bar cart

I recently finished my bar cart. We've wanted one for about a year, but I've never seen one that was decent for less than $150 (thanks Mad Men for spiking the popularity?). There's a few different versions for diy carts floating around on the internet and I went with the IKEA hack because the price was so cheap.

The microwave cart from IKEA on sale for $24.99 (!!!). It doesn't even look cheap. I bought two cans of high quality gold spray paint (Krylon 14k gold) and finished it over the weekend. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Limoncello

I finished making the batches of limoncello! I followed Giada De Laurentiis' recipe for ratios and The Cooking Channel's recipe for how long to steep (I did 1 month). I used Everclear as the alcohol after reading the tip that the higher the alcohol content, the more the lemon flavor is extracted. (Italians use grain alcohol, so it definitely makes sense.) I purchased the Everclear on Martin Luther King holiday, before noon, and the cashier said, "Ohhh, having a party?". Ew, no. I must have looked like a sorority girl heading home to mix it with fruit punch. In a giant cooler. Total frat move. Sick.

Eric and I will always have a soft spot for limoncello after our honeymoon last summer. We spent two and half weeks in Italy, with part on the Amalfi Coast. The Amalfi Coast is known for its ginormous sweet lemons and their limoncello. We drank our fair share when we were there and brought home a bottle of homemade from the bed & breakfast we stayed at.

Me in Positano, Italy. June 2013.

"Papa" making limoncello at our bed & breakfast in Montepertuso.

A Birthday & Whiskey Slushies

I was spoiled for this birthday. It was celebrated multiple times through pool parties, Sunday Family Dinner, going out, and a long lunch date with Meg. I actually got THREE cakes too - one made by Meg, cupcakes made by Amy (above - and yep, that's candied bacon on top!), and a cake in a jar sent from DC from Keeley.

Sunday Family Dinner had fresh seafood, including oysters and razor clams.

Razor clams are....pretty weird. Their shells are beautiful, but the actual clams themselves look pretty strange. They're really active. Greg joined us for dinner and suggested we flash boil some in an attempt to get them from moving so much (do you see the one sticking out hugging the bowl below? ew). That helped tremendously by being able to take them out and properly* clean and cut them to fry some.

*by properly cutting them, I mainly mean that I cut open every potential nook and cranny that might have some sand in it....leaving a destroyed clam that barely held itself together....

^ fried! (below: steamed in a lime & Sriracha broth)

The dinner was enjoyed with Whiskey Slushies, which I'm now in love with (recipe below).

Amy made them, but by her description, this seems nearly identical to her recipe:

Whiskey Slushies, adapted from All Recipes.com
Makes 10 servings

Ingredients:
1/2 can frozen lemonade concentrate
1/2 can frozen orange juice concentrate
1 cup strong brewed black tea
1/4 cup white sugar (recipe calls for 1/2 cup, but Amy cut her sugar down a lot and it was perfect)
1 cup whiskey
3 1/2 cups water
1/2 liter ginger ale soda

In a plastic container, mix all ingredients except the ginger ale. Allow to freeze for 24 hours. Scoop into a glass and top with ginger ale. (You could eliminate the concentrates and water and probably just use lemonade and/or orange juice.) 

P.S. Cupcake recipe here. 

Watermelon Margaritas

We had a few family and friends over Sunday night and I made watermelon margaritas. Juicing a watermelon is so satisfying; you get soooo much juice. (I have a container of leftover in the fridge if you want some.)

I'd tweak the ratios a bit if I made these again, but I may have messed them up by quickly making a mass quantity. If I did follow the right ratios, then I'd add a little more lime juice and a little more tequila for that margarita bite that seemed to be missing. They were good though; they just tasted like a good watermelon cocktail. Adjust as you see necessary.

Makes 1 Margarita: 

Chili Salt Rim
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon ancho chile powder

Cocktail
1 lime wedge
2 ounces blanco tequila
2 ounces watermelon juice
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
1/4 ounce Simple Syrup


I love summer. Do I have to go back to work next month?

watermelon jello shots

Um, are these the cutest things you've ever seen? Meg made watermelon jello shots to bring on the boat this past weekend. She had to scrape out the pulp from limes to make these!

Meg and I bought a groupon for a boat two years ago that we just finally cashed in on. If only I could go out on a boat every other weekend. BLISS.

sangria

I'm usually not in favor of the overdone American versions of non-American foods (or drinks), but I have to admit that I like the overdone Americanized sangria much more than the regular ole Spanish kind.

Actually the first time I ordered sangria in Spain, I was really disappointed. I watched the server mix red wine, lemon soda, and a small amount of liquor into a pitcher. She threw in a few lemon slices. It was not good and there was too much lemon soda in it.

I modified a recipe I found and it came out something like this:

1 bottle of red wine
1 lemon sliced
1 orange sliced
1 lime sliced
1/4 sliced apple
sliced strawberries
2 Tbsp sugar
Pinch of cinnamon
Splash of lemonade
2 Shots of triple sec
2 Shots of brandy
2 Cups ginger ale

I love having much more fruit than necessary and I think this recipe is a keeper.

Strawberry Mint Sangria

I'm back from Sweden! Our trip was perfect. I'll wait to give details until I do some Swedish posts. I have pictures and food to share with you from the trip, but it will be a few days before I can go through all of the photos.

I also spent a few days in St. Louis, where two of my aunts live. Yesterday was my cousin Denise's daughter's fifth birthday. Hannah cracked me up when she went to blow out her candles. She looked bummed (see picture at the bottom.)

Aunt Elaine picked out a recipe for Strawberry Mint Sangria. Here's our version of the recipe (we used Aunt Elaine's homemade limoncello instead of brandy.)


2 cups of sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 cup of mint leaves
1 1/2 ounces limoncello
740ml dry white wine
12 ounces club soda

Combine the strawberries, mint leaves (give them a gentle crushing before combining), and limoncello in a glass pitcher. Add the wine and chill for at least 2 hours before serving (or up to overnight.) Pour club soda on top only before serving.

(We didn't measure anything, so who knows what amounts we used of our ingredients!)

It's a great light, refreshing summer drink. If you want the drink more boozy, all you gotta do is add more limoncello!

Oh, and here is Hannah getting sung Happy Birthday:

fresh squeezed orange juice mimosas

This weekend has been good. Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the very first Whole Foods store in the U.S...and the location is right down the street from me! They had a big tent set up with lots of free samples of coconut milk ice cream, coffee, wines, beer, salsas, and small foods. Inside the store they had several more set up of wine samples and few more food samples. They also had a stage set up where the music/stage was completely powered by solar power.

I also got to make and eat brunch with Meg and Sean at their cute place. Veggie biscuits and gravy, cheesy eggs, fruit, pumpkin muffins, coffee, and mimosas. I brought over several oranges and Meg helped me put them through her fancy juicer. We made mimosas with the orange juice and they were delicious. The juice got really foamy when we poured the champagne in.

I highly recommend a mimosa with the fresh juice..and also highly recommend Sean's veggie sausage gravy. But I couldn't tell you his recipe. I'll ask Meg and maybe that will be another post sometime.





Willy was cute waiting for us to come outside:

Pineapple Patron Frozen Margaritas

Mmm. Tana and I made these a couple nights ago and they were great.

* Patron
* Ice
* Citrus liqueur (we used Triple Sec)
* Pineapple Juice
* Seltzer Water (not really needed)

We didn't measure anything. There's no fun in that.