The other day I hosted a surprise birthday party for a friend. We had tacos and there was a huge bunch of fresh cilantro left over. Not wanting to waste 99 cents worth of cilantro, I decided to use $10 worth of Everclear to make liqueur with it. Sounds like a congressional approach to fiscal responsibility, doesn't it?

I threw that bunch of cilantro into a mason jar along with three cups of Everclear and one large whole lime. Four days later, I removed the cilantro and lime and this is what the alcohol had done to them.

And this is what THEY did to the alcohol...

After adding three cups of simple sugar syrup, the color went from an intense deep, dark green to this...

It's bottled and it is sitting in my pantry for a few months of mellowing. It should be ready to drink just in time for Cinco de Mayo.

This week the Sunday Small Bites ingredient is one of my favorite flavors (second only to anise.)

I didn't want to do a recipe that basically only used ginger to enhance the flavor of some other "main" ingredient, so I thought it might be about time to share a couple of my liqueur recipes.

I have two that use ginger. The first, (left glass), is Carrot Liqueur which does only use ginger as a flavor enhancement. The second, (right glass), is ALL about the ginger.

Here are the very, very simple recipes:

Carrot Liqueur

Put three cups shredded carrots and 5 slices peeled fresh ginger in a clean mason jar.
Add 3 cups grain alcohol
Steep for 20-30 days, shaking to stir up carrots every 2-3 days

Strain and add 2 cups cooled simple sugar syrup (made with 1 part water and 2 parts sugar, boiled until clear)

Tokyo Rose

Put two cups crystallized ginger piece in a clean mason jar.
Add 3 cups grain alcohol
Steep for 20-30 days, shaking to stir up ginger every 2-3 days

Strain and filter. Then add just enough Sadaf Rose Syrup ( one teaspoon at a time) to produce the color of pickled ginger.

Add 2 cups cooled simple sugar syrup (made with 1 part water and 2 parts sugar, boiled until clear.)

Ahhh, mushrooms! Is there any one single ingredient that lends itself better to a wind variety of appetizer options? I think not. Or maybe it's just that I love mushrooms.

Since the Sunday Small Bites gang at SlowTalk.com has been assigned mushrooms, I began playing out in my head all the potential "new" ways of using them in an appetizer. I considered, and discarded several dozen ideas. Mostly because, after research, I realized someone else had already thought of them. Especially anything that involves using a mushroom as a cup to hold other items. You could write an entire cookbook on stuffed mushroom recipes. Oh, wait...someone has!
It was during my contemplation of stuffed mushrooms that I suddenly had the brainy idea of using something else as the cup to hold the mushrooms. And thus was born

PORCINI RISOTTO in PROSCUITTO CUPS

Soak ½ cup dried porcini mushrooms in 2 cups very hot water

Spray bottom side of a mini-muffin tin with oil
Cut pieces of prosciutto into roughly 4-5 inch pieces and wrap around the bottom of each muffin cup. You may want to do two layers for complete coverage, but don’t do more than two. Don’t worry about being perfect. Rustic is the look you are going for.
Broil in oven until prosciutto cups begin to harden, but not burn.

Remove tray from oven and transfer cups, right side up, to a thick layer of paper towel to drain and cool.

Drain and reserve porcini water.

Chop porcini into small pieces.
Cook risotto according to your favorite method, using olive oil, minced onion, minced garlic, any other spices you may fancy, the porcini soaking water and added chicken broth if necessary.
Mix in chopped porcini, and ½ cup fresh grated parmigiano

Fill cups with risotto mixture, top with grated parmigiano and stick back under broiler just long enough to begin browning cheese.

Serve hot.

In advance of our trip to Scotland, I wanted to do some research on potential distillary, brewery, & winery tours we might be able to take. So, before we left home, I visited a few of our local liquor stores, both the fancy high end ones with gleaming brass and polished wood, and the ones that smell like stale cigarettes and spilled beer.

We quickly learned that they just don't MAKE wine in Scotland. So that idea went out the window pretty fast. The king of spirits is Whisky. We had dozens and dozens of distillaries we could visit...in fact be booked our second week's rental based on its proximity to the Whisky Trail.

