• ANIMAL-FREE SOUS-CHEF™ •
At Tick Tock Tavern in Cleveland, Leslie often makes up special drinks for special customers. This one we titled Leslie’s Watermelon Mint Martini.
Wow, so good, refreshing, soothing.
In blender add:
Stolichnaya vodka
fresh watermelon (no rinds)
fresh mint
raspberry flavor
ice
Blend till frothy. Pour into martini glass.
Garnish with fresh watermelon wedges and organic grapes.
Okay, it’s that time of week again. Our day off. I stuck with the juicing. I’m not quite organized with it, and I’m not even sure if I want to be so structured that I begin to resent it. Let me just say that I’m juicing, not every day, but close. We don’t always have juice when we think we should have it, but I’ve gone through a lot of fruits and veggies so it’s going somewhere.
I decided on Strawberry Mimosas using juiced strawberries and oranges layered with champagne over ice. You have to peel the oranges and no two oranges are the same in juice yield. For instance the first orange yielded a small amount, the second orange a good deal more. The peeling part is not something I’ll do in the future. If I want fresh squeezed orange juice I’ll use my hand juicer. It’s a lot quicker.
So half-fill a tall glass with ice. Layer orange juice, champagne, strawberry juice, champagne, followed by just a drizzle of orange juice, being careful to pour slowly as it foams up quite a bit after each addition.
The strawberry juice is thicker than the orange juice, so it pretty much floats, which gives it a pretty appearance.
We both really enjoyed this drink.
Alright, this is a tough one. Juicing ginger.
First I peel, then I don’t, it doesn’t seem to matter. You need to start with plump ginger. Just because ginger is a root, doesn’t mean that it’s suppose to be dry. Ginger root, unless it’s too old, is not dry; it’s wet. It’s juicy.
However, because the stands are so dense, it takes a lot of pressure to juice it. Peel it, don’t peel it, it doesn’t matter. Cut into small pieces helps, but still it takes a while and takes a lot of pushing.
When you’re done, the blades/strainer insert needs to be thoroughly brushed immediately under running water, and some bits need to be plucked from the blades. Not easy.
The end result, however, is worth it. Ginger juice is highly potent. A teaspoon in your glass of some other juice goes a long way. Use it in savory or sweet recipes calling for ginger.
In the photo above you can see what fresh, juicy ginger looks like (in the forefront) and the old gnarly one I had in the back of the crisper – good for pulverizing in a grinder into powder – maybe.
SHARON’S ORANGE TEA
Vodka, Marsala wine and champagne over ice with fresh squeezed orange juice. Skewered with fresh lime and pitted sweet red Bing cherries! Cheers!
Makes 1
BLOODY SHARONS
After a long day on our Saturday which is really Monday, we woke up on Tuesday, which is really our Sunday not wanting to leave the house! So we hunkered down, binged on a Narco series on Netflix and sipped on Bloody Sharons! Cheers!
Serves 2
