Frito Pie

Not pie at all.

It's a delicious and savory combination of fritos and chili.  It would be an absolutely perfect main event for your superbowl party, I might add. 

This is a simple dish, but you know me.  There was no opening a can of chili and plopping it on some chips.  I made my chili from scratch.  I suggest you do the same.  I mean, it's so easy, and the result is delicious. 

I went to one of my all time favorite recipe sources for this one: Cook's Illustrated.  I even paid money to get the online membership.  I think it's worth it.  I mean, the recipes are always foolproof.  You really can't go wrong. 

It all starts with the spices:

Chili powder, crushed red pepper, cumin, cayenne, coriander and oregano.

And of course, the main event:

Oh, there's the beef...  That would be 2 pounds of 85% lean beef.  In this case, organic.  'Cause that's how I roll.

You sauté up some onion and garlic, add the spices to toast those up, then add half the beef.  When that's good and brown you add the second pound of beef and let that get browned up.

Then you add two big cans of tomatoes.

Diced and puréed, to be exact.

Kidney beans, 2 cans, drained and rinsed.

Now, some people don't add beans to their chili.  That's all well and good, but I love beans, so if I have the option to add them to any recipe, I'm going to do it. 

Simmer for an hour covered, and another hour uncovered, stirring occasionally.  If the chili starts to stick to the bottom you might want to add a little water.  It wasn't necessary for me.

Here we have my chili fixins:

Chopped scallion, cheese, lime wedges and sour cream.

And the star of the event:

Fritos.  No substitutions.  No homemade chips here.  Good old fashioned fritos. 

My dad has told me that he used to buy frito pie at football games made directly in a sliced open bag of fritos.  I think that's pretty cool, but we had a guest, so I tried to keep it a bit more high brow. 

So all you do is pile some fritos in a bowl, and ladle a nice healthy serving of chili on top.

Garnish as desired, and dig in.

Our guest, Luigi brought us some fabulous canolli from Cafe Dante.  The were to die for. 

A perfect crunchy ending to a crunchy meal.

Simple Beef Chili with Kidney Beans

From Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients

2	tablespoons vegetable oil or corn oil
2	medium onions , chopped fine (about 2 cups)
1	red bell pepper , cut into 1/2-inch cubes
6	medium cloves garlic , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 tablespoons)
1/4	cup chili powder
1	tablespoon ground cumin
2	teaspoons ground coriander
1	teaspoon red pepper flakes
1	teaspoon dried oregano
1/2	teaspoon cayenne pepper
2	pounds 85 percent lean ground beef
2	(15-ounce) cans red kidney beans , drained and rinsed
	1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes , with juice
	1 can (28 ounces) tomato puree
	Table salt
2	limes , cut into wedges

Instructions

1. Heat oil in large heavy-bottomed nonreactive Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering but not smoking, 3 to 4 minutes. Add onions, bell pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, coriander, pepper flakes, oregano, and cayenne; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high and add half the beef; cook, breaking up pieces with wooden spoon, until no longer pink and just beginning to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Add remaining beef and cook, breaking up pieces with wooden spoon, until no longer pink, 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Add beans, tomatoes, tomato puree, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; bring to boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour. Remove cover and continue to simmer 1 hour longer, stirring occasionally (if chili begins to stick to bottom of pot, stir in 1/2 cup water and continue to simmer), until beef is tender and chili is dark, rich, and slightly thickened. Adjust seasoning with additional salt. 

 

Serve over fritos for a real treat.

Happy Superbowl!

Playing with pigskin (or not...)

Meredith

 

 

 

Superbowl Ideas

Since my post earlier this week seemed to fit, I now pronounce this week Superbowl Week here at "Player and a Baker"

There.  I said it.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I may be a player, but I don't really like sports.  I was born with the genetic inability to appreciate all sports.  It's a shame my sport-lovin' dad has endured all these years.  What I do like are all of the food and beverages that are associated with sports.  I like junk food.  I like burgers and wings and chips and beer.  Who doesn't?

Don't answer that...

Anyway, that's why I don't mind going to sporting events, and it's also why I actually anticipate the great American tradition that is Superbowl Sunday.

