Everything is Better with Beer

Book Cover

I can't believe it but the appetizer cookbook is done. It is all about cooking with beer. It has 35 appetizers for humans and one for man's best friend. It is available on Kindle (Everything is Better with Beer) and is only $2.99-- a bargain!  It will be available in other venues soon.

Here is the list of recipes:

Beer Cheese Balls

Chipped Beef Beer Ball

Beer Ranch Cheese Dip

Hot Crab Dip

Bacon Beer Pimento Cheese

Beer Cheese Spread

Beer Con Queso Dip

Beer and Blue Cheese Dip

Blue Cheese Beer Dip II

Beer Cheese Fondue

Clam Dip in a Bread Bowl

Beer and Artichoke Dip

Onion Dip

Beer Steamed Clams

Mussels Steamed in Beer

Beer Marinated Shrimp

Sake Shrimp

Beer Roasted Garlic Shrimp

Beery Crab Cakes

Crab and Corn Fritters

Corn Fritters

Beer Batter Goodness

Mini Corn Dogs

Pigs in a Beer Blanket

Drunken Hot Dogs

Beer Meatballs

Awesome Baked Beer Chicken Wings

Beer Marinated Roasted Chicken Wings

Peanut Butter Chicken Wings

Beer Stuffed Mushrooms

Beer Marinated Mushrooms

Sake Marinated Mushrooms

Beer Marinated Olives

Spicy Beer Walnuts

Beer Edamame

Spent Grain Dog Biscuits

Orangecello

Zesting a clementine

I love limoncello. When I started making limoncello, one of my friends told me that she had made orangecello. She told me that it was great. I noticed clementines were on sale at the grocery store. They are so delicious. I bought two small crates. I decided to turn one crate into orangecello.


Orangecello

1 Bottle (750 ml) of Vodka
16 Clementines or 8 Oranges

Zest in a jar

Wash the clementines or oranges. Carefully zest the clementines or oranges and place the zest in a large glass container. I use a mason jar. Pour in the vodka. Store in cool dark place for 1 to 2 weeks, shaking the jar every couple of days.

Vodka and zest

Orange Simple Syrup

Straining orange juice

5 Cup Water
4 Cups Sugar
1 Cup Orange Juice, Strained

Orange simple syrup

In a medium saucepan, combine the water and sugar. Heat until the sugar is completely dissolved.  Let the mixture cool completely and add the orange juice.

Zest and vodka

Making Orangecello

Pour the vodka and zest through a strainer into a large bowl. Add the orange simple syrup and pour into bottles. Refrigerate and enjoy!

Finished orangecello

The bottom line: will I make this again? Yes. Yummy. I may like limoncello more but it is a close call.

Basil Lemon Drop Martini

Two lemon drop martinis

I don't like the martinis that taste like Windex. I like "candy in a cup" martinis. Needless to say, I love this drink. It has all of my favorite ingredients except chocolate. It is even served in a martini glass with a sugared rim (rub a piece of lemon and rub it along the rim of the glass and then dip in sugar). If I have a lemon drop, I throw that in the glass too. If you love lemons, this is your drink. There are two versions to this drink, one with basil and one with rosemary. You need fresh herbs for this; please do not substitute dried herbs. Yuck! Also fresh lemon juice is required as well-- not that stuff from a plastic lemon. I use homemade  limoncello for my drinks; I dislike all of the zesting but I love the results. If you don't want to make your own, most liquor stores carry limoncello. Making the rosemary and basil syrups take a little more time but I think it's worth it. If you don't have the time or the obsessive desire to make the perfect drink, you can use simple syrup and put either bruised basil leaves or a sprig of rosemary in the martini shaker.
Speaking of obsessive desires to create the perfect drink, this is the latest greatest version of the lemon drop. If I e-mailed you earlier versions, try this one. I like it more than the earlier versions.

Basil Lemon Drop Martini


1 1/2 oz. (3 Tbsp, 45 ml) of Vodka
1 oz. (2 Tbsp, 30 ml)  of Limoncello
1 oz. (2 Tbsp, 30 ml) of Lemon Juice
1 oz. (2 Tbsp, 30 ml) of Basil Syrup

Combine the ingredients in a martini shaker filled with ice. Shake, pour into a martini glass with a sugared rim, and garnish with basil. 

Basil Syrup

Basil Syrup
1/2 Cup of Basil
1 Cup of Simple Syrup
Lemon Zest or Peel from One Lemon (make sure there is no pith)

Combine hot simple syrup with the basil and zest. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Strain.

