The Bon Vivant’s Companion

In search of my next post I went to Surfas (a restaurant supply store) for inspiration.  Their selection of mixers and syrups always gets me thinking, but I didn’t come away with a new cocktail idea, I came away with a bottle opener.  I couldn’t help it.  The thing stalked me.  Its big laughing face was everywhere I turned; by the mixers, by the bar gadgets, and finally by the register.  The last thing I need is another bottle opener. I own hundreds (literally), so I tried to fight my desire for this one.  But when I got up front and saw a basket of them sitting near the credit card machine, I was too weak to resist.  Damn impulse purchase marketing…

I’m now the proud owner of a brightly painted, slightly menacing Beijing Opera mask bottle opener, and I must admit, I love it.  It’s another “good object.”  The colors are glossy, the slightly tapered disk fits comfortably in the palm of my hand, and the angry opening makes quick work of bottle caps.  Not that I opened THAT many bottles last night…

And since it’s tough to have buyer’s remorse over something that costs $4.99, I’ve decided to make another trip to Surfas and wipe them out of their inventory.  There are multiple colors available, and each opener has a different, wildly painted image on either side (see pictures), making them two-faced, if you will.  I plan on giving them as gifts to friends who can prove to me they really love beer – or cool gadgets.  I’m also thinking these openers will score me points when given as hostess gifts.

To get one for yourself, or the discerning beer drinker in your life, you might be able to beat me to Surfas and get one while they’re still there.  If not, they are available online at Ebay (of all places), or this store (the only web store I could find – so you know these will be relatively hard to get and unique when you give them).  That is, if you can part with them….

What to serve a cocktail virgin?  Not just someone who’s never had a drink before, but someone who’s dabbled in drinking and wants to trade up from Milwaukee’s Best to mixed cocktails.  Where to start?

I say, let them drink lemonade.  Everyone past the age of five has had a glass of the stuff, and lemonade is a resilient mixer.  It’s an easy base for batched cocktails and it holds a lot of liquor.  So go ahead, subtly layer flavors, or dump in a ton of booze.*

(*See everclear punch, and my first two years of college…)

Lemonade is also incredibly accessible.  Its natural balance of sweet and citrus reduces the need for multiple, flashy ingredients — more good news for beginners.

Dovetailing with the newbie theme, this post is my first for Mixology Monday.  I felt the need to present a sufficiently road tested cocktail.  So last night I played bartender for my book club ladies, a group of women whose feedback on literature, poor life choices, and cocktails is always appreciated.  They are a tough group, and there’s not a cocktail virgin among them, but who doesn’t remember their first time?  After much sipping and discussing, I’m pleased to say this rag-tag group of readers gave the lavender lemonade a unanimous thumbs up.  The virgin version even worked for our mom-to-be in the group, who declared her mocktail “good for the soul.”

Which, I feel, takes lemonade to a whole new level.

Here’s the recipe:

Lavender Lemonade:
1 ½ oz Vodka (preferably citrus flavored)
½ oz Lavender-ginger simple syrup
Mint
Blueberries
Fresh squeezed, or organic lemonade

Prepare in the glass portion of a Boston Shaker so you can see the cocktail as you build it.
Place 3 or 4 medium mint leaves, and 4 to 6 blueberries in the shaker.  Cover with ½ oz of the simple syrup.  Muddle ingredients.  Add ice.  Add 1 ½ oz vodka.  Add 4 oz lemonade.  Shake ingredients.  Pour contents of shaker into a tall glass.  Garnish with mint leaves and a straw.

Lavender-Ginger Simple Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
½ inch slice of ginger cut into thin pieces
1 tsp food quality lavender

Place sugar and water into small pot.  Once the sugar has dissolved all lavender and ginger.  Slowly reduce over low heat for 10 minutes.  Should produce about 1 ½  cups of liquid.  Store in fridge for up to a month.

Welcome to the Companion’s first, great big train wreck of a cooking post.  I wanted to blog about cooking with wine and ended up in mortal combat with a pot roast.  The pot roast won.  Not because I’m a bad cook, not because it didn’t taste good, but because I was unprepared to document my interaction with said roast.

