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Christening our New bar with an Old Fashioned

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The jazzed up Old Fashioned

Serves 1
I’d been on the hunt for the perfect piece of furniture to serve as our bar for months. 6 months, if you want to get specific. I went to new stores, I looked online, we’ve stopped at every antique or junk or thrift store in the surrounding 100 miles, but either found things that were perfect but too expensive (to the tune of $1,500) not so great, or lovely but way to big or too small for the space. then, on our country looping expedition the other day (read about that here) we stopped in a “junkique” in cleveland that’s only open on weekdays and found something that was PERFECT. It was the right size, the right era, and, best of all, the right price. We brought it home and after filling it with our collection of spirits and barware, decided that 4:45 wasn’t really too early to christen it with a drink.
But what drink? Well, we had about a zillion juice oranges and clementines, and we love bourbon, so we decided to mix up a few old fashioned… besides, who wouldn’t want to break in the new bar with an old fashioned. While I googled recipes I learned that there are right ways and wrong ways to make this classic cocktail, and that the midwestern version comes from Wisconsin and involves brandy, 7Up, and marachino cherries, while the southern version is Kentuckian by origin, decidedly less dressed up and made with bourbon or rye.
Obviously we were going with the bourbon version, but I couldn’t see what was so wrong about a little muddled fruit. I know…I know… no matter who or where you’re making the drink, technically, there is no cherry and no orange slice in a real, classic old fashioned. None. The classic involves bitters, sugar, a twist of orange or lemon, the spirit of choice and some ice. But, I had a new bar, a whole lot of oranges, and a desire to mess with tradition just a teeny bit. so there. If you’re looking to be a purist and make the classic, omit the fruit, but if you want something delicious, and a little bit irreverent, why not go whole hog?
What you Need:
2-3 oz Bourbon
One Orange Slice
1 or 2  frozen fresh cherries (the purists will frown on this, but I had them and they’re SO pretty)
2-3  dashes of Angostura Bitters
1/2 tsp Brown Sugar or one sugar cube
No more than 1 oz Water or club soda (optional)
Ice

What to Do:
Put the orange slice (with the peel), cherry, sugar, and dashes of bitters into an old fashioned style or double glass. It’s important to throw in the orange rind since it has so much flavor and the oils that seep out as you muddle it all together gives the drink a nice citrusy flavor..also, if you’re not sure what a “dash” of bitters is, don’t stress. The bottle top is specifically made for “dashing” and only allows a few drops out at a time (a lot like a bottle of tabasco sauce). I added two good shakes of the bottle and then one to grow on, because I felt like my bitters bottle was being a little stingy. The moral of the story- just go with your gut, there.
 
Muddle these together in the base of a glass with a muddling stick, or a lipstick, or the handle-end of a knife, or other blunt tool until the juices meld together and the sugar has been ground in and there’s a slight lining to the glass. Add in the bourbon (or your spirit of choice).
Now, at this point you can stop if you’re feeling serious about your cocktail, but if it’s a regular old Thursday night and you just wanted that one drink while you visit about the day and plan the dinner menu then add in the water to cut the sincerity, top with ice, and enjoy with style.
If you want to stop by to see our new bar, come on over around cocktail hour.

 

The Basic Bloody Mary

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I love, love, love day drinking. not day drunkenness, but you know, a beer at an afternoon BBQ, a mimosa at a girls’ morning out, and definitely, definitely, a bloody mary with brunch. I’ve made them all kinds of ways…with just tomato juice and then with mixes, with lots of condiments…with differne brands and types of vodka…..and really, I’ve never had a bad one as long as it had enough spicy kick and vodka.

The most recent version I made for some pals who spent the night after my 30th birthday bash (Top 40 karaoke! a dinner party! cocktails!)  involved Cat Head vodka, a local Mississippi vodka that donates $1 of every bottle to live music, V8 Juice, pickles, sriracha, lime juice, and woschester. pretty good. Seriously, you can make them so many ways depending on your taste, but this recipe is a good place to start as you test out your own favorite combination.