Pouring the martini into the sugar rimmed glass

Rosemary Lemon Drop Martini
1 1/2 oz. (3 Tbsp, 45 ml) of Vodka
1 oz. (2 Tbsp, 30 ml)  of Limoncello
1 oz. (2 Tbsp, 30 ml) of Lemon Juice
1 oz. (2 Tbsp, 30 ml) of Rosemary Syrup

Combine the ingredients in a martini shaker filled with ice. Shake, pour into a martini glass with a sugared rim.

Everything is ready for making martinis

Rosemary Syrup
1 Cup (240 ml) Simple Syrup
1 Sprig of Rosemary
Zest or Peel from One Lemon (Make sure there is no pith)

Combine hot simple syrup with the rosemary and zest. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Strain.

Rosemary syrup

Simple Syrup
1 Cup (200 g) of Sugar
1 Cup (240 ml) of Water

Combine water and sugar in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until sugar dissolves.

Enjoying a sunset and a lemon drop martini

Will I make this again? Yes. Lovely. Amazing.

Limoncello Part Three

Beautiful bottles of limoncello

My dad is the most difficult person to get a Christmas gift for. Each year we all brainstorm and try to figure out what to get dad. This year I may actually have a great gift. My dad loves lemons. He also loves limoncello. Actually, he likes any Italian liqueur. So this year I am making him homemade limoncello.  He liked my last two batches and I think he will really like this one. I am applying the lessons I learned from the last two batches to make this the best batch yet. I used organic lemons and oranges. You don't want to make a pesticide limoncello. I washed and scrubbed them (several times). This is important because you are using the zest.  I also opted for vodka instead of Everclear. I think vodka makes a smoother limoncello. Also I just don't want that much alcohol. The downside of using vodka instead of pure grain alcohol is not as much lemony flavor is extracted from the zest. I decided to add lemon juice to the simple syrup to add more lemony flavor.


So it is time to zest the lemons.......

The beginnings of limoncello

Limoncello

12-14 Lemons
1 Orange
1 Bottle (750 ml) of Vodka

Carefully zest the lemons and orange.

 Place the zest in a one quart mason jar.

Lots of zest

Pour the vodka into the mason jar (and over the zester to get the last bits of zest). Store in a dark cool place for 2-3 weeks shaking the jar every couple of days.

Vodka plus zest

Lessons learned- a quart mason jar works great. I sterilized it before I used it. Small lemons equals hand cramps (ouch!). It is much more difficult to zest a small lemon than a large one. Next time I will look for larger lemons.

The vodka after two weeks 

Lemony Simple Syrup 

Did I mention my dad loves lemons? One of the comments to a previous limoncello recommended adding lemon juice to the simple syrup (thanks for the idea)! I thought that was a great idea so here it goes.

5 Cups (1.18 L) of Water
4 Cups (800 g) of Sugar
1 Cup (240 ml) of Lemon Juice, Strained

In a medium saucepan heat the water and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Let the simple syrup cool completely. Add the lemon juice.

Adding the strained lemon juice

Making the Limoncello

Strain the vodka (discard the zest) and add the lemon simple syrup. Pour into sterilized bottles.

The bottom line: will I make this again? Yes. It was fantastic; it had a wonderful lemony flavor. It had more lemon flavor than most limoncellos. It still has a bit of the limoncello bite but not as much as one made with Everclear. It is so drinkable like a cold lemonade on a hot summer day.  Did dad like it? Yes he did. Guess what he will be getting for Christmas next year?

Sweet and Sour Mix- Just in Time for Your Holiday Parties!

Whiskey sour

 I have tried bottled sweet and sour mixes, and I intensely dislike them. I just don't think they are any good, and I think they ruin a drink. (I know-- how to really feel about this?)  Once you try a drink made with homemade sweet and sour mix you won't use the bottled stuff again. It doesn't take long to make and it makes all the difference in the world. Have I convinced you yet?
I use two different recipes one with all lemons and one with limes and lemons. I think the one with lemons and limes is best. I make the all lemon version whenever I make limoncello and have all of those zested lemons. You can actually cut out a step by using superfine sugar and water (that way you don't have to heat the water to dissolve the sugar).

Sweet and Sour Mix

3 Cups Sugar
3 Cups Water
3 Cups Lemon Juice (About 12-14 Lemons) or 2 Cups Lemon Juice and 2 Cups Lime Juice

Heat the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved. Cool the syrup and add the juice. Cool completely before using. The sweet and sour mix will last up to a week in the refrigerator.

Amaretto Sour

One Shot of Amaretto
Sweet and Sour Mix

Fill a glass with ice. Add a shot of amaretto and fill the remainder of the glass with sweet and sour mix.

