Beverages Index: 2019 Edition

The Index is a vital part of this project.  Since I started this project with the 2006 edition, some of the blogs linked are from that edition and I'm not guaranteeing that there have been no changes at all.  You can ask, though, and I probably know the answer.  Starred items are new in the 2019 edition (or at least they weren't in the 2006 version) and ^ are recipes that have a visible change--some have a more descriptive name, some are combined, fairly minor changes.

Look for the "Index 2019" keyword to get to the newer version, "Round 1" to get the original version of the index.

**DISCLAIMER** IF THESE ARE RECIPES THAT WERE IN BOTH THE 2006 EDITION AND THE 2019 EDITION AND I MADE THEM IN ROUND 1, IT'S POSSIBLE THERE ARE MINOR DIFFERENCES.

If you found this page on Google because you were searching for a specific recipe that isn't linked, make sure to search for it. I'm usually several months behind updating the indexes.

My thoughts on the update at the bottom.

Beverages:
Number of recipes:
Number of recipes in the 2019 edition previously made:

Drip coffee
Steeped coffee
Vacuum-method coffee
Percolated coffee
Coffee in quantity
*Cold -brew coffee
Iced coffee
^Turkish or Middle Eastern coffee (added "Middle Eastern")
*Vietnamese coffee
*Cuban coffee
Frozen coffee
*Cold-brewed tea
^Masala chai (previously just "Chai")
*Iced tea
Sweet southern iced tea
*Thai iced tea
Hot cocoa
Cocoa syrup
Quick hot cocoa
Ganache for hot chocolate
Quick hot chocolate I
Quick hot chocolate II
Spiced hot cocoa
Spiced hot chocolate
*Champurrado (masa-thickened hot chocolate)
*Mayan hot chocolate
Brazilian chocolate
Kai
Iced chocolate
Egg cream
*Tomato-vegetable juice I: Fresh tomatoes (I previously made this with canned tomatoes)
^Tomato-vegetable juice II: Canned or bottled tomato juice (previously "Tomato juice II")
Citrus juice medley
Cranberry juice
^Tomato-celery-carrot juice (previously not "juice" but "cooler"
*Pineapple-mango juice
*Carrot-beet-ginger juice
*Kale-ginger lemonade
*Fruit smoothie
*Green smoothie
Chocolate cherry smoothie
*Peanut butter and banana smoothie
Papaya-mango batido
Mango lassi
Fruit kefir
Ice cream float
Milk shake
Fruit milk shake
*Vietnamese avocado shake
^Lemonade or limeade (previously "Old-fashioned lemonade or limeade")
*Flavored or Italian soda
Fruit soda
*Agua fresca
*Horchata
*Panakam
*Spicy ginger ale
*Switchel
Watermelon punch

Cranberry-mango punch

Pineapple punch
Fruit punch
^Simple syrup (Sugar syrup)
Fruit syrup
*Citrus syrup
Herb syrup I
Herb syrup II
Spiced syrup
*Grenadine
*Fruit shrub

Recipes from 2006 edition not in 2019 edition:

French press pot coffee
Instant coffee
Jamaican coffee
Irish coffee
Cafe Diablo
Iced coffee Viennese
Spiced tea
Flavored iced tea I
Flavored iced tea II
Flavored iced tea III
Herbal tea
Iced hibiscus tea
Tomato juice I
Orange-tomato juice
Orange-lime juice
Broth on the rocks
Fruit juice combination
Pineapple grapefruit juice
Raspberry or blackberry shrub
Hot cranberry juice
Mulled cider
Beet-carrot-grape juice
Celery-apple-watermelon splash
Pineapple juice
Orange-melon juice
Pineapple-cucumber cocktail
Tropical juice
Ice cream soda
Flying mocha monkey
Strawberry smoothie
Tropical smoothie
papaya coconut smoothie
Breakfast smoothie
Herbed lemonade or limeade I
Herbed lemonade or limeade II
Pink lemonade
Quick lemonade or limeade I
Quick lemonade or limeade II
Quick lemonade or limeade III
Pomegranate sunburst punch
Lemonade for 100 people
Fruit punch for 50 people
Strawberry fruit punch
Gala tomato punch
Cocomoka hot
Cocomoka cold
Berry syrup
Lemon or lime syrup

Thoughts: I think there are some recipes that were just renamed but I'm not entirely sure.  I think this was a good modernization. 