In the beer catagory, I noticed that the high-end liquor stores carried a Scottish brand called Orkney Brewing Company. What luck, we were going to spend a week in the Orkney Islands, we could book a tour of this brewery while there.

I also found some interesting things on the internet. Here is a blog entry by a beer taster in the UK who seemed to be fond of Orkney Brewing.

GoodPeopleEats blog.

And here's a couple of guys in a bar in Pennsylvania who appear to be pursuing the Gary Vanerchuk model of tasting television. Two Guys On Beer.
They need to develop a little more confidence. And they REALLY need to do better research and fact checking with the historical background they throw in. The Vikings were neolithic? Really?!? But these guys do have promise. I might watch them. The episode is #069, posted on 05/06/09. It's the first one on page 9 of their menu.

We were really looking forward to touring the Orkney Brewery, but when we called to check on schedules we kept getting a recording. Since it wasn't very far from our rental cottaqe we just decide to take a chance and drive over one afternoon.

Here is what we found:

A very small building, locked up tight. Barrels outside in the open - stacked everywhere. Noone around. That car in the foreground is ours.

Too late for us, but good news for anyone planning to visit Orkney beginning NEXT summer, they are adding on to their operation and will be including a tour center and tasting room.

Here is their website: Orkney Brewery

This week Jerry picked Olives as our featured ingredient for the Sunday Small Bites challenge. For me it was like getting a pass. All I had to do was go to the pantry and pull out a jar of my Kalamata Olive & Fig Jam.

I put a spoonful on a Scottish Oak Cake (to celebrate our recent trip to Scotland) and topped it with one of my very favorite Greek cheeses - Manouri (to pay homage to Jerry's recent trip to Greece.)

Here is my recipe for Kalamata Olive & Fig Jam:

3 cups good quality pitted kalamata olives boiled in fresh water to remove some of the saltiness. (change the water three times).

Simple syrup made with 1 1/2 cups sugar and 3/4 cups water infused with the peel of one lemon. (strain lemon peel)

- 2 cups diced figs, stems removed but not peeled. I used Mission but you can use any type fig you prefer. (If you can't get fresh figs you can substitute whole fig preserves and eliminate the simple syrup. Or you can substitute dried figs by boiling them in water first to reconstitute and then draining before using)

- one diced apple

Gently boil the fruit together in the syrup for about 10 minutes (or until you get the consistancy you prefer). Careful not to let stick or burn.

Pulse briefly in food processor. Don't puree. You want to see a few chunks of apple and olive remaining. The fig will have already melted down, but the seeds will still add a great texture.

Preserve by your favorite method (canning or freezing)

Interesting PhotoHunt subject this week. I can imagine many ways to interpret it and stay true to the travel theme of my blog. I could do luggage pictures. I could do shopping bag pictures from other countries. I could even do the bags under my eyes after a long flight across numerous time zones.

But, I decided that since it was Halloween, I'd join it what was sure to be a very popular theme...bags of candy.

Here are some cool looking Japanese Jell Cups I found at Global Foods this week. Almost bought them, because I thought they would be interesting and unique. I mean, really, just how many mini-Hershey bars does one kid need, right?

Then, because I'm a very responsible treat giver I carefully studied the warning panel on the back. I think these may be a lawsuit waiting to happen. I think I'll pass. Mini Almond Joy, anyone?

I got stuck in the Russian Aisle at Global Foods this week.

It was because I noticed something for the first time. Even when a product doesn't have a word of English on it, the shelf tags are in English. I wondered to myself, "Do they have someone on staff who speaks the language of every product they carry? How else would they be able to produce all of those shelf tags accurately?"

The first one I noticed was a bottle of beautiful deep green liquid. It was shaped like a whisky flask. There was no translation on the bottle. But the shelf tag not only identified the product, it also gave the English version of the company's name that produced it - Gold Cavier.

These boxes of buckwheat cereal were on a bottom shelf.

When I turned the box over, I noticed that they had thoughtfully translated the cooking instructions into both English and Dutch. I wonder if a native German reading his box will be as entertained as I was. I bought this one.

