Rye (Secale cereale) is a grass grown extensively as a grain and forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe (Triticeae) and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, vodka and great whiskeys.
Here is to a life filled with love, alcohol and clothes on the floor!
My Goodness, My Guinness! After more that a week solid packed with Holidaze celebration, I seem to have developed a tolerance for Alcohol! Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing..if you believe what those hacks at Wikipedia write.
Some nog allowed me to take a Christmas Day nap yesterday, but that is about it. I have always been blessed with pretty high tolerance for the effect of most substances. Mentally...physically, not so much. Drinking my weight in Guinness in Ireland for two years certainly took its toll on my waistline in 2001.
A few years ago Scientists actually discovered an alcohol tolerance gene in Fruit Flies and named it "Hangover". Really? How can you have a hangover if you can't get drunk? Well what do you expect from a study sponsored by a center whose mission is "to conduct, coordinate, and promote basic and clinical research on the causes, prevention, and treatment of alcoholism and alcoholic disease".
Well I don't need fancy research from some tipsy fruit flies, I have the way my jeans fit. So its back to the gym today and back to drinking tea for dinner. Boo! But there is something more scary than alcoholic dependance..not being about to enjoy my favorite cocktails anymore!
Once again RyeGirl is riding the wave of the latest NY Times announced trend: Punch. At Thanksgiving there was mulled red wine punch, at the post Thanksgiving feast, a cider/calvados based punch. At the Holidaze Party, a fresh gin champagne punch.
Elaborate ice molds were made using all my silicone cookware and fresh cut fruit. I look forward to sharing cheer in vintage punch bowls at Jen's Birthday party at the Clover Club this year!
Hopefully, I can find a decent punch bowl in the post holiday sales and stop using that fishbowl I stole from Porky's (file under: worst. night. ever.)
Speaking of Punch and punching...enjoy RyeGirl's Favorite Christmas song! Happy Christmas, you Arse!
RyeGirl's Holidaze gifts this year included home infused bottle of bourbon with cinnamon, star anise and ginger. I found long sticks of cinnamon this year and they look beautiful floating in that brown bottles of goodness. I even made a special batch for a Sandwich King that includes a vanilla bean and maple syrup so it is ready made for his Bourbon milkshakes!
Speaking of milky goodness...my favorite recipe to show off this Christmas spirit has been the Kentucky Caucasian. Imagine a White Russian without the vodka and with a spicy fragrant bourbon instead. Yum! Don't forget to put some nutmeg on top. Take it John Legend, you sexy thing!
And the big hit at a couple of Holidaze parties was this recipe for the perfect punch. Its light refreshing taste and knock out quantities of booze insured an easy ice breaker for any party. The recipe is from the legendary Trader Vic, but the selection of Beefeater Wet, a light crisp gin infused with pear essence is the Rye Girl touch. For the second (or third batch I can't recall) I ran out of lime and substituted Pomegranate juice. So while the first punch was green, the second was red. Perfect!
Christmas Punch (From Trader Vic)
1 Pint Beefeater Wet Gin 1 Pint Cointreau 3/4 cup Lime juice fresh squeezed 4 bottles champagne
I forgot to show off more after my big cocktail win and Square Off Challenge appearance last year. Mostly due to my own fragile ego and the disintegration of my life as I knew it at the time. But thanks to the World Wide Web and Google, these things are still easy to find. So allow me to show off these gorgeous pictures of my drinks! Yes! I made those! I made something pretty. And while they may have not compared in taste to Ronaldo's (I'll never know because I did not get to taste his drinks...Boo!) they sure look pretty nice here! Full recipes and more pictures available here. Thanks to Intoxicated Zodiac for the beautiful post! Oh and check out the cool cocktails for your zodiac sign...I am such a Cancer Moonchild! Do the cocktails for your sign measure up to your tastes?
RyeGirl loves this time of year, not only for all the holiday parties, but she is also blessed to have so many friends with birthdays during these dreary months. This past weekend featured both! First up was a very fun birthday blast for my friend Ross thrown by his lovely wife Rachel. Any party that involves in getting kicked out of a karaoke palace and fried chicken at 5am in Koreatown, is an stellar party in my book!