Fruit sodas (p. 39) and Citrus juice medley (p. 38)

The "beverages" chapter in TJOC is just not very exciting to me. I really feel like I'm just powering through them. Maybe it's because I don't require much in the way of fancy drinks. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out who I'm going to pawn the "Lemonade for 100" off on when I get to that recipe.

I was hopeful about Fruit sodas (p. 39). I combined club soda, pineapple juice, and sugar syrup:



It was tasty! It was pretty close to soda, which I liked. I really love club soda--and I drink a lot of it--so that was great. I think I would rather have another juice, maybe cranberry or grape juice or something. And I think it would be absolutely perfect for juices that are really sweet (too sweet for me, at least) like apricot nectar.

I also made Citrus juice medley (p. 38), which Josh got to enjoy. I combined grapefruit, lemon, and orange juices with sugar syrup:



It was REALLY sour. If you like sour drinks, this is the one for you. If you don't, steer clear. I recommend using sugar syrup instead of sugar in these drinks, since sugar doesn't dissolve very well in cold liquids.

There really isn't a whole lot to say about these drinks, they are juice blends, that's that, right?

Instant coffee (p. 31) and Kai (p. 37)

I know absolutely nothing about coffee. I swear that I am the only person in the world who doesn't know how to make coffee (every time I try is a failure). So Instant coffee (p. 31) seemed right up my alley. I took my Folger's crystals, added boiling water, and voila!



Coffee. Sort of. Is that what coffee is supposed to look like? I thought it tasted okay but, as I said before, I don't know anything. So why did I make instant coffee?

I've been intrigued by Kai (p. 37) for a while. It looked good and I wanted to try it but I needed coffee. I have lots of coffee drinking friends and family but I never thought about Kai when I was around them (and most people don't have heavy cream and malted milk powder on hand--other than me, of course). It occurred to me that I could use instant coffee! So that's what I did.

I mixed sugar, malted milk powder, and unsweetened cocoa powder together. It was challenging because the malted milk powder was lumpy for some reason:



I microwaved some heavy cream and added my sugar mixture:



Hmmm. Not promising.

I then added my hot, strong coffee.



It was delicious! The only way I can enjoy coffee is if it's creamy and sweet and the chocolate was delicious. It was a real pick-me-up up, too, due to the double dose of caffeine (cocoa and coffee) and all the sugar. TJOC says it was used by the British Royal Navy to keep men awake on night duty and I totally believe that. Next time I just need to iron some of the chunks out!

Random facts:

• Instant coffee comes from freeze-drying or spray-drying brewed coffee beans (Wikipedia)

• "High-vacuum freeze-dried coffee was developed shortly after World War II, as an indirect result of wartime research into other areas. The National Research Corp. was formed in Massachusetts as a process-development company employing high-vacuum technology. It developed high-vacuum processes to produce penicillin, blood plasma and streptomycin for US military use. As the war ended, NRC looked to adapt its processes for peacetime uses. It formed Florida Foods Corp. to produce concentrated orange juice powder, and originally sold its product to the United States Army. That company later changed its name to Minute Maid." (Wikipedia). Fascinating!

• In some countries, instant coffee is made with hot milk rather than hot water (Wikipedia). I think I should make it that way. Wikipedia also points out that it is nearly impossible to screw up instant coffee, making it the perfect coffee for me.
  

Iced coffee (p. 32), Iced coffee Viennese (p. 33), and Microwaved bacon (p. 509)

Rachel pointed out that it would be a good time to make some coffee drinks. I don't drink coffee. I truly think am the only person in the world who doesn't know how to make a decent cup of coffee. I would much rather have a nice can of Coke first thing in the morning or a nice unsweetened iced tea than coffee. I do have a coffee pot but it is 100% operated by People Who Like Coffee.

