Tag: beverage

RECIPE: Peach Sangria

Lori TisdaleLeave a comment

Oh, how I love sangria!!! (why don’t I make it more often?!)

And I’m glad you’re here reading about it… because there’s a few things you need to know about sangria… it’s GOOD, GOOD, GOOD!!! Oh also, it’s a great way to utilize excess fruit, the rest of the wine in a bottle that may not get consumed for a few days, and it can either be “red” or “white”.

This is what I started with … a pitcher, a dry white wine, peach schnapps, peaches and simple syrup (not pictured here).

First, pour the whole bottle of wine into the pitcher…

Next, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup peach schnapps… or another complimentary flavor like Grand Marnier…

Next peel your nice fresh peaches, cut them up and add them to the pitcher… I used 5 for this pitcher. (I could have also added diced mango or orange slices too… but there’s always next time!)

And did I forget to tell you about the simple syrup?

I make my simple syrup extra sweet… with a ratio of 2 cups sugar to 1 cup water. Bring it to a boil, stir well until it becomes a clear liquid… and allow to cool for a bit before using.

When the simple syrup has cooled a bit you can add 1/4 to 1/2 cup simple syrup to the pitcher… to taste. I added 1/4 cup and it was just sweet enough for me…

And here’s the last 2 things you need to know about sangria… 1) make it the day before you plan to partake. The flavors “marry” a bit more the longer they sit. And 2) The last glass poured out of this pitcher is the best drink of the whole deal. So serve your guests first… that’s what a good hostess would do! RIGHT?!

Oh yeah, how could I forget… the last thing you need to know is that when I serve up my sangria I top the glass off with a few dashes of sparkly water, er fizzy water. It’s just THAT much more refreshing…

How do YOU like sangria? Fizzy? Red? White?

enjoy your time in the kitchen…

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Final steps for homemade Limoncello

Lori Tisdale1 Comment

Yes, we finally have limoncello! (And also grapefruit liqueur…don’t forget about that one!)

If you have time, check out my previous post for Steps 2 and 3 (also within that post is the link to Step 1): Steps 2 and 3 to homemade limoncello

And nooowww (drumroll please) we are ready to unveil the goodness that is this my pride and joy this summer…

Bottle on the left is the grapefruit liqueur
Bottle on the right is the limoncello

Here are the steps I took to finalize this long, long process…

– I strained the liquid one last time
– I found appropriately sized bottles for storing the liqueur
– I placed the bottles in the freezer
– Approximately 3 hours later I got them out of the freezer and poured a shot of each. Yes, a shot of each…

(The only other thing I need to do is create a label for the bottles… still working on a snazzy name brand. “Lori’s Limoncello”? Seems to fall flat… any other ideas out there?)

But back to the tasting… I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth and fresh and sweet and PERFECT they were! (In fact I could barely tell the difference between the homemade and the store bought version I’ve been sipping on for the past several years!) All by themselves they are great to sip on… but I’ve also discovered that I LOVE the limoncello this way: Heatwave Lemonade

And I’m working on a grapefruit martini (well, not at this exact moment… after all, it’s not even 5:30 am… you know what I mean!) Stay tuned for more on that beverage…

enjoy your time in the kitchen…

Wine tasting in Paso Robles, Ca

Lori TisdaleLeave a comment

On Memorial Day we packed up the car and headed north … final destination Pismo Beach. Other stops included: Santa Barbara, Arroyo Grande, Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo and of course Paso Robles…

Every now and then I get a longing to drive through these rollings hills where I once lived… my childhood full of memories of beach days, camping trips, playing with frogs in the creek and that sweet feeling of surrender… so we made it happen! After MUCH deliberation we planned our trip… and wouldn’t trade it for the world!

So today I am finally getting around to blog about our wine tasting tour through Paso Robles…

We parked downtown Paso Robles and waited for the The Wine Line bus to pick us up. How does The Wine Line work? Well, like a true tour bus…

Of course you can check out their website for the full story.

Lori Jean’s version? Riders can hop off the bus at any vineyard or tasting room, hang out for a while, and then hop back on the bus when they’re ready to move on to the next stop… and for the record, they are THE best way to experience Paso Robles’ vineyards!

Since we’d never been through wine country in Paso Robles before we let them suggest which vineyards we should stop at and in which order. There was 1 additional couple on the bus with us… and we all just tagged along and enjoyed the day together. Afterall, we do love talking to strangers, meeting new people and finding out what we have in common… it was a perfect day!

Come with us on the pictorial review of our tour… ?

How wine tasting works in Paso Robles
As we visited various vineyards we found each vineyard has a different deal on prices for tasting. One place gave us 5 free tastings, another let us try ALL 10 of their wines for $3 and others were the standard $5 for 5 tastings. And yet another waived the tasting fee if we bought a bottle of wine.

