Showing posts with label amish lemonade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amish lemonade. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Spring Time Asparagus with Lemon and Friends


Spring has sprung and to food related places everywhere that means Asparagus is back. Yes there are plenty of delightful ingredients that have sprung as well but lets not be the types to bring that up right now. Lemons are still on the workbench, and they do wonderful things to asparagus. Most notably brightening their already fresh flavor. Steamed Asparagus with a just squeeze of lemon on it has been known to make grown men weak at the knees. Granted these men typically are either very old, have knee problems or both.

Moving on to the dish in question. Asparagus is roasted with garlic, spring onions, lemon juice and olive oil to create a muted but bright flavor. It is easy to make and looks far more impressive that it is. On to the pictures.

Raw Asparagus, washed, trimmed and ready for the dance


The shy dance partners lined up against the wall hoping for Asparagus to pick them


A fight has broken out among the hopefuls and they have become barely recognizable


Happy day. Asparagus has chosen all of them to play twister


The aftermath of them getting baked together

General Notes:
Prep Time: 20 to 30 minutes depending on your knife skills
Servings: 4 as a side

Ingredients:
1 pound Asparagus, trimmed and peeled (peeled if they are hugely fat)
Juice of 1 lemon and as much zest as you like
3 or 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped as not to burn up in oven
2 spring onions or 1 leek, roughly chopped as not to burn up in oven
Olive Oil as needed
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper to taste

Equipment:
Knife
Cutting Board
Hands or very dexterous feet
Roasting pan or cookie sheet
Oven preheated to 350 degrees
small mixing bowl, or cereal bowl

Written Instructions:
  • Rinse and trim your Asparagus. The Asparagus can be trimmed a couple ways, the woody ends can be broken off at their bending point individually or one can be broken and the rest cut at that point. Okay the breaking point is found by holding the asparagus in your hands or feet near the thick end and bending it out until it breaks.
  • Combine the other ingredients in a small bowl. The mixture should be pretty loose
  • Toss the Asparagus with the mixture on the roasting pan and put into the oven
  • Roast the Asparagus for 10 to 15 minutes or until the Asparagus and mixture have browned slightly and the Asparagus gives slightly to pressure.
  • Remove from oven and make it happen in your tum tum.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The Lemon Czar (aka what to drink when you have too much Amish Lemonade and want to enjoy a cocktail)


Wondering how to make your Amish Lemonade a little less Amish, maybe a little more Russian? Well adding some Vodka is always a good place to start. Is it a little tangy and harsh for you now? Okay then add in some Cointreau to smooth that out. A little too sour still? Okay, fine, time to pull out the fancier guns, put a sugar rim on it. Delightful and refreshing right? Now go and dance, dance, dance.


Arty shot of the finished product in front of the ingredients

General Notes:
Preparation Time: 3 -5 minutes depending on how fast you can sugar a rim
Servings: 1
The workshop makes drinks pretty strong as a house policy, so decrease the booze if you need to. Also, use the best quality alcohols that you can afford, the difference is incredible.

Equipment:
1 12 ounce glass
Stirrer or shaker
Jigger, or shot glass

Ingredients:
1.5 ounce (1 shot, big side of jigger) Good Quality Vodka ( the Workshop is currently using Stolichnaya Elit, because the best Southern Wine and Spirits rep in the country, Dan Crockett, delivers free goods to the Workshop occasionally)
.5 ounce (small side of jigger) Cointreau, or Grand Marnier, or Triple Sec
Ice to fill glass
Amish Lemonade to fill the glass
Small amount of sugar to rim the glass
Lemon Slice

Written Instructions:
  • Get the various ingredients together
  • Rub the slice of lemon around the rim of the glass
  • Invert the glass into the sugar and spin the glass or generally just try and rub the sugar onto it
  • Add the booze to the glass and stir
  • Add ice to the glass to fill
  • Add the lemonade to the glass to fill
  • Stir again
  • Make it happen in your tum tum
  • Put on some Smokey Robinson and Dance, Dance, Dance