A Light Refreshment

With the heat of summer upon us, there’s not much better than cool, refreshing cocktail to bring the work day to a close.  I’ve been a fan for a while, but still, every time I bring my lips to the glass for the first sip of this delightful beverage, I am, once again, hooked.  Give it a try – I dare you – and 5:00 might just begin to come earlier…

Simply pour a little Hendrick’s in a glass with ice and sliced cucumbers and enjoy!  Add a little tonic if you prefer and to make it even more delightful, a splash of St. Germain.

Hockley’s Eggnog

Deliciously thick and creamy homemade eggnog becomes a food group for my darling husband during the holiday season. This recipe is the one that he makes over and over in double-batches just to make sure we always have enough.

Homemade Eggnog
makes one gallon

5 egg yolks
5 egg whites
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups bourbon
3/4 cups cognac
3/4 cups dark rum
1 quart milk
1/4 tsp salt
1 pint heavy cream
pinch of nutmeg
splash of vanilla extract

In Print: Clips from Food Sections

5. – The Chicago Tribune Cool off with Homemade Ice Cream “The only thing homemade ice cream requires is advance planning because freezing is required for the machine’s canister (overnight), chilling is required for the base (a couple of hours), and then the finished ice cream requires a stint in the freezer too (a few hours).”

4. – The Boston Globe Seeking the Best Fried Chicken “Think Southern-fried chicken, and chances are the next words that come to mind are “secret herbs and spices.’’ To me, that’s Southern-fried baloney. Prolonged immersion in very hot grease is not a method that coaxes out bouquet; the only elements likely to survive are garlic and cayenne. But spicing aside, the sine qua non of good fried chicken certainly is the crust, the best being a simply seasoned flour- or cornmeal-based coating delicately but thoroughly welded to the skin in a crisp, delicious synthesis.”

3. – The LA Times Train Chefs Keep Quality on Track “Shaun Murphy was facing a chef’s worst nightmare: a dining room full of guests and nothing to feed them. And running around the corner to the market was absolutely out of the question. Murphy was cooking aboard a train that was stuck between Los Angeles and Chicago. A highly regarded chef, Murphy was in the galley of a private rail car that was delayed for 12 hours after a train up ahead went off the track in Iowa. The passengers had been scheduled to arrive at their destination well before dinner, but Murphy wasn’t about to let them go hungry.”

2. – The NY Times Refreshing by Definition “BASIL Unless you sell your own line of pesto, there’s only so much basil you can use. So why not drink it? A distant cousin of MINT, basil can be put to some of the same uses in cocktails, but with predictably different results. MUDDLE it or just toss it in the shaker and let the ICE do the work (but use a strainer). Basil plays well with fruit, even pineapple.”

1. – The Washington Post Where There’s Smoke, There’s Flavor “Although smoking cigarettes has nearly become anathema in modern society, smoking foods is more in vogue than ever. Smoke, it seems, is like a fifth flavor (or sixth, if you allow for umami), with the ability to transform, contrast with and accentuate the food that has been exposed to it, whether that is salmon, pork, fruit, chili peppers or tea. In gastronomy, smoke is the door to another room, a lively, hazy space that is at once promising and almost limitless, yet also dark and dangerous.”

photo from The NY Times

The District Domestic goes to Vegas!

My husband and I spent last weekend eating our way around Vegas while visiting friends and I have so much to share!  A good vacation always takes off with a plethora of plane reading (aka restaurant research) and touches down with friends who live in the city as a guide – both of which were A+ for this trip.

It all started Friday afternoon with lunch at the much written about Burger Bar in Mandalay Bay. We ordered the Veggie Burger (I know, but I had to try it!), Kobe Beef Burger and the Black Jack Burger.  The tastiest bite was a toss up between their skinny fries and the zucchini fries. Even my non-veggie eating husband thought the zucchini fries were incredible.

Friday dinner was at Brand Steakhouse in the Monte Carlo.  We had too much to eat to list it all, but let me just tell you – it included every bit of edible indulgence you can imagine.  Favorite bite was the lobster mashed potatoes.  Favorite drink, their classic martini (seen below).

Saturday breakfast was at Bouchon Bakery in The Venetian.  Have I told you how much I love really good doughnuts? (Want to make your own?  Here’s my how to.)

In Print: Clips from Food Sections

5. – The Baltimore Sun Starbucks to Explore Value Menu Options for Menu “Starbucks has yet to offer many details about what Chief Executive Howard Schultz described to investors last week as “several breakfast pairings” at “attractive” prices. More details are expected as early as later this week.  But analysts wonder if the plan will be enough to keep value-seeking customers from abandoning the mermaid for the clown.”

4. – The Chicago Tribune Fish on Ice “For those willing to brave the cold, ice fishing yields some of the year’s best-tasting fish dinners. There are two reasons people ice fish: one, to catch and eat gorgeous freshwater fish that are at peak flavor due to the cold temperatures of the water they’re drawn from, and two, to socialize. Linda Eno thinks I have that backward.”

