I made another batch of infused gin, this time using a recipe from Gourmet magazine. I like it a lot more that the first try. This one didn't call for orange zest, which made a big difference for me since I find orange zest overwhelms everything it comes into contact with.

Ian’s Gin Recipe
(with some very small changes by NotMartha.org)

• 1 (750ml) bottle of inexpensive vodka (I ran mine through a Brita filter a few times)
• 2 Tbsp juniper berries
• 3/4 tsp coriander seed
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp fennel seed
• 3 green cardamom pods
• 2 black peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf, torn into pieces (I used dried)
• 1 (3-inch) sprig fresh rosemary
• 1 (2-inch-long) fresh lemon or lime peel (I used lemon and would avoid lime, then again I say this based on the single time I tried a lime infused gin and didn't find I liked it)
• 1 (1-inch) sprig fresh lavender (I used about a teaspoon of dried culinary lavender)

Infuse juniper in the vodka overnight. Add remaining spices and herbs in the morning and let infuse all day. When you get home from work, strain out the botanicals and start making your favorite gin cocktails.

I made gin! Well, sort of. I infused vodka in the hopes of making gin. I used the recipe I found at Newcity Restro by way of Cinnamon. I think this recipe was originally from the book The Modern Mixologist by Tony Abou-Ganim. I made a few changes based on what I suspected would be orange zest heavy and, well, it still turned out orange zest heavy. (One should note, however, that I seem to be unusually sensitive to the presence of orange zest. I don't know why, but I find it utterly overwhelms everything it comes in contact with, ruing many a nice pastry, cranberry relish, or chocolate for me.)

The infused recipe calls for running some vodka through a Brita filter a few times. I just happened to have an unused Brita pitcher around (courtesy of last year's BlogHer Food swag bag) so I did that, though I suspect the step could be skipped.

I took a quick side trip to World Spice down by Pike Place Market where you can buy by the ounce and procured the list of spices (listed below). World Spice, by the way, is awfully fun. They have samples of one ounce examples (surprisingly helpful!) of each offering that you can sniff and examine as you shop, and you write you order on a little clipboard. They also offer a breathtaking number of mixes and rubs and salts.

The recipe has you put juniper berries in first for a 12-hour soak. We were curious and each ate a dried juniper berry. I found it to be very much like men's cologne, which Scott summed up nicely by declaring it was like chewing on Grey Flannel. Most people declare Christmas tree, we are here to say cologne.

After 12 hours you add more botanicals and let soak for another 12 hours. Here is a before and after:

DIY Gin

• Run a 1.75 L bottle of Smirnoff vodka through a water filter like a Brita about three times if you happen to have one. Or skip this step, it likely won't make a difference.
• Add 2 1/2 tablespoons of juniper berries. Let sit for 12 hours.
• Add:
  • 1/8 tsp fennel seed
  • four black peppercorns
  • 1/4 tsp allspice berries
  • 3/4 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1/8 tsp grains of paradise (I added these, you might want to skip)
  • 3/4 tsp fresh orange zest (original calls for 1 tsp)
  • 3/4 tsp lemon zest (original calls for 1/2 tsp)
  • one sprig rosemary
• Let sit for another 12 hours.
• Strain through a a fine mesh, and if you can manage, back into it's bottle.

Notes:

It came out smelling vegetal, and while Scott reports that it tastes nice I still find it the orange zest a bit strong, adding a too-sweet note. I don't dislike it, but I prefer my gin clean and crisp and, yes, pine-y. I realize that this might not be possible to create by infusing spirits. Still, the experiment fun and I might try it again. But first we'll have to have a cocktail party or two to use this up. Punch anybody?

First let me just say that due to arcane liquor laws in the state of Washington a 1.75 liter bottle of Smirnoff is closer to $30 than $17. I wish I'd halved the recipe as this turned out to be an expensive experiment, and should you live in an area with similar conditions I encourage you to do so.

The final mixture was colored a ginger ale yellow. Not ugly, but not the crystal clear-to-blueish gin I'm used to. I'm sure this had an effect on my perception.

Of all the dried botanicals added the grains of paradise were the only ones that didn't float. Perhaps it was a bad addition on my part but it is listed as one of the things that goes into Bombay Sapphire. This Wikipedia article on gin doesn't mention it. Should I try this again I'll leave those out.