Cocktails are simpler.  You need a handful of ingredients, ice, and at least one good picture, and then — cocktail time.

Food posts require a little more thought and, apparently, prep work and planning.  They need set up shots, sautéing shots, notes, and endless explanation.  Even for a humble freaking pot roast, a recipe I decided to try while watching Ina Garten’s Food Network show, The Barefoot Contessa.

It was in a segment called “Comfort food and Company.”  In thirty minutes the Contessa whipped up a pot roast while while a supporting cast of fabulous (pronounced faaabulous) design friends ran around the Hamptons gathering flowers for her table.

“I hope the guys remember peonies are my favorite.”

“Oh (huge inhale) Ina’s going to love these.”

“I wish you could smell this as the juicy bits reduce.  Now add 15 sticks of butter.  Delicious.”

Visions of East Coast dinner parties danced in my head as I headed off to the farmer’s market.  Unfortunately, wielding a camera in the meat department makes me feel less waspy and a little:

-Crazy
-Like a Spy
-Like a tourist who had never seen a steak.

(I also find responding to “May I help you?” with “I’m taking pictures for my blog.” Does nothing to ratchet down my “crazy in-public” feeling.)

Here is my picture of the meat counter at the Farmer’s Market on Third Street in Los Angeles, the best butcher in LA:

Once I started cooking, it was clear my roast was not living up to Ms. Garten’s televised effort and I, personally, was nowhere near as pleasant.

Stupid things threw me off my game.  I couldn’t get the Cuisinart (that I’ve owned for 12 years) to shut properly, and when I did, pulverized the vegetables.  I almost hacked a finger off crushing garlic, added too much chicken stock, and counteracted by adding more wine than the recipe called for.  (Which was a bummer, because drinking the wine was the thing I was most looking forward too.)  Overall, the TV personality I channeled was more Muppet Swedish Chef than Barefoot Contessa.

Exhibit A:

Here’s what I learned during my cooking-with-wine-TV-inspired-pot-roast-experiment:

-Cooking while very hungry is stupid.  I got grouchy fast and had to make myself a peanut butter sandwich to keep from passing out while I cooked dinner.

-2005 is a great, possibly epic year for Bordeaux.  A perfect wine for this dish.  Full bodied, and rich, it definitely added depth to the meat as it slow cooked.  You can find a quality Bordeaux for under $20.  Get something nice.  You should only cook with wine you would drink.

-Remembering to take pictures every five minutes is trickier than it sounds, so put the damn camera somewhere you can see it.

-Writing a cooking blog takes skill, or at the very least, organization.

The food blogs I read make it look so easy.  Here are a couple of very good ones:

Married With Dinner:  A husband a wife trying to eat locally in San Francisco.  You get stories of their travels, great food, and an occasional cocktail recipe made with fresh ingredients.  The photography is great on this site as well.

The Gluten Free Goddess:  I do not have a problem with gluten, but once a year my boyfriend and I go on a health kick. I stumbled across this site looking for recipes that were a tad healthier than the pizza with extra cheese that had become a staple.  The Goddess’ recipes are inspiring, and the photography is beautiful.

The French Laundry at Home:  Carol Blymire cooked every recipe in the French Laundry Cookbook.  I discovered this blog while white-knucking it through Thomas Keller’s recipe for Salad of Haricots Verts, Tomato Tartare, and Chive Oil.  I needed help plating the salad (before destroying $200 worth of salad ingredients).  Basically, I wanted a second opinion.  Carol was there with tips, photos, and an entire entry dedicated to the recipe I was attempting.  Besides being informative, her site was so damn serene.  She even listed the music she cooked to. For the haricots verts recipe it was, perhaps ironically, Salt-N-Peppa.

Carol has now moved on to the Alinea cookbook, and that site is worth checking out as well.

While schlubbing my way through my “Contessa Company” pot roast I did not listen to music.  I should have.  It would have covered the sound of me swearing like a longshoreman.