What You Need
Makes one 1 large or 2 small Bloody Marys.

1-2 oz of Vodka (Cat Head is a GREAT choice!)
1-2 cups of classic or reduced sodium V8 juice. I’ve used regular and off-brand and plain tomato juice often, but it just takes more seasoning. You can go this route, but double the salt and other seasonings for the right kick)
3 dashes Tabasco sauce
1 small squirt Sriracha (an asian hot sauce)
1 dash Woschester Sauce
3 teaspoons Black pepper
2 dashes Soy Sauce
1 Small pickle
1 celery stick
1 lime wedge

What to Do:
Mix all of these ingredients, taste it for salt and spice, and garnish with the pickels, lime wedge, and celery. If it’s not spicy enough, add in more tabasco and soy. Drink with reckless abandon.

Want more versions? I recommend Garden and Gun’s recent article “How to Build a Bloody Mary Bar”

 

 

Classic Red Beans and Rice

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OH. MY. STARS. it’s been too long.i’ve had three posts raring to go since late January and then things got busy and the last thing I’ve wanted to do when I got home was turn on my computer…and then I got into Game Of Thrones on Amazon… but it’s time. I miss blogging about food, and taking pictures of food, and just generally talking about food. (plus… my pretty friend Fancy flattered me by asking when I was going to post something new. Fancy, here you go!)
This recipe was supposed to come out around the time of Mardi Gras, since what’s more Louisiana that Red Beans and Rice? Even if the weather has gotten a little warmer (but not much! what’s up with the freaskishly cold weather??) and the confetti and beads are long gone from Beale Street, this recipe still tastes divine. It’s a combination of my grandmother’s classic Louisiana recipe, the Cook’s Illustrated test kitchen version, and the one from the River Road Recipes Cookbook.  Read on.
What you Need:
To cook:
Andoille Sausage (1 package, or a 1.5 lbs)
1 tablespoon of oil
2 onions
5 garlic cloves
1 green pepper
2 ribs of celery
1 cup of Camellia brand dried red beans (washed, dried, and soaked)
2 table spoons beef stock
3-5 cups of water
2 squirts of ketchup
1 bay leaf
3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
Salt
Pepper
 
To Serve
1 bunch green onions
Hot sauce
1/2 cup of rice per serving
What to Do:
Obviously, begin by rinsing and soaking the beans (overnight is best, but 6 hours will do in a pinch. Basically, you want them full of water and tender.)
Dice the garlic, green pepper, onion, and celery. In a large stock pot, sautee’ the onion in the oil until translucent then add in the other three ingredients to release the flavor, stirring for 1-2 minutes.
At the same time, boil the sausage, pricking after a 5-7 minutes to release the oil. I think this makes it just a little bit healther since it gets rid of the excess fat. Once the sausage is parboiled, cut it into 1/2″ or 1″ rounds and brown in a skillet.
Remove from the heat and put it aside to add in later.

 

Add the Stock and liquid to the large stock pot with the vegetables. Add in the bay leaf, the red beans, the red vinegar, the squeezes of ketchup for good measure, and the sausage. Simmer on low heat for 2- 2.5 hours. The longer and slower this cooks, the more flavorful and creamier the red beans will be.

Once the liquid has cooked down somewhat and the beans are soft, take about 2 cups of the beans and liquid and using a food processor or blender, puree’ that amount. Add the pureed beans back into the pot with the rest of the beans. This makes them even creamier and smooth.

Serve with hot sauce, vinegar, green onions, and white rice.