We started with Iced coffee (p. 32). Rachel made the coffee, which we sweetened with a little sugar syrup (I really recommend making sugar syrup and keeping it in the refrigerator--it mixes much, much easier into cold drinks than sugar). She added some cream and ice and there it was:



Good if you like cold coffee. Repulsive if you do not. We took one of the iced coffees and turned it in to Iced coffee Viennese (p. 33). Essentially we added some rum to the coffee and topped it with whipped cream:



Now there is a decent cup of coffee! That's very possibly my opinion because I don't actually like coffee, so I add a gallon of cream and a pound of sugar to it on the odd occasion I drink it--and the alcohol is definitely an improvement--so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Rachel does like coffee and she liked both drinks.

I seriously don't like microwaved bacon. In fact, I would rather not eat bacon than have microwaved bacon (well, that's not totally true, but I won't eat the volume I would normally eat of bacon cooked other methods). Regardless, I had to make TJOC's Microwaved bacon (p. 509)

We laid our bacon on a whole pile of napkins:



We covered it so it didn't splatter all over and microwaved the bacon:



Eventually it was done.



Microwaved bacon never gets acceptably crisp for me. I like crisp bacon. It's probably fine if you don't or if you are going to crumble it in other dishes, but I find that making it's bed of napkins and checking it constantly annoying. I would rather just pop it in the oven.

Random fun facts:

• In the US, bacon refers to cured and smoked pork belly. This can vary in other parts of the world (personal knowledge)
• Bacon has moved from a breakfast food to a condiment in the last fifteen years. The belly is now often the most valuable cut of a pig (personal knowledge)
• The inventor of the decaffeination process, Ludwig Roselius, was convinced excessive caffeine intake killed his father (The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, p. 137)

RCD3: Salty dog (p.58),Harvey wallbanger (p.58),Grapefruit herb margarita (p.62), Herb syrup I (p.43),Fish house punch (p.65),Fuzzy navel (p.63),etc.

Rachel Cooking Day Post 3

Another all-alcohol post! If you disapprove of drinking, skip this post!

I've decided that because my alcohol posts are pretty boring, I'm going to include random tidbits about the drinks. Let me know if you like that addition or not, I'm on the fence about whether to keep it or not.

Rachel's liquor shelf is very random. Interestingly, even though we almost never drink at home, Josh and I have a very well-stocked liquor cabinet (or, more accurately, liquor cubes), almost entirely because of cooking. The randomness made finding TJOC drinks we could make a challenge.



I also quickly found out that Rachel doesn't have any bar glasses--no highballs, for example. I am aware that none of the drinks pictured are served in the correct glasses. They did have one leg up on our house though--ice cubes. Josh and I seem to have an abnormally small refrigerator and freezer. Because of this fact, we never have ice available (not great for cocktails) and Rachel had tons of ice!

We had the ingredients for a Salty dog (p. 58). I shook vodka and grapefruit juice with ice. Apparently, the difference between a salty dog and a greyhound is the salting of the rim.

Interesting and timely anecdote about salty dogs from Michael Barrier:

Speaking of movies: The release of the Coen brothers' new version of True Grit today reminds me of a long-ago encounter with Charles Portis, the author of the novel. I was a young newspaperman at the time, and I knew Portis slightly—we all called him "Buddy"—because his brother and I worked together on the copy desk at the Arkansas Gazette. In those days, you couldn't buy a mixed drink in Little Rock except at a private club, and Gazette people favored a joint called the Officers Club. One night I happened to be sitting at the bar next to Buddy Portis. I was a novice drinker, and I ordered a salty dog (vodka and grapefruit juice). Portis—a former Marine, among other intimidating things—was drinking something darker and much more menacing, and he looked incredulous when my drink arrived. When I told him what it was, he responded with a devastating critique that Phyllis says I can't quote here without bruising tender ears. Suffice it to say that it was Buddy Portis who set me firmly on the road toward my mature preferences for single malts, martinis, and ice-cold Russian vodka.

I poured grapefruit juice in a little bowl, sprinkled giant salt crystals on a plate, and tried my best to rim the glass:



It didn't work.