You see, the proprietors want you to taste their wine in hopes that you’ll buy wine (and buy a lot of it). Obviously they don’t make much on selling tastings… they make their money by selling wine. (And sending people like us home share pics and talk about how great the wine is, friendly the vineyard staff is and how priceless an experience it all was!)

We started at Castoro Cellars … where we learned they are currently bottling the “Coastal” brand for Trader Joe’s. (note to self!)

The vineyard and grounds look like you’d expect a vineyard to look like. There is a long walkway up to the tasting room, rolling hills of vineyards, a large patio with chairs and tables placed strategically to enjoy the view, bundles of California poppies and lavendar speckling the planters and large empty barrels sitting about.

The tasting room was as comfortable as my imaginary italian aunt’s home … the walls painted in warm yellow tones and rich cabinetry… sofas and chairs and a big fireplace. Our Wine Line Guide was right… this was the perfect place to start!

While I had been wine tasting once or twice at local tasting rooms my hero-of-a-hubby has not. So we asked for the beginner’s tour at our first vineyard stop. The friendly wine steward took her time to help us become comfortable with the “in’s and out’s” of tasting. She explained “how” flavors work, how to taste, how to ALWAYS ignore the first sip and to judge the wine off of the second taste.

She was patient with us, funny, knowledgable and excited about 2 particular wines that we couldn’t wait to taste!

We tried 5 wines for FREE and bought a 2007 Zinfusion (this was not her favorite – but it WAS in our price range). Perfect way to start the tour!

I took a gander through their shop and stopped briefly in front of the syrups, jams, marinades, etc.

I could literally sit here all day… but alas, this is the just the beginning. We had several more hours of this.

So I kept walking…

Afterall, this is just the first stop!

We came, we tasted, we conquered! Time to hop back in the bus and move on to vineyard/tasting room #2…

Tasting #2 at Zenaida Cellars – surrounded by yet another awe-inspiring view from the patio…

This tasting room had a completely different feel to it… dark black-brown painted cabinetry, antiqued gray-tan walls, blue neon lights hanging from the ceiling. Just felt a bit more “cool” and updated, like a downtown loft.

We enjoyed 5 wines for a small fee… and took home their Zc Red. While my hubby was paying our bill I took the opportunity to stroll around their property a bit…

And you guessed it, again I found that I wanted to sit here all day!

But no sitting was going to be done quite yet. I just couldn’t… afterall, it’s only noon! We’ve got some more touring and tasting to do! Let’s get a wiggle on…

Tasting #3 – (admittedly, my favorite stop of the day)… AronHill Vineyards

We drove up, climbed out of the van and saw THIS view…

Now THIS?! THIS is where I was going to sit for a while.

I mean, can you blame me?! Look at that view! It was a perfect 71 degrees outside with a slight breeze and we were among fantastic company!

Our Wine Line guide brought out the pre-ordered lunches (sandwich, potato salad and fruit) as we were treated to a remarkable wine tasting affair.

It is apparent that Judy, the proprietor of Aron Hill Vineyards, is in love with what she does on a daily basis! Not only did she personally deliver our tastings and talked to us about each wine… but she had a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye that showed me she has found her passion in life and is living it outloud!

Can I tell you how much I love that?!

We sat, enjoyed lunch, enjoyed 5 tastings and took in this view…

We didn’t rush to get up and Nic, our Wine line guide, talked to us about the history of this region, how certain aspects of the wine industry work and his personal travels.

We brought home a bottle of the best wine we’d tasted all day, Judy’s 2006 Primitivo and two pieces of her stemware.

We helped ourselves to a self-guided tour of her new tasting room (it opened less than a month ago), which included her new shiny (and fully-stocked) chef’s kitchen where they will soon start preparing/selling food for lunches, etc. I noted she had a few panini presses and said “Oh – we’ll be back!”

Let it be known – the tour could have been over at this point. My expectations had been greatly exceeded and the rest of the day paled in comparison… (sorry in advance to the next 2 vineyards, I’m just sayin’… )

Tasting #4 at Norman Vineyards … known for their Monster Zinfandel. We brought home 2 bottles…

It was obvious they were cat lovers (that’s neither a good or bad thing) … not to mention the company logo.

I enjoyed strolling around their property with my camera, and of course with the cats following every move…

And it was time to get back in the bus…

Tasting #5 at Rotta Winery… the oldest family-owned winery in San Luis Obispo county.

As soon as I walked in I wondered if I was on the set of “Will & Grace”. Why? Our wine steward was the spittin’ image of Karen! Rather weird and comical all at the same time… but I didn’t say anything to her until the end.

