Blog, Interrupted

It has been too many weeks since I made a delightful punch or even attempted to write an entry.  My first thought was just to give it up and not finish my intention to blog through the end of the year 2012 with punch recipes and other culinary treats.

I too easily let my life be determined by interruptions instead of my keeping true to commitments that in the scheme of things don’t matter that much. 

This past April Andy (my husband) made a decision that has greatly impacted my time since then.  He decided that our ministry needed to end our affiliation with an umbrella ministry for ministries like ours.  That in and of itself didn’t involve much of my time except for assisting him in some of the communication.

As time wore on, I become more involved.  There were several other ministries that also left over the same issues that we did.  So, these ministries banded together to start a new work.  Andy started getting involved in that early summer, so I got involved in that early summer.  Also, we need to stop working with Andy’s Avatar (my name for the person who posts Andy’s blog, maintains Facebook, etc.  We found a new avatar but I also become involved in that.

By July, I was spending 3-4 hours a day on these new things as well as my job and the demands of life. Hence, no blogging.

My lovely daughter through marriage
 (to Greg) Christina


 

But, though I know that my “readers” are few and mainly related by blood or marriage, I still felt the need to continue writing.  So, I am back at it. [Sidenote - I have some great pictures that I took over the last few months that have nothing to do with my blog so I will post them in my next few entries.]

I had a great dinner party last night that was a good way to welcome in autumn.  No punch, but a good meal. We had a grilled cheese sandwich bar, homemade creamy tomato soup, autumn spinach salad and a really easy apple cake (thanks Bon Appetit for the idea and Betty Crocker for the cake recipe!)

Grilled Cheese Bar:

• 2 loaves bread – 1 whole wheat, 1 Italian sliced into ¼” slices. I made 12 slices of each loaf for 6 sandwiches of each bread – freeze the remaining bread to use for croutons or bread crumbs
• 2 lbs cheese – 8 oz. each – Fontina, Gouda, Cheddar, Mozzarella - grated
• 8 oz. chevre
• 16 thin slices prosciutto
• ½ lb. pound each thinly sliced turkey, roast beef
• Fig jam – a must, the hit of the evening
• Sauerkraut
• Whole Grain Mustard
• Salt and Pepper

Arrange racks in upper and lower thirds of oven; preheat to 350°. Set a wire rack inside each of 2 foil-lined rimmed baking sheets. Butter 1 side of each bread slice with about 1/2 Tbsp. butter.

1. Heat a medium skillet over medium heat until very hot, at least 2 minutes. Melt 1/2 Tbsp. butter in skillet. Add 2 slices of bread, buttered side down; cook, pressing down often with a spatula to ensure even toasting and rotating pan frequently, until bread is evenly golden brown, 3–4 minutes. (Do not rush or increase heat, or your bread will burn before it can evenly toast.)
2. Transfer bread slices, toasted side down, to prepared wire racks (this will help keep bread crunchy). Repeat with remaining bread and butter, wiping out skillet between batches. (If all of the bread doesn't fit on the racks, you may need to bake sandwiches in two batches.) DO AHEAD Bread can be toasted 1 hour ahead; let stand at room temperature.
3. Garnish untoasted side of each slice of bread with fixings, then top each slice with a small handful of cheese (about 1 1/2 oz.), scattering evenly. Season with salt and pepper (do not skip this step; it really elevates the flavors in the sandwich).
4. Bake bread slices, rotating baking sheets halfway through, until cheese is thoroughly melted, 10–12 minutes (begin checking after 8 minutes; some cheeses melt faster than others). Working in batches, firmly press 2 cheese-topped sides of sandwiches together. Let rest for 1–2 minutes. Slice in half or into quarters. Serve hot or warm.

 Creamy Tomato Soup – I wasn’t crazy about the recipe I used, but any good recipe for tomato creamy soup will do just fine.

Apple-Cinnamon Cake

Ingredients

• 1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® spice cake mix
• 1 can (21 oz.) apple pie filling
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease or spray bottom only of 13x9-inch pan.