 

 

 

Cook Downton Abbey #1: Prime Rib Roast

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You can probably tell by some of the links I post that I’m a pretty big fan of Garden&Gun Magazine. Ok, it’s a little pretentious, and it has a very specific viewpoint about what the south is and isn’t, but I love their recipes, restaurant reviews, and hints about up and coming shops, musicians, and hot spots from my favorite part of the country so, when I read that they were as excited about the US Premiere of Downton Abbey as I am, well, it brought them even nearer and dearer to my heart. I didn’t love the show for the same reasons they listed, but I’ll share my thoughts before next week’s episode. The show airs tonight at 8, and my mom and I are busy making a plum pudding (recipe coming before next week’s episode!) to eat as we watch and swoon over Matthew Crawley and all of the fantastic clothes.

If you haven’t gotten into Downton Abbey yet, and apparently need a reason here are G&G’s top ten reasons why southerners love it (and all things Noble and English)

1. They drink a lot, but never have to drive anywhere.
2. Lord Grantham makes the women at G&G weak in the knees, especially when he does his “custodian of the land” spiel.
3. We like to look good when we hunt, too, whether it’s top hat and riding jacket or neon orange and camouflage.
4. They love their dogs as much as we do. If only ours never had to go to the bathroom…or made any noise whatsoever.
5. They call a valet with a limp and a criminal record “eccentric”. We call it Southern gothic.
6. Lady Mary is like a British Scarlett O’Hara: beautiful, spoiled and determined. Let’s just hope she leaves the drapery on the windows.
7. Carson’s pride of place is rivaled only by that of a Southern hostess.
8. We’ve loved Shirley MacLaine ever since her tomato-loving turn as Ouiser in Steel Magnolias.
9. We’ve all got a Dowager Countess in our lives, whether it’s our mother or mother-in-law—manipulative, tough as nails, and always ready with a one-liner.
10. No one loves—or plans—a wedding like we do in the South. Crawley/Crawley 2013, (err 1921?) people. Koozies on order.

If you’re not a fan of plum pudding (or like me, live in the country and have NO access to currants and cloves before 8pm tonight), you could always go for the KING of all English Christmas fare…the Prime Rib Roast to celebrate the show’s return. We attempted it for the first time this year to serve on Christmas Night this year and worried we’d bomb with such a fancy and expensive cut of meat, but y’all, it was like an extra Christmas present because it turned out so perfectly….  tender on the inside, crunchy on the outside, melt in your mouth, full of delicious flavor perfection. I found the recipe here, (thank you, Susan!) and she found here, and with the addition of garlic, it worked like a charm. Never use any other recipe.

English Prime Rib Roast
Serves 6-8

What you need:
1 4-6 pound standing prime rib roast
2-3 tablespoons dry mustard
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Fresh Pressed Garlic  (2-3 cloves)

What to do:
Preheat your oven to 200°F.  Season your roast generously by rubbing the garlic all over the meat (don’t leave it on there…you just want the flavor. Then rub the roast on all sides with the mustard, salt and pepper.  Put the roast, fat side up, in a roasting pan and  put it in the oven and cook until center of roast registers 120 F on an instant-read thermometer for medium-rare. (Note from Serious Eats and Sticky Gooey, Creamy Chewy: This should take approximately 3 1/2 to 4 hours for a 5 pound roast.)

 

Take the roast out of the oven and make a tight tent with some aluminum foil, then put it in a warm spot and let it rest for 30 minutes or more.
When you’re ready to eat it, preheat oven to 500°F and when the oven reaches 500°F take it out of the foil and put it back in the oven.  You’ll cook it for about 8-10 minutes until it’s browned and crisp on the outside. Then you can carve and serve it immediately. sigh. it really was divine y’all…and it was our first shot.

