Smoothies can be so varied I really struggled for awhile on how to present a wide spectrum of recipes in one post.  That was, of course, until I saw a guy riding a bike last weekend with a rainbow sticker on his backpack.  When I saw the rainbow I thought, now those would be some awesome smoothies!

Anytime I think of a rainbow, I can’t help but think of the mnemonic device for remembering the order of the colors: ROY G. BIV!

After some tinkering, I present to you, the ROY G. BIV Smoothie Team!

Pretty.

Each of the recipes I used are below, but before that, there are a few quick notes on smoothies that I think are important.

First, smoothies are all about balance.  You want to combine some sweet with some bitter.  You want to make sure that your acids are balanced.  Really if you do that and taste as you mix, you can’t go wrong.  These recipes should all be seen as jumping off points.  Mix and match and find your own, well, rainbow. (I should be a motivational speaker with lines like that!)

Second, whenever possible try to use frozen fruit instead of fresh.  I usually use mostly frozen fruit just because it’s easier but some fresh fruit is fine.  The thing to remember is that if you use fresh you have to throw in some ice which waters down the smoothie a bit.

Third, keep some juice (orange, apple, cranberry, pomegranate, etc) on hand as well as some milk or yogurt.  Those can smooth out your smoothie…

So let’s take a trip through Roy G. Biv!

All of the smoothie recipes in this post are adjusted for 2 Cups of smoothie which is about enough for one big serving.  The cups in this post hold about 1 cup of liquid so I halved the recipes for this post because I didn’t need 7 cups of smoothies floating around.

The Red Smoothie. This is pretty straightforward.  After I tasted it, I added a pinch of sugar because it was just a bit too bitter for my tastes.  I also used frozen raspberries, but if you use fresh you’ll need to add some ice.

Other options: beets?

The Orange Smoothie.  This one is just like a shot of vitamin C.  It’s refreshing and delicious and if you’re afraid of flavor mixing, this is the one for you!  If you can’t find clementines, you can use any orange-like fruit.  Tangerines for example would be awesome.

For those that need a shot of Vit. C.

The Yellow Smoothie. This one seriously tasted like a milkshake.  The banana and milk made it really creamy and the mango was nice and sweet.  If you served me this blind, I’d guess there was ice cream in it.

Very sweet actually.

The Green Smoothie. Ok.  I was a little worried about this one.  Basically I just picked out a bunch of green stuff and threw it together!  At first, it tasted kind of funky (some would say it tasted healthy), but then I added a pinch of sugar and a tiny pinch of salt and that totally mellowed out the flavors.  The sugar and salt are not optional in this one if you want it to taste decent.

Shockingly, green was pretty good!

The Boozy Blue Smoothie. Ok.  It turns out that there are no really blue foods.  Sure there are some flowers and stuff, but there’s just nothing that pops with blue color.  Blueberries are totally mislabeled.  They are purple people.

So I figured if I couldn’t find a food that was blue, I might as well making something with booze in it!  This was actually really tasty and I could imagine sipping a few of these on a beach somewhere.

Maybe not for breakfast.

The Indigo Smoothie. This one is a really basic one, but the Pomegranate juice has huge flavor.  Sometimes Pomegranate juice can be a bit bitter though and so the yogurt smooths it out nicely.

Delicious.

The Violet Smoothie. Ok.  So this one was maybe my least favorite of the seven.  It was pretty strongly flavored.  I thought about maybe adding some plum to the mix which I think would keep it pretty violet but might mellow it out a bit.

In other news, I’m not entirely sure what the difference is between violet and indigo.  It’s possible I’m slightly colorblind.

Violet = Indigo - Yogurt...

The Equipment. Of course, to make smoothies you’ll need a good blender.  Now you could spend hundreds of dollars on a blender, but I’m not sure that’s really necessary if you’re just getting into the smoothie thing.  I’ve had this really excellent professional Oster model blender for almost a year now and I use it almost daily.  It’s nothing fancy but it has all metal parts and only two speeds: pulse and GO.  What else do you need?!

Mine performs just like it did on day one!

Roy G. Biv!

Day to day though Betsy and I, surprisingly, don’t make our smoothie choice based on color.  Like I said at the beginning of the post, we normally do a mix between the indigo, red, and yellow varieties.

Just one more...

It’s very possible that I had more fun making and writing this post than any post in Macheesmo history.  There were moments when I had to just stop, look at my counter full of crazy colors and ingredients, and laugh out loud.  It was so much fun.

I hope you all try some of them out and pass along this post to your friends.  Also, leave a comment obviously and let me know which one you want to try or if you happen to know a blue food that I missed!

