Transition! It’s upon us.

Saturday the last of something; Sunday the first of something.

I say we toast and discuss our goals. But first, lets talk kumquats, shall we?

They’re kind of the cutest thing ever. Don’t let their dainty appearance fool you, though; these things pack a pucker like no other. I juiced (using a juicer) about 20…and got only 1/8 of a cup of juice. At first I was super bummed, but then was reminded how strong their flavor really is. No bigs!

I only used half of a teaspoon per cocktail. That sour punch with the sweet subtle spiciness from the ginger syrup..and some Cava (Prosecco or Champagne)…holy deliciousness!

I recommend this…oh I dunno…maybe for a little New Years Day brunch action…maybe paired with this quiche?

Goals.

Every year I vow to stay away from making resolutions of any kind. I think it’s super lame to make promises (even to oneself) to then find yourself in February with them at your wayside.

But I dunno. The list-maker in me loooves writing to-do lists. So, this year I decided to make a few. Three, actually. I figured if I made them attainable, simple and useful, I’d maybe be successful.

1. Drink more water.

2. Eat more kale.

3. Have fun.

That’s it. That’s all! Just three simple goals. I think I can do it. Tell me your goals. I wanna hear ‘em.

Wishing you all the best in the upcoming New Year. You being here means the world. Thank you.

See you in 2012!

xo
Adrianna

Ginger Kumquat Mimosas

Print this (sorta) recipe!

Ginger Syrup
1/4 pound ginger, sliced
1 cup pure cane (or granulated) sugar
1 cup water

1. Using a food processor, pulverize the sliced ginger into bits.

2. In a small heavy saucepan, over medium-lowheat, bring ginger, sugar, and water to a simmer. Stir until sugar has dissolved, then gently simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes.

2. Strain through a sieve and let cool to room temperature.

Kumquat Ginger Mimosa

For one mimosa:
4 ounces of Cava (Prosecco or Champagne)
4 teaspoon ginger syrup
*1/2 teaspoon kumquat juice (from 20 kumquats using a juicer)
Sliced kumquats for garnish (optional)

1. Add all three ingredients to champagne glass and mix slightly.

*Note: I used a juicer. Alternatively, you could slice them in half and squeeze out the juice. It would be way tedious, but would work. *Second Note: The kind people at Freixenet sent me a few bottles of this cava. It’s delicious. But they didn’t pay me. I just like it.

Ginger syrup recipe from Gourmet; Cocktail recipe from my brain.

We all have a go-to drink when we’re at the bar, right? Mine–hands down–is a gin and tonic.

With summer officially arriving to LA this past weekend, I figured it was time to take my typical drink up a notch by making my all-time favorite, fancy drink: a Gin-Gin Mule.

This drink is the definition of refreshing.

There’s spiciness from the ginger beer, lime juice, lots of mint, a splash of soda water, a bit of simple syrup and whole lot of muddling.

You add lime juice, mint and simple syrup to a pitcher (or shaker). And muddle away…

I just used a wooden spoon as a muddler, since I don’t have one…they kind of freak me out because they kind of look like…you know…never mind.

Add the ginger beer and gin, and stir.  Don’t shake. Definitely don’t shake. 

Ice cubes in a glass and pour. Delicious.

Top with a splash of soda water and another splash of ginger beer. 

Garnish with a slice of lime and a piece of crystalized ginger. 

Aaaaand scene.

Now, tell me…what’s your go-to drink?! 

Gin Gin Mule

Recipe adapted from NY Mag

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Make two drinks

Ingredients:

1/4 cup lime juice

2 tablespoons simple syrup

12 to 14 mint leaves, torn

4 ounces and a splash of ginger beer, divided

3 ounces Tanqueray gin

Splash of soda water

Garnish: slice of lime & crystallized ginger

Simple Syrup:

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup water in a saucepan

For the simple syrup, combine sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil for a few seconds. Set aside to cool.

Muddle the lime juice, simple syrup, and mint leaves together in the bottom of a pitcher or shaker. Add 4 ounces of ginger beer and gin. Stir well. Pour into a glass filled with ice, and top with additional ginger beer and splash of soda water. Garnish with crystalized ginger and a sprig of mint.

CINCO DE MAYO in the hiiiizzz-ouse.

