Veganlious Martini

Happy 50th Birthday Goods!!

Goods turned 50 this year...he is now exactly 50 years and 10 days old....I'm a little late on the birthday post.  BUT I HAVE AN EXCUSE....I was busy using my knowledge I have obtained in my beverage class - BIRTHDAY MARTINIS.....with a little side of fish.

This is how the class instructor taught us how to make these puppies....You can be only 14 steps away from your own PERFECT MARTINI.

1. Take you glass -  
2. Put a couple drops of vermouth in it.
3. Add some ice
4. Swirl the ice & droplets of vermouth around. (try not to make a mess)
5. Set glass aside.
6. Take a stainless steel mixing glass & fill with ice
7. Add 3 oz of your favorite vodka (Skyy for me please)
8. Swirl it around to make the vodka super duper cold
9. Take your glass - dump out the ice (into a sink - that would be tidy of you)
10. Strain the vodka into the glass
11. Stab some olives with a plastic sword
12. Garnish accordingly
13. Take picture of perfect martini
14. Drink and Enjoy

Here is some drinking trivia ...you know the jigger...not that I am a fan of it - why do you need to measure you booze after all????

Okay- trivia question....
What do you call the small side of the jigger??
The 1.5 oz is actually called the jigger.
The other side is usually a mear 1 oz  (why even bother???)
.
.

Answer...Ready??
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A pony!

So I guess if I would have bought Goods a Jigger for his birthday - he would have gotten a PONY TOO! What kid doesn't want a pony for his birthday??

What I did get him was a new flavor vodka (we are on a flavored vodka kick right now...and a mission to quit adding Diet Coke to our vodka....because as you know, Diet Coke is bad for you)

Three Olives Pomegranate Vodka....an excellent choice may I say.

'Tis done with this post....geez louise - 2 post in one week....
I spoil you so!

To hold you over (till a foodie post).....

have a cocktail....a Pink Cadillac to be exact....
I made these yesterday - extremely yummy but we only had one each because they are sweet.

Pink Cadillac

1.5 ounces of Skyy Vodka

3/4 ounce of Chambord

1/4 ounce of Anise flavor liquor (sambuca will work)

1 once of Sweet & Sour Syrup**

1 ounce of Soy Creamer.

Put all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake the hell out of it.

Pour and enjoy!

**Sweet & Sour Syrup recipe

1/2 c. simple syrup

3/4 c fresh lime juice

3/4 c. fresh lemon juice

mix together and use or store in fridge

Well today is my last day of spring break...back to classes tomorrow to kick some ass.

I will see YOU soon!

Watermelon & Booze....

...two of my favorite things - blended together to make Watermelon Slushies.... The bread, off to the lower left is banana bread I whipped up for and sent to my Dad for his birthday- he doesn't even know it's vegan & I'm not telling him.

But here is Goods enjoy the Watermelon Slushie-

How cool of Goods to wear a shirt that matches the drink!

This is just such a refreshing cocktail - from Vegetarian Times - here it is:

4 Cups of seedless watermelon cubed

1/2 Cup of Vodka (Skyy for me please)

1/4 Cup lime juice

1/4 Cup powdered sugar

1. Place watermelon cubes in shallow baking dish. Freeze 4 hours, or until solid.

2. Blend frozen watermelon cubes, vodka, lime juice & sugar until smooth.

**Now it states that it makes 4 servings - yeah maybe for elves, it really makes 2 servings for the Goods' family.

Now here is Lily attacking my ugly watermelon color cloggy shoes - yes they are gawd awful ugly - but they are great to wear in the kitchen, for my back, while standing on the tile floor.

And just a note on these shoes - I DID NOT BUY THEM MYSELF - they were a "THOUGHTFUL" gift from a friend- I don't let anyone see me in them - guess I'm a closet ugly clog wearer.

Well enjoy the rest of the weekend!!! Cheers!

Garden Good-Dees

Oh - it's a happy time of the year. Our garden is producing such goodness that yesterday I got to harvest a variety of items to make dinner last night. Here is a peeksee of our garden as of yesterday.....

Even though our tomato plants are taller then me (I'm 5' 7"), we sadly do not have any tomatoes yet- but soon, that is if we can get them before the squirrels do.

So the first thing I picked from the garden was MINT. What did I make with MINT? This liquid goodness.... MOJITOS. I used 2 different recipes this one and this one

This is what I did-

12 mint leaves
2 tsp raw sugar (oops, I think I used 2 TBS and I wasn't testing the rum ahead of time either)
3 tbs fresh lime juice (worked out to be one lime)
1.5 oz of light rum
5 oz of *chilled* club soda

put the mint leaves, sugar and lime juice in tall thin glass (which I was lacking) - Muddle with a pestle. Add crushed ice, rum and club soda. Stir well. Enjoy.




I thought these were very refreshing and yummy- and I really don't do rum- I USE NOT TO DO RUM, I will be making these again and soon.

On to FOOD......

We had a couple of Italian eggplants ready (yeah ask the squirrel who had a snack!) so I thought I would throw together a pasta dish. So from the garden I used, eggplant, banana peppers, parsley, basil, and oregano. From the fridge, tomatoes, zucchini, green pepper, leeks, garlic, onion and roasted red pepper. All from my organic home delivery service. Topped with toasted pinenuts.



Also this weekend I used the spinach I planted to make artichoke & spinach dip and I used a few jalapenos and stuffed them with "cheese" for some appetizers.

Oh- then we had the basic salad that featured lettuce and kale from the garden.



So overall - 5 out of 5 forks - how can't it be with all that garden goodness!

POMEGRANATE SUNDAY

I've had a thing for pomegranates recently. I've been wanting to make pomegranate martinis recipe that I printed off the Internet- AND COULDN'T FIND yesterday. Well I came up with a recipe from Oprah's site. I opened the bottle of pomegranate concentrate I bought at our local Mediterranean store- brown goo came out. Yes, it tasted like pomegranate but there was NO way I was drinking a foofoo martini that was brown. So I did what I do best- improvise- and it turned out delish! Just look at the delish-ness!

The improvising went as follows

juice of one fresh pomegranate
juice of one fresh lemon
juice of one blood orange
enough orange juice to make total of 1 1/2 cups of total juice

2 oz of Vodka
1 oz of Grand Marnier

Combine in shaker with ice- and of course- shake!
Serve in sugared rimmed glasses with few pomegranate seeds in the
bottom for an extra treat! Makes 2 servings.

So as I was enjoying the above beverage, I made dinner. And to follow the theme of things; I made BBQ Pomegranate Tofu (pg 149) and Coconut Rice with Toasted Coconut (pg 109) from Vegan with a Vengeance.

I threw in the tofu some veggies I had on hand - broccoli, red peppers, carrots and onions. Oh- I ate more then I have shown in the photo! Both Goods and I went back for seconds. It was not only delicious, it was fairly easy to prepare.

Overall rating out of 5 forks - if I could it would be 6 forks- but 5 it is!