Dangerous concoction

The other night I mixed up a dangerous concoction: equal parts blue curaçao and sambuca, with a handful of sour patch kids. It was strangely interesting and I enjoyed it. Of course, I drank it too fast.

Creamsicle Frozen Yogurt

Based on my recipe for creamsicle smoothie today I combined in the ice cream machine:

About two cups vanilla yogurt
About one cup strong orange juice
About three tablespoons half and half
About one-half shot Bols Blue Curacao (to keep it from freezing solid like an Italian ice)

Tasted pretty good in liquid form. We'll see when the ice cream maker finishes with it.

And it's green...

Blueberry Crumb Bread Pudding

My daughter seems to have the plague we've all been harboring, so I gave her some trail mix with extra cashews and dark chocolate powder-coated almonds to tide her until I got something hot and comforting whipped up.

This is what I thought I'd make, the apple crisp bread pudding, but with blueberries as we have a big bag of frozen blueberries from the warehouse club. Here is the original recipe:

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/11/apple-crisp-bread-pudding.html

But, as one should anticipate, I have a tendency not to read the entire recipe before cooking... I ended up improvising more than I thought and what should have been a nice 11 x 13 pan of pudding ended up filling a cake pan.

So, here goes:

In a large skillet, combine

• 3 cups blueberries
• 1/4 cup blue curacao
• 3 tablespoons butter

Let come to slow boil and reduce heat.

Now, I used a good 14 cups of bread chunks, because I started with a two-day old baguette from Wegmans, ran out, and used the remaining breadchunks I had in the freezer... the same ones I used for my homemade stuffing.

I buttered the bottom of my cake pan and sprinkled with about 1 tablespoon sugar. Then I added the bread hunks from the baguette. I poured most the blueberry mixture over this and spread it around as best I could.

Then I added the frozen bread to cover it and sprinkled about 1 cup of frozen blueberries on top.

Now, the custard:

My custard was...

• 7 eggs (it was what I had)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup 2 percent milk
• almost 2 cups vanilla soy milk

Whisk until a nice even texture. Pour onto bread, pressing down with a spoon to make sure the bread absorbs the liquid.

Now, the oven should be preheated to 350 degrees. I layered a thin layer of brown sugar on top and then added about a cup of my mother-in-law's pie crumbs on the very top. She always makes extra when she makes a pie and usually throws them away, but I freeze them.

Bake for 40 minutes or until set.

I hope it works...

We had the first serving after 40 minutes in the oven and it was incredible! I put it back it for another 15 minutes because it didn't seem quite set enough...

More of an update:
Now what? I have made a ridiculous amount of bread pudding. This is where 'cheap' comes in. We each had about 1.5 cups for breakfast. It accounted for about 1/6 of this pan. I scooped an equal amount into a Tupperware container for tomorrow's breakfast.

There are several approaches for the rest...

1. Eat until we are disgustingly full. (Wouldn't be cheap or healthy.)
   
2. Share. (No one really to share with)
3. Store.

I opted to freeze. Bread pudding is already mushy, so it shouldn't affect the texture too negatively to freeze it. And I placed approximately three servings in each one quart freezer bag. So each bag will serve my whole family for breakfast. I ended up with four bags, which I will place inside a large freezer bag once the little ones cool. I have them in my unheated mud room so it shouldn't take long.

Now, a dessert that required a lot of eggs, bread and blueberries will serve a family of three for six comfort food breakfasts. Serve with a side of vegetarian sausage and I think that's a great start for a winter day.

Orange (or Blue?) Metropolitan

So, I take the same approach with my home bar that I do with my groceries. I try to make things last. I like to cook with alcohol I also like to drink (wine, brandy).

One of my preferred 'manly' drinks is a Metropolitan. According to my bartender's guide that's 4 parts brandy, 2 parts sweet vermouth, 1/2 tsp bar sugar, and a dash Angostura bitters.

Now the bitters are supposed to have some sort of orange or citrus flavor. So when I noticed I was out of sweet vermouth, I thought it might work to use the extra dry and add some extra sugar. I opted against this and added blue curacao instead.

I mixed the following and served over ice to my husband and I:

• 2 ounces brandy
• about 1/2 teaspoon bar sugar
• 1 ounce extra dry vermouth
• 1/2 ounce blue curacao
• dash bitters

Fruity sparkling cocktail

I finally made my zucchini cakes tonight and wanted to serve a cocktail to go with it, something light for summer.

So I placed some ice, about one cup seltzer, about 1/3 cup berry juice, a splash blue curacao and a splash of grenadine in the shaker and mixed.

Purple Margaritas

I hesitate to even share this as it is NOT cheap. But the whole point of running a rigid budget, or as close to one as we can, is to splurge as desired. Like the recent cheese fest. I *still* have plenty of smoked gouda.

I have a business meeting tomorrow, but everyone in the group is friends AND tomorrow is my birthday. As the meeting pertains to my personal business, I am responsible for the tab. Normally, we would do lunch. But I have proposed purple margaritas.

I spent $65 for the ingredients for purple margaritas. But when you consider the cost of taking three adults and one child for a light meal, with alcoholic beverages and tip, $65 is the right ballpark. And by entertaining at home, I still have some alcoholic left in the bottle at the end of the day. So, depending on your perspective, it is cheap.

My purple margaritas stem from a girlfriend's divorce. We tried for months to make the perfect margarita. They always turned out too sour or too alcoholic. Then someone told me to try blue curacao instead of triple sec or grand marnier. Didn't thrill me. But when I added chambord, the sweet raspberry flavor was perfect. The blue curacao and the chambord combine to make an incredible purple color.

Be warned: These margaritas will knock your socks off if you're not careful.

Angel's Purple Margaritas
(recipe as printed makes two)
4 ounces margarita mix (or homemade, I have not found a good margarita mix)
2 ounces tequila (my girlfriend is into José Cuervo)
2 ounces blue curacao (it is very blue, Bols makes one...)
2 ounces chambord

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to mix. I serve with the ice. Wet the rim of the glass and roll in bartendar's salt, if desired.