The Kinky Wolfman

I love a good cocktail.  I'm pretty picky about what I will try though.  Usually if it is sweet, I'm game to try, but usually ones that are made with harder liquors-I tend to shy away. Not a fan of the burning sensation when it goes down.  I remember sneaking little nips of Jack Daniels when we went camping when no one was looking. I couldn't figure out how my Dad loved it so much when it burned like liquid fire going down.

Last Spring I was able to attend a fund raising function for Second Harvest Hope in the Heartland.  As I work for a food company, many people were invited to this fundraiser.  My boss knows that I love to cook and asked if I would like to take one of the tickets given to her boss.  It was such a wonderful event. There is a silent auction, a live auction, many local restaurants came and served tastes from their establishments. It was the first time I had pork belly. Oh. My. God.

They also pick a signature drink for the night. On that night it was the Kinkytini. It was fabulous. I went right out that weekend and bought the ingredients. I will share that one later.

The one tonight is called the Kinky Wolfman.  I believe the recipe said the name of the Irish whiskey had the name "Wolf" in it, but I couldn't find it.  I found this recipe in our grocery store circular of all places.  Here in Minnesota, you cannot buy liquor in grocery stores, but some grocery stores have liquor stores next door.

Our local liquor store didn't have any Irish Whiskey in small bottles and I had no idea if I would like it, so I didn't want to buy a large bottle. Dude doesn't like the darker liquors, so I substituted Canadian Whiskey I could get in a small bottle. Oh yeah, this was a keeper.

The Kinky Wolfman

1 ounce Irish Whiskey

2 ounces Kinky Liqueur

3 ounces Ginger ale

In small shaker, mix the Whiskey, the Liqueur and a couple of ice cubes. Shake until cold. Pour into cocktail glass and top with the 3 ounces of Ginger ale.  Give a stir and enjoy.

I taste tested 3 tonight.  I'm suppose to be getting food prepared for our Fall Frolic at our house tomorrow.  I'm thinking sleep is a better idea!

Pom-a-long-a-ding-dong

I don't have a good name for this, but I made a cocktail out of the remaining bottle of POMwonderful I had.

1 bottle POMwonderful Pomegranate juice
1 TBSP simple syrup
1 TBSP triple sec or orange liqueur
1 ounce vodka

Stir all ingredients together and pour over ice.

Since I find the juice a little tart (and I like sweet cocktails), I added the simple syrup. It was a little tart, a little sweet and a good finish to a nice sunny day.

A new toy and a drink and a bonus dessert

I have mention many times my love of gadgets for the kitchen. I don't have many gadgets for household stuff: cleaning tools, closet organizers, yard work helpers. No, my love of gadgets is centered solely of cooking and baking. I have toyed around with the idea of featuring posts based on a different gadget used to make the dish. I want to gather some more ideas and then get that done. I think it would be kind of fun. My latest purchase was something I have seen on TV for two or more years. Dude said we don't need it-and we don't. But has that ever stopped me before? I think not. I explained that it would just be the two of us soon and if I can save a little on the gas and electric bill when not doing a lot of cooking and baking, it would benefit to our checkbook. He so isn't falling for it.





Yes, I bought a Nuwave oven.



And I cooked our entire dinner in it. Baked potatoes, baked chicken breasts and cibatta bread. All the boys at work have dubbed it the "Easy Bake Oven" and ask what wattage light bulb it takes. Skeptics. Wait till they taste the dessert I'm making in it tomorrow. They will be eating crow. Or more specifically, lemon bars. You get the point. The second night I also made our entire dinner: oven roasted potatoes and rubbed pork loin roast.


When I made the upside down apple pie last week (I made another for Dude's parents this weekend when we went up to visit-they loved it too), I had about two cups of apples left. I made a free formed tart type pie for Drama Queen. I had the one extra pie crust left in the package, so all the good stuff that was left over went in it. Baked it about 30 minutes in the oven with the upside down pie. She ate the entire thing in two days.

I also found a picture of the POMtini I made with some the the POM juice I received from that fine company.

POMtini

1 bottle of POM juice

2 ounces good vodka

1 tsp of orange liquer

small squirt simple syrup (I make mine with equal amounts sugar to water)

Ice

Shake all ingredients in shaker. Use strainer top and pour into martini glass. I had nothing to garnish it with, so it looks a little plain. I tried to get a good shot of my new martini glasses, but they don't show up very well. I took a day and went to visit my Mom and we visited a really nice kitchen store that has the expensive brands (that I can't afford, but drool over) and I found these pretty glasses. Our Flirtini's will taste great next summer in them too!

We had a nice visit with Dude's parents this weekend. Just the two of us drove up and stayed over night. Joan made us a delicious meal of individual meat loaves with the ketchup glaze, twice baked potatoes (forgot how much I love those!) and some coleslaw. We rounded out the night with four games of Rummy 500. Howie and I are always a team and we lose to Dude and Joan 95 percent of the time, but we pulled out two wins on Friday! Howie is pretty matter of fact about his illness and it made me sad when he talked about things he is getting done now so Joan doesn't have to deal with it after he is gone and that he wants to give some gifts back to his 4 kids that they gave him in years past so he was sure they went back to the correct giver. He feels good so far, but has only been on the chemo pills for three days. He does 5 days of the pills then waits 2 weeks and goes back in for a check up. We will know more then. I just want to thank everyone for their kind words when I first posted he was ill. It sounds crazy-or maybe it doesn't to all of you, but it was easier putting it up here on my blog then telling people who know our family. Maybe it is because I can log on and read at my leisure, or maybe it is that while we don't know each other personally we know each other through our passion of food and there is an understanding here in cyberworld. Whatever it is, I'm thankful that I can log on and catch up on lives, loves and your food passions.

