A Sweet Indulgence

Today, one of my go-to adult beverages. This is even a recipe of my own creation!

The Candy Bar

1 oz butterscotch schnapps

1 oz creme de cacao

1/2 oz amaretto

This would probably make a great shot, but I pour everything over ice cubes and fill it up with ginger ale. (Usually either in a smaller glass or double up on the alcohol.)

Easy Chinese

Back when I was in high school, after I got my first car, my friends and I would pile into it and drive over to our favorite Chinese place to get lunch together every time we had a half day. That restaurant is no longer there, but it's still the best egg drop soup I've ever had.  I set out to recreate that soup today, and I'm pretty happy with what I came up with!

Egg Drop Soup

6 C chicken broth (or 6 cups water with 5 cubes chicken bouillon 

                                      or 1 1/2 Tbsp chicken bouillon powder)

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 small can mushrooms, drained

1 cup frozen green peas

1/2 C carrots (cubed or matchstick)

2 eggs

(optional: cornstarch)

In a medium saucepan, combine the broth and spices and heat to boiling. Then add the peas and carrots and return to a boil. 

If you'd like the broth a bit thicker, like what you'd get at a restaurant, put 1 Tbsp cornstarch in a small bowl, and add a SMALL amount of the broth, stirring thoroughly so there will be no lumps. Continue adding small amounts of broth, stirring after each addition, until the mix is about the consistency of milk. Add this mix into the broth and continue boiling for a few minutes. (I only tried this with 2 tsp cornstarch, which wasn't enough to really thicken the soup much. You may find that you need more than 1 Tbsp.) *Never add cornstarch directly to the broth. It will clump and not dissolve, no matter how long you stir it.* Turn the heat down just until the soup stops bubbling.

In a small bowl, crack the eggs (being careful not to get any shell mixed in) and gently whisk the egg with a fork until the white and yolk are mixed. Traditionally, egg drop soup is made with the whites only, but I don't notice much difference, and then I don't have to separate the egg. (Yay, lazy cooking!)

Now comes the magic: stir the soup until the broth has a nice swirl going (you can continue to stir during this process if you don't need to, for instance, hold a camera at the same time) and slowly pour the egg into the broth. It doesn't have to be a drizzle, but if you dump it in all at once, you'll end up with a poached egg instead of the expected threads of egg. It doesn't show in the GIF, but if you do this in plain chicken broth, you can actually watch the egg "blossom" as it cooks.

You can stir in the mushrooms either before or after you add the egg, because they're already cooked and just need a minute to heat up. This recipe makes 2-3 bowls of soup, and made a nice lunch accompanied by egg rolls from the freezer section at our local grocery store.

My husband likes to throw in chopped pieces of chicken and cooked Ramen noodles. He's weird like that.  :)

Smells Like Heaven

And now, the recipe you've all been waiting for… My favorite infused vodka ever. This recipe comes from  the French Farmhouse Cookbook, an impulse buy at Barnes & Noble. 

When it comes to food, the French really know where it's at. When my sister and I got back from a 10-day vacation in France, I dreamed about French food every night for two months. Not just the fancy restaurant meals, the bread and produce, too. Anyway, most French cookbooks are full of haute cuisine, you know, the stuff with ingredients you don't just find in an American grocery store, lots of cream and butter, cooking techniques that require you to study at Cordon Bleu before you can execute them properly… To quote a popular internet meme, "Ain't nobody got time fo' that."

This cookbook, though, it's filled with real food. Stuff that isn't that hard to understand with basic cooking techniques. Granted, there's still stuff in here that makes me say "Huh?" (Quince jelly? What the heck's a quince?) And ingredients that I'd have trouble getting access to, like lamb and rabbit. But overall, it's very accessible, and very tasty. And best of all, it has an entire chapter devoted to "the cellar and the pantry," aka jams, nuts, and booze.

I have been in love with "Liqueur 44" since I opened my first finished batch. It's infused with coffee, fruit, and vanilla and blends together into the most gorgeous smell. The hardest part is leaving it alone. It has to sit for 44 days before you can filter and serve it. So find yourself a closet that you don't use often, clear out a corner, and prepare yourself for the bliss that is Liqueur 44.

[Picture currently being held hostage by my old laptop]

Liqueur 44

1 large orange, preferably organic, well scrubbed (anything on the orange will infuse in your vodka!)

1 banana, peeled (haha, I just realized I've never peeled the banana for this. 

        It turns black, but everything comes out fine.)

1 vanilla bean (the fresher, the better. You have to poke it with a knife, so crispy beans 

        won't turn out well. I get mine from Penzey's Spices.)

1 1/3 C white sugar (270 grams, if you have a kitchen scale)

44 coffee beans

1 qt (or 1 liter) vodka

Use a sharp knife (paring is fine) to pierce the skin of the orange 44 times. (Just the skin, don't stab through into the fruit.) Pierce the banana and the vanilla bean 44 times each.

