Honey Bourbon Toddy: Cough Syrup for Grown Ups

I came down with the cold of the century early this year. I was miserable and wanted to sip on something with healing properties that would also help me go to sleep. My cure was this seasonal mixture of booze, water, honey, citrus and spices, otherwise known as the Hot Toddy. It soothes, coddles, and makes everything right in your world - the equivalent of Mom.

In a microwavable mug I measure out 4 oz Water and 1-2 Tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon. Microwave for one minute to get piping hot. Then I stir in in 1-2 Tablespoons of local honey and 2 oz of Bourbon (like Bulleit or TX Bourbon). I use a loose tea steeper to drop in 6 cloves and then stir with a cinnamon stick.

The warm adult beverage does the trick to calm my cough and help me sleep. Well, it's actually the honey that does the trick, I think. But the bourbon sure doesn't hurt.  Taking a full spoonful of honey has been shown to be very effective at calming nighttime coughs but it is not as fun as this adult cough remedy.

Thanks to the cold, I started liking bourbon and now I'm a whiskey girl. Who would have thought?!?!

Cranberry Cabernet Meatballs

Jim and I threw our annual Christmas party last month and I did all the food planning and cooking. It is an event I look forward to every year and I begin the planning process in November. One of the appetizers I decided on early were these Cranberry Cabernet Meatballs. I could just imagine how the flavors would come together and I knew I could get this made the night before and quickly put out with little preparation the next evening. It's a winner folks!

Here is what I used:
2 lbs fully cooked frozen meatballs
2 cans whole cranberry sauce (not the jelly)
2 cups firmly-packed brown sugar
4 teaspoons hot Chinese mustard

2 cups GOOD Cabernet Sauvignon (I can't emphasize the need to use good wine enough. I used a Murphy-Goode Cab from California)

This recipe could not be simpler. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add cranberry sauce, brown sugar, Cabernet wine and Chinese mustard.

Stir and let the mixture simmer for five minutes. Remove from heat, let cool and then I placed mine in the fridge overnight until it was party time.

The night of our Christmas party I poured the sauce back into a saucepan and heated until warm. I thought the sauce was too thin, so I mixed about a tablespoon of cornstarch with some water and stirred into the sauce. Within a minute the sauce thickened up to my liking.

For the meatballs, you can either heat them in the microwave or oven and then stir into the sauce and serve. Likewise, if you are putting this into a crockpot, you could add the cooked and frozen meatballs into the sauce and turn the crockpot on high for an hour or so until the meatballs are thawed and hot.
 

I served the Cranberry Cabernet Meatballs in this chafing dish and I couldn't BELIEVE the reaction I received. I am not exaggerating, everyone went nuts over this appetizer and the meatballs went so quickly! Jim is still pissed that he only got two...he says when he went back for seconds they were all gone. I made 2 lbs of Cranberry Cabernet Meatballs!

I would say that the wine you select is very important for this dish. The meatballs themselves also need to be a brand you know and trust. If you want to make the meatballs yourself, even better. Here is my recipe for homemade meatballs. If using homemade, I would suggest you cook them fully before adding to the sauce so that they hold together and not fall apart. I've done this before and ended up with meat sauce instead of meatballs in tomato sauce. I wouldn't say it's a terrible thing, I just served it over noodles and called it something entirely different.

Next up is the other meatball recipe I used at the 2010 Christmas party. It was actually MY favorite, but for some reason most guests (or at least the first 20 people) gravitated towards the Cabernet Meatballs. Oh, and I couldn't end the post without pointing you to the first cocktail meatball recipe I ever tried. The ingredient list will surprise you but your guests will love you for serving them. Check out these Hard To Believe Meatballs, I will give you a hint...there is grape jelly in the sauce!

Cilantro-Lime Mayo

I started flipping through this cookbook and an hour later I had to force myself to put it down - it's so amazing and full of interesting recipes and equally interesting tidbits about eacha artist who contributed the recipe. I like all types of music, but I love country music. The first thing I did was look up all the artists I liked most and about died when I read Robert Earl Keen's Bacon-Wrapped Dove Breasts. The ingredient list is 12 dove breasts, teriyaki marinade, salt, pepper, fresh jalapeno peppers and 6 slices bacon. Doesn't that sound like a perfect recipe? Simple but full of BIG flavor.