So I guess what I really made was a slightly salty greyhound. The drink was tasty! I knew this drink but I didn't know it had a name--I always just ordered a grapefruit and vodka. I went through a period of trying to find a new default drink (my current is a vodka cranberry, which seems so boring) and the greyhound was one of the drinks I tested. Unfortunately, it seems like grapefruit might be yet another fruit I'm allergic to (so far, cranberry is fine) so it didn't make the cut.

For some mysterious reason, Rachel got absolutely obsessed with the idea of having a Harvey wallbanger (p. 58). Now, I will admit, I'm spoiled. I live in a town with about a thousand liquor shops. My favorite liquor store has tons and tons of little airplane-sized bottles, which are perfect when you only have a drink or two to make out of TJOC or you just need a few tablespoons for a recipe and you don't want to buy a whole bottle (or the bottle is expensive). Rachel's town did not have that variety of tiny liquors, so Rachel decided to invest in a big bottle of Galliano.

Random facts about the Harvey wallbanger (Wikipedia):

• Invented by the same man who invented the rusty nail (coming in an upcoming post) and the white Russian
• Galliano is named after Giuseppe Galliano, an Italian war hero
• The flavors of Galliano include anise, juniper, musk yarrow, ginger, lavender, peppermint, vanilla, cinnamon, and about a million other ingredients.
• Most drinks with Galliano include the words "wall", "bang", "yellow", or "golden".

I like the Galliano bottle:



It was an easy cocktail to make. I poured vodka and orange juice over ice, stirred well, then poured the Galliano on the top:



The drink was good. To me, it sort of tasted like drinking perfume with a anise-y aftertaste. I don't like any anise flavored drinks--Ouzo, Jagermeister, etc.--so I wasn't on-board with the Galliano.

As Rachel leafed through TJOC, she decided that she would be willing to drink a Grapefruit herb margarita (p. 62) which required Herb syrup I (p. 43).

Random facts about margaritas/tequila (Wikipedia):

• Margaritas are the most common tequila-based cocktail in the US (in Mexico it's the Paloma)
• Blue agave, the base of tequila, is a large succulent that grows at high altitude
• The trend of the "worm" in the bottle of tequila is a marketing gimmick

For the herb syrup we made sugar syrup , sprinkled rosemary in the pot, and simmered it with for ten minutes:



The rosemary was then strained out. The syrup was surprsingly good. It had a sweet herbal flavor and Rachel took to drinking it by spoonfuls throughout the day.

I mixed grapefruit juice, tequila, lime juice, and herb syrup. I gave up on rimmingthe glass with salt because I failed at it earlier:



I did pour it over ice (this is a "before" picture, still in the glass I was measuring everything in to). It was also a double :) I can't stand tequila, so I didn't try it, but Rachel said it was good. The grapefruit juice meshed well with the herb syrup, although it was very strange flavor combination.

I don't throw many events where punch would be appropriate. This is a problem because TJOC has a rather large number of punch recipes. Rachel thought we should make a punch even though it was essentially only the two of us and I agreed. We could drink it throughout the day.

We decided on Fish house punch (p. 65).

Facts about Fish house punch:

• The drink was invented at the Schuylkill Fishing Company in 1732, which was known as the "Fish house" (Wikipedia)
• Instead of club soda, it is sometimes made with strong tea (TJOC)
• Usually served with a giant ice block (Wikipedia)
• The word "punch" comes form the Hindi word "panch"

We mixed equal amounts sugar syrup, lemon juice, brandy, dark rum, and peach schnapps, with two parts club soda.



The punch was delicious and it would probably be a crowd pleaser. I would say that fish house punch is deceptively easy to drink because it doesn't taste nearly as strong as it actually is. The peach and lemon flavors melded perfectly with the brandy and rum and it was diluted by the club soda. Tasty! I recommended that we not start drinking it until we were almost finished cooking--I was pretty sure the cooking would suffer if we started drinking early. A good choice because the punch was certainly stout.

Since we bought peach schnapps for the punch, it seemed like a perfect time to make a Fuzzy navel (p. 63).

Fuzzy navel facts (Wikipedia):

• If you add vodka to a fuzzy navel you get a "hairy navel"
• "Fuzzy" refers to the peach and "navel" refers to the orange

I poured peach schnapps and orange juice in a glass and stirred. Super easy!



