FrogPrincesse

It's cold in San Diego and I am in the mood for comfort food! Bone marrow from Siesel's, my butcher shop, prepared a la Fergus Henderson, with a little parsley, shallots and caper salad on the side. I love this stuff. I just wish the butcher could cut the bones in the other direction. Roast chicken, prepared following the method from Les Halles, slightly simplified (butter instead of herb butter under the skin). Served with roasted potatoes and cauliflower.

Thanks! I didn't have a sweet potato on hand, but I followed your recommendation and went with curry & ginger (I only had dried); leeks for the aromatics. No cilantro so I garnished with fresh basil and a little bit of basil-flavored olive oil. It was pretty good. A little more interesting with a bit of crumbled feta... Then the next day I tried it again garnishing with chives and espelette pepper, arbequina olive oil. I think I liked that version slightly better.

Dark chocolate & banana jam. This was a late request from my daughter for the small market we were going to be selling at. It is a very easy recipe (by Christine Ferber) and it was a big hit! We sold everything but one jar. I used Belgian dark chocolate from Trader Joe's and 99% chocolate from Switzerland. Here it is on a slice of homemade brioche.

The brioche is heaven. I am not sure why I don't make it more often! I used to make it all the time and then I stopped for some reason... I used a local sage blossom honey.

The Lion's Tail, of course. It's a great drink. I also like the Winter Daiquiri. Three Dots and a Dash, Ancient Mariner... (although not especially Christmassy) I have to try this Reveillon Cocktail; that looks great too!

I have a lot of stuff in my home bar, but crème de menthe isn't one of them... Sorry, I cannot help you!

Since you enjoyed your first Old Fashioned, you may want to check out the following thread. Lots of suggestions in the same vein!

Kale pesto... That sound interesting! I might try to make some; I have a bunch of kale languishing in the fridge.

180 cakes a week? That's impressive! Great pictures too. I think I recognize them from your website.

I love the ideas, please keep them coming. I am taking notes for next year! Raw cookie dough is a fabulous idea. One "fancy" dessert place in town sells that for a very exorbitant price. People are willing to spend more to have something more interesting than toll house cookies I suppose! I was thinking of printing little cards or leaflets about the fruits used in the jam. Good idea about suggested uses and recipes. We will see what time permits. I am only 24 hours away from the market now!

I have an oven-roasted spaghetti squash which has little taste on its own. What should I add to make a delicious soup? I was thinking slow cooked leeks and curry for the seasoning, but I welcome all ideas!

She is pretty cute. She's been wondering about all the activity in the kitchen... I snuck in a tablespoon of cognac in the yuzu marmalade. I know Scotch whisky is standard, but I needed a French touch. Last year I used Japanese whisky but it has become so rare, I just cannot bring myself to doing it again.

Haha. My "business" isn't that elaborate... yet! These were friends, some of whom have sampled my creations in the past. I haven't tried the yuzu yet, other than warm (my standard practice is to lick all utensils once done, and mop up all remaining juices in the pot with a thick slice of brioche - I hate waste!) and it was pretty great; I like it better than the 100% yuzu I did last year. I had the Buddha's hand & calamondin for breakfast this morning. I was a bit surprised at how lemony and vibrant it was, but past that initial surprise I found it tasty and very successful in waking up my taste buds! I am just so relieved the marmalades set properly. I've had lots of issues in the past, and practice certainly helps. Now I have a much better feel for how the marmalade behaves when it's ready to set.

Things that keep well and are easy to reheat. I did a ton of them that I froze before I had my daughter, suspecting correctly that I wouldn't have much time to cook or even less grocery shop in the first few weeks after she was born. I also did that for a friend who was recovering from surgery a few years ago. Soups, stews, risottos. A nice quiche. I also love @blue_dolphin's idea of salad kits. Maybe some homemade cookies too, it's the season!

Thank you! It is fresh yuzu, grown in Jamul, 30 min East of San Diego. It's not super easy to find but I had identified a source last year so it was much easier this year! The season is short, only a few weeks, so you have to buy them as soon as you see them. The flavors seem fancy but it's all local fruit grown in the San Diego area, except for the pears.

The Sherpa from Sasha Petraske's Regarding Cocktails with High West American Prairie bourbon whiskey, St. Elizabeth allspice dram, Pierre Ferrand dry curaçao, orange bitters. It's build in the glass and it's very direct. First it's mostly about the bourbon, then the allspice becomes more prominent as the ice melts.

Pear & vanilla jam (recipe by Christine Ferber). This is one of my favorite jams, so delicious when made with perfectly ripe pears. I used Barletts that I let ripen on the counter in a brown paper bag for close to a week. I had forgotten that this was a recipe that was two recipes in one. First you have to make green apple jelly that you use in the pear jam. So this is a bit time consuming, but well worth the effort. A couple of Tahitian vanilla beans. I ended up with some extra green apple jelly, so I made a very small batch of green apple & earl grey tea jelly (the pots on the right that don't have the vanilla beans).

