Tri2Cook

Started with a Green Ghost and, since the gin and green chartreuse were already out of the cabinet, I followed it up with a Rubicon. Watching the evening re-broadcast of Stage 18 of the Tour de France since I'm at work in the morning and they were working so hard on the climbs that I thought I better drink something refreshing to help them out.

I got more than I had uses for last year but they're late this year in my area (none so far in my usual places and others are reporting the same) so I'm not sure how this season is going to go.

If you're not trying to convert someone and just want to make them something they want to drink, toss some small cans of pineapple juice in a cabinet and forget them until you need them. That with your fresh citrus and craft cabinet opens up a few drinks from tiki land that don't require an arsenal of juices and syrups. You're probably already aware of that but I thought I'd join the fun anyway. Pago Pago 1 1/2 oz Barbancourt Rhum 1 oz pineapple juice 1/2 oz lime juice 1/4 oz Green Chartreuse 1/4 oz white Creme de Cacao Build with ice in a rocks glass, stir. Jungle Bird 1 1/2 oz dark Jamaican rum 3/4 oz Campari 3 oz pineapple juice 1/2 oz lime juice 1/4 oz simple syrup Build on crushed ice, stir. I have friends who like vodka drinks. I have one close friend who likes peach schnapps. I try to encourage them to explore beyond that when they visit. I also keep vodka and peach schnapps in my cabinet in case they're not in the mood to explore. They're my friends, the main goal is for everybody to have a good time.

I knew it! I always suspected when I was at a bar and somebody was looking down their nose at my Jet Pilot while they tried not to make faces while sipping on straight whiskey that they were secretly wishing they were secure enough to order what I was having!

You can use it to varnish your nuts. Makes 'em shiny and protects them without changing the flavor.

Sounds good, I'll check it out. I don't have smoked bourbon but that would be easy enough to remedy. My lazy side is wondering if using a few of the smoked ice cubes I have in the freezer in the stir would work...

To be fair, I didn't say anything about chemicals mixed with water. I said a dry powder mixed with water.

While I didn't use it in cocktails, this was before my adventure into the cocktail world started, I smoked some oranges a few years ago. I just cut them in half and stuck them in the smoker cut side up as an experiment because it was still smoking nicely after I did some chocolate. I used the juice to make a sliceable smoked orange curd and candied the zest. I was happy with the results. I've wondered a few times what a twist of smoked orange zest would do as a garnish and the juice has to work somewhere... I'm just not sure where. I'll have to smoke some more and play around.

That makes for a nice story but the reality is that a whole lot of (most?) soft serve places are mixing a powder into water and dumping it into the soft serve machine. I'm not casting judgement on it, I've had some I liked, but it is not the same critter as your average hard ice cream in most cases.

I have an occasional home alone drink or two. I don't have a go-to though. I was a late bloomer to going beyond beer and gin and tonics so I'm usually looking to try something new (to me). I have a large file of drink recipes I've collected with the intent to try them all eventually. It's going to take a while to get through them all... especially since I add to it more often than I check them off. Most recently I was excited about finally getting my hands on Cynar and Fernet Branca and tried the Art of Choke and the Eeyore's Requiem. I enjoyed both but if I was forced to choose, Eeyore would probably win. Like it's namesake, it has a pleasant bitterness that keeps things from seeming too sweet.

I'm not Samuel but I like the 20th Century. The lemon ties the seemingly strange combination together nicely. It rides along just beneath the surface brightening the herbal flavors and taming the chocolate without killing it. I like the variations on it as well. The 19th Century (bourbon, creme de cacao, lemon, dubonnet rouge) is darker and tastes it but it's a nice take on the original. The 21st Century (tequila, creme de cacao, lemon, absinthe rinse) is my least favorite of the three but I didn't hate it. I just wasn't completely sold on the absinthe rinse. It seemed a bit out of place but that could easily just be my lack of experience showing.

You can use your bourbon, creme de cacao, lemon and grenadine to make a Commodore. Your brandy, grand marnier and dry vermouth to make a Burnt Fuselage. Your gin, sweet vermouth and aperol for a Contessa. Your scotch, lime and ginger beer for a Mamie Taylor. If you had some grapefruit juice, you could use it with your tequila, aperol and lime for a Refuge. With what you have to work with, the problem is going to be less "what can I make" and more how to narrow it down to a reasonable number.

So was this a planned pregnancy? Seriously though... I'll have to take your word for it.