I think almost everyone who drinks mixed drinks has had a fuzzy navel at one point or another. I like them. The never seem very strong and the peach and orange flavors go very well together.

Rachel's husband was going to a basketball game with friends during our cooking and one of the friends happened to be a non-drinker. A perfect person to test out some of TJOC's virgin drinks! We whipped up a Cranberry Collins (p. 64). I mixed cranberry juice and lemon juice in a glass and then filled the glass with club soda.



The drink was fairly bland--it seemed like it needed to be stirred, even though it was very pretty. I recognize that if it was in the recipe-specified glss (a highball) there wouldn't have been nearly as much club soda involved. The recipe confused me--you would think it was a virgin version of the Tom Collins but a Tom Collins doesn't include any cranberry juice...

Rachel's cats insisted they were trying to help us:



Their role was mostly supervisory, although it did include some janitorial work.

Check the comments, I'm going to email Rachel and Jon for their opinions on all of these dishes.

Sugar syrup (p. 43), The Highball (p. 59), Gin & Tonic (p. 56),Scarlett O'Hara (p. 63),Pink lady (p. 57),Grasshopper (p. 63),Whiskey sour (p. 59),

If you have a problem with alcohol, this might be a good post to skip!


You know, people have very different vacation styles. Some like to not plan and just let stuff happen. Others obsessively plan and almost keep a clipboard and whistle. I like to think I'm in the middle. I have found that if you don't plan, you don't do anything! Everyone sits around for at least half the day. I like to make a plan, if we don't stick to it, that's okay, but at least we have any idea.

As I mentioned in the last couple posts, my cousin Erica and her boyfriend Pat were coming to visit us for a day. I wanted to make the day especially fun so that they would come back. I thought about what is special about Fort Collins and came up with breweries! Fort Collins has a ton of breweries. There are at least 4 major breweries and another several brewery/restaurants in town.

Josh had to work a half day, so once Erica and Pat got up, we went to a local brewery/restaurant for lunch. CB&Potts. I really like CB&Potts-the hamburgers are delicious and the beer is excellent. Pat got a sampler and I got a delicious apricot ale along with our lunch. We then went to Budweiser and did a factory tour (plus we got to drink an AMAZING blueberry beer called Wild Blue-it was amazing, I will definitely be looking for that again). We went back to the house, picked up Josh, and headed to the tap room at New Belgium. The New Belgium tap room is always a hit with guests--you get three free drinks, there are always lots of fun people around, and they serve small-batch brews in the tap room that you can't find anywhere else. Finally, we had heard that Odell's brewery charges for their samples, so Josh and I had crossed it off the must-do list, but I talked to customers at New Belgium who really recommended it. We headed over there--I'm really glad we did! They don't charge very much (like $4 to $12 for a bunch of samplers) and had an amazing rhubarb beer and curry beer among great others!

We ended the night at this amazing speakeasy-style hidden bar that served great tapas. Unfortunately this is my only picture of the night (sorry that your eyes are closed, Erica!):



Believe it or not, we thought the perfect end to the night would be drinking TJOC cocktails. In fact, during the planning stages, Erica brought up drinking TJOC cocktails as a fun activity which was music to my ears. If you want to butter me up, say that we should get together and do some sort of TJOC activity. Let me tell you, mixing drinks for four people and taking photos, while progressively getting more drunk, meant that I don't have good notes or pictures of the drinks that were made. I am only counting the ones that I'm absolutely sure about.

A lot of cocktails require Sugar syrup (p. 43). Sugar syrup is really simple--I combined two parts sugar with one part water and cooked it over low heat. Extremely simple and I now have a container of it in the fridge:



The Highball (p. 59). I poured whiskey in a glass and added club soda. Either Josh or Pat drank it and said it was very tasty--the club soda cut the whiskey a little (if you don't want a straight whiskey on the rocks).



