Pumpkintini at last!

More than a year ago, I blogged about the pumpkintini: a drink that I had been wanting to make for ages but had remained elusive to me.  This was because I couldn't find Sortilège, a maple liqueur that is incredibly difficult to find in stores.  The unpleasantly wry salesman at a Manhattan wine store retorted when I asked him if they had it in stock, "No, but if you go to France, be sure to pick some up for me!"  Yeah, thanks for the help, schmuck.

Well, I finally found some.  Thus, the pumpkintini could be mine.  Here is the photo:

And all I can tell you was that it was disgusting.  Ultimately, I figured out that it was because I used 100% pumpkin versus the "pumpkin pie filling" that the recipe calls for.

So I went on a search for pumkin pie filling...and couldn't find it anywhere.  So I took the remaining pureed pumpkin and added brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, "pumpkin pie spice", and allspice until it tasted similar to pumpkin pie filling.  I didn't measure - I just kept adding and tasting, adding and tasting.

And here is the second attempt:

Again, I did not in any way like it or enjoy it.  It was definitely improved - it tasted a lot less like a raw earthy alcoholic plant and more on the dessert end of things.  But it still had a planty dullness to it...with the unpleasantness of an alcohol kick at the end.

So that is the end of the pumpkintini adventure.  And I'm glad I can say I tried.  I've heard that Sortilège is fantastic on vanilla ice cream so that may be my next experiment, as it's difficult to go wrong with vanilla ice cream and any fill-in-the-blank liqueur.

Eat, drink, and beware of cocktails with crushed graham crackers on the rim!  

Graceling...and other stuff

When I first read Graceling, back in February 2008, I went berzerk over it (try here, here, and here). Well, how foolish did I feel when I only just now discovered that Kristin Cashore has a blog?! Reading it has been a loverly way to spend a Friday at work when I really wish I was at home...

I gushed over the cover of Graceling in one of my posts - it really is striking. But I just saw the Australian cover on Kristin's blog and...um...it kind of kicks some ass. I mean, really. Check this out:

That is just too, too cool. I'm not saying I like it better, necessarily, but it's equally as awesome as the shiny American version. You get a real sense of Katsa's character and what the book might be about in the Oz version and, I have to be honest, the same can't be said for the "USian" one...even if it is prettier.

*****

In a totally unrelated thought process, I apologize for the lack of food posts lately. Most of my food blogging involves my computer at home (access to photos) and my mom-in-law is currently staying in our "computer room". But I certainly don't mind - my mother-in-law, hereby known as MC, is awesome and loves to eat and drink whatever we feel like cooking up (with the exception of cilantro, which she loooooves to hate more than anything on this earth). Nevertheless, with MC visiting, it makes blogging at home challenging, as I am spending lots of time playing board games with the fam and doing all kinds of fun things in the kitchen. So more to come on all our awesome food soon.

In the meantime, I hate to leave you empty-handed. So check out the following:

- Sausage and Smoked Mozzarella Rigatoni over at Elly Says Opa! Tell me that doesn't look incredible. Wow.

- The NY Times had a recent article on salted caramels. Read it and drool.

- While I don't necessarily agree with all their suggestions, the San Francisco Chronicle has a list of essential pantry items, and what better way to start the New Year than with a well-stocked pantry? (I was annoyed they only listed dessert ideas for dark chocolate...one of my favorite things to do with it, as suggested by Michael Chiarello, is to finely grate it over pumpkin ravioli with brown butter, sage, pine nuts and parmesan. Sound weird? Well, let me ask you this: have you tried it? No? Enough said.

Happy New Year, all! All the best in 2009!

Being sick can be a good thing! Really! I'm serious!

So I've been a sick dog the past couple of days. There are few things I hate more in this life than being sick. I feel helpless, I can't get all the things done I want to, and I have to depend on other people to do things for me. Grrrr...

However, two wonderful things happened to me during my illness. First, I still had to go to my Food Studies class since I couldn't very well miss the first lecture! I had to get my NYU ID card beforehand (I'm official now!) and ended up in the Union Square area. Passing by Heartland Brewery, I saw a beacon, if you will, of the change in seasons: a banner advertising their Smiling Pumpkin Ale. I immediately went inside. I ordered an ale...and resisted ordering a second since I was going to class, after all. I have been savoring this first seasonal pint of Smiling Pumpkin Ale for three years now, and I was going to do it again this year...running nose be damned!

The second wonderful thing? I stayed home from work again yesterday, but I still had to take Kiddo to the bus stop. Rather than go upstairs and crawl back into bed, I had to walk to the newsstand to get the New York Times (Wednesday is Dining Section Day - read the flour article!). I glimpsed the Starbucks across the street and wondered... Could they? Would they? So I took a peek inside...and sure enough, Pumpkin Spice Latte up on the board!!! But that wasn't even the coolest part! The barista was as geeked up about it as I was!!! That doesn't happen very often, particularly in NYC. But he and I got into a real conversation about how much we love that Pumpkin Spice Latte has become the heralding of a new season. The nutmeg, the cinnamon, the whipped cream... Heck, even having a hot drink is a celebration!* I scuffled back home, cradling my latte and enjoying the quiet city streets, taking pleasure in something so small. Sometimes paying $5 for a small coffee seems like a bargain for the joy you get in return...**

It's these moments that I savor and even make me forget that I'm sick. Besides, if I hadn't been sick, I wouldn't have stayed home from work. In which case, I wouldn't have been able to go to class early on Tuesday and had time for the pumpkin ale. In which case, I wouldn't have had time to walk the streets and savor my pumpkin latte. Sometimes being sick is a sign that you need to slow down, take care of yourself, rest, and take stock of some things. I can't look at being sick as a bad thing for me right now - it allowed me to watch the nearly-overnight change in the seasons in New York City.

