Category: food

Winter Garden 2014, Planting

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Despite the finale for this year’s summer garden, I wanted to put in a winter one. And then attempt to keep it safe from dogs, rabbits, slugs, and all the other assorted pests that did the summer garden in.  Fingers crossed!

First I turned the soil over, put in some top soil and fertilizer, and then turned it over again. I’ve done this enough times that it is becoming old hat. Next came the soaking. I wanted to make sure the soil was moist at least three to four inches down. After this was complete D and I went to the local Ace and picked out from their selection of winter seedlings and seeds. We got arugula, broccoli, broccolini, celery, collared greens, kale, chard, bok choy and Chinese cabbage. The planting went quickly and soon all the seedlings were in.

seedlings
seedlings

The arugula and broccolini seeds were spread into the box or a pot and then everything was watered down again. Sadly, right after we put the garden in we had a heat spell and the broccolini in the pot all withered and died.

After the garden was put in I put in new stakes and new netting around the boxes to keep the rabbits and dogs out. During the summer this worked wonderfully. Sadly, the dogs quickly discovered that the netting was no real obstacle and trampled over it and my seedlings to lie in the beds and eat the recent compost. And my Chinese cabbage. And my broccoli. *sigh*

chard and kale
chard and kale

I didn’t put in slug traps either. And much of the collared greens at this point have been eaten. I’m going to have to get those in soon or there won’t be anything to show this winter. At least, the arugula is coming in quite nicely and none of the pests seem interested in the kale and chard.  *fingers crossed*

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Cocktail of the Week: Cranapple Cider Cocktail

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Expect to see a lot of apple cocktails in the coming weeks as we move further into fall. Good guesses for other themed cocktails this fall would include:  pumpkin, pomegranates, cinnamon, and spice. I apologize now for using the atrocious portmanteau, cranapple, but cranberry apple cider cocktail is even more of a mouthful and so beauty concedes to brevity.

The ingredients
The ingredients

Cranapple Cider Cocktail

  • 2 oz. cranberry juice
  • 1 oz. fresh orange juice
  • 1 oz. vodka
  • 1 bottle chilled hard cider

Fill glass and cocktail shaker with ice. Add cranberry juice, orange juice and vodka to shaker and shake until chilled. Strain into glass. Top off with hard cider and garnish with apple slice.

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This looked so good when I first heard of it and I double-checked to make sure it called for just cranberry juice (most cranberry juices are a mix of grape, apple, and cranberry concentrate, with the cranberry making up the smallest portion). It did. But, and this has been my experience every time a cocktail has called for actual cranberry juice, the cranberry flavor ends up overwhelming everything else in the cocktail.

The Cranapple had the sour tart of cranberry and not much else. The cider I used (Crispin) is a particularly strong variety but then only thing from it I could discern in the drink was the carbonation. In the future I’ll reduce the amount of cranberry juice and increase the amount of orange juice. I might not shake it either but try to layer the liquids into the glass.

Not a bad cocktail, especially if you like cranberries. I was just a little disappointed.

Cocktail of the Week: Bourbon Apple Cider

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That crisp coolness is finally in the air and I’m finally comfortable enough saying that Autumn is here. Autumn means apples, pumpkins, and long evenings on the couch sipping tea or a nice hot cocktail.

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The ingredients

Bourbon Apple Cider

  • 5 oz apple cider
  • 2 oz bourbon
  • 1 apple, thinly sliced
  • 1 tsp. honey
  • 1/8 tsp cinnamon

In a sauce pot combine cider, apple slices, honey and cinnamon, bring contents to a boil and then simmer for five minutes.  Strain mixture (save apple slices for garnish) and add bourbon. Pour into glasses, garnish with apple slices. Serve warm.

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This reminds me a lot of the Honey Bourbon Toddy, and why shouldn’t it? Both are hot drinks and share the majority of their ingredients. Where the Toddy has water this has apple cider but other than that, and lemon juice, the two drink are almost identical. This is certainly a drink you want to sip, the bourbon is very noticeable with a nice apple crisp taste as it rolls down your throat. Sit down, relax, sip from this drink and let the season sink into you as you sink into it.

Cocktail of the Week: Apple Thyme

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It’s supposed to be fall right now, the produce department of our local Co-op certainly reflects the change of the season even if the weather outside stubbornly refuses to. I’m looking at you 95° weekend weather! With the transition to fall I’ve got to say goodbye to all the chilled drinks full of citrus and fruit! That’s okay though, because I’m looking forward to some hot drinks.

This cocktail was inspired by one D saw over on another blog (here), that called for a homemade brandy and quite a bit of alcohol in it. I took the recipe and tweaked it a little bit and ended up with a delicious cocktail with an herbal undercurrent, that wouldn’t knock D out. I replaced the brandy with applejack and balanced out the proportions.

The ingredients
The ingredients

Apple Thyme

  • 1 oz bourbon
  • 1 oz applejack
  • 1 oz thyme simple syrup
  • 1/2 – 1 oz lemon juice

Combine ingredients into an ice filled shaker. Shake vigorously. Strain onto ice in a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with apple slice and thyme twig.

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I didn’t have any expectations with this cocktail. I’d never considered using bourbon and applejack together and I’d never thought to infuse simple syrup with thyme. It turned out really well though! The lemon and thyme go together quite well and blend wonderfully with the bourbon and applejack. Depending on how much lemon juice you have a flavor that goes anywhere from an apple-y bourbon with hints of lime, and thyme to a whiskey sour with hints of apple. I heartily recommend this for relaxing on a cool fall evening.

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