Mixing Up Traditional and Modern Pimm's Cups

I've always loved the Pimm's Cup since I had my first in England years ago and a summer fourth of July party seemed a great opportunity to pour, drink and share it.

Borage flowers in the community garden

Now the back of the bottle tells you to mix it with ginger ale and cucumbers and that is what I've always done here stateside, however after doing some research online and reading reviews I learned that San Pellegrino Limonata appears to most closely resemble the Schweppes lemonade used in the UK to make the drink. And what a pleasant surprise it was to learn that borage flowers were traditionally used but due to the difficulty in getting them, cucumbers were substituted. As it would be there are borage flowers amass growing in the Community Garden that I manage right next door to me! And for those of you who may have never tasted them they have a slight cucumber taste. They are grown from seed and are an annual but have been reseeding themselves in our garden so came back this year just as lush as before.

With this knowledge I went over and picked some flowers (and leaves as well) and we offered our guests the option of a traditional or modern Pimm's Cup.

The traditional Pimm's Cup contained a glass filled with ice, 2 oz of Pimm's No. 1, San Pellegrino Limonata to top it off and a few borage flowers and leaves. I then mixed and muddled it all a bit (making sure to leave some of the lovely borage flowers at the top).  The modern Pimm's Cup replaced the San Pelligrino Limonata with Ginger Ale (Zevia ginger ale from Whole Foods) and borage flowers and leaves with cucumber slices.

Borage flowers peek out of a traditional Pimm's Cup
(accompanied by appropriate July 4th reading material)

By far the traditional won out. I did a taste test myself and the San Pelligrino Limonata and the borage flowers really do mix well with the Pimm's No. 1, not to mention make for a good looking drink.

If you can get your hands on some borage flowers (I may be able to help here) I would highly recommend you mix yourself up a traditional Pimm's this summer.



Side note: Yes, it has been quite a while since I've posted here. I can't exactly say why I've been gone so long but I'm trying to pick things back up. 

A Weekend of Great Overindulgence

If Thanksgiving wasn't enough of an overindulgence I knew the week after would be. For it was my friend Zack's annual Turducken feast. And while I, as a vegetarian, do not partake in his prepared-and-deboned-all-by-himself-turkducken there are a plethora of apps, sides and desserts that I can indulge in.

This year, I did what I did last year, and I vowed never to do again, which was making too large of a portion. With 20 or so people I felt I had to prepare enough for each person, not recalling that with so many sides to go around, about a quarter of mine would get eaten. So I now have about a week's worth of multigrain penne with sauteed sweet potatoes and leaks (quite good by the way, and I suppose I can call it healthy as well, which I must in order to get through eating it all).  As an app I made grapes wrapped in a combo of gorgonzola and cream cheese and rolled in crushed walnuts. I normally try to steer clear of cheese, though it is my Achilles heal of food, and with about half of what I made leftover (though it did get great compliments and a lot were eaten, but as noted above - I made to much) I was able to continue indulging into the week. Lucky for me Zack tries to make all sides vegetarian and others bring plenty as well so there were sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes and stuffing and salad and more...much more.  In keeping with the weight watchers adage my sister recently told me that they learned leading up to Thanksgiving, I tried to create islands on my plate, but it really all ended up being a big continent.

And dessert! There was plenty. Steve made his wonderful banana cream pie, which always gets raves and the black bottom bourbon pecan pie, that some at the event look forward to each year. This time though he used semi-sweet and apparently in the past has used bitter-sweet chocolate (or vice versa, I'm not as up on my baking chocolate) but I did know that though this pie was great, I preferred last year's.  And of course there was some pie left over so guess what we ate for breakfast on Sunday and Monday? In addition there were cookies and pumpkin pie and a coffee cake galore at the Turducken feast. Plenty to go around. Next year I am going to just bring wine.

And that was just Saturday.

Sunday's indulgence involved a 7 year old birthday party at Margie's Candies on Montrose, which included a 30 (yes 30) scoop dessert for all to share. It was hard to resist, particularly with the butterscotch sauce and nuts. And like Saturday's overindulgence, there was plenty to go around and go home with, but I stood tall and resisted taking ice cream home with me.

