Libatons Friday! 26 June 2009

Photo by once and future @ flickr

From Denny: With the triple digit heat across the nation and summer has barely begun – whew! – I’m looking for cold drinks and coffee cold drinks are my favorite. Here are two interesting ones from Food Network.

This one is from Guy Fieri of Guy’s Big Bite who used to be a bartender/mixologist before starting up his restaurant, getting noticed, then offered one happy gig on the Food Network! He’s high intensity and fast forward all the way, definitely as entertaining as he is knowledgeable and talented.



Chai's Big Bite Cocktail

From: Chef Guy Fieri of Food Network
Prep Time: 15 min
Level: Easy
Serves: 1 drink

Guy Fieri Image by Laughing Squid via Flickr

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces coffee liquor

• 2 ounces Irish cream

• 1-ounce vanilla vodka

• 8 ounces Chai-tea concentrate (recommended: Oregon Chai Brand)

• 6 ounces milk or half-and-half

• Shaved chocolate, for garnish

• Freshly grated nutmeg, for garnish

• Fresh mint sprig, for garnish

Directions:

Fill blender with ice, pour in all ingredients, and blend thoroughly. Pour into a tall iced tea glass
Garnish with shaved chocolate and fresh nutmeg and a mint sprig.

From Denny: This recipe is from the Ask Aida show over at Food Network. I’m not familiar with her and this recipe popped up on the search and looked so good it just had to be included! Besides, it included my favorite ingredient: expresso! If any of you watch her feel free to leave a comment about her.



Caffe Shakerato

From: Aida Mollenkamp of the Ask Aida Food Network show
Prep Time: 2 min
Level: Easy
Yield: 1 1/2 cups
Serves: 1 drink

Ingredients:

• Freshly brewed double shot espresso

• 1 teaspoon sugar

• Crushed Ice

• Coffee Whipped Cream, for garnish (Make this recipe before serving)

Directions:

In the base of a cocktail shaker, mix together espresso and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Fill shaker with crushed ice, close, and shake until shaker is frosted and mixture is foamy, about 20 seconds.

Strain into a martini glass, top with a dollop of Coffee Whipped Cream, and serve.

Coffee Whipped Cream:

• 1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons coffee-flavored liqueur (recommended: Kahlua)

Directions:

Place very clean glass or metal bowl and metal whisk in freezer just until cold, about 5 minutes.

When everything is cold, place cream in bowl and begin to whisk until it froths up and starts to thicken, about 1 minute. Whisk vigorously until soft peaks form (the cream will hold a point when the whisk is lifted but will fall back into the bowl almost immediately), about 1 minute.

Add the liqueur and whisk until stiff peaks just form (the cream stays put on the whisk when it is lifted from the bowl), about 1 minute. Store covered in refrigerator until ready to use.



Word Cloud Photo by Denny Lyon - from playing over at Wordle.net! :)

From Denny: With the extremely hot temperatures of early summer heat you can expect anything! Instead of a poem, out popped this zany romp of a short story this week that started as a self-imposed writing exercise. I thought you might enjoy trying this idea for yourself to get the writing juices going. Maybe you just want an emotional and mental vacation from the heat or stress of everyday life. That'll work too! :)

Wrote this recently as a raucous fast-paced ridiculous short story. It's really a bit long to post here and when that happens I park those writes over at HubPages. Take a look and you will be amused!

Writing Exercise

Many times I will assign myself some kind of writing exercise to loosen up my mind to push it out of the usual day-to-day analytical mode of just plain dealing with life, you know, solving problems. You might need a break from everything you do, well, this is a great way to take a vacation without spending any money or leaving the house - how convenient! :)

Seriously though, writing like this is such a good idea to stretch your imagination, give you more ideas of what else you could write and most of all, no pressure of deadlines or expectations from yourself or others.

The idea is to forget most of what every writing teacher ever taught you. Sit down to the keyboard and start writing, literally, whatever silly thing comes to mind, the more ridiculous the better. Don't plan a thing; don't outline a plot, a theme, characters, nothing. It's strictly funny brain drivel!

The second idea to keep in mind as far as technique is to use a couple of "don'ts" like run-on sentences and cliches which usually are the kiss of death for a good write. But when it is a zany little romp like the short story here it actually is a fit! What I found is that the run-on sentences help increase the intensity of the action and create this fast pace that leaves you dizzy.

Try your hand at this kind of writing exercise, have some fun, and then laugh your socks off at what comes out! The only rule? It has to be utterly and completely ridiculous!

Here's an excerpt from my world of the ridiculous:

"Jack jumped over the electric blue fox - who was hunting down the orange cat - who was preying upon the stupid cockroach that was having an identity crisis - and believed he was a popular dragonfly down at the local Irish pub - because he sang Irish songs everyone loved and wrote some damn good poetry.

The orange cat circled back to chase the identity crisis cockroach - who just knew he was really Irish in a former life - while the blue fox preened and bathed in the fast-paced lights of the nightclub – this fox enthusiastically embraced blue as the new fashion neutral - it was Jack who was looking for the weird alien orange cat that kept eluding him - who was stalking the brave Irish-singing cockroach determined to make it to Broadway.

The powerful-singing cockroach drowned out the elegant Irish pub-singing dragonfly - and soon the people customers complained about the strange odd noises blaring from the rising platform – it was two ants standing on a leaf singing opera - and more ants joined them from the audience singing 49 Bottles of Guinness Beer on the Wall and Get Down Tonight! – and soon the nightclub was jumping and bumping - and the people were dancing and squishing and splatting the friendly ants - who got the place hopping on a Saturday night in the first place."

For the rest of the story just click on the story title link, go here! Thanks for visiting!