I love popsicles. I can pretty much eat one of those boxes of 30, No Name, orange, purple, and pink popsicles in a couple of days. I have perfected the art of breaking them in half without breaking off the top.
So you were excited and bought a bag of fresh cranberries to make some homemade cranberry sauce for your Holiday dinner. Then, you realized, you don’t have time for that!
You don’t have time for anything! What are you going to do with that bag of cranberries? Ahem, may I suggest a cocktail?
It’s my birthday! I don’t care how old I am, I still love it. Usually I try and stretch it out as long as I can. Birthday weekend. Birthday week!
Is it a little late to be posting watermelon cocktails? No way. I am not bound by calendar rules! It’s summer somewhere right? This is for my friends in Australia and New Zealand!
I was honestly not going for the alliteration when I composed this recipe. The truth is I was sitting on some very ripe bananas (not literally), leftover browned butter, and a mountain of butterscotch chips. I googled brown butter banana bread and this recipe came up. So I replaced the coconut with the butterscotch chips.
Summer is starting slowly in Toronto this year. We constantly seem to be at that awkward stage where it looks like it should be warm, but as soon as the sun slips behind a cloud and the cool wind starts blowing, you regret your decision to leave your sweater at home. Still, we pretend, hoping that by wearing a dress and putting on some sunglasses we will coax summer out.
The calendar says March, but the weather still says full winter. The world is full of people hurrying to get out of the cold. Your breath steams in front of you and then a gust of wind hits you and takes it away. Noses numb and cheeks burn. The bright sunshine and clear skies fool us into hoping for warmth.
We need heat. This cocktail was inspired by my previous citrus post. As Alex finished his portion of bruleed clementines and sipped the juices that had dripped out, he casually mentioned “this orangey sugar would be really good with some bourbon”. And the spark was lit.
Caramelizing the sugar for the simple syrup adds a depth that regular simple syrup cannot. Flaming the orange peels adds a smoky note. And that amber colour is warmth for the eyes.
We can’t make winter go away, but we can make this drink.
Burnt Orange Cocktail
2 oz rye whiskey, such as Sazerac
1 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz burnt sugar syrup (recipe follows)
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Burnt orange peel for garnish
Combine all ingredients except garnish in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake gently until shaker is ice cold on the outside. Strain into glass. For garnish, peel a long, fairly thick, strip of orange zest from an orange using a vegetable peeler. Roll tightly, squeezing some of the oils from the peel. Place roll on a non-flammable surface and torch until black on the edges. Do not over torch unless you want ash in your drink...
Burnt sugar syrup
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
Over medium low heat, melt sugar in a saucepan, stirring occasionally. At first, it will seem like it’s not doing anything. Then it will seem like it’s turning into hard clumps. But don’t worry, once it melts, the clumps will melt back in too. Once the sugar is completely melted, it should be a deep amber colour. Remove from heat and slowly add the water, stirring or whisking constantly. The sugar will seize, but just keep stirring until it dissolves back in. Let cool completely before using.
Two years ago today, I decided to carve out a space for myself on the internet. However small, it was a place where I could share my passion for baking, my highs and lows as a PhD student, and any other thoughts that happened to be littering my mind at the moment.
Well 2013, we’ve had a good run. You gave me my first PhD publication, my first photos accepted to Tastespotting and Foodgawker. You gave me trips to New Zealand, Boston, Strasbourg, San Diego, camping trips with friends. You gave me rainy days and sunny days, happy days and sad days.
So Christmas has come and gone. I hope everyone enjoyed some traditions and maybe made some new ones. I hope you got to spend time with loving/annoying family. I hope you had some surprises, lots of hugs, and maybe a kiss under the mistletoe.
The view from my hotel room right now is palm trees, blue skies, and sunshine, so it’s hard to imagine needing this winter warmer right now. San Diego, you have amazing weather! But no doubt I’ll make it again in a week when I come back to Toronto.
We took last weekend for ourselves. All the craziness from the week, all the stresses and worries and responsibilities, we put all those aside and headed out to Jordan, Ontario. Right in the middle of Niagara wine country.
Sometimes some things are meant to be, like this cherry bourbon manhattan.
I was originally going to call this post “Sangria for One”, but people told me that sounded really sad. Doesn’t that say a lot about the way we think? It seems that being alone is synonymous with being lonely, but that’s just not true.
Can I get Manhattan please? I’ll have one made with bourbon. And can I get an extra cherry in there? Thanks.
Making fancy cocktails at home is totally possible. There are a couple of things that will take your drinks at home over the top. Keep your glasses chilled, and make some liquor soaked cherries.
It’s time to celebrate! Pop open that champagne (or sparkling wine...)! Remember this post from earlier this year when I had my paper rejected? Well after several revisions, it has been accepted!
I really feel like summer and warm weather will never get here this year. I can feel myself getting whiney. Why is it still below 20C (68F) outside?? Why is it raining all the time? I know it’s not technically summer yet according to the calendar, but it feels like it should be here. Oh Canada, I love so many things about you, but winter... I could do without the extra long winters.
Alex’s birthday is coming up and it makes me think about how old we are getting. We are very close to our late twenties. To some that will be laughable: so young! To others, it may seem ancient. To me it means many things depending on the situation.
Most of the time I go to the grocery store with a list. I am fast and efficient. In and out. This isn’t because I hate grocery shopping. This is so that I don’t buy everything I see, especially when I’m hungry. It’s like my stomach thinks I will never feed it and insists to my brain that we stock up.
