The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks

I'm a bit of a bibliophile and am constantly purchasing used books at garage sales, sidewalk sales, Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc.  This habit kicked into high gear when we were expecting Eva, since I had read Freakonomics a few years ago and remembered that the amount of books in the home is a strong indicator of the future intelligence of children.  The book doesn't theorize that books are the source of intelligence, likely intelligence primarily stems from having educated parents or other factors, but I figured for a quarter per book it couldn't hurt to add a few (hundred) to our house.  Just to be on the safe side.

One book I picked up along the way, although not specifically for Eva, was The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks by David A. Enbury.  Apparently this book is something of a classic on cocktails and worth some decent money.  I have the 1958 hardback edition it isn't quite as valuable as the original from 1948.  I was in a weird mood yesterday and am not very experienced with making cocktails or other mixed drinks and thought it would be fun to try making something new with Amelia.  I picked up a jigger and cocktail shaker at one of my favorite San Diego stores - San Diego Restaurant Supply.  Always friendly, and usually have what I need at great prices.  With my new hardware, and reading material, I met Amelia after work to select a recipe and pick up the necessary ingredients.

We decided to try making a Gin Cocktail or Gin 'N' Bitters.  The recipe we used is:

1. Put large cubes or cracked ice in an Old-Fashioned glass
2. Pour gin to fill within 3/8" of top of glass
3. Add Angostura bitters (3 to 5 dashes)
4. Stir and serve

Suffice to say that the name Gin 'N' Bitters is very appropriate for this drink.  We'll probably try something more sweet next time.  

Although our recipe choice wasn't a smashing success, I read some other portions of the book which I found very interesting.  There are a lot of anecdotes on the history of liquors, specific drink recipes, and societal norms about cocktails.  One passage I particularly enjoyed, undering the heading of "Jiffy Quick Junk", I thought was worth sharing.  

Today, Milady brings home from the market her precooked dinner of filet mignon, French-friend potatoes, and asparagus Hollandaise, all on an aluminum plate which she pops under the boiler for fifteen minutes and her dinner is ready.  With it she drinks her decaffeinized instant coffee, sweetened with calory-free saccharin.  While waiting for her dinner to heat, she decides to have a Daiquiri.  No time to squeeze limes, so she takes a can of frozen lime juice (or, perhaps, lemon juice), shakes it up with her rum, and maybe a bit of sugar, and there is her synthetic Daiquiri.  Ugh!!  Ye shades of Constante Ribalagua!  Perhaps it is as well that he died in time to escape this final insult to a noble drink.  And, believe it or not, there are at least two rum manufacturers who, in the interest of promoting the sale of their products among those who are too lazy to make a real drink, recommend this short cut in their advertising.

At this point I suggest that you reread what I have said on pages 89-90 about using only fresh fruit, freshly squeezed.  And along the same lines, perhaps I should warn against trying to keep cocktails in the icebox.  One writer once said that you can no more keep a Martini in the refrigerator than you can keep a kiss in the refrigerator.  He might well have expanded this to include all cocktails - at least all that are made with aromatic wines, such as vermouth, or with fruit juices.  An Old-Fashioned can, perhaps, be kept in the refrigerator for a reasonable length of time but not a Manhattan or a Daiquiri, or a White Lady or a Jack Rose.  To my admonition (page 90) regarding fruits to buy 'em fresh, squeeze 'em fresh, and use 'em fresh, I might well have added, as to the resultant cocktails, "Drink 'em fresh."

Although this passage may be dated in language and the particular ingredients or tools noted I think the broader message is surprisingly as appropriate today as in 1948.  The rush to convenience and/or low-cost at the cost of quality or taste is a narrative that continues to be prevalent in many places. The emergence in recent years of craft breweries and 'old style' cocktail bars with a focus on quality ingredients and products is truly something to raise a glass to and often a rebuke of these trends.  Cheers to those with a focus on educating customers and offering more than cheap, cold, fast drinks for the masses.

Saying Goodbye to Paper Towels

One item our family has given up is our use of paper towels.  It took some sweet-talking, but after I got Amelia's ok it has been smooth sailing and got rid of one of the items that we regularly threw out in the garbage.

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Commentary:

In our efforts to be more environmentally friendly we've tried to take a look at the items that go into our recycling and trash cans and determine how we can eliminate or reduce those items.  Paper towels were an early and somewhat obvious choice.  For the following reasons we decided to get rid of paper towels:

• Single-use - after using a paper towel there is no opportunity to reuse, and usually no opportunity to recycle either.
• Cost - although paper towels are not an expensive item per unit (around $1 or $2 each) it is a cost that can be almost entirely eliminated by using reusable cloth towels.  Cloth towels have a similar, or often lower, up-front cost, but can be reused many, many times (we haven't yet discarded one in about a year and half of use).
• Readily available alternative - Cloth towels / tea towels have been around for many, many years and are more durable than paper towels.  We use these towels to dry dishes, clean off the table and countertops, and for any other kitchen cleaning need.  It is also easy to add cute animal designs, as you can see here.  
• Lower environmental impact - paper towels are usually not made from recycled materials and utilize a number of chemicals in their production including chlorine related dioxins (from the bleaching process to make paper towels white).  We use an environmentally friendly detergent to wash our cloth towels and the usable life is long - I would guess at least 2 or 3 years per towel.

We put out a new cloth towel every day or two, and put the used towel in the laundry to wash with our clothes.  When the towels are too worn for use in the kitchen we plan to use them for cleaning around the house.

Suggested action steps:

• Stop purchasing disposable paper towels and enjoy the cost savings
• Purchase a set of 6 to 12 cloth towels to use in your home.  
• We do keep a paper towel roll (non-bleached recycled paper towels) in a cabinet in case we have blood, motor oil, or some other harsh material to clean up but have rarely had to use them and have had the one roll for about a year now.