I wanted something warming but I wasn’t really in the mood for something hot. Does that make sense?

I came up with this port punch that very easy to throw together and is very tasty.

Im-PORT-ant

This could also be called Cheater’s Sangria.  It tastes a lot like sangria which makes sense since Port is red wine that’s been fortified with Brandy.  Most sangrias (including the white variety) are beefed up with brandy or rum or some other kind of hard liquor, but if you use port than that extra booze is already included!

Port Punch

- 1 bottle (750ml) Port
- 1 apple, diced
- 1 orange, segmented and chopped
- 1 lime, juice only
- Grapes (optional)
- Orange juice
- Ginger ale

I kept the fruit kind of minimal for this version because, frankly, it’s all I had!  You could go crazy though with pears, berries, grapes, etc.

Basics...

When prepping your fruit, try to just get out the segments from the orange.  You don’t want the white casing part which will be kind of bitter in the final drink and also hard to chew.

If you take a sharp paring knife and slice down each side of the segment, you should be able to just pop each segment out.

You just want the pulpy stuff.

Also, peel and core your apple and then dice it up into tiny chunks.  Add all that fruit to a bowl along with your lime juice.

Fruit in a bowl.

Then add your port!

Action shot!

Now you could just let this marinate for an hour or two, but the longer the better.  I let mine sit overnight in the fridge and it was great!

Finishing the Punch. When you’re ready to serve, you just need some ice, OJ and ginger ale.

After a night soaking...

I decided to mix mine up a cup at a time, but if you’re serving a crowd you could definitely mix up a big punch bowl and then just ladle the punch into glasses with ice.

The ratio is:

- 2 parts port mixture
- 1 part OJ
- 1 part ginger ale

Tasty!

The orange juice and lime juice do a great job of cutting the sweetness of the Port and the ginger ale gives it some good bubbles.

This'll lift your spirits!

I was kind of worried when I started making this mainly because Port is one of my most favorite drinks.  The idea of wasting a bottle of it on a bad drink was scary to me!  Luckily, this stuff turned out great.  It tastes basically like sangria without the need for all the individual liquors!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to the largest snow storm in DC history…

Call me crazy, but I’ve never really been a fan of the New Year’s bar scene – especially in a big city.  You just pay a lot for some usually sub-par food and a few glasses of champagne in a packed restaurant.  Not really my idea of a good way to ring in the new year.  Instead I find it much more fun to hang out with a few friends at a house with food, drink, and games.

If you do happen to be throwing a party (or attending one and willing to lug some ingredients around), it’s always a good idea to have a solid punch.  Most punch recipes make a lot of tasty drink for a fairly economical price tag – especially if your alternative is going out on the town.

Over the last week I’ve been browsing through some punch recipes and here are eight favorites that caught my eye!

AB EggNog – I made this great eggnog recipe last year and it’s definitely worth revisiting.  Homemade eggnog is so superior to the stuff you buy in the store; it’s not even close.  Traditional eggnog is made with raw egg but this version is made with eggs that I pasteurized over a double boiler.  Makes it safer and doesn’t really affect the taste.

Pomegranate Champagne Punch – Pomegranates are in season and Champagne is about as New Year’s as it gets!  If people bring a lot of cheap champagne to your party this year, feel free to put them to use!  Also, this post has a bonus eggnog recipe! (@ Yum Sugar)

Pacman Punch – Ok. So this punch recipe was actually for a recent boxing match, but I think it would be awesome for a party.  Looks tasty and I think it probably packs a punch (PUNNY). (@ Burnt Lumpia)

Cotillion Club Punch – This is a crazy recipe that is some sort of Southern concoction involving lots of whiskey.  The most impressive thing though is the 300 servings the base recipe makes.  You might need to work on your division for this punch unless you are throwing an EPIC bash. (@ Serious Eats)

Jasper’s Rum Punch – Sometimes punches are too packed with sweeteners and have generally too many ingredients.  This one, I imagine, tastes like what it’s supposed to taste like: rum.  The recipe is the exact opposite of the Cotillion punch recipe.  It’s written for one serving.  You’ll need to times it by a few dozen to get a good punch recipe ready. (@ Kaiser Penguin)

Wassail – The phrase means “Be Healthy” which is always a good New Year’s resolution.  The recipe has some steps, but the result is an awesome spiced wine punch.  It’d be great for a cold December 31st night. (@ use real butter)

Mulled Apple Cider – A pretty straightforward recipe involving cinnamon, apple juice and mulled spices.  Of course the rum is optional or, if you wanted, just stick a bottle of rum near the punch and people can add it to taste. (@ Phoo-D)  If you wanted to pass on the mulled spices, you could make your own from scratch using this recipe (@ Elena’s Pantry)

Cranberry Apple Cider – One more apple cider variation using cranberries.  Maybe you have some leftover from the holidays?  This recipe is actually without the booze, but you could add it if you wanted.  I’d go with a dark rum or whiskey. (@ Pham Fatale)

Those are a few of the punch recipes I’m thinking about trying out this year, but how about you?  Leave a comment with your favorite punch!

