"The elixir of quietude." - E. B. White

I had a couple of martinis with some friends last night, by which I mean chilled gin and vermouth served cold and neat with olives. There is no such thing as a "vodka martini" just as there's no such thing as a "tequila screwdriver" as that is called a tequila sunrise without grenadine. I'm sure there's a name for chilled vodka in a martini glass. As it seems to be primarily consumed by females, it should have a feminine name such as puppycups.

Gin is what makes a martini and I like three: Junipero from SF,CA, Hendrick's from Scotland and good old, mass produced Tanqueray.

I was taught to make a martini like any proper child of the seventies. One of my parent's friends taught me when I was 10 or 11.

Fill a shaker with ice.
Pour in a dash of Noilly Pratt; swirl it around the ice and dump.
Fill shaker with gin.
Shake until very cold; pour into martini glass and garnish with what you see fit. I prefer olives.

Repeat as needed. Which means tomorrows post will be on the other perfect cocktail - the bloody mary.

Happy New Year.

NYE

I assume that by reading this blog, most of you are dads or at least husbands. Therefore I can assume you have a spouse. If she happens to still live with you, go out and buy the following:

Hypnotiq
Decent vodka
Grand Marnier or Chambord
Pomegranate juice
Lemon

In a shaker filled with ice add:
1 1/2 oz vodka
1 1/2 oz Hypnotiq
1/2 oz Grand Marnier
juice of 1/4 lemon

Shake until it's cold and pour into a martini glass. It should be a freakishly unnatural color green. Pour in a dollop of pomegranate juice which should stay at the bottom giving you a rather cheerful looking holiday cocktail sure to make her remember just how awesome you are.

The joy of ground turkey

The mid-atlantic is a pretty big poultry area so I'm not sure if ground turkey is as cheap everywhere, but here it's about $4 a lb.

Two things I can bank on my kids eating are pasta and tortillas. Every week I buy a lb of ground turkey which results in at least two of taco night, spaghetti and meatball night or sloppy joe's. Augment that with broccoli, green beans or chopped veg and you're done with dinner. If you choose taco night and are looking for a starch, a can of Goya black beans mixed in with a cup of cooked rice and a dash of cumin work for us. Our kids are somewhat adventurous so we add some chopped cilantro.

As far as spaghetti night goes; Barilla all the way.

Weather capitaization

Winter grilling. One of the things I do in the summer on Sunday after the trip to the grocery store is grill stuff for the week ahead. Flank steak, chicken breasts, tofu, lamb, whatever Safeway has on sale. That way I have lots of options when I get home at 6 pm in terms of what to make for dinner. If you have tortillas and cheddar cheese or pita bread, a cucumber, a lemon and some dill, you've got dinner ready before the Simpsons reruns at 7 pm.

Lately here in DC the weather has been in the 50's so grilling is an option. So if you've got the warmth, take advantage of it and set yourself up for a week of reheated grilled meat. If you're anti-meat, grill some tofu or portabello mushrooms to add to dinner as the week progresses. But if you are in fact anti-meat, you shouldn't be reading this blog.

The remains of the roast beast

Every Christmas we have my family over and cook a standing rib roast which my kids have dubbed the roast beast. If we have leftovers, they're generally made into sandwiches and the bones go to the dog. Well, with the recession upon us, I did the responsible thing and made them into stock which became beef with barley soup.

1 cup of barley
3 cups of beef stock
1 1/2 cup water
splash of red wine
splash of any tomato sauce you may have left and need to use
s & p
sour cream
parsley

Wash a cup of barley well.
Simmer 1 hour in 3 cups of stock and a 1 1/2 cuppa h2o and splash of wine.
After an hour add cut up carrots and celery.
Cook another hour.

Serve with chopped parsley, sour cream and pepper.

Holiday cookbooks

My wife got me the new Jamie Oliver cookbook. It's called Jamie at Home and it's got some good stuff in it. It's British so there's some typically disgusting stuff using blood, etc. The book design is great and there are some great photos of dead rabbits for the kids.

Last night I roasted two Cornish game hens and made the first recipe from the book: Roasted beets and carrots. Dead simple.

8 or so small carrots. Bagged from the supermarket is fine, just find a bag with lots of skinny ones.
4 beets
4 sprigs of thyme
5 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
5 cloves of garlic peeled and smashed up to smithereens
olive oil
s & p

Parboil peeled carrots and beets in separate pans for about 10 mins.
Heat oven to 425.
Put some olive oil in a shallow roasting pan.
Peel beets and cut into quarters or smaller depending on size. You want 'em bite size.
Toss carrots and beets with mashed up garlic, s & p and thyme leaves.
Lay remaining thyme at the bottom of the pan and put veg on top. Roast for 30 min.

Cooking playlist

It's essential to have tunes in the kitchen. We do something really simple: hook my iPod Nano up to a couple of cheap Bose speakers. Helps contain the sound to just the kitchen area so when I'm listening to The Hold Steady and making Steak Diane, I won't interrupt homework.

I think it's good to pair music and food. For example, Saturday morning brunch prep goes well with any Jenny Lewis - solo, Rilo Kiley or w/the Watson Twins.

Here's a picture of pan roasted chicken I made right before the holidays while listening to the new Okkervil River album.

1 good chicken...supermarket or Perdue work, but if you can get a better one, it's worth it.
1 lemon, quartered
1 sprig rosemary or dried
2 -3 sprigs thyme or dried
1 cup white wine
couple shakes of olive oil
2 tsp butter
3/4 cuppa chicken stock
4 - 5 slices of thick bacon
head of garlic, pulled apart but not peeled
s & p

Preheat oven to 350.
Quarter the chicken; rinse and pat dry
wash the dead chicken bacteria off your hands
cut up bacon and fry in an oven-safe skillet; cast iron works well
put some s & p, half the thyme and half the rosemary in a bowl with the butter and mix it all together. Rub on the quartered chicken.

When bacon is getting crispy, move it aside and lay in the chicken skin side down and brown on medium heat. Turn it over after about 5 minutes being careful not to break skin. Cook 5 min more.

Take it off heat, add wine, stock, lemons, garlic and the rest of the herbs. Cook for 35-40 minutes in the oven or until your meat thermometer hits 160.

First

So I've had a fair amount of time around the house over the last month as I tapped my unused vacation fund before it went poof. Aside from losing to my daughters in all things Wii, I've been cooking my sack off.