Boozy Honey Cinnamon Shakes

Boozy shakes, boozy shakes, boozy shakes for all! 

Before I talk about boozy shakes, let's talk about my day job. For work, I drink boozy shakes. And I also manage the content team at a B2B tech marketing agency. It's rad and I love it. Sometimes, I go to events and conferences about digital marketing, social engagement, new technology, and interactive media. Sometimes these events have food. And sometimes they have really, really good food. And drinks. I go for the food and drinks, I stay for the knowledge, ya know? 

This week I attended IN-NW 2014, which happened to be one of the best events I've attended, knowledge-wise and food-wise. And, what a stacked agenda! It basically looked like this:

• Top Pot Donuts and coffee
• People talking on stage
• Marination Mobile food truck
• People talking on stage 
• Snoqualmie Ice Cream Whiskey Milkshake happy hour
• Networking

WHISKEY MILKSHAKE HAPPY HOUR. Sign this girl up! I went through line twice. Or maybe three times, no one was counting. Oh…they were?

Whiskey and ice cream together is always a good idea. It's an even better idea when you're using amazing ice cream like Snoqualmie, which is local for us Pacific Northwest folks. They're family run, and use local ingredients and sustainable practices for their small-batch ice cream, which is really creamy amazing, and comes in a ton of flavors. I really only stopped by the milkshake table three times so that I could ask the Snoqualmie gals how to make these boozy beauties… and then of course, I had to sample each time, just to make sure. 

Honey, cinnamon, whiskey, and ice cream… come to mama. 

Boozy Honey Cinnamon Shakes

Inspired by Snoqualmie Ice Cream

Snoqualmie makes these shakes with their Honey Cinnamon Frozen Custard. Which I totally recommend. But, if you can't get your hands on it, then you can definitely recreate the awesomeness with vanilla ice cream. If you can find the Honey Cinnamon custard, just leave out the honey and cinnamon. 

1 pint (2 cups) vanilla ice cream

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 ounce whiskey

Extra honey & cinnamon for glass rim

Add all ingredients to blender or milkshake machine, and blend until thick and creamy. Add more whiskey as desired, party animal! Add about a tablespoon of honey and a pinch of cinnamon to a plate, and mix together. Dip rim of glass in the honey/cinnamon mixture until coated, then pour in the milkshake. Drizzle remaining honey from the plate over top of shake. 

Note: This post is not sponsored by or affiliated with Snoqualmie Ice Cream in any way and all opinions are my own, I just really like their ice cream! 

Meyer Lemon & Honey-Poppy Seed Swirl Ice Cream

Lemon and poppy seeds seem like a combo that was made for mother's day. Don't you think? The perfect combination of tangy and sweet, surprisingly crunchy. Like moms. They're sweet, and sometimes they're a bit sour and tart…but only when you make them that way. You gotta treat your mother right, friends. Listen to Mr. T. He knows how to treat a mom. Also, that Mr. T video, it happens to be the most amazing video ever made. It includes back-up singing/ dancing moms. And Mr. T rapping. So, Happy Mother's Day… here's the gift that keeps on giving.

Another good mother's day gift is lemon poppy seed ice cream. Moms love homemade ice cream. And I should know, I'm a cat mom to a fur child, and I wish that my little beast would make me some ice cream this weekend. Or at least scoop her own litter box just once. Biscuit really needs to start pulling her weight around here. Since I know she'll probably show her appreciation some other way, like meow-yelling in my face at 4am, I figured I should just make my own mother's day ice cream. 

I make a lot of ice cream, but—I'm a bit embarrassed to say this—this was the first time I made an egg yolk custard base. I usually go eggless, because I usually want homemade ice cream like, right now, not tomorrow. And now I'm kind of upset that I tried it. Because I don't know if I can go back. Holy hell, that's some creamy, rich, amazing ice cream. Damnit. And it was actually really easy, too, as long as you're not afraid of a little tempering and are wiling to wait while it chills. 

This creamy, rich, custardy ice cream is super tart and lemony, thanks to a quick Meyer lemon simple syrup. And the poppy seeds add just the right amount of fun pop to each bite. Oh, and did I mention there's a honey poppyseed swirl in there too? Yep. There is. Creamy, crunchy, sweet, tangy. Holy mother of mom's day. This one is good. Honestly, I think Mr. T would approve. 