2. In large bowl, beat dry cake mix, pie filling and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 2 minutes. Batter will be thick. Spread half of the batter in pan. Mix sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle half of the mixture over batter in pan. Spread remaining batter in pan; sprinkle with remaining sugar-cinnamon mixture.

3. Bake 32 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean; cool completely. Serve with whipped topping. Store loosely covered

Easy Brown Sugar Frosting
The cake is good without the frosting but it takes it up a couple of notches

INGREDIENTS

•1/2 cup butter

•1 cup brown sugar, packed

•1/4 cup milk

•2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar, more or less

•hot water, optional

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter.
2. Add the brown sugar. Bring to a boil and lower heat to medium low and continue to boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
3. Add the milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
4. Cool to lukewarm.
5. Gradually add sifted confectioners' sugar.
6. Beat until thick enough to spread. If too thick, add a little hot water.

Frosts top and sides of a 2-layer cake or a 13x9-inch cake

The entire dinner was great – it is an easy way to have a group of people over for dinner.  Though I didn’t make punch having everyone assemble their own sandwich around a table served the same “communal” purpose as the punch bowl.  It is also a dinner that would be could for all ages and most diet types.

Good dining!

 

 

The true confessions of a mother-in-law

Last weekend I had the pleasure of hosting a bridal shower for the daughter of a very close friend of mine.  Bridals showers are great fun for me, I love entertaining, I love games, and is there a better reason to have punch than at a shower?

Over the last two years my two oldest sons were married.  I have wonderful daughter-in-laws.  I often say that people would line up around the block to get someone like Christina (Greg’s wife) or Meghan (Nick’s wife) as a daughter-in-law.

But that doesn’t mean its easy being a mother-in-law.  I think it’s especially difficult when your son gets married.  I might feel differently when my daughter marries, but I can’t speak into that at this point!  All of a sudden there is this whole new family that wants to be with your son and his wife as much as you want it.  But, it seems that the “default” family is the wife’s family.  I get that, it wasn’t any different when I got married.  Still, when you are on the receiving end of “Oh, we won’t be here for Christmas this year, but I think we’re free on Flag Day” it hurts!!

But there is one aspect of being a mother-in-law is very easy for me:  my response to my sons and their wives is usually a variation of “I love that!”  “You’re going to move to Africa with dig wells for the children of the Sudan – I love that!” “You’re not sure you can eat BBQ dinner because you’ve embraced being a vegan – I love that!”  “You’re not having children until you’re at least 35 – I love that!”

Oh course I’m exaggerating, but my sons are now bonding with their wives and they are forming a family – the last thing they need is my opinion about the choices they need to make for themselves.  In my brief time I’ve been a mother-in-law I have yet to say “I love that!” while clenching my teeth, but I’m ready all the same.

But, back to the shower.  The theme of the shower was Disney Princesses.  I love almost everything Disney so this was right up my alley.   The decorations were purchased mainly in the children birthday party section, the cake was a children’s birthday party cake.

I made two punches, one with champagne, one without alcohol and iced tea for the shower. 

I would really recommend the champagne punch.  I made extra of the fruit juice mixture to fill ice cube trays so that the punch wouldn’t be water downed by the ice.  I also made the punch (except the champagne) the day before the shower, covered the punch bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the freezer. I also sliced the strawberries, put them on a paper plate, covered the plate and froze them as well. I took the punch mixture and frozen strawberries out about 3 hours before the shower.  Right before the shower began I poured in the champagne.  The result was a flavorful, slightly slushy drink.  It wasn’t easy to find tangerine juice, and the pear nectar was located in the health-food section of my grocery store.  This was by far my favorite punch of the summer of punches.  The sweetness of the tangerine juice was softened by the crispness of the pear nectar.  The Cointreau added warmth and the Champagne added to the crispness of the pear nectar. 

Mimosa Punch

Yield:  Serves 8

Ingredients

2 cups mandarin orange or tangerine juice

2 cups pear nectar or juice

1/2 cup Cointreau

One bottle (750 ml) chilled dry Champagne

2 cups ice cubes

Strawberries, sliced for garnish

Instructions

Combine the orange juice, pear nectar and Cointreau in the punch bowl and mix well. Just before serving, slowly pour in the Champagne. Add the ice cubes, garnish with the strawberry slices and serve immediately

Notes

Optional - make extra juice mixture (1 cup of each juice, 1/4 cup Cointreau, pour juice into ice cube trays.  Use these in place of regular ice cubes.

