Muse Breaks

I used to be seriously against drinking, and for my sake, I'm glad I forced myself to get over it.  It's allowed me to explore another realm of hospitality and serving people that I really enjoy - drink mixing.

For my 22nd birthday party, the first birthday party I'd thrown since junior high, I rented a motel suite with a wet bar and bartended for all of my friends.  I learned all the basic drinks, invested in dishwasher-safe pour spouts and all the garnishes, and had at it.

Now that it's been several months, and now that I have a place I don't mind inviting people over to, I've started to explore all sorts of other drinks.  You can make almost any alcoholic drink non-alcoholic, and vice versa, so I'm finding it to be a great skill to have.  I recently came up with a delicious tropical flavored cocktail involving cherry, coconut, pineapple and orange together with a lightly carbonated texture and however much zing you feel like adding.  I'll add it once I've perfected it - and once the thrill of being the only person to serve it to people fades.  ;)

While discussing drinks at one point with a good friend of mine, an interesting one called the Singapore Sling came up.  I don't have the proper ingredients and I'd be surprised if any bars here could make it, so I haven't had a chance to try it just yet.  It's got an interesting story behind it that you can read about here.  The recipe listed there is different from just about every other recipe you'll find, since very little was written down and preserved.  Even the recipe that's called "standard" is likely fudged and altered a bit by relatives.  Interesting, no?

My basil is quickly becoming my favorite indoor plant.

The cats leave it alone, it grows beautifully and fully, it doesn't mind being inside, and it produces so much more than I use!

A couple of weeks ago I got up the guts to make the decisive snip! and "harvested" my beautiful, fresh, sweet basil.  I'd never done this before, and I really worried I'd kill it by cutting so low on the plant.  I actually didn't cut as low as it recommended, either.

I was told to snip the middle branch off JUST above the intersection of the bottom two leaves.  Mine was more like the intersection of the next-to-last two leaves.  :p  But it any case, wash rinse repeat and I was clipping off the other three plants in the set.  Speaking of wash...if you can, it's best to rinse the leaves off at night before you plan to cut, so by morning the leaves maintain that sweet smelling oil.

So I had four severed stalks of basil, looking pitifully up at me like I'd murdered them.  'Cause I did.  I tied them together at the bases and strung them up to a nail in my cool, dry pantry to dry.  Next time I'll try the freezing method, but I wanted to see how this way would work out for now.

Long while later they were deemed sufficiently crinkly, and I brought them all down and separated leaves from stalks.  I chopped them into a useful and universal size and started dropping them into a clean baby food bottle I'd kept around for such things.  When all cramming and pushing and capping was done, I had one entire bottle full of homegrown basil!  I was so proud that I labeled it, then called my mancreature to tell him what a good little domestic I was!  :)

It's only been a few days but it's clear that the basil just really responds extremely well to pruning.  And repruning.  And repruning and repruning...  I've already had to space out the new-found bushiness of the plants (luckily I was making that killer marinara that day!) by pruning certain leaves.

So, yes.  Basil is my baby.  Points for personality, however, goes, to Fennel!  *cheers*

Fennel, while not being used very often in my particular kitchen, has the most hilarious response to stimulus.  "Water if soil is dry to the touch" does not apply to this fella.  I water him twice a day, because if I miss he droops right over and smacks his head on the basil.  Water him, and poof!  Reaching right toward the stars again!  What a silly goose, right?  Definitely the personality winner.  Sure wish I knew of some kind of inexpensive recipe to put his nummy leaves in.  Ideas?

In the other sects of horticulture today, my red chili peppers are still gettin' bigger and bigger each day, and it looks as though some new flower buds are going to try and follow suit, before the old ones are even off the plant!

My cayenne plants have all flowered like crazy, even the ones Sam the cat knocked down and damaged, and I *may* have done a little flower-to-flower dusting to help along...  It looks so far like a couple of the dying flowers might result in new cayenne peppers, but we'll just have to wait and see!

My oregano may have seen it's last battle with Sam's tushy tonight.  I'll check on it tomorrow, but I think I need to pull it up and plant something bushier and less easy to sit on in its place.

My parsley really ought to be checked on and clipped back, too.  It's become so incredibly bushy, and with Sam sitting right next to it whenever we're not looking it's growing pretty heavily toward the basil.  I don't think the basil will mind, but I worry about lower parsley leaves getting blocked from the sun.

