It’s time for celebrating! A year has passed that has had its ups and downs, but now we have a whole new year in which to make mistakes, achieve great things, laugh a lot, love a lot, and cook!

I don’t know if you remember last year’s foodie resolutions, but I’ve been going back to them this year. Shall we review?

1. I’m going to try 3 new foods I’ve never tried before (not 3 new recipes, 3 new FOODs. These are reasonably difficult to find.)

I did this! I had durian custard at a dim sum restaurant last spring, geoduck at , and pandan as part of my Thai Market adventures.

2. I’m going to make the perfect Manhattan.
To the extent this is possible, Check

3. I’m going to make a croquembouche.

Yep. I didn’t take photos though, but this was my mom’s birthday cake this year.

4. I’m going to memorize a recipe for biscuits.
I found a good recipe, but failed to memorize it.

5. I’m going to add at least 3 vegetarian dishes to my regular repertoire.
Check on this. Among more pedestrian fare, I made Jaden’s Garlic Butter noodles, substituting tofu for shrimp, several times.

6. I’m going to cook a meal from at least one cuisine I’ve never attempted.
Well, I didn’t go for a cuisine I’ve never attempted, but I did do a deeper exploration of a cuisine I had cooked from this year.

7. I’m going to shop at ethnic markets.
Check.

8. I’m going to cook with seasonal ingredients.
I’m not at 100%, but cherries in December just seem wrong.
9. I’m going to eat a boatload of strawberries.
Of course! This is a gimme.
10. I’m going to make jam.
Not as much as I would like, but I did make This.

So, now for 2011.

1. I will eat food I’ve grown in my garden.
This will take cooperation from Ken, our resident gardener. Santa was kind enough to stuff his stocking with heirloom fruit and vegetable seeds to get us started.

2. I will make my own bacon.

3. I will incorporate more healthy dishes in my repertoire.
I often fall prey to the siren song of bacon, butter and cream. While there’s nothing wrong with these foods, in moderation, sometimes it’s nice to eat something a little lighter.

4. I will cook less, and photograph more.
I want to take the blog not in a new direction, but a more focused one. Rediscover the real purpose of Savour Fare, if you will. Less time cooking special projects for posting, more time posting about what we really eat.

5. I’m going to shop at farmer’s markets.

I already do this, but nothing wrong with renewing my commitment.

6. I will eat more vegetables.

7. I will bake bread.

I have no plans to take over my family’s bread consumption, but I like the rhythm of it.

8. I will eat ripe tomatoes all summer long.

Eight seems like a good number, doesn’t it? And so I leave you to the last dregs of 2010 with a cocktail recipe for a quieter celebration — hot milk punch. The recipe was given to me by an old friend from my glee club days, who looks dapper in tails and makes a mean cocktail. He’s a true Southern gentleman, through and through. It’s more restrained than eggnog, more festive than hot chocolate, more comforting than a hot toddy. I like this to drink by myself, with a good book, by a roaring fire, on a quiet evening. But the recipe can be expanded, and made into a communal affair.

Happy New Year!

Recipe
Hot Milk Punch

1 fl. oz. gold rum (I’ve also made this with dark rum, bourbon and rye)
1 fl. oz. calvados (you can substitute brandy or cognac)
2 teaspoons sugar
8 oz. hot milk
pinch of mace, for garnish (can also be served with nutmeg)

Combine all the ingredients into a mug or sturdy glass, and enjoy.

© Kate for Savour Fare, 2010. | Permalink |
Post tags: Cocktail, dairy, resolutions

It’s crunch time for Thanksgiving. You’ve probably planned your menu, done your shopping and begun cooking. All I can offer at this point is courage. Liquid courage. Chances are, at some point this weekend, between the family and the food and the football and the Friday sales, you will need a drink. And chances are, with the Christmas season coming up, you’ll need more than one. And so I present to you that most hallowed of cold season classic cocktails: The Manhattan.

I tasted my first Manhattan, appropriately enough, in Manhattan, at a tiny Greenwich Village restaurant, and I was hooked. A little sweet, but not too sweet, a little spicy, with warm herbal notes from the bitters — this cocktail tasted like autumn leaves and fireplaces and tailgating and all of the good things about fall and winter. And you can add to that the glamour quotient of drinking a very classic cocktail — you are never embarrassed by ordering a Manhattan, whether you’re on a date, at a client lunch, at a party with friends or meeting your inlaws for the first time. It’s the little black dress of cocktails.

Over the years, I’ve tasted a lot of Manhattans, and I’ve gotten picky enough that I prefer to mix them at home (though if you’re in Los Angeles, Cole’s in Downtown LA has the best classic Manhattan I’ve had in a restaurant in recent memory). I prefer them made with rye whiskey, instead of bourbon (rye is the traditional whiskey for a Manhattan– it’s also more flavorful and spicier, with a finish nicely smoothed by the Vermouth). My favorite rye is Rittenhouse, which has the bonus of being relatively inexpensive, but Piketown, which has a smoother, lighter flavor and is similarly cheap, is a nice alternative. I’ve tried different Vermouths as well — Martini & Rossi is fine, Punt y Mes is good, with a slight bitter edge, but if you can find it, my money is on Vya Vermouth, which has an herbal profile almost more like a fine liqueur than a vermouth. Some people like a “perfect” Manhattan, which has equal parts sweet and dry vermouth, but my personal opinion is that the perfect Manhattan is made with sweet vermouth only. Finish it off with bitters (Angostura, always. I’ve tried orange bitters and they’re just not as good). Many bars serve Manhattans shaken with ice and strained into a martini glass, but I’m a klutz and I like my lowballs, on the rocks.