This week, I vow to eat better, but with the holidays upon us, I think the best I can do is just do my best and try not to let my trying to eat right get in the way of enjoying all the treats the holiday season provides.

The Food and Wine Experience at Kohler

This past weekend I headed up to lovely Kohler, WI for the Kohler Food and Wine Experience. We planned ahead and signed up for some ticketed events as well as a massage for me at the Kohler Spa.

Gin in Classic Cocktails
Originally titled "Ginnovations", which definitely drew our attention, the session somehow got changed by the time we walked into the session, were handed a gin and tonic and sat down in front of a tasting menu and samples of various types of gin. The presenter was from Death's Door gin in Madison (which works with farmers on Washington Island, along with Capital Brewery, to obtain all grains for their spirits) and shared the history of gin including the story of how it was original referred to as "Dutch Courage" because the British saw Dutch mercenaries drinking it. Ultimately it got so popular everyone started making it, incorrectly, and it then became known as "Mother's Ruin" for killing people. Of the styles we sampled my favorite, the Old Tom style Hayman's, had a nice subtle citrus flavor. My least favorite, the old original Dutch Genever style, was a bit whiskey, but really more closely resembled rubbing alcohol.

The absolute highlight was a couple of gin cocktails the presenter mixed up and shared. One, called the Martinez, was a pre-prohibition cocktail made with one and a half ounce gin (he used a London Dry, Death's Door), one and a half ounce high quality dry vermouth, 3/4 oz maraschino liqueur, 2 dashes of angostura bitters and a little lemon oil on top. This drink is soooo good. Take my word for it, you want to try this.

Next up was a gin mojito. I love mojitos but the process of making them and muddling just daunts me. Never again! The process of making this gin mojito is so easy and the easier act of shaking replaces muddling. 2 oz of gin, 1 oz of simple syrup (which is a 1-1 equal portion of sugar and water), 1 oz fresh lemon are combined in a shaker with a couple min sprigs. Steve volunteered to help shake for all attendance. Strain and top with about 3/4 oz of Perrier or sparkling water. So good.


Scotch vs. Irish Whiskey and a Massage
I went off to the Kohler spa with their plunge pools and luxury amenities while Steve attended the Scotch vs. Irish Whiskey session.  I can't report on too much about this session other than to say Steve definitely enjoyed it and will gladly give you a report on what he experienced.

Dinner at the Immigrant Restaurant
The American Club and Kohler have a great history, of immigrants who came over to work in the Kohler factory and learned how to be American. The Immigrant Restaurant has six rooms, each representing one of six cultures that made up the early immigrants to Kohler. We were in the Danish room with low light and attentive staff and really excellent food. I had a great mushroom and black truffle risotto, followed by a salad with balsamic vinegar gelee and couscous pearls with vegetables seasoned with great herbs that I didn't even bother to try to figure out because it was just so good. Steve had the special, duck breast, which he couldn't stop raving about as well. There was a wonderful classic guitarist playing in the restaurant bar which we stopped and listened to for a bit before stumbling back to our room.


Barrel and Non Barrel Aged Wines
Our final ticked session introduced us to Wollersheim and Cedar Creek Winery, both in the same family in Wisconsin and involve a cute story of a French wine intern coming over to the US, thinking he'd go to Napa or Sonoma and landing in Wisconsin, where he fell in love with the eldest daughter of his wine making hosts and now he runs the family wine making business. 

Now I've always known I didn't like oak in wines and while chatting with our sommelier at the Immigrant Restaurant I learned my aversion may actually be to new American oak and while trying the various barrel and no barrel aged wines I found myself leaning, as suspected, towards the oak free or towards the primarily minimal aged french oak wines.  The Prairie Sunburst Red by Wollersheim, which was unoaked with no barrel aging, was my favorite. My second favorite, their well known Domaine du Sac, is aged in a combination of French and American oak for five months.

The Rest

The Shops at Woodlake, the Design Center, everywhere seemed to have complementary demos and tastings going on. While exploring the shops we happened across the Stella Artois tent and when we got to the front of the line and asked how much a beer cost, we were pleasantly surprised to hear everything in the beer tent was free!


