Again, no pics of anything. I really am the worst blogger ever. The highlight of St Patrick’s Day was definitely the from-scratch corned beef that my friend Nicole made using the cure from this recipe and the rest of the recipe from this source. I can ask her for it and update. I made this brown-butter rosemary soda bread, which I would describe as a yummy scone but definitely not soda bread, this asparagus, spinach, and leek soup, which nicely cut through all the heavy food, and this bitter greens salad with sourdough croutons and warm tomato vinaigrette—definitely a keeper. We just did Irish coffees for dessert, and if you don’t have a recipe for those, you should: I do 1-2 oz. Irish whiskey with 1 Tb brown sugar melted in it, and then I pour over about 4 oz. decaf coffee and top with cream whipped with as much Bailey’s as it will take—usually about 1:2 with the cream. The fun part is making regional variations: I do a Canadian coffee with Crown Royal, maple syrup, and Sortilège, a maple syrup liqueur; and, a Kentucky coffee with brown sugar, bourbon, and Buffalo Trace liqueur (which is like 1000% better than Bailey’s IMHO).
For distilling day, we were definitely not using my friend’s gorgeous hand-hammered Spanish copper still to make apple brandy from the mash we put up in late September; we were definitely using the still in accordance with what was reported on the bill of lading when my friend’s dad imported it in the 1980s—“making essential oils.” For some reason, I decided to go with a Sicilian picnic theme for this blustery spring occasion (it snowed on us for at least 30% of the time). We had these chicken antipasto sandwiches, this eggplant-ricotta-smoked mozzarella-anchovy lasagne contraption, caponata, a nice avocado dip from 101 cookbooks with veggies, and canistrelli—simple and delicious little anisette cookies to go with The Jaguar cocktail, both from David Lebovitz. Everything was great, but I gotta say the anchovies are definitely front and center in the eggplant dish, so if fishy is not your jam, you might skip that one.
The Rookery 