On the top shelf was what appeared to be instant oatmeal in various fruit flavors. It was also translated into three languages, but none of them were English.

Fortunately, the universal language of pictures - and simple preparation requirements - were enough to give me a complete idea of how to use the product at home.

I'm really glad I bought this one. Unlike the pasty, mushy instant oatmeal we get from Quaker, this brand was as good as fresh cooked. Although, the pictures on the box are deceptive. There aren't real pieces of fruit in it. Only the flavor of the fruit. Oh, well. Can't have everything I guess.

After the packaged goods, I hit the refrigerated section to check out the Russian selections.

I spent last week in Great Britian. This week, I had a very pleasant visit to Russia. Next week, I'm thinking Malaysia, because this caught my eye as I walked past the ice cream freezer cases.

This is week eight of the SlowTrav Sunday Small Bites challenge. And it was my week to choose the featured ingredient.

When I picked pumpkin, I was thinking that I'd like to do something with a Native American flavor. And then I started thinking that North African would be cool too. So I decided to use Native American vegetables and North African spices. Here's what I came up with:

Native American/North African Pumpkin Stew

Step One:
One medium heirloom pumpkin of your choice, cleaned, peeled, & seeded.
3-4 garlic cloves finely minced or pressed in garlic press
Salt & pepper to taste
Olive oil to coat
Cut only the firmest part of the pumpkin flesh into about 1/2” cubes and measure six cups into a bowl for tossing.
Add olive oil and minced garlic and toss to coat.
Spread out in a shallow pan and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Roast in a 450 degree convection oven until edges begin to brown.
Remove and allow to cool.

Step Two:
While pumpkin is roasting, soften in a small amount of olive oil —
1 cup red onions (diced into uniform 1/4” pieces)
1/2 cup diced mushrooms of your choice (used a handful from my container of dried mixed wild mushrooms and soaked them in warm water before dicing)

Step Three:
Add in —
1 cup diced tomatoes (Use firm ripe tomatoes. Remove all seeds and dice same size as onion)
1/2 cup warm water in which you have been soak 8-10 saffron threads. (leave the saffron in)
1/2 cup minced dried apricots
1 cup pre-cooked Heirloom Red Quinoa
1 teas. dried cilantro flakes
2 tbsp. minced fresh mint
1/2 teas. each Zatar & Sumac berry spices (I get mine from Penzey’s)
1/4 teas. Each of red pepper flakes & five spice powder
1 1/2 teas. Salt
Toss all of these ingredients together then add —
1/12 cup roasted corn kernels (I use the frozen bags from Trader Joes. Just thaw it first)
6 cups roasted pumpkin cubes

Step Four:
Add up to 3 cups vegetable or chicken broth, one cup at a time as you simmer and gently stir your ingredients to combine. Don’t use more broth than you need to make a stew that has almost no liquid at all. You want this to be a chunky stew you eat with a fork, not a spoon.
You also don’t want to stir so hard that you break down your pumpkin.

To Serve —
Before roasting the pumpkin, I hollowed out 4 small ornamental pumpkins, coated them in oil and added them to the roasting pan.
I used these as serving bowls for the pumpkin stew and garnished with a sprig of fresh mint.
Each mini-pumpkin held about 1/3 cup.

This recipe makes about 10 cups of stew. So, I used only a small portion of the stew as an appetizer, and saved the rest to be used the next day as a main course. It keeps very well for several days in the fridge and can be successfully heated in the microwave, one bowl at a time.

While in Scotland this summer, I became obsessed with Ginger Beer. I drank one almost every day. And the most common brand in supermarkets and convience stores was the canned Idris Fiery Ginger Beer. When we came home, I immediately went to Global Foods, knowing if I could find it anywhere in St. Louis, it would be there. I wasn't disappointed. Global Foods not only had the familiar red can from Idris, they also had five or six other brands. I was content to buy what I knew for several months.

But, on my most recent visit to GF, it occured to me that one of the others might taste even better. So, I bought Idris plus three other brands to do a blind taste test.