So far my diligent research tells me that this gin in better served with a slice of cucumber than an olive. I will perform more diligent research in subsequent evenings where I don't require sobriety.

Should I try it again I'll leave out orange zest altogether, and probably only use half a sprig or rosemary. I will leave out the grains of paradise as well, for the sake of research.

There are, of course, a lot of recipes for infusing your own gin that you can find with a simple Google search. It'll take a while to test them all but we're up for it. I think next will be this one from Gourmet magazine.

update: I did indeed try the Gourmet recipe and liked it a lot better, go see try #2 here.

Strawberries have been good this year, have you noticed? Apparently growing conditions have produced a wealth of them but they won't be available for long (something I overheard at my local market but didn't get a chance to learn about in more detail, so take it as you will). Some of the nice spring days here in Seattle recently have been very, very nice, so when we found ourselves both home for dinner I made hot dogs, the Magic Juice from Design*Sponge, and we had our first picnic dinner on the porch. The Magic Juice is refreshing, subtle, not too sweet, and really delicious. If you have not tried it yet I hereby recommend you find the intersection of a warm evening, free time and good company and try it out. I hope all three find you this weekend!

Too hot to cook? Too hot to even prepare drinks that require shaking? I can relate, it's hot here. (Seriously, it was 103 in Seattle yesterday. Nobody in Seattle has air conditioning. Temperatures over 90 get old really fast.) The only thing to do is buy a bag of ice and some grapefruit juice, make some Salty Dogs and sit in front of a fan.

Salty Dog
• salt the rim of a glass
• fill glass with ice
• one part gin (or vodka), three parts grapefruit juice
• retreat to cool area

If you're not a salted rim sort you can skip it, that is called a Greyhound. There are conflicting reports on whether gin or vodka is the proper spirit to use but, let's face it, it's too hot to give a damn.

I made the Peach White-Wine Sangria from Gourmet twice last weekend and found it a bit sweeter than I like, so I changed the recipe a bit the second time around, and I doubled it. Because, you know, when it comes to Fourth of July parties more is better.

Here's what you'll need:

• gallon jug
• four cans peach nectar (11.5 ounces each for 46 ounces total)
• two bottles of dry white wine (I used Hogue Fume Blanc)
• zest from one lemon
• juice of two lemons (or 1/2 cup)
• 2 cups of basil leaves
• 15 to 20 basil sprigs
• two peaches, diced or wedged (depending on how lazy you feel and if you want the fruit to end up in the drinks)

Combine the basil leaves, lemon zest and lemon juice in a medium saucepan and bruise the leaves with a spoon. (You can also add 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar now if you'd like.) Add two cans of peach nectar and heat until it's just reached a simmer. Pour through strainer and into a heatproof pitcher (I use an 8-cup Pyrex measuring cup at this point) and allow to cool for a while. Discard the basil leaves and lemon zest. Then pour into the gallon pitcher, something that seals if you're on your way to a picnic (I used the larger version of this Rubbermaid one and it didn't spill when it fell over in the trunk of my car), something pretty if you're entertaining at home. Add the peaches, basil sprigs, final two cans of peach nectar and bottles of wine. Chill for at least an hour or up to 24 hours.

The mixture will be thick, so serve it over a glass filled with ice, or if you find yourself at a party with no ice (say your friends have owned the house for only a few hours so the party is all bare-bones style) it tastes pretty good mixed with a bit of cold ginger ale. (Thanks to Maggi for that discovery!)

I'll buy no kits before it's time. | Ask Metafilter. Home brewing without buying a kit. At Ask Metafilter.

Cave B Estate Winery. Found via Seattle Tall Poppy's Twitter stream, full of great food info.

How to Make Your Own Irish Cream Liqueur | The Hungry Mouse. Found on Edible Crafts.

Tasty crops for a gin garden? | Ask Metafilter. Now, I could get into this sort of edible gardening.

Margarita etiquette | Ask Metafilter. Is there an accepted way to get to enjoy the salt?

Peach White-Wine Sangria Recipe at Epicurious.com. I'm going to have to find a reason to make this sangria sometime soon.

Pimm's explained by a real British person, in this case our beloved Paola of mirrormirror. At Shelterrific.

Benedictine Caviar and Cherry Heering Caviar recipes for the Singapore Slingshot, at Spirits and Cocktails. I think cocktails might be the thing to finally get me to learn to use that sodium alginate stuff.

Classic Cocktails? at Ask Metafilter.

