Party for one:

1 oz Absolut Pepper Vodka
3 oz Pear Nectar
1/2 oz Drambuie
2 Olives

Rim one martini glass with fine salt
Combine all ingredients (minus the olives) over ice in a martini shaker
…shake
Pour into martini glass and add olives

Toast and Enjoy

Time to open your palette to the summer flavors.  Join as we sample our way through a half dozen varietals of white and light reds paired with summer fare.  We are currently knee deep testing menus so stay tuned for how the ribs turn out.

We have a special venue this time as we hang poolside at a friend’s place in Bloomfield who thought it would be fun to host.  (ha…isn’t he a crazy one!)

Date: Saturday, June 27th
Time: 7-10
Donation: $35 for those who plan to sip, $15 for the non-drinkers.  Checks and cash excepted that night!
Attire: Casual, hip, bikinis …whatever.

Please RSVP by the 19th. Use the contact form below. You are welcome to brings guests and include them in your RSVP.  Thanks

Party for One

Ingredients:

Juice from 1/2 to one whole lime or a couple of key limes if available.  Depends on how tangy you like it.
3 dashes hot sauce
2 dashes Maggi or soy sauce
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
10-12 oz of an amber Mexican beer like Negro Modelo.  You can also use a light beer.  I like the robust.
3-4 oz of Clamato.  I also use a good straight-up tomato juice sometimes, but I cut back the quantity.

Kosher salt or celery salt for glass rim

Preparation:

1. Salt the tumbler rim
2. Fill tumbler half with ice
3. Add all ingredients, except beer, to the tumbler then pour in beer and serve.  If the beer hits the salt, it will foam up.  Leave the pour to the Cabana kid.

Any low-sodium people in the group may not be into this fresher.  The salt is a perfect balance to the lip puckering lime.  Not the same drink without the sodium spike.

If you prefer a little more adventure as well as something brighter in flavor, check out the La Michelada or  “Red Eye”.  This drink found me at one of those bars in the middle of a pool at a resort in a place with 80+ degree temps when Michigan is buried in snow.

The easy Bloody Mary:

Ingredients:

8 oz tomato juice
1 Tbsp beef stock (consomme)
1 Tbsp of olive juice
2 -3 tsp of chipotle salsa depending on your heat tolerance
1/4 cup of pickle juice
several turns of the pepper mill

1/4 cup of a lager or ale beer  …about two splashes
1 1/2 oz of vodka
Juice of half a lemon

For the tumbler rim:
Mix equal parts Zip seasoning and kosher salt

Possible toppers:
of course a pickle, celery, olives or shrimp are familiar choices

Preparation:

1. Wet the rim of a tumbler.  Coat the rim in the Zip-Kosher mix
2. I usually mix all the ingredients (minus the beer, vodka and lemon juice) in a separate glass
2. Fill the salted tumbler half way with ice
3. Add your tomato juice mixture to the tumbler and top with beer, vodka and lemon juice

I grew fond of the dilly bean, but short of ordering them over the Internet or making them myself, they are tough to find and I’m just not that organized.  If someone has an auntie or mom who cans, pickled anything from a family pantry will be beautiful in a Sunday morning Bloody.

Now the higher maintenance Bloody Mary:

All of the above still applies but…. now take all the ingredients (still minus the beer, vodka and lemon juice) and throw them into a blender.  To this mix add any and sometimes all of the following:

1/2 avocado
1/4 cup green pepper that is then minced
1 Tbsp chopped garlic that is then minced and turned into a paste
1/2  jalapeno or Serrano minced then crushed.  These 2 peppers have very different heat indexes, but in Michigan in late winter/early spring you can eat jalapenos like green peppers.  They have traveled too far and are out of season so I sub in the Serrano.  Normally I couldn’t tolerate the heat the Serrano gives off, but the time of year makes all the difference.

Can you tell I was a vegetarian in my past life?  I never gave up vodka though!

The clear favorites were the Rocca Syrah and the Wallace. The following bottles were a bit mixed throughout the group with the $9 Luzon having a strong showing throughout the crowd.