On the left above are bottles from two different Jamacian companies. (Did you know that in the 1950s Jamaica produced the highest quality and the third largest quantity of ginger in the world?) I didn't either. The can, and the bottle on the right are produced in the UK.

I came home and set up a blind test, recruiting Dan to rearrange the bottles; pour the four brands; and then place the bottles behind the box so I couldn't see them.

I had some preconceived ideas about which would be the best. I'll admit that those ideas were based mostly on the quality of their web sites. Just shows how susceptible we all are to marketing techniques, I guess.

Here are my notes on each:

#1 - strong, ginger smell tickled nose, but surprised at very mild taste. Thin mouth feel and no finish at all.

#2 - Smell not as strong as first one. Also a mild taste, but better body and some finish.

#3 - Amost no ginger smell, but an odd herbal overtone. Very weak taste and definite herbal taste. Not what I'm looking for when I drink Ginger Beer.

#4 - Not as strong a smell as #1 but MUCH stronger taste with a wonderful ginger after-burn.

Rank: Leader by far - #4; good but a distant second - #2; blandly in the middle - #1; Never want to taste again - #3.

Here are the names and the website links of the four brands. Well, technically only the website links for the three losing brands. It turns out my favorite doesn't even have a website. Although there is an importer in Miami that claims to be the exclusive representitive of Jamaican Country Style products.

Fentimans Ginger Beer
Old Jamaican Ginger Beer
Idris Fiery Ginger Beer
Jamaican Country Style Ginger Beer

I think now that I know my favorite of the four, on my next visit to GF I'll buy the rest of the brands available and test them against Jamaican Country Style. Maybe there will be a better one yet.

Notice to all my Facebook connections:

This is *Un-friend Deborah Week. If for whatever reason you would like to eliminate me from your feed, this is your chance for a free pass. I'll be totally cool with it. Won't hurt my feelings. I promise.

I'm sure some of you friended me because you didn't know my posts would be so boring. Maybe you're just not interested in my incessant drival about food and travel. Or you feel my posts are too frequent, or not frequent enough. Or perhaps they are without socially redeeming content and you have much better things to do with your time. By all means, click that "x" next to my name. I won't be offended.

Some of you, when first setting up your facebook, rushed out and friended everyone you could think of. You operated under the Facebook-encouraged misconception that it was about the quantity of connections. Having triple digit friend numbers was some sort of ultimate goal. Now you are rethinking and have decided that quality is more desirable. You want to do a little house cleaning. I'm OK with being one of the people you sweep out.

Even though you may not have wanted to, some of you might have responded to my friend request out of fear that you would hurt my feelings if you didn't accept. I have a thick skin. Please feel free to unfriend.

If you do, un-friend me, I promise to pretend like I didn't notice. No awkward emails asking why. No telephone calls begging you to reconsider. No pregnant silences when we see each other in person. It will be as if we never shared the grip of a facebook connection at all.

Of course, I also realize that long ago, some of you may have hidden my posts from your feed. That's the passive way of dealing with a problem without dealing with it. I understand. I've hidden a few myself. Unfortunately for you, you won't see this offer. You won't know you have the option. Sorry.

*(fine print) This offer is good until Saturday, October 24th. Then we go back to psychological trama business as usual. This offer is exclusive of all relatives-no matter how distantly related we are.

This week just plain got on my nerves! Sheri picked Pecans. Sounds easy right? But not so when you are trying to make up your own original recipes AND you want to do only appetizers! Who knew that pecans could be so obstinate?! They just don't like being the star of a recipe. They want to hang out as a supporting cast member, and even then, they prefer a sweet musical to a savory drama.

Here's what I finally came up with. It came dangerously close to being a dessert. But the rice and dipping sauce pulled it back.

Pecan Butter & Coconut Rice Balls

Step One:
Two cups pecan halves toasted
½ -1 teas. Salt
1-2 tbs. sesame oil
Chop pecans in food processor until fine. Add about half of salt. Drizzle in sesame oil slowly so that you only use enough to get the consistency you prefer. (Use a light hand. You can add more oil if you need to but you can’t take it away.) Taste for salt and add more if you need too.