Gin & Tonic (p. 56). It's hard for me to believe that anybody likes gin, especially since when a anybody tells a story about how they can't even smell (insert alcohol) it seems to be either gin or tequila. I've never had a gin incident, I just don't like it. In fact, I think the only time I ordered gin was when I was lucky enough to take a business-class flight to Italy and found out they give you tiny free alcohols at that level (little Bombay gin bottles are particularly cute). And tonic water is one of those most vile things on earth. So I fed the gin and tonic to Josh. He wasn't sure about it but I think it was less the recipe and more the revolting taste of tonic water.



Scarlett O'Hara (p. 63). I shook Southern Comfort, cranberry juice, and lime juice over ice. I liked it--I like SoCo--but it wasn't my favorite because I'm not a huge fan of lime juice.



A Pink lady (p. 57) is gin, grenadine, and cream, shook over ice.



Erica drank this one. She said it was good, I liked that it matched her outfit, and we both felt like we were in the 1950's with our pink ladies and grasshoppers. I like pastel drinks (but don't tell anyone!).



I thought that a Grasshopper (p. 63) would be perfect to drink while Erica was drinking a pink lady. I shook creme de menthe (green, I was amazed they made it in more than one color!), creme de cacao (white because brown looks gross), and half-and-half with ice. It was really good, like a creamy Thin Mint (that is a delicious Girl Scout Cookie for those of you outside the US).



We were outside while everybody but me enjoyed a fine cigar (Josh has a humidor and an increasingly impressive collection--he is ecstatic when someone wants to smoke a cigar with him). My drink matched my outfit too!




Whiskey sour (p. 59). I shook blended whiskey (I'm sorry Erin and Heather! I used Scoresby rather than Jameson--it was cheaper and I was buying a LOT of alcohol), lemon juice, and sugar syrup with ice. Josh enjoyed it and said it was a perfect whiskey sour (I think he was exaggerating but I was glad to hear it).



I actually didn't make any notes to go with this picture--thankfully, I took a picture of the drink sitting on TJOC and could figure out that it was a Screwdriver (p. 57). I shook vodka and orange juice with ice and, apparently, decided not to serve it on ice. It was good--there isn't a whole lot to say about something as simple as orange juice and vodka mixed together. It's the tailgating breakfast of champions.



Tequila sunrise (p. 62). I stirred tequila and orange juice then poured a little grenadine over the top. It was so beautiful and looked like a perfect tequila sunrise! I have no idea who drank this. Hopefully they will comment.



I was amazed by the recipe for the Singapore sling (p. 57). It has so many things in it! I was happy to see that it gave me another use for cherry brandy, since I bought some to marinate cherries in for chocolate covered cherries, which I never ended up making. I shook gin, cherry brandy, pineapple juice, lime juice, triple sec, grenadine, and bit of bitters (I did not use benedictine--I'm not exactly sure what it is). I don't know who drank this or what it tasted like--I will report back or, hopefully, Pat or Erica will comment.



It was an amazingly fun day. I can't wait for them to come back to visit. I know I made a number of drinks that weren't photographed--for example, I'm positive I made a Sazerac because I think they are strange to drink when you aren't in New Orleans and I'm used to them being made with absinthe (not required in the TJOC recipe).

Friends, you can look forward to a night of this sort of TJOC drinking when you visit, now that I have a well-stocked liquor cabinet.

Anyone regularly drink any of these? How would you describe them? Have you gone on any of these tours? Do you want to go on them when you visit me? :)

Egg salad (p. 164) and Drip coffee (p. 30)

This is a simple blog post, each recipe with only one picture.

I don't like Egg salad (p. 164), so this is another post in the list of foods my mom likes that I needed to make while I was home so mom could eat it.

The egg salad was easy--I chopped up hard-boiled eggs and mixed it with mayonnaise and a little onion:



Mom said it was the perfect egg salad. It's bizarre to me because it has almost no ingredients--it must be the ratios. I think people probably go over the top with mayonnaise although it's not necessary because of all the egg yolk. Mom said that lots of coworkers lustily eyed her egg salad sandwich the next day.

I don't drink coffee, although I do have a coffeepot. My mom has always sworn that everyone should have a coffeepot for guests and it actually does get used by other people relatively frequently. Even so, I've never made Drip coffee (p. 30), believe it or not. The only time I drink coffee is when I really need the caffeine and can't get to a nice can of Coke. And I then fill it full of cream and sugar.