Photo by AlleyesonJenny.

If I only knew then what I know now.  Turns out you can pretty easily make homemade coffee liqueur that tastes surprising like the brand name stuff!

Recycle!

Thanks to my good friend Donna who gave me this recipe which has apparently been in her family for a good long while.  Nice of her to share it.

Homemade Coffee Liqueur

- 4 Cups water
- 4 Cups sugar
- 2-3 Cups vodka (depending on how potent you want the stuff.  Oh… and no need to use Grey Goose for this stuff.)
- 1/2 Cup dark roast ground coffee (freshly ground is best)
- 1 whole vanilla bean

Helpful Equipment:
- Coffee Grinder

To kick off this recipe you need some vodka and a clean gallon jug.  I used a plastic water jug that I cleaned out well.  It’s very important that it has a lid also because this stuff needs to steep for 3 weeks.

Measure out your vodka and add it to your jug.  I went with 3 cups of vodka because it seemed like the right thing to do.

Biggest shot ever.

The flavors. The flavors for this are very simple.  There are only two: coffee and vanilla.  So it’s really important that you use high quality stuff.  This unfortunately means that you need to splurge on real vanilla beans which cost almost more than the vodka.  These two beans cost me $10.  Don’t worry though, there is a ton of flavor in these guys.

One expensive bean.

To extract all the flavor out of the bean, slice it open lengthwise and then slide your knife down the inside of the bean.  You could also use a spoon to do this.  There will be a bunch of tiny crystals that you can scrape out of the bean.  These are packed with flavor.  Scrape them all into the gallon jug with the vodka!

Cool stuff.

Just for good measure, I also chopped up the bean itself into 3 pieces and threw it into the jug.  No reason wasting a $5 bean.

Next, grind up some coffee.  If you don’t have a coffee grinder, it would be worth it to get some fresh ground coffee from the store for this recipe.  Since it’s steeping for so long, it’s important to have flavorful and quality coffee.

Fresh ground coffee.

Add the coffee to your jug.  Give it a good shake and you’ll have a very dark brew.

Vodka and flavor.

Making the Simple Syrup. Meanwhile, in a large pot, add your water and sugar together and heat it up.  Stir it every once in awhile.  Once all the sugar is dissolved, let it cool for a few minutes and then add your syrupy mixture to the jug!

Note that this recipe makes for a fairly sweet final product.  I actually think that if I made it again, I might reduce the sugar to 3 1/2 cups.

Add the simple syrup.

The hard part – Waiting. Seal up your jug and let it sit in a cool dark spot for about 3 weeks.  It’s a good idea to give it a shake every day or two just to make sure that all the flavors are getting infused.

Filtering the stuff. When you’re ready to finish off your Kah- I mean coffee liqueur, get out a colander with a coffee filter and slowly pour your liqueur through the filter.  Work slowly, it will take some time for the liquid to all filter through and you may need to change your filter a few times as all the grounds accumulate.

Three weeks later...

I did my filtering in a few batches, each one taking a few minutes, and resulting in this beautiful richly colored liquid.

Liquid gold!

You could of course store your coffee liqueur in the same plastic jug you used to steep it, but I washed out a few wine bottles and stored it in those.  Keeps like a charm for a very long time.

When you’re ready for a nightcap or feel the need for a Big Lebowski session, just add a bit of the liqueur to a glass with some ice and a touch of half and half or cream.

The Dude abides.

So good.

I actually found that mine was best after the ice melted a bit, which I think means that my mix was a bit sweet for my tastes.  It’s all relative though and the drink gets less sweet as the ice melts so I would rather have it be too sweet than not sweet enough.

This was a really fun project and took no time at all to actually make, but I will say that the waiting was rather painful.  It was like waiting for Christmas.

To kick things off, I made this sweet and very orange cordial: The Candy Corn Martini!

Kind of sweet for my tastes...

Ok. So I’m really not big on sweet cocktails and so I didn’t love this specific drink because as you can imagine, it is really sweet.  But it’s pretty and very orange and I think I maybe didn’t put in enough lemon juice to balance the sweetness.