3. – The LA Times The Refrigerator Personality Test “I figured it was probably time to clean out my refrigerator when, digging around for a jar of jam, I found a roll of film. A roll of film! Remember those? How long it had been there, I don’t know. I not only have a digital camera, I’m on my second one. Clearly, it was time for either a major cleaning or an archaeological expedition.”

2. – The NY Times Restaurants Stop Playing Hard to Get “Battered hard already by the recession and petrified of what’s to come, restaurants are talking sweet and reaching out in ways they didn’t six or even three months ago. They’re cutting special deals, adding little perks, relaxing demands and making an extra effort to be accessible.”

1. – The Washington Post Stirrings of a Better Martini “He also has been using the newly available Old Tom and has resurrected the Martinez. Yet while Brown has nailed the historical accuracy, he also insists that the martini is not a historical document. ‘It’s intellectually interesting,” he says. “But on a certain level, who cares? Does it or does it not make a good cocktail?’ ”

photo from The NY Times

For the Beer Lover…

Insulated glasses recently made their debut in the US at Japan-based housewares store, Muji.  These lightweight, double walled glasses are designed to keep beer cold.  Sold for $13 each, these make a great holiday gift for that beer lover in your life.

To find a store near you, click here.

In Print: Clips from Food Sections

5. – The Boston Globe The Greenest of Them All “Increasingly, owners are trying to reduce this environmental impact, implementing rigorous recycling and composting programs, installing energy- and water-saving devices, relying on local ingredients, and more. The Green Restaurant Association, started in 1990 with the goal of forging an ecologically sustainable restaurant industry, offers an ongoing certification program to help restaurateurs go green.”

4. – The Chicago Tribune Remaking Comfort Foods “Healthful eating and comfort food don’t have to go together like spinach and brownies. It’s just that we’ve become so accustomed to thinking good-for-you dishes can’t be warm, gooey and soul-satisfying.”

3. – The LA Times Bacon Recipes Galore “Bacon has a place at the table morning, noon and night. And venture beyond its natural pairings to the unusual yet sublime — in an apple coffeecake or as a martini garnish.”

2. – The NY Times Let 100 (O.K., 8) Bartending Philosophies Bloom “Ten years ago, cocktail seekers would have been hard-pressed to find a bar that used fresh juice in sour mix (never mind adding microplaned zest), and ordering an Aviation would have earned a cold look instead of a refreshing but potentially lethal mixture of gin, lemon juice and maraschino liqueur.  Today drinkers don’t need to search far to find bartenders who not only squeeze their own citrus, but make their own bitters, have an encyclopedic knowledge of drinks and stock spirits imported, on the sly, in a suitcase.”

1. – The Washington Post Fab Food Gifts: Mix It Up, and Make Your Friends Happy “Homemade food gifts can run the gamut from cutesy to gourmet to just plain good. I took the latter approach when creating my kitchen gifts this year, because it seems a particularly appropriate time to give useful, budget-stretching items.”

photo from The LA Times

In Print: Clips from Food Sections

5. – The San Francisco Chronicle Posh Squash “Nature seems to have had some of her giddiest moments in the pumpkin patch, judging by the winter squash and gourds for sale at Bay Area markets these days. They have warts and bumps, ridges and furrows, stripes and speckles, and come-hither curves. Few denizens of the produce world are more alluring – or more confusing.”

4. – The Boston Globe CheapSteak “Call it the meat index. If you want to know whether times are tough, ask your butcher. “We are selling so much more hamburg,” says Charles Silva, owner of New England Meat Market.”

3. – The LA Times The Bagel: An L.A. Story “Friedman is not a stickler for a particular-size bagel and does not have a problem tweaking his recipe here and there to suit a customer, but he has been raised in a strict bagel-making tradition. Sitting in his glass-enclosed office looking out over his Brooklyn Bagel factory, the scene does not appear to have changed much in five decades.”

2. – The NY Times Eurpoe Relaxes Rules on Sale of Ugly Fruits and Vegetables “Misshapen fruit and vegetables won a reprieve on Wednesday from the European Union as it scrapped rules banning overly curved, extra knobbly or oddly shaped produce from supermarket shelves. Ending regulations on the size and shape of 26 types of fruit and vegetables, the European authorities killed off restrictions that had become synonymous with bureaucratic meddling.”

1. – The Washington Post Oolong, the Tea Lover’s Tea “Asking a wine, chocolate or coffee expert to pick a favorite is like asking a mother to choose between her children. Not so for tea connoisseurs: Oolong “is the tea that got me hooked on tea,” says importer Brian Wright.”

photo from The Boston Globe

In Words: Food Quote of the Week

Work is the curse of the drinking classes

— Oscar Wilde

One last summer cocktail!

With Labor Day quickly approaching, it’s time to hurry up and get those summer cocktails out of your system (along with the white shoes and seer-sucker).  While in Vermont a couple of weeks ago,  we had an incredible dinner at The Bearded Frog in Burlington.  I started off with one of their specialty cocktails, A Gin and Tonic with a refreshing twist – cucumbers with the necessary lime!  The result was the perfect drink – refreshing from the tonic and lime all while making me feel like I was drinking a spa healthy drink as a result of the cucumber infusion!

Try it – I promise, it’ G&T heaven!