Pour the juice mixture into the punch bowl, freeze overnight.  Remove from freezer 3-4 hours before serving.  Right before serving slowly pour in Champagne; gently stir to mix slushy juice mixture with Champagne.

Freeze strawberry slices, place on top of punch immediately before serving.

The rest of the menu was a light lunch: chicken salad sandwiches, roast beef, sundried tomato and goat cheese sandwiches, quiche Lorraine and Florentine, scones with clotted cream and blackberry jam.

The shower was great fun, complimented by the food, cake and drinks.  It is a joy for me to bless my friends with a celebration blessing the lovely bride.

So here’s to the mother-in-laws who lunch, aren’t they the best!

Alright, alright, alright!

If you are thinking that Matthew McConaughey has little to do with punch, guess what, you’re right.  But I am going to expand the boundaries of my blog to not just punch but also recipes that I really like, and Matthew McConaughey has two things to do with that.

First, Matthew McConaughey is a lot like cooking chicken.  If you asked me if Matthew was one of my favorite actors, I would say “well, he’s okay, but not in my top five or even top ten for that matter.”  Yet, when I took a tally of his 35 movies or so I had seen over 2/3 of them (Magic Mike will not be included in that number.)  So obviously I like his movies more than I realize. 

I feel the same way about chicken – do I cook chicken a lot? No, not really, only 3-4 times a week! 

Second, the reason I made the recipe that follows is directly because of Matthew McConaughey.  In the late 90’s I was watching Matthew McConaughey on Jay Leno.  Matthew was regaling Jay with a tale about the best grilled chicken he had ever had, a Texas specialty, Beer Can Chicken.  Simple recipe, rub a whole chicken with spices, place the chicken over an opened half-filled can of beer, set it on the BBQ grill using the two legs and the beer can like a tripod, cover, cook for an hour and so.  The results, according to Matthew, the best chicken you will ever eat.

Well, I love trying new recipes and Andy agreed to try it (I’m not allowed to BBQ – long story for another time).  So we invite two couples over for dinner and away we go.  First, it was harder than it seemed to set the chicken on the grill “like a tripod”.  Second, if you leave too much beer in the can, it boils up and over onto the charcoals, terrible mess.  Third, if you aren’t careful when you lift the BBQ lid you can knock the very, very hot chicken over on its side.  The remaining beer spills out, and the very, very hot chicken isn’t that easy to lift onto a platter.

The chicken was good.  Our good friends very understanding, but cooking was not at all worth the hassle.  Sorry, Matthew no moist chicken is worth that much work.

So imagine my delight last week when I found a recipe for Beer Brined Chicken.  It was so easy to do, not messy and absolutely delicious!  I grilled boneless, skinless chicken breasts and chicken quarters (breast, wing and leg, thigh, all had bones and skin).  I preferred the chicken quarters, but even the skinless, boneless breasts, which can be so dry, were delicious.  I plan on using the recipe quite frequently; it’s great for guests because so much can be done ahead of time.   

So thanks, Matthew for turning me onto beer and chicken.

This was a great dinner, the new potato and green bean salad, outstanding and the peanut butter bars are no bake – so good on a hot day.  If anyone wants either of those two recipes, let me know, I will gladly supply them.

*Beer Brined Chicken                                                                                                                *New Potato and Green Bean Salad                                                                                   *Grilled Vegetables                                                                                                               *French Bread w/ butter                                                                                                     *Peanut Butter Chocolate No-Bake Bars

Beer Brined Chicken

Yield 8 servings           Active Time   55 minutes                  Total Time    10 hours

Ingredients

Brine

2 cups water

1/4 cup kosher (coarse) salt

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

4 cans or bottles (12 oz each) beer or nonalcoholic beer

Chicken

Chilled 2 cut-up whole chickens (3 to 3 1/2 lb each)

Barbecue Rub

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon table salt

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Instructions

For Brine

1.In 6- to 8-quart noncorrosive (stainless steel, enamel-coated or plastic) container or stockpot, mix water, kosher salt and brown sugar, stirring until salt and sugar are dissolved.