The best wine importers, at Slate.

Our upcoming nuptials mean we've been popping champagne corks more than usual. The last time we visited the lovely Kay she showed off this little champagne stopper that had little arms that grab underneath the rim on the neck of the bottle (where the twisted bit of wire grabs). So far, it's worked great. We've even managed to keep the champagne bottle cold using our Vacu Vin ice pack, though at this rate we'll have to invest in an attractive champagne bucket soon.

I found this champagne stopper at the grocery store in the wine aisle, but you can find them on Amazon, along with a few that are more expensive but have a bit of a nicer design: WMF Clever and Blomus.

A bottle of St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram caught my eye the other day and I made a note to look into it. From the importer: "The allspice liqueur, known in classic cocktails as "Pimento Dram," brings together the fine pot-still rum and classic allspice berries of Jamaica. Enjoy St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram in classic cocktails, Wassail and other punches, mulled wine, continental and island cuisine." (ed. note: Wassail!) Two At The Most has a recipe that uses it in Black River Sidecar. Drink Boston calls it a lost cocktail ingredient that is being found again and includes recipes from various sources for Passenger Pigeon, None But the Brave, and Lion’s Tail. I'll have to grab that bottle when we go back.

Earlier today I had the luck to attend a brunch held by Starbucks where they were going to present a Big New Thing. News of the thing, a new form of instant, or soluble, coffee called VIA Ready Brew, broke a little early so there wasn't much surprise to what the news would be. The brunch was held at the Boat Street Cafe and of course the food was outstanding (reminder to self: make that kale gratin). I was so happy to have Mary T. from Shelterrific there with me.

update: Mary is holding a gift bag giveaway over here at Shelterrific and has more pictures from the brunch, some featuring my hands.

So here's what I learned. The process of extracing the coffee took 20 years to perfect and was done by Don Valencia, who wanted to be able to drink good coffee on camping trips. The VIA name is in honor of him. It comes as a fine powder in the familiar skinny packet, you dump it into a mug and pour hot or cold water on top and stir. It's 100% coffee, no additives. VIA will be available in Starbucks stores in Seattle, Chicago and the UK on March 3rd, and afterward everywhere. You can purchase it online at Starbucksvia.com, it will ship starting March 3rd. A pack of three will be $2.95 and a pack of 12 will be $9.95. Apparently samples were available at Fashion Week and will be included in the Oscars gift bags. There were free samples and those who heard about them early from Starbucks on Twitter grabbed them very quickly. They have not yet cracked the code on making a decaf version. The pack of three comes in this tidy package, which opens like a matchbook:

During the meal we got to try two varieties of VIA, the Italian Roast and the Colombian. I'm not a coffee snob but I did spend a summer working in a coffee shop (the critical early morning shift) and I can honestly tell you the coffee was delicious. There was no hint of bitterness or off taste to me and I was instantly thinking of all the ways having a few packets of this around would be ideal, mostly traveling. I was also thinking back to all the unfortunate past trips where we stayed with non-coffee drinkers and the touchy mornings because these people just didn't understand and no peppermint tea won't stave off my need for caffeine. Having a few of these would have solved all those problems. Anyhow, Ad Age reporters tried the coffee (note: video) alongside coffee brewed in the store and called it "virtually indistinguishable". (That link is via The Food Section.)

At the end of the meal waiters brought around carafes of hot water and we were able to make our own coffee, but I had already taken the opportunity to dump a packet into my glass of ice water:

It dissolved (mixed?) quickly and didn't have any bitter or sourness. I am completely taken with how easy this will make having a glass of iced coffee in the summer.

We were sent home with a swag bag with a few samples and this amazing I Am Not A Paper Cup from the MoMA store. Thanks Starbucks!

(I suspect, or like to think, that had the news of VIA not been so thoroughly leaked early the brunch would have included a reveal at the end of the meal that we'd been drinking instant coffee all along. As in, "we've secretly replaced their coffee with...". That would have been awesome, no?)

I also wanted to say hello to the people I bumped into or met for the first time: Melody from Crave Party, Keren from Frantic Foodie, Ronald from Cornichon and Orangette's own Brandon, who reports his restaurant Delancey is set to open in April. Delancey is located in the neighborhood that Scott and I lived in for a year and a half and I really wish our time there had overlapped. Excellent pizza made by excellent people within walking distance? That would have been great.