Summer Cocktail: Pimm's Cup

Anyone who knows me knows that I love all things London.

I vacationed there with my mum, studied abroad there during University, and honeymooned there with my strapping young fella.
(That's me pretending to be Bri-ish.)

To say I hold it dear to my heart wouldn't do the city justice. 

This weekend, I decided to make a Pimm's Cup, a cocktail we had and loved on our honeymoon. 

It's really easy, refreshing, and fun. Sort of like a British sangria.

The perfect recipe to add into your summer hosting rolodex. 

For anyone unfamiliar with Pimm's. It's a gin-based liqueur with notes of spice and citrus. 

Kind of bitter on it's own, but made perfect with a bit of citrus and sweet.

Pour 1.5oz of Pimm's liqueur over ice. 

Top off with ginger ale, tonic, lemonade or any sparkling/citrus beverage that you fancy.

Add any assortment of fruit you wish. 

I used frozen berries because that's what we had on hand, but anything works - cucumbers, mint, oranges, or apples. 

Squeeze just a bit of lemon in to highlight the citrus.

Stir and adorn the glass with whatever fruit pieces of your choosing. 

Enjoy!

images: hilaryclair

Shake o' the Irish

Even if I'm only a quarter Irish, I'm 100% into reasons to celebrate. 

This weekend's wardrobe was green, green, green. (I realized I don't actually own many green things, so a bright green nail polish helped seal the deal.) We watched shows based in Ireland. Dinner tonight will be of the Irish variety. (I'm still trying to figure out what exactly we'll have - any ideas you lads and ladies would be willing to share?) 

For a sweet treat this weekend, we made homemade Shamrock shakes thanks to this Williams-Sonoma recipe.

The most complicated part of the recipe is the mint infused simple syrup which F and I both agreed was totally skipable. If you are looking for a simple, festive way to celebrate tonight, grab vanilla ice cream, peppermint extract, green food coloring, milk and blend, blend, blend your way to the luck o' the Irish.

(psst. If you really want to impress the leprechauns, sprinkle crushed thin mints on top.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day, sweet readers. 

images: hilaryclair

Homemade bread

I've always loved the smell of baking bread. 

There's something magical about the way it swirls the smell of the comforts of home through the air. 

Never having owned a bread machine, the process felt daunting. 

Then, in December, I went to a Mpls. St. Paul Magazine event and heard Zoë François talk. Her cookbook, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day is all about how simple the process is. I don't have her book so I tried this recipe instead, but Zoë inspired me to whip up my own loaf of carbohydrate love. 

A handful of the ingredients. (Minus the boiling water, all purpose flour, and butter). 

Notice the cameo of F's faux hawk in the background. 

Start with 1 1/4 cups of boiling water in a bowl.

Add 1 cup of old fashioned oats 

(I used quick cooking - I don't think this matters, but I'm a newb so don't really listen to me.)

Add 2 Tbsp of unsalted butter, cut into pieces.

Add 1 1/2 tsp. of kosher salt.

Add 1/4 cup of honey.

Stir ingredients together and let sit until lukewarm.

With the dough hook attachment on a KitchenAid mixer (or knead by hand if you have major muscles), combine the oat mixture with:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 2/3 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup nonfat dry milk

2 tsp. instant yeast

(I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that part of the reason I was excited to make bread is to use the dough hook attachment for the first time.
I'm a culinary nerd and things like that excite me.)

Stir until you have a smooth ball of dough. 

(Or a slightly lumpy hunk of dough in my case.)

Place the dough ball in a lightly greased bowl and cover. 

Let sit until it doubles in size. (approx. 1 hour, but mine took closer to 2)

Note: If dough is extremely sticky, lightly oiling your hands will help you handle it.

Gently mold dough to fit into a lightly greased, loaf pan.

Cover it with lightly greased plastic wrap and allow it to rise. 

The original recipe says to let it sit about 1.5 hours and it will rise 1 1/2 inches over the rim, buut...

My loaf was a late bloomer. I left it out over night and even then, it wasn't the yeasty, fluffy bread I was hoping for. Thinking all had been ruined, I decided to bake it anyway. (In a 350 degree F oven, for 45 minutes. After 20 minutes, tent it with foil to prevent it from getting too brown.)

I removed it from the oven, let it cool in the loaf pan for 1 minute, and then transferred it to our cutting board. 

(cue dramatic music.)

A little misshapen and squished, but it was DE-licious. 

It reminded both F and I a little of beer bread because it had a hearty, yeasty flavor, but the honey made it sweet at the end.
Pretty much everything I hope for in my bread.

