Category Archives: Entertaining

  • Mixology Monday Cocktail #1: The Calm Sunny Day

    February 12, 2013

    22 Comments

    The Calm Sunny Day. Neither dark, nor stormy.

    The Calm Sunny Day. Neither dark, nor stormy.

    There is one week to go before Mixology Monday drinks are due. But since we are hosting, we figured we should post a few examples of cocktails that might fit our theme of “inverted”. If you want the whole download on the theme, click here. But the basic idea is to create or share a cocktail that in some way inverts or “flips” common parts of the drink. You can invert the ratio of spirits, liquor and bitters, or flip the colors, flavors, theme, etc. Plenty of ways to be creative.

    sunnysunny6To start, we decided to go with something easy, but as we got into it we realized just how many ways you can play with a cocktail. Our first “inverted” creation is the Calm Sunny Day, essentially an inverted Dark ‘n Stormy. The Dark ‘n Stormy is a well-known long drink combining Goslings dark rum, lime juice and ginger beer (or ginger ale in a pinch). It is a bright, funky and spicy summer drink, usually served on the rocks in a highball glass.

    sunny1sunny4We decided to invert the Dark ‘n Stormy into a more traditional cocktail, and this is where it got fun. The Calm Sunny Day combines aged filtered rum, ginger liqueur and lime juice (and a dash of bitters, if you like). You get the same basic flavors of the Dark ‘n Stormy, but everything else is flipped. Highball turns to cocktail, dark rum to light, brown colors are now very pale, ginger beer to ginger liqueur and the name gets a change as well. You get the idea.

    sunny2A few notes on the ingredients will help with the recipe. Firstly, we use filtered aged rum like El Dorado 3 yr. or Banks 5-Island. It turns out you can filter the color from aged, darker rums and keep most of their “funk” and flavor. This kind of rum let us change the color of the drink and is a good cocktail ingredient, but if you already have Goslings or other dark rum you can use it (you just get a deeper color, extra recipe below). As for Ginger Liqueur, there are a few producers and each type varies slightly in sweetness and spice. It is best to mix your first version with less ginger liqueur and adjust upwards if needed. And you may need a dash of simple syrup to add sweetness without adding too much ginger. We also add a dash of Bittermen’s Burlesque bitters for extra funk, but it’s totally optional.

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  • Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies

    February 7, 2013

    38 Comments

    Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies.

    Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies.

    Now that we have almost recovered from the trauma disappointment of a Super Bowl loss by the Niners, we can reflect on the positives from last Sunday. And there were plenty of positives: friends, family, cocktails and some very good food. Our friends all brought good cheer and some very tasty snacks and drinks (thanks guys!). The Kentucky Royale was the featured cocktail (along with some Scofflaws and cold beer) and we even got some exploding / fermenting probiotic hot sauce that splattered on the ceiling when we opened it (somewhat aptly named “Sunny Bang”, website here). Happily no one was hurt, and good times were had by all (even me, after I finished wiping down the ceiling…seriously).

    Exploding "probiotic" hot sauce. Nothing to do with brownies, but funny, nonetheless...

    Exploding “probiotic” hot sauce. Nothing to do with brownies, but funny, nonetheless…

    pretzelpretzel1One of the highlights of the day came at dessert. We will post a few of the things we served, but will start with these Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies. Oh boy are these good. And they taste just like you would expect, with deep chocolate, peanut butter and some extra zip from salt. What’s not to like? But then you also get some texture and crunch from the pretzels and pieces of peanuts, and that’s what takes these brownies over the top. And they even taste good with a beer.

    pretzel3pretzel4pretzel5Carolyn made these brownies from a King Arthur Flour recipe. And as you may know, we are big fans of King Arthur Flour recipes. Why? Because they almost always work and they give recipes by volume and weight- a good thing for the home baker. We did adapt the recipe somewhat for our tastes by using bittersweet chocolate chips and double-dutch dark cocoa (mix of dutch process cocoa and dark cocoa) to amp the chocolate flavor and darken the color. But we are sure the recipe will still be just fine with regular chocolate chips and cocoa powder.

    pretzel6pretzel8As far as making the brownies is concerned, there is just a bit of extra work (not much) but it is pretty cool, even fun. The brownie batter follows a basic recipe and making the peanut butter topping is just mixing the peanut butter, melted butter, sugar, pretzel pieces and vanilla. While it takes a few minutes to make the topping, your reward (other than a decadent brownie) is the fun of swirling the topping into the brownie batter. Call us food geeks if you must, but it’s hard not to smile when you mix peanut butter and chocolate. It just seems “right”. Looks cool too.

    pretzel9To finish up the brownies you just add some more chopped peanuts, pretzel pieces and peanut butter chips to the top of the brownies, then bake, cool slice and serve. And the whole thing takes about an hour. And considering the reaction of our guests (and ourselves), making these brownies is an hour well-spent. Not only did we love these brownies, we all went for seconds as a consolation when the Niners were jacked by the refs came up short. 😉

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