Meyer Lemon & Honey-Poppy Seed Swirl Ice Cream

There are a few steps to this, but if you plan ahead, it goes pretty quickly. I made the base and simple syrup the night before, and made the honey poppy seed swirl while the ice cream was churning. Ice cream maker required. 

Ice Cream

1 recipe sweet cream custard base (below)

1 recipe lemon simple syrup (below)

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

1 recipe honey poppy seed swirl (below)

Freeze custard base according to your ice cream makers' instructions. When you have about 5 minutes left, slowly stream in the lemon syrup, and add the tablespoon of poppy seeds (you may need to stop the freezer for a moment and combine quickly with a spatula). Finish churning, and scoop alternate layers of ice cream and honey poppyseed swirl into an airtight freezer-safe container. Freeze up to two hours in your freezer. 

Sweet Cream Custard Base

Adapted from this recipe

2 cups heavy cream


3/4 cup milk (1 or 2%)


1/2 cup sugar


1/4 teaspoon salt


5 large egg yolks

In a medium-heavy saucepan, whisk together cream, milk, half of the sugar (1/4 cup), and salt.  Heat over medium high, stirring occasionally, until the mixture approaches a simmer, reduce heat to medium.

Meanwhile, in a medium-sized heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. 

While whisking the eggs constantly, slowly add about 1/2 cup of the hot cream mixture to the egg bowl. Keep whisking, and repeat, adding another 1/2 cup of the hot cream to the eggs.  Then, using a heatproof spatula, stir the cream and slowly pour the egg and cream mixture from the bowl into the pan. Congrats, you tempered your eggs!

Continue to cook carefully over medium heat for another 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly until the mixture is thickened, coats the back of a spatula, and leaves a clear mark when you run your finger across it. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer and into a clean container. Set into an ice bath, and stir occasionally until cool. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. 

Lemon Simple Syrup

From this recipe

3 large Meyer lemons

2 tablespoons sugar

Juice lemons and squeeze enough juice to make 1/2 cup. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine lemon juice and sugar, and bring to a simmer. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and refrigerate until chilled. 

Honey Poppyseed Swirl

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

2 tablespoons honey

Stir together, set aside. 

Eggplant Fries

This weekend, I watched almost every episode ever made of My So Called Life (I mean, there were only 18 episodes ever made, but still). 

I also made eggplant fries, doused in honey and showered with sea salt. Crispy, sticky, sweet, salty eggplant fries. 

PS. Jordan Catalano…call me! 

Baked Eggplant Fries with Honey and Sea Salt

Inspired by Poppy, adapted from this recipe

1 eggplant, sliced into ½ inch fries 

1/2 cup rice flour

Pinch of garlic powder, cumin, ginger, salt

olive oil

honey

sea salt (like flakey maldon)

black sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 500. Soak eggplant in ice water for 10 minutes, drain, drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Mix together flour and spices. Dredge eggplant in flour, and shake off excess. Bake for 10ish minutes, until crispy and golden brown around the edges. While still hot, drizzle (heavily) with honey, I mean really get in there with the honey, and sprinkle with a good shower of sea salt and a pinch of sesame seeds.

Fall Shmall

I’m having a hard time getting into fall this year. I’m usually a sucker for the crisp air, red and orange leaves, new boot collections, and comforting fall food, but this year I just can’t seem to get over summer. Summer was far too short and the weather, well… it sucked. I didn’t get my fill of long days and vitamin D, and suddenly—before I even had a chance think about buying brightly colored open-toe wedges—it was 6pm and already dark outside, and pumpkins starting popping up in the grocery store.

I’m trying to get into it though. I mean, I really do love wearing scarves and baking crisps and crumbles, and who doesn’t like a big pot of chili or soup on a cool fall day? Luckily two of my favorite fall things are helping me (slowly but surely) come around to the turning season: football and new TV shows! Ok, that’s maybe the dorkiest thing I’ve ever said on this blog…but I’m not kidding… I’m kind of obsessed with some TV shows right now. And the football thing… well, that’s just for the food.

Amanda and I recently went to a Husky tailgate with some of her friends (who happen to be UW athlete alums), and it was amazing. The game sucked, we got stomped, but the tailgate party was ah-may-zing! The group brings a big flat screen and satellite dish so we could watch the game right there in the parking lot. And the food… so good! Every tailgate they do is themed on the opposing team, so in a game against the cornhuskers, the food theme was corn. Amanda and I made sure all of our corny contributions were purple and gold, so no one would be confused about our loyalties.

