Livin' and Lovin' in the ROC city

Wednesday night’s blackberry thyme margarita may have been a royal epic fail, but this summer has already yielded some refreshing culinary successes.

Notably, a fresh toasted tomato basil sandwich…

…a refreshing cucumber raspberry cocktail…

…absolutely delicious and extremely flavorful homemade baked jalapeno poppers….

…and sweet Brazilian lemonade made with two very unexpected ingredients, sweet condensed milk and limes!

Here’s how it works: While the cat’s away, the mice will play. In this instance, Ted is the cat (he hates this metaphor already) and I am the mouse. I have a taste for spices, eclectic flavors, and variety. Ted’s a little more cut and dry when it comes to culinary experimentation. He’s got his favorites and that’s what he tends to stick to. For example, he won’t eat black beans, tomato, asparagus, shrimp, artichoke, jalapeno, feta cheese, spicy foods, avocado, or guacamole. I eat guacamole like it is my job. So when Ted has to work late at CCM or has a gig doing an install for some company, I take the opportunity to enjoy my Friday night in true fat-ass fashion – with an impromptu feast of recipes I’ve been itching to try, but that I know Ted would abhor if I churned them out for dinner one night. So while my cat is away, I settle in for a wild and crazy night of cooking, eating, drinking, eating some more, and washing dishes. This is a win-win situation for both of us. I get to relish the flavors of foods I don’t normally get to make, and Ted doesn’t have to suffer through my loony array of dishes that include every single thing he does not eat.

By the way, I know I said I wouldn’t be trying my hand at another cocktail for at least the next month or so since I can’t seem to make them without exploding staining berries all over the kitchen, but how could I pass up the raspberry cucumber cocktail? I already had all the major ingredients on hand and what I didn’t have I substituted for other classics I did have in stock. The raspberries have been so sweet and plump this season, and the cucumbers so crisp and cool. The combination was bound to be impressive. I’m proud to report that it was a delicious success of a cocktail – a definite keeper!

And the Brazilian lemonade? I owe its first-time success to the fact, although it required ice and a blender, it is non-alcoholic. I seem to have better luck with virgin drinks. Anyhow, if you’re looking for something sweet to serve at a BBQ or party, this recipe should do the trick. I also admit that this was my very first time to use sweet condensed milk in anything. It’s strange stuff, so syrupy sweet that I can’t imagine it has very many uses outside of Mexican desserts, but I’m glad I finally got to try it!

Back to those fantastic sandwiches! Unfortunately, my basil plant hasn’t grown large enough yet to actually use any of the basil in my recipes. Also, I haven’t had a free Saturday morning with which to try out our local Farmers Market since it opened at the end of May, which is disappointing. But as soon as I make it to the Farmers Market at the beginning of July, I’ll be stocking up on fresh, home-grown produce for these toasted tomato basil sandwiches! Here’s the ingredients you’ll need: a fresh loaf of sourdough bread, a vine-ripe tomato, basil leaves, a fresh garlic clove, salt, olive oil, and a slice of provolone cheese. Though the cheese is optional because the sandwich tastes just as nice without it.

The fresher the ingredients, the tastier the sandwich! Healthy and beaming with flavor? I seriously can’t stop eating these! Do yourself a favor and toast the bread – it really does make a difference. I love garlic, so I slice a clove of it and rub it on the toasted bread to bring out the flavor and then I top the tomato with the remaining pieces of chopped garlic. The link above has loose instructions for how to compile this masterpiece, in case you’re looking for some guidance.

All I have to say about the jalapeno poppers is that they are Tasty, with a capital T! Of course fried greasy jalapeno poppers are delicious (hence the words “fried” and “greasy”) but these baked ones are not only much healthier, but the variety of spices the recipe calls for really gives them a great kick of flavor unlike any other jalapeno popper I’ve ever had. I’d definitely recommend that you try out this recipe. It makes a fantastic appetizer.

The watermelons this season have been juicy and sweet as well. Excellent for cookouts and homemade frozen watermelon juice pops. I can’t wait for the summer to progress to peach and cherry season! I’m anxious to track down a local farm and do some picking of my own! Also in the works this summer will be homemade ice cream (I’m thinking chocolate, peach, and cherry!), though this might be difficult without the aide of an ice cream maker. Any hints where I can pick one up on the cheap? Or is it possible to make it without if I’m willing to put in a little extra physical labor?

