After-Work Cocktails: The Super-Basic Margarita

No. No, a true margarita is not like that alcoholic slushie that you insist on pouring down your throat. I'm certain it is a very good alcoholic slushie. But it is not a margarita.

A margarita is a thing of beauty, often a lovely, very pale green garnished with lime, with a rim of salt that perfectly complements the complex, light, and refreshing flavors of tequila, orange, and lime. A margarita has two different alcohols in it, which makes it have a fairly high alcohol content. It is a beverage that is perfect for relaxing and sipping slowly while having nachos with friends. It is also very, very easy to screw up.

A margarita should consist of tequila (blanco, and try for the 100% agave stuff), triple sec, and lime juice. That is it. The trick is proportions, and finding what proportions are to your taste.

I tried four different recipes before I decided to screw it and made this one.

Perfect Margaritas:

1.5 oz of tequila
.75 oz of lime
.50 oz of triple sec

Shake in a container with ice. You want your margarita to be very, very cold, and very, very refreshing. Strain into a glass over ice and serve. If desired, you can prepare the glass beforehand. Most people dip the glass into a pool of lime juice (use a dessert plate or shallow bowl) and then into the coarse margarita salt. I dip the glass instead into simple syrup and then into the salt, for a more complex flavor. Garnish with a lime slice and serve. Enjoy.

After-Work Cocktails: The Whiskey Sour

An essential part of the working life, cocktails. In MURICA, the after work beer is often the thing. Socializing over a pint with your workmates is an acceptable way to bitch about management, unwind about customers, and in general feel superior to everyone else in the world. Beer is not a hard liquor, so you won't get drunk very quickly. It will last longer and you can drink, talk, and enjoy. The greater volume of liquid might make it feel like you are stretching out your dollars, though in fact the truth is that if you are going to a fairly cheap establishment for your cocktails as well, they will be virtually the same price. In my area, a pint of craft beer will go from five to eight dollars; the cheaper cocktails run from four to eight; and the more expensive goes from five to thirteen.

That's still, of course, incredibly overpriced considering the cost of ingredients, especially considering the fact that you must tip-- and you should tip at least one to two dollars per drink. I fail to understand why more people don't make their cocktails at home, considering how easy and cheap it is, 

My current drink is a whiskey sour. I adore bourbon, can eat lemons off the rind, and guzzle cherries with the best of them. What's not to love?

A whiskey sour requires

A mini measure, if you don't have that with your cooking supplies. That's a measure where the highest size is one liquid ounce.

1.5 oz of bourbon or whiskey

.75 oz of lemon juice

.75 oz of simple syrup

A maraschino cherry and lemon wedge to garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker and shake with ice. I improvise with a thermos. This is probably horrible to the trained bartender. That's okay. The aren't the one making your drink right now-- that's all you. Strain into a whiskey glass filled with ice. Garnish. Enjoy. Love.

Good tips are found here.

The Quaint and Necessary Practice of Afternoon Tea

 Despite rhapsodizing over coffee more than once, lately I have found myself eschewing the bitter brew and choosing tea instead.

I will generally begin my day with a cup of coffee, decaf or regular, whatever is on hand. Honestly, after first waking up in the morning, I don't notice the taste of coffee unless it's weak, and more than an initial caffeine dose, I need the initial warmth. After my general morning housework, I've taken to having a cup of tea or five and reading a book before I head off to work for the day. The idea and process of taking tea is very soothing. It provides a haven in the middle of the day for me, a chance to savor one last moment in the sanctuary of home, a bracing of self before subsuming to the rigors of working life.

Your working girl does not exactly have the kind of temperament well-suited to being a working girl at all.

