It's Martini Time

For a really long time I was never a fan of chocolate martinis. They always sound so good, but I've never ordered one that actually tasted good. A very big let down.

However, over the past few years my friends and I have been able to create a few pretty terrific chocolate martinis at home and we are ready to share them with you :-)

Martini One

Layer Ice, Fudge, and Vodka in a blender.
Blend. Enjoy.

To be a little more specific, we used gourmet ice cubes, homemade fudge, and 3 Olives brand vodka.

Martini Two

Put ice and two shots of the following in a martini shaker: vodka, Irish cream liquor, and creme de cocoa.
Shake. Enjoy.

Bloody Mary Bar!

A.K.A. a reason to have a party in our basement! We made some progress in dressing up our bar and wanted to show it off, so I thought a little theme party would be a good start. I thought most people wouldn't like the idea, but it was received very well!

When you make a bloody mary bar you can basically do whatever you want, just make sure you do a lot of it! I over did it a bit on the amount of vodka, but that will not go to waste later.

A bloody mary can be a meal within itself, but I told people, if they wanted, to bring a light snack and some beer for chasers. There ended up being plenty to go around!

So, here is the first bloody mary of the night.

You can see a neon Captain Morgan sign reflecting in the mirror.

I bought the following for about 20 happy guests...
1 jar of pickled asparagus
1 jar of pickled brussel sprouts
1 jar of cocktail onions
2 jars of pimento stuffed olives
1 jar of blue cheese stuffed olives
1 jar of pepperocinis
1 jar of pickles spears (kosher dill)
3 small bottles of hot sauce (various types)
1 container of celery salt
1 container of lemon pepper
1 bottle of worcestershire sauce
1 jar of capers
1 bag of ready to eat shrimp
1 bag of mini beef sticks (cheaper than the full sized ones)
1 container of cherry tomatoes
1 large celery stalk
2 bell peppers
1 jar of homemade pickled green beans
1 jar of homemade pickled mushrooms

6 liters of vodka (I only went through about 1/2 of that. Remember to go mid-grade with that. You won't really taste it in the drink if you make it right)
2 large cans of tomato juice
4 jars of bloody mary mix (various brands)

To make things easier, I laid out all the glass on the table and had a cooler of ice next to them on the floor. I thought my overall flow was good, but after making a drink or two I noticed it was a bit congested. But this seemed hard to remedy because everyone makes their drink in a different order, or the rest don't know what they are doing.

BUT, it was still a great party :-) Even though it's been about a month since the party and I'm still up to my eyeballs in pickled condiments!

Stupid Sunday food Situation

This past Sunday we were out and about all day, therefore, we were FORCED into eating out for all three meals. While getting ready for the day, I made a call to Perkins and ordered an oatmeal to go. The on the way the freeway we picked up my oatmeal. I mean I probably can't say anything too interesting about oatmeal, but it was good. I added about 2 TBS of brown sugar, which is essential.

Our first showing appointments lasted until about 2:30pm. So we made a mad dash to a fast food joint for lunch. I really hated this, but really it was either that, or eat at Chipotle for the millionth time. The best place on the way to our next stop was Dairy Queen.

(Minor story side-track: When I was in high school I attended a summer fencing training. We did a lot of running and it was hot out which means I was about to pass out! One of my coaches thought the best idea was to sneak me to Dairy Queen and get me cheeseburger. Well, it was the best fast food cheeseburger around. And I still think so to this day)

Well, I got a cheeseburger, Dan got the Flamethrower, and we shared a waffle bowl sundae. The cheeseburger was still good, and Dan said the Flamethrower was good too. I guess I would warn you more on how big the burger is rather than how hot it is. The waffle bowl was such a disappointment. I've been drooling over these commercials for ever and now it's totally ruined! It is possible that the ingredients are right, just that they weren't put together right. Oh well, less ice cream in my diet can't be a bad thing.

After all that, we stopped at Dan’s uncle’s house, and then stopped at my uncle's house. Before I knew it, it was 7:00pm, we were by 76th st, and were still about 35 min from our empty kitchen. Our solution was to go to Outback. Normally this is a good place to go. This time though, we spent $70 and it all sucked!!!!

I had some stupid drink made of rum, gin, vodka, juice, and coke. Sounds good to me, but it was so bad. It was one of those drinks that your friend makes and they think they are some cool new up-incoming bartender and tries to make new and innovative drinks. Long story short – it didn’t work.

Then our waiter convinced us to try the artichoke dip with new chips (rather than the crispy rounds). After we started to eat it, the guy comes over and goes - how is it, a lot of people tell me it's salty. Yeah man, it was salty, nice of you to tell us after we started eating.

