Monday, August 24, 2015

Drinking: Pineapple Rum

I found these cute 70's cocktail glasses at the thrift store for 50 cents each! A random customer stated their jealousy of my great find so I had to come home and put them to good work immediately!
I used this recipe for inspiration but this is basically 1/4 cup dark rum, 1/2 cup freshly made pineapple juice, and a tiny bit of lime juice. Served over ice. 

It's basically delicious! 

Monday, August 17, 2015

Fermented Pickles

I came across some pickling cucumbers through a friend of a friend of a friend. There are always too many cucumbers! 

I roughly followed this fermented pickle recipe (and by roughly I mean I threw some salt and water in jar and the next day I added, without measuring, some pickling spices). It seems to be going well though as within a day tiny bubbles were forming at the surface and within 3 days the jars were smelling like pickles.  

These photos are the pickles at four days. I can't wait to try them! 

Have you made fermented pickles? 

Monday, August 10, 2015

Eating the Web: Kombucha, Kvass, and Aquafaba

1. Chocolate Beer: A non-alcoholic beer which uses beer brewing principles with cocoa beans makes for a very interesting concept. 

2. 21 Ways to Flavour Kombucha: My SCOBY has been basically undisturbed since I acquired it last fall. Time to brew up some new flavours! 

3. Cooking with Beet Kvass: I participated in a free 2 hour fermenting class a few weeks ago - and it's really inspired me to get back to fermenting. Using beet kvass in Bloody Mary's seems like an excellent idea! 

4. Coffee and Tonic Water: Back in the good ole days when I lived in Toronto, we regularly visited a few coffee shops that offered drink options that combined carbonated beverages with coffee - they were all delicious and I really should DIY it. 

5. Aquafaba: I've been intrigued by this concept for weeks now. Basically, the liquid in canned beans (especially chickpeas) can be used as an egg substitute and made into classic egg dishes like meringues! (I made some vegan butter that will be up next week!)     

Monday, August 3, 2015

Review: Beet Juice Powder

I've finally joined the 'green juice' campaign. I've jumped on this trendy bandwagon because due to some health issues last winter I was unable to eat anywhere near the 'proper' amount of food. I picked up a Magic Bullet and have been happily juicing kale and spinach and adding either oranges or fresh pineapples (dear gawd - don't forget to add some sweet fruit!) to help me eat more each day. 

I received a free jar of Pines Beet Juice Powder and added two teaspoons to my kale and orange smoothie this morning. It does add some of that great 'earthiness' that's associated with my love of beets and makes the drink a deep red colour. It seems a bit pricey for a dried product but does contain mostly beets. This product is also raw, gluten free, non-gmo, and USDA Organic so overall it's a pretty slick way to get some beets into your morning smoothie. 

I wonder if it would make a good 'red velvet' cake? hmmmm.