Then I laughed out loud when I read Pat Green's recipe for Chicken Squares. His recipe actually reads, "Cook the chicken however you like: grill it, bake it, cook it in the microwave. Hell, it doesn't matter as long as it's fully cooked." He ends with saying, "...let them cook for 5 minutes - that concoction in the middle gets nuclear hot and will remove the top of your mouth if you aren't careful. Served with a salad and a beer, you have a good right-down-the-middle meal. Yummy good."

I guess you are wanting to know who will be the next proud owner of this tasty cookbook, Music in the Kitchen by Glenda Pierce Facemire. I numbered all the comments and used a random integer generator to determine the winner. The lucky winner is: Natalie! She's the one going to Diego and Boston. Check out her cute blog The Sweets Life.

Congrats Natalie! Shoot me an e-mail so I can send this brand new cookbook to you.

I got a quick recipe to share too! After Jim and I returned from our honeymoon we had my brother and his girlfriend Tiffany over for a weeknight dinner. I was feeling particularly inspired by seafood...well, mainly because I asked Jim what he wanted to eat and he said simply "seafood." So I went to work looking for recipes that inspired me and met his criteria.

For the starter course, I made a salad of mixed greens dressed in a simple salad dressing, topped with two seared scallops and drizzled with this really yummy Cilantro-Lime Mayo. For the special sauce, you will need cilantro (duh), mayo (duh), dijon mustard (secret ingredient!), garlic, lime and tabasco.

Throw it all in the food processor and blend until you get everything minced and combined really well.

Voila, Cilantro-Lime Mayo. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

I wanted the ingredients to sit and get to know each other really well, so I put it in a zip top bag (labeled of course) and into the fridge for a couple of hours.

Here is the beautiful salad. The salad dressing was made up of grapeseed oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Really simple stuff, lightly tossed with the baby greens. Next I seared the scallops, read here for more info on searing scallops. Then I snipped the end of my zip top bag and squeezed a dollop of the Cilantro-Lime Mayo on top of the scallops. This was surprisingly GREAT for something so simple! The Cilantro-Lime Mayo was so good in fact that I could have thinned it with olive oil and used it as a salad dressing.

The entree I served was this flavorful pan seared Tuna with Ginger Shiitake Cream Sauce. If you do the prepping before hand, the dish comes together really quickly.  It's a great recipe to have in your arsenal and even better to impress friends (or your brother and his girlfriend) with all your culinary talent.

We ended our dinner by opening this bottle of Limoncello that we brought back from Italy. Kept in the freezer, it's ready to pour and sip following any meal. It's the perfect after dinner drink in my opinion, I absolutely fell in love with this in Italy.

Cole (bottom left) made friends this night too. Deuce (top right) came with Tiffany and thoroughly enjoyed lounging in Cole's bed. I thought it was so cute the way they shared the bed.

{Cilantro-Lime Mayo}

Irish Beef Stew

This is a big bowl of hearty Irish Beef Stew.

This is my Irish man. He's so handsome. And sweet. And he's trying to figure out if the wine has gone bad. After another taste test, he confirmed the wine was not good. And you know I wouldn't cook with wine that I wouldn't also drink.

Saturday was my ideal day. I woke up around 6:30 AM and got out the door early. My first stop, Starbucks, my second stop, the grocery store. I really enjoy grocery shopping. Coffee in hand, I'm wearing my comfortable shoes with a detailed and organized list in hand. Oh, I love mornings like this. I bought groceries for the week, but I was most excited about the Irish Beef Stew I was going to make for Jim today.

This hearty stew has layers of flavor, from beef stock to wine to a stout beer, I chose this recipe from Simply Recipes because it made my mouth water just reading the ingredients.

Irish Beef Stew is perfect for the Irishman in your life, or anyone who needs a stick-to-your-ribs meal in the winter. We've been having 25 degree weather here in Austin. Which, by the way doesn't sound too bad when I heard from Jamie in Kentucky that she was experiencing 11 degree weather! Oh my! Jamie, make this stew - and hurry! It will warm your house and your belly.

Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/4 pounds well-marbled chuck beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch pieces (NOT extra-lean)
6 large garlic cloves, minced
6 cups beef stock or canned beef broth
I cup of Guinness beer
1 cup of fine red wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 7 cups)
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups 1/2-inch pieces peeled carrots
Salt and Pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

This was twice as much beef as I needed, but it was such a good price and WELL MARBLED, so I cut this in half and stuck it in the freezer - for another use, at this time we don't know its destiny.

