Posts tagged #geek

Liquor: The Weasley

One of my goals for this year is to figure out how to add some coding and widgets and gidgets and whatever to this blog so that people can Pin recipes directly to their Pinterest boards and e-mail certain entries to their friends, etc. Unfortunately I seem to have magically forgotten everything I learned when I built my first few websites--I blame vodka induced amnesia (and lack of recent practice!). Or...in the theme of today's entry, did someone Obliviate me?

What's the perfect drink for staring at HTML coding until your eyes cross? ALCOHOL! But more specifically, whiskey, since that's what I like to drink these days. And because I am on a ginger kick as of late (that started with the ginger infused broth of whiffy wonder in my Thai Chicken Noodle Soup) and also because I am a HUGE geek, I present to you...

THE WEASLEY. 

 In my mind, of the 'Fred & George' variety.

You've seen this kind of thing from me before.

My thought process: "Hmmm...whiskey....firewhiskey...and ginger, like THE quintessential gingers...but if it's going to be like firewhiskey it should also have a tiny bit of a spicy kick to it...but still sweet...and of course, it should also be HOT. Because, obviously."


Just a head's up, this recipe does require a wee bit of advance planning as you should let the whiskey infuse with the ginger for a night or two. The longer you let it go the more ginger flavour you'll get, but I wouldn't let it infuse past two nights.

The Weasley
this recipe makes two drinks; I split it up so that each would have a different whiskey


What You Need
Whiskey, about 1/2 cup per drink, brand of your choice: for one drink I used Jack's Tennessee Honey since I figured the sweetness would be offset with the ginger and lemon and spice, and I was right. I used Maker's Mark in the second drink and that was also lovely. Obviously, you don't have to do two different brands; just pick one and go with it!
1 medium piece of fresh ginger, about 4-5" (Fresh ginger packs quite a punch, so if you're not familiar with it, take a little lick/taste of the raw peeled ginger so you can get a feel for it and then decide how much you want.)
1 lemon
4 dashes ground ginger, so 2 per drink

2 pinches (and I seriously do mean a PINCH) red cayenne pepper, so 1 per drink (optional, really, since ginger can be pretty spicy, though it's a different kind of spice)
Smidge of honey, optional, to taste (if you're not using Jack's Tennessee Honey)
Club soda or tonic water, optional, to top off (I don't enjoy whiskey neat)

What You Do
1. So, here we go! First, carefully peel your fresh ginger root with a vegetable peeler or by using a spoon to scrape off the skin. Ugly thing, isn't it? But spicy and fresh and sharp and lovely. Dice it up into small pieces (you can see one floating in my drink, above) and make sure to trim off some of the rough, stringy outer edges. Toss it into your whiskey of choice, about 1 cup or so in a Mason jar, and let it infuse for 1 or 2 nights.

I assure you, that waiting time only happened because a) I got too busy to mess around with cocktails and b) I found a bottle of wine I forgot I had in the meantime.

2. So two days have passed and you're back; or, alternatively, a few hours have passed and you're impatient. Whatever. Strain out the whiskey or just fish the ginger pieces out and pour into two glasses. Slice the lemon into quarters and squeeze one quarter into each drink. Add two dashes of ground ginger to each drink, plus the pinch of cayenne pepper if you're brave, and the honey if you want. The nice thing about this recipe is that you can mess around with the proportions to basically whateverthehell you want depending on what you like--sweet, sour, spicy, whatever. This is your party.

3. Microwave for about a minute each until piping hot and smelling utterly boozy and wonderful. Top off with club soda, if desired, garnish with the leftover lemon and maybe a piece of ginger if you want, (I thoroughly enjoyed chewing on a couple of the pieces of ginger whilst drinking) and let the honey-whiskey-spicy-lemony-gingery goodness warm you from the inside out.

Warm you from the pain of losing Fred.

*sob*

Cheers, mates.

Liquor: Pumpkin Juice!

It's Halloween, so of course everything is pumpkin EVERYTHING right now! However, the inspiration for this particular recipe actually comes from my nearest and dearest favourite fantasy series...Harry Potter. These are the books that opened the world of fantasy, magic and make-believe to me, that provided me--as a geeky, gangly, unpopular and painfully awkward 11-year-old--another world to disappear into when mine was so unbearable.

I am only slightly less awkward and gangly as a 23-year-old and about eleventy-billion times more geeky (hello Hunger Games, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and Batman...) and I still love Harry Potter as much as I did at the first turn of the first page. And since it's Halloween, the movies have been playing on ABC Family every weekend and I've been loving every minute. :)

Pumpkin juice is a beverage often enjoyed by Harry, Ron, and Hermione and in my current inundation with pumpkins, I decided to give it a whirl. I know it *sounds* weird, but I assure you it is delicious, refreshing, interesting, and definitely worth a shot! Now of course...the kiddos enjoy this straight up, but I discovered that it's even MORE delightful with a splash of Maker's Mark over ice. My girl friend Tiny Bird preferred it with some Gosling's dark spiced rum, and Lilypad liked it with brandy. (Drinking it in her Hermione Granger Halloween costume, natch.)


Pumpkin Juice
makes about 5 cups

What You Need
1 small pumpkin, known as a pie pumpkin in most stores OR 1 cup tinned pumpkin puree (100% pure puree, not pumpkin pie filling!)
2 cups apple juice (I used the freshly pressed Simply Apple brand, which is stored next to the refrigerated lemonades in your supermarket)
1 cup white grape juice
1 cup pineapple juice
Dash of ground ginger
Dash of cinnamon

Now, here's the thing. I'm currently on a kick about doing everything from scratch, so I made my own pumpkin puree. It was a fair amount of work, and it turned out smoother and a bit thinner in consistency and lighter in color than the kind you get from the tin. It takes time and a bit of patience, but no special skills. Feel free to make your life easier and just use one cup of the tinned stuff, skip to step 3, and we're good to go.

What You Do
1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Slice the pumpkin in half from pole to pole and scrape out the seeds and stringy bits. I found this to be easier after pricking it with a fork in several places and microwaving for 1 minute. Less likely have a knife slip and stab yourself this way. Unless there's something we need to talk about. Lay the halves facedown on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until very soft. (It made the whole house smell sweet and wonderful as the natural sugars in the flesh were rendered out!)

2. When the pumpkin is cool enough to handle, slip the skins off (they turned very leathery in the oven, very interesting) and discard. Using a fine mesh sieve and a rubber spatula, working in batches, force the pumpkin flesh through the sieve into a bowl. This was the most time consuming part, for me, because you really have to mash it through thoroughly, scraping as you go. Toss the pulpy mess left in the sieve. Stir your beautiful puree together (it has a natural tendency to separate from its juices) and measure out 1 cup.

 
3. In a pitcher, stir together all of the juices and the pumpkin, along with the spices, until the pumpkin is completely dissolved. Chill until very cold, and serve over ice after stirring once again. Spike as needed. :)

Thanks for everything, JK.