Last addition to the herb and pepper container gardening festival is a little scrawny mint plant.  The hardware store did not believe in him, but we knew with a little love and a bigger pot with better soil he'd thrive.  He's really beginning to, and I'd like to get to know him.  Silly, though, I don't really use mint much either!  One of these days I should get a plant I use more, like dill or rosemary.  :p  Eventually!

If you haven't tried gardening in containers, it's great!  I've never been able to have plants before, and the apartment frowns on farming their yards, heh, so this has just been so nice for me.  If you have the space and the time to care for them, I would definitely try it out and watch what they give back to you!  :)

Bonjour!

Last night I couldn't sleep, so around 5 AM or so I got up and started devising a breakfast for the man-creature.  I knew he'd only stick around a few minutes before rushing out the door to work (today was a really crunched day for him), so I wanted to make something he could grab and go.  I got the bright idea to make cereal bars - but his cereal was SO old it had gone bad!  I grabbed my brand new box of cheerios and got to experimenting.

An hour later I caved and looked up online what I was doing wrong, heh.  It turns out I ALMOST had it, and it's really very simple!  In the future I'll experiment with different textures and flavors, since just cheerios and sticky is a little on the...overwhelmingly sweet side.  Nuts might be nice, or dried fruit even...or maybe a different cereal.  ;)

Here's the recipe I used:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup peanut butter

3 cups cereal of your choice, and other tidbits mixed in if you'd prefer

1.  Bring sugar and honey to a boil in the pot and keep it boiling for, eh, 3-5 minutes.

***If you want to test it how tough or chewy the bars will be when you're done, drop a tiny bit into a cup of cold water.  If it's hard by the time it hits the bottom, your bars will be on the tougher, more cohesive side (this comes from boiling longer).  If it disperses and swirls around on its way to the bottom of the cup, your bars will be on the very soft, pliable side (this comes from boiling it less than enough).  I boiled mine maybe 2-3 minutes and they keep their shape well yet were easy to cut, chew, and tear apart.

2.  Add peanut butter and mix in, then dump in your cereal and other ingredients of choice.  Stir until all ingredients are thoroughly coated, keeping the heat on so it will remain easy to work with.

3.  Pour whole mix into a non-coated (non-stick will get damaged when you need to cut them out) pan - how large will depend on how thick you want them to be.

4.  Allow to cool completely and then cut into bars.

Neat idea - wrap each bar individually in clingwrap for a snack you can grab and take with you!

I'm also working on a bit of lace - my very first lace project to be exact.  I'm kind of amazed at how easily lace works up.  I thought for sure I'd have trouble seeing it or working with the thread!  When it's finished it will be this doily, but for now it looks so ruffled I just can't see it ever laying that flat!  The pattern assures me, however, that it'll iron out flat when it's through.  I certainly hope so...otherwise I'll have to find some hilarious use for an extremely ruffled circle of lace.  Ideas?

See you soon!

Hi guys!

I'm sorry about the break - I was sort of swamped for a long time.  I also revamped the blog, in case anyone remembers it, heh.  My fiance (eeee!) and I moved into a bigger apartment and I caught the flu right before moving day.  Combine that with some nasty job-hunting failures and loads and loads of boxes to unpack, and I've been a busy bee!

I'm back, though, and I hope this blog is as exciting as I am envisioning.  :)

I found a terrific marinara recipe the other day, and I tweaked it just a bit.  AJ (the man-creature) has been raving about it since, so I thought I'd share the recipe here!  One batch goes over about two-three plates of pasta or chicken, so if you're serving a bigger crowd I'd double or even triple it.  Just remember to use a big enough pot!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

3 cloves garlic, sliced or chopped

1 can crushed tomatoes (I'm sure fresh would be even better!)

1/2 cup red wine (I used merlot and really recommend it)

1/2 cup water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp white sugar

3 fresh basil leaves, torn

Sprig or two of parsley, torn

Directions:

1.  Put oil in a large saucepan or skillet and heat on low.  Sautee garlic until it just begins to brown - about 2-3 minutes.  Be careful not to burn it!

2.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Add tomato, wine, water, salt, and sugar, and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

3.  Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes

4.  Remove lid and continue to simmer (reduce, really) until you've reached your desired consistency, then remove pot from heat and either serve or can.

Voila!  It's so simple, but it's absolutely delicious!  I made extra and put it in jars in the fridge for future use.

Enjoy!