None of these recipes were specifically designed for a superbowl party.  I'm not that organized.  It's just worked out that I made a bunch of superbowl-friendly dishes over the weekend.  And guess what?  You get to see them before the big day, so you can make them yourselves for your very own superbowl party.  It's a nice change from the usual "after-the-fact" reporting I do on events like this. 

And so, without further ado, I give you Superbowl Ideas:

Onion Dip:

I had a craving for this creamy concoction, but you know me.  I wasn't about to buy a can of processed stuff.  I like to make things from scratch.  So I found this very easy recipe from Alton Brown.

I deviated from the recipe in that I sliced the onions instead of chopping.  I would chop them next time- the thin potato chips can't hold up to the larger sliced onions.

I also added a sprig of thyme, because I love onions and thyme.

This isn't my usual fully detailed post.  It's an overview.  I'll post the recipes below.

Moving on.

To Pumpkin Fondue!! 

Michael, Wenonah and I created this recipe before Thanksgiving, with inspiration from Gourmet Magazine and Animal Vegetable Miracle.  Gourmet made almost a bread pudding inside a hollowed out pumpkin.  Kingsolver made a soup baked inside a pumpkin.  We wanted something thicker than soup and thinner than stuffing.  We wanted cheesy pumpkin fondue.  So we made it.

Carve the top of the pumpkin off:

Try not to cut off your fingers...

Scoop out the seeds so that you have a nice hollow cavity.  Don't carve any eyes or a mouth.  That would defeat the purpose of this lovely dish.

Salt the inside of the pumpkin.  Then add some grated Gruyere and Emmentaller cheese, maybe 1/4 cup.  Then place a few slices of good french bread.  Then add more cheese.  Then pour in some half and half or cream, depending on how crazy you're feeling.  Then add more cheese.  And more cream. 

Cover with it's little lid and bake on a rimmed cookie sheet at 400˚ for about an hour.  Then remove the top and continue to cook until the cheese is bubly and delicious.

Here's the onion dip.  It was delicious, if a little difficult to eat.

Pumpkin Fondue:

When it's baked up, you scrape the sides of the pumpkin into the cheese to make it nice and pumpkinny.  Serve with warm french bread.  It's really good.

Here my dear friend James eats some roasted shrimp cocktail.  I got that recipe from the Barefoot Contessa- you roast the shrimp at 400˚ for 6 minutes to ensure maximum flavor and minimum risk for overcooking.  They were delish.

Lena dug right in to that onion dip.

So there you have it: four great ideas for Superbowl Week so far:

Sausage Balls
Onion Dip
Pumpkin Fondue
and Roasted Shrimp Cocktail.


And now, some recipes:

Onion Dip from Scratch
from Alton Brown at Good Eats

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups diced onions
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

In a saute pan over medium heat add oil, heat and add onions and salt. Cook the onions until they are caramelized, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Mix the rest of the ingredients, and then add the cooled onions. Refrigerate and stir again before serving.



Pumpkin Fondue
A Player's Creation, with a little help from my friends.


Ingredients:

One pumpkin or squash, preferably large enough to fill with cheesy goodness.
1 cup grated Gruyere and Emmentaller cheese
1 cup half and half or heavy cream
chicken stock
1 crusty baguette

Preheat the oven to 400˚

Cut off the top of your pumpkin and remove it's seeds.  Salt and pepper the cavity.  Add about 1/4 cup of the cheese, followed by three slices of the baguette.  Add the rest of the cheese, then pour in the cream.  If you don't fill the pumpkin, add some chicken stock.

Bake the squash in a rimmed baking sheet, top on for about an hour until a knife easily slides into the flesh of the pumpkin.  Remove the lid and bake for another 15-20 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly.  Take a spoon and scrape some of the pumpkin flesh from the sides and incorporate with the cheese mixture.  Serve with toasted baguette slices.


Make these dishes for any party, and everyone will love you.
Stay tuned for Frito Pie- the ultimate game food.

Playing,
Meredith

Sausage Balls

From scratch.

Sausage balls are a Southern tradition.  Go to any cocktail party, and you're bound to discover this delicious treat.  It's so simple.  Just throw together some Jimmy Dean sausage, some Bisquick and some cheese, form into balls, bake and serve. 