Throw all the dry ingredients into a nonreactive container (glass or ceramic, no metal!!), and pour in the vodka. Swirl it a little to get the sugar mixing in, seal the container airtight, then put it away in that dark corner of your closet. Take it out and swirl the container (don't open it!) once a day for the first week.

At the end of the 44 days, carefully open the container; it may have built up some pressure inside during the process. Strain the liqueur through cheesecloth and rebottle it. I like to hang onto the original vodka bottle and just pour it back in there. Unfortunately, *snicker,* there will be just a little bit more vodka then what will fit in the bottle, so you might have to drink a little. What a shame.

You can drink this however you prefer your vodka. I like to pour a shot or two over ice cubes, then top off the glass with my beloved ginger ale. It doesn't thin out the flavor too much, and I can spend more time savoring it before I'm too loopy to appreciate the flavor. I have, sadly, never mastered the art of *sipping* an adult beverage.

If you're not a huge fan of coffee (if you like Kahlua, give this a try anyway) you have a couple options. I made this once with chai tea for a friend (hi Sam!), but the tea flavor was two strong. If you want to go that way, try adding one or two chai-flavor teabags to the vodka for 10 minutes, then remove and discard the bags. Otherwise, you could try skipping the coffee altogether. Make sure you come back and leave a comment! I want to know how it turns out.

If you, like me, just ran to the calendar to see when 44 days would be up if you started this right now, you're probably noticing that New Years is in 42 days. I won't judge you if you open this early to serve at your party, especially if  you invite me.

Shepherd's Pie… Sort of.

Hello, faithful readers! It's been a crazy week full of school projects. Just about one month left until I get back to "real" life. I feel like I've been in school forever…

So, you know how sometimes you have a plan for dinner, and you start cooking and realize you're actually missing half your ingredients? Ya, I'm super-organized like that. Oh well, some of my best meals have come from substituting ingredients.

I had some leftover meat from the chicken I made earlier in the week, and I had boiled 2 or 3 pounds of potato chunks as a side dish, so I thought a modified Shepherd's Pie might be really interesting. A standard Shepherd's Pie is made with a ground beef or lamb filling that may have some small vegetables mixed in, then topped with a thick layer of mashed potatoes and browned in the oven. Check out this Alton Brown recipe if you'd like to get an idea. (I haven't tried it, but Alton Brown is awesome.)

Parts of this recipe are pretty vague, because several of the ingredients are whatever I had on hand, making it up as I go, and the recipe is actually fairly flexible. Check out my notes following the recipe for a bit more on this.

Gratuitous Melted Cheese Shot

Shepherd's Pie, The Chicken Version
Cooked chicken, about 2 C, chopped
1 leek, stem only, sliced into rounds OR 1 onion, chopped
2-3 carrots, cleaned or peeled and sliced
1 C frozen peas
1 packet mushroom & onion dry soup mix
*optional filling ingredients*

Mashed potatoes, made your favorite way, enough to cover the surface of whatever you decide to bake this in
Orange cheese (Cheddar, Colby, etc), I'd guess 1-2 C

Turn your oven to 400 F before starting the filling.
Heat a large skillet or medium saucepan with 1-2 Tbsp olive oil. If you're using onion, you'll want to sauté that for a few minutes before adding anything else. Saute the leek, if using, and the carrots until the leek softens, about 5 minutes. Then add the peas, soup mix, and 2 C water. Bring to a boil, then turn down to medium and continue stirring for a few minutes while the soup thickens. Remove the pan from heat, stir in the chicken, and pour into a casserole dish or baking pan.
Spread the mashed potato on top of the filling. My filling was a little saucy, so "spreading" the potatoes consisted of dropping spoonsful on top and trying to smear them together. Sprinkle cheese on top of the potatoes until you're happy with the coverage. I went a little heavy because my husband's favorite food is cheese. Put in the oven for at least 20 minutes, until the cheese looks good. Mine took closer to 35 minutes, because I like nicely browned.
Serves 3-6, depending on your serving size and what you add to the filling.

*When I mixed the filling ingredients, it didn't seem big enough to me. I probably should have added more vegetables, but I really wanted to add some white beans or lentils. I didn't have either of those, so I ended up throwing in 1/4 quinoa and an extra 1/2 C water. It was really good, and I probably could have doubled the amount of quinoa.

*By the way, did you know you don't always have to peel your vegetables? It's largely a preference thing. I rarely peel my carrots or potatoes, even when I plan to mash the potatoes. I just run both under water in the kitchen sink while scrubbing them with a brush to get off the dirt. If there is a deep crack in the carrot or part of the potato looks funny, I'll break out a knife and remove the offensive part.

Don't be afraid to experiment when you cook. If you're not sure about adding something, just start with a little, you can always add more. This is especially true with spices and salt. They can easily get too heavy, but it's not hard to add more until your food tastes just right.

Boozy Tuesd'y (The First)

Do you have an excess of candy corn left over from Halloween? I don't. I love that stuff!