Ever since then, I’ve been inspired by fun purple and gold football food ideas, and came up with the most perfect thing. It would be absolutely perfect for a Husky game…but I didn’t test it out at a football game. I tested it out for the premier of Law and Order: SVU! I love SVU like no one’s business. I even made Evan create an SVU theme song remix for me… it’s pretty rad. It feels kind of lame but also awesome to be madly in love with a network TV cop drama. But I mean… c’mon, Stabler’s a babe. And if you don’t believe me, ask Amanda—she’s obsessed too.

Anyway, for the big SVU premier, Amanda came over for… chicken wings! Purple and gold ones! I made Sticky Blackberry Honey Hot Wings. They were sweet and smoky, sticky and finger-lickin good. Flecked with (gold) shards of orange zest, the purple glazed wings were a UW football fan’s dream come true. They were also pretty damn good for Law and Order night.

As long as I have fall TV shows and football food, I suppose I’ll survive the short days and crisp air. With these wings, maybe I’ll even start getting into the season a little.

Sticky Blackberry Honey Hot Wings
 
24 chicken wings

2.5 cups blackberries
1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon ketchup
1/4 cup orange juice
1.5 tablespoons chipotle tabasco (or more to your liking..and you can use hot sauce of your choice plus a sprinkle of chipotle powder)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 pinch ground black pepper
1/4 cup melted butter
zest from 1 orange

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and put wings in for 40-50 minutes (until cooked through). While wings are baking, make sauce: puree berries, honey, ketchup, orange juice, hot sauce, brown sugar, and balsamic until smooth. If you dislike the seeds, strain (I like to leave them in). Mix puree with melted butter. Set aside.

After wings have cooked for 40-50 minutes, drain juices. Pour sauce over wings and coat evenly (you might have sauce leftover). Stick back in the 400 degree oven for 10 more minutes, turning often. About half way through, sprinkle a little more brown sugar on top, and mix in, sprinkle orange zest on top. For last few minutes of cooking, turn on broiler.

Reserve remaining sauce for dipping, or for another use (like eating with a spoon or dipping tortilla chips into or basting on salmon).

Inner Stallion

I’m not Italian. I didn’t grow up eating fancy pastas, tortas, or tiramisus... our pasta was spaetzle or mac n' cheese, our tortas were huckleberry pies, and our tiramisus were German chocolate cakes with coconut pecan frosting. Italian just wasn’t our thing. I don’t even really like going to Italian restaurants that much… I mean, I can boil some pasta and throw some marinara on it myself. Evan’s part Italian, but he doesn’t really even like pasta.

I’m starting to realize, however, that there’s a lot more to Italian than spaghetti, chicken fettuccini, and fist-pumping members of the Jersey Shore cast. I’m starting to understand what good Italian cooking is all about. I like the idea of simple, fresh ingredients, with little fuss but a lot of flavor. The more I learn, the more I like it. Italian food, I mean… not the Jersey Shore.

It was this new found appreciation of the simplicity in Italian cuisine that helped me come up with a new risotto recipe…which is so good it almost had me pumping the ol’ fist a little bit. I made a margherita risotto with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella. Apparently red, green, and white ingredients (representing the Italian flag) make something “Margherita.” It was fresh, flavorful, and what I like to think basic Italian food should taste like.

And then… because I can’t just leave well enough alone, I decided to go a little crazy with my new love of Italian—making a honey ricotta gelato with honeyed almonds. At this rate, I’ll be tanning, poufing my hair, and pumping my fist at the club before you know it.

Eat your heart out, Snooki.


Margherita Risotto

3 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup white onion- diced
fresh ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano
2 garlic cloves- minced
1 cup Arborio rice
1 cup chopped tomatoes (fresh or good quality canned)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
Shredded parmesan and chopped basil for topping


Warm chicken broth in a saucepan, keep on low heat. Heat oil and butter in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat- add onions, black pepper to taste, and oregano and sauté until onions are softened. Add garlic and sauté until softened and fragrant (about 3 minutes). Add rice and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes (and natural amount of juices, but not excess juice if you used canned) and basil- stir in.


Ladle in 1 cup simmering broth and cook, stirring, until absorbed. Continue simmering and adding broth, about 1/2 cup at a time, stirring frequently and letting each addition be absorbed before adding next. Continue until rice is tender and creamy, 16 to 18 minutes. (Add water or more broth to simmering saucepan if more liquid is needed). Stir in mozzarella, and serve topped with parmesan and additional basil!