On one end of the bar was a group of 3 guys who had obviously been drinking (oh, rather “tasting”) for a good portion of the day (and one who smelled pretty ripe, I might say)… these boys were “good ol’ boys” and were giving the wine steward quite the trouble. But it was all in fun…

Here we enjoyed a taste of each of their wines (I think a dozen of them?) for $3! Yes, only $3. We were definitely feeling our wine at this point…

Look at all those awards! They wanted us to TASTE what made them so good!

Ugh… it was now about 4:30 pm and we had been “tasting” since 11 am. Phew… I needed to sit down again (while I’m on that subject – why don’t these tasting rooms have chairs to sit in?!)… but the tv show look-alike was keeping us on our toes!

We brought home the 2007 Estate Zinfandel… she explained that this was the reason we came in today. And she was right! It’s pretty darn fantastic!

As we said our goodbyes at Rotta I asked the wine steward if anyone had ever mentioned her uncanny resemblance to Karen of “Will & Grace”… she laughed out loud (just like Karen, of course) and said “NO – but I love it!”

Then we hopped back in the bus, rehydrating with WATER and took the leisurely drive back into town… and our thoughtful and helpful Wine Line driver dropped us at a dinner locale downtown Paso Robles, just about a block from where we had parked. We slowly ate dinner, drank WATER and chatted over the favorite’s of the day, how we were impressed with the whole experience, etc.

We eventually walked back towards the truck and made our way back to our hotel in Pismo Beach.

We talked about how glad we were to have been able to experience this, and dreamed about how soon we can come back! We are glad we toured Paso Robles for our first wine tasting tour together… it was a complete experience!

(And we have half of a case of wine to prove it! Sheesh!)

Best part of it, my hero-of-a-hubby and I haven’t gotten away (just the two of us) for quite a number o years. We relished in the opportunity to reconnect, dream and relax together. What a treat…

And I leave you with this…

“When wine enlivens the heart, may friendship surround the table.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

enjoy your time in the kitchen…

Step 4 to homemade limoncello…

Lori Tisdale1 Comment

We are one step (and 40 days) away from being able to enjoy this limoncello. This process takes about 3 months from beginning to start… I cannot wait!

To see what the first steps look like, go here: Steps 2 and 3 to homemade limoncello. Within that blog post will be a link to Step 1.

This is today’s finished product…

Here is where I picked up… I pulled the two containers of liqueur out of the dark and cool cabinet plus I need coffee filters, a funnel, a ladle, baker’s sugar, and distilled water.

Hours before I was ready to tackle this time-involved process I made the simple syrup. I chose “baker’s sugar” over granulated sugar simply because it is finer and dissolves quickly. The simple syrup must cool before it can be added to the liqueur.

To make simple syrup you simply add 2 parts sugar and 1 part water to a pot and turn on the heat. Once the sugar is dissolved and the liquid turns clear then it’s done. Give it a few stirs throughout this process… it’s that easy.

And when you’re ready to start the filtration process here is how it goes…

Remove the lemon rinds… they have served their purpose here. Lacking their bright yellow color at this point they still smell like lemon, but the taste has been left behind in the liqueur.

The liqueur now needs to be filtered of the “floaties”… yes, take a close look. It’s not pretty… but it will be much prettier later in this post.

Here we go… find a coffee filter, a funner and another container to strain the liquid into. You might be surprised how fast these filters clog with “floaties”. So be prepared to switch out the filter with nearly each ladle-full of liquid.

This process is time consuming, but necessary and well worth it.

Once it was time, I simply plopped the used filter into a bowl and placed a new one in the funnel.

Already you can see how much clearer the liquid is…

So let’s step back and take a look at the whole process here. And as you’ll see I’m filtering two liqueurs. While I’m at it I’m trying my hand at a grapefruit liqueur as well. (YUM!)

Similarly you’ll see that the grapefruit rinds have lost of lot of their color in the past 40 days. But they imparted some major flavor to the vodka. Wow…

And THIS is what the last ladle of limoncello looks like before it gets filtered. I’m happy to know it’s being filtered out.

Also this is what’s left behind in the last filter… blech! I’m glad it’s in the filter and not in the prized liqueur.

And here is where I’m going to skip some pics… the liqueur got filtered again. Yes, it got filtered a second time. The second time around the process went a bit faster… yay!

The last step is adding the cooled simple syrup to the liqueur and then adding it back to cook, dark cabinet.

I snuck a sip of the grapefruit liqueur … and if it’s any indication of what this is going to be like in 40 more days… well, holy moly!!! That will be the day!

In the meantime I’m counting the days…

enjoy your time in the kitchen…

Steps 2 and 3 to homemade Limoncello

Lori TisdaleLeave a comment

Time to check in again on the homemade limoncello. At two weeks and then again at four weeks… it’s time to take a gander and a stir.