I'm not sure what you have in mind but it's been really hot and humid at my end of the province this weekend so I've been leaning towards the cold and refreshing stuff. If you get some ginger beer, you can do a Suffering Bastard. Nothing fancy but it is refreshing. If you grab some fresh mint while getting the ginger beer you can do a Gin Gin Mule, an even more refreshing drink. Another really refreshing drink I tried somewhat recently was the Oaxacan Ice Water. I don't know if using your tequila in place of the mezcal in the original would be as tasty. I think it would because the only mezcal I can get in my area isn't particularly (or at all really) smoky but the drink was still tasty to me. These aren't as fancy or crafty as most of the stuff the experts will mention but they are nice on a hot, sunny day. A trip to the grocery for some juices and maybe a little work with a syrup or two would open up a bunch of stuff from Tiki land as well.

I recommend going with the Leblon Cachaca. I checked the LCBO site, it is available in Peterborough. I did a great deal of question asking before I added a Cachaca to my cabinet and the overwhelming suggestion was the Leblon from the choices available through the LCBO. I bought it and a bottle of the Pitu (because it is available at my local store, I have to drive an hour to get the Leblon). I'll drive the hour from now on.

Some people look down their nose at anything that doesn't adhere to a particular standard. Some people pretend to do that in public to keep up appearances. Some people enjoy what tastes good to them and don't really care who likes it and who doesn't. There are also those that don't like something because they just don't like it (in my opinion, that's the only legit reason to not like something). My only problem with most soft serve I've had is that some of the commercial bases have an obvious chemical taste and the majority of them seem really sweet. I haven't had DQ in a very long time, there isn't one near where I live, so I don't remember much about it.

Yes, I did over-simplify. There are some .xx% differences in nutritional values and there are some areas where each scores better than the other but the real world differences just aren't that major. I'm not suggesting anyone should switch from butter to margarine, I won't, but I am suggesting that it's not the monster it's usually played up to be in comparison to butter as far as health and nutrition goes (taste is another matter). I guess the "real food" argument comes down to point of view. There's no margarine plant but there's also no butter teat on the cows.

Sigh. Depending on the oils involved, non-hydrogenated margarines can be lower in total fats, trans fats and saturated fats as well as cholesterol and total calories than butter is. Why are vegetable oils any less "real food" than butter? I prefer butter but I don't kid myself that it's any healthier than non-hydrogenated margarine... it just tastes better. Host Note: This topic is the result of splitting off some discussion in this topic about shelf stable fats for chicken wing sauce.

A xanthan/arabic blend does that job nicely as well... with the additional benefit of making the oil/water emulsion very stable. TIC Gums makes several versions of it. I use the Ticaloid 310-S. They also make a version called "saucier" that is specifically designed for sauces and marinades but I've never worked with that one.

Hey! I'm not a bad cook, I just get too ambitious about buying vegetables and then end up going out to eat all week. Finally threw away what were lovely organic green beans I got 2-1/2 weeks ago in the CSA I realized wasn't working for me, and picked through the yellowing kale. I'm a good cook when I'm not too lazy to do it! That's definitely not a sign of a bad cook. I can't speak for everyone but I quite often come home from the restaurant with no desire to cook something for myself. I have good intentions when I buy stuff for the week but it doesn't always happen. I wonder how common it really is for restaurant cooks to get home and say "screw it, I'll just make a sandwich".

One sign of a bad cook, in my opinion, is a refusal to learn something new. No, you (a generalized "you", not directed at anybody in particular) do not know it all... and you never will. One has nothing to do with the other. At least not in an x=y sort of way. It is possible to get caught up in the equipment and techniques and forget about the food but it's impossible to know that's the case simply by observing the equipment someone has in the kitchen.

There are no street foods available where I live other than the hotdog cart that parks outside the bar when it gets close to closing time. I'm not really a big fan of the hotdog under the best of circumstances... the bar-rush hotdog cart is not the best of circumstances by any definition. So that leaves me sadly without a favorite street food.

Blackberry too...

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. I think maybe he's throwing the label "can't cook" on anyone who doesn't cook like he thinks they should.

If you're still curious at this point, maybe trying the original would be a good base to compare the modified version to. Then you'd know if jalapeno ice cream isn't your thing or if it was the modifications that didn't work out. Brown sugar for white isn't really a minor flavor substitution. Jalapeno sorbet is tasty but I've never used jalapeno in ice cream... maybe I should try. Sweet corn ice cream is nice. I like it with blueberry pie or crisp.