Looking to repeat my zen experience?  Follow this link for the Contessa’s Company Pot Roast recipe.  I will admit that the final dish, even after the errors and misfires, was very, very tasty.

My sister came across this fun find, the Stanley 8oz pocket flask.  She was doing research for a special event and was looking for something rugged to gift guests with.  The Stanley Flask fit the bill.  It is blue-collar-rugged, with stainless steel details, and wide flip-top opening (no funnel needed).  But iconic enough, with it’s gunmetal green and elegant grip, to accompany any design aficionado on the way to, I don’t know, a night at the opera.

The Stanley Flask is, as a friend of mine would say, “a good object.”  An object for the wine-and-cheese, rough-and-tumble, and the bait-and-tackle set.  An instant classic, with a little something for everyone.  And it is so much cooler than the “flask in the fake binoculars.”  I mean, you’re not fooling anyone with those -– you really aren’t.

Pick one up at:

Design Within Reach

Wanted to take a minute to brag a little about my guys, the Bon Vivant Bartenders.

Over the last two years I’ve developed a team of bartenders for catering events, private parties, and corporate clients. They are smart, funny, creative mixologists, and a hell of a lot of fun to work with. (Unfortunately, not all of them are pictured.)

I was filing away event pictures yesterday and (besides being struck by how cool my guys look) was amazed by the number of events we’ve executed in the last twelve months.  We’ve been in Prince’s living room, at the Kentucky Derby, the SAG Awards, the Golden Globes, and behind every bar at every party thrown by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.  (We spend so much time at the Academy, they’re thinking about getting us an office.  Actually, we could use a statue….)

We’ve been to San Francisco for the Black and White Ball, to Vegas for the Tiger Woods Foundation, and Phoenix for the NBA All Star Game, and that’s just a random sampling.  Last year, as a team, we knocked out more than 200 events.

Recently, we’ve taken our our act global (or at least international), with one guy representing me at a Michael Jordan event in the Bahamas, and another in Cabo with Chelsea Handler & Friends overseeing her birthday cocktails on the beach.  Tough job, but as the saying goes…

The BV Bartenders are a group of really great guys.  I’m thankful for their hard work, impressed by their talent, and moved by their sense of teamwork and loyalty.  (Occasionally, I want to hold one of them down in a tub of ice until they’re unconscious, but overall, I’m a very lucky girl.)  Their professionalism and talent is the reason for my company’s growth and success.  I, quite literally, couldn’t do it without them.

Thanks guys,
Jen

To learn more about these highly-trained cocktail professionals,

check us out at:
www.bonvivantevents.com

Below is a recipe based on the one created for Chelsea Handler’s Birthday extravaganza.

(Ms. Chandler pictured above)

Grey Goose “Margarita”

The “We know it can’t really be a Margarita without tequila, but this is pretty damn close, cocktail”
Based on a Recipe by Randy Evans

2 oz Grey Goose Le Citron
Homemade sour mix to taste (recipe below)
½ oz Cointreau
Salt for Rim
Lime wedge

Pour vodka, Cointreau, sour mix, and ice into a shaker.  Shake gently.
Pour entire contents into a glass rimmed with salt.  Garnish with a lime.

Homemade Sour Mix:
(Randy’s recipe is top secret.  This one is mine)
1 cup lemon juice
¾ cup lime juice
1 cup simple syrup
2 egg whites (the egg whites are optional).  They add a really great texture and mouth feel to the finished cocktail.

If you are worried about the raw egg, I recoment using pasturized Eggology Egg Whites.

The Gimlet was my first foray into big girl cocktails.  It taught me that alcohol wasn’t (entirely) meant to be consumed from plastic cups in someone’s dorm room…

After college, I lived down the block from Chicago’s iconic Green Mill, an old Capone hangout, and a really great jazz bar.  A serious establishment that, I felt, demanded a serious cocktail.  My novice attempt at “serious” was to order a martini — straight up.  It almost killed me.  I was 22 and had heard about martinis, had seen martinis (mainly in the Thin Man movies), but did not realize martinis were solid vodka, and an acquired taste.