But what if you don't have access to Jimmy Dean or Bisquick?  Are sausage balls possible?  Do they become so complicated that they become a hassle?

Nope.  They're still pretty easy.

I went to the farmer's market shopping for a little appetizer party I was shopping for.  In New York City, even in the dead of winter, the farmer's market was relatively hopping.  I stopped at Flying Pigs Farm to pick up some breakfast sausage.  Only they didn't have any.  But they had ground pork, and I happened to know that the Homesick Texan has her very own recipe for breakfast sausage that couldn't be simpler.  It's just ground pork, with some herbs and spices mixed in.  I mean, that's all bulk sausage is, anyway. 

I already knew I didn't want to buy biscuit mix, so I googled "homemade bisquick" and found this recipe.  I didn't want to make the full ammount, so I just made what I needed, about 1 1/2 cups. 

I know this all sounds complicated, but truly, it isn't.  I'll break it down.

First, make your biscuit mix.  For about 22 balls, which would serve 4-5 people at a cocktail party, you'll want 1 1/2 cups.  Here's what you do:

Mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 heaping teaspoon of baking powder and a pinch of salt.  Add 1/4 cup vegetable shortening, cubed, and combine with your fingers or a pastry blender until the shortening is fully incorporated into the flour.

Now, for the sausage.  You can go ahead and mix that in the same bowl that has your biscuit mix in it.  It's all getting mixed up anyway. 

To make about 1/2 pound of sausage you'll mix 1/2 pound of ground pork with 1 teaspoon of sage, 1 teaspoon marjoram (if you've got it- I didn't, so I just left it out) 1/2 teaspoon thyme, 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes,  a dash of cayenne pepper, a dash of sugar, salt, and a couple grinds of pepper.

Add 1/2 cup shredded cheese- we used gruyere and emmentaller that was left over from another recipe, but cheddar is traditional.

Form into 1 inch balls:

Bake at 375˚ for 18-20 minutes.  I served them with a sauce that was equal parts spicy mustard and sour cream.

I couldn't even get a picture before everyone dug in.

A Player's Sausage Balls
with inspiration from Homesick Texan and Paula Dean

(If you want to serve more than 5, see their recipes for larger amounts.)


1 1/2 cups Bisquick OR
1 1/2 cups flour
1 heaping teaspoon of baking powder
pinch of salt
1/4 cup vegetable shortening, cubed

1/2 pound breakfast sausage like Jimmy Dean OR
1/2 pound of ground pork
1 teaspoon of sage
1 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
dash of cayenne pepper
dash of brown sugar
dash of salt
a couple grinds of pepper

1/2 cup grated cheese (whatever you like- gruyere and emmentaler, cheddar, monterey jack...)

Preheat the oven to 375˚.

Combine the first three ingredients.  Add the shortening and combine with your fingers or a pastry blender.

Add the sausage ingredients and cheese.  Combine, and roll into one inch balls.  Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 18-20 minutes, until browned and delicious.

Serve with a mixture of half mustard, half sour cream.


Hey- why don't you make these babies on Superbowl Sunday? Everyone will love you for it.

Playing,
Meredith

I Was There

I'm not there today, but I was in D.C. on Sunday, and I got to witness a little snippet of history.

Michael and I met our friend Jeanne for a little lunch at Oyamel, an awesome Mexican joint near Chinatown.

They serve small plates, but boy are they packed with flavor.  The drinks are also excellent.  I had a pomagranate margarita with José Andrés's signature concoction: salt foam:

Who knew that salt foam was the high end answer to a salted rim?  It's subtly salty, unlike it's low-brow brother.  I loved it.  Michael and I will be topping our perfect margarita with it, when we get around to that particular installment of "Cocktail Monday".

Anyway, then we made our way to the Mall, and as close to the Lincoln Memorial we could get, which was a bit closer to the Washington Monument.

You know how I love meta photos of people taking photos.  Here Jeanne takes a picture of Michael in front of the Washington Monument:

Porta Potties:

(Very important and plentiful, although we all luckily made it without trying these babies out.)

And here was our view of the Lincoln Memorial for the "We Are One" concert:

Check out my awesome zoom shot:

You can totally see the snipers on top of the building.

