Fuzzy Navel Spritz 🥳

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It’s that time of year again, and I don’t mean Christmas in July. I’m completing another trip around the sun this weekend, and what better way to celebrate than with a signature cocktail for the birthday girl? 

My husband, Les, is throwing me a party, and though many of the party details are a secret (including most of the guest list), I do at least know what will be on the drink menu because the venue gave us the option to request a special cocktail—yay! I love a theme for a party, and I’ve decided that my signature birthday drink should be reminiscent of the one that was in my hand back in the days when I was first “of age” to imbibe. Oops, did I just give away my age?! 

How is it possible that it was soooo long ago??

DeKuyper had just released its Peachtree™️ schnapps, and everyone who was anyone— at least among the girls— was sipping on fuzzy navels, a blend of this syrupy sweet schnapps and equally sweet orange juice. The drink gave us a fun little buzz, and it was perfectly simple for all the bridal showers that my girlfriends were having.

Fast forward, ahem, a few decades and I’m still fond of the “idea” of the fuzzy navel, though I could never stomach the sweetness of it today. So I did what I always do— a modern makeover of an old favorite into a cocktail that is familiar but fresh— this one is easy to make, easy to drink, easy on the alcohol and yes, easy on the eyes.

Hello, Gorgeous!

What’s fun about a fuzzy navel spritz?

First of all, there’s no peach schnapps! The last time I tasted that stuff, I cringed at the artificial aftertaste. No, this glow-up gets its “fuzzy” flavor from a peach puree that concentrates real peaches into a thick syrup that plays nice with a number of alcoholic spirits— vodka, bourbon, blanco tequila, need I go on? It’s sweet (but naturally so), and a little goes a long way. You can find this product in the mixers section of a larger supermarket, or in the same aisle of a wine or spirits store.

The “navel” aspect of my upscale drink comes from Aperol. This slightly bitter, orange-meets-herbal aperitivo from Italy brings an instant citrusy balance to the sweetness of the peach puree. Aperol is having more than a fleeting moment of popularity, and I decided to ride that wave for my birthday.

The peach and orange flavors are covered here!

Finally, the base of the drink is Cava, Spain’s counterpart to champagne, bringing a little “fizzy” to my “fuzzy,” and a splash of sparkling water on top softens the drink for superb sipability. Any sparkling will do, whether club soda, seltzer or one of the fancy European options. If you happen to find one scented with orange or peach, even better!

Pick your poison! Any sparkling wine will work, but choose something dry.
Please try to find the Ciao! peach. It’s awesome, even on its own.

If at first I don’t succeed, and I didn’t

This cocktail idea has been floating in my mind since at least my last birthday, but it was only in the past few weeks that I got serious about making it work. My first effort looked nothing like what you see here. It included vodka, peach nectar (which is not as peach-forward as it sounds), orange juice, Aperol and prosecco. It was too boozy, too sweet, not very peachy, not pretty and not refreshing at all. In other words, it needed a lot of work!

The peach flavor needed to be concentrated. I considered cooking peaches down into a puree to replace that so-called nectar, but would my birthday venue be willing to do that when I handed them the recipe? Relying on a pre-made mixer felt like cheating, but I am so glad that I checked out this peach puree. It’s just sugar, peaches, citric acid and a preservative—not so bad after all! Did I mention that it is great with bourbon, too? I’ll save that for another post. 😉

The vodka got 86’d because I wanted this to be a lower proof drink for easy summer sipping. Prosecco wasn’t right because the peach puree makes this drink sweet enough. Cava feels like the perfect choice, but a California brut would be great as well.

In the name of research and development, I’ve made quite a few iterations of this drink, fiddling with the ratios to balance the flavor. A traditional Aperol spritz follows a 3-2-1 ratio of bubbly, Aperol and sparkling water. But two ounces of Aperol was overwhelming to the peach, so I’ve cut it almost in half. The ratios you see in the click-to-print recipe below are my final decision, and I think it’s perfect.

Just one more thing…

Though a spritz is typically mixed directly in the glass, this one does require a shaker to mix the Aperol and the peach puree, which is very thick. The bubbly ingredients should not go into the shaker, unless you want to clean the whole kitchen when it bubbles over! My method is to measure the chilled Cava into the glass first, shake up the Aperol and peach puree with a decent amount of ice, and then do what pro bartenders call a “dirty pour,” ice and all, into the glass with the Cava. A final splash of sparkling water at the end, and a wedge of fresh, juicy peach finishes this drink. 

Cheers, friends! 🥳

Fuzzy Navel Spritz

  • Servings: 1 cocktail
  • Difficulty: Easy!
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This is my modernized interpretation of a drink I loved back in the 1980s. It's less sweet than the fuzzy navels of my youth, but still light and very refreshing!


Ingredients

  • 3 oz. Cava or other dry, sparkling wine
  • 3/4 oz. peach puree syrup (Reàl brand)
  • 1 1/4 oz. Aperol
  • 1 or 2 oz. sparkling water, seltzer or club soda
  • Slice of fresh peach or orange, to garnish

Note: Most spritz cocktails are built directly in the glass, but this one requires a shaker for mixing the thick peach puree. Use a balloon glass, such as a red wine glass, that will hold all of the ice you use for mixing the drink.

Directions

  1. Pour Cava into the serving glass.
  2. Add peach puree and Aperol to a cocktail shaker. Add about one cup ice cubes and shake for several seconds until the shaker is frosty and very cold.
  3. Pour the entire contents of the shaker (ice and all) into the glass with the Cava. Top with sparkling water. Garnish with a fresh fruit slice.

Everything Bagel Pizza

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There’s almost no limit to what can be put on a pizza. The question is whether you should. And in this case of Jewish bagel toppings, I’m saying that the answer is yes! It’s a no-sauce, creamy cheese topping on an “everything” seasoned sourdough crust, finished with all the fixings you’d find on a Jewish deli bagel— onions, capers, dill and lox. 

Think of it as a really big bagel!

Before I met my husband, who is Jewish, I could count on one hand the number of times I’d eaten bagels with lox. But this has become very much a staple in our home, and Les and I enjoy it for breakfast at least once a week. I love the flavors (especially when fresh dill is in season), and we’ve adapted it to dips and cheese spreads for parties, but I was eager to apply the unique flavors and textures to something else.

It wasn’t until we finally had a date on the calendar to have Rabbi Charlie and his family over for pizza that I decided to test it. You see, the rabbi keeps kosher rules, and that means meat and cheese cannot co-exist on the table. This regulation stems back to verses in Leviticus that declare you “shall not cook the kid in its mother’s milk,” and over time, the rule has expanded to include any kind of meat with any kind of dairy. Pizza without cheese is a sin in my book, so it would have to be the meat that would be kicked to the curb when we hosted them. 

But isn’t fish meat?

Nope. In Jewish kosher regulations, fish—or at least those fish with both fins and scales— are given a pass; they are considered “pareve,” neither meat nor dairy. The only fish (other than anchovies) that sounds evenly remotely good to me on a pizza is salmon, and this is how I decided to go for it. We used a lox-type of salmon, and it was not cooked but added to the pizza after the crust emerged from the oven. In fact, most of the toppings were added after baking, the same as we would dress a bagel after toasting it.

Now, before I get too far ahead of myself, I want to clarify that we actually did not serve this everything bagel pizza when we hosted the rabbi because I felt it needed some tweaking. When the time came, we opted for all-veggie pizzas for our guests. But this test was tasty and fun, and I learned at least two things that will make it better next time. Ready to see how we made it?

