CSA Week 2: My Adventures with Rhubarb

Here's what I got in my CSA box in late May (I know, I know, I'm trying to catch up.)

The most interesting thing to me was not the garlic scapes (though, YUM, love those), or the broccoli rabe (make this if you have some).  It was the rhubarb.  Now, people in my neck of the woods (and probably all kinds of other necks of other woods) use rhubarb all the time.  Me?  Never had it before.  Supposed to be pretty bitter, leaves are poisonous, I like strawberries all by themselves just fine, thank you very much.  HOWEVER!  When the CSA hands you rhubarb, you find something to do with it:

All that rhubarb, chopped

One lemon, quartered

Zest of said lemon

Whole bunch of rosemary, chopped

Cover with water, bring to boil, return to simmer, cover 20 minutes.

Set sieve over a bowl, strain out this yucky stuff, pressing to get all the good syrupy stuff.

Good syrupy stuff.

 Add to vodka, gin, or soda water for a delicious drink.

Or better yet, freeze into ice cubes, add to gin and soda with a squeeze of lime, sit on your deck in your bathing suit, and watch the kids play on the slip-n-slide.

Summer Cocktail

My friend Stephanie made a comment on Twitter a few weeks ago that she had made "Freshie Ice."  I was fascinated and asked her about it.  Turns out it's just her cute way of saying that she cleared out the ice maker and that all the ice would be fresh for cocktails.  Well, it inspired me.  

I put a fresh, peeled cucumber in a food processor and pushed it through a sieve.  Then poured the juice into my cute little candy-making mold.  I filled some of the other hearts with lime juice.  I froze them.

After they were hard, I put two cucumber cubes and one lime cube in a pretty glass.

Then added two ounces of shaken gin*.  And I named it after its Muse. The ice melts and flavors the gin so loverly. 

 Ladies and gentlemen, I give you

  The Freshie Tart.

*I recommend you use Hendrick's, but I'm slumming it with Tanquery.

Hello, February.

As you may know, I live in the Minnesotan portion of the Arctic Tundra.  I have lived here for most of my life, and have just recently come to the realization that not everyone in the United States currently has a mountain of shoveled snow from their driveway taller than they are.  I have also come to the realization that I hate February.  This is possibly because I live in Minnesota.  February has the promise of being the shortest month, and when you live in Minnesota any month in the winter that is a few days shorter than the other days in the winter must be a good thing. Right?  Except it isn't.  It's still really cold.  And it's still really cold for 28 days.  Which, granted, isn't as long as 30 or 31 days, but is still really cold.  And I resent that because it's not as short as it promises to be, and it's still really cold.

ANYWAY -

In order to make the time go quicker, I'm going to DO something.  I tell my kids this all the time.  "That thing is taking too long for you to wait through?  Go do something.  The time will go quicker if you clean up/play/do your homework/make some art."  So this February I'm going to post something on this blog every single day.  Be warned, it might not be AWESOME EVERY DAY. It might just be a picture emailed to the site from my iPhone with a caption.  But then again, it might be an awesome picture.  And really, it might be awesome every day.  We'll just have to see together.

So as we start out on this journey together, let me share with you some things that I'm sure will help me through February.

Ginger Lemon Drop:

2 oz ginger infused vodka

1/2 oz lemon juice

1oz Triple Sec

1 tsp superfine sugar

Shake it.

Rim glass with lemon juice and superfine sugar

Hot Toddy:

1-2 oz whiskey - I use Scoresby, because that's what my Grampy drank. 

He was a New York City Firefighter during WWII.  Slainte.

Juice of 1/2 a Lemon (leave it in the cup)

1 TBS Honey

1 Cinnamon Stick

3 Cloves

Top off with boiling water

Kentucky Mule (thanks to Slackmistress)

2 oz Bourbon

1 oz Lime Juice

Finish with Ginger Beer

CHEERS!

See you tomorrow!

Fork The Fire!

On February 18th, a fire decimated two local restaurants: Heidi's, and Blackbird.  Today, 80 restaurants banned together and are giving proceed to help these chef-owned gems.  There is more information here.

I went to two of these restaurants in the last 24 hours. 

Last night we met our awesome friends and dogsitters at the amazing Cafe Maude.  They have a super fun cocktail list that changes seasonally.  While I miss the "This Charming Man" (served with an English cigarette on the side), last night I had a "Bloody on the Rocks".  It was a whiskey sour with a red wine float.  Ok, I had two.  It was great.  The other cocktails our dinner companions let us taste were the "Scenic Route" - a sidecar with ginger-infused applejack and a sweet cayenne rim, served up, and the "Pank Drank" - sparking pear, cassis and lemon in a champagne glass and a pink glow stick.  Both excellent.

To eat, I had my old standby, the Egg and Spinach.  It's sauteed spinach served with a fried egg, basmati rice, feta and harissa.  The harissa is super hot.  I dip just the tines of my fork in it and then load up with everything else.  I get this every time I'm at Maude.  If I didn't, I'd miss it.  I got the Duck and Frisée Flatbread for my entrée.  The crust is super flat and it has duck confit, frisee, giant chunks of blue cheese and aged balsamic.  I love having a salad on my pizza.  Last night's crust was not as crispy as I like, but it was in no way soggy.  I could have used a little more balsamic (I could drink balsamic, really).  The blue cheese was defiantly the prominent flavor.  Which is just fine with me.

For Fork the Fire today, I took the kids to Salut for brunch.  My kids call this the "Frog with the Hat" restaurant.  They spilt the kids' menu pancakes (two medium pancakes), and chose Lemonaid and Orange/Cranberry juice.  I had a Blood Mary with a beer chaser (is that a Midwest/MN thing?) and the Special Pancakes: Bacon and Brie in the batter, topped with a chiffonade of basil.  Excellent with maple syrup.  We split the "Four bite Chocolate Mousse".  It's a tiny little turine of dark chocolate mousse served with little shortbread cookies (three - perfect for our party), and a cut strawberry.  Perfect.