I know what you want. You want something Mexican, and cheesy with salsa…maybe something that’s even sprinkled with cotija cheese and avocado…

But I don’t have that. I’ve got nothing of the sorts. I had plans to do this, I swear. But something happened. A heat wave came ploughing through LA with 90-degree temperatures, and all I had the desire to do was to drink like, everything in the world. Not alcohol-wise, but like, lemonade, iced coffee, limeade, watermelon raspberry slushies, etc.

I did have a plan, though–it involved lots of shredded pork, a fried tortilla and lots of cotija cheese. I didn’t make that, obvi. It was too hot. I’m sweating now just thinking about standing over a hot stove with even hotter oil.

Instead I made this…for lunch…and dinner.

Ginger Limeade with a side of Guacamole and chips. The perfect I’m-too-hot-to-eat snack/meal.

And really, it’s kind of amazing even if you aren’t sweating.

Let me explain…

You squeeze the limes until you have about 3/4 of cup of fresh lime juice.

Then there’s a ginger syrup you’ll need, which is just made of water, agave (or sugar) and minced ginger. If you want more ginger flavor let it simmer for 5 minutes; want less gingery flavor? Less time. Easy peasy!

Combine the rest of the water, ginger syrup and lime juice together…and BOOM! Ginger Limeade!

Other good ideas: juice a half of a cucumber and top if off with cucumber juice! Yum!

Or…add some tequila, gin, or vodka. All good ideas.

And then garnish it with something you kinda want to eat while you’re drinking. I chose a slice of a cucumber, candied ginger and a slice of lime.

Welcome to yum-town, population: YOU!

Ginger Limeade

Recipe tweaked from Gourmet

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3 1/2 cups water

4 tablespoons of agave (or 3/4 cup sugar)

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

3/4 cup fresh lime juice

Thin lime slices for garnish (optional)

Cucumber slice for garnish (optional)

Candied ginger for garnish (optional)

In a small saucepan stir together 2 cups of the water, agave (or sugar), and the ginger, bring the mixture to a boil, and stir.  Let simmer for 5 minutes.

Strain the syrup through a fine sieve set over a bowl and let it cool. In a pitcher combine the cooled syrup, the remaining 1 1/2 cups water, and the lime juice and stir the limeade well.

Divide the limeade among the tall glasses filled with ice cubes and garnish each drink with a lime slice, cucumber slice and/or candied ginger.

Other options include: adding a splash of soda water; adding booze (gin!); or the juice of half of a cucumber.

 

My wedding dress and I are in a staring contest. See, my wedding is less than a month away and I have to fit. Seriously, if it means that I don’t exhale the entire evening, then that’s a sacrifice that must be made.

Just to bring you up to speed, I’m not wearing your average wedding dress. I’ve actually altered my grandmother’s dress that she wore in 1946.  Here’s what it looked like then:

Dude, isn’t my grandmother a fox? Is it weird to think that about your grandmother? It is? Yeah, just ignore that then.

Here’s something you should know about me and my grandmother. We are not the same dress size. At all. Basically, she’s just over 5’ tall, and was skinny as a rail when she got married, whereas I am 5’10” and have hips. So yeah, although the dress was altered to fit me (and to look a little more modern), it’s a snug fit. By “snug” I mean that I need to lose a couple pounds if I hope to breath at any point during the day.

Thus begins my month of dieting. But knowing myself, there’s no way I’m going to stay on a diet if I’m only eating dull, boring food. Thank goodness for recipes like this scallion noodle bowl. The noodles are coated in a light but flavorful sauce of ginger and scallions, and then topped with super easy-to-make pickled cucumbers for some tang, and some crisp sautéed cauliflower.  This might not sound super exciting, but my meat-lover fiancé loved this dish. Not that he needs to lose weight; I have to admit to you that he’s actually skinnier than me. That is totally lame.

To kick off my “fit into wedding dress” plan I was gifted a lovely bottle of rice wine vinegar from Nakano. I was surprised when it ended up being flavored with basil and oregano, but I’ve always loved rice wine vinegar because of it’s light and slightly sweet taste, and the added flavors are pretty tasty. Even cooler than that, as a gift our lovely readers, they want to give one of you some vinegar as well, PLUS a $25 American Express gift card (lucky!).

Here’s the deal: check out their website, and then leave a comment posting a link to your favorite recipe, or leave me a comment with your own suggestions for ways to use this stuff (I do have a whole bottle, after all). Please submit all comments by noon on Wednesday (Pacific time) and I’ll announce the winner shortly after that.

