No, I take that back. A month is fine, but you aren’t doing it justice. Three months is fair. Six months is ideal. I know, that seems like a long time–and it is. You’ll just have to make some Cucumber Fixes to hold you over until it’s ready. Trust me though. It’s worth the wait. I have some in the back of my fridge that is just reaching the 6 month mark.

OJ, lemon juice, sugar, and, of course, bourbon

Over time this drink just seems to improve, the flavors blend and mature and become something greater than the sum of its parts. Tasting this immediately after mixing doesn’t give you the correct impression of what the future holds in store for this drink.

You do need a little bit of equipment to do this properly though. Don’t worry, nothing too specialized, hard to find, or expensive. A small strainer, some cheese cloth, something to juice lemons and oranges, and a bottle to keep it in (you can just use an empty whiskey bottle if you want). A funnel helps but isn’t strictly necessary.

Once you have all that assembled, combine the following ingredients in the ratio listed below:
1 part orange juice (Some oranges are tarter than others so if your OJ is sweet, reduce the sugar a bit.)
1 part lemon juice
1 part sugar
2 parts whiskey (bourbon is good)

Juice everything and pass it through a cheese cloth lined strainer to get the pulp out. Mix in the sugar and whiskey and shake. Not all the sugar will dissolve at first, that’s OK. Just take store it in the back of the fridge and shake it once a week until the sugar is dissolved. Also, no matter how well you strain it, there always seenm to be a bit of pulp or sediment that passes through, just give the bottle a shake before pouring.

It's like a regular whisky sour, except made better by anticipation. Anybody want some?

The first batch I made I used 1 part = 1 cup. But I ended up wishing that I had made a lot more. So the pictures you see are actually a double batch. That still goes quickly, I’ve made batches where 1 part was 1 liter. That made about 4 liters (about a gallon) of whiskey and my friends and I still managed to finish about half of it before the three month mark.

I tend to strain as much pulp as I can from the juices, I use fresh squeezed, so there is always some pulp. Then just add the ingredients in a container larger enough to hold it all. Shake well until the sugar dissolves. Stick it in the back of your fridge and set you timer for 262,974 minutes. :)

If you get impatient, you can try it after a month, do yourself a favor and try to wait at least 3 though. It’ll get better.

Nutty brown rice dinner. The picture was taken before I added the dressing.

These kinds of smaller, lighter dishes are actually more representative of how I eat day-to-day. I love making more complex and interesting dishes when time permits, but it doesn’t take much effort to use things you have on hand in an interesting and flavorful manner. You don’t have to follow these ingredients to the letter, just add anything you have in your fridge. Frozen vegetables work fine too.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cans chickpeas, rinsed, drained
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 or 2 bell peppers, chopped (red or yellow are best)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 small bundle asparagus, chopped
3 cups cooked brown rice
1 cup chopped almonds

-For the Dressing- From 101 Cookbooks
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons hot water
1/2 teaspoon salt

Nutty brown rice dish.

Directions

1. Combine all the ingredients for the dressing together in a bowl and mix to combine. (I keep a spare mason jar around to make dressings. Handy to shake it up and store it in the fridge.)
2. Put a large pot over medium-high heat then add the 3 tablespoons olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add the chickpeas. Sauté for 3-5 minutes, or until some start to brown, stirring occasionally so nothing burns.
3. Add the garlic, peppers, salt, and pepper and stir to combine. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the asparagus, cover, and cook for 2 minutes.
5. Add the rice and nearly all the chopped almonds. Cook until heated through, about 1-2 minutes more.
6. Serve with tahini dressing and garnish with the reserved chopped almonds.

A hot toddy in the making.

A couple of these and you will be set for a night of sleep. Check after the jump for the recipe and more pics.

Ingredients:
Shot of Whiskey (about 1.5 oz)
Honey (a good drizzle)
Lemon (2-4 lemon wedges)
Hot water

Directions
Add everything in a mug. Sip.