Candy Corn Martini (Adapted from A Food Network recipe)

- 3/4 Cup vodka (you can use the cheap stuff for this)
- 1/4 Cup candy corn

Obviously, you can multiply the vodka part for as much as you need.

Final drink:
- 3 parts candy corn vodka
- 1 part orange liquor (triple sec)
- 1 part lemon juice
- 1/2 egg white (I used one egg white per two cocktails.  This is optional, but the egg white does make for a very frothy and delicious final drink.)

Helpful Equipment:
- Cocktail Shaker

Making the Candy Corn Vodka. So it turns out that candy corn dissolves in vodka.  That makes it pretty easy to get that very signature, sugary flavor infused with the vodka.  All you have to do is add your vodka and candy corn into a vessel of some sort and let it sit for about 2 or 3 hours.  It’s probably a good idea to cover it just so stuff doesn’t get in it.

Kind of odd.

After the few hours of sitting, all that awesome orange color will be dissolved in the vodka!

Whoa!

I’d recommend straining your vodka before making the drink just because there may be a few bits of undissolved candy corns.

Mixing up the drink.  Add some ice cubes to your cocktail shaker, then add a few ounces of the candy corn vodka.  If you aren’t comfortable with guessing at mixology, I would start with 1/4 cup of vodka.

You’ll need these ingredients also!

You could not use the egg white if that is worrisome for you.

Cocktails are usually given in proportions (as I listed it above) that way you can make as much as you want!  Assuming you added 1/4 cup of the vodka, go with 1.5 Tablespoons lemon juice (fresh is best), 1.5 Tablespoons orange liquor, and 1/2 of an egg white.  Add all that stuff to your cocktail shaker!

Because of the egg thing, it’s easier to make two cocktails at once in a larger shaker so you don’t have to divide an egg white.

Anyway, once all of that is in the shaker, just shake if up for 20 seconds or so until it is super-chilled and frothy!  Pour it into a martini glass and garnish with a few candy corns!

Like I said, I’m not one for sweet drinks really so this wasn’t my favorite.  Also, I didn’t use enough lemon juice when I made it so it was really really sweet.  Be sure to taste it as you go though and adjust to your tastes.

Honestly, I think that this mixture might be better as shots instead of martinis!  A full drink of it is almost too much, but it would be cool to have it as a shooter!

10 Other Drinks! Ok.  So if candy corn isn’t your thing, I didn’t want to leave you high and dry for Halloween!  Here’s 10 links to a variety of drinks that I think would be great for a Halloween Happy Hour.

Witch’s Brew – A pretty good looking lime punch.  You can probably fore-go some of the kitschy Sandra Lee decorations.  You could also leave out the vodka and add more water (or Sprite) to make a non-alcoholic version. (@ Food Network)

Slime Rickey – The grapes look creepy!  I love it.  Also, I’m not the only one who digs the candy corn cordial idea. (@ Yum Sugar)

Blood and Bones – I love a good meringue and the hot chocolate recipe looks great! (@ Joy the Baker)

Maggotini – Now this is my kind of drink!  Not because of the maggot factor, but because I enjoy gin.  (@ Talk of Tomatoes)

Satan’s Whiskers – One more gin based drink, but this one has some interesting flavors going on.  Not sure what makes it Halloween-ready besides the name, but it does look tasty! (@ Serious Eats)

Eyeball Highball – Ok.  Maybe the most realistic cocktail I’ve seen.  It looks pretty real if you ask me. (@ Martha)

Bloody Apple Cranberry Cocktails – An easy recipe that can be made in bulk for a party! (@ The Cooking Photographer)

The Warlock – This drink has some interesting ingredients that you may not know.  No better time than Halloween to try out some new beverages! (@ Al Dente)

Pumpkin Cocktail – Get on this one today if you want to have it ready by Saturday!  You need to let the vodka infuse with pumpkin for at least a few days. (@ Slashfood)

Blood Orange Cocktail – So this is exactly a Halloween specific recipe, but it has blood in the title! And it’s an awesome color! (@ The Hungry Mouse)

That’s a start, but my hunt for good Halloween cocktails is far from over.  Have a favorite?  Leave a comment!

I confirmed a few things last Saturday night:

1) Never, ever start a land war in Asia.  You will LOSE THE GAME.

2) Sangria is really good.  Especially white sangria in the summer.

3) The sangria recipe below is not intended for two people unless you don’t mind being bedridden the next day.

Here's to a good night!

The thing I don’t like about some white sangrias is that they end up being really sweet.  If you look up other recipes, a fair number of them have simple syrup in them which I don’t really like to add to mine.  I think it makes it too sweet and less boozy and who wants that?

So let’s make some the real way.