Also on the menu will be my first attempt at homemade ravioli – cheese and lobster and a homemade tomato cream sauce if I can swing it! Likely, I won’t make the dough for the ravioli shells unless I’m feeling especially advantageous. I’ll use pre-made ravioli/wanton wrappers, make the filling and sauce, then stuff, seal and bake the raviolis. My mouth is watering just thinking about them!

Yesterday I had the day off so I took a few hours to meet Ted for a rare lunch date at Cactus Pear, a downtown Cincinnati restaurant with a southwest flair I’ve been aching to try. And it was delicious! They boast a menu of corn chips and flavorful brown salsa for starters, and unique southwest style sandwiches and entrees featuring ingredients like pork, pepper jack cheese, cumin spread, and roasted potatoes with sweet chili glaze. I think we’ve found a new favorite lunching spot. Not to mention getting to see Ted in the middle of the day was truly awesome! I wish we could lunch together more often. And by “lunch together more often,” I really mean “lunch together more often at Cactus Pear.”

This is going to be a tasty summer!

This week’s Epic Fail Friday topic was brought to you entirely by me.

On Wednesday night I tried to make this:

Find it here!

Looks good, doesn’t it? I thought the thyme sprig with speared blackberry was an especially thoughtful garnish. I already had blackberries on hand, so on my weekly grocery run I picked up a bundle of fresh thyme and a cheap bottle of triple sec and I made my own simple syrup at home. You see, this is the kind of recipe I’m drawn to trying because it looks like fun. The picture is downright pretty and the combination of the ingredients is simultaneously elegant and weird enough that I feel compelled to taste it. I’ve certainly never thought of blackberry and thyme as complimentary flavors, but throw in a little lime and some triple sec and sure, why not? I’m all about trying new things and I love using herbs in my cooking.

I should preface this tale by making it very clear that I’m not a bartender. I can cook like a champ and I can bake pretty well too, but I’ve never been a natural at making drinks. In fact, nearly every time, from college onward, that I have attempted a mixed drink, cocktail or other icy beverage concoction including smoothies that require ice and a blender, it inevitably turns out disastrously. I have a literal laundry list of pretty little alcoholic drinks I have tried to make and failed at. The problem is that in theory whipping these things together is so easy. So if I can quickly, accurately, and tastily craft far more complex dishes, why can’t I master this? A few ingredients, a handful of ice, and a minute in the blender is all it takes. What’s so difficult about pulling this off? Never the one to just gracefully accept my weakness and let it go, I decided to give it a whirl thinking that this time will be different. And it all went great until the end. Though it is fair to say that when the recipe calls for three sprigs of thyme, use three or even four if you relish a stronger hint of thyme, but six may have been overkill. I’m a recipe tweaker. I like to make my mark on recipes with a unique change or two to really make it my own, but in the future I think I’ll stick to tweaking less potent ingredients. Trial and error my friends.

I’d pureed the blackberries and thyme until it reached a delicious and vibrantly purple consistency, and then mixed in the correct measurements of rum, simple syrup, triple sec, lime and sparkling water. I dumped it all back in the food processor (because mine is supposed to be able to chop ice and I didn’t want to pull out the big blender for two tiny little drinks), dropped in a handful of ice, closed the lid securely, locked it, held my hand over it, and hit “high” on the food processor. Looking back, it may have been a touch full, but whatever, right? It’ll be fine. And then it all went to hell.

Blackberry juice (blackberries that stain, might I add) exploded out of the food processor. There was blackberry drink slush oozing down the sides of the food processor, and splatters of it decorating the cabinets, the counters, the walls, the floor, the socks on Ted’s feet, my white tank top, and the basil plant. The kitchen looked like a crime scene. The sink was full of deep purple debris, my white tank top became tie-dye, the tan dish towel morphed into the purple dish towel, and the floor was a sticky mess. The ice remained unchopped. Of course.

I stood there totally dumbfounded while Ted calmly carried the remains of my precious blackberry thyme margaritas over to the sink and tried, unsuccessfully, to chop the rest of the ice and salvage what was left. They tasted merely okay, so I don’t think I’ll be making them again, in part because this particular patch of blackberries wasn’t very sweet or flavorful, but it also might have tasted a little less bitter had I not decided to get my money’s worth out of that $1.99 bundle of thyme. I think I’ll refrain from tempting fate and trying to sharpen my mad mixed drink skills for at least the next month or so. That’s what trained bartenders are for. My talents, clearly, lie elsewhere.

And I never did get to use the delicate little thyme sprig and speared blackberry garnish that I admired so.

Epic fail.

Or, as Ted said,

“That wasn’t an epic fail. That was a royal epic fail.”