Variations:
Use tea or herbal tea instead of the water. Adding cloves and Cinnamon is also common in some recipes. I like to keep things simple so I don’t add anything but the essentials.

American Honey Hot Toddy

I also made one with Wild Turkey’s American Honey, a bourbon-based liqueur made with honey. This version was a bit more syrupy and probably a good compromise for those who don’t like whiskeys.

The key to outstanding chicken is to brine it. What is a brine you ask? Well, funny you should ask, yesterday’s post post explains that!

Broiled Chicken and Lemon Couscous (with pistachios)

Couscous—-sooooo easy. If you can measure a cup of water into a skillet and bring it to a boil, you can make couscous. You don’t even need to time it. And if you get something wrong, it’s easy to correct! (I’ll get into correcting it and making it fancy after the jump.)

Lemon Couscous with pistachios

And the broiled chicken. Easy, simple, and can be made extremely tasty if you have some seasonings. Don’t forget to brine it though!

Broiled Chicken

Broiled Chicken

I made a kind of rub for this chicken while it was brining. It’s an easy way to boost the flavor of the chicken without much effort. You can use nearly any spices you have on hand. Don’t be afraid to mix things up.

Ingredients
3/4 cup kosher salt (for the brine)
3/4 cup granulated sugar (for the brine)
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breast halves (about 3 pounds)
Ground black pepper

Garlic, Lemon and Rosemary Rub
5 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
Ground black pepper
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Recipe

1. First, prepare the brine: Add the salt and sugar to a gallon size zip top bag and add about a a quart of water. Mix to dissolve the sugar and salt then add the chicken. Place the bag in the fridge for about an hour (put in a baking dish or something in case the bag leaks, you don’t want a fridge fill of salty, sugary, chickeny water).
2. While the brine is doing it’s thing, make the rub that will go under the chicken skin: Combine the minced garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, rosemary, olive oil and pepper in a small bowl.
3. Adjust your oven racks so one is at the top and the other at the bottom of your oven (closest and furthest away from the broiler).
4. After the chicken has soaked for about an hour, remove the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Using a spoon, add the rub under the chicken skin. The best way to do this is to go from the top of the chicken breast where the skin is already loose. The rest of the skin should still be somewhat connected to the chicken. This serves two purposes, one it keeps the rub in contact with the meat, and two… if you put it on the skin, all you would be flavoring is the skin, not the meat!. Season both sides of the breast with salt and pepper.
5. Line the bottom of a broiler pan with foil (easier clean-up) and place the chicken on the slotted broiler pan top. Cut three slashes through the chicken skin to allow the fat to escape during cooking.
6. Turn the chicken skin-side down and place on the bottom oven rack. Turn on the broiler and cook for about 14 minutes, until it is just starting to brown.
7. Flip the chicken skin-side up and cook another 10 minutes, until a thermometer reads about 160F in the thickest portion of the breast.
8. To get the skin really golden and crispy, move the chicken to the top rack and broil a little longer. Keep an eye on it though! When it looks nice, take it out and serve immediately.

Tip: If you are making the couscous too, start that after flipping the chicken skin-side up (step 7).

Broiled chicken with couscous

Couscous

Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 shallots , minced
1 clove garlic , minced
1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 cup plain couscous
1/4 cup minced fresh basil or parsley
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Table salt and ground black pepper

Recipe

1. Place a medium skillet over med heat and add the olive oil. Once hot, add the shallots and cook until softened stirring occasionally, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in the minced garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds longer.
2. Add the broth and lemon zest. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil. Stir in the couscous, remove the skillet from the heat. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
3. Fold the basil and lemon juice into the couscous. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (I had some pistachios around, so I tossed those in as well—entirely optional.)