White Sangria

- 1 bottle white wine. I used a pinot grigio.
- 1/2 Cup Citron vodka
- 1/2 Cup Peach brandy
- 1 peach, peeled, diced
- 1 apple, peeled, diced
- 2 plums, diced (skin is cool)
- Handful of grapes, halved
- 1/4 Cup orange juice
- Sparkling water (club soda)

Prepping the fruit. There’s a lot of fruit in this recipe.  I like to pretend that I’m being healthy while getting drunk.  I think you should do the same.

Healthy!

I peeled the peach and apple just because the skin on those can be kind of cumbersome. I got a bit lucky with my apple peelings.  I couldn’t replicate this if you paid me:

First try.

For this recipe, chop your fruit into about 1/4 inch cubes.  For the record, you don’t need to use all the fruit I used.  I just really like to eat the fruit when it is all booze filled.  Call me crazy but I find it delicious.

If you do you all the fruit that I did, you’ll end up with a bowl like this.

Fruit.

So some sangria recipes call for simple syrup which is basically sugar and water.  For this recipe I substituted that for peach brandy which is sweet enough but has peach flavor and alcohol.  Basically it’s an all around win.

Instead of adding lemon or lime juice, I added some citron vodka which gives the sangria a necessary bite.

Fruit next to booze.

Now it would be fine to mix all these things together and let them mingle for an hour or two.  If you want your fruit to be really tasty though, mix your vodka and peach brandy with your fruit and let that sit for about 30 minutes.  You could let it sit for an hour or two though without a problem.

Fruit in the booze.

After that, basically just mix your fruit mixture, your white wine, and orange juice in a large picture.

In each glass add a few ice cubes, pour in some of your sangria mixture and then top with a splash of club soda or sparkling water.

Whatever you do, don’t drink this (and eat all the fruit) between two people.  It’s seriously a bad idea.

Hangover in a pitcher.

In all reality though, this is an amazing sangria recipe.  I highly recommend it.

Feel free to substitute liberally for fruit additions and white wine varieties.

If you have some good suggestions, leave a comment!

They take their normal coffee which has been brewed and probably burned and stick it in a plastic cup with ice.  Done deal.  This means that the coffee not only tastes burned (more so than if it were hot), but it’s also watered down because the coffee isn’t cold when they add the ice.

I get visibly distraught when this happens to me after I fork over my hard-earned bucks.  So now I have a one strike policy with coffee joints.  It’s harsh, but whatever.  You serve me one cup of bad coffee (especially iced coffee because I love it so) and you are forever blacklisted.

Most DC coffee joints are blacklisted.  Luckily, I’ve learned how to make my own.

You'll never go back.

In my opinion, the real way to make really good iced coffee is to cold-brew it.  Well, actually you room temperature brew it, but it’s colder than how you would normally think to brew coffee.

Instead of letting heat do the work for this coffee, you let time do the work which results in a really mellow but still very intense coffee flavor.  It’s so good.

Cold-brew Starter (for lack of a better word)

You can make as much of this as you want, it is a very simple ratio.

- 1 part coarsely ground coffee.  Freshly ground is best.
- 4 parts room temperature water.

Note: I’ve never made this without freshly ground coffee, but I expect that it’s still very good.  It’s worth it though to buy quality coffee for this as the flavor really comes through.  Splurge on a good pound of coffee for it.

Helpful Equipment:
- Coffee Grinder (This is the one I use which is great for the price.)

I’ve only used coarsely ground coffee for this.  Just pulse it in the grinder for a few seconds until it looks like this.

A coarse grind is your friend here.

Then add your room temperature water slowly and give the mixture a stir to make sure that there aren’t a lot of clumps.

A strange brew.

Forget about it. Let this sit at room temperature for at least 4 hours.  I let it sit overnight and that works great.  Cover it though or your cat might drink it and that would leave you with a very hyper cat.  If you don’t have a cat, well, cover it anyway.

Straining it. To strain this, just line a sieve with a normal coffee filter and pour it through slowly.  Try not to press down on it or anything.  Just let gravity do it’s work for a few minutes.

I strain mine a second time through a fresh filter just to make sure I get all the little particles.

Have patience. Let it drain slowly.

You’ll end up with a very fragrant and richly colored liquid.  I wouldn’t recommend drinking this straight.  It’s very intense.

A very clean final product.

What I would recommend doing is making the best glass of iced coffee you’ve maybe ever had with it.