All in all a great experience of staying at the American Club and exploring their native gardens and neighboring shops. Definitely an experience I'd do again and perhaps go a bit earlier to take more advantage of more sessions.

Dining Out: Making Vegan Sexy

"Making Vegan Sexy" is the tag line of Karyn's on Green. And while I've never really thought of food as "sexy" I'm all for a place that focuses on unique vegan cooking, while not depending too much on processed fake meats or tofu. This is the third venture for Karyn, after Karyn's Cooked and Karyn's Raw. I've been to each and they are both good, though I've found I have a limited appetite for "raw" food. Beyond a nice salad, things get a bit odd for me.

Karyn's on Green has a little fake meat and tofu, but they are by no means the primary focus which I was pleased to see and there are enough options on the menu to craft yourself a nice diverse well rounded vegan meal. And they have cheese, though cashew based instead of soy (which I further appreciated). From the maki role with red beet, avocado, cucumber, jalapeno, carrot and rice which made me think "Why haven't I tried to make this at home" to the vegetable salad with corn and hearts of palm to the pumpkin risotto, it was a good and fairly affordable vegetarian variety.

The chopped vegetable salad was good though as my dining companion noted, nothing overly unique.  I'm also partial to anything pumpkin this time of year so the creamy risotto with a hint of pumpkin was just what I expected and very filling. I sampled some of my companion's steak fries (dark, crispy and well seasoned with a barbecue sauce and some kind of unidentified strange orange aeoli) butternut soup (which had a great rich taste), roasted foraged mushrooms (a nice unique combo of Japanese eggplant, fava bean, cashew sherry purée)  and coconut curry (which when compared to a Thai curry - which may not be a fair comparison - didn't quite stand up) to round out the meal.

We were too full for dessert though there was a good looking sweet potato pie on the menu, which I would have tried if I had the room.

Perhaps my favorite part of the meal was the non-alcoholic elixir I tried, the Chairman's Cobbler, made of organic green tea and pomegranate juice, ginger syrup, muddled lemon and mint, goji berries, fresh raspberries. It was just right, not too sweet or strong. My friend had the Blueberry Mint Fizz with lemon juice, simple syrup, blueberry, mint, soda water. It was subtle, but perhaps too subtle. It could have used a burst of flavor.

I'm excited to try another meal there and see how they develop their food. And regardless of the tag line they choose I'm glad to see a nice place offering a variety of vegan options, without too much fake meat or tofu, making a name for themselves and drawing a veggie and non-veggie crowd alike.

Dining Out: Surprise Veggie Finds at the Polish Buffet

I've been to the Red Apple on Milwaukee before, but it's been a while. From what I recall that Polish buffet provided many options and though I couldn't recall, I figured I'd have a good chance of finding some kind of good veggie combo there. And I was not wrong. It was a smörgåsbord of meat and non meat products alike with plenty for the non-meat eater.

I stocked up on fresh veggies, fruit and pickle, beat and coleslaw salads. I piled on the boiled potatoes and had a couple blintzes with some syrup and powdered sugar on them. I steered clear of the pirogies which, though cheese, were sitting in about a quarter inch of butter that turned me off. Similarly the potato pancakes, which appealed to me, seemed quite greasy,  and I just couldn't get behind that.

They had a great looking dessert tray with various cakes and cookies. All for only about $12. And this place is pretty authentic. The waitresses are wearing what I can only assume is Polish authentic dress and you hear Polish at every turn. So stop by here sometime if you and your picky or non-picky eater friends are hungry for some fresh all you can eat. I guarantee everyone will fill up their plates and leave feeling fully satisfied.

Cooking It Up: Frozen Cucumbers and Best Ever Picallili

Over the weekend I got a couple recipes from my aunt for what she referred to as "Frozen Cucumbers" and "Best Ever Piccalilli".

The frozen cucumbers were easy to make and really came out tasty, though I cut the sugar in about half. I just couldn't let myself add a whole cup of sugar, it seemed wrong. It was interesting watching the cucumbers mixed with salt "sweat" for a couple hours and there's just something about salt and cucumbers that is oh so tasty. I used to always sprinkle some seasoned salt on them and thinking of that now brings back memories of the way the Elote dealers prepare them (same for mangos) with some salt, lime and a sprinkle of chili powder. If you've never had cucumbers or mangos this way get them sometime from your friendly neighborhood Elote dealer.