2.Stir in beer.

3.Add chicken.

4.Cover; refrigerate at least 8 hours but no longer than 24 hours.

For Chicken

1.Line 15x10-inch pan with sides with foil.

2.Remove chicken from brine; rinse thoroughly under cool running water and pat dry with paper towels.

3.Discard brine.

4.Place chicken in pan. Refrigerate uncovered 1 hour to dry chicken skin. Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix all rub ingredients except oil; set aside.

For Grilling

1.Heat gas or charcoal grill for indirect cooking.

2.Brush oil over chicken; sprinkle rub mixture over chicken.

3.For charcoal grill, move medium coals to edge of firebox; place chicken over drip pan. Cover grill; cook 15 minutes.

4.Turn chicken over; cover grill and cook 20 to 30 minutes longer, turning occasionally, until juice of chicken is clear when thickest piece is cut to bone (170°F for breasts; 180°F for thighs and drumsticks).

Did you hear the one about Martha Stewart…..

The internet makes this is a great time to cook.  There are more recipes available at the touch of a keyboard than I will ever have need of in my lifetime.  I own well over 100 cookbooks (a new cookbook is, and will always be, one of my favorite gifts to receive), but more and more I rely on looking up recipes online.  It is so easy to type in a few keywords and get hundreds of choices.

I tend to look at recipes based on the chefs from TV.  I love, love, love Maria Batali (one of my most memorable eating experiences was at Babbo in NYC) but I find his recipes a little complicated or use ingredients that I don’t often use.  Paula Deen is a favorite, but her way of cooking is my way of cooking - there isn’t much difference in the regional cooking of the south and of Appalachia and the Midwest – my cooking roots.

When I want to cook seriously I crack open Julia Child and when I want to frustrate myself I look to Martha Stewart.  It’s not that I don’t appreciate her skills, but she seems to assume that we all have endless time and money to achieve success.

So it was with a little apprehension that I decided to make a Martha Stewart punch recipe for a Desert Stream BBQ we were having at our house.  After all, its punch, how hard can it be?  In truth, it wasn’t very hard, everyone liked it, and the punch was empty.  In this case, it wasn’t Martha that was the problem, it was me. 

I decided that the thing this punch needed was an ice ring.  It was a very hot day in Kansas City, I knew the punch would need a lot of ice and I didn’t want to water down the punch.  Martha recommended filling ice cube trays with punch, but for once, I thought I could out do Martha.

So I made the punch, but with quite a few modifications:

Strawberry Punch a la Martha

·         4 cups water

·         3 cups sugar

·         6 cups coarsely chopped strawberries

·         2 cups coarsely chopped pineapple

·         1 cup pineapple juice

·         1 cup orange juice

·         1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

·         2 quarts seltzer water

Instructions

1. Make simple syrup: Combine the water and sugar in a large saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside until syrup is completely cool.

2. Transfer syrup to a large container. Add strawberries, pineapple, pineapple juice, orange juice, and lemon juice; gently stir to combine. Fill two ice-cube trays with punch, and place in freezer. Place remaining punch in refrigerator to chill.

3. When ready to serve, remove punch from refrigerator; add the seltzer water and frozen-punch ice cubes. Serve in a large bowl or individual glasses.

My changes:   I used canned pineapple – I know that Martha always goes fresh and I usually do as well, but cutting up a whole pineapple for just two cups seemed a little bit too much for me.

I didn’t want all that fruit floating in my punch, it didn’t seem that pleasing to take a sip and get a piece of strawberry and pineapple.  I decided to take all the fruit and combine with the sugar and water to make strawberry/pineapple simple syrup.  I combined the strawberries and pineapple together and mashed them into a thick pulp.  I then added the sugar and water. After it had boiled the 5 minutes and cooled I then poured the whole mixture into a fruit sieve into my punch bowl.  I had thick strawberry/pineapple syrup with no fruit pieces.