When the big bags of Brach's first came out for fall, I rushed out and bought a bag. Within a few days, I ran across this recipe for a candy corn martini. I also happened to have a bit of vodka left over that was taking me for….ever…. to finish. So of course I mixed the two! The infused vodka basically boils down to 2 parts vodka to 1 part candy corn. Then the hard part: leaving it alone while the candy dissolves.

It was amazing! Just sweet enough, smooth, and made a fantastic afternoon/evening cocktail with a splash of coconut rum and topped off with ginger ale. You can use any clear soda you prefer, but I love the extra bit of flavor that the ginger adds to everything.

And just look how pretty it is! I'm actually feeling a bit envious of myself right now, because I took this picture a couple months ago, when it was warm enough to sit out on the balcony. It was only 17 degrees here this morning!

Next Tuesday, I'll share my favorite vodka-infusion recipe ever with you.

Who're you calling chicken?

First Time Around
Last week, I saw a "rotisserie" chicken recipe on Pinterest. The trick is that it's made in a slow cooker!
What I really like about it is that I can pull the skin off the chicken before adding the spices. When I get a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store, I always lose the wonderful seasonings that get rubbed on the skin before the chicken is cooked.

A few things that I learned while making this chicken:

• Place the chicken breast side down (the opposite of what you see in the picture)
• If you don't love spicy food, reduce the cayenne pepper to 1/2 tsp
• If you have a regular slow cooker (like you see above, not a Crock Pot), you need to add a bit of liquid to keep the pan from getting damaged. 1/2 Cup water was plenty.

When the chicken was done, I stuck two forks in it, and it practically fell apart. I pulled most of the white meat and the large pieces of dark meat out of the pan, then served a few pieces with potato chunks and some steamed vegetables. After the carcass and broth had cooled, I dumped it all into a container so I could make soup later!

Reruns

One of my favorite things about cold weather is that it's incredibly easy to make soup out of pretty much anything I have in the fridge and pantry. 

I started by dumping the carcass and broth into a big soup pot. Add water to the pot. I used about twice as much water as chicken. (It's not an exact science, you can add more water if you like, just make sure the carcass is completely covered. If you add too much water, you can always use a little chicken bouillon to boost the chicken flavor before serving.) Bring it to a boil, then turn down to medium and simmer for an hour or so. 

Ways to improve the broth:

• Add a couple Tbsps of white vinegar to the water before you start to cook it. The vinegar taste and smell will disappear, but it draws the calcium and minerals out of the bones. If you simmer the broth long enough (about 5 hours), the bones will be flexible when you pull them out. If you decide to do that, leave the lid slightly askew, turn the heat to low, and check the pot occasionally to make sure there is still enough liquid in the pot.
• You can save scraps of veggies that you won't eat--like potato peels, broccoli stems, or wilted lettuce--wash them, and add them to the broth. You'll get the extra flavor from them, but they'll be removed before you finish making the soup.

When you're happy with the broth, you'll need to separate the broth by filtering out all the good stuff. I used a fine mesh sieve placed over a large glass measuring cup. Don't throw the solids out yet!

Put the broth back in the pan, turn up the heat, and start adding things for the soup. My favorite things to throw in:

• leftover vegetables from previous meals
• chopped veggies, anything that's in the fridge. This usually includes carrots, celery, or bell peppers. I also like to chop up a whole onion to add to the soup. Usually I'll sauté the onion in 1 Tbsp olive oil before adding the broth.
• short pasta (my favorites are bow tie, rotini, or elbow macaroni.) or chunks of potato
• canned beans, cooked and crumbled bacon, or leftover cooked meat

While your soup is cooking, spread your solids out on a cutting board and pick through it, looking for bits of chicken meat. Make sure you pull out all the bones when you're sorting the chicken meat! Once it's sorted, chop up those chicken bits and throw them back in the pot. When the veggies and pasta are tender, dinner is served!

Coming Soon

Well, if you're the kind of person who prefers a solid recipe, check back later this week. I'll be posting the recipe for the Shepherd's Pie I made with the remaining chicken.

I'm Back!

If you found this blog by searching for it by name, you may have run across this: http://www.flavorforless.blogspot.com I started that blog back in 2009, when I was a single college student with no job and very little money. Sadly, I forgot about the blog when my homework started piling up, and I no longer have access to it.

Now I'm in my last semester before graduation (huzzah!) and I'm married. I'm still trying to spend a reasonable amount of money on food, but now I also have to cater to my husband's tastes somewhat. Trying to make food he likes, that is both healthy and affordable, can be a challenge. He also hates leftovers, so I sometimes end up with… interesting… ways of incorporating leftovers into new meals.

I'll bring you one of those interesting meals soon, but for today, I'll leave you with this amazing banana bread that I'll be making this afternoon. We don't care for coconut much here, so we just leave it out entirely. This banana bread is amazing even without the topping, but if you're a fan of lime, definitely try it out. I can't begin to explain it, but with this bread, lime-flavored caramel is surprisingly good.