How to make everything bagel pizza

The crust for my pizza is the same as always: sourdough from scratch, made two days ahead and kept in the fridge for a cold ferment until pizza time. There was no sauce on this pizza. I sprinkled the dough generously, especially on the edges, with everything bagel seasoning and then spread a light layer of freshly grated mozzarella and a few dollops of ricotta cheese before we slid it onto the preheated stone on our outdoor grill.

I always dress my dough with olive oil, salt and pepper before I add toppings.

I know what you’re thinking—“doesn’t a bagel get spread with cream cheese?”— and you’d be correct. But I wasn’t sure how well cream cheese would hold up under the intense heat we use for pizza, so I substituted ricotta, which I’ve used successfully on other pies in the past. In hindsight, this is one thing I’ll do differently next time. There was nothing wrong with the ricotta, but I missed the smooth texture of cream cheese. I think if the cream cheese was very cold, straight from the fridge, it would do just fine and would provide a more expected flavor.

We use red onion on our bagels, but I thought shallots were slightly more refined for my pizza.

The ricotta oozed out into thin puddles, which gave every bite a nice even base. I scattered thinly sliced shallots, small capers and fresh dill over the hot pizza, and then arranged bite-sized bits of our smoked salmon all over just before serving. This kind of salmon would have shriveled terribly in the oven, so I believe this was the way to go. But here’s the other thing I’ll do differently next time—and there will be a next time—I’ll double the amount of salmon. It looked pretty in pictures to have a sparse amount of salmon, but when sliced and served, it felt a little skimpy. The salmon I used was supposedly a “hot honey” variety, but neither Les nor I found it to taste any different from a regular smoked salmon. I won’t spend extra next time for the fancy flavor (given that it didn’t have any). 

So what did we serve the rabbi and his family?

Pizza without meat is easy-peasy, and we managed just fine with a variety of veggie-forward pies for our kosher-keeping guests. One pizza was half classic veggie (peppers, onions, mushrooms and spinach) and half plain cheese. Here are the other two, and I promise that nobody ended the evening hungry. Especially after the ice cream, which is coming later this week. 😉

One more kosher tidbit…

I learned only within the past few years that traditional Italian hard cheeses, such as Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino-Romano, are made with animal rennet and therefore not generally regarded as vegetarian. This is important to consider when serving guests who steer clear of meat for any reason, and I called this out when we were prepping pizzas, assuring our kosher guests that I had found a Wisconsin-made parmesan that used plant-based enzymes rather than rennet. The rabbi shared the good news that there is a kosher (though not vegetarian) exception, using rennet from kosher-slaughtered lambs. This would not exonerate parmesan for vegetarian diets, but for religious purposes, it has been deemed acceptable. 

If you know me at all, you know that I can’t resist a good rabbit hole, so I dug in a bit and found this interesting article to explain more about it, in case you’d like to check it out.

The leftovers became our next-day breakfast!

Everything Bagel Pizza

  • Servings: 6 slices
  • Difficulty: Average
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This is a unique twist on an everything bagel, topped with all the ingredients we enjoy at breakfast. But this time, it's on a sourdough pizza crust!


Ingredients

  • 11 oz. pizza dough ball, at room temperature
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp. “everything bagel” seasoning (a combination of sesame seed, coarse salt, poppy seed and dried garlic)
  • 1/2 cup freshly shredded firm mozzarella
  • About 1/3 cup whole milk ricotta, cold from the fridge
  • 1/4 cup thinly sliced shallots (or red onion)
  • 1 Tbsp. small capers, drained but not rinsed
  • Small handful fresh dill, chopped
  • 3 oz. cold smoked salmon (lox)

Note: We make most of our pizzas on a steel that has been pre-heated for one hour at 550° F, or sometimes on a specialty stone on our outdoor grill, also at least 550° F. This very closely replicates a brick oven-style pizza that is finished in about seven minutes. If you are using an oven pizza stone or a pizza pan, you will need to adjust your temperature and cooking time accordingly.

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven or grill, and bring the pizza dough to room temperature.
  2. Shape pizza dough by hand into a 14-inch round and place on a flour- and cornmeal-dusted wooden peel for easy transfer to and from the oven or grill.
  3. Drizzle dough with olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper over the surface. Generously scatter the everything bagel seasoning over the crust, concentrating mostly on the outer edges.
  4. Spread mozzarella evenly over the center of the dough, and use a large spoon to arrange dollops of the ricotta around the pizza.
  5. Transfer to the pizza steel or stone and bake for 6 to 7 minutes, rotating the pizza after about four minutes.
  6. Transfer hot pizza to a serving pan. Quickly scatter shallots, capers and dill over the pizza, and then arrange the smoked salmon so that every slice has an equal amount.

Mexican Street Corn Potato Salad

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Summer officially hit last night at 10:42pm ET, and you know what that means. Millions of backyard barbecues, picnics, family reunions and summer parties are straight ahead! Some of my fondest memories are closely tied to the foods served at such occasions, and I’m a firm believer in the notion that one can never have too many recipes for summer side salads.

For the past couple of summers, I’ve steered away from mayonnaise-based salads, mainly because they don’t hold up well in the summer heat, at least for outdoor parties. So my husband’s special request last weekend should not have been any surprise when I mentioned whipping up a potato salad to serve with our grilled coffee-rubbed tri-tip.

“Can you make more of a mayonnaise-y dressing this time? Not one of those vinegar things you’ve been doing.”

Well, okey-dokey! We have a running joke at our house about how long it takes for foods to come back around in “rotation,” so I’m happy to oblige a sincere requst.

I think I satisfied his craving with this creamy, mayo-dressed potato salad that conveys all the flavors of Mexican street corn, also known as eloté. The textures were great, and the dressing and seasonings were unmistakably eloté— creamy, sweet bite on the corn, tangy from the mayo and lime, a sharp saltiness from the crumbled cheese, and just spicy enough to be interesting. It was fantastic with the tri-tip he grilled for us, and we enjoyed this salad again with lunches during the week as well as with spicy grilled chicken tenders a couple nights ago. I’m sad that it’s gone!

This recipe makes enough for eight servings (unless you do excessive taste-testing like I did).

Ingredients for my Mexican street corn potato salad

Any finished dish is only as good as what goes into it, and given that this is a bit of a twist, I’ll break down the role that each ingredient played in this salad. Note that some ingredients may be tricky to find, so I’ve offered reasonable substitutions for those. Here we go!

Yukon gold potatoes – these are a perfect balance of creamy and starchy, and because the skin is so tender, I don’t bother peeling them. Choose potatoes on the smallish side if possible, so that every chunk has a bit of skin on it. You’ll cook them gently in salted water until fork tender, then drain and let the steam roll off before chilling.

Yukons are perfect here, but if you must substitute, use baby reds.

Mayonnaise and sour cream – My dressing is made with equal parts of these two, and if you can get your hands on Mexican crema, use that in place of sour cream. 

Roasted corn – we love grilling corn in the summer time, and we sometimes make extra ears so that we have them for dressing up another dish. If you don’t have a grill (or the time to mess with grilling corn), pick up a bag of frozen fire-roasted corn, which will work just as well. We like the one that’s available from Trader Joe’s.

Grilled corn is one of my favorite foods of summer!

Eloté spices – traditionally, Mexican street corn is seasoned with any number of ground chile powders, including chipotle, cumin, cayenne, ancho or pasilla. I used ground ancho and cumin in my dressing, but if you don’t have the individual chile powders, don’t sweat it! Just pick up a bottle of Tajin seasoning, either in the spice aisle or the International aisle. Trader Joe’s chili-lime seasoning is very similar, and I also love their “Everything But the Eloté,” to season my corn before grilling. It also happens to be excellent on popcorn!