 

Dining Out Delta: The Blue Levee

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 Ever since high school, one of my favorite ways to kill time has been to go “country looping,” which basically means driving around back roads a little faster than you should with the radio turned up, or exploring backways you’ve never been on before just to see what you see, or taking the long way through the county to get to dinner so you and your best friend can have a heart-to-heart. I did it in Laurel, in college in the mountains of Virginia, and, although it’s not always as fun to go looping when you drive all the time for work, or when the roads are straight-straight-straight and flat-flat-flat, I still find some time to go out looping in the Delta. In fact, when we had an entire day to do whateverthehell we wanted to over the holiday break, we decided to jump in the car, see what we could find, and talk about serious and not-so-serious things. 🙂 After seeing the baby doll house, getting nearly and completely stuck in the January Delta mud, and taking some winter-field-photos, we ended up at the Blue Levee in Rosedale, a delicious restaurant that you might never know about or find on your own because it’d kind of out of the way.

The BL has a great craft beer selection (what? in Rosedale?), pretty delicious soups and sandwiches, homemade appetizers like crabcakes and fried pickles, a pretty solid daily blue plate special, and usually a totally off-beat special like thai seafood curry. It’s that off-beat special that I usually go for, since I’ve rarely ever been let down.

 
But this time (see above), since everybody seemed to be recovering from New Year’s Eve, the fare seemed standard (read, standard & mouth watering), so  I went with the blackened chicken sandwich and fries, Boone had the turkey and bacon on ciabatta bread, and we both left full and happy. Sorry, y’all…I was so hungry that I forgot to take a “before” photo. oops.


The next time you’re country looping, or heading to the great River Road State park, or are driving up 1 from Greenville to Helena, or just want to see how a delicious little place can sustain itself in a town with a population of 1,852, stop in to the Blue Levee.

Lucky Black Eyed Pea + Pecan Hummus

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Last year I told y’all about my mama’s version of Pickled Peas for New Year’s Day.  I’m not SUPER superstitious, but I definitely I knock on wood an awful lot, and throw salt over my shoulder when I spill it, and I absolutely make sure to eat black eyed peas every single January 1st for luck. It turns out that I made a little too much of the pickled pea dip last year and ended up eating it for about a week too long (sad. it might be years before I make it again.) This year I needed a little change because I’m NOT going to chance an unlucky 2013. I thought about hoppin’ john, or a black eyed pea soup, but then remembered I had a supersized jug of tahini in my pantry that needed to be used up. Tangy, kinda spicy Black Eyed Pea Hummus it is! I used this vegan recipe as the base and adjusted it to my taste. Read on for the way to ensure luck in 2013.

Black Eyed Pea Hummus
Makes about 3 Cups

What you Need:
2 Cups Black eyed peas -I used fresh ones that just happened to be in my local Grocery store, but you can use dried or canned.
3 cloves garlic
1/2 Cup of Tahini (sesame seed paste)
1 Tablespoon Red pepper flakes
Juice of 1 or 1.5 lemons
Pecans (I used about 1/8 cup)
2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
Some additional water or vegetable stock
Salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce to taste

What to Do:
If you’re using fresh peas (not dried) make sure to rinse them thoroughly and then boil them until soft. Of course you can add bacon grease and onion for EXTRA flavor,  but I was trying to limit prep cooked them at a rolling boil for about 10 minutes until they were fairly soft and definitely not crunchy. If you’re using dried beans, follow the directions for preparing them, and if you use canned beans, rinse them super well to rid them of that metallicky taste…

Once the peas are cooked, put them in a food processor with all of the other ingredients and puree’ until smooth. If you find that the texture isn’t very smooth, add some water or chicken stock to smooth it out.

 

Voila! Serve with carrots, warm pita bread, or chips while you watch Football and recover from your big night out. This will definitely ensure luck and prosperity in 2013! Wishing y’all well in the new year.

 

Oatmeal Lace Cookies

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Oh y’all, what do you do when you need to take a gift and the hostess doesn’t like chocolate?

Boone’s mama makes the most amazing chocolate covered peanut butter balls (read: an amazing homemade version of a Reece’s cup) every Christmas and this year we had like a zillion extra. We were going to a friend’s house for dinner and I thought we should take them a few (I mean, we could definitely eat ALL of the leftovers, but we probably shouldn’t, right?) but then Boone reminded me that our hostess hates chocolate. Seriously, hates chocolate.