TJOC's recipe is more about the quantity of water per coffee, which I followed, and then I followed the directions for the coffee maker:



I still didn't drink any, but my mom said the coffee was good. Not much to say about the topic, it's just coffee, right?

Hot cranberry juice (p. 38) and Cheese enchiladas (p. 104)

I'll admit that I don't drink enough water (or liquids as a whole) but I've been trying to do better. I had a giant vat of cranberry juice and didn't feel like just drinking it straight--Hot cranberry juice (p. 38) seemed perfect. One quart of juice, a sliced lemon, and a few cloves, heated up:



And done! I don't think there are many recipes that are so simple.

It was really good--the flavor seemed much more complex than three ingredients. I really love hot drinks and it was delicious (reminiscent of mulled cider)--I will make this again. It's a great use of zested lemons--I usually have a poor denuded lemon in the fridge and it seems like a real waste to throw it out.

I wanted to make something fast for dinner and I seemed to be running out of really speedy TJOC recipes. I noticed that although I had made beef enchiladas, chicken enchiladas, and enchiladas verdes, I had never made Cheese enchiladas (p. 104).

The recipe was particularly simple because I bought the enchilada sauce--I wasn't impressed with TJOC's version and have been working my way through store-bought sauces. This time I had a rather expensive version from the local co-op on hand.

I heated up some corn tortillas, then filled them with grated Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese:



Wrapped them up and poured enchilada sauce over them, finally sprinkling a little cheese on top:





And baked them:



They were good, although fairly boring. The enchilada sauce was horrible. I hated it. It had an extremely strong ancho pepper flavor and was amazingly smoky. In fact, I would imagine the taste of this sauce to be what heavy smokers (the type that smoke while eating) taste when they eat enchiladas. It ruined the enchiladas for me and had nothing to do with TJOC. Does anyone have a good enchilada sauce that they can recommend? I'm not having great luck.

Tomato Juice (p. 37) and Chai (p. 34)

I'm still amazingly behind on posts--I think I have about six of them to go. I always promise myself that I won't get so behind again but then, I do. Keep checking back--I leave for a conference this weekend and I would love the blog to be up to date before I leave.

I decided to whip up some quick Tomato Juice (p. 37). This picture is NOT impressive but the finished product was (believe it or not) rather impressive. It looked like normal tomato juice (maybe out of a can) but was so much more fully flavored.

The recipe was simple--tomato juice, lemon juice, grated celery, grated onion, grated horseradish (I used jarred), salt, sugar, paprika, and a dash of Tabasco.



Obviously it needs to be strained before serving. It would be terrific in a Bloody Mary--especially if you used Absolute Pepper (my favorite!). I recommend making your own tomato juice, it's really easy and it tastes better than straight out of a can. TJOC mentions that you can drink it hot or cold but hot tomato juice grosses Josh out so much I couldn't subject him to the sight of me enjoying it.

Chai (p. 34) always reminds me of my friend Emily. Emily adores chai, while it has always reminded me of drinkable pumpkin pie (and that's not a compliment). I'm not sure why I didn't make this recipe during one of Emily's visits, because then I could have had an expert opinion. I was interested in the concept of making it from scratch, although why I chose to do this in the middle of summer is a real mystery. Chai is a cold weather drink, if you ask me.

First, I needed to crush a few cardamom pods. Easier said than done! This would be much easier in a spice grinder (one of the items I hope I get the most off of my wedding registry), it wasn't particularly easy in a morter and pestle.



The crushed pods were combined with water (way more water than I would have expected), milk, sugar, cinnamon sticks, cloves, ginger, and peppercorns (one of these things is not like the others...one of these things doesn't belong...).



I brought it to a boil and then took it off the heat and let it steep for twenty minutes. Two tablespoons of black tea leaves were then added.



Which of course needed to be strained out:



Which was harder than it sounded:




The chai was good, if you like chai. I can't say it was outstanding and I wish I had been able to strain it better. Has anyone made their own chai from scratch before? Did you like it?