Three terrific options for flavoring this salad, from hottest to mild.
Check out the saltiness ahead of time so you know what to expect.

Scallions – this is not traditional for Mexican street corn, but I can’t make potato salad without some variety of onions, and this one works well with the other ingredients. Use the white and green parts, and slice them thin.

Lime – the lime zest and juice are what really make the flavors of this salad pop. Purchase organic citrus because you’ll be using the peel, and choose heavy fruit with a smooth skin for the most juice and brightest flavor.

Sugar – every Mexican street corn I’ve ever tasted had a slightly sweet flavor, and a small spoonful of sugar in the dressing made this perfect. Don’t skip it. 

Fresh cilantro – authentic for Mexican street corn, but if you are among the 20% who find that it tastes like dish soap, then just skip it. There isn’t another herb similar enough, and the dish won’t suffer without it.

Crumbled cheese – ah, I saved the best for last! Mexican street corn is traditionally slathered with mayonnaise dressing and sprinkled liberally with cotija, a Mexican hard cheese that is reminiscent of parmesan, but less pungent. Cotija can be a little tricky to find outside of a specialty cheese section, but not to worry— feta, the dry crumbly kind, is a lovely substitute. And that leads me to a funny story…

A side note, on “sending the husband to the grocery store”

I love my husband dearly, and his sensibilities in the kitchen are usually right on target, but sometimes, I still make specific and detailed notes on the list when I send him to the store by himself, and I might even text him a picture of an exact item I need. For this recipe, I was very clear that if cotija cheese was not available, he should get “dry crumbled feta,” and in the margin, I wrote, “PLAIN, NO FLAVORS!” So you can imagine the stink-eye he received when he returned with a “flavored feta that sounded interesting.” My dramatic Leo side went bonkers as I yelled, “Geezus, can you not read???” But then I saw what he found, and of course, it was literally perfect for this recipe! Gotta trust my man sometimes, ya know?

You NAILED it, Babe! 😘

Making this Mexican street corn potato salad

From this point, it’s a pretty standard potato salad in terms of mixing, so I’ll let my photos do the talking while you imagine this deliciousness coming to life in your own kitchen. Find full instructions below in an easy, click-to-print recipe card that you can save for your files. Welcome back, summer! 😎

Save enough of the feta and cilantro to dress the top of the salad. Enjoy!

Mexican Street Corn Potato Salad

  • Servings: About 8
  • Difficulty: Average
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This is two of my all-time favorite carbs, together in one really flavorful salad! Plenty of seasoning options, so you can make it as spicy (or not) as you like it!


Ingredients

  • 2 lbs. Yukon gold potatoes, skin-on and cut into 1-inch chunks
  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/4 cup Mexican crema (or sour cream)
  • 3/4 cup finely sliced scallions
  • 3/4 tsp. ancho chile powder
  • 1/4 tsp. ground cumin
  • Salt and pepper
  • Zest and juice of one lime
  • 1 tsp. cane sugar
  • 2 ears fresh yellow sweet corn, roasted or grilled until charred but tender
  • 1/3 cup cotija cheese, divided (you’ll mix some into the salad and sprinkle the rest on top)
  • fresh cilantro

Substitution notes: If you don’t have the means to roast or grill the fresh corn, don’t hesitate to pick up a bag of frozen fire-roasted corn. We love the one from Trader Joe’s, and it would work terrific here. If you cannot find cotija cheese, dry crumbled feta is a reasonable substitute; consider chopping it finer if the crumbles are larger than peas. Ancho chile powder is a spice unto itself, without salt or other ingredients. If you can’t find it, or if you want flavor without heat, swap in smoked paprika.

Directions

  1. Place the potatoes in a pot with cold water, and heat over medium-low until they are fork tender. Drain gently and return to the hot pot with the lid off, so that excess moisture can escape through the steam. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp. salt over the hot potatoes and cool them to room temperature, then transfer to a large mixing bowl and refrigerate for an hour or longer.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine mayo, crema, scallions, spices, lime and sugar. Adjust to taste with salt and pepper. Put the dressing in the fridge to chill until you’re ready to assemble the salad.
  3. Stand the corn on end and use a sharp knife to cut the roasted kernels off. Add them to the potatoes and fold in gently with the dressing until the salad is consistently coated. Fold in about half of the cotija cheese and a bit of the chopped cilantro, reserving the rest for garnish.
  4. Transfer the potato salad to a serving dish, and sprinkle the top with remaining cheese and cilantro.

Hibiscus Bee’s Knees 🌺

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The saying goes that there’s nothing new under the sun, and though I generally believe it to be true with food and drink, I do think that sometimes a twist on a classic is different enough to warrant calling it “new.” Case in point, this tart and sassy summer cocktail.

It’s refreshing, balanced and beautiful!

Mine is a two-ingredient update to a Prohibition-era cocktail, and it pushes a classic into the modern, with a vibrant reddish hue that is perfect for Juneteenth or the summer solstice. The key difference is hibiscus, in the form of pure hibiscus tea bags, which I simmered in boiling water long enough to draw out the tart, floral flavors. A few pieces of crystallized ginger added a subtle zing of spice, and I think it would be even better with fresh ginger if you like the flavor.

The resulting strong tea was sweetened with a generous squeeze of local honey, for a syrup that is thin enough to blend well with the cocktail ingredients in a shaker filled with ice. I do not recommend adding honey straight, as it would remain heavy and thick. But in an equal parts syrup, it’s perfect.

Mine was wildflower honey, but orange blossom or another variety would be interesting, too.

This hibiscus-ginger syrup will keep in the fridge for about two weeks, and I have no doubt that it would be great in other cocktails or even as a flavor enhancer for sparkling water or tonic on a hot summer day. But for this featured cocktail, we need gin— the traditional spirit for bee’s knees— and fresh lemon. Grab a cocktail shaker, a lemon squeezer and a peeler to strip a bit of peel for garnish, and chill down a cocktail glass with ice water.

Once the syrup is made, it’s quite a simple drink.

Get your lemon strip first, then cut the lemon in half for easy squeezing into the shaker. Add an equal amount of hibiscus-ginger honey syrup and then two ounces of your favorite gin. While you enjoy these refreshing images, let’s take a trip down nostalgia lane to learn more about the original “bee’s knees.”

Fresh lemon is essential here, and choose organic if possible, as you’ll be using the peel.

How did the bees knees come about?

Back in the days of Prohibition, otherwise known as “the U.S. Government’s 13-year attempt at controlling its citizens,” grown adults had to get creative to find ways to cover up the questionable flavors of crappy liquor, the only kind they could get their hands on at the time. There were bootleggers, of course, who smuggled booze into the cities. And there were also people making their own at home, and the term “bathtub gin” arose from that era, a fair description of what was likely not very palatable. 

Honey and lemon juice, both strong flavors on their own, did a terrific job of hiding the paltry gin enough for them to choke it down and get their buzz on. People enjoyed the combination so much that the the drink became known by a phrase that everyone was using at the time to describe what was “the best.” The bee’s knees!

Early recipes for bee’s knees were in the “equal parts” category, meaning that they used the same amounts of gin, lemon and honey. Yikes. For modern times, the recipe is adjusted to a more standard ratio of 2 ounces gin and 3/4 ounce each of the other two ingredients. It’s nicely balanced, not too sweet and not too acidic.

I found a fun and informative article that delves deeper into the history of the bee’s knees, including its possible connection to “the Unsinkable Molly Brown,” as well as some interesting variations that I’d love to try sometime. Check it out here if you’re curious.

Back to our cocktail!