I knew I needed to make something non-chocolatey, festive, and pretty, but was tired from all the holiday cooking. Thankfully I was lucky enough to run across what seemed like an easy recipe my mom used to make for dinner parties and ladies’ luncheons a few days earlier in The Memphis Cookbook from the Memphis Junior League. This little cookie crisp is sweet, and dainty, with a browned butter or caramel flavor, plus it looks pretty fancy although the ingredient list is super easy. Perfect.

FYI, The ingredient list was simple, but it took a little more baking finesse than i’d imagined. in fact, I made 2.5 batches to get the ratio of cookie to cookie sheet right (they spread out A LOT and my first batch ended up as one huge cookie stuck to parchment paper) and get them to look much like lace, and since I was giving them to a friend, they had to look “just so”. Read on for the recipe and my hints!

Oatmeal Lace Cookies (or butter snowflakes)
Yields: approximately 15-20

What You Need:
1/2 C Flour
1/2 C granulated sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 C rolled oats
2 Tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 C melted butter
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
1 Tablespoon vanilla

What To Do:
Preheat the oven to 375, and get started by sifting the flour, the sugar, and the baking powder together into a medium bowl. Add in the butter, oats, cream, vanilla, and corn syrup (so far so good, right?)

Once it’s all mixed together, drop small spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. When I say “small” I mean a teeny tiny amount, y’all. Definitely less than a quarter sized spoonful but more than a nickel. Also, stay away from wax or parchment paper… A plain old cookie sheet will do.

 

You get the best spreading results if you smush the dough down flat a little. Also, make sure to leave plenty of room for the cookies to spread out (because they will spread, and spread a lot). I got best results when I put only 3 rows across on my sheet, and then about 4 cookies down which ended up being about 2 1/2″ to 3″ between the cookies.

Bake the cookies at 375 for 6-8 minutes or until they’re golden brown and have bubbly holes showing through. (Hence the “lace”). Once you’ve taken the out, let them cool for about 2 minutes and then lift them carefully from the cookie sheet with a thin spatula. Place them on a paper towel until they are crisp. It turns out that I broke about 1/4 of the cookies because I wasn’t careful enough, and just so you know, the ones lighter in color need a little longer to cool before you can pull them up with the spatula… If you try to pick them up too soon they get smushed together and look nothing like lace.

 

But if you get them just right you have THE PERFECT thin, crisp cookie to dress up a bowl of ice cream or serve at a ladies’ tea. Since I was taking these to a friend, i only wanted to give her the pretty ones, so whenever one got broken or had less than perfect edges I just had to keep it for us. (I know, right? so terrible. 😉 They were gone in a day since they’re so thin…I mean, you can have more than one when they’re small right?

 

Hosting Our First Christmas Eve Dinner (for 14!)

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We had an amazing Christmas this year… Boone’s family came to the Delta and we had a big Christmas Eve dinner party for our friends whose families were in town. It was a fun crowd of about fourteen people who had mostly just met. We had Christmas crackers with silly paper hats, lots of spaghetti and homemade meatballs, homemade french bread and (maybe a little too much) red wine. I’m prety sure the paper hats and wine went a long way to making everyone feel at home. 😉

My favorite part was after dinner when we pulled out these silly homemade songbooks and sang Christmas carols with Boone’s dad on the guitar. To make singing a little easier for everybody, I made coffee syllabubs (a super easy and amazing after dinner drink that southerners adopted from the British and adapted with brandy and bourbon.)

I didn’t come up with the singing idea on my own… For almost every Christmas Night from birth until age 24, my grandparent’s best friends the Gilchrists would throw a HUGE back tie soiree’ with a cocktail hour, a lovely meal, toasts, and then after dinner drinks and singing around a piano. I feel like those parties were some of my most formative experiences about what it meant to be a southern lady and a welcoming host….