I went to the fabric store yesterday and bought a couple of yards of fabric and some elastic band to do little fabric covers for the jam pots. I ended up spending close to $30 for the supplies (not counting a pair of pinking shears bought for $13 on amazon), so that's about 50 cents per jar. But I think it's worth it; the end product looks nicer and this is important because a lot of people are going to buy these jams as presents since it's holiday season.

I put the result in the Preserving thread. Here is another marmalade I made today with (12) Yuzu limes, (3) Meyer lemons and (2) Valencia oranges. Last year I had done an all Yuzu marmalade and thought that the taste was not as interesting or deep as I would have hoped. The mixed of citrus seems to have worked. My kitchen smelled wonderful this afternoon! Here are the yuzus (Meyer lemons and oranges in the colander). They look and feel like yellow mandarins, but inside they have a ton of pith and little juice. The skin however smells amazing, it bursts with flavor as soon as you gently touch it. These yuzus are local (Jamul which is ~ 30 min from where I live) and have a very short season, just a few weeks in December. My little assistant, nesting on the recipe. I boiled the peels in water for 20 minutes. Then I cooked them with the sugar and the juice (I also added the juice of one lemon), and the bag of seeds & pith. The jam cooked fairly quickly, about 45 minutes. That copper pot is amazing by the way. Before that pot, it used to take me hours to cook marmalade! The yield was 9 jars, plus one "sample" jar.

Here are the other jams. Pear and vanilla jam (left); Green apple and Earl Grey tea jelly (both recipes from Christine Ferber) Yuzu lime, Meyer lemon and Valencia orange marmalade (my creation) There is also a red onion, balsamic and sherry wine marmalade that I forgot to take a picture of.

I've been in full production mode here, and am officially done with the preserves (cookies are next...). After the quince marmalade, I made... Passion fruit and Valencia orange jam (recipe from Christine Ferber, more details here) Calamondin & Buddha's Hand marmalade (my own recipe, more details here) Green apple, Julian apple cider and vanilla jelly (recipe from Christine Ferber) Christmas jelly with quince, lemon & orange peel, and cardamom (recipe from Christine Ferber) (to be continued - I need to upload the remainder of the jam pictures) I got pre-orders! I already sold 9 out of the approximately 50 jars of jam that I've made. I've calculated that I needed to sell about 20 to recover my expenses (good fruit is expensive!) The market is on Friday.

Sorry to (continue to) side-track the discussion, but I bought that beer last year and it's one of the very rare beers I couldn't finish. Down the drain it went. I really didn't care for the flavor which reminded me of cherry-flavored cough syrup. I bought a six-pack and have five left... Too bad you don't live closer. I agree with @blue_dolphin's suggestion. Find a local brewery and try different styles to figure out what you like; flights are great for that purpose. Some places even give you a free taste if you are not sure.

Here is a link to the article. I agree with Michter's and Bulleit being better than Rittenhouse for sipping. However Rittenhouse is great in cocktails (I prefer it to Bulleit, for sure), plus it's reasonably priced, so it definitely has a spot in my home bar. I tried Few for the first time a few weeks ago and felt that it had an unusual flavor profile, but was very good too. I had Knob Creek once or twice but never on its own, so I can't really rate it in relationship to the others, but it makes a great Manhattan. What I note is that all their selections vary between 2 and 3 stars, so it's not much of a spread. Nothing got the maximum of 4 stars, maybe because the tasting focused on "young ryes". They mention Redemption and Dickel; it'd be interesting to know what else they tried in the tasting that didn't make the top 10...

I think you are on the right track; Kevin does a fabulous job with his rum reviews. I would consider taking a course. A few years ago, I took the BarSmarts series of online courses (and exam). There was a large portion of the course on learning to taste spirits that I found extremely useful. It's also very helpful to read about the production methods of the different spirits, and all the information about what can influence their taste. Also try attending spirits tastings in your area, often bars have them and it's a good way to educate yourself about a certain product, especially when the people who conceived them, distilled them, etc, are the ones doing the presentation. I think it's also important to keep in mind that different criteria apply to spirits that you intend to enjoy neat, or the ones you intend to mix with. I've tasted spectacular rums that completely got lost in cocktails. About Appleton VX vs 12, they are both very good. You've tried both of them neat, maybe try mixing the same drink side by side with both, and see if you have a different perception. Have fun with it! And maybe revisit in a few months/years to see if your taste has changed.

I took a pig butchery class a few weeks ago at heart and trotter and it was great! I highly recommend it. https://www.theheartandtrotter.com/classes/