Cold-brewed Iced Coffee

- 1 part coffee starter
- 1 part water (adjust the ratio depending on how strong you like your coffee, but a 1-to-1 ratio makes for a pretty good starting point.)
- Ice (If you want to get really crazy you can pour 1 part water and 1 part coffee starter into ice cube trays and freeze it. Then you’re coffee will stay equally delicious throughout the glass.)
- Sugar and cream (optional)

This coffee is so smooth and delicious that it really doesn’t need much, but some days I feel like adding some extra sweetness to it.  A little cream or milk and some sugar can do the trick.  Plus the milk makes it pretty.  A glass of black liquid isn’t all that photo-friendly.

All doctored up.

This is one of those posts that I really feel like should be accompanied by a warning.  If you have this coffee, it will be very hard to find a good cup of iced coffee that compares.  I know of very few places in DC that match up to it.  And I really don’t even know all that much about coffee – although I’m learning.

I’m serious.  Make this.  For better or for worse, you’ll never look back.

When you bite into the first arancine though the first thing you will do is look at how many are left and calculate how many you can score before you are labeled a complete pig.  Because of the citrus zest, these guys are light and refreshing.

Citrus arancine is a definite win.

So good.

Arancine (or arancini according to Wikipedia. I’ll stick with Bon Appétit’s spelling) is normally made with leftover risotto which makes for a great quick appetizer.  This dish however calls for fresh risotto.  For the life of me I don’t really know why.  I think the only reason why is because citrus risotto is not something that you would maybe want by the bowl.

Frankly though, I would eat this stuff by the bowl without a problem.  So my advice is to make double, eat it as a side dish one night, and then make arancine the next day.

Citrus Arancine (From Sept. 2009 Bon Appétit)
This makes about 30 arancine balls.  Like I said, I would double it if I were making it again and get two or three meals out of it.

- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 Cup shallot, finely diced (you can substitute white onion)
- 1.5 Cups arborio rice
- 1 Teaspoon salt
- 3/4 Cup white wine
- 6 Cups low-salt chicken or vegetable broth (You may not use all of it. I always error on having too much rather than not enough.)
- 1 Teaspoon ground fennel seed (freshly ground is best if you can)
- 1 orange, zest only
- 1 lemon, zest only
- 1 lime, zest only
- 30 1/2-inch cubes (about 6 ounces) of young sheep’s milk cheese like Brinata.  I think you could substitute a wide variety of cheeses here.
- 3 large eggs
- 1/4 Cup whole milk
- 3 Cups panko breadcrumbs
- 6 Cups vegetable oil for frying

Helpful Equipment:
- Deep Fry/Candy Thermometer

The Stock. Risotto is just rice.  Well, plus some onion and butter, but really it is just rice.  The only real flavor in a risotto dish comes from add-ins (like mushrooms or in this case citrus) and stock.  So it’s pretty important to get a good stock.  Ideally, you could make it yourself, but if you just don’t have time you can also enhance store bought stock in about 30 minutes.

I always like to enhance my broth a bit.

Pour in a quart of stock and add one carrot, a few celery stalks, a whole head of garlic chopped in half, and one onion.  Roughly chop everything.  Then add a pinch of salt, some parsley, and about 20 peppercorns, plus about 2 or three cups of water.  Let that simmer for about 30 minutes and then strain it.  That will leave you with a much more flavorful stock than you would have otherwise.

While your stock simmers you can get some other ingredients ready like you shallots and your citrus zest.

A little zest. A lot of flavor.

The Risotto. If you are making the risotto and the arancine the same day, be sure to give yourself plenty of time for the risotto to cool.  It’s not really possible to get hot risotto to stay in ball form.

Before starting your risotto, make sure your stock is simmering.  It doesn’t have to be boiling hot, but it should be pretty close.

To get your risotto going, add your butter, olive oil, and shallots into a large pot.  Stir on medium-high heat until the shallots are translucent.  Then add your rice and salt.  Stir rice for 3 minutes or so.  It will be very dry obviously.  The point is to heat up the kernels of rice so they open up and allow in more moisture later.

Then add your white wine all at once and stir until it is all absorbed.

Then comes the hard part.  Ladle in 1/2 Cup of stock at a time into the rice mixture.  Stir it until the stock is all absorbed (about 3 minutes), then add another 1/2 Cup of stock.  Repeat this until the rice is nice and creamy.  It should be tender but still have a tiny bite to it.  This whole process will take probably 30 minutes.

Your arm will be tired, but it’ll be worth it.

Creamy perfection.

At the very end, stir in your fennel seed and all of your citrus zest.  If you want to make the arancine right away, you can spread the risotto on a sheet pan and stick it in the fridge.  It will cool down in about thirty minutes.

Chillin.

Very Important Note: Taste your risotto for salt before cooling it down.  I forgot to do this and my final arancine was very much lacking in salt.  Salt now or pay later!