1. 2003 Rocca Syrah $45
   California
   93pts Wine Specatator
2. Wallace by Ben Glaetzer 2006 $24
   80% Shiraz/20% Grenache
   Robert Parker/Wine Advocate 91-94pts
3. 2005 Gra Eagle Red Wing $27
   39% Cabernet Sauvignon/28% Merlot/18% Cabernet Franc/15% Petit Verdot
   91pts Wine Spectator
4. 2006 Borsao Crianza Seleccion $15
   50% Grenache/25% Tempranillo (pronounced Tem prah neeyo)/25%Cabernet Sauvignon
   89pts Robert Parker
5. 2007 Luzon $9
   65% Monastrell (known in U.S. as Mouvedre Moo Ve Dra)/35% Syrah
   90 Pts Wine Enthusiast
   #1 wine in Top 100 for Best Buys of 2008 in Wine Enthusiast
6. 2006 Felsina Chianti Classico $18
   90 pts Wine Spectator
   #51 out of Top 100 Wines for 2008 in Wine Spectator

So…who won? You would expect him to win a beer or scotch tasting but he came out of nowhere and cleaned house. Stuart stumbled home with a half case of each bottle and bragging rights until the white wine tasting to come this Spring.

Serves 4

Beef Marinade:

2 Tbsp of soy sauce
1 Tbsp of brown sugar or raw sugar
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 tsp of sesame oil
1 tsp of black pepper
1/4 cup of chopped scallions

Vietnamese Dipping Sauce:

2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp chili garlic sauce (easily found in the Asian aisle of your local specialty market)
1 tsp Thai bird chili or jalapeno chopped
1/4 cup fish sauce
2/3 cup hot water
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp carrots shredded for garnish (optional)

Ingredients:

1 lb top flank or New York strip sliced thinly.  An 1/8 of an inch if your knife and skill set can handle it.
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup shredded cucumbers
Handful of torn mint
2 cups romaine lettuce cut into 1/2″ strips
When in season 1 cup cherry tomatoes quartered (this is a Front of House suggestion & not approved of at all by the chef for this otherwise very traditional dish)
1 - 8 oz package of Rice Stick Vermicelli

Preparation:

1. Marinate sliced beef for 45 minutes at room temperature
2. Soak the noodles for 30 minutes then quick boil until tender. Rinse in cold water
3. Combine all Dipping Sauce Ingredients in small bowl
4. Grill beef on high heat for about a minute. You can put the beef on skewers if they slip through the grate. Don’t forget to soak the skewers first.
5. Traditionally the noodles are placed in the bottom of a bowl with small mounds of the beef, vegetables and mint (plus tomatoes) placed on top.
6. Drizzle the dipping sauce over the top to taste.
7. Chopsticks to eat, but censor your beer intake if you are new to them.

2 Tbsp of soy sauce
1 Tbsp of brown sugar or raw sugar
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of sesame oil
1 tsp of black pepper
1/4 cup of chopped scallions

Preparation:

1. Prep and mix.
2. Don’t forget to let the protein you are marinating …beef, fish, chicken… come to room temperature before cooking. Very simple rule that makes all the difference.

Serves a Party of One

Ingredients

Fresh Juice Mix:
Combine:
1 oz fresh orange or tangerine juice
1 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz fresh grapefruit juice

Follow-up Ingredients:
Tequila
Triple Sec
Chambord

Preparation

1. Salt the rim of martini glasses
2. Combine 1 oz of the Fresh Juice Mix with 1 oz Tequila and 1/2 oz Triple Sec
3. Pour mixture over ice in shaker …and shake
4. Pour strained drink into martini glass leaving a little room at the top
5. Pour 1/4 - 1/2 oz of Chambord down the inside of the glass.
Adjust the Chambord amount to the drinker. Chambord adds the sweet fast so start light and add more as needed.
Voila! The Chambord floats along the bottom like a Lava Lamp. You can stir all together or drink it as it settles.

We did a little road trip from Michigan to Virginia last weekend for a friend’s wedding. The wedding was great and apart from seeing Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater (Amazing!) we drove our way through some tasty Vietnamese food.  Our first hit was Mekong restaurant in Richmond, VA for dinner.  We pulled up just after they closed.  I went in to plead the plight of the traveler and struck gold …Pho gold that is.  I think we ordered half the menu and were not disappointed.  To further our luck we located Four Sisters restaurant, a well-known family owned restaurant outside DC to try on our way home.  Must admit, for all the great Internet press, they played second to our Richmond find, but either is worth the stop.  The point?  We have been cooking-up Pho for months trying to match sGC mom’s.  What the pho?!?  We can’t get it just right!  Next time we pull it together we’ll post it and let you be the judge …or maybe we’ll talk his mom into being a guest chef and video post her.  Like most family recipes there is no recipe, jut a little of this and that…

If you are a SE Michigan resident, local joints serving up nice Pho are Da Nang in Clawson.  They are new and still pulling their kitchen together which can mean a bit hit or miss, but generally good and getting better or Little Saigon in Madison Heights which is a tiny place with a long Pho list and very helpful service.  Give either a try.  Not what your adopted Vietnamese mother makes, but good for the rest of us.