After I added the pineapple, orange and lemon juices I poured enough punch to fill a 6-cup Tupperware Jell-O mold to make an ice ring.  THIS WAS MY BIG MISTAKE!  I have a great Jell-O mold but don’t have the lid.  I put the punch in the top shelf of my bottom load freezer.  Of course I cautioned Sam to be really careful if he got ice, but didn’t think to say anything to Andy since he never uses ice.  Did I mention how hot it was that day?  Well, I have a freezer to covered with frozen strawberry syrup to prove Andy does us ice on a hot day.

The worst part – you really couldn’t even see the ice ring – it was too heavy and sank to the bottom.

So score one for me – I think the punch was much better by making the simple syrup with the strawberries and pineapple.

Score one for Martha – filling the ice trays with the punch would have worked just as well and saved me a couple of hours cleaning my freezer.

The moral of this for me is not to make an ice ring until I find the lid to my Jell-O mold!  But this would be a great punch for the 4^th of July – it’s very refreshing on a hot day and goes with BBQ.

Atticus Finch – Life with a good, caring man

This past Sunday we celebrated Father’s Day.  It is a much easier holiday now that the kids are grown, they take care of blessing their dad and I just take care of the meal!

 Of course I supplied the punch.  It was champagne Sangria that was a little dangerous – it tastes like fruit juice with no alcohol – so be careful and not serve this punch with any kids around!

Father’s Day got me thinking about how dads are often portrayed in films.  They can range from cruel – Robert Duvall as Bull Meechum in  The Great Santini to overly indulgent – Spencer Tracy as Stanley Banks in Father of the Bride to ineffectual but funny – Chevy Chase as Chuck Griswold in the National Lampoon Vacation films.  But real dads are more complex than that.  I loved William Powell in Life with Father, Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs Kramer, Melvyn Douglas is brilliant in I Never Sang for My Father, but if I had to go with one dad who most reminds me of the kind of dad Andy (my husband) has tried to be its Atticus Finch.

To Kill Mockingbird is one of those novels and movies that moved me at a heart level like few others.  Scout’s dad, Atticus Finch embodies so much of the good of the masculine.  He is caring, strong and committed to his beliefs even in the face of threats.  But he is also a caring father to Jem and Scout, taking time to listen, making time for them even in the midst of his busy vocation. 

Greg's graduation from Mizzou law school
(from left - Nick, Andy, Greg, Sam, me, Katie)

I feel like Andy has tried to be that kind of dad and has succeeded more often than not.  He’s far from a perfect dad, but is always caring for our kids, has always had a high vision of who they are as men and a woman of God.  He has parented them by the standard of the One who loves them more than we do, not by the standards of today’s world.   We have both failed at times in our parenting and I know many things we could have done better.  But Andy has always tried to understand how the kids were feeling and the pressures they were under.  He did that much better than I did.  I am more of the “why would you do that, I didn’t so that” school. 

Atticus tells Scout, “…You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it".  That is one of the reasons I think my kids were blessed to have a dad like Andy, he has always tried to see things from what they were dealing with at any given time.  While that didn’t necessarily decide how responded it gave him a compassion and grace that I had a harder time giving to them! 

Now what does this have to do with punch! Very little except I wanted to make a special punch to toast Andy and what is more special than champagne?  So next time you have a special someone to toast, consider this punch.

Champagne Sangria Punch

·         1 (750-ml) bottle Prosecco or French Champagne, chilled

·         1/2 cup orange juice

·         ½ - 1  cup Mint Simple Syrup, recipe follows

·         1 lemon, zested and thinly sliced

·         1 lime, zested and thinly sliced

·         1/2 cup sliced strawberries

·         5 fresh mint sprigs

·         Crushed ice

·         1 cups sugar

·         1 cup water

·         ½  cup packed fresh mint leaves

Instructions

·         In a large pitcher, combine the Prosecco, orange juice, Mint Simple Syrup to taste (start with a ½ cup add more is needed), lemon zest, and lime zest. Add the sliced strawberries, lemon slices, lime slices, and mint sprigs.