The next night was Kent and Sandy's annual Forgotten Cocktails holiday blow out. Matt, Ross, Kent and I congregated in the kitchen to come up with new drinks for my new bitters, Bitter Truth Celery and Fee Brother's Rhubarb. While trying to invent a hair of the dog, we came across a delicious combination of gin, bitters and cherry brandy. This was coming on the heels of a discussion about the classic NYC cocktails. So we had to come up with a classic NYC name for this concoction. Ross kept his lucky birthday streak alive and said, "Well if we are naming after outdated New York institutions, lets call it the Triborough Bridge". And with that a new classic was born! Cheers Boys!
I have often wanted to to a post explaining the differences between a Manhattan and a Brooklyn (there is also a Bronx too!). My Grandfather's favorite was the Manhattan, being a Hells Kitchen kid, and he preferred his bourbon, sweet vermouth and bitters on the sweet side. I would always ask for mine made with half dry and half sweet vermouth. And with a twist, no cherries please. After all, "cherries are for virgins, pies and slot machines..you see any of those around here??!"
I had my first Brooklyn, in Brooklyn, natch, at the Brooklyn Social Club on Smith st in Carrol Gardens. This little bar was an actual social club for Italians in the 1950's and 60's and now harbors legions of hipsters and stroller-less parents of the New Brooklyn. This version calls for my preferred Rye, sweet vermouth, Amer Picon, and maraschino. The cute bartender finished off the drink with a flamed orange peel. With that bit of drama I was hooked, if he didn't already have me at Rye.
The Bronx is questionable since it was apparently invented by a teetotaling bartender in the early 1900's at the Waldorf Astoria hotel (where my Great Grandparents met and worked!). But the recipe is pretty good; Gin, sweet and dry vermouth, orange juice. I would probably add orange bitters instead of the juice for I believe all these classic NYC cocktails should have some sort of bitter component.
Well it seems that there needs to be a Queens and a Staten Island. So I'll get crackin' on that, but to paraphrase an olde timey bartender who once said this about Brooklyn, "If you live in Staten Island, have a beer!"
75 years ago today, a dark time in our history was laid to rest. I speak of the the repeal of the Volstead act, aka the 19th amendment, aka Prohibition!! On this day our 21st Amendment was ratified and once again the booze flowed freely in our streets.
Well that is not entirely true..Prohibition actually increased our desire for alcohol. It gave us the Speakeasy (which in the 21st century begot the "SpeakCheesy"). I was also surprised to learn that Prohibition (and probably that little 19th Amendment sandwiched in there) let women have more equality in the bars. Before prohibition, a Lady was never seen in a Tavern establishment. Thank goodness that is done! How did they survive without "Ladies Nights"?!?
So in honor of this great day, I give you The 21st Amendment. Its inspired by the classics that came out of this period.
The NY Times had a great section this week all about the wonders of Cocktails (Celebrating Repeal Day, are we?).
The big cover story is about White Russians. When I first moved to NYC 14 years ago this New Year's Eve, I always ended my night of debauchery in the Village with a White Russian. It was like a dessert, but still felt like I was ordering a special cocktail. That frothy sweet goodness when shaken just right was my introduction the the wonders of cocktail emulsion.
I soon moved on to Cosmos (it was 1995 and did live in the West Village after all..) but I still get the urge for a White Russian..especially when watching the Big Lebowski.
But now that I have matured, I am happy to say my taste have too has matured (not in regards to the film..its still classic Cohen Brothers brilliance!) No I still crave that drink at the end of the night to wrap it all up..a meringue to top the pie that was my night of cocktails. Thanks to the discovering of Amarula cream and some fine new coffee liquors, I can have a more sophisticated White Russian. Since I use bourbon, I guess we can call it Getting Milky in Kentucky.
Bourbon Amarula Cream Coffee Liquor (I prefer Starbucks or Illy) Dash of Antiqua Formula or even a nice Italian Bitters Milk
Shake all ingredient very well until milk is frothy. Pour with rocks into highball glasses.If your don't care for froth, omit the milk and you have a knockout drink!
