Nothing too fancy this week. Sometimes, going back to basics is a good thing.
Friday’s Cocktail: I chose this Three to One (as in the odds on this horse are three to one) because it was simple, doable, and I wouldn’t have to break out anything new because I’m trying to use up what I’ve got. (Yeah, right; so I went to a gathering yesterday afternoon where the hostess, who’s Brazilian, served what is Brazil’s national drink: a rum-based lime concoction called Caipirinha . So what I did do? Ran right out and found a bottle of cachca. One more bottle to move, but so what? At this point, we’re talking rounding errors.)
At any rate, this drink is a tripartite combination of gin, lime juice, and apricot liqueur, and quite, quite yummy. I recommend you pick a strong, clean-tasting gin—nothing too fruity or complex–to counterbalance the sweetness of that liqueur; I followed Haigh’s suggestion and broke out my bottle of Seagram’s Distilled Reserve. Just so happened that, other than a half-done bottle of Old Tom, this gin is what I had lying around. Again, all in the spirit of using things up.
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Sunday’s Cake: I actually served this terrific Pecan Orange Spice w/ Orange Syrup (from Christie Matheson’s Cake Simple) on Saturday night for my lovely bridge group. I opted for simple because I had this other afternoon event to go to. So I made the cake on Friday, seeing as how the husband was already around BOTHERING me. I normally don’t taste any of my cakes, but I had a nibble of this one. The orange syrup—easy to make—is a must here. Yes, you could skip it and go for a brown sugar buttercream or dusting of confectioner’s, but then the orange just won’t come through as well.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I will say that I also jazzed this up a touch by adding a terrific spice mix of ginger, cardamon, cinnamon, and a touch of saffron that I got as a gift from one of the daughters. Personally, I could tell the spices were there, and that’s a good thing because they added another level of complexity. All around, a terrific, if basic, cake.
One of our bridge group is gluten-intolerant, so I also made a gluten-free blackberry and drunken plum tart with a streusel layer at the bottom I found on the King Arthur site that looked and turned out to be quite pretty.
But I will be honest: I have had and made better gluten-free things. It was okay; I didn’t care for the streusel because you could taste how you weren’t having real flour here. Plus, all that juice made the streusel quite soggy and gluey. Meh. I won’t be making this one again. On the other hand, I can completely see a batch of drunken plums in a crisp or cobbler, and there are still some packets frozen away from last year. So I think that the husband’s troops will be in for a good July 🙂
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And now, put very simply, here are a coupla reasons why moving will be so difficult:
Good friends. Good times.
How I will miss these people.