Update: Congrats to Janna M. for winning the giveaway!

“The Vegetable Pastry Purses are calling to me.
http://mizkan.com/Recipes/?action=view&recipeID=369258124447
Congratulations on your wedding! I love your blog and especially the way you word your captions on foodgawker and Tastespotting.”

Thanks everyone for the sweet comments; you guys are awesome!

Momofuku’s Ginger Scallion Noodle Bowl

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Adapted from Momofuku Cookbook via Amateur Gourmet

To make the pickled cucumbers, you’re basically just adding salt and sugar, marinating, and then adjusting to taste. I gave you an approximate amount to what I used, but I would recommend adding a little of each and then adjusting as you go. I added more soy sauce and vinegar than what the recipe called for and have adjusted it here. Nakano sent me a basil & oregano flavored vinegar, which was surprising but actually tasted pretty good. I would experiment with plain vinegar or using a different flavor as well.

1 medium sized cucumber – approx 1 cup of sliced cucumber
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sugar
2 ½ cups thinly sliced scallions
½ cup minced ginger
¼ cup grapeseed oil
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ large head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1 lb noodles – ramen, soba, or lo mein

Thinly slice the cucumber. In a small bowl toss the cucumber with the salt and sugar. Allow to sit for a few minutes and then taste one of the slices. Adjust the salt and sugar as necessary.

In a bowl combine the scallions, ginger, grapeseed oil, soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. Allow to sit and marinate for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil on high in a skillet and add the cauliflower florets. Cook on high until they begin to turn crispy and brown. While those are cooking, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook your noodles. Drain, and toss the hot noodles in the scallion sauce. Disperse into bowls and top with cauliflower and cucumbers.

There’s a recurring problem that I have when it comes to cooking. I don’t always read the directions. Well, I guess I DO read them, but only once, and then I start cooking as if I’ve done this a million times before only to glance back over the recipe and realize that I’ve missed a couple of really important steps. Like, I should have started thawing something out last night and I now need it to be un-frozen right this second. Or, the recipe actually called for 5 potatoes and I only bought 2. Yeah, these little details just kill me sometimes.

When it came to this recipe I thought that I was doing pretty good. I read about how Adam of Amateur Gourmet had forgotten to soak his beans overnight, and was pretty impressed that I remembered to do this. Yeah, for a second I felt like a rockstar. But then I sort of skipped over how you’re supposed to make a sauce with a bunch of these ingredients, and THEN add the beans, and instead just threw everything into the pot, stirred it together and realized my mistake only after I checked the recipe back for baking instructions. So close, yet so far.

However, there are some recipes that I just don’t think you can mess up, and I believe this is one of them. Despite my grievous mistake, these beans were amazing. The flavors blended together to form the most amazing BBQ sauce I have ever tasted, and the beans were plump, tender and just heaven. Seriously, for those of you who are like me and grew up eating baked beans from a can – you will be shocked at just how good these are. It doesn’t even seem fair to call them a side item when they really sort of dominate and take charge of whatever plate of food you add them to. I’m not gonna lie, I ate them for breakfast the next day. Yeah, I’m super weird. But sometimes that works out well for me.

The Best Baked Beans

 

Adapted from Ina Garten, via Amateur Gourmet

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Lots of changes to this. As stated above, I sort of changed the preparation technique, but it worked out well for me so give it a try. I also left out the bacon, and used dried ginger instead of fresh since that was what I had on hand. Honestly though, from this combination of flavors only good things will happen, so don’t be worried.

1 lb dried red kidney beans
1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 bay leaf
6 whole black peppercorns
¾ cup real maple syrup
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Chinese chili paste
1 tablespoon dried ginger
1 teaspoon salt

Soak the beans in water 8 hours or overnight. Drain the beans and then place in a dutch oven with the chopped onion, bay leaf, peppercorns and 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 50 minutes or until the beans are tender. Drain the beans once again, reserving half of the liquid.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

In the pot, add in the remaining ingredients and the 1 ½ cups cooking liquid. Cover with a lid, and cook in the oven for 6-8 hours. Every two hours you should check and stir the beans and determine if you need more cooking liquid to keep them from drying out. 8 hours will get you the maximum flavor in the beans, but they’re still awesome after 6 hours, FYI.