This is what was behind us:

We stood waiting a while, but finally the concert begun, with the prayer, and some celeberties speaking, and finally, the Boss:

And James Taylor (a personal favorite):

Other highlights: U2 rocked it so hard I couldn't even pause to get out my camera.  Garth Brooks was surprisingly good with a little medley.  And then, America's number one rock star:

Obama! 

I have to say, I've never felt so patriotic in my life as I felt that day.  Okay, that's possibly not counting today, but I'm sitting alone on my couch today, and on Sunday I was with 500,000+ people, every single one of them proud of their incoming president and this country.  It was electric.  It was exciting. 

Yay America!  So go, watch the inauguration, and participate in history.  It's fun!

Playing with politics,
Meredith

Baba au Rhum

A quintissentially French confection.

I made this as a finale for the rich and delicious meal that was Cassoulet.  Read about that here.  And here, here and here (Liz over at Sour Cherry Farm is a blogging pro- you should all read her blog as religiously as you read mine.)

A baba au rhum is essentially a brioche-like cake that is soaked in rum syrup.  How bad could that be? (As my muse Ina Garten might say.) I pretty much followed the Contessa's recipe word for word, but I took a tip from Mark Bittman, my favorite minimalist, and baked my baba in a loaf pan instead of buying a unitasking "kugelhopf mold".  It turned out very well, if I do say so myself.

Heat 1/2 cup milk to 115˚ and pour it into the bowl of your mixer.  If you don't have a thermometer you trust, 115˚ is hot to the touch but wouldn't burn your skin.  Add your packet of yeast and 2 tablespoons of sugar and let that sit for 5 minutes.

With your mixer on low, add 2 room temp eggs:

1 2/3 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 4 tablespoons of softened butter.  Beat with your paddle attachment on medium high for five minutes.

Give that a good scrape, mix again, and then form into a ball-like blob.

Cover that with a damp towel and let it rise until doubled in bulk, about an hour.

This is when you stir in the 1/3 cup of currants you've been soaking in good dark rum.  Did I forget to mention that part?  Well, when you follow the recipe, it will tell you to do that.  It will also tell you to drain the currants.  Why in heaven's name would you want to waste that delicious flavor?  I went ahead and threw that in.  Call me crazy.

Here's my buttered loaf pan. 

Get your dough in there and smooth the top.  Then let that baba rise again for another hour.  I put mine on the radiator because the Hudson kitchen is pretty cool as far as kitchens go.  In Fort Worth I had to fill the washing machine with warm water and set the dough on that to get things to rise.

Hello, baba.

Goodbye, baba.  And into the oven, at 375˚.  Bake about 30 minutes, or until a toothpic comes out clean.

Now, make your rum syrup, which is just simple syrup with rum. (The recipe is down there.)

Place your baba on a rack over a sheet pan and go ahead and pour your syrup all over the warm cake.

Slice it up:

And serve with whipped cream. 

It's light, it's boozy, and it's delicious.

But most importantly, it's really easy.

Make it.


The Barefoot Contessa's Baba au Rhum

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 1/3 cup dried currants
• 1 tablespoon good dark rum
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 package dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• Rum Syrup, recipe follows
• 3/4 cup apricot preserves
• 1 tablespoon water
• Whipped Cream, recipe follows

Directions

Combine the currants and rum in a small bowl and set aside. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter and brush a 5-cup (6 1/2 by 3 1/2-inch) tube pan or kugelhopf mold with the melted butter. Be sure to coat every crevice of the pan. Heat the milk to 115 degrees F and then pour it into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Stir in the yeast and sugar and allow to sit for 5 minutes.

With the mixer on low speed, first add the eggs, then the flour, salt, and remaining 4 tablespoons of butter. Raise the speed to medium-high and beat for 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and beater to form the dough into a ball. It will be very soft. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and allow it to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Drain the currants, fold them into the dough with a spatula, and spoon into the prepared pan. Smooth the top, cover the pan with a damp towel, and allow to rise until the dough reaches the top of the pan, 50 minutes to 1 hour.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and make the rum syrup.
Bake the cake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then tap it out of the cake pan onto a baking rack set over a sheet pan. Pour all of the rum syrup very slowly onto the warm cake, allowing it all to soak in thoroughly. Amazingly, the liquid will be absorbed into the cake, so be sure to use all of the syrup.