Today, of course, we have plenty of options for quality gin, and I imagine that your favorite would work just fine in this drink. I’ll also say that if you have always considered yourself to be a non-gin drinker, the bee’s knees might be the cocktail to change your mind. 

I’ve chosen Tanqueray No. 10 this time, for no other reason than the store was sold out of my usual Ford’s gin. Actor Stanley Tucci recently collaborated with Tanqueray No. 10 in an ad campaign, where he discussed the proper way to order a martini, and his description of the spirit won me over. Or maybe it was his voice. Either way, there’s a distinctive citrus note running through this gin, making it a nice anchor for the lemon and hibiscus.

Shake your cocktail ingredients with plenty of ice until the outside of the shaker is uncomfortable to hold. Strain it into the chilled glass and express the lemon peel over the drink, finishing with a wipe of the oily side of the peel all around the edge. 

The expressed lemon peel makes every sip fresh and citrusy!

The pretty, bright reddish hue of this drink makes it suitable for a Juneteenth celebration, where the color red symbolizes strength and resilience. And I can’t think of a more appropriate drink for summer than one made with fresh citrus and bright florals. This one deserves to be on repeat for the whole season!

Hibiscus Bee's Knees

  • Servings: 1 cocktail
  • Difficulty: Easy
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This two-ingredient twist on a classic cocktail is bright, beautiful and delicious enough to deserve a spot in the rotation all summer long. Use pure hibiscus tea bags, or seek out dried hibiscus flowers to make the syrup.


Ingredients

  • 2 oz. citrus-forward gin
  • 3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
  • 3/4 oz. hibiscus-ginger honey syrup (see below for recipe)
  • A strip of lemon peel, for garnish

Directions

  1. Add a generous amount of ice, plus water, to a cocktail glass to chill it down. Set aside while you prepare the cocktail.
  2. Combine gin, lemon juice and hibiscus-ginger honey syrup in a cocktail shaker.
  3. Add at least one cup of ice and shake vigorously for about 20 seconds. Strain into the chilled glass. Squeeze the outside curve of lemon peel over the drink, swiping the peel all around the edge of the glass. Drop peel in glass or cut a slit in it to balance it on the edge.

Note: Make the hibiscus-ginger honey syrup early enough to allow it to fully cool before using in cocktails. Strain the syrup into a sealable bottle or jar, and keep it in the fridge for up to two weeks. This recipe will make enough syrup for about six cocktails or cocktails.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup cold water
  • 2 pure hibiscus tea bags
  • About 6 pieces crystallized ginger (or half as much fresh sliced ginger)
  • 1/2 cup local honey

Directions

  1. Bring water to a gentle boil in a small saucepan. Turn off heat and add tea bags and ginger, swirling and steeping for about five minutes. Remove tea bags. Stir honey into the tea and continue to steep with the ginger until cooled to room temperature.
  2. Strain out solids and transfer syrup to a jar or bottle.

Spanakopita Scampi

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Thank goodness for frozen shrimp. I mean this sincerely, as there are many times when life is too busy and even the best-laid plans can’t be pulled together in time to feed the hungry faces in my house. 

We have a weekly ritual here that begins around Sunday morning, when my husband, Les, and I sit down with our respective calendars, the long-range forecast displayed on one of our phones, and we do our best to map out what we are going to do about dinner in the week ahead. This includes a quick inventory of what we already have in the fridge and freezer, consideration of what nights might be good for cooking outdoors, acknowledgement of whether one of us has a hellish workday that week, and— last but not least— how much time we can allot to said meals and which of us will be cooking them.  

It’s a lot of moving parts and sometimes, our meal game falls apart and we need to punt. 

On such an occasion recently, I postponed a more-involved food plan in favor of this ad hoc dish, which turned out so good that I wrote down the ingredients to share it here. It’s something of a mashup of Italian shrimp scampi and Greek spanakopita, and it met all the requirements for a busy weeknight: quick, easy, flavorful and relatively healthful. 

Not too shabby for a last minute improvisation.

What ingredients do you need for spanakopita scampi?

My dish features peeled shrimp (fresh or thawed), garlic and plenty of olive oil, onions, spinach, feta, lemon, parsley and dill. And though I had both angel hair and linguine pastas— two options I’d typically reach for when making scampi, I decided to use the whole wheat orzo that was feeling ignored in the pantry. Orzo is a staple pantry ingredient in Greek cuisine, so it seemed a logical stand in for the spanakopita element of the dish, but almost any small pasta shape you like would work fine.

The most time-consuming part of this meal was thawing and prepping the shrimp, a task that I almost always hand off to Les’s capable hands. If you’re in a hurry, purchase shrimp that is already peeled and deveined to save valuable time. 

How to make spanakopita scampi

Everything else comes together quickly, beginning with a patient poaching of minced garlic in a large sauté pan. This should be done at a very low temperature, with almost no bubbles evident, so that you don’t burn the garlic. After about 10 minutes, increase the heat and add the diced onions, tossing to soften them in the warm, garlicky oil. Add the chopped spinach (I didn’t have enough so I supplemented with some thawed and squeezed frozen spinach), and then the fresh herbs.

This was the “spanakopita” part of the dish!

Get the orzo going and toss the feta into the spinach mixture, then transfer that to a bowl and keep it warm. Heat some more olive oil in the same pan, or a bit of butter (or both), and cook the shrimp until it’s just barely a pink/coral color. Always use a delicate touch when cooking shrimp, as it only takes one extra minute to overdo it. My method is to place the shrimp into the hot pan one at a time in concentric circles, and by the time the last shrimp goes in, the first is ready to turn. If you can see a bit of color on the inside curl of the shrimp, that’s your sign to turn it over and cook the other side. The smaller ones will usually cook faster, and if your burner has a hot spot (as mine does), then check the ones there first.

I had some dill-shallot compound butter left over from another dish, and it was perfect for cooking the shrimp!

When all the shrimp have been turned over, squeeze fresh lemon over them and turn off the heat. Drain the orzo and toss it in a bit more of butter. Plate it up with the warm spinach-feta mixture and shrimp. Enjoy!

I love to serve meals in a “pile.” It keeps everything warm and seems more like a restaurant meal. 🙂

Spanakopita Scampi

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: Average
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This is a quick and easy weeknight dinner that combines two of my all-time favorite Mediterranean classics. If you don't have orzo, use any kind of small pasta shape that you have on hand.


Ingredients

  • 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (possibly more for cooking shrimp)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/3 cup diced sweet or yellow onion
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 fat handfuls baby spinach leaves, rough chopped* (see notes)
  • A handful each of fresh dill and flat-leaf parsley, chopped
  • 1/3 cup feta, drained and cubed or crumbled
  • 1 Tbsp. butter* (see notes)
  • 1 pound fresh wild-caught shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • Juice of 1/2 fresh lemon
  • Cooked orzo and fresh lemon slices, for serving

Note: Fresh spinach is best, but if you don’t have enough, you can supplement with some frozen chopped spinach. Microwave it in a glass dish until thawed, then press out as much water as possible and add it to the onions after they’re already softened. Proceed with the rest of the recipe as usual.

I was fortunate to have a bit of “dill and shallot” compound butter left over from another recipe, and it was perfect for cooking the shrimp! If using regular butter or oil, consider adding a few shakes of dried dill weed at this step, or reserve a bit of fresh dill for sprinkling over the top of the finished dish.