Notes about couscous: If the couscous is too dry, but some water in a glass and microwave it until hot, then stir that into the couscous. If the couscous is too wet, put it in a large skillet over medium heat with no lid and stir occasionally until it drys out. It also tastes good without shallots and lemon juice, so you don’t have to add them. I told you it was easy.

Also, this is pretty complicated as far as couscous goes. Everything except the salt, water and couscous can be omitted and it’ll still be fine.

Plate of broiled chicken and couscous

Spicy Garlic Shrimp with Sundried Tomatoes

The nice thing about an olive oil sauce is that it lets you play with more spices and herbs to bring those tastes to the front of the dish. You infuse the olive oil with any number of ingredients and drizzle it over the pasta. In this dish I used garlic, red pepper flakes and parsley as the primary flavors. I also soaked the sun-dried tomatoes in the oil to help reconstitute them and help the flavors mix.

The small brown things you see are fried garlic chips. I sliced some garlic into thin disks and essentially fried them in the olive oil. This yielded crispy garlic chips that not only infused the oil with the garlic flavor but also served as a great texture contrast in the dish and looked great as a garnish.

Spicy Garlic Shrimp with Sundried Tomatoes

We’ve discussed picking out shrimp/shellfish before in Erica’s guest post about scallops. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Shrimp should be bought frozen. Most shrimp boats freeze their catches directly on the boat and thawed shrimp begin losing their flavor in just a couple of days.

As far as what size to go with? I tend to like large shrimp (21 to 25 per pound) because you don’t have to prepare as many to get a full dish. But it’s up to you, these were smaller but on sale, so I went ahead and got these.

Spicy Garlic Shrimp with Sundried Tomatoes

Though I don’t always do this, I have read that it’s best not to buy cleaned and peeled shrimp. A chemical called tripolyphosphate is sometimes used in commercially cleaned shrimp. This chemical aids in water retention and can give shrimp an off flavor. The extra moisture will be released during cooking, and the shrimp will steam rather than sauté. That said, I am sometimes lazy and if I’m the only one eating it, I have bought prepared shrimp before.

Spicy Shrimp Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
Table salt and ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
7 cloves garlic ; 6 cloves sliced thin lengthwise, 1 clove minced
6 sundried tomatoes, cut into strips
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (I like this dish spicy, if you don’t like very spicy food, use 1/4 tsp)
1/4 cup dry sherry
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
2 tablespoons unsalted butter , softened
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Lemon wedges for serving

Preparation:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Prepare the spaghetti as directed on the packet. (Dry pasta generally takes about 8 to 9 minutes for al dente.) When the pasta is al dente, drain and set aside (covered to retain heat). The pasta should be finished about the same time, or before, the shrimp finishes.
2. After shrimp has been prepared, pat them dry with some paper towel and toss with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
3. Put the oil into a small skillet and heat over medium heat. Once oil is hot add the sliced garlic to fry it. Stir occasionally. If you do not hear the garlic sizzle, increase the heat to medium high. Once the garlic is golden and crisp, remove with a fork or slotted spoon and set aside.
4. Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the red pepper flakes and sun dried tomatoes. Stir to cover everything with oil.
5. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add 2-3 tbsps of oil from the small skillet then add the shrimp. Increase the heat to high and spread the shrimp in a single layer so that they are all touching the bottom of the pan. Cook until the edges turn pink, about 1 minute.
6. Flip the shrimp, add sherry, and simmer until shrimp are just cooked through, about 1 minute more. Transfer shrimp to the pasta bowl.
7. Reduce the heat to medium, add the contents of the small skillet to the large one. Add the minced garlic, parsley, butter, and lemon juice and simmer until thickened, about 1 minute. Adjust seasonings if needed.
8. Pour the sauce over the shrimp and pasta. Mix the dish to coat everything with the sauce.
9. Serve. Garnish with the browned garlic chips and place some lemon wedges on the side.

Open some wine and enjoy!

Spicy Garlic Shrimp with Sundried Tomatoes