When you start home brewing beer and cider you find that many many bottles are needed. This in turn requires much space for drying bottles. There are several commercial options available for bottle drying, but its pretty simple to build a bottle drying rack on your own.
Often a cocktail will call for ginger syrup or a specific ginger liqueur. If you’re like me you’ll end up making a batch of ginger syrup only to throw most of it away a month later. This ginger bitters recipe couldn’t be simpler. It’s quick and easy and keeps forever. Just add a few dashes to appropriate cocktails and you’ll hardly notice a difference. Add simple syrup with the ginger bitters when a cocktail calls for Domaine De Canton or any other ginger liqueur.
New Year always comes along with two constant states: sad looking savings account and list of resolutions.
There might be different reasons for both states, i.g. had too much fun, purchased too many cute looking presents, ate too much cookies etc, but the result is always the same. Last time I went to the gym to take Pilates class, there were 24 people instead of average 6-7 maximum; there were 2 people swimming in each lane in the pool instead of average 0; most of the treadmills are out of service (and how am I supposed to get ready for my half marathon in -11 F?). And finally, there was a lot invested in this holiday season, everything-wise. Continue reading
When it comes to this time of the year and you are not somewhere in tropics, the all things stew is a meal to go.
I normally get on a stew train in late October when the weather doesn’t call for huge green salad bowls anymore.
Autumn and winter might be cruel from time to time, they might play bad jokes with weather, but on the other hand they both provide all the necessities to survive in these conditions. Think of all the root vegetables and Holidays fun, they go together so well.
This post is pretty specific and might be interesting for those who juice, since the main ingredient is leftover from making juice – apple pulp.
October is a high season for apples. Almost all the varieties are available at the markets, orchards are full and so ready for people to come over and pick these delicious fruits.
This might be my favourite part of the fall. It just feels like this is the real thing. Here and now, when it’s not as summer-y anymore, but not winter-y yet either. It’s the high season going on and there should be at least one apple adventure everyone should participate in.
We go apple-picking a few times in a season. I juice apples daily as a part of my everyday morning juice, I make apple sauce and butter for all of us to snack on later in the winter, Nathan makes cider (like a LOT of cider), we used to dehydrate some and, of course enjoy fresh raw apples as well (especially Frederic). But let’s get back to juicing.
After making quite a few batches of still cider I finally decided to make the jump into sparkling cider. I was reluctant at first, reading about force carbonation and the equipment required. But after further research I was able to get a good idea of what I would need to make it the old fashioned way.
Oh hey there, it’s been a while. Summer is gone and we are welcoming fall.
Fall, especially in the beginning, is kind of a really awesome looking season. It also brings all these root vegetables, squashes, pumpkins and other garden delights, while tomatoes and peppers and even some greens are still available leftovers from the summer. I love fall.
The original recipe came from my dad. He used to make creamy tomato soup and I used to love it a lot. The ingredients he used were pretty much the same: tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, carrots and cream.
This soup was so good, so when I moved out and started cooking and having people over at my place, I asked him for the recipe and made this soup a couple of times. Then my friends liked it too and quite a few times my good friend would stop by after work with the bag full of soup ingredients so I would make him this soup.
It’s not too late in the season yet to pick up a few pounds of fresh rhubarb. This is my second year making this fresh and crisp infusion. It was so good last year that I very carefully rationed it to run out just as this years rhubarb season was starting.
I decided to forgo all the additional ingredients you normally find in the countless online rhubarb infusion recipes. This year I decided that anything I make with this can be later back-sweetened. This leaves the purest final product possible with the most versatility for experimentation. Continue reading
Imagine warm summer evening, when the table is set up outside, pieces of rustic bread are slightly covered with the kitchen towel, garlic infused olive oil sitting near by, glasses are filled with some crispy Sauvignon blanc, a casual conversation is taking place and chilled tomato soup, made from today’s harvest is the whole reason of the gathering.
I can’t really tell why did it happen again, but I couldn’t pass by hairy brown ball and we got a coconut. Again. I’m not even that much into coconuts, Nathan is not that much into opening them, but this is what happened. Coconut has been sitting on a counter for 3 days. I knew what I wanted to do, didn’t know what for though.
I like coconut water, not like I’m obsessed but I will probably grab one if I see a good one (raw harmless harvest is simply the best). I use coconut milk occasionally (think curry, or coconut milk whipped cream was my latest try out). I try not to run out of shredded or flaked coconut, just because it brings some tropical flavour to pretty much any desert. I use coconut oil a lot in cooking.
So to sum the things up, coconut-y stuff takes a certain place in my cooking life, but at the same time it is pretty unnoticeable. Continue reading