For my main course, I ordered the new, Prime Rib and Crab Cake Mixed Grill. ‘Downer Donna’ says the prime rib tasted like a bland pork chop, the crab cake was fishy and over seasoned, and the potatoes were undercooked. BUT the green beans were good.

The positives for the day: We were productive, got to enjoy the sunny weather, and I was motivated to finally go grocery shopping!!

Oregon

One of the gifts we received for our wedding was a cookbook from Oregon...from my husband's family....who is from Oregon. When I saw the book, I wasn't too excited because I didn't think too many interesting foods would come from Oregon. However, I still enjoyed getting the book, because the thought was really sweet and they wrote a note inside the book for us.

Well, one night we were trying to think of something to make and decided to go to the cookbooks. When I started to go through the Oregon cookbook, I was amazed! Everything inside of it looked delicious and I wanted to try all the recipes.

Below are the few that we have tried so far. I really recommend getting this book! (You can find it on Amazon)

From Raindrops to Roses: A collection of Oregon style celebrations

Blossom Festival Asparagus with Dijon Tarragon Vinaigrette

Asparagus

• Steam 2 pounds of fresh asparagus
• Remove from steamer and put in an ice bath

Dressing

3 TBS of boiling water
1/4 cup of Dijon mustard
1/3 cup of olive oil
2 TBS rice vinegar
2 TBS fresh, minced tarragon

• Slowly whisk the water into the mustard
• Slowly whisk in the olive oil until it forms a thick creamy sauce
• Slowly add vinegar until tart
• Season with S/P and tarragon
• Place chilled asparagus on platter and drizzle vinaigrette lightly over the top

Grilled Scallop Salad
This recipe also calls for asparagus, but I'm removing it from the recipe because I made the above asparagus recipe instead.

Scallops and Mushrooms

2 TBS olive oil
1 TSP soy sauce
24 sea scallops
2 cups fresh mushrooms sliced

• In a large zip bag, combine oil and soy sauce and then add scallops
• Seal bag and coat scallops - let stand for 10 min
• Arrange mushrooms on a 9" square piece of heavy duty foil coated with cooking spray
• Grill mushrooms on foil uncovered over medium heat for 10-15 min or until tender - We used the George Foreman
• Grill scallops, uncovered, over medium heat for 7-8 min on each side or until scallops are firm and opaque - We used the George Foreman

Salad

2 cups of Boston lettuce
1/4 cup cooked and crumbled bacon
1 cup toasted and chopped walnuts
2 TBS Romano cheese
Balsamic vinaigrette dressing

• Arrange lettuce on serving plates, top with scallops, mushrooms, bacon, walnuts and cheese
• Drizzle with dressing

Oregon Blackberry Vodka Lemonade
This is a very good drink. However, I don't feel it is good enough to justify the amount of work involved. A regular boxed lemonade punch and vodka is just as good for me!

6 lemons
3/4 cup chilled vodka
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh blackberries
2 cups ice

• Remove zest from 4 lemons and squeeze enough juice from them and the remaining 2 lemons to measure 1 cup
• In a saucepan, boil 1 cup water with sugar - stir until dissolved
• Add zest, lemon juice, and another cup of water to sugar mixture - allow to cool
• In a food processor, puree blackberries and stir into lemonade.
• Pour mixture through a sieve into a pitcher.
• Add vodka and chill for 2 hours to 2 days

Tinks and Hooties

For our wedding we wanted a partial cash bar. We knew we wanted free beer for our guests but couldn't decide what to do about the hard liquor. We ended up agreeing on having free specialty drinks. My Husband and I each had one that represented us - they were an absolute hit! Both drinks were pink/red in color and all you saw were pink drinks everywhere, including the photos :-)

Anywho, our two drinks were the Tink Drink and the Crooked Hottie.

Tink Drink:
The Tink Drink is something I’ve concocted while on a sorority camping trip. Everyone seemed to like it, so it has unofficially become the drink of the sorority. Oh, it got its name because my sorority nickname is Tink.

The Recipe:

• Vodka
• Peach schnapps
• Sprite
• Grenadine

Crooked Hootie:
My husband didn't really have a drink of his own so we starting looking around for one online. We came across a drink called a Crooked Golf Cart. We thought this was perfect since our wedding was on a golf course. However, it had to have a name that matched my husband and we decided on Hootie - his nickname in high school.

The Recipe (Webtender.com):

• Cranberry juice
• Amaretto
• Rum
• Lime