blood orange vodka

I think they're the prettiest fruit of all.

In the winter, in pastry school, we used a lot of blood oranges and a lot of passionfruit. I can't stand passionfruit anymore, but I still love me some blood orange. In my culinary rotation we once infused liquors and I realized that I was never going to pay for flavored liquor again.

Vodka is very fast to infuse, especially if you're doing a hot infusion. I sliced a blood orange very thin and crammed the slices into a bottle into which I'd poured 750ml of vikingfjord vodka. You want a clean-tasting vodka, but it doesn't need to be expensive. Something really cheap will continue to taste like the plastic it came in, but you can use flavor to make it better if you're in a pinch.



I put the bottle into a pot of simmering water until the liquor reached 165 degrees. Then it was cooled and allowed to sit for as long as I was able to keep my hands off it (4 days). The longer it sits, the more the color and flavor deepen. A cold infusion (no heating at all) takes much longer (weeks) and I haven't done it to compare flavor. As it was, this vodka tasted very strongly of orange at first, with a distinct vodka finish. It would be excellent in mixed cocktails or sipped over ice, and it renders a shot a million times more palatable than plain vodka tends to be.



I repeated this process with kumquats, but the high rind to pulp/juice ratio rendered the finished product overly bitter. While it was drinkable, it was best mixed with another juice. In the future I'd stick with larger citrus so as not to incorporate too much pith.

give ugly a chance

I know it's not pretty. But it's easy, and it's delicious, and sometimes, that's all you need.



Just in case you were thinking of going into diabetic shock after all the desserts, here's some real food. Yeah, I needed it too. Don't worry, though-- there's more sugar to come. And butter. Possibly brownies.

Despite the total lack of cream or butter, this recipe turned out to be creamy, filling, and satisfying. Better is that the prep work takes ten minutes. If delicious made it pretty, this one would be a supermodel.

Rigatoni with Eggplant Puree
Giada DeLaurentis, Food Network
Adjustments by smitten kitchen (because, in case you hadn't noticed, her website is probably the best cookbook I own.)

1 small eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 pint cherry tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, whole
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1 pound rigatoni pasta
1/4 cup torn fresh mint leaves
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Glug of balsamic or red wine vinegar or freshly-squeezed lemon juice (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl combine the eggplant, cherry tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Spread the vegetables out in an even layer on the baking sheet. Roast in the oven until the vegetables are tender and the eggplant is golden, about 35 minutes.

While the vegetables are roasting, place the pine nuts in a small baking dish. Place in the oven on the rack below the vegetables. Roast until golden, about 4-8 minutes (check them every minute or two after 4 minutes--they go from golden to burnt fast). Remove from the oven and reserve.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta into a large bowl and reserve 2 cups of the cooking liquid (I never used more than 1/2-3/4 cup, but your taste may differ).

Transfer the roasted vegetables to a food processor. Add the torn mint leaves and extra-virgin olive oil. Puree the vegetables.

Transfer the pureed vegetables to the bowl with the pasta and add the Parmesan. Stir to combine, adding the pasta cooking liquid 1/2 cup at a time until the pasta is as saucy as you like it, and add a glug of vinegar (optional). Sprinkle the pine nuts over the top and serve.

lazy chicken breast

I make a version of this whenever I'm lazy but I want comfort food. When I was younger, my parents took me to Outback, where I loved a dish called Alice Springs Chicken. I stopped going to Outback when I got older and discovered non-chain restaurants, but I always had fond memories of that chicken. Once, I went back to find that they'd taken it off the menu.


This summer, I did a 'focus group study' and earned $100 in Amazon money. (Hooray for market research!) I spent it on cast iron pans. One lazy day I covered a chicken breast in kosher flake salt (thanks, Good Eats), pepper, and red pepper flakes and cooked it for 4-6 minutes on each side until it wasn't pink in the middle anymore. It was remarkably good for being so simple.


But of course, I can't leave well enough alone. One day, I craved Alice Springs Chicken. (It is really, truly bizarre how some foods stick with you.) So I made the simple chicken and sauteed some sliced mushrooms in butter and pepper in another pan. I covered the (cooked) chicken with the mushrooms, put a slice of sharp cheddar on top, and stuck the whole thing in the microwave for 30 seconds to melt the cheese. I always had the heeby-jeebies about using the microwave on my food, but I couldn't think of a better way to melt the cheese. Now I've learned the way of the broiler. If you use a cast iron pan you can stick the whole thing under the broiler for a minute and you're done!


You'll notice that there are no mushrooms in the picture I posted. Or cheddar cheese. I confess, today I cheated. I wanted the lazy chicken but I had neither mushrooms nor cheddar. So I cooked the chicken, sliced some cherry tomatoes and found some arugula. I put the chicken on top of the tomatoes, the arugula on top of the chicken, and shredded some gouda on top of that.


Yum.