On the home page of the new Chick Beer, it states:

Chick Beer is the beer for women.  A premium light American lager, Chick is the only beer brand designed for women, who drink 25% of all beer sold in the U.S.

What makes it appealing for women? The makers say that the lady-loving qualities are:

• 97 calories and 3.5 carbs per bottle
• A softer, smoother, less bitter taste
• Lightly carbonated, “for less of that bloaty feeling”

Brewed in Wisconsin, Chick Beer’s distribution is limited, but they will be expanding their territory.

Chick Beer had also pledged to donate 5% of its net profits to charities that” further women’s interests,” domestically and internationally.

I can’t wait to try some.

The tiki concept, wildly popular in the 1940s through the 1960s, began a shame-filled descent into cheese-land and many of the Trader Vic’s locations have closed over the last several decades.However, it seems that tiki-themed restaurants and bars are returning to reclaim their cheesy glory!  There are 14 in New York City alone. And for you nostalgia-lovers out there, there are still Trader Vic’s restaurants to be found, from Sarasota, FL, to the United Arab Emirates, and even in Kiev, Ukraine, where it’s called the Mai Tai Lounge. For a list of locations, go to the Trader Vic’s website HERE. And I am not ashamed to admit that I own a copy of Trader Vic’s Tiki Party.

So, in honor of Trader Vic’s, as Chicago bids a sad aloha ‘oe to it, here is Trader Vic’s original Mai Tai recipe. Just in time for summer. Enjoy!

Trader Vic’s Original Mai Tai

2 ounces 17-year-old Jamaican rum
1/2 ounce orgeat (almond syrup)
1/2 ounce orange curacao
Juice of one fresh lime
1/4 ounce simple syrup*

Lime slice for garnish

Sprig of mint for garnish

1. Shake ingredients and pour into an ice-packed glass.
2. Garnish with lime and a sprig of mint.

Makes 1 serving.

*Simple Syrup

Anyway, if you want to know all about beer, try 2BaSnob or the beer guide at Food & Wine. As for the grape popsicle, I thought I’d go one better than the cold ice on a stick–a cold cocktail. Here’s a recipe for Grape Popsicle Cocktail from GroupRecipes.com. And remember, be responsible…don’t drink and drive!

Grape Popsicle Cocktai

• 2 oz vodka shopping list
• 1 oz red grape juice shopping list
• 2 oz lemon-lime soda shopping list
• Highball glass with ice shopping list
• Garnish-grape Popsicle on a stick for the side of the glass

• Combine ingredients over a modest amount of ice in a skinny highball glass.
• Garnish, of course, with a grape Popsicle.
• Be careful — too much ice and the Popsicle becomes unmanageable, and that’s just no fun.

Let’s get drinking…

A while back, I made kumquatcello, based on the recipe for limoncello, except that I used kumquats. (The blog for that is HERE.) The resulting liqueur was unique and smooth, with a delicate citrus flavor, and it’s getting better as it ages.

I’d been wanting to try orangecello and I finally got a chance to do that. All you do is replace the lemon peels with orange peels. Right now, the orange peels are infusing the vodka, and in about a week or so, I’ll be finishing off the recipe. After that, it will sit for a month before I taste it.

I’ve also got a bag of naked oranges now. I’ll squeeze those for some fresh orange juice. I love that! Nothing compares to fresh-squeezed orange juice, no matter what the commercials say.

I’ll let you know how that goes. In the meantime, have a great week, everyone. And for those of you being hit by Arctic blasts, stay warm.

Peace

I was running errands the other day and didn’t really have time for lunch. I started getting jittery from hunger, so I stopped in a natural food store and found a product called Gourmet on the Go. It was tin that looked like it should have contained caviar. But it was a grain-and-veggie salad with beans. It was pretty tasty (although, I think I would have liked it better if I’d warmed it up), and was filling and satisfying. The one I grabbed was the whole grain with beans.

The thing I liked about this product was its ingredients: durum wheat (wheat berries), carrots, corn, kidney beans, onions, olive oil, salt, parsley, mustard, basil, white pepper, garlic, thyme, xanthan gum, and guar gum. (The latter two ingredients being thickeners. I’m not quite sure what purpose the thickeners serve in a grain salad, except to maybe keep the ingredients together while you’re eating it, but that seems unnecessary.) There are no preservatives or other questionable ingredients.

The tin is vacuum packed for freshness and is sealed with a thin aluminum pull lid, making it easy to open. And it even comes with a little spork and little packets of salt and pepper, making it a truly to-go item. As it proclaims on its outer cardboard wrapper, it’s “ideal for vegetarians,” which I think is important because vegetarians are too often limited in what they can grab for a quick meal.