I know that in other parts of the country it’s been snowing since October, but this is FINALLY the first week in LA that I decidedly cannot wear flip flops. I guess winter has officially arrived. Therefore, it’s also the first week that warm beverages have actually seemed appealing to me. I normally stick to iced drinks, but on a day that’s cold and rainy and leaves a thin layer of ice on my car, all I can think about is going back inside and drinking a steaming mug of hot chocolate.

Years ago when I was in high school my friends and I used to get together on a Friday nights and cook extravagant 4-course meals instead of spending our money on over-priced burgers at a restaurant. On one such night we made white-hot chocolate with ginger, and I haven’t ever forgotten it. This drink is rich and creamy with some spice to it; it’s the perfect dessert drink to warm you up on a cold winter night.

I would like to emphasize that this beverage can stand alone as an after dinner dessert. If you make plans to drink a mug of this AND have a piece of cake, it’s probably going to be months before you come out of the sugar coma that’s sure to be induced.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

White Hot Chocolate with Ginger

Adapted from Cooking Light

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This recipe works well with any milk that you prefer to use; I used soy milk and it turned out great. I implore you to not skimp on the quality of chocolate chips you buy (I used Ghiradelli), it will make a big difference in the final result.

Serves 4

1/3  cup  chopped peeled fresh ginger
1/4  cup  sugar
1/8  cup  water
4  cups  milk
3/4  cup premium white chocolate chips

Combine first 3 ingredients in a large saucepan; cook over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves and mixture is golden (about 5 minutes), stirring frequently. Remove from heat and strain through a sieve to remove chunks of ginger. Return liquid to the saucepan.

Add milk and chocolate, stirring constantly with a whisk. Heat over medium-low heat until bubbles form around edge of pan, stirring frequently (do not boil). Once the chocolate is melted and the mixture is heated through, ladle into mugs and get really comfy on a couch, cause you’re not going anywhere for a while.

Like everyone on planet earth, the sight of the weekend makes me giddy. Sure, most of it has to do with not having to go to work, but the biggest part? 1.) Being able to wake up at my leisure 2.) Drinking coffee in mismatched pajamas 3.) Make whatever I fancy for breakfast.

This weekend’s breakfast of choice?  Gingerbread Pancakes.

Don’t tell autumn, but I’m already looking ahead. It’s not my fault, I swear. I think I’ve been brainwashed or something.  The other day I was shopping in the mall and caught myself singing along to the Christmas music. Christmas music before Thanksgiving! It seems like every year they break it out even sooner than the one before.  So, forgive me, autumn–don’t blame me.

Even if you’re not in the mood to embrace winter or Christmas, please make these. They’re worth it. They’re a little spicy, perfectly sweet (not too sweet), moist, but not mealy, and totally amazing.

Look at all that beautiful sugar mixed in with spicy spices!  Spices make me blush.  Now you know.

Falling flour mix into the coffee, eggs and water mixture. Beau-ti-ful.

I topped the pancakes some crushed pecans I had in the pantry.  And some pure maple syrup.

Gingerbread Pancakes

Adapted from La Note Restaurant, Berkeley, CA

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Yields 8 pancakes (2-3 servings)

I changed this recipe like nobody’s business.  I read the various reviews and a lot of people complained about it being too thick.  So I took matters into my own hands and halved all of the dry ingredients, kept all of the wet ingredients the same, and tweaked a few other things–it worked out amazingly.  Make sure the coffee AND butter are completely cooled, or you’ll have scrambled eggs on your hands…not pretty.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/16 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brewed coffee, room temperature or cold
2 large eggs
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) of unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/8 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice
Vegetable oil for brushing pan or griddle
Accompaniment: pure maple syrup

Whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a bowl. Whisk together water, coffee, eggs, butter, and lemon juice in a large bowl. Add flour mixture and whisk until just combined.  Let stand 15 minutes (batter will thicken).

Brush a griddle or 12-inch non-stick skillet with oil and butter, heat over moderate heat until hot but not smoking.

Working in batches of 3 or 4, pour 1/4 cup batter per pancakes onto hot griddle and cook until bubbles appear on surface and undersides are lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes.  Flip pancakes with a spatula and cook until cooked through and edges are lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes more.  Transfer to a platter and loosely cover with foil to keep warm.  Brush griddle with oil between batches.