Directions

  1. Please a large skillet over low heat and add two generous swirls of olive oil with the garlic. Cook this very low and slow, with almost no bubbling action in the pan, so that the garlic become very soft and fragrant. It should take about 10 minutes, and this mellows the flavor of the garlic. Too much heat will give the garlic a burned and acrid taste.
  2. When the garlic is softened, increase the heat to medium and add the onions. Season with salt and pepper and toss to sauté until onions are translucent. Add spinach by the handful, tossing until each handful has wilted before adding the next. If supplementing with frozen spinach, wait until the fresh spinach has fully cooked.
  3. Add fresh herbs and toss for about 30 seconds, then add feta and remove the pan from heat. You may either transfer this mixture to a bowl (keep it warm) and use the same pan for the shrimp, or use a second pan for the shrimp.
  4. Add butter (or oil) to the skillet over medium heat. Place shrimp down in the hot butter and season with salt and pepper, and a quick shake of dried dill if you have it. Watch the shrimp closely, and turn them when you notice the color changing on the inside curl. Depending on the size of your shrimp, two to three minutes total should do it. After the shrimp has cooked on the second side, squeeze the fresh lemon juice into the pan and toss to coat.
  5. Toss cooked orzo with a bit of butter or oil, and serve it with the spinach mixture and shrimp piled on top. Add a lemon slice on the side for one last burst of freshness.

Savory Pimento Cheese Puffs

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Every year for our annual Kentucky Derby gathering, my husband and I include pimento cheese in some form or fashion. It’s a classic Southern thing. But you know that I get bored making the same things over and over, and finding new ways to incorporate the classics is what makes me (and my guests) happy.

In past years, Les has contributed with crowd-pleasing homemade pimento cheese, and our table has also been graced by our spicy pimento cheese deviled eggs, which are so addictive, and an unexpected twist. This year, pimento cheese made its mark in these soft and savory cookies that pay homage to yet another Southern finger food, the “cheese straw.” 

A Southern party feels incomplete without pimento cheese.

If you’ve ever attended a wedding reception, bridal shower, funeral or other family gathering in the American South, you’ve probably seen some squiggly little cheese cracker-looking things served alongside the sweet tea and ham biscuits. They resemble pieces of straw, having been squeezed out onto a baking sheet through the star plate of a cookie press. Cheese straws are crispy and wispy, made with three simple ingredients— butter, finely shredded cheddar and flour, though some folks add cayenne to shake things up. These were my inspiration for the pimento cheese puffs I’m sharing today.

The idea for subbing in pimento cheese struck me when Les and I were packing up to leave after a weekend at our favorite North Carolina beach a couple of weeks ago. We had hardly touched the tub of spicy pimento cheese that we’d bought for seaside snacking, and my mind was on the Derby Day party that was coming up the next weekend. I thought, why couldn’t I do an ingredient swap? Mayo has enough fat to sub for butter, but also a bit of vinegar and of course, egg yolks, and I imagined that the resulting “cookies” might be a bit softer than a typical cheese straw. I was correct.

I loved how soft and spongy these cookies turned out!

These were delicate and puffy, but also deeply flavorful from the ingredients in the pimento cheese, including a few finely diced onions. I highly recommend this twist for any “share-a-snack” event that you may have coming up this summer!

How to make pimento cheese puffs

I’m going to be intentionally vague about the exact amounts of each ingredient I used because the consistency of the pimento cheese can vary widely from one brand to another. I’ll focus instead on the ideal outcome of the “dough,” which should be dense, heavy on cheese, with just enough of the mayonnaise and/or butter to bind the mixture together. For the size of our Derby Day crowd, I mixed in additional sharp cheddar, and I figured that I may as well also mix in some extra pimentos for good measure.

I ended up shredding about one third of my extra cheese block for this mixture.

The spicy pimento cheese we bought at the beach was low on mayonnaise (just the way we like it), and for this reason I added a dollop of mayo to my mixing bowl, along with a couple tablespoons of softened salted butter plus a splash of Worcestershire sauce. The pimento cheese, additional cheddar and pimentos went into the mixing bowl and I blended it until it was evenly combined. Next came the flour, and I followed the rule of thumb from my Kentucky bourbon pecan cheese biscuits here, blending in about one cup of all-purpose flour for the combined volume of the other ingredients. Again, give or take as needed, depending on the overall consistency of your mixture. The dough should be firm enough so that you can stand a spoon or spatula straight up in the bowl. Chill the mixture in the fridge for a few hours or overnight before baking.

A cookie scoop ensures equal-size snacks, and a quick press with the fork helped flatten them.

My teaspoon-size cookie scoop made quick work of this task, resulting in puffs that measured about an inch and a half across— perfect for our appetizer spread. I have ordered several sizes of these quality scoops from King Arthur Baking Company, and I find that I reach for them for many things other than cookies. 

For texture, I lightly pressed each cookie with a fork before baking, though it didn’t have much impact as the cookies puffed a lot as they baked. The cookies are best served the same day, but any leftovers may be stored at room temperature in a covered container.

Savory Pimento Cheese Puffs

  • Servings: About 12
  • Difficulty: Easy
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Any self-respecting Southern hostess will find a way to include pimento cheese on the party table. These soft and flavorful bites were my creation for our latest Kentucky Derby bash, and they turned out terrific.


Ingredients

  • A dollop of mayonnaise
  • 2 Tbsp. softened salted butter
  • 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
  • About one cup prepared pimento cheese* (see notes)
  • Up to one cup finely shredded cheddar cheese (sharp or extra sharp for best flavor)
  • 2 Tbsp. jarred pimentos, drained and patted dry
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour

Note: My recipe was made with a low-mayonnaise pimento cheese. Some prepared spreads are very loose and almost runny, and I do not recommend that consistency.

Directions

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together the mayonnaise, butter and Worcestershire sauce.
  2. Add pimento cheese, additional cheddar and pimentos, and mix with beater blade until evenly combined.
  3. Add the flour, half at a time, blending with the beater blade just until incorporated. Chill dough in the refrigerator for at least a few hours (up to overnight) before baking.
  4. Heat oven to 350° F, with rack in center position. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
  5. Portion cheese cookie dough onto the parchment in rounded teaspoons. Press lightly with a fork. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until cookies are puffy and slightly browned on the edges. Transfer right away to a cooling rack.

Pineapple Upside-down Old Fashioned

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You’d think after so many years of creating in the kitchen, that it might take a really innovative technique or recipe to wow me. And that would be incorrect. Sometimes, it’s the simplest of things. Take for instance, my recent decision to “do something, anything” with the scraps of rind and core that I trimmed from a perfectly ripe, fresh golden pineapple.

It seems like such a waste to discard the pieces that aren’t edible.

Was I channeling my pal, Dorothy from New Vintage Kitchen, and following along with her “Scrap Happy Planet” series of ideas about reducing food waste? Sure, I was. And did I feel a sense of pride in knowing that my frugal grandmother would also be giddy at my effort to use up every bit of the pineapple? Of course. What I didn’t see coming was the flood of ideas I would conjure for using the glorious syrup that resulted from this experiment, and I’m eager to hear your ideas as well.

I’ll admit that I did not entirely come up with this “pineapple syrup” idea on my own; rather, it struck me when I received an email from Imbibe magazine. I’ve been subscribed to this publication (print and digital) since Covid began, and I’m always inspired by the innovative approaches of top bartenders across the country. Check out their site for even just a few clicks and you’ll see what I mean.

What dropped in my inbox was a recipe for a cocktail called “Pineapple Old Fashioned Du Jour,” and I couldn’t leave that alone because it already had half of my blog’s name on it. My husband, Les, and I both adore old fashioned cocktails and this one sounded sweet, tropical and perfect. Most of all, it gave me inspiration for the pineapple scraps that were staring at me from the fridge. A sweet syrup is created when Demerara sugar (or a mix of light and dark brown sugars, which is what I had in the pantry) is muddled with the leavings of the pineapple, drawing out all that beautiful sweetness. After several hours of macerating, you add a splash of boiling water to thin it out a bit and then strain out the solids.