Heat the preserves with 1 tablespoon of water until runny, press it through a sieve, and brush it on the cake. Serve with whipped cream piped into the middle of the cake plus an extra bowl on the side.
 

Rum Syrup: 1 cup sugar
2/3 cup good dark rum
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place the sugar and 1 1/2 cups water in a small saucepan and cook over high heat until the sugar dissolves. Pour into a 4-cup heat-proof measuring cup and allow to cool. Add the rum and vanilla and set aside.
 

Whipped Cream: 2 cups (1 pint) cold heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Whip the cream in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. When it starts to thicken, add the sugar and vanilla and continue to whip until the cream forms stiff peaks. Don't overbeat, or you'll end up with butter!
Yield: 4 cups

(Just so you know, you don't have to make quite so much whipped cream.  1 cup would be just fine.)


Bake a baba.  You won't regret it.

Playing,
Meredith

 

Jalapeño Thingies

These babies are good.

Today, we're taking a look back at a recipe I made for the Smart Christmas Party.  I've got a bunch of material that I didn't get around to posting during the holiday, but I'd like to show it to you, so while I'll continue to post new stuff, we'll have some old stuff peppering the mix.

I read about these over at Pioneer Woman , and have used them a couple of times now.  They are so simple, but so delicious.

You start with jalapeños.  I like to use one chile per guest, which seems to work out.  For this party we expected 60 people.  That's a lot of spice.  Slicing and seeding 60 jalapeños could literally burn you.  I recommend using gloves, especially if your skin is sensitive to capsaicin like mine is.  Believe me, it's worth it.  My dad took the seeds and threw them in the yard, and his skin was still burning hours later.

My grandmom was around while I was making these, and she was a great help.

Here she grated the cotija cheese:

Here is my mountain of jalapeños:

I mix cotija into my cream cheese to add an extra salty bite.  If you can't find cotija, ricotta salata would be a good substitute.  I think I used 3 or 4 packages of cream cheese and 4 ounces of cotija.

Now it's a good time to have helpers.  Lis, Grandmom and I set up an assembly line with the jalapeño halves, cheese mixture and bacon slices.  PW thirds her bacon.  I halved mine.  The more bacon the better, I like to say.

Secure the bacon around the cheese filled jalapeño with a toothpic.  Bake on a rack in a pan so the grease can escape at 375˚ for 20-25 minutes until the bacon is crisp.

These were spicy, but in a really good way.  Even people who are spice shy will brave the heat for these babies.  Just so you know, the smaller the pepper, the hotter it is.

Jalapeño Thingies are great party food.  They'd be excellent for a Superbowl party, in case you were looking for ideas.

Playing,
Meredith

Cassoulet, Cassoulet

Think Purple Rain and you'll get the theme song for this time consuming and flavorful New Year's treat.

This is an intimidating post.  It's also an intimidating venture.  Cassoulet is a French peasant dish that's anything but simple.   I suppose if you bought all your ingredients instead of making them from scratch, you might bring the cooking time down to 24 hours.  But this is not a dish for the faint of heart.  Or the lacking in time and patience.

The main players:

That's meat, and lot's of it.  Ham hocks, pancetta, salt pork, sausage (homemade by Liz and Greg over at Sour Cherry Farm, pork skin, pork shoulder, prosciutto and duck confit (also homemade by the farmers).  Hard core.  I guess back in the day this was a dish made of all the extra bits of stuff at the end of winter when all the fresh meat was used up and the family really needed some hearty fatty goodness. 

G helped by chopping up the onion.

We simmered the salt pork and pork skin until the skin was supple (what?  I know- it's crazy.) 

Hey, check out this duck fat- you can never have too much of this stuff.   That's what Liz told me anyway.

Here we have our fresh ham hocks.  They were available at the Hudson grocery store, because it's crazy like that.  We had to send Greg to get these because the hock that Liz bought at Whole Foods was funky, and not in a good way.  We put in way too much time and effort into this thing to let one piece of off meat ruin the whole pot.

