smallhandbartender.blogspot.com
small hand bartender: April 2011
http://smallhandbartender.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html
Monday, April 18, 2011. The Margarita, aka the Tequila Daisy. There's been a bit of a hot debate going on for a while about constructing the perfect margarita. Tommy's. In San Francisco promotes their 100% agave margarita heavily, which uses agave syrup. Instead of orange liqueur to sweeten it. It makes sense; eliminating the orange aspect makes the tequila flavor shine through. But there's a problem with this. Sour: spirit, citrus, sweetener, often egg white. The most common sweeteners for daisies, hist...
smallhandbartender.blogspot.com
small hand bartender: Cocktail Camp!
http://smallhandbartender.blogspot.com/2011/05/cocktail-camp.html
Wednesday, May 18, 2011. I recently presented at the second annual Cocktail Camp PDX. A day-long series of seminars in Portland geared toward the home bar/spirits enthusiast. I, along with Columbine Quillen. A rockstar of a bartender/blogger from Bend, Oregon, talked about homemade syrups, sodas, bitters and tinctures. Columbine wrote about her part of the presentation here. So I won't attempt to paraphrase her, but I will say her low-tech methods of extraction and distillation are fascinating. How this ...
smallhandbartender.blogspot.com
small hand bartender: Green Chartreuse Marshmallows
http://smallhandbartender.blogspot.com/2010/12/green-chartreuse-marshmallows.html
Wednesday, December 22, 2010. Every winter we put a hot drink on the menu at the Slanted Door. The last couple of years it's been a hot buttered rhum cider. It's insanely good: a trademark Erik Adkins concoction, rich but perfectly balanced. I love it, but I also crave new things, and the recipe development that goes along with them. And every winter, I think about a Tequila Hot Chocolate. Ask Erik; he will totally attest to my laziness and procrastination.). For years; they use water instead of milk, ye...
smallhandbartender.blogspot.com
small hand bartender: October 2010
http://smallhandbartender.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html
Saturday, October 16, 2010. Canning, aka Stress Relief: Part 1. I haven't posted in a long time. I know, and I'm sorry. I have a number of partially finished blog posts in the queue. But mostly I am bogged down by the practicalities of running a business. I love cooking, and I love bartending, and I started Small Hand Foods. In Berkeley is a fantastic place to drop a lot of money on candy-making and cake-decorating supplies.) Everyone got chocolates that Christmas. And I would stay up all hours of the ni...
smallhandbartender.blogspot.com
small hand bartender: Canning, aka Stress Relief: Part 1
http://smallhandbartender.blogspot.com/2010/10/canning-aka-stress-relief-part-1.html
Saturday, October 16, 2010. Canning, aka Stress Relief: Part 1. I haven't posted in a long time. I know, and I'm sorry. I have a number of partially finished blog posts in the queue. But mostly I am bogged down by the practicalities of running a business. I love cooking, and I love bartending, and I started Small Hand Foods. In Berkeley is a fantastic place to drop a lot of money on candy-making and cake-decorating supplies.) Everyone got chocolates that Christmas. And I would stay up all hours of the ni...
smallhandbartender.blogspot.com
small hand bartender: Canning, aka Stress Relief: part 2
http://smallhandbartender.blogspot.com/2010/10/canning-aka-stress-relief-part-2.html
Tuesday, November 30, 2010. Canning, aka Stress Relief: part 2. There I am, stressed out about work and fresh from a visit to my friends' farm in the Capay Valley. So I went nuts. Two kinds of fig jam: Fig with Vanilla and Fig with Honey and Bay (both Christine Ferber. Here is the recipe I used, adapted from Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Food. I scaled up x16 to get through my 40lb case of tomatillos). 25 lbs tomatillos, husked and rinsed. Ladle into pint...
smallhandbartender.blogspot.com
small hand bartender: May 2011
http://smallhandbartender.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html
Wednesday, May 18, 2011. I recently presented at the second annual Cocktail Camp PDX. A day-long series of seminars in Portland geared toward the home bar/spirits enthusiast. I, along with Columbine Quillen. A rockstar of a bartender/blogger from Bend, Oregon, talked about homemade syrups, sodas, bitters and tinctures. Columbine wrote about her part of the presentation here. So I won't attempt to paraphrase her, but I will say her low-tech methods of extraction and distillation are fascinating. How this ...
smallhandbartender.blogspot.com
small hand bartender: Citric Acid
http://smallhandbartender.blogspot.com/2011/03/citric-acid.html
Wednesday, March 30, 2011. As I mentioned before. I treat my ingredients like a cook rather than a food producer. Yet when you get into food production, as I have been doing while expanding my Small Hand Foods. There are a few scientific things you must pay attention to. Ph values are the level of acidity in a product. If you are going to seal anything in a jar or bottle, one of the ways to make it safe is to insure that the ph is 4.5 or lower. Botulism. Not even remotely. It tastes acrid and bitter ...
smallhandbartender.blogspot.com
small hand bartender: Tequila Hot Chocolate
http://smallhandbartender.blogspot.com/2008/12/tequila-hot-chocolate.html
Monday, December 1, 2008. Anything involving a mortar and pestle, chinois or tamis. So I wasn’t interested at all until he mentioned making a ganache. It may as well have been a taunt; I now had to make the. Ganache. This being a tequila drink, I went with cinnamon and chile as seasonings. It’s a bit clichéd, but hot chocolate is nothing if not comfort food, and being a native Californian, Mexican spices are comfort food for me. There are several kinds of cinnamon. I highly recommend Ceylon cinnamon.
smallhandbartender.blogspot.com
small hand bartender: December 2010
http://smallhandbartender.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html
Wednesday, December 22, 2010. Every winter we put a hot drink on the menu at the Slanted Door. The last couple of years it's been a hot buttered rhum cider. It's insanely good: a trademark Erik Adkins concoction, rich but perfectly balanced. I love it, but I also crave new things, and the recipe development that goes along with them. And every winter, I think about a Tequila Hot Chocolate. Ask Erik; he will totally attest to my laziness and procrastination.). For years; they use water instead of milk, ye...