·         Fill glasses with crushed ice and pour the sangria over the top. Serve immediately.

·         Mint Simple Syrup - In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, water, and mint over medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the syrup to cool for 20 minutes. Strain before using.

Punch: The stuff that dreams are made of…

I love movies and I love books about movies and movie stars.  I still think that MGM is great.  I love the grittiness of RKO movies; even the films that weren’t film noir have an aura of the genre to them.  I just finished the definitive biography on Spencer Tracy, am reading a new book on Barbara Stanwyck, in between those I also read a bio on Humphrey Bogart. 

Bogie is in many of my favorite movies, High Sierra, The Big Sleep, Key Largo, Caine Mutiny, Sabrina to name just a few of the ones I love the most.  But my most favorite of all is The Maltese Falcon. Bogart is wonderful; Mary Astor is great as Brigid O’Shaughnessey.  Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo and Sydney Greenstreet as  Kasper Gutman immediately become part of our cultural history.

Besides Bogart the main reason I love Maltese Falcon is that it is based on Dashiell Hammett’s book of the same name.  Hammett, to me, wrote the kind of mystery novels that really serve as the morality tales of our generation.  Many authors have done it, Raymond Chandler, Robert Parker, Robert Crais, Ross Macdonald and Michael Connelly are a few who come to mind.  But did anyone do it better than Hammett – I think not. 

Sam Spade is faced with choosing good over evil at every turn in The Maltese Falcon.  From Miles Archer’s murder in the beginning to deciding if he should let Brigid go free or turn her into the police, Spade shows the cost of choosing the right thing without losing the hard-edge of a private eye we've come to love.

Bogart, Hammett and Sam Spade, what do they have to do with punch?  Not much, except for the fact that Bogart and Hammett (and by inference Sam Spade) found way to much solace in alcohol.  So in tribute to Bogie I decided to try and make a punch that he and a relatively modest drinker like me would both enjoy.

I came up with Sangria with a fair amount of liquor for Bogie and a fair amount of fruit for me.

Rose Sangria Punch

·         2 bottles Rose Wine

·         1 cup brandy

·         ½ cup Orange Liqueur (i.e. Grand Mariner)

·         1/3 cup sugar

·         1 each of the following: peach, plum, apricot, lemon, lime (sliced thinly)

·         1 pint raspberries

·         1 liter bottle of Ginger Ale

In a punch bowl combine the wine, brandy, liqueur and sugar, stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the fruit all at one. Cover and let sit for at least one hour or up to four hours. Right before serving add the ginger ale, stir and serve in cups filled with ice.

The night I made the punch I had my daughter-in-law Meg and her mom, Jenny, over for dinner.  I served steak and chicken fajitas, Chipotle rice, tortillas and all the “fixins” with triple brownies for dessert.

The punch was delightful; the fruit flavored the wine but didn’t make it sweet, the carbonation of the ginger ale added lightness without watering it down.   I think you could serve this with either beef or chicken (as I did).  The rose is a perfect wine for this kind of sangria, I think white wine would have been overpowered by the brandy and fruit, red wine is too heavy for this kind of dinner and this time of year.

I was tempted to raise a glass with “Here’s looking at you kid” but wrong movie so I just tipped my imaginary hat to Sam Spade and had a wonderful evening with family.

And remember, we will always have "punch".

What a difference an “s” makes.

Having taken off time during the last few weeks from making punch I made it up for it last week with two different punch dinners, one of which I am writing about today. 

I want to make some of the ‘classic’ punches over the next few months, but that poses two problems for me.  First, so many of the old recipes contain almost nothing but alcohol – and I’m not much of a consumer of spirits.  After one cup of most of these mixtures I would put a new meaning to being “punch-drunk”.

Secondly, Andy would probably prefer we not declare bankruptcy during my punch journey and most of the liqueurs are very expensive and a little exotic.  The one benefit of this though is my new found relationships with the salespeople at Lucas Liquor.  So I guess there is good to be found in almost any situation!

