september food swap: the prep

 

i'm a little obsessed.

anyone who knows me

knows that i am not a huge fan of beer.

sure i like hard cider

(i pretty much lived on strongbow

the year i lived in the uk.)

 and i always dig fruit beer,

but beer beer?

no me gusta. 

but this summer while i was in oaxaca

 i was introduced to the michelada.

(in df it's called a cubana,

but the taste is the same.)

 and i fell in love. 

it's beer,

but spicy.

and it has salt and/or chile 

around the rim of the glass -- 

my favorite.

(let's be serious,

people who don't enjoy licking 

the rim of their glass, 

whether it is salty or sugary,

before taking a sip 

of their drink

are total losers.)

so i decided to try to make my own. 

and it turns out that it is crazy easy to do.

i make mine based on taste,

but you add 

lime juice

tabasco sauce

salsa inglesa

(aka. worcestershire sauce)

jugo

(god only knows what that actually is.

maybe meat juice?

creepy.)

 and beer.

delicious.

but today at 711

i discovered this sucker:

did my boozing just get easier?

excited.

homemade horchata

every time i eat a taco 

(which is two or three times a week--

it's kind of insane.)

there are two choices of beverage:

horchata or jamaica.

both of which are awesome. 

so we decided to try to make our own horchata. 

(we'll try to make the jamaica later.)

so rcg found a horchata recipe

and we went to work.

first, you soak rice and cinnamon sticks in water

overnight.

 

1 cup long grain white rice

4 cups water

2 cinnamon sticks

the next morning you put the mixture

sans the cinnamon sticks

into a blender.

once it has been blended,

you strain it through cheese cloth

to get all of the small rice particles 

that didn't get blended.

then you add:

milk 

brown sugar

vanilla extract

and cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 cup milk

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

stir it up. 

enjoy. 

of course it would be great

if we weren't so flippin' dumb:

we totally forgot to use bottled water. 

idiots.

so we made it again.

and it was totally worth it.

apple carrot ginger juice

so i have always had this intense desire to own a juicer.

i mean, why not?

juice is awesome.

awesome awesome.

so,

what could be better than making your own juice?

probably nothing. 

alas, i did not own a juicer.

nor did it seem like a great financial investment.

(you have to clean it afterwards apparently.

which is super dumb,

because no one likes to wash dishes.)

so i have been sans juicer my whole life. 

until ab moved in. 

and brought with her a juicer!

and an ice crusher!

so this weekend, 

we made juice. 

apple juice and apple carrot ginger juice.

yeah, we're rockstars.

and the juice was awesome.

for the apple juice we bought a couple of different kinds of apples

thanks farmers market!

and threw them into the juicer.

i'm pretty sure, this is the best apple juice i've ever had. 

next, ab wanted to try and make an apple, carrot, ginger juice.

yeah. 

awesome.

and cleaning it wasn't that bad.