Crux

I recently bought a bottle of Dubonnet in order to make a Dubonnet Cocktail. The bottle was fairly inexpensive and seemed completely worth it... until I tried it. Overly sweet and... chewy? Just gross. While it sucked as half of a cocktail, I was undeterred and looked for a cocktail that used it well as a mixer. In discovering the Crux, I found exactly what I was looking for. An ideal balance of sweet, tart, and hearty. A new favorite of a drink that uses my underutilized bottle... who could complain?

I'll complain, the main ingredient is pricy Cognac... but still... a gem.

Crux

1 oz Cognac
3/4 oz Dubonnet
3/4 oz Cointreau
3/4 oz Lemon Juice

Shake.
Strain.
Savor.

Sazerac

Simple.

Strong.

Historic.

Fantastic.

An old New Orleans cocktail. Was originally made with Cognac (and is still delicious with such).

The manliest pink tinged drink I know of.

The Sazerac.

3 oz Rye (Sazerac or Rittenhouse preferred)
1/2 oz Simple Syrup
5 dashes Peychauds Bitters
1 tsp absinthe
1 slice of lemon rind
Lots of crushed ice

Fill 2 lowball glasses with ice.

Glass 1: Add rye, simple syrup, and Peychauds bitters. Stir with a mixing spoon. Wait until other glass is ready.

Glass 2: When very cold and even a little frosty, discard the ice and rinse with absinthe. Discard some or all of the excess. (I let about half stay behind).

Strain the contents of glass one into glass two. Express the lemon rind into the drink and drop in.

Pisco Sour

A small surprise occurred a few months ago here in Olympia... the local liquor store, for whatever reason, had a special order of Picologia Pisco.  It was a little pricy, but certainly worth it to create the signature cocktail of not one, but two different countries.

Variations are aplenty with the Pisco Sour. Some (perhaps the Chileans?) claim the egg whites are unnecessary, most recipes say to use lemon... but then one notes that South American Limon is closer to a lime. Some use 2-1 rich syrup, some use 1-1 simple syrup. 

And no matter the makeup... Anthony Bordain would rather have a beer. 

In the end, I just went with what I know I like... less sweet and more alcohol. Thus, the recipe from imbibe magazine (with a quick nod to the limon/lemon/lime issue).

Pisco Sour

3 oz Pisco

1 oz lemon and lime juice mixture

3/4 oz simple (1:1 ratio of water and sugar) syrup

1/2 egg white

4 drops angostura bitters

Ice

In a cocktail shaker, mix together pisco, lemon and lime juice (I did about 50/50), simple syrup, and egg white. Cover and shake.

Uncover and add ice (bigger ice cubes are better). Recover and shake.

Strain into a cocktail glass.

Drop 4 or so drops of angostura bitters onto the egg white foam in different spots around the drink. Use a toothpick and swirl them around for the nicely finished look. 

Roast that Chicken

A few weeks ago I purchased a very promising whole chicken from Olympia Local Foods. It's from Tachira Farms - Organic (perhaps not certified, but I'm going to go ahead and guess it would be pretty close), pasture raised / free range, and all that good stuff. 

Having never roasted a whole chicken before I don't have any sort of go to recipe... I just picked the one that looked the best on foodgawker and went for it. 

The result: This tasty looking little devil. 

The way is quite simple too. 

Wash and dry the raw chicken.

Give it a nice rub with a heft amount of salt and pepper (inside and out).

Take 3 small lemons. Roll them and puncture them in no fewer than 20 spots each. Get them in the cavity and seal it up with some toothpicks.

@350 degrees cook for 30 minutes breast down.

Flip it - 30 more minutes. 

Crank them temp up to 450 and let it go for 20 more minutes. Check the temperature and cook for longer if needed. 

Let it sit for a little bit an dig in. It's fantastic.