What am I to do!  Well, I found a recipe that is a classic and very old (1862) that contains only two different types of alcohol.  I was somewhat excited but hesitant because of the name: Sauterne Cup.  To me sauterne is a sweet almost syrupy wine. The second “spirit” is maraschino liqueur – ick.  I was thinking I could just buy some cherry cough syrup add some sparkling water and be done with it.

But I decided to go ahead and make it so off I went to Lukas Liquors.  As I read the recipe again I noticed that the punch Sauterne Cup called for sauternes wine (notice the “s” at the end of the wine).

That “s” makes all the difference!

Sauterne is a really sweet, American semi-generic wine named after, but purposely misspelled, French sauternes.  French sauternes are a sweet wine, but with a nice acidic taste also – there sweetness is due to noble rot – the only rot good for wine!  Noble rot causes the grapes to partially “raisinize” giving them their distinctive flavor.  It is a little pricey for a punch (@$35-$40) for a 750-ml bottle, but, perfect for two, you can also get 375-ml bottles.

Maraschino liqueur is also really different than I thought (and also very pricey).  It is made, mainly, from Italian cherries and their pits.  It is a clear liquid, with a bittersweet taste with a hint of almonds.

The punch was delightful – the description of the recipe said it was perfect for a spring or summer evening.  Indeed it was!  We veered from the traditional red meat, red wine rule.  We paired our Sauterne Cup with grilled rib eye steaks, baked sweet potatoes, green salad and corn meal muffins.   The whole dinner, start to finish was great.

I would recommend this as a fresh change of pace from a glass of wine with dinner; the lightness also was a perfect accompaniment to an outdoor dinner.

Sauterne Cup - from Jerry Thomas’ Bartender Guide: How to Mix Drinks (1862)

• 1 750ml bottle Sauternes
• ½ cup simple syrup
• ½ cup lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
• 1 Tablespoon Maraschino liqueur (you can substitute cherry wine, sherry schnapps if desired)
• 1 Quart Seltzer Water
• Fresh Mint sprigs or lemon slices for garnish

1. In a large pitcher combine the Sauternes, simple syrup, lemon juice and Maraschino liqueur.
2. Slowly add the seltzer, stirring gently.  Add ice to cups, garnish with lemon or mint, pour and enjoy!

Andy and I really enjoyed it – him surprisingly so because he is not a fan of sweet beverages.  Hope you like it as well!

Punching up Portlandlandia

After some time away from my punch endeavors – I am back!  The last few weeks were full of activities that were either not punch friendly or while punch would have been fitting there were no means to concoct a beverage.

We just returned from a wonderful week’s vacation, but punch bowls and airplane travel do not mix well.  In the midst of my lack of punch opportunities I received a bevy of texts that were great fun and very blog worthy.

Our good friends, Morgan and Karen, live in Portland, Oregon and a have a close group of friends.  Morgan and Karen decided to have a Punch Bowl Memorial Gathering at their house.  The menu:

·         Fiesta Margarita Punch

·         Lettuce Wraps

·         Quinoa Salad

·         Field Greens with Gorgonzola, Roasted Pecans and Pine Nuts

·         Roasted Yellow and Red Peppers

·         Italian Sausage

·         Grilled Chicken with Jack Stack Seasoning

I am assuming that all the produce was locally grown and that the sausage and chicken came from only the most content, free range pig and chicken they could find. (I believe the pig’s name was Tommy and the chicken was Rosie….)

And I quote: “Yum! Perfect! Need more tequila than 1 ½ cups by the way…”

They also outdid me in making an ice ring, something I have planned on but haven’t done yet.

They have decided to have a monthly summer punch party using my recipes or even better, their recipes that I can try!

To me this is the essence and the beauty of punch - communing together over food and beverage, having fun one ladle at a time.

Thanks, Morgan, Karen, Jenni, Ronn, Linda, Karen and Joe – can’t wait to blog about your next dinner.

Back in the saddle, we enjoyed an amazing summer punch last night – details to come.

In the words of the late Laurie Colwin: “One of the delights of life is eating with friends, second to that is talking about eating. And, for an unsurpassed double whammy, there is talking about eating while you are eating with friends.”