Luckily, the Green Mill’s no-nonsense bartender was a highly trained professional.  He watched my seizure-inducing fist sip, laughed, and rescued me with a vodka gimlet.  (A drink that, to my untrained eye, seemed remarkably similar to the one I had just choked on.)  Using almost the same ingredients, the bartender tweaked the flavor profile by adding the Gimlet’s signature ingredient, Roses’ Lime.   I was amazed that such a small adjustment could transform a drink so completely.  The cocktail, still elegant in its up glass, now had a subtly, tart sweetness that cut through the chilled vodka making it far more palatable.   In an instant I went from being overwhelmed by bold alcohol, to having a new “go to drink” that was sophisticated, but simple enough to order at any bar.

These days I live in LA, appreciate a well-made martini, and prefer my gimlets with gin, fresh lime, and homemade simple syrup.  But I recognize that the Green Mill Gimlet was my gateway cocktail, and my introduction to mixology as conversation.

Gimlet

2 oz. Vodka or Gin
1/2 oz. Simple Syrup*
1/2 oz. Fresh Lime Juice*
(*Or substitute 1 oz. Roses’ Lime juice for Syrup and Lime Juice)

Pour ingredients into a Boston Shaker over ice
Shake until chilled
Strain into a martini glass
Garnish with a lime

In the Midwest, ice the size of a golf ball is something you run from as it falls from the sky, in LA it’s something you swirl in a cocktail.

At Bar Centro, part of the newly opened SLS Hotel near Beverly Hills, ice is the centerpiece of their “Ultimate Gin and Tonic”.  Floating in edible flowers, herbs, and your choice of tonic, is a perfect, frosty sphere.  No clunky rocks, nothing from a 1,000-pound machine, just an elegant, crystal-clear ball of ice.  Thick and round it melts slowly, chilling the cocktail without diluting it.

Throw in cucumbers, spices, and greenery, and you have a garden in a glass; a deconstructed gin and tonic if you will.  Perfect for a party, and with the right tools, easy to recreate at home.  A trip to the produce department, and a spherical ice mold is all you need.

I recommend the mold from the MoMa store. Its thoughtful design is compact and doesn’t require an engineering degree, although filling it takes a little patience.  Running water slowly through a pour spout (the kind you put in a bottle of spirits) inverted over the mold’s tiny hole helps it fill faster.  The resulting little ice balls are fun and worth the time.

Having survived an icy Chicago Christmas, these cocktail spheres are the closest I’m getting to snowballs or ice for the rest of the winter.  Home in LA, I will gladly sip my perfectly chilled gin and tonic in 75-degree weather, and think fondly of friends and family stuck in subzero temperatures.  (Those suckers are going to need all the good thoughts they can get…)

If you are in the LA area, Bar Centro is worth a visit.  The bar is filled (almost exclusively) with Sex and the City-type women, and has been designed by uber hipster Philippe Stark.  The lounge buzzes and whirs with a modernity that will go out of style quickly, but be remembered fondly (like disco lights and Halston jumpsuits) so catch it while it’s hot. There are two restaurants and a sweet shop on the bar level as well.

Bar Centro @ SLS Hotel
465 S. La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Phone: (310) 247-0400
Monday-Wednesday, Sunday 6pm-12am; Thursday-Saturday 6pm-2am
Map

Looking for a cocktail to serve at your Inauguration party next week?  Try an Obamartini or Biden Beer Bomb. I created these cocktails during the presidential debate season last fall, and they were two of my most popular posts for ’08.  Interest in them seems to be spiking again, so I thought I’d present them together.  Besides having catchy names (if I do say so myself) these cocktails are easy, festive, and in the case of the Obamatini, downright patriotic.

Throw your own Inaugural Ball next Tuesday. Invite friends and family over, huddle around the big screen (while our fellow citizens freeze in DC), and raise a very full glass to the peaceful transfer of power, a new era, and a whole lot of hope.