Whiskey Sour

One Shot of Whiskey
Sweet and Sour Mix

Fill a glass with ice. Add a shot of whiskey and fill the remainder of the glass with sweet and sour mix.

Kiddie Cocktail

Kiddie Cocktail

Sweet and Sour Mix
Splash of Grenadine

Fill a glass with ice. Fill the glass with sweet and sour mix and add a splash of grenadine.

The bottom line: is it worth the time to make the sweet and sour mix from scratch? Yes it is worth the time to juice all of those lemons.

Hard Cider

Heating the cider and the sugar

I love hard cider. This year we decided to make our own. Why? Because I love the beer we brew and wanted to see if we would love our homemade cider. I usually drink Woodchuck cider so I did a search for Woodchuck recipes. You guessed it, I came up with a bunch of recipes for groundhogs. Yuck! I never did find a recipe for Woodchuck Cider but I did find all sorts of methods for making hard cider. I found everything from leaving it out on the kitchen counter to naturally ferment to complex thirty step processes. I decided to try a fairly simple process: combining one gallon of cider with sugar and adding it to the rest of the cider, pitching the yeast, fermenting the cider, and then a secondary fermentation it in a carboy. Here is my recipe-- of course I won't know for a while if it worked or not. Feel free to take the leap with me!

Hard Cider

Ingredients
5 Gallons (19 L) of Apple Cider (See huge important note below)
4 Lb (1.8 kg) of Sugar
1 Package of Liquid Yeast

Special Equipment
1 Fermenting Bucket
1 Carboy

Liquid cider yeast in a smack pack

We took one gallon (3.78 L)  of apple cider and dumped it in a large stock pot with 4 pounds (1.8 kg) of sugar. We heated the apple cider until the sugar dissolved. (Adding sugar at the beginning increases the alcohol content of the cider not the sweetness). Then we dumped the hot sugar cider mixture and the remaining apple cider into a fermenting bucket. Once the mixture was 75F/21C we pitched the yeast. Now, we wait to see if the wee yeasties multiply.
After about four weeks, we will move the cider into a carboy and allow it to secondary ferment for about eight weeks.
The big question will be whether we want sparking cider or not. If we decide we want sparkling cider we will add 3/4 cup (180 ml) of honey or 3/4 cup (165 g) of brown sugar to 1 cup (240 ml) of water and bring the mixture to a boil. Once it is cooled, we will add it to the cider mixture right before we bottle it.

Everything is ready for the cider to be added

*****Huge Important Note About the Apple Cider**** For the apple cider to ferment you need the yeast to multiple and turn the sugar into alcohol (and carbon dioxide). The necessary chemical reaction will not take place if you have preservatives like sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate in your cider.

Beer Rita Slushies

Beer Rita Slushie

I talked about these for months and I couldn't get anyone interested in them. It was frustrating. I knew they would be good. After a very long difficult day building a deck, I saw my chance to make the beer rita slushie. We were hot, sweaty and gross and in need of a cold beverage. Now that I have made them, I can say "I told you so." They are a margarita with an extra spark, a lovely effervescence.

Beer Rita Slushie

1 Cup (240 ml) of Limeade Concentrate
1/2 Cup (120 ml) of Tequila
1 Cup (240 ml) of Mexican Beer
Crushed Ice

Mix the limeade,  tequila, and beer in a pitcher. Pour the beer rita over crushed ice in a glass.

Enjoy!

Limoncello Part Deux

I loved the creamy limoncello so much, we decided to make regular limoncello. This time we actually bought Everclear and I added an orange to the mix. So back to the zesting! Oh! We changed the amount of simple syrup we added because Everclear is so much stronger than vodka. If you are using vodka, use the creamy limoncello recipe on this site and substitute water for the milk/cream in the simple syrup.

Limoncello

The Zest of 12 Lemons
The Zest of 1 Orange
One Bottle of Everclear

I washed and scrubbed the fruit before zesting

Zest those lemons. Be sure to only get the yellow part and not the white pith. Zest the orange same thing. Place the zest in a container with the Everclear. Place in a dark cool place and wait. Shake every other day. We waited three weeks.

Wow look at all that zest

The zested fruit

I just added the Everclear and it is already yellow!

Simple Syrup

5 Cups of Water
4 Cups of Sugar

Combine and heat until combined. Cool and strain the Everclear lemon mixture into the simple syrup.



The first thing we made with our limoncello - a basil limoncello martini. Yum!

Basil limoncello martini

The bottom line: will I make this again? Yes, I will. I am surprised that I like the Everclear so much in this recipe but I do. Who knew?

Creamy Limoncello - When Life Hands You Lemons Make Limoncello!