Step Two:
1 cup sushi rice
1 ½ cup coconut milk thinned to the consistancy of skim milk
In a rice steamer cook rice in coconut milk. Allow to cool enough to handle with your hands.

Step Three:
½ c shredded coconut
½ - 1 ½ teas. salt
½ tea garam masala
½ teas. ground ginger
4 tbs pecan butter
¼ cup chopped pecans
Add all ingredients to cooled rice and mix well. The right amount of salt is vital to the flavor. So you will want to add in half the amount first and then taste before adding more.

Form rice mixture into golf ball size balls. Roll in shredded coconut and deep fry in hot sesame oil. You are not ‘cooking’ the rice balls, you are merely browning the coconut coating. You can also bake in a hot oven, turning once, to toast the coconut coating.

Dipping Sauce:
3 tbs. stir fry sauce (I used the Trader Ming’s General Tsao brand from Trader Joe’s)
1 Tsp Thai chili sauce
6 Tbs. pecan butter
4 Tbs. thin coconut milk
Blend all ingredients. These measurements are just a guide line, you may adjust any of them to your own taste.

About three or four months ago, I received an ARC of a new book that would be coming out in October -- Double Take: A Memoir by Kevin Connolly.

As the CRM of a Barnes & Noble Bookseller, I get dozens of ARCs every month. It takes a lot to get me to actually read one. It needs to grab me. I don't like gimmicky package or marketing letters that promise the book will be a life-changing experience for me. (Note to all of those marketers who are beginning to send out books with packets of tissue promising that I'm going to need them when I read their tear-jearker. I promise YOU that not only will I not read your client's book. I may be 'lost' before it ever gets to the breakroom bookshelf.) Case in point this blog rant from a couple of years ago: http://www.slowtrav.com/blog/deborah/2008/06/give_me_a_breaaak_.html#comments

When I opened the envelope containing Double Take, I was fully prepared to toss it in the communal bookshelf for our booksellers to pick through.

As I fanned the pages with my thumb, I saw pictures of people in Croatia. "Oh, wait." I'd just returned from that part of the world. "Maybe I need to find out what this guy had been doing there." So I read the cover letter, and a few random pages. And I was hooked.

Double Take went home with me; finished it in a day; and even took the extraordinary step of emailing the publisher's rep for the book to tell her how much I liked it. AND...here's the true test...I started following Kevin on Twitter.

On Tuesday, the book arrived in the store. It is on our new releases table. I've been handselling it to every employee. Last night, I had a couple of romance authors in the store for a booksigning. While they are signing their new book and visiting with their fans, the author's escort and I are wandering through new releases as she points to books by authors she will be seeing in town soon. Big names, everyone knows. I give her Kevin's book and tell her that I won't be impressed until she can add his name to her list. :grin: Time for Kevin to leave the comfort of Montana and come test his board on the streets of St. Louis!

And finally, to address the subject line of this blog entry. Here is an amusing send-up by Kevin on print versus e books.

As I promised, here are a couple of videos we took while at the Old Man of Hoy. You will want to have your sound on to get the full effect.

This first video was taken with me standing at the edge of the bluff so that I could get both the head and the seastack. I had my elbows clinched against my sides to try to keep the camera still.

When I played it back on my camera, I noticed the birds for the first time and was intrigued. So I laid down on my stomach at the edge with my elbows on the ground to take this one. The birds were trying very hard to land on their nests on the sides of the bluff, but they had to float in, turn their backsides to the wall and hope the wind would push them at just the right speed to the rock. It was entertaining to see them try over and over again. And it was gratifying when one of them finally succeeded.

If you look at the rocks in the right, you will see the shadow of my hair blowing straight up.

On Orkney's south island of Hoy (the word means 'high' in the old Norse language) stands "The Old Man of Hoy".

The Old Man is the Orkney Islands most famous seastack. It's really not so old in the grand scheme of things. They think that it was created in the 17th century by a series of fierce storms that hit the headland on the west side of the island. The storms separated the seastack from the rest of the headland. Erosion continues and it's thought that it is only a matter of decaded, not centuries, before it collapses.

