimee for the recommendation!) --a group of girls and I have been getting together for dinner and do a bit of homework beforehand, reading a longer article and having it as a jump-off point for discussion. It's like a book club...but less of a commitment!
What's even funnier is that almost all of us read Joanna Goddard's blog, Cup of Jo, which is where Aimee got the idea for the articles club in the first place...and we talk about her like she's a close girlfriend that we visit in New York City, as if we've actually met. Obviously, we've babysat her son Toby, we tell people, oh, my friend Joanna gave us the idea to try out a new pink lipstick, etc. It's very surreal. This hit even closer to home because one of my favorite standard recipes is actually the eggplant parmesean from Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP newsletter, and I casually mentioned that the recipe, well, "oh, it's from Gwyneth!" ...as if I know her. I don't. But the internet kind of makes it seem that way. I'm sure that if you read my entire blog archive (don't, please)-- you could get a pretty good picture of who I am, what I love to eat, who I want to become (Frizzle!). But it does floor me that we have these shared experiences with people and topics when we haven't met them in person. That, to me, is what makes the internet age the internet age. It's not the flashy graphics or the processing power, it's the fact that all of the new technology together makes it so easy to connect the lives of very disparate people (me and Pioneer Woman? Four kids, ranch in Oklahoma, vs. a grad student in engineering...nothing in common except I read what she writes, and my family loves her BBQ meatballs just as much as hers does).
Anyways, our first article was about Chinese tourism in Europe, and our second was about a murder on Cape Cod...both fascinating, for completely different reasons. And because of this, I've gotten more into reading longer articles online, including one about the economics of Trader Joe's, a story about body image from a poet named Lucy Grealy who died of an overdose in 2002, some shorts essays from a woman who moved her family to Brazil for a year, and a slightly frightening one about the woman who murdered the doctor behind the Scarsdale diet.
Finally, one of my books from the old Ashdown at MIT is called Crainquebille...back in the day, when my room was still quite empty, I picked up a bunch of books to fill out my shelves (which led to the most wonderful mystery to unravel about Harold Fairchild) ---and lately, as my shelves are more full of books, I've been trying to make sure that all of them are books I will use, and this is one I hadn't read, so now I have. It's a large-print version, with really beautiful black and white illustrations. I'm such a sucker for pretty pictures.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Oscars 2012
I have a bit of a tradition to give my own personal Oscar gown commentary every year during the Oscars pre-show (see 2011 and 2010) -- but as I spent most of this year's Oscar's in the air coming home from a wedding shower and bachelorette party weekend, this year's won't be snarky, more just some ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the dresses. It doesn't help that I have seen exactly 2 of the approximately 45 nominated films (Midnight in Paris, Bridesmaids). I do love movies, but I'm on the about-two-years-behind Netflix watcher plan. But---to the dresses! (pictures courtesy of People.com, and The New York Times)
Favorites of the evening:
Meryl Streep (love the color, love the smile even more!)
Viola Davis (color is superb!)
Esperanza Spalding (just such a glorious look on her)
Ellie Kemper (I love the bronzey-gold shimmer)
Marit Brook-Kothlow (I know it's Lisa Frank purple, but wow, love it)
Natalie Portman (polka dots!)
Rooney Mara (very elegant)
Bingbing Li (look at that see-through detail!)
Sherri Shepherd (color is fabulous, though I wish she wasn't wearing such a scandalous bra)
Rachel Smith (I like the ruched details and the statement necklace, very nice!)
Jessica Chastain (just the right amount of complicated)
Octavia Spencer (starlet all the way!)
Shaun Robinson (that color! that smile!)
Elizabeth Cotnoir (love the Grecian cut)
Giuliana Rancic (this is how you do form-fitting but not bare it all! beautiful color!)
Gwyneth Paltrow (even with the cape.)
Penelope Cruz (I love off-the-shoulder gowns, even though they're not the best for movement)
Kristin Wiig (the right way to do feathers, nice and understated)
Milla Jovovitch (sparkly! does she ever cease posing like a vamp?)
Maya Rudolph (that wine color is perfect for her)
The in-betweens:
Angelina Jolie (slits for slits sake, not my favorite)
Elaine Taylor (although I like the dress, I'm pretty sure Christopher Plummer is the best accessory here..)
Alexandra Edenborough (a little too boxed in)
Virginia Madsen (when done like that, satin just gets creased funny..)
Sandra Bullock (pretty, just not my favorite)
Christopher Lloyd's guest (YELLOW. extra points for ballsiness)
Brooke Burns (how can you walk? Color is great, though)
Bérénice Bejo (that shade just washes her out, though the cut is fabulous)
Stacy Kiebler (ah, Marquesa, so sculptural!)
Bérénice Bejo (that shade just washes her out, though the cut is fabulous)
Stacy Kiebler (ah, Marquesa, so sculptural!)
Tina Fey (too boxy, sorry)
Emma Stone (if only there wasn't a bow! The color is gorgeous, and I love the draping, so elegant! She kind of reminds me of this book I had as a kid with a puppy with this giant bow, I can't find a picture, but it's a dead ringer)
Stan Chervin's guest (a little maternity-ish)
Wendi McLendon-Covey (distressed princess?)
Melissa McCarthy (I wish she would have worn something brighter)
Annie Mumolo (too boxy for me, color is great)
Sarah Hyland (she looks washed out in the mauve)
Glenn Close (love the color, but there just seems to be a lot of fabric going on)
Jane Seymour (you amaze me)
Jane Seymour (you amaze me)
Michelle Williams (I'm not such a big fan of the peplum hippy look)
Colin Firth's guest (kind of boxy)
Bo Derek (lovely color, dislike the shape)
Rose Byrne (drama!)
Cameron Diaz (I don't really like the feather cascade)
Cecilia Hart (I'm not really that big a fan of bright white with black)
Judy Greer (the yardstick splitting her up is kind of odd)
Louise Roe (it's the Oscars! You don't need to wear a blazer...)
Judy Greer (the yardstick splitting her up is kind of odd)
Louise Roe (it's the Oscars! You don't need to wear a blazer...)
Least favorites of the evening:
Jennifer Lopez (don't hate it, but definitely don't like it)
Busy Phillips (gowns cut like this just make me cringe, it's such an odd cut)
Shailene Woodley (kind of looks like a 70s throwback that belongs on a Bond girl)
Amara Miller (it's the sleeves)
Missy Pyle (the one-shoulder + drop waist + peplum, too much)
Guest of Mark Bridges ---it looks like a black Pnina Tornai (Say Yes to the Dress designer) ---and I have to say, I just kind of don't like the see-through corset look. Ever.
Penelope Ann Miller (I think the baby pink is a bad choice for this sort of gown; she would have been better served by a bright color).
Anne-Sophie Bion (I'm sorry, maybe it's the angle, but this looks like a garbage bag)
Anna Farris (booberific balck sequined dress, yikes)
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