But we’re also checking in on the grapefruit liqueur… both of these liqueurs have been steeping for 4 weeks. After 2 weeks I took them out of their dark, cool cabinet to give them a stir. And now at 4 weeks we do the same…

This is what the grapefruit liqueur looks like… isn’t that beautiful?! I truly look forward to enjoying this treat when it has fully steeped.

But we still have several weeks for that…

Time to check the limoncello…

And by “check” I mean, give it a stir… there’s not much else to do here.

Except wait… the wait will go on for another month or so. Stay tuned…

enjoy your time in the kitchen…

Step 1 to homemade Limoncello

Lori TisdaleLeave a comment

Have YOU ever had limoncello? I first enjoyed this after a meal at a ristorante in a back-alley in Florence, Italy. The aperitif is said to clean the palate and leave the belly warm as you stroll through the streets at night…

Yes, it’s THAT romantic. And ever since then I’ve had a small bottle of Villa Massa limoncello in my freezer.

So, let’s try making it at home…

Here is where I started after researching dozens of recipes…

Step 1:

– Combine 750 ml bottle of vodka and 750 ml bottle of Everclear (tasteless grain alcohol) in a container with a lid, at least the size of a gallon.
– Add rinds from 15 large organic lemons (unwaxed, scrubbed clean with a vegetable brush). You will want to use the lemons with thick, bright skin that are mostly free of flaws/nicks.

Using a swivel peeler is the best (it will peel off just the skin)… but if you don’t have one of those you can use a knife. Just make sure to skim the white off the back of the skin with a knife…

Note on peeling lemons… if you are using a knife you will most likely need to remove the white pith on the back of it. You don’t want any of that white pith – it makes the drink bitter.

So, just keep peeling those lemons… one by one. And add the rinds to the alcohol. Below are the rinds from one lemon.

(It was at about this moment that I realized I needed a larger container. Hence, the different container in the next few pics.)

Yes, this is a labor of love… and believe me, it’s very worth it! Keep peeling…

And of course, once you’ve peeled the lemons you will want to juice them. I poured mine into ice cube trays and threw them in the freezer. Summer’s a comin’…

Where do I go from here?
What are the next steps?
How long does this process take?

Once I add the Everclear (tomorrow), I will transfer the fluids to a larger container (with a tight lid) and set it aside in a cool/dark place. Every two weeks I will gently stir the mixture. After 5-6 weeks I will test the lemon rinds.

How to test the rinds? Remove a rind and bend it in half… if it snaps apart like a crisp potato chip then it’s time to move to the next step. The lemon rinds will impart a most beautiful flavor without sourness or bitterness … just enough tartness to make it fabulous!

But it’s a slow process. So what’s the next step? After these 30-40 days there will be another 30-40 days in the process. Like I said, it’s a labor of love. I can’t wait to try this during the summer…

Follow along with me?

Stay tuned… you won’t regret it…

AND, I’m also making this with grapefruit…

Can’t wait… I can’t wait!

enjoy your time in the kitchen…

Simply Hot Apple Cider

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Simply combining the ABOVE ingredients with the BELOW item can only bring good things…

This is my uber-simple version of the only hot apple cider you’ll need this season…

So the quick run-down…

I start with about half of this jar of apple juice. Then I pushed cloves into the skin of an orange, in two rows. I cut out two slices from the orange and dunked them in the apple juice. I tossed in 2 sticks of cinnamon… then I brought it all to a boil, stirred it and then reduced to a simmer.

Not only does it taste good… but it makes the whole house smell good! Yes, it’s THAT simple!

enjoy your time in the kitchen…

Pear Pizzazz…

Lori TisdaleLeave a comment

Now, doesn’t THAT look refreshing?! Well, it is!

Here’s where I started… pear vodka, tonic water, lime and ice.

Ice in the bottom of the glass… squeeze in a little bit of lime from a small wedge…

Add a splash of pear vodka… (my new favorite!)

Fill up the rest of the glass with tonic…

No stirring required…

2 tonic tips:

(thank you Dawn and Kris!)

1) Always use cold tonic. It fizzes less when you pour it in the glass. And becuase it’s more fizzy it stays fizzy longer.
2) Pour in all of your other ingredients first, then top off the drink w/ tonic. If you pour other ingredients on top of the tonic the fizz goes away.

And trust me… you want the fizz, the pizzazz. Otherwise it’s just not “pizzazz-y”. And who wants that?!

enjoy your time in the kitchen…

Drink Recipe: Heatwave Lemonade…

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Here in the Hidden Valley it made it up to 104 degrees F today … in honor of this historic heatwave join me for an adult beverage?!

Heatwave Lemonade
mix courtesy Lori Tisdale

1 part Lemoncello
2 parts freshly squeezed lemonade
1 part X-rated liqueur

Serve over ice or shake with ice and serve as a martini…

Whatever you do, stay in the shade and sit still for a while.

enjoy your time in the kitchen…