Awesome Bread - Recipe and Video Demonstration

One of our New Year's resolutions for 2012 is to cook more at home.  Cooking at home allows us to spend time together, learn some new culinary skills and recipes, save some money, and know what's in our food.  One item we have committed to making at home this year is bread.  Below is a recipe that was shared with us, as well as a video demonstration.  Thanks to Danny for sharing this easy, quick, delicious recipe!

To keep us motivated we have a tally on our dining room wall of the bread bought vs. bread made this year.  As of today the tally stands at:

• Bread made: 20
• Bread bought: 2

(Lame excuse: the 2 breads we bought were baguettes when we had company in town.)

Making our own bread also saves us money.  It costs us sixty-two cents a loaf (cost calculation link) for delicious, fresh bread compared to three or four dollars for a loaf at the store.

Below is my first YouTube video.  It's a demonstration of making the bread to show how simple and easy it is.  (It's also a good opportunity to laugh at me for a low-quality, but highly informative, how-to video.)

Awesome Bread Recipe
Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• .25 tsp yeast
• 1.25 tsp salt
• 1.5 cups water

Hardware:

• Dutch oven (cast iron or glass)
• Large Bowl (ceramic or glass)
• 1 cup measure
• 1/4 tsp measure

Directions:
Combine dry ingredients in bowl. Mix by hand (approx. 10 seconds). Add water and mix by hand until a sticky, uniform consistency is reached (approx. 2 minutes). Stir in any additional ingredients desired (chocolate, herbs, nuts, dried fruits, etc.).

Cover with tea towel or cloth for 12 - 18 hours.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees with dutch oven inside during preheating. Mix risen dough by hand in bowl. Spread a small amount of flour on bottom of dutch oven, just enough to cover bottom.  Place dough in dutch oven.

Bake covered at 500 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove lid and cook for additional 5 - 15 minutes to brown.  Remove from oven and enjoy with butter, jam, avocado, or plain.

Happy baking!  We love this recipe and hope you do too.

First Contest Prize Package

Congratulations again to Beverly for her winning guess of 142 (correct answer was 162) in the lemon counting contest from February 18.  I'm planning to do similar contests in the future so keep an eye out for those.  To help entice you to join future contests, here's a peek into Beverly's prize package.

To the Victor Go the Spoils 

Prize package contents:

Masticate

• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.  This book was first published in 1962 and is credited by many with starting the modern environmental movement.  If you haven't already read it I highly recommend it.  It's a fairly quick read, and is incredibly relevant for being publish 50 years ago.
• Mexico 21 de Septiembre coffee beans from San Diego roaster Cafe Moto.  These beans are from the Oaxaca region of Mexico and are certified free trade and organic.  Additionally, Cafe Moto is a solar-powered local business.
• Izola bamboo toothbrushes.  Mentioned in a prior post, these toothbrushes are compostable and made from natural materials.  They also include motivational phrases, hopefully they are useful to Beverly and her significant other, both of whom are in the midst of rigorous studies.  (Close-up included at right.)
• Two lemons.  Last but not least, two lemons from our soon-to-be-prize-winning lemon tree.  Although I'm not organic certified yet, I vouch for the pesticide and herbicide conditions under which these lemons were produced.  I will also vouch for the wonderful lemon bars they are capable of being made into.

Have a great weekend and keep a look out for tomorrow's post which will include my first YouTube video and a wonderful, and super simple, recipe you can use this weekend.

Houseplants - Improve Your Indoor Air Quality With Easy to Grow Plants

Although I'm fortunate to have a yard I can experiment in with my plants and gardening, I wasn't always so lucky.  My first forays into growing plants were houseplants.  After reading a bit more, I've learned that houseplants can help to improve the air quality in a home, and provide other benefits as well.
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Commentary:

If you've shopped for houseplants at a Home Depot or Lowe's you've probably noticed that many of the tags will note that "NASA recommends having houseplants to improve air quality at your home" or something to that effect.  Reading this was enough to convince me to buy a few plants, but I'm a pretty easy sell when it comes to plants anyway.  I got to wondering what exactly NASA did have to say about houseplants.  It didn't seem like the typical study subject for an institution trying to find E.T.

I did find the NASA study and it's an interesting read although it's not very recent, from 1989.  Basically they tested the ability of houseplants to filter out common toxins found in homes (formaldehyde, benzene, trichloroethylene).  They tested a number of common houseplants including bamboo palm, english ivy, ficus, gerbera daisy, and others.  The study recommends using activated carbon filters with houseplants to maximize the detoxifying effect that plants can bring to a home and has a number of graphs showing the absorption rates of the different plants tested.

Although I haven't installed carbon filters yet, I do have a number of plants around the house and think the make a real difference in the quality of the air.  A couple of very easy to grow plants I would recommend to anyone (and that grow in nearly any sunlight conditions) are:

• Lucky Bamboo
• Philodendron (many varieties, I especially like the trailing kinds)

I have had these plants for a number of years and have had great success with keeping them alive and healthy.  I consider being able to keep a plant alive a big victory so I tend to gravitate towards the 'easy care' section of nurseries.

Bayer (the headache medicine maker) also recommends having houseplants to help ease breathing, improve air quality, improve personal health, and improve attentiveness.  I think a trailing philodendron adds a nice aesthetic touch to a room too.

Suggested action steps:

1. Add a couple of houseplants to your apartment, condo, townhouse, or house
2. Surprise your significant other with a gift of a living plant rather than cut flowers.  It'll last longer so you'll reap the rewards of your thoughtfulness longer too. :)