The hiking path from the waterside town of Rackwick is good, though steep, taking about an hour each way. It isn't the difficulty of the path itself, but the heavy wind and likely rain that present the challenge.

Here is my photo document of our ascent.

The park service has kindly placed a nice marker at the beginning of the trail. It warns of the time commitment required to make the trip.

Ten minutes into the walk the next sign is a bit less encouraging. But, as it turns out the reference to climbing was really just a warning that if the wind blows you off the edge of the cliff, you shouldn't expect someone will come save you.

Another five minutes and the third sign appeared. Just a friendly little reminder of which way you should be hiking.

Half-way there and we begin to see what they were talking about in sign #2. Here the fourth and final sign restated the obvious. My hair standing straight up without the assistance of mousse or gel gives you an idea of the force of the wind.

Forty-five minutes in and we think we see a horizon. Does this mean we have arrived?

Well, not quite. But at least we can now SEE our destination for the first time. But, just because we can see the top of the Old Man, doesn't mean we don't have a lot of walking still to do. And from this prospective, we begin to wonder if it's going to be a dissappointment.

OK, YES. It's worth it. All 450 feet of it! The rain stopped and the sun broke through just as we arrived. The vivid red sandstone almost glowed. To give you perspective. That red speck you see in the upper left corner of the picture is a hiker's jacket.

Next post will be some video we took while at the top.

This week's recipe was a hard one to decide on. Marcia chose the ingredient Smoked Salmon -- which I adore. But, I'm a purist. I love it all by itself with just a bit of dill sauce and some capers. So to challenge myself, I decided to to work out a recipe that could be in the showstopper category. At first I played around with the idea of an empanada. But, then decided that I really didn't want to use pastry this time around. So my next idea -- which I thought was totally original -- was a savory cheesecake.

NOT so original. A search of databases revealed at least 20 different savory salmon cheesecake recipes. I picked features from about 6 of them to come up with my final recipe.

Savory Smoked Salmon Cheesecake

2 cups 1/2” diced stale French or Italian bread
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (unsalted)
1/2 cup chopped pistachios (unsalted)
2 tbs fresh dill (minced)

3/4 cup grated swiss cheese
1 stick (1/2 cup) melted butter (unsalted)

2 large shallots (minced)
3 tbs unsalted butter
2 8ox pkgs cream cheese
6 oz ricotta
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 teas kosher salt
1/2 teas black ppper
1 teas cayenne pepper
4 eggs
8-10 oz sliced smoked salmon (fairly thick slices, not paper thin)

Toast nuts and bread together on a cookie sheet in oven then let cool to the touch.
Transfer to food processor, add minced dill, and pulse to crumbs. Add shredded swiss cheese and melted butter. Blend evenly.
Line an 8” square cake pan with two sheets of parchment paper in a cross pattern so that you have no wrinkles or folds.
Press crumb mixture evenly into bottom of pan only. Do not bring up sides like you would a traditional cheesecake.

Soften shallots in 3 tbs of butter until tender. Do not over cook. Let cool to a point it won’t curdle sour cream.
In a food processor, cream the cream cheese, ricotta, & sour cream. Add in salt, pepper, cayenne, and cooled shallots in butter. Continue to process, occasionally scraping down sides so you don’t have any lumps of cheese.
Add in eggs, one at a time, pulsing briefly after each egg.

Lightly whip heavy cream in a large glass bowl. Fold in cream cheese mixture. At this point you will have a total of about 5 cups of filling.

Pour two cups of the filling over the bottom crust.
Using half of the salmon, layer evenly without overlapping.
Pour another two cups of filling.
Layer second half of salmon.
Top with final cup of filling.

Bake in 350 degree oven until set. (45—60 minutes, but use the toothpick test) Don’t over cook. Should be just a tiny bit ‘wiggly’ in the center when you take it out of the oven.
Let cool to room temperature on rack then cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight in fridge.

Using four hands lift by edges of parchment and transfer from pan to cutting board. While still cold, cut into 1” squares. Bring back to room temperature.

For serving:
Place one square on a small bite plate. Garnish with your favorite caviar and a sprig of fresh dill. Serve at room temperature.