Oooh, we are gettin’ “scrap happy” over here, indeed! 😂

It was so easy, and a great way to eke out every last bit of flavor from my pineapple. The only problem now is that I have almost too many ideas for this pineapple syrup, which tastes exactly like the sticky sweet part of pineapple upside-down cake. I mean, exactly. 

Pretend you didn’t catch me enjoying this! 😂

For the sake of follow-through, I tried the pineapple old fashioned du jour that Imbibe had dropped in my inbox. It was tasty, but didn’t hit all the notes I expected after nibbling on that syrupy pineapple core. Call me greedy— I wanted the whole dessert at that point, so I came up with a twist that incorporated a bit of vanilla-scented Tuaca, an Italian brandy liqueur that seems to make everything taste a little bit like cake. I increased the amount of pineapple syrup for my drink and used smoked cinnamon bitters to further emphasize the dessert flavors.

In case you’re wondering, the drink does benefit from having fancy ice!

A drizzle of Luxardo cherry syrup syrup into the bottom of the glass gave it an “upside-down” vibe, and a classic pineapple and cherry garnish was just too obvious.

Cheers to having your cake and drinking it, too!

This process creates quite a large amount of syrup, and it only keeps for a couple of weeks in the fridge. We love the old fashioned drinks, but we couldn’t finish this in drinks alone. So I went for broke and made a carrot cake for Easter, using up a generous glug of this intense pineapple syrup to drench the layers before slathering on the lemony cream cheese icing. Dorothy loved this idea as well, especially with crushed pineapple in the cake itself. Here’s how it turned out.

Piercing the cake with a toothpick coaxes the syrup deep into the layers. Let it absorb before icing.

The syrup would also be delicious drizzled over vanilla ice cream— or, better yet, my easy cinnamon ice cream! With a cherry on top, of course! My hairstylist had another easy idea (she and I always share foodie stories), and she asked, why couldn’t you even just drizzle that syrup on a slice of pound cake and top it with some whipped cream? Yes, Julie, why the heck not?!

What would you want to do with this delicious idea?

Pineapple Upside-down Old Fashioned

  • Servings: 2 drinks
  • Difficulty: Easy
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This deliciously dessert-y cocktail makes use of all the scraps trimmed from a fresh pineapple, and I highly recommend seeking out the Tuaca liqueur for the cake-like notes it brings to the glass. Cheers!


Ingredients

  • 3 oz. bourbon (I used Elijah Craig small batch, which is 94 proof)
  • 1 oz. Tuaca liqueur (Italian brandy with notes of vanilla)
  • 2 oz. pineapple syrup (recipe below)
  • 2 dropper tips smoked cinnamon bitters
  • 2 bar spoons Luxardo cherry syrup for the bottom of the glass
  • Pineapple chunks and Luxardo cherries to garnish

Notes: Amarena cherries or another high-end cocktail cherry brand would be a fine substitute for Luxardo. The important thing is that the syrup should be thick so that it remains at the bottom of the glass rather than blending into the drink. If you only have maraschino cherries, I’d recommend omit the syrup layer or perhaps use a syrupy grenadine for the aesthetic.

My smoked cinnamon bitters are Old Forester brand, and I found them online at Bourbon Barrel Foods. They are excellent!

Directions

  1. Drizzle Luxardo syrup into the bottom of the glass and place a large ice rock on top of it.
  2. Combine bourbon, Tuaca, pineapple syrup and bitters in a cocktail glass. Add a generous amount of ice and stir to mix until the outside of the mixing glass is frosty.
  3. Strain slowly over the ice so that the cherry syrup does not incorporate. Garnish and enjoy!

Note: This cocktail recipe does require a fair amount of advance prep. Make the pineapple syrup the day before, and be sure to select a pineapple that is fully ripe for best results. Clean it really well and rinse with white vinegar solution before you begin breaking it down. This process yields about two cups of syrup, and it will keep in the refrigerator for two weeks.

Ingredients

  • All the rind and core pieces of a large, ripe pineapple
  • 1 1/2 cups brown sugar (I used a combination of dark and light; Demerara sugar was suggested by my inspiration recipe)
  • 1/2 cup boiling water

Directions

  1. Place all the pineapple parts in a sealable bowl (break or cut them into smaller chunks if needed). Sprinkle brown sugar over the scraps and use a cocktail muddler or heavy wooden spoon to smash the sugar into the pineapple. After a few minutes, the juices will begin to soften things up. Cover and let it rest for several hours to overnight. Stir a few times as needed to keep things macerating evenly.
  2. Pour boiling water over the macerated pineapple and stir gently to loosen up and dissolve any remaining sugar. Carefully remove the solid pieces and then strain the syrup through a fine mesh strainer. Transfer to a sealable jar or bottle and keep it in the fridge.

Irish Coffee Cupcakes ☘️

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Looking in the rearview mirror can be a good thing. It was only a few years ago that I had serious doubts about my abilities as a dessert baker; my strength has mainly been with savory recipes and sourdough breads. But I’ve been working hard to trust myself, and I’m enjoying the trend I see in my sweet treat baking— especially cupcakes! 

For St. Patrick’s Day, I had fun making a boozy cupcake with the flavors of Irish coffee. The treat is just for grown-ups, made with double dark cocoa, spiked with Jameson whiskey, and topped off with a swirly Bailey’s Irish Cream buttercream frosting. And did I mention that there’s also a Bailey’s-infused dark chocolate ganache tucked inside?

It’s like a little pot of chocolate gold!

I relied on a few successful previous cupcake experiences, such as the mint julep cupcakes that I’ve made twice now, for the template of adding alcohol to a batter, and also my s’mores cupcakes, for the ganache filling. And though things mostly went according to plan, there were a few bumpy spots in the road. Never a dull moment in the kitchen, and that’s one of the things I love!

Here’s what worked:

Mise en place!

First and foremost, I’ve learned the importance of getting my ducks in a row. Things go much more smoothly when I take the time to measure out and line up my ingredients. Here, you see that I’ve organized everything into the order I’ll need them. I took time to make fresh coffee for the batter, and I even measured out the Jameson and Bailey’s so that they were ready at the right time. I cannot describe how much this single practice has changed my baking game. If you struggle with getting things right in baking, maybe this will help you, too.

Being ready has changed everything for me!

The cupcake batter

As luck would have it, when I searched for a good chocolate cupcake recipe on my go-to, King Arthur Baking, one of the recipes that came up was  Irish Cream Cupcakes. This became my roadmap, at least for ingredient ratios, but I took issue with the instructions because Step 2 suggested combining all the ingredients into the mixing bowl at once! I’m no expert, but I am a creature of habit, so I followed the method that has served me well in the past. It started with my Irish butter and sugar, then the eggs, and finally the dry and liquid ingredients, alternated for even blending.

This method always seems to work well for me.

My jumbo cookie scoop is perfect for divvying out the batter into the cupcake liners. For some reason, my cupcakes always fill almost to the top, and this works fine, despite most recipes suggesting to fill them 2/3 full. The house smelled amazing as these baked for 22 minutes.

My cupcakes were very poofy!

The icing on the cupcake

Never would I have imagined that buttercream frosting would be so easy to make, but this one really is. I began with Irish butter, whipped until soft and somewhat fluffy, and blended with powdered sugar. The Irish butter was more dense than typical butter, so I poured in a couple splashes of heavy cream and I was back in business. Another measure of Bailey’s put a perfectly boozy finish to my frosting, which I spooned into a piping bag, ready to go for icing my cupcakes.