Frozen Cucumbers

2 quarts sliced cucumbers.  Just clean them. Do not pare.
1 onion , sliced (I used a sweet onion)
2 tablespoons salt

Mix and let stand 2 hrs. After you sprinkle the cucumbers with salt and then let them sit, they will weep a little because of the salt.  Do not rinse but DO drain them.

Add:
1 cup sugar (I  cut this to half a cup)
1/2 cup vinegar

Mix well.  Put into  freezer containers and freeze trying to cover all the cucumbers in the container with liquid. They store well for a while in the freezer.


As for the piccalilli I didn't cut the sugar in that one and halved the recipe which seems in it's original form could really feed an army. As it was cutting the recipe in half still gave me a lot of piccalilli. It came out a bit sweeter than I would prefer so next time I'll cut the sugar, but it is still is a tasty spread for sandwiches and according to my aunt can also be used in tuna, chicken salad and Sloppy Joe's. I gathered most of the green tomatoes from the community garden next door where I was given permission to take as many as I'd like (thanks Rob, if you read this).

Best Ever Piccalilli

22 medium green tomatoes, quartered
1 pint  (2 cup ) small onions
6 green peppers, quartered lengthwise
6 sweet red peppers, quartered lengthwise
1 1/2 quarts vinegar
3 1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup salt
1 1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 teaspoon celery seed (This took a while to track down at Whole Foods. It's not by the normal spices and instead over by the lotions and other body products.)
1/2 c mustard seed

Wash veggies. Put through the food chopper  and chop till diced very fine.
Drain
Put veggies in large kettle with 1 quart of vinegar
Boil 30 minutes , stirring often
Drain, discard liquid
Return veggies to the kettle and add remaining vinegar , sugar, spices etc.
Simmer 3 minutes

Let it all cool down and put in freezer containers to freeze.


I am just about to finish the portion of both of these I put in the fridge so it's about time to see how they both thaw out.

Cooking It Up: Sweet Potato Salad

In addition to dining out I've been trying to cook more. I certainly have a lot of resources with my pile of cookbooks and recently downloaded "Vegetarian Recipes" Android app.

I'm a fan of the food shows as well and the other day, while checking out what was on the Food Network I came across Rachael Ray's show. That woman has alwaysbugged me a bit with her perkiness and odd acronyms such as "EVOO" for Extra Virgin Olive Oil, but quite honestly I've come to really like her kitchen design. Green and orange are a couple of my favorite colors so I enjoyed just watching her kitchen on TV. Unfortunately I can't find a shot online to post here, which seems strange considering I like to pride myself on my ability to manipulate search engines to find what I'm looking for.  Look for it next time you are browsing the Food Network.

And this day she happened to be making a sweet potato salad, with bacon. All the ingredients looked tasty and basic enough and I've been meaning to find more things to do with the healthy sweet potato so I tried my hand at it, minus the bacon, which didn't seem to be a main part of the dish.

I'm a fan of mustard and in fact have been looking for more things to do with it. I've found mustard combined with vinegar into a vinaigrette of sorts is just oh so tasty. This recipe had that nice combo that with the other ingredients made for a great taste. And it and seemed fresh for quite a few days. Recipe below and on the Web site at: http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=2144

Sweet Potato Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette
Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled, cut in half lengthwise and sliced into half moons
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 4 slices bacon
• 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
•  2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 4 cups baby spinach, loosely packed

Preparation

Place a medium pot over medium-high heat with the sweet potatoes and enough cold water to cover them. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain the cooked potatoes and reserve in a medium size mixing bowl.

While the potatoes are cooking, place a large skillet over medium-high heat with two turns of the pan of EVOO, about 2 tablespoons. Add the bacon and cook until crisp, 3-4 minutes per side.

Remove the bacon from the pan and add the onion, garlic, some salt and lots of black pepper to the bacon drippings. Cook until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the mustard and vinegar, whisking vigorously to incorporate the dressing. Pour the dressing over the potatoes and add the spinach, tossing to coat the potatoes and lightly wilt the spinach. Crumble the bacon over everything. Serve warm or at room temperature.