We toasted it with butter, made breakfast sandwiches, and avocado toast on it and all were scrumptious. 

Do you have a favorite bread recipe? Will you try this one?
Let me know in the comments!

A few notes: 

+The original recipe instructs to brush the baked bread with melted butter and a sprinkling of dry oats. I prefer crusty bread (and didn't really see this step until the loaf had been devoured), so skipped this step.

+I read on the back of the whole wheat flour that they recommend bread flour instead of whole wheat if using it to make bread. This may have caused the disappointing expansion.

+If anything, I think my experience shows that you shouldn't be hesitant to try making bread, because even though everything didn't go as planned, it still turned out. 

Be brave, dear ones. 

images: hilaryclair

The Soup of the Brave

My friend and coworker Taylor and I often share what we are planning to make for dinner each night. With similar tastes in food and openness to trying to new things, we end up making many of each other's recipes. 

Last week, she hit me with a doozy: 

TOMATO PEANUT BUTTER SOUP

I thought it sounded unappetizing and had no interest in copycating this one. UNTIL, she brought it in for lunch the next day and let me try it. I went home and whipped up a batch of my own and became a believer. 

Shout out to Taylor for pushing me out of my comfort zone and giving me another warm soup recipe. 

If you are reading this and think it sounds awesome, more power to you. If you are reading this with a scrunched up face in disgust, I hear you. But seriously, try it. See if it makes a believer out of you too. 

Also, tune in tomorrow for a guest post from one of my favorite people!

On to the recipe:

(Click here to be taken to the original Food Network recipe.)

Heat 1Tbls of EVOO in a pot over medium-high heat.

Finely chop:

1 small onion

1 green bell pepper

1 celery stalk 

(Save the leaves for topping.)

 Add to pan and stir for 5 minutes.

Add:

1 clove of garlic 

(See my favorite cubed version here.)

1/2tsp curry powder

1/2tsp paprika

1/8tsp cayenne pepper 

(I added 1/4 to give it a little more of a kick.)

1tsp salt

Stir together for 2 minutes.

Add:

1-15oz can of crushed tomatoes

4 cups of chicken broth 

(NOTE: I've been loving this as a less expensive option. 

Buying stocks and broths can add up when you love soup as much as I do.)

1tsp of packed brown sugar

1 cup of water

Whisk in:

1/3 cup of smooth peanut butter

Bring pot to a boil. Then, allow to simmer over low heat for approximately 30 minutes until soup begins to thicken, stirring occasionally. 

Blend all ingredients together. You can use an immersion blender or actual blender. 

Sorry no photo of this step. I was too caught up in trying not to burn myself in the transferring process. :)

Chop the celery leaves.

  

Ladle soup into bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, top with cracked black pepper, and celery leaves. 

Prepare to be amazed. 

If you are brave enough to try it, please let me know what you think!

images: hilaryclair, recipe: Food Network

Homemade Almond Milk

My dear friend Allison just started a blog of her own. She recently tried her hand at homemade almond milk.  Inspired, I decided to whip up a batch of my own. She owns a shmancy pancy Vitamix, so I crossed my fingers that our regular old blender would do the trick.

I added a generous 1/2 cup of almonds to a bowl and covered with water (about 2 cups), topped with plastic wrap and left it on the counter for about 24 hours. (You don't need to do that long - 8 hours should do the trick.)

I once saw on Good Eats that when soaked, the skins separate easily from the nut. I was having a little too much fun doing this and showed Francis. Just then, I got a phone call and stepped into the other room. Being ever the helpful husband and assuming me removing the skins was part of the recipe, (not just my child-like curiosity) he tediously removed each one and tossed them. This is not part of the recipe, but once in the trash bin, we decided, what the heck, carry on. That's why from this point on - we were working with naked almonds. 

I added them to our blender and poured in 2 cups of water and left it to puree away. 

Meanwhile, I cut a piece of cheesecloth for straining the milk.

I MacGuyvered a bowl with a fine metal strainer as well as the cheescloth - just to be super sure that any pesky almond pieces didn't make their way into my milk. 

I poured it in. The texture of the milk was smooth and completely blended. Proud of you little blender that could!  

Then, I removed the metal strainer and squeezed the bag gently to get all remaining milk out. 

The finished, pre bottled product. 

Using a funnel, I poured it into a plain glass bottle. And, as you can see was ever so neat. (Lies!)

After that, I was left with almond particles in the cheesecloth. On A's blog, she said to save this because it can be used in recipes, like granola bars. I'm following suit and will probably copy cat her again whenever she uses hers in a recipe. 

The finished product. 

Thanks for the idea, A. 

images: hilaryclair