You can put a maraschino in for garnish, but I prefer amarena cherries in syrup — they are wildly expensive and totally worth it.

This may not be the perfect Manhattan, but I’ve come to realize the perfect Manhattan exists only in my mind. This is pretty darn close. When you’re in need of a little extra holiday cheer, mix yourself a Manhattan. And after a few of them, trust me, EVERYTHING will seem perfect.

Cheers!

Recipe
The Best Manhattan Cocktail

2 oz. rye whiskey (try Rittenhouse or Piketown)
1.25 oz. sweet vermouth (try Vya)
3 dashes Angostura bitters
2 amarena cherries

Combine first three ingredients over ice in a lowball glass. Stir gently, and garnish with amarena cherries.

© Kate for Savour Fare, 2010. | Permalink |
Post tags: alcohol, Cocktail, Thanksgiving

To stretch your summer a little longer, try this recipe for making a Pimm’s Cup cocktail at home.

Last week, I was on a staycation. Ken and I had talked about a big vacation this summer — maybe to Ireland, or Spain. The economy took a nosedive, and we thought maybe Vancouver, or Sonoma. Then we bought a house. Which means that the house was our vacation. And our Christmas. And our birthdays. Los Angeles real estate is insane.

If I can’t be traveling the world, I will at least be drinking fruity cocktails, because a vacation just isn’t a vacation without some sort of exotic libation. I could go with the standard margarita, or the froofy Pina Colada. The weather was a little warm for an Irish whiskey, and much as I love the $4 bottle of Spanish wine I’ve been buying at Trader Joe’s, it doesn’t exactly scream “vacation.” (More “Oh my GOD the traffic was horrible, I need some wine NOW please.”)

Being a raging Anglophile, I like to imagine that I was staycationing not in my modest ranch house with a slightly overgrown backyard, but in my Georgian country house (shall we say Oxfordshire? I do love Oxfordshire), with grounds designed by Capability Brown (and cared for by a team of handsome gardeners, headed by a genuine article of about 80 wearing green wellies). Perhaps I could play a bit of croquet, or retire to the library, or take a stroll down to the sheep meadow. And if you’re imagining yourself into this kind of staycation, nothing will do quite so well as a Pimm’s Cup.

A Pimm’s Cup is the classic English summer cocktail — fruity and fizzy, with a garnish that resembles the over the top hats worn at Ascot and provides your full daily dose of fruits and vegetables. It’s Evelyn Waugh and E.M. Forster and P.G. Wodehouse in a cup, with a dash of Nancy Mitford and a side of Vita Sackville-West. It goes down incredibly easily, and it could cause eccentric behavior. Be warned.

A Pimm’s Cup is made with Pimm’s No. 1, a gin based liqueur that’s made with fruit juices and spices and gin and some other secret ingredients. If you don’t like gin, don’t worry. It tastes nothing of gin. Start with a tall glass of ice, add 1.5 oz. of Pimm’s no. 1 and fill with a mixer. The traditional mixer is lemonade (although a Pimm’s Cup is sometimes made with ginger beer), which in England is not the American lemonade you can buy for 50 cents at suburban corners. It’s more of a lemon soda. Most American recipes call for 7Up as a replacement, and while this may hark back to the original, it doesn’t actually make a very good drink. My favorite mixer is San Pellegrino limonata, which has the requisite fizz, and the bonus of a nice dose of tartness and not too much sweet. Garnished with cucumber and mint, apples and strawberries, a Pimms Cup is really the essence of summer.

Just don’t drink too many, or you’ll actually be thinking your overgrown backyard is designed by Capability Brown. Just be careful — that’s not a sheep.

© Kate for Savour Fare, 2010. | Permalink |
Post tags: cocktails, English

Well, 2009 has been a banner year over here at Savour Fare (erm, it has been the only year at Savour Fare!) but I’m already thinking about and planning for the next one. I, like most Americans, have made New Year’s resolutions year after year, and like most Americans, have failed to keep them. But this time is different. Because I’m going to make foodie resolutions. And I never have trouble keeping those! We’re planning a mellow New Year’s Eve at home, where I’m cooking a feast (scallops, lamb and pistachio panna cotta) and we’ll drink champagne cocktails (recipe below). I hope you and yours have a wonderful New Year’s Eve and a happy 2010!

So, with no more ado, my 10 resolutions for 2010:
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Read the rest of Happy New Year!– My Foodie New Year’s Resolutions and a Champagne Cocktail (176 words)

© Kate for Savour Fare, 2009. | Permalink |
Post tags: Cocktail, holiday