My work has good quality English Breakfast, Darjeeling, and other lovely black teas, but at sixteen dollars for a single package of it, my reaction was a firm, "No to that." Instead, I bought a box of PG Tips. PG Tips is a black tea with an amazing taste, quick brew time, and I was able to get a good six cups out of one tea bag. True tea aficionados might know of better teas, but in rural United States, PG Tips is the best you are likely to get. It stands up well to milk and sugar, and the first cup is a lovely reddish color. Fixing the tea is a pleasure in itself, a ritual per cup. Afternoon Tea Total (a new blog I have discovered; always a fun thing) says in one post, "Coffee often seems to be a tool to keep going, work harder, move faster whereas tea (certainly for me) is about taking a few minutes out of your day to relax." Nothing could be more true. A simple cup of coffee or latte can sometimes be used as a tool for relaxation, but more often the person ordering it is impatient, eager to get on with their day, chug their drug, and use it to get up and go. Most people use it as a tool; college students will file in a weekend nights to shoot straight espresso in preparation for hours of bar hopping. Business men will shuffle in mid-afternoon for their daily cappuccino, dry, leaving with a steaming cup in their hands which weighs virtually nothing. Rare indeed is the quirky college girl who settles in with her books and a latte, staring dreamily out the window in between sips.

There is something unfortunate about being well and truly happy at home, though. Especially for a working girl. Somehow it draws such a sharp contrast to life at work, making drudgery seem more so, and unpleasant people seem even more unnecessary than usual. Oh well. My barista life is not eternal, or so it's to be hoped, and it's spring. Dreams come true in spring-- it's a scientific fact.

[Recipe] The Cannibalistic Breakfast Quesadilla

Breakfast is my favorite meal. Though there are a limited number of variables, there are endless combinations, and it requires creativity to make a beautiful, unique dish of ingredients that are generally all the same color. Huevos Rancheros doesn't have this problem. However, I do not have corn tortillas, or almost never do. THUS the Cannibalistic Breakfast Quesadilla. It is delicious and beautiful. It is both wrapped in a tortilla (as part of its nature as a quesadilla) and has tortilla strips inside as well

The Cannibalistic Breakfast Quesadilla

2 burrito-sized flour tortillas
Two stalks of green onions, sliced into thin rounds

Three leaves of basil, rolled and sliced

1 cup shredded pepper jack

1/4 cup medium salsa

2 tbs shredded smoked gouda

1 medium sized onion, sliced

2 eggs

Dash of salt and pepper

*Take note of the ingredients for vegetable prep work.* Roll one of the tortillas and slice it into thin strips. With a tablespoon of vegetable oil, fry the strips of tortilla until they are golden-brown. Remove the strips from the frying pan, add a touch more oil, and fry the other tortilla, each side, flipping when bubbles appear in the tortilla. Remove from pan.

Add the smoked gouda to the eggs, and season with salt and pepper. Scramble them, then add to pan. When the eggs are soft-set, add the onion and saute until it is translucent, stirring often. Add the tortilla strips and the salsa; stir gently until heated through.

Place half of the egg mixture, all the green onions and basil, and a good bit of shredded pepper jack on the tortilla. Fold into a quesadilla.

How much does it make?: Tentatively, two servings. The inside mixture has two servings, but you will obviously need more cheese, green onions, basil, and another tortilla to create a second one.

[Recipe] Broccoli-Chickpea Sandwich Spread

Lunchtime happens every day, and although the foods should be easy, they shouldn't be boring or lack style. Working Girl invites you to partake of Chickpea-Broccoli Sandwich Spread!

You will need:

1 16oz can of garbanzo/chickpeas
1 lb bag of frozen broccoli
2 tbs nutritional yeast
1 tbs lemon juice

1/2 cup mayonnaise

Prepare broccoli by blanching or otherwise thawing. Blend the broccoli and 1/2 of the chickpeas (or be lazy, attempt to blend it all at once, and end up taking twice as long, like me!). Combine and add other ingredients. Serve in a sandwich or wrap, hot or cold.

This sandwich spread is absolutely delicious when fried or grilled in a sandwich press. However, in a sub roll with lettuce and tomato or with dijon would be an equally tasty option.

How much does it make?: A lot. You are going to get many sandwiches out of this, as it has two pounds worth of ingredients in it. About a tablespoon or two of the mixture can cover even the largest bread. Expect this to last you for at least a couple weeks.