See you later in the week!

P.S. The cocktail recipe makes 2 drinks, I forget to write that with the recipe

Flirtini's

Look, twice in one day! After spending 4 hours running around for my swollen, zombie-like child I came home and putzed in the garden. Apparently I didn't inform my family who didn't go with to the lake that I needed them to water while I was gone for about 56 hours. Half my plants are dead and my peas look pathetic. Sigh. But I did get a few veggies out of the garden-some peas, a couple zucchini and a pepper.
One of our co-workers is in North Carolina training people at our new plant. He just called and requested I bring dessert in tomorrow as he is home for a few days and picking up shifts at our plant. He asked for rhubarb-I'm hoping the rhubarb I picked and put in the crisper is still good. If not, he said that zucchini bars would be okay. I have to head to the kitchen after this.


My tomato plants have gone wild! This is 6 plants that I planted about 2-1/2 feet apart in a zig zag pattern. They are over 3 feet tall. I have never grown tomato plants that tall. I'm concerned with them being so big that they won't get enough sunlight to develop. I guess we will see.


I did make a cocktail tonight, which I have spoken of in the past. It is called a Flirtini and it is Dude and my favorite summer drink. We first had them about a year and a half ago at one of our favorite restaurants. They are uber expensive at the restaurant so we asked the waitress what was in them and then I futzed with it at home until I got it to where we wanted it.

Flirtini's

1 oz raspberry vodka
1-1/2 oz cranberry juice
1-1/2 oz pineapple juice
1 wedge of lime from a quartered lime
1 oz champagne or sparkling wine
raspberries


Fill a martini glass (or glass of your choice) with ice cubes. In a cocktail shaker, add ice to top. Add vodka, cranberry juice, pineapple juice, and the juice from the lime wedge. Shake for 10 seconds. Using the strainer top, pour into the martini glass. Drop in 5 to 7 raspberries. Stir then float the champagne on top. Delish! I didn't have any raspberries tonight, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it's slightly sweet/tart taste!



Here is my clematis the had some regrowth. I didn't think it would bloom again until next year. I just planted it in June and the bloom that was on it when I purchased it only lasted a few weeks. When I was leaving on Saturday for the lake I saw another bloom on it. My mother-in-law has a huge one in her garden. I hope mine will some day look like hers. I also have wild pansies growing in my rock garden in the front of the house. When we re-bricked the lower half of our house, we planted some hostas, bleeding hearts and another bush I can't think of now. We bought new rock that matched the new bricks. About 4 years ago we noticed a couple of pansies growing in the rocks. We thought maybe a bird had dropped a seed or something. Nope. Each year we get random pansies in the rocks. This year I counted 34 of the little plants out there. About 10 have bloomed already. Strangest thing.

Cheers

Hi all, how is everyone? Been MIA since my birthday, but have been working and still planning the party. No help is being offered and I'm losing my patience. To drown my sorrows, I whipped up a cocktail that Rachael Ray had on either "$40 A Day" or "Tasty Travels". It is called a Dark and Stormy. Pretty simple cocktail and it had a different vibe to it. I'm usually all about the sweet drinks-I don't like something that slaps me across the taste buds and makes my shudder. Except Kamikaze's-those are like heaven on a warm summer night!

Dark and Stormy

Ice

1/4 of a lime, wedged

2 oz dark rum

10 oz ginger BEER (not ale)

Fill large glass with ice (the recipe said a 12 oz glass-math wasn't my strong suit, but I know a little about mass, and 12 oz of liquid plus ice will not fit in a 12 oz glass!) Squeeze the lime over the ice and throw in the glass. Add the rum and the ginger beer. Give it a stir and enjoy. The ginger flavor is much more evident in the ginger beer than in ginger ale. It was good and refreshing....

and enjoyed it here........

This is my anniversary present. I had to paint it and put it together myself....hmmmm, WTF?

Hope everyone has a nice Memorial day and eats lots of good food!

If life gives you Bacardi 151, make Hurricanes

I found Hurricanes quite by mistake. We were having dinner out with friends and they were the happy hour special (which, by the way, should be like 3 hours long-not just an hour). I ordered one and was in heaven. Yes, they are featured in the Alan Jackson/Jimmy Buffet song, but I knew nothing about them. And now, that restaurant was closing (but might have been bought out and saved) and I can't find them at any other podunk restaurant in our immediate area. I looked on-line and found a couple different recipes. They only thing I knew about the recipe at the restaurant was passion fruit juice (another thing I couldn't find until the organic section at the grocery store was in full swing). We tried 3 versions at home the other night. One didn't cut it at all, the second was okay, but the third one was pretty good. Not good like the restaurant good, but good at home, good. It reminds me a the Mai Tai's we have in Mazatlan-which is like a vacation in my mind when it is 12 below zero again today-ugh.


I played with the recipe I found on-line as it was WAY too strong. Here is what I came up with:





1 oz light rum


1 oz golden rum


1 oz Bacardi 151


6 oz pineapple juice


6 oz orange juice


1/2 oz grenadine


Squeeze of fresh lime juice (not shown)





Fill cocktail shaker half full with ice. Pour in all ingredients and shake. Pour into hurricane glasses filled with ice. Garnish with lime slice. This made enough for the two of us.




I added a little of the passion fruit juice to mine as the Dude didn't really care for the taste.

Another note. We tried 3 recipes this night trying to find the balance, then made two more after hitting the right one. You should never have 5 cocktails in one night with that many shots of 151. My head was pounding the next day for most of the day-some lessons are just harder than others to learn.