Italian Soda: Escaping the Inevitable

I woke up this morning convince that J was next.  It wasn't until I logged in this morning and saw everyone's I posts that I realized my mistake.  If I am being really honest, I even had to think about it for a moment and recite the alphabet in my head.

What to write for I?  The first thing that came to mind was the word inevitable, but it was just too depressing.  I wasn't thinking so much in a death and taxes sort of way, more in a dishes and laundry sort of way.  I'm already steeped in day to day reality, and need no reminders.

Instead, how about an Italian Soda?  The moniker is a little misleading, as they aren't Italian at all, but were created here in the U.S. of A.  We were drinking them growing up in Belgium, before I had even heard the term "Italian Soda."  We would buy the large, metal canisters of lemon or orange syrup and stir it into bubble water (which we always had on hand there.  I wonder why I don't keep it around now).  Since I'm greatly reducing the amount of caffeine I intake (I can't give it up completely), I've started making my own syrups.  I know you can get the Torani or DaVinci brands, but making them yourself is really easy, a lot cheaper, and you get to know everything that goes into it.  That always gives me a warm fuzzy.

It's important to take time to make things like this, little everyday treats.  If I wanted to, I am sure that everyday I could find enough stuff around my house that NEEDS to be done.  It's nice to do the things that are extra.  The fact that they are unnecessary makes them so essential.

Here is my recipe for orange-flavored soda syrup:

1 cup of orange juice (it doesn't have to be fresh-squeezed, so long as it has no added sugar)
1 cup of water
1 3/4 cups of sugar (if you make this with lemons, use 2 cups of sugar)
orange zest - about 3 thumbsize pieces

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  When syrup is reduced by half, remove from heat.

Pour through a mesh sieve and allow to cool, you should have a little under 2 cups. Pour into a squeeze-bottle, jar, your choice.  My mom got me these cool glass flasks, so I like to use those.  It makes me feel like some sort of witch or mad scientist to have many multi-colored filled flasks in my refrigerator.

To make an actual Italian Soda, just mix the desired about or syrup with seltzer water, club soda, or sparkling water.  Ice and stir.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  I realize that it is an incredibly commercial holiday, but it's so much fun.  I went into Wegman's yesterday and it seemed Cupid became store manager over the weekend.  Roses were everywhere, of all shades of pink, orange, red, and yellow.  Bunches of balloons tied with ribbons hovered at the ends of every aisle.  Oh, and of course, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!

Right now, Valentine's Day doesn't have too much meaning at our house.  Max was born this day four years ago, so we're in birthday mode.  We'll probably be feasting on a gourmet meal of McDonald's, Max's favorite, and having an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins.  Maybe, after the kids are asleep, Ed and I will try and watch at least part of a movie together before I drift off.

However you are spending the day, with a singular special someone, with friends, or just hanging out on your own, I hope you stay warm.  Winter seems to be making sure that we don't write it off quite yet.  Here, it threw a small tantrum over the weekend, but I see it's been more stubborn elsewhere.  Make up your own hot cocoa mix to have on hand when the cold is getting to you, or when you just need a rush of endorphins.

Drinking Chocolate adapted from Making Artisan Chocolates by Andrew Garrison Shotts

Apparently, his staff calls this a "liquid brownie."  The moniker is apt.

To make the powder:

8 1/4 oz of bittersweet chocolate, chopped.  (He specifies 64% cocoa.  I typically use  a combination of Ghirardelli 60% and 70%)

1/3 cup nonfat dry milk

1 cup sweet ground chocolate

Combine the chopped chocolate with the dry milk in a food processor.  Pulse until the chocolate is ground into small granules.  Be careful that the chocolate doesn't start to melt from the heat of the processor blade.  If it looks like it is starting to melt, take a break and come back to it in a few minutes.  Once the chocolate and milk are mixed in a fine powder, add the sweet ground chocolate powder.  Pulse until completely combined, and then store in an airtight container.  The chocolate powder should keep in a cool place for six months.

To make the hot drinking chocolate:

Add 3 heaping tablespoons of the chocolate powder to 8 oz of whole milk in a small, heavy saucepan. (I suppose you could use 2%, but it just won't be the same.)  Whisking constantly, heat over medium heat until all powder has dissolved and mixture reaches a rapid boil.  Immediately remove from heat and serve.

Shotts also suggests an adapting this for a chocolate martini.  You simply allow the hot chocolate to cool down in the refrigerator, add some Kahlua and vodka and shake it over ice.  Yes, please!  

Pick your poison

So apparently resolutions made in Spring are just as hard to keep as ones made in January.  It has been a while since I’ve taken the time to post anything, but I’ve been more in the mood to read and react to words than to create my own.  I finished the Professor’s House by Willa Cather and The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris.  Both deserve some discussion, but that’s not why I am here today.  Today I am here to talk about what will be my definitive Summer 2011 drink, the Leland Palmer.

The recipe for this drink was featured in the June 2010 issue of Bon Appétit.  The picture made you long to be outside on hot day; maybe enjoying a twilight barbeque with a group of friends, or perhaps just you and your honey, coming back from the pool or beach, with nothing else to do that day but sit back and relax. The limocello-gin-tea mixture was poured into a mason jar filled with ice, condensation forming on the outside of the jar, and a slice of lemon perched atop the rim.  I had never craved a drink so badly before.  Alas, I was seven months pregnant at the time, and when I was finally able to drink again it was not Leland Palmer season.  I had forgotten all about it until I Netflixed Twin Peaks (where the drink gets its name). 

The recipe calls for jasmine tea, but I’ve used Darjeeling and I’m pretty sure you could use almost any fresh brewed iced tea.  I emphatically suggest pouring the drinks into mason jars, preferably out of a heavy glass pitcher.  There’s something wonderfully sentimental about it that sings summer.

The Leland Palmer adapted from Damon Boelte and Bon Appétit

½ cup honey

½ cup hot water

3 cups freshly brewed jasmine tea, cooled completely

¾ cups gin

¾ cup limocello

¾ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

½ cup grapefruit juice

1 cup chilled club soda

lemon for garnish

Stir honey into hot water until completely dissolved.  Set aside to cool completely

Mix honey water, tea, gin, limoncello, lemon juice, grapefruit juice, and club soda* in a large pitcher.  Pour over ice into six mason jars or heavy glasses.

* If you don’t think you will finish a pitcher in one sitting, you can omit the club soda when you combine everything.  Then, just add a splash of the soda to individual glasses before serving.