Today is also the first of my weekly soups. I've decided to do soups every week, so that I can have a small cup with my lunches or dinners. Today's soup was the tomato soup from the Moosewood Cookbook, so I shan't repeat it, though I never actually use the physical recipe anymore. Speaking of firsts, this soup was the first soup I ever cooked. It is easy, delicious, and tastes like heaven.

Basil-Romano Scones

Fried rice may have been the first entree I ever cooked, but scones were the first thing I ever baked. Cinnamon scones, to be exact, though I would later branch out to chocolate chip, cranberry, and now basil-romano.

Scones have been the quickest and loveliest food to bake, even back when I had to hand mix cold butter and didn't know how to prevent dough from sticking to the chef's knife.

I have honestly never been much for baking. There are many baked goods that go bad quickly, and it didn't seem worth it to make a large batch-- and it always seems like a large batch-- just for me. Scones only make about 8 servings per batch.

I used this recipe at King Arthur's flour for this particular batch of savory scones, with several substitutions and changes. First of all, there is absolutely no reason why you should use pastry flour and all purpose both. Just use all purpose. Second, I used romano instead of parmesan because it is what I have on hand. Third, this requires about a third of a cup (handy!) more milk. I also ignored all their instructions on how to bake it, besides the temperature at which that should occur. Basically, I shaped the dough into about a four inch ball, wet a chef's knife, and sliced the ball into eighths. Easy peasy. It could have stood to be a bit flatter, but regardless, it worked. It also took more like 15 minutes instead of 10.

If all baking is this easy, I should really do it more, especially now that I have a hand mixer. Regardless, scones bring back memories for me. Eat them. Love them.

Basic Fried Rice

This is what I wear when I cut onions. Fear me. Fear the post-apocalyptic bug lady.

Oh comfort food. Fried rice, you beautiful creature. It's so easy, but so delicious. I've rhapsodized on fried rice before, but at its simplest is when this dish is most delicious. Sticky rice, fried onions, scrambled eggs, peas, and the slightest dash of soy sauce. Each bite is full of something your mouth will enjoy, sour and sweet, but without entering any intensities: comfort food. You can eat it hot or lukewarm. You can eat it day or night. If you want to erect a shrine and pray to it, I'm pretty sure it would be receptive to your advances, though it might think you forward.

Basic Fried Rice

1 cup uncooked sticky rice, cooked according to your rice cooker's instruction because who cooks rice on the stovetop? We're not heathens.

3/4 cup peas (I used my vinaigrette peas from a couple days ago)

1 medium onion, diced

1 tbs soy sauce

2 eggs, scrambled with pepper, salt, and a dash of milk

While the rice is in the rice cooker, sauté the onion until almost translucent. Push into one half of the frying pan and fry the scrambled egg in the other half, stirring gently as it solidifies. Fold in the rice and peas;  cook until heated through.

How much will it make?: About 1 meal, with maybe a bit left over for a snack.

When I first started cooking, Chinese and Japanese food were my chosen subjects, along with a very brief foray into Indian food that didn't last, since at that point, I had never tasted Indian food and had no idea what it should actually be like. I can still do Chinese and Japanese food almost in my sleep, rolling sushi almost absently and shaping onigiri by hand while I think of Japanese housewives packing bento for their children to share at lunch time, or Japanese anime girls putting all their heart and soul into making the perfect bento for the boy they have a crush on. The Japanese understand the value of presentation, that little extra effort that makes everything so much better.

Besides food talk, I had a flying visitor that Simon was very interested in. I came home from work, intending to cook, but instead greeted with a trashed bathroom and the cat having cornered a flying squirrel. After firmly shoving Simon out the door, I managed to catch the little devil after about an hour and a great deal of extremely loud cursing, pleading, and jumping up and down angrily.

Working Girl is secretly a cartoon character, but at least a superhero. No capes. Captain Marvel circa Carol Danvers is what we're going for here.

The bathroom is still a bit of a wreck. I should probably get on with that, but I leave you with one image of the cute little devil, having climbed the wall and staring at me from the ceiling with trepidation.