Fun Party tips:

-Buy a life sized Obama cutout at a party supply store for photo ops.
-Burn a copy of the Inaugural address and loop it all night long.
-Treat your guests to a West Wing Marathon.  Even on mute this series (democratic porn, really) will raise hopes and elevate spirits.

The Obamartini

2 oz original Grey Goose Vodka
1 oz fresh pressed blueberry juice
½ oz simple syrup
¼ oz Chambord
¼ oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
Pour all ingredients over ice into a Boston Shaker
Shake until cold and strain into a martini glass
Skewer blueberry, marshmallow, and piece of strawberry (in that order) onto an olive pick and garnish away.

The Biden Beer Bomb

½ bottle of Sam Adams Cherry Wheat Beer (or beer of your choice.  Wheat beer or hefeweizen works best)
1½ oz Woodford Reserve Bourbon
½ oz Cherry Brandy
¼  oz simple syrup

Run water over beer mug and put in freezer while preparing cocktail.

Place bourbon, cherry brandy, and simple syrup in a Boston shaker with ice.  Shake until cold.
Pour mixture into the bottom of an ice-cold mug.  Add beer to taste.

After a month (or two) of holiday imbibing I take it easy during the first week of the year.  So instead of a cocktail recipe, I wanted to share a fun find — Absinthe lollipops.

Available online from Lollyphile, these pops are substantial but won’t leave you tipsy, or talking to green fairies (that’s what the liquid stuff is for).  They use real absinthe in these (excuse the pun) suckers, but during the cooking process the alcohol burns off.  Legal levels of thujone (the alleged hallucination causing chemical found in wormwood) and a subtle licorice-green flavor remains. Yes, I said licorice-green flavor.  (Turns out candied Absinthe is tough to describe.)

Made in San Francisco by Jason Lewis, a self-described candyphile, these lollipops are elegant conversation-starters.  Give Absinthe lollipops as gifts, add them to packages, or share them as party favors.

They’re tasty, so remember to keep a couple for yourself.

Check out the Lollyphile website for a chuckle and more info:

http://www.lollyphile.com/

Wasabi-ginger, and maple-bacon (yes, bacon) lollipops also available.

It’s New Year’s Eve.  We could talk champagne, cocktails, and New Year’s traditions.  We could chat about resolutions, goals, and plans for the New Year.  All quaint New Year’s topics to be sure, but ones you won’t give a rat’s ass about tomorrow morning when you’re hiding in a dark room begging a higher power to make the pain go away.  So, if you really want to start 2009 on the right foot, let’s discuss hangover cures.

There are hundreds of them, hair of the dog, spicy drinks, heavy foods.  Jumping up and down on one foot, huge amounts of Gatorade, breathing into a paper bag (that might be panic attacks).  If you have a cure that works for you – great – keep it, share it, get it warmed up for tomorrow.

If you don’t, here is mine, given to me by a bartender, and voracious consumer of spirits.
Hangover Cure:

A large glass of water
A package of Emergen C
(a small glass of orange juice can be substituted)
A spoonful of honey
2 aspirin

Before Bed:
Dissolve Emergen C in water, swallow honey, and down the aspirin.

Now sleep.
If you wake up hours later feeling a little fuzzy repeat spoonful of honey/ glass of water.

WHY:
You are dehydrated.  When patients are suffering from extreme dehydration (which you are not, by the way) the are given glucose water.  Water with natural sugars that can be easily processed by the body in it’s damaged state.  The sugars bind to protein cells in the kidneys and keep nutrients from being lost, and allow for re-hydration.

For your comparatively mild dehydration,  honey is the natural sugar that will perform the binding/hydrating/energizing task outlined above.  The body also easily absorbs Emergen C (for nutrients); water is the conduit, and aspirin – well – that’s just insurance.

A Bloody Mary in the morning won’t kill you either.  Stay clear of sugary drinks, and caffeine, and take it easy.

Happy New Year’s!