With the remaining half, I cut into one inch slices.

Then diced into one inch cubes.

Salt the meat well.

Side Note: Do you notice anything different? Have you thought that these photos rock? Is it just my obsession with food porn? I hope I'm not alone in this. Well.... I received a Cannon T1i for Christmas and although I have a long way to go in the photography department, I'm super excited about the way these photos turned out!

Garlic! Oh how I love thee. The recipe calls for six garlic cloves, I might have gone a little overboard.

I just started mincing and couldn't stop.

In a large dutch oven I added 1/4 cup of olive oil and heated over medium-high heat. Well, I didn't measure the oil but I feel pretty good about my estimating skills.

Working in batches, add the beef making sure you do not crowd the pan, or the meat will steam and not brown. Cook, without stirring, until nicely browned on one side, then use tongs to turn the pieces over.

Continue to cook in this manner until all sides are browned, about 5 minutes.

Jim is sitting on the couch watching some crazy movie about a woman who's astronaut husband is taken over by an alien and comes back to earth to impregnate her with alien twins. It was bizarre and he was totally into it, but the SMELL of these beef nuggets cooking was enough for him to pause, turn around and say, that smells good! Then he comes in and tries to steal a piece of the seared beef. And I let him, because he is a devilishly handsome Irishman.

Once all the meat is seared, add back to the dutch oven. Quickly before another member of your family steals another piece!

Now add in all the freshly minced garlic.

Add six cups of beef stock.

This is going to lift all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan also, creating some of the best flavor for your beef stew.

Recipe calls for Guinness, but my HEB was selling individual bottles so I purchased this cream stout. Hmmm... I wonder if I can still call this Irish Beef Stew? Oh, what the heck... My cooking, my blog.

Again, I reiterate that you must cook with wine that you would also drink! Cooking with gross stuff makes your food taste gross.

Add the wine, the beer, and you have some great layers of flavor already in this stew.

2 Tablespoons of tomato paste.

1 Tablespoon of sugar.

1 Tablespoon of dried thyme. And I must insert here that I would have halved this amount, because the flavor of the thyme in the end was a tad too strong for my taste. Maybe a fresh thyme sprig would be better next time.

1 Tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce.

Add your bay leaves. Stir to combine. Bring mixture to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Now for all the vegetables! This is three pounds of russet potatoes, peeled and beautiful in all their nakedness.

Dice into 1/2 inch pieces. I diced mine more like one inch pieces, which I'm glad I did, because later on in the recipe we saute these, then add to the soup to simmer for 45 minutes and they fall a part a little, and I wanted chunky potatoes in the stew.

I love chopping onions. I have these really cool/cute pink onion goggles that I wear. They make me feel like a mad scientist in the kitchen. Lop off the top end of the onion, leaving the roots. Cut the onion in half from root to tip. Peel off the paper skin. Then make several small vertical slices all the way through the onion (as shown.)

Next, rotate the onion 90 degrees and slice again, creating a fine dice.

Ah, I big pile of accomplishment right there. Also note the diced celery which is a Mandy addition, not originally in the recipe. That is about two stalks of diced celery.

The stew meat and liquids are simmering away. Meanwhile, in another pan I melt one Tablespoon of butter, and add two cups of chopped carrots. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring often.

The carrots are such a big veggie that I gave them a head start. Next I add all the chopped onion and the celery along with another "knob" of butter.

Saute vegetables until golden, about 20 minutes.

After an hour, the stew has really reduced - which is good since we are about to add lots of veggies.

Dump them in, give them a good stir.

Now for the potatoes. I tossed the potato pieces with a sprinkle of garlic powder, onion powder and white pepper in the hot skillet for a short 5-10 minutes.

Add the potatoes to the stew. My dutch oven is really getting full!

Simmer uncovered until vegetables and beef are very tender, about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, I get down on the floor and test my photography skills with the babies (aka our dogs Madeline and Cole.) This is Madeline's "what's going on face."

I call her name and this is her saying "Yes mother?"

Now she's checking out the digital camera. She isn't all the comfortable in front of it.

You know where she is comfortable? In Jim's arms. (Me too Madeline!)

I love that he loves my babies as much as I do.

Raawwwwwwr!

Oh! I can't forget the squirt. Cole, my badass poodle sporting a mohawk.

It's READY!

Garnish with a sprig of parsley, serve with crusty bread. Enjoy!