Creamy Limoncello Lemon Drop Martini

Limoncello is a traditional Italian drink and it is incredible. Store bought is good. I have had some homemade limoncello that is incredible. I told Steven I wanted to make limoncello and he immediately suggested creamy limoncello. We had a creamy limoncello once and it was wondrous. I did some research and found out that limoncello is easy to make. So we started the two week process of making limoncello.
Limoncello is comprised of alcohol with lemon zest and simple syrup. With creamy limoncello you substitute milk for water when making the simple syrup.  We decided to give the creamy limoncello a try.

I did not have access to Everclear (which is the preferred base) so we used vodka. All of the recipes I reviewed recommended a vodka that was at least 100 proof. This is to prevent the mixture from freezing (remember you add a lot of simple syrup to the vodka). We had 80 proof vodka so we used that.  Some limoncello makers recommended filtering the vodka several times through a Brita filter. I did not filter the vodka. 

I used Skyy vodka

The most difficult part was carefully zesting 12 lemons. Even with a microzester it took awhile and unfortunately, I was the only one zesting the lemons.

The lemons after the were zested.

A bowl full of zest

I tried to avoid the white pith which could make the limoncello bitter. Once all of the zesting was done, amazingly, my family showed up and we  put the zest in the vodka. We let the vodka  infuse for a week shaking the bottle daily.

After a week, we tried the lemon vodka and it wasn't lemony enough so we waited another week. After two weeks, we decided to go forward.

To make the creamy simple syrup we combined 1 quart of cream with one quart of whole milk and added two cups of sugar. This mixture was simmered over medium-low heat until it reduced to 4 cups (about 25-30 minutes). We set it aside and allowed it to cool.

While the milk sugar mixture was cooling, we strained the vodka.

The zest lost a lot of its yellow

The vodka is now yellow and tastes like lemon flavored vodka

Once the mixture cooled, we strained the milk sugar syrup and added it to the vodka. We ended up with two bottles of limoncello. We allowed the limoncello to chill for several hours. Because we used 80 proof vodka, we put the limoncello in the refrigerator instead of the freezer.

I loved the limoncello and the people who have tried it have loved it. We drink limoncello from small glasses  sometimes as an aperitif and sometimes as a digestif. (It is supposed to be drunk from cordial glasses - I would love some of the ceramic limoncello glasses made in Italy. Other suggestions are drinking it from a shot glass).

Creamy limoncello

It is also excellent as a martini. Here is the recipe:


Lemon Drop Limoncello Martini

1.25 oz (40 ml) Vodka
.75 oz (25 ml) Limoncello (Creamy or Regular)
.25 oz (10 ml) Simple Syrup*
.25 oz (10 ml) Lemon Juice

Put the above ingredients in a martini shaker filled with ice and shake. Then pour into a martini glass. I like to wet the edge of the glass and dip it in sugar. I also drop a lemon drop candy into the martini.

The finished martini

Simple Syrup

1 Cup (150 ml) of Water
1 Cup (225 g) of Sugar

Place in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil (stirring constantly) until sugar is dissolved. Cool before using in a drink recipe. Store unused syrup in the refrigerator.

Limoncello martini with regular limoncello

Bottom line: will we make this again? Yes it is delicious! I plan to make some changes and will blog it with the changes. Next time, I am going to make regular limoncello and I will use Everclear. Next time I make creamy limoncello, I will use whole milk instead of a mixture of cream and milk.

Spiced Apple Cranberry Cider

It's snowing in Tulsa- time to make some spiced cider

It's a cold wintry day in Tulsa so I decided to warm us up with some hot spiced cider. Not just any cider- apple cranberry cider. I love cranberry juice and I think it makes a great addition to spiced cider. I also love the way it makes our house smell.  


Recipe

4 Quarts (2 Liters) Apple Cider
2 Quarts (2 Liters) of a Cranberry Juice Blend
Rind of One Orange
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 Tsp of Whole Cloves
1/2 Tsp Whole Allspice
1/8 Tsp Ground Nutmeg
1/4 Cup (53 g) of Brown Sugar


Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan over low/medium heat and simmer for a couple of hours. (Some people who are tidier than I am put the spices in cheesecloth tied with string so the spices can be easily removed). You could also put in a crock pot and set it on low. Your house will smell amazing!


Note-  I like my spiced cider tart so I added a lot of cranberry juice. If you don't like your cider as tart, half the amount of cranberry juice you add. Katie (my daughter who is also my official taste tester) has declared it "wonderful."

To make this an adult beverage- add dark rum, bourbon, tuaca, or spiced rum (to taste) to each glass.