We browned the cubed shoulder:

And the hocks:

Then we sweated the veggies and slightly browned the prociutto and pancetta.

At this point I sort of stopped documenting- I'm sure I got distracted.  Canellini beans had been soaking.  All the meat sans sausage and confit goes in the pot along with the beans and everything is covered in duck stock (obviously made by Liz and Greg).  It cooks like that for about an hour and a half.  Then it went outside into the cold night to cool down.  Don't worry, we weighted it down to avert critters.

The next morning, you skim off the excess fat.  Then you let it come up to room temp.  About three hours before you want to eat, you seperate all the meat and fat out of the pot.  Chop up the meat and add it back to the beans.  Slice the pork skin into slices.  Then you layer that in the bottom of your dish.  Next comes some beans, and then a layer of skinned and deboned confit.  Then more beans mixture.  You bake that in the oven for a while and start to salivate at the amazing aromas.

Liz was really really excited.

We browned the sausage and cut it into manageable chunks and nestle it into the pot.

Sprinkle on bread crumbs:

And take lots of pictures.  Who knows the next time we'll attempt this one.

Like the meta double-blogging pic?

Here's one with my french rolls baking in the background.  (My first attempt at baguette that didn't quite turn out.  I'll tell you about it some time.)

When the bread crumbs are golden brown and delicious, it's time to eat.

This was a brown meal.  No green allowed. 

It may not have been the prettiest thing, but it was the most flavorful, rich thing I've ever put in my mouth. 

Was it worth it?

Yes.

Would I do it again tomorrow?

Probably not.  My arteries would protest. 

It was a great time though- a true team effort- G, Michael, Liz, Greg and I all did our parts.  It wouldn't have been fun at all to do this alone. 

So there you go.  Cassoulet.  If you ever see it on a menu, you should probably order it.  It probably won't be as good as ours, though.

We used two recipes from Paula Wolfort.  One from here, and one from her book, The Cooking of Sourthwest France. 

You can check out even more over at Sour Cherry Farm which will have a post up soon.

Oh, by the way, Liz- you left your book.  And your duck fat.  We're holding them hostage until you return to us for another delicious weekend. 

Meet us at Five Guys in Kingston and you'll get your baby back.

Playing,
Meredith

Black Eyed Peas and Greens

Luck and Money.

Something we all need a little more of these days...

It's an old Southern tradition to eat black eyed peas and greens on New Years Day.  Up in Hudson, we certainly weren't going to tempt fate.  So that's exactly what we ate. 

G and I took the train up on New Year's Eve.  It was very cold and snowy.  Check out the train:

Pretty crazy, huh?  It looks like a frozen submarine...

The eve was pretty low key, but fun.  We were all anticipating Liz and Greg's arrival.

G took some time to get creative on the chalk board:

Fresh Peas:

Frozen works, but I wouldn't reccomend canned- it is a special day, you know.

We rounded it out with braised greens and cornbread.

It was delightful.  I feel lucky already.

Here we have G and Greg gesticulating:

A Player and a G:

G's masterpiece:

There you have it.  Stay tuned for a Cassoulet Extravaganza and Baba au Rhum.  It's good stuff ya'll.

Playing,
Meredith

Cocktail Monday: Rum Swizzle

Sometimes you need something light and refreshing to clear the palate for a rich meal.

I had such a meal last week.  Our friends Liz and Greg joined Michael, G and I for a joint venture in porky fatty goodness: Cassoulet.  It's an amazing and complex French peasant dish.  Obviously more on that to come.  We had this cocktail before digging into that fantastic meal, and it was a light and delicious palate cleanser.

The ingredients are pretty simple:

Lime juice, confectioners sugar, rum, a dash of bitters and some club soda.

You start out with the juice of one lime:

Add a teaspoon of powdered sugar, 2 ounces of club soda and 2 dashes of bitters and stir.

Pour that over ice in a highball glass:

Add 2 ounces rum (dark in our case):

Top with soda:

And stir.  Preferably with a swizzle stick. 

Check out these awesome holiday themed ones:

Enjoy as a light refreshing drink.

It was just what we needed before going down the path of the cassoulet.

Playing,
Meredith