The Irish butter was very dense, but a little heavy cream brought my frosting back to the right consistency.

And here’s where things got a little dicey:

Boozy ganache filling

While the cupcakes were in the oven, I made a ganache to pipe into the middle of my cakes later, but ran into all kinds of trouble. I’ve made ganache a few times and found it surprisingly simple, but I’d never tried spiking it with Irish whiskey. I’ll spare you the disappointing details of all that went wrong; I trust you’ll understand when you see this quick list of my Google searches. 😅

1. “What’s the ratio for thicker ganache?”

2. “How much whiskey can you add to ganache?”

3. “Can you whip thick ganache to make it lighter?”

4. “Alton Brown method for fixing broken ganache”

5. “What can you do with grainy ganache?”

In other words, it was a failure that kept on failing until I gave up. In the end, though, I found success by starting over (thank goodness I had more chocolate) and keeping it simple, and I spiked my make-good batch with Bailey’s rather than whiskey. Still a great flavor, and the consistency was perfect. After it cooled to room temp, I transferred it to a small zip-top bag for easy piping later.

Second time was a charm for my ganache. And, we had some leftover!

Putting it all together

To hollow out the cooled cupcakes, I used my apple corer tool, but I suspect it would also be easy to cut a small circle or cone shape from the centers with a paring knife, to make room for piping in the ganache. It was tough to resist eating all those little cupcake plugs, but I knew I’d need them later to cover the ganache before icing the cupcakes. A piping bag with a star tip makes quick work of this, but there’s no reason at all that you couldn’t just use an offset spatula or even the back of a spoon to swirl some of this delicious buttercream onto the cupcakes.

You could skip the ganache filling and just top these with buttercream, if you’d like!

Irish Coffee Cupcakes

  • Servings: 12 cupcakes
  • Difficulty: Average
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You'll want to dance a jig when you taste these cupcakes, rich with decadent dark chocolate and a boozy kick from Irish whiskey and Bailey's Irish Cream.


Ingredients

  • 8 Tbsp. salted Irish butter, softened (see notes)
  • 3/4 to 1 cup organic cane sugar (depending on your sweet tooth)
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup strongly brewed coffee, cooled
  • 2 Tbsp. Jameson Irish whiskey
  • 2 Tbsp. Bailey’s Irish Cream
  • 1 1/2 cups unbleached cake flour (see notes)
  • 1/2 cup Double Dark Dutch cocoa
  • 1/4 tsp. salt (increase to 1/2 if using unsalted butter)
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 heaping tablespoons dark chocolate, finely chopped (optional, but why not?)

Notes: I used salted Irish butter and my cupcakes turned out terrific. If your butter is unsalted, double the salt called for in the recipe.

Unbleached cake flour is available on the King Arthur Baking website. It is a finer texture than all-purpose flour and yields a more delicate, refined crumb. If you cannot find it, all-purpose flour will work fine.

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350° F, and place oven rack in the center position. Line 12 muffin cups with paper cupcake liners.
  2. Combine flour, cocoa, chopped chocolate, baking powder, soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In a separate measuring cup, combine cooled coffee, Irish whiskey and Bailey’s and set aside.
  3. Using a stand or handheld mixer, beat butter until it is light and fluffy (this is tougher with Irish butter, I discovered). Gradually add sugar while mixer is running and continue beating until all sugar is incorporated. Add eggs, one at a time, beating to thoroughly blend.
  4. Alternate mixing in the flour and coffee ingredients, blending well after each and finishing with the flour. This usually works by dividing the dry ingredients into thirds and the wet ingredients by half. After the last addition of dry ingredients, beat on medium speed for about one minute to help bloom the cocoa.
  5. Divide the batter among the cupcake liners. Mine were more than 3/4 full and they turned out great. Check for doneness (by toothpick test) at 20 minutes, and bake a minute or two longer if needed. Cool cupcakes completely in the pan.
  6. If using ganache, hollow out a small plug of each cupcake’s center, reserving the plugs. Snip a small corner from the ganache zip-top bag and pipe in enough ganache to reach the top of the hole. Gently press part of a plug over the ganache. I cut each cupcake plug to half thickness so that they didn’t protrude too much, and this was a great opportunity to sample the cupcakes!
  7. Pipe on buttercream, taking care not to overdo it. For this recipe, I had just barely enough buttercream to finish my dozen cupcakes.

Ingredients

  • 8 Tbsp. butter, softened
  • 2 1/2 to 3 cups powdered sugar (use your judgment for desired consistency)
  • A splash or two of heavy cream, if needed, for fluffy consistency
  • 3 Tbsp. Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur

Directions

  1. Use whip attachment on stand mixer to whip butter until soft and fluffy.
  2. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, and continue to whip until it is fully incorporated. If frosting mixture is too dense, whip in a bit of cold heavy cream to adjust.
  3. With mixer running, stream in Bailey’s Irish Cream until blended. Add more powdered sugar as needed to adjust consistency again. Use frosting right away or if refrigerating, bring to room temperature before piping onto cupcakes.

Note: The ganache filling is an extra layer of decadence, and a fun surprise. If you are short on time or don’t want the extra indulgence, feel free to omit it and move right on to frosting the cupcakes.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup Ghirardelli dark chocolate melting wafers
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream, heated to the point of steaming but not boiling
  • 3 Tbsp. Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur

Directions

  1. Place chocolate wafers into a small bowl with tapered sides, or a glass measuring cup. Gently pour hot cream over the chocolate, pressing wafers down to be fully submerged. Leave it alone for about 8 minutes.
  2. Use a spoon, silicone spatula or small whisk to stir the melted chocolate. Work slowly at first to limit splashing. Within about a minute, the ganache should be smooth and glossy. If any small bits of chocolate remain unmelted, place the bowl into a larger bowl of shallow hot water and then stir again.
  3. Stir in Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur and allow the mixture to cool. While it is still pourable, transfer it to a small zip-top bag for easy piping into the cupcake holes.

Spicy Mango-Melon Margarita 💋

12 Comments

Not for lack of things to say, but I haven’t had it in me to blog much recently. The flood of “information” that has been coming out of Washington for the past month has been, frankly, a bit much for me. OK, that’s an understatement. Truth is, I’m working on an exit plan. I’m not sure what it would be like to live in another country, but I’m game to find out. The fact that I love other cultures more than my own helps a lot.

Today is National Margarita Day, which should be a time to only be happy about a fun cocktail, but has somehow (for me, anyway) become but a temporary escape from the living hell before us. Billionaires driving the bus of our nation. Fascists calling the shots. Christian Nationalists pretending they know what Jesus would do.

I’m done. I’ve held my tongue longer than is reasonable for these times, and I feel like I’m about to explode. Enter, tequila. Thank you, Mexico, for everything. Seriously, I’m feeling a little spicy, and I don’t care if it shows.

Right?

Lord, give me the gumption of my grandmother, who lived through the Great Depression, and of my great grandmother, who was the first generation on the female side of my family to earn the right to vote. I need to embody all of their strength today. Oh yes, indeedy-doodee-daddy, I need to remember where I came from— I need to feel it in my bones. I’ve seen on numerous Instagram posts recently that women in the 1930s and ‘40s wore red lipstick as a means to protest fascism and piss off the people in power, so until further notice… 

I can’t say quiet.

