A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Redneck Auntie's Cape Codder AKA "Don't Judge Me, Princess"

What do you do when you only have moonshine soaked cranberries, off brand powdered no-calorie lemonade, and nary a clean glass glass in the house?  Make Redneck Auntie Cape Codder AKA "The Don't Judge Me"

Junior's Midnight Moon moonshine is a family business based on Junior Johnson's original North Carolina moonshine recipe from the mid-1800's.  The jar and label caught my eye at the grocery store the other day and demanded I bring it home to play.  Okay, I'm as friendly as it is, and it's happy in my home and tummy.

Just for the few people who may not realize it....while it is a delicious cocktail, my calling it "Redneck Auntie" is a joke so if you feel the need to take it seriously and be offended, I won't necessarily feel the need to publish your comment.   

My 17-year-old niece may give me hell on Facebook for using "HER"  princess glass, but my older niece, who's only months away from drinking legally is going to LOVE this.  I may even have to surrender the glass to her for her birthday (if Sydney will allow it).

Off to have another sippy cup of Redneck Auntie.

Home-made Real Food V8 Juice, AKA: Vegetable Smoothie

Lately, more and more, I've become obsessed with  cooking from scratch and that includes finding real food clean eating recipes for my favorite packaged processed foods. Take V-8 for example.  I love it.  Plain tomato juice is boring to me but V-8 is complex and satisfying, not to mention gives me that "I've done something good for my body" high.

However, what I don't like is reading the can that lists the fake flavors, "modifiers", high sodium level, and what-nots in the ingredient list, as well as, the lack of fiber.  With a little research I was able to create my own version

My version is a little less tomato-y because I used more of an equivalency amongst the vegetables instead of the 85% tomato juice base of V-8 with the other veggies serving more as taste garnishes.  My version is also thicker, more of a veggie smoothie than a juice since I made it in the blender instead of a juicer.  No offense to those who juice, but I've always had a small problem with all the fiber that gets thrown away with the juicing process. It seems sort of....bass ackwards to eating clean and healthy foods.

I've also found that my V-8 Vegetable Smoothie isn't just for drinking with breakfast or as an afternoon snack.  Simmered on the stove for about 20 minutes, it became a perfect marinara over pasta.  It also gave the chili I made the other night a nicely rounded complexity when it replaced the 2 cups of tomatoes or salsa I usually add.  Served in a soup bowl with a dollop of sour cream? Gazpacho. This freezes well too, simply pour extras into a freezer baggie to be used (best cooked after frozen)) as marinara or recipe add-ins later.  The possibilities are endless.

Hemingway's "Death in the Afternoon" Cocktail with Absinthe

  

Our official Dexter Dinner cocktail, appropriate for its name, is "Death in the Afternoon" invented by Ernest Hemingway as it appeared in the 1935 cocktail barbook "So, the Red Nose, or Breath in the Afternoon."  Hemingways instructions were to pour one jigger of absinthe into a fluted glass and then pour chilled champagne in until it becomes milky and opalescent.  The rest his instructions are to "drink three to five of these slowly." 

Not a problem. It is, after all, in the instructions and rules must be followed.

Absinthe is a strong (110 proof) licorice flavored alcohol that was popular in the late 1800's/early 1900's artiste circles in Paris but was soon banned by most of the world for having hallucinogenic and highly addictive properties which later were found to be more myth and hype by the artistic community than fact. The ban was lifted in 2007 in the United States.

Dexter Dinner: Timpano, Dexter Cake, & Death in the Afternoon Cocktails

 

Dexter premiered season six last night and we were there! Last year, my cousin, James, came over to the house on Sunday nights so we could all watch Dexter together since we were all huge fans.  We adopted Auntie Miranda into the cult and have been a Dexter Dinner foursome ever since. We always meet at Gene's and my house and I make dinner, usually using them as guinea pigs to test new recipes.  It's a win-win for me and for them and the safety net is that if it's ever is a win-lose, there's always pizza that can be delivered.

 

Literally, for years I've been wanting to make Timpano, the classic "mythic dome pasta" (Mario Batali) dish made famous by the movie Big Night from 1996 where Stanley Tucci, as one of two restanteur brothers (Tony Shalhoub is the other) makes this dish for their "big night" make it or break it extravaganza.  My understanding is that Tucci himself came up with the idea to use this recipe in the movie since it's one that his family actually makes for special occasions in real life. In 1999, following the popularity of the food from the movie Tucci's mother and the chef who consulted on the film authored a cookbook "Cucina & Famiglia: Two Italian Families Share Their Stories, Recipes, and Traditions" by Joan Tropiano Tucci and Chef Gianni Scappin.

This week I'll be blogging my version of the Timpano recipe starting with a 15 hour slow cooker meat sauce for pasta, Auntie's fruited salad and vinaigrette, the apple cake with caramel apple filling, and Death in the Afternoon cocktail created by Ernest Hemingway using Absinthe which is now legal in the U.S. again.

Let's begin with the meat sauce...

Martini for Bourbon Lovers: Song of the South

 

I created my own martini recipe last night especially for Kentucky bourbon lovers like me, naming it Song of the South. It's a simple mix of the harder-edged sweetness of sorghum mixed with the smoky taste of the Jim Beam that creates a slightly sweeter, lighter "adult beverage" in the whiskey family but served as a cold but ice cube-less martini. 

As a little tutorial on the difference between sorghum and molasses...I've grown up eating both and have both in my pantry.  They are both made from sugar cane but the short answer is that sorghum is sweeter and less processed.  Sorghum is boiled down from the sugar cane stalks into a syrup. That's it.  Molasses is actually a biproduct of sugar making. Once the sugar cane has been boiled and starts to crystalize, the crystals are removed and that's sugar.  What's left is reboiled along with a milk and an alkaline solution. That's moleasses, which is darker and less sweet than sorghum.