While the risotto chills, you can prep the stuff for forming the arancine.  Prepare your breading station by whisking together your eggs and milk and putting your breadcrumbs in a bowl.

You’ll also need to cube up that cheese.

Don't make these too big.

Now if you are like me, that will only take you about 10 minutes and your risotto will be nowhere near cool.

If you are like me, you’ll notice that you have an entire lime, lemon, and orange leftover from the zesting.  These should not just go to waste!

Finally, if you are like me, you like mojitos.

I decided to whip up a few of these for me and my dinner guests while the risotto chilled.

Tasty.

Here’s the basic recipe.

Citrus Mojito

- 1 Tablespoon sugar (Muddle with the mint)
- 5 sprigs fresh mint
- 1-2 ounces white rum (depending on your workload)
- 2 ounces citrus juice (lime, lemon, and/or orange)
- Top with soda water

The Arancine. Sorry.  Back on track.  These guys are pretty easy to form.  Even easier if you can find a helper or two.  Take a big Tablespoon of risotto and place a piece of cheese right in the center.  Form a ball and dip it in your egg mixture followed by your breadcrumbs.

Then line up all your arancine on a sheet pan!

An army of arancine!

The recipe in BA says to refrigerate these for six (YES 6) hours before frying them.  That seems kind of ridiculous to me.  I refrigerated them for another 30 minutes (and had another mojito).

Heat up your oil at about 350 and drop them in five or six at a time depending on the size of your pan.  They should take about 5 minutes to fry up and be golden brown delicious.

After a hot bath.

Drain them on a paper towel and let them cool for a few minutes before devouring them.

Ooze is a good thing.

These were really tasty.  They were very light and refreshing considering that it’s really just fried rice and cheese.  As I said, I messed up on the salt thing.  Kind of an amateur mistake, but whatever.  It took us a few arancine to discover what was missing.  One of my friends sprinkled a bit of salt on one and screamed out, “SALT!”  Problem solved.  Not a problem I usually have though.

Arancine are kind of elaborate to make, but if you have the time and are looking for a good recipe, this one is definitely a keeper.

I really really love these.

We’ll get to the benedicts later.  First, let’s talk about the drink because your guests will be thirsty while they wait for you to make the meal.

A few years ago, I used to moonlight as a bartender and my favorite shift I would work was Sunday brunch.  In general, people are always in a good mood for brunch and the restaurant I happened to work at had a bottomless mimosa/bloody mary deal that was huge hit.  After working that shift for about a year, I got pretty darn good at making various versions of bloody marys.

Turns out the recipe for a stellar bloody mary can vary greatly.  My very few rules are:

- Don’t use a mix dude.  Use real tomato juice.  Most mixes suck.
- I think heat is important.  Make it spicier than you would think because it will get diluted.
- Make sure your acids balance.  This usually means adding something like lemon juice.
- Don’t overdo it on the extras.  Sometimes I’ve had bloody marys that have so much stuff in them they just taste like CRAZYTOWN.

What you need for a bloody.

Here is the recipe I used for this round of Bloodys.

A Bloody Mary Recipe (makes 4-6 drinks)

- 32 ounces tomato juice
- 2 Tablespoons horseradish
- 2 Tablespoons hot sauce, adjust accordingly
- 1 Tablespoon celery salt
- 1 lemon, juice only
- Salt and pepper to taste

Now that is just a base, but basically, just mix all of that together and feel free to add more of any of the ingredients depending on your taste.  Some other things you might consider adding (although I wouldn’t recommend adding them all at once):  Old Bay seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, or clam juice just to name a few.

Action shot!

I usually use Tabasco for my bloody marys, but I was out this time so I tried Frank’s Red Hot.  The problem is that Frank’s just doesn’t quite have the heat I wanted.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Frank’s, but I need some more spice.

I added a few shots of this to the mix to spice it up a bit more.

BAM.

You can make this mix even a week before you are ready to use it.  Just make sure you relabel the bottle so people don’t think they are getting tomato juice.  There is no vodka in this yet, just the mix.

The mix.

For the end drink, I use about a shot and a half to two shots of vodka per 6 ounces of mix.  But use your own judgment depending on what kind of a Sunday you want to have.  Need a good garnish?  Try: olives, celery, cucumber, oyster… anything else?

Good way to start the day!

Ok.  Let’s talk about the eating part of this brunch.  So there are four basic parts to a good egg Benedict and we will handle them in turn.

The English Muffin.  I always toast my English muffin for a Benedict.  For this round I also made them, but buying them is perfectly fine.  It is definitely not essential to make them.

