Gin take 2

1 cup of vodka
1 tablespoon dried juniper berries

For those who truly love "real" gin, aka juniper-based gin, I am making a side supplement to my juniper-free gin. I shall report back in a few days.

Jujuju juice it, real good

In addition to joining a gym I've been juicing... fruits and veggies, not the other kind. I did a short stint at the now defunct Bananarama in Amherst, MA blending smoothies and crafting juices. Adding ginger changed my opinion of veggie-heavy fruit juices; it really helps it sparkle so it is not too vegetal. Carrot-beet-apple-celery with a hint of ginger is one of my all time favorites. I have been messing around with adding more greens - it definitely changes the color, but if there are some sweet fruits thrown in, the end result is really great.

technicolor snack brought to you by:
beets, beet greens, kale, carrot, zucchini, cucumber, apple, ginger

Gluten free beer bread

I have to give a nod to my friend Rena on this lemonade of an idea: gluten free beer bread. There have been several new-to-me gluten free beers that I have tried lately... but I have not liked nor blogged about them. I find that all gluten free beers fall into one ore more of these categories:
-too sweet
-not carbinated enough
-almost no noticeable hops
-wine-like flavor, rather than a beer-like flavor

I do have hope, Dogfish Head is going to release a new gluten-free beer: Tweason'ale. Till then, I have some bottles knocking around in the back of the fridge that need a purpose, thus it is bread making time!

So here is my first semi-failed attempt at beer bread. You can see it exploded, and then collapsed, and then when fully cooled became a doughball.

Honestly, I felt like I was gluten free bread baking for the first time. See the uneven crumb! The saddness of a falling loaf! This, my friends, is grounds for improvement!

gin-us

Last Friday night a few people encouraged the gin making to stop, mostly to allow for more substantial gin tasting to occur. I have to say, these are some of the smartest people out there because the end result was amazing.

The "headiness" of the bergamont, where it was very strong in the nose, has really mellowed. So much so I am not sure I would pick it out as the first smell. The flavor is a lot more spicy, in the slightly prickly way - I could really taste the cubebs and grains of paradise! The other marked improvement is that the beverage tastes a lot less, well, vodka-like. Don't get me wrong, but I was a little disappointed when the original recipe I read online suggested steeping for 24 hours, because after 24 hours this was less awesome than after 17 days.

I am going to have to whip up a batch of tonic water asap. 

stats stat!

If you like stats, graphs, numbers, refresh the ngr home page and you can now view some basic stats!

Your eyes are not deceiving you, its over 72,000 page views!

Gluten-free, its the law

There are new legal definitions of "gluten free". Things are changing... in Europe.

Come across the pond I say!

Can you hear me barking USDA & FDA peeps?!

Best colleges for gluten-free

Here are the top 14 U.S. colleges, ranked by bestcollegesonline.com, that increase awareness and access to gluten-free options.

Some of these are so cool I almost want to go back to school.

Gluten in Medications Survey

As part of the FDA study, the NFCA's Gluten in Medications Survey is now live. It only takes a few minutes, and this is valuable data that hopefully will lead to better rules and regulations, including labeling. If you or a loved one had Celiac Disease and/or avoids gluten, please link on over and click yourself some answers.

not by the hairs of my ginny gin gin

Ever since I tackled tonic water, I have been wanting to attempt homemade gin. Actually, that is a bit of a lie. Several years ago, I got into a rather heated discussion about my adamant dislike of gin. It falls into the category of "it tastes like licking a christmas tree, which I am not into". (see also, pine nuts)

For this reason, I had been seeking out a juniper-free gin. Apparently if you remove the juniper, gin it cannot be. Gin only is if juniper is present. This conversation lead to a quest for an "infused vodka" that contained all of the gin botanicals, sans juniper. We found one, but Four Square. It was ok, but very very very floral, and I say that in a grandma's perfume sort of way; not what I want in a cocktail, ever.

Recently being given a bergamot orange, I got inspired to muck around with centuries worth of fine acohol making. (Bergamot oil and/or peel is what gives earl grey tea its quintessential flavor and aroma.)

"Gin" or "infused vodka attempt 1"
4 cups vodka
1/4 ceylon cinnamon stick
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 bay leaf
2 whole allspice berries
1/2 a green corriander pod
1/4 tsp whole cubebs
1/4 tsp grains of paradise
zest of 1/4 a navel orange
zest of 1/4 a bergamot orange

I zested the citrus into the vodka, to aid in it funneling back into the bottle. I didn't use the full peel, because I fear the bitter.

I am hoping that the bergamont will offer up some of the intensity that the juniper usually does. I didn't have any licorice root, so I went with fennel seeds. The cubebs and grains of paradise are hard-to-find spices, but they don the back of the Bombay Sapphire bottle, so I thought since I was out at Christina's Spice Shop, I may as well pick some up and give it a try. The bay leaf isn't on any recipe either, but Knauer's recipe in Gourmet called for rosemary, and since I think that stuff takes like turpentine in large quantities, I thought maybe the bay would bring some earthiness and subtlety to the bottle.

All that is left is to wait and taste.

stagger lee - Crispin cider

I have had Crispin cider before, but I haven't written about it. On the whole, I don't write about products I don't really like. Crispin cider is ok. Its not great, though its better than most I have tried, it just isn't fantastic, and I don't see the point in writing about things that aren't fantastic.

Crispin's limited release of their Staggar Lee, well its worthy of grabbing a pen. The standard Crispin cider is a bit boring, one note, and while it is less sweet than the standard ciders (Magners, Original Sin, Harpoon) its still not a slam dunk. Stagger Lee is beautiful. There are complexities and flavors beyond that of apple. It is not floral, but a little smokey, and the rye barrel flavor really comes out. Its a bit pricey, $5 for a single bottle, but I believe its worth it. There are some subtle flavors that you have to go hunting for to find, so I wouldn't recommend it as a with-food beverage, but it certainly could handle a meal.