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Cooking & Drinking Downton: The Syllabub

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I already mentioned our AMAZING Christmas Eve, right? But I didn’t tell you how to make the magic elixer that that got everyone (I mean EVERYONE) to sing their hearts out…

I found this recipe in a fun newish southern food magazine, The Local Palate, and adapted it to my tastes… I feel like it could be fun to have on NYE or maybe in lieu of eggnog, but beware, they are strong, delicious, and super filling. seriously. Let me know what you think!

Coffee Syllabubs
Serves 8

2 C Whipping cream
1/2 C coffee flavored liqueur (like Kahlua)
1/2 Amaretto (like Disaronno)
1 C light brown sugar

Blend and whip the ingredients together until frothy (but not too frothy or the cream will be too stiff to drink easily) just before you’re ready to serve and garnish with nutmeg or cinnamon.

And a photos of the syllabubs in action, plus the singing and merriment!

Biz’s Note: Syllabubs got referenced by Ms. Padmore on the episode of Downton Abbey Airing 1/12/14. I was BESIDE myself!

The Perfect Comfort Food: Chicken and Rice

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Chicken and Rice
Serves 6-8
My grandmother was known for her comfort food. She was also one of the warmest, softest, most comforting women that I’ve ever known, so it makes sense that her food would make you feel warm and loved, too. In the summer we snapped fresh green beans together for her to cook all afternoon, and when I’d spend the night with her when my parents were out of town she’d make me chicken & dumplins or creamed chicken and we’d pile up in her bed with my cousins and watch Golden Girls, M.A.S.H. or Designing Women and she’d sew.
I miss her everyday.
It’s to her credit that when Boone and I got married that the first meals I cooked him as a bonafide wife were things out of the notebook she gave me.  It started out as a place for her to write down my favorite recipes in her perfect little cursive handwriting. It turns out that the recipes tell me to measure in units like “pinches” and “a little bit” but I watched her enough times to be able to figure that out. One of those recipes, and the one that my mom also makes that is perfect for blanket weather and when you need a hug. Chicken and rice is one of Boone’s favorites, and I made it a few weeks ago on one of the first cold nights.
 What you need:
4-6 pieces of chicken (dark meat is best here)
1 stick oleo (I used 1/2 stick of butter since I LOVE the flavor…although no healthier. boo.)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup uncooked rice
2 cans beef consomme pluc one cup water (or 3 tablespoons beef stock dissolved in 3 cups water…i use better than bouillon)
1 Tablespoon onion flakes (i go with 1 chopped onion instead)
1 Tablespoon parsley flakes
1 can mushroom stems and pieces
1 package of slivered almonds
What to do:
Preheat your Oven to 350 degrees.
Season and brown the chicken in the butter in a large stock pot or dutch oven. Set the chicken aside. pour a bit of the beef stock into the pan to release the goodness from the chicken. Using a little of the butter, saute’ the onions in the same pan, and melt the rest of the butter in the pot. Pour in the rice and stir it for a few minutes to brown it. Once the color has turned a bit brown in color (which somehow releases this really delicious flavor of the rice) then combine all of the other ingredients into the dutch oven…but wait on the almonds.

After you’ve poured in the stock, the seasonings, and the mushrooms, check to make sure that you have enough liquid in the pan with the beef stock to cover the rice just a bit. Put the Chicken on top of all of the rice mixture, and then sprinkle the almonds on the top. Cover and bake for about an hour, at 350 or until the rice is cooked all the way through and the liquid has been absorbed. It’s all i can do not to eat forkfulls of uncooked rice in anticipation of the finished product.

the almonds add the perfect crunch and the rest is warm and comforting. our family serves this with sweet potato sticks and butter beans. something about the sweetness of the potatoes and the saltiness of the butter beans and the savory chicken and rice makes the PERFECT autumnal night.

 

Do you have a favorite comfort food meal?