There are six varieties of Gourmet on the Go: couscous with vegetables and beans; wild Alaskan salmon with vegetables; fusilli pasta with beans, mushrooms, and vegetables; cannellini, flageolet, and kidney beans with corn and vegetables; tuna, fusilli pasta, and vegetables; and the whole grains with beans, corn, and vegetables. You can eat these right out of the tin or you can microwave them. The package even makes serving suggestions (assuming you have access to additional ingredients. Here’s what they suggest for the whole grain with beans: “Delicious with cheese cornchips or nachos”; “Serve with sliced tomatoes and cheese”; and “Enjoy with St. Dalfour Blueberry Conserves”.

St. Dalfour is the manufacturer of Gourmet to Go products, as well as other products, including all-natural dried fruit (such as prunes, figs, and cranberries), fruit conserves (such as black cherry, mango, peach, and kumquat), organic black and green teas, and honey. Based in the southwest of France, their philosophy is to produce healthy but “fantastic” foods. They are a privately held family company that has been around for about 25 years. While their line of products is not terribly long, they seem interested in making the things they do make as good as they can be.

St. Dalfour is available in 90 countries and has either production facilities or warehouses in St. Dalfour, France; the UK; Sri Lanka (for the tea); Mexico; Canada; the U.S.; and St. Dalfour, Australia (my guess is they chose the latter location for its name ). The tin I purchased cost, in that particular store, $3.39 for 6.2 ounces (it costs $3.89 from their online market).

The St. Dalfour website offers recipes using their products, such as St. Dalfour Red Respberry Fruit Spread and White Chocolate Muffins and Rigatoni with Pancetta, Tallegio, St. Dalfour Pear Gourmet Fruit Spread and Rosemary. I don’t know about you, but those sound pretty yummy. What I find interesting is the recipe for Pravda Riviera Martini, using their fruit conserves (see recipe below). Sounds intriguing. I’m going to have to try it. Just for research purposes, mind you. Yeah, that’s it.

I can’t really tell you about all their products—I’ve only had the one, in fact. But if all their products satisfy like the whole grain Gourmet to Go, they’ve got some good stuff. What I really like is that you can grab something healthy, filling, and all natural without having to spend tons of money and without having to set a place at a table.

If any of you have tried any of their products, drop me a line. I’d love to know what you think.

Have a great week, everyone. And HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Pravda Riviera Martini

(from www.StDalfour.com)

Description

Ingredients

Serves: 1

Directions

Having said that, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with enjoying the occasional libation. And with the resurgance of cocktail culture and the emergence of the mixologist—which is basically a bartender schooled in chic and complex drink making, versus a bartender, who may not know what to do with Chartreuse (a liqueur made in France by Carthusian monks) but will make you a wicked dry martini—you can really have a lot of fun trying out all different kinds of concoctions, from wild and crazy to sophisticated and classy.

Join the party…

So, because both of us are out of work and need something fun to distract us (and maybe drown our sorrows), a friend and I have decided to embark on a mission: come up with as many funky, fun new cocktails as we can for as little money as possible. Not that the goal is exactly “Budget Boozing” or “Recession Cocktails” (I’m sure somebody somewhere is already working on that), but it’s got to be that way for us because we simply don’t have a whole lot of money to spend. (It’s interesting to note that during hard economic times, the liquor industry is one that not only does not suffer but actually increases in business. There are two reasons for this: 1) More people entertain at home and so need to stock their bars and 2) people want to forget their troubles.)

My friend and I went out today and bought about $90 worth of liquor. But we got some sweet deals—for that $90, we got a box of booze. We made some good choices, caught some good sales, and walked out with enough alcohol to inebriate all the members of Phi Beta Psi.  We’re going to have some fun and put our minds on something other than finding jobs that obviously don’t want to be found and meeting freelance deadlines.

What amazed me is the proliferation of flavored liquors. Fruity flavored rums and vodkas have been around for a while but I was floored by the black cherry whisky I saw. And the macadamia-flavored vodka. And the pineapple tequila. Even Kahlua has upped the ante by introducing a mocha, a French vanilla, and a hazelnut version of their coffee liqueur. People are looking for new and exciting, and the liquor companies are gladly obliging. This opens up a whole new world of cocktail making.

If anyone wants to contribute their thoughts to the art of cocktail making, feel free to comment. Let me know what your favorite drinks are, where your liquor loyalties lie, and what gets your party rockin’. In the meantime, below is a recipe for a Kahlua Martini, courtesy of drinksmixer.com.

Hopefully, I’ll be recovered enough by next week to make my next entry. Have a great week, everyone.

Kahlua Martini

1 oz. Kahlua
1 oz. vodka
1 splash coffee