Eat, drink, and welcome autumn!


* For god's sake, please don't ever try the Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino. It's disgusting. And just wrong. Or at the very least, if you do like it, don't tell me about it. I don't want to know.

** It must be said that I'm not going to start having $5 coffee drinks every day. I can't afford it. And it cease to be a special treat anymore. I'll probably only have 2-3 more the rest of the year.

What the Roux?! Add More Pumpkin!

I made Croque Monsieur for dinner tonight, courtesy of Miss Ina’s recipe. God, I love her. Heaven forbid I ever meet her – I have no doubt I’ll make a total ass of myself.

But I digress.

The recipe, from her Barefoot in Paris book, calls for a roux: you melt butter in a saucepan, add flour, stir it around until it becomes a sticky paste, then vigorously whisk it while adding hot milk. Once it’s all thick, you add Gruyère, parmesan, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. However, tonight’s sauce was so watery that it hardly seemed that I added flour at all, let alone a cup’s worth of cheese.

The kicker is that I’ve made this recipe about a half-dozen times and every time has turned out different. I’ve had lusciously thick creamy sauces…and I’ve encountered the water-sauce before as well.

So my question is: what is the trick here?! Is it the heat I’m using? Is it my pan? Is it the type of butter and milk? I looked up “roux” in my Food Lover’s Companion*, but it was no help, other than to inform me that I made a white roux versus a blond roux. And that there's a whole separate roux you make with lard. Have any of you tried to find lard in a store?! Not an easy feat, let me tell you. At least it wasn't when I lived in Jersey. Again, I digress.

So what did I do? What any novice cook would do, of course. I ordered my husband to add another tablespoon of flour! And any of you experienced cooks out there will probably guess what happened. The flour globbed all up and looked like bits of congealed cream floating in my sauce. The good news is that once the whole saucepan was poured on top of the sandwiches and stuck under the broiler the bits of flour disappeared. It was a decadent and delicious dinner.

In other food-related adventures, I’m giving up my search for Sortilège maple liqueur. Why have I been looking for it, you ask? Because I love all things pumpkin and I’ve been sitting on a recipe for a Pumpkintini. I’ve never made it, but I’m convinced this is my year. I got it from Rachael Ray’s mag. But it uses this maple liqueur, which I had never even heard of until this recipe came on my radar. I can't find it anywhere. I have a friend of mine who runs the bar at a darling restaurant in Brooklyn Heights, and he swears that he has Sortilège on his shelf right now...but there's no way I'm going all the way to Brooklyn Heights for it. Even if it is to make what I have built up in my mind to be the end-all-be-all of drinks. So I'm giving up...for now. But like all true obsessions, I'm only taking a break. The search will be on again in another week or so.

*I linked to the 2007 edition, but I am using the 2001 edition. Does the 2007 have updated info on roux creation?

Short Round-up

Oy. I've been so behind in my blogging. I don't have time at work - and I think it might against company policy, maybe? - and I'm too busy with, you know, life when I'm at home. Better late than never, n'est-ce pas?

• I recently read a fantastic quote from John Constant of Elliott Bay Book Company – unfortunately, it completely escapes me where I read it (perhaps my daily Shelf Awareness email?). Everyone, meaning non-librarian types, asks me for the name of my favorite book. And I could never ever name just one. Well, Mr. Constant phrases it in such a way that I feel he understands me:
  
  "Does anyone over the age of 16 even have a favorite book? Claiming a favorite is only indicative of the fact that you haven't read enough: Out of the thousands of books that I've read, with the enormous palette of ideas and emotions they've represented, how could I choose only, say, five? Why not ask for a favorite orgasm, or laugh, or grain of sand?"
  


• These are about the coolest tribute to Halloween ever! Cannibal pumpkins, puking pumpkins, and the most disturbing – pumpkin giving birth. Check it out and get in the mood! Thanks to Your Neighborhood Librarian for the link.

• Thought the midnight book parties were a thing of the past once Harry graduated from Hogwarts? Not so. Powell’s Books in Portland is throwing a midnight party for Stephen Colbert’s new book I Am America (And So Can You!). The party is in a bar across the street from Powell’s and they’re decorating in red, white, and blue. Not to mention shooting “Truthiness” Tequila. See, NYC isn’t the only place with really, really cool stuff. Again, if you can handle that rain, move to Portland now. While you can still afford to do so.

I know, I know. This is a short post. Coming up? The NYT Dining section tomorrow, a photo of some local succulent mini-pears from New York, and a review of A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban (Hint: I loved it).