With that off my chest, I present the cocktail that easily found its way into my repertoire this week. The spicy mango-melon margarita. It is a super easy, flavorful cocktail that melts my rebel heart with its spicy-meets-sweet flavor profile, and a spirit that says, “hell, no!!” The recipe is a bit of a shortcut—something I don’t do very often— and it works here, because I’ve been trying so hard to keep everything else between the lines that I haven’t had time to create many things from scratch. But I trust Q brand mixers, and using this one means that the drink is EASY to make at home. Even if you can’t even.

I’m keeping it simple with a tasty, store-bought mixer.

The key ingredients you need are tequila (any would probably work, but reposado is appropriate for the pause I’ve taken in sharing my true feelings), melon liqueur (Midori seems obvious because it is the real deal, not a knock-off) and the Q brand spicy mango margarita mixer, which has all the stuff I love and none of the stuff I don’t. Truth be told, I could probably drink this mixer over ice by itself and feel that I’ve accomplished something. But not today. I’m grateful for the tequila. Here we go, beginning with prepping the glass:

Swipe a fresh lime wedge on the edge of the glass, and then roll the outside in the Tajin spice.
Shake with ice, strain over a big rock and garnish with a lime.

This may seem like an opinion piece, and maybe it is— only you can decide what it means to you. But I’m sticking with my red lipstick and my spicy cocktail and my spicy attitude. It’s still a free country, after all. At least, for now. 

Spicy Mango-Melon Margarita

  • Servings: 1 cocktail
  • Difficulty: Easy!
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A store-bought shortcut makes this spicy, sassy cocktail super easy, and just in time for National Margarita Day!


Ingredients

  • 2 oz. reposado tequila (recommended 1800)
  • 3/4 oz. Midori melon liqueur
  • 3 to 4 oz. Q brand spicy mango margarita mixer (lesser amount results in a stronger drink)
  • fresh lime and Tajin spice to decorate glass

Note: I don’t typically use store-bought cocktail mixers, but I’ve made an exception here because the Q mixer brand does not use high fructose corn syrup or fake flavors. I was startled at how much I liked this mixer, even on its own. You can trust it here.

Directions

  1. Use a lime slice to moisten rim of a cocktail glass. Roll outside rim of glass in Tajin spice.
  2. Add tequila, melon liqueur and margarita mixer to a cocktail shaker. Add one cup ice cubes and shake the hell out of it, like you’re pissed off at the state of everyting.
  3. Strain over a fat ice cube into the prepared cocktail glass.
  4. Repeat as needed for four years.

Pimento Cheese Cornbread

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It took me nearly 10 years, but I’ve finally found a way to persuade my husband to appreciate cornbread. I love this humble side for its texture, its subtle sweetness and its perfectly rustic personality alongside a bowl of chili, a hearty Brunswick chicken stew, or even a plate of pulled pork barbecue and baked beans. But the grainy texture of plain cornbread, or maybe its simple flavor, has been a turnoff to Les as long as I’ve known him. As a result, I don’t make cornbread very often because I can’t (or shouldn’t) eat the whole batch myself. But now!

I highly recommend enjoying this warm! 😋

This version, featuring tangy pimentos, hot cherry peppers and a hefty amount of cheddar cheese, has made my husband a believer. He actually liked it! This is my adaptation of a recipe that dropped into my email inbox a few weeks ago from NYT Cooking. The NYT version called for roasted red peppers and feta cheese— flavors I also love, and a light bulb went off in my head, perhaps because Les had made a batch of pimento cheese the weekend before New Year’s, and I just knew that the same pimento cheese flavors would work in a cornbread. Did they ever!

What I changed to make it mine

The substitution of pimentos and cheddar is straightforward, but there were a couple of other things I modified from the NYT recipe to suit our preferences. I cut the suggested sugar in half, as recommended by many people who took time to comment on the NYT recipe. Many southerners do not use sugar in their cornbread at all— weird, given that we put it in literally everything else, but I’ll let the dissenters duke that out in the comments. My version had a quarter cup, and that was plenty.  

The only ingredients missing in this picture are melted butter and an egg.

Les loves spicy foods, so along with pimentos, I subbed in some hot cherry peppers, which made for a nice flavor kick. I only had a bit of sour cream, so I went halvsies with plain Greek yogurt. I’m grateful that the two are almost always interchangeable, but in this case, I had a very heavy batter so I splashed in a bit of buttermilk, too. It’s good to be able to pivot in the kitchen! 

This was a much thicker batter than I’m used to, but it turned out amazing!

A quick shake of sweet paprika in the dry ingredients lent additional color and a touch of smoke. I didn’t want green flecks in my cornbread, so minced onion stood in for the scallions called for in the NYT Cooking recipe. I rehydrated the onions with hot water so that they wouldn’t steal moisture from the batter. If I’d had a Vidalia onion, that would have been even better— sautéed first, of course.

Bringing it all together

Finally, rather than mess with lining a baking dish with parchment, I chose to bake my cornbread directly in a cast iron skillet. I love the crusty edges achieved this way, and in the South, everything is better in cast iron. To be successful with this, melt two tablespoons of butter in the skillet until it’s bubbly and starting to brown. Then pour the batter into the hot skillet and transfer it to the oven for the recommended baking time, 35 minutes.

The hot skillet makes this extra good, but you could also bake it in a buttered square dish.

This cornbread smelled amazing when I pulled it from the oven. The cheddar melted throughout, and the pimentos and hot cherry peppers gave the whole thing a “pimento cheese” vibe. The only thing I plan to do differently next time will be trade the melted butter for mayonnaise, which will serve the same purpose and bring it even closer to true pimento cheese. 

A traditional “good luck” meal for New Year’s in the U.S. South.

Our pimento cheese cornbread was a perfect side to our New Year’s Day “good luck” meal that also included spicy collard greens and black-eyed pea soup. How would you enjoy it?

Pimento Cheese Cornbread

  • Servings: 8 wedges
  • Difficulty: Average
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Sharp cheddar and diced pimentos have transformed a classic cornbread into something utterly addictive. If you're adventurous, swap in a few hot cherry peppers for even more great flavor.


Ingredients

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup medium grind cornmeal
  • 1/4 cup organic cane sugar
  • 1 Tbsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. kosher salt
  • 1/4 tsp. sweet paprika
  • 6 Tbsp. butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tsp. dried minced onion, rehydrated in hot water
  • 1/3 cup pimentos, drained (or mix it up with diced hot cherry peppers)
  • 3/4 freshly shredded extra sharp cheddar
  • 1 tsp. coarse sea salt for sprinkling on batter before baking
  • 2 Tbsp. cold butter, for cast iron skillet

Notes: You may need to adjust the amounts of sour cream or Greek yogurt, given that consistency of these ingredients varies from brand to brand. If your batter is too thick, consider stirring in a couple tablespoons of milk or buttermilk so that the dry ingredients can be fully incorporated.

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375° F, with rack in center position. Place a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium-low heat and add cold butter, rubbing the butter along the side of the skillet to grease it. Keep the skillet on low heat while you prepare the batter.
  2. Whisk together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, pepper and paprika. Set aside.
  3. In a large mixing bowl or batter bowl, combine sour cream, yogurt, egg and melted butter. Stir in rehydrated onion.
  4. Stir dry ingredients into wet mixture, half at a time, only until flour is fully incorporated. If batter is too thick or dry, don’t hesitate to stir in a splash of milk. Use a silicone spatula to fold in the cheddar cheese and pimento/pepper mixture.
  5. The butter in the skillet should be completely melted and beginning to brown. Transfer batter to the hot skillet and lightly smooth the top with a spatula. Sprinkle coarse salt over the batter and bake 30 to 35 minutes, until edges are crispy and center passes the toothpick test. Serve warm, and then cool leftovers completely before wrapping and storing for up to three days.