The Filling. Normally, the thing between the muffin and the egg is a thick slice of ham.  I definitely like that, but there are tons of other things you can use.  For these versions, I used bacon and sauteed spinach.  The key thing about the filling is that you don’t need too much of it.  You don’t want it to overflow.

For the spinach, I sauteed it in a tablespoon of oil for a few minutes until it wilted and turned bright green.  Then remove it from the heat right away.

This part is easy.

The hollandaise. Eggs Benedict is simply not good without a good hollandaise sauce.  That’s just my personal opinion.  And frankly, I think that a lot of restaurants don’t make the best hollandaise sauce and with reason.  It is hard to keep it good for hours.  It’s best within 30 minutes or so of making it.

So let’s make it.  These are the things we will need.

The start of something beautiful.

The standard recipe I used I got from Ratio, although I simplified it a little bit.

Basic Hollandaise (Makes enough for 5 plates of benedicts.)

- 1 Tablespoon cider vinegar (I added this because of the Ratio recipe and it was good, but I’ve made it without this also.)
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 1/2 sticks butter, melted
- Pinch of salt
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- Pinch of Cayenne (optional)

Start by making a basic double boiler.  Fill a medium sized pan with water and get it boiling and then place a metal bowl over the pan.  If you don’t have a double boiler setup you can make this directly on the stovetop, but just make sure you keep the heat on low and watch it very carefully.  It is very difficult to do without a double boiler though.

Add your cider vinegar, salt, and egg yolks to the top pan of your double boiler and whisk together.  Keep whisking!  After a few minutes it will start to steam a bit and foam up.  Once the yolk mixture triples in volume (it will do that very quickly), start drizzling in your melted butter, whisking the entire time.

The butter should emulsify with the yolks perfectly.  If the mixture starts separating, take it off the heat and whisk continuously.  If it starts to coagulate, add a few drops of water.  I think you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to make though.  At the very end, add your lemon juice and cayenne and whisk until it is silky and thick.

If you aren’t using it immediately, turn off the heat and you can keep the sauce on the double boiler for 30 minutes or so without a problem.  Whisk it every 10 minutes or so just to make sure it stays together.

The eggs. I’m also a purist when it comes to eggs on a Benedict.  I’ve seen fried eggs and scrambled eggs, but a runny poached egg is the only way for me.  I’ve talked about how to make poached eggs before, so check out this post if you need some help on how to make them. HINT:  You don’t need one of those fancy poaching dishes.  All you need is a pot, some water, and some vinegar.

Then all you have to do is slap it all together!

The bacon version.

I guess this is kind of an advanced meal, but if you take it one thing at a time, it is very doable.  And very delicious.  I love make a few different fillings and giving people options.

Mid brunch action shot.

Obviously, this isn’t the healthiest brunch ever, but if made correctly, I think it is worth every calorie.

This was my second helping.

So, make the bloody mary’s from scratch.  It is very doable.  Once you have some liquid courage, give the benedicts a shot.  Honestly, even if you don’t get it perfect, it will still be better than most that you find in a restaurant these days.

Just a spoon full of... snow.

These are really great and can be made with all kinds of different flavors.  I made just plain ones with vanilla.  This is the base recipe:

Snow Shakes

- 2 Cups milk (I like 2%)
- 1/2 Cup sugar
- 1 Teaspoon vanilla
- Lots of snow

First you want to make your base so add your sugar to milk and stir it well until it is all dissolved.  You could, of course, add more sugar if you want but it can get pretty sweet pretty fast so I would recommend starting with this.

Sugar in milk.

Then add your vanilla.  I thought about adding lemon extract or chocolate, and I think those would work just fine, but at the end of the day vanilla was my preferred flavor.

A little goes a long way.

Then slowly add your milk base to your snow until it turns to a slush with the consistency of a milk shake.  For me this was about 4 cups of snow to 2/3 cup of milk base.

Kind of like ice cream except easier. Much easier.

Stir it together with a fork or whisk, pour it in a glass and go to town.  I also sprinkled some cinnamon on mine for some garnish.

Ok.  I lied to you. I didn’t just make them with vanilla.  I also made one with this:

The adult variety.

One shot of this stuff along with 1/2 Cup of milk base and you are all set.  It’s a night cap and a dessert all wrapped together in one.

A shot. Or two.

No garnish needed for this one.  The garnish is on the inside.

Looks innocent enough.

These are really great even if it is cold outside (the whiskey helps warm the soul).  The hardest part about this was finding some fresh snow that looked edible in DC at 6PM.  I eventually found a good little patch next to our house that looked pristine and beautiful.

These are a great little snack, especially if you have kids.  Although obviously don’t serve them the Knob Creek version.