All wedding pictures in this post are by our very talented photographers, The Spragues. These photos cannot be used without their permission.

Almost a year later, I have finally managed to sit down and write about our wedding. It was largely a DIY affair, brought to life by many, many helping hands. We celebrated with a small group of 40 people – just immediate family and close friends – at my parents’ house in Maine, where Trevor and I have been going together since high school. Insanely, wonderfully, my parents built a barn on the hill above our house to host our reception. By hand. I know, we are incredibly spoiled. It took many weekends of labor to bring the boat barn to fruition, but in some ways building the barn was the part of the wedding I loved most of all. Working alongside both sets of parents to build a structure to house our friends and family felt purposeful and unifying. And walking up the hill that day to see the barn filled with our handmade oak farm tables, tables covered in copper vases and pink flowers, candles and string lights filling the whole space with warmth… it was so incredibly beautiful. I don’t really have a photo that adequately captures the magic of that space, but these come close.

I don’t remember the day in that much detail, but what sticks with me the strongest is our ceremony. Standing under the pine trees clinging to Trevor’s arm, my brother welcoming our friends, my mother standing at my side, and the teary-eyed faces of so many of the people that I love staring back at me, I felt a truly powerful surge of love and wonder. We spent the weeks leading up to the wedding writing our ceremony, which was difficult, but important: when we stood up there, we knew exactly what we were saying and why. My brother officiated, and standing in the basement in a bit of a panic moments before the ceremony, hearing my friends laugh as he stood up there joking with the crowd was truly what calmed me enough to get myself out the door.

And then, we were off. People stood in clusters on the lawn drinking white wine and playing lawn games, or sat on the dock watching the light change over the lake. As the sun started to set we were seated at the long farm tables and the toasts began, making me cry, for the first time that day. Then we ate, and laughed, and talked, and it felt exactly like the wonderful dinner party we were envisioning.

After dinner, the evening devolved, as we had hoped it would, into tequila shots and dancing barefoot on the lawn, friends sneaking off into the woods and out on the canoe, sitting around the campfire and eating s’mores. This is less a memory and more a blur of mental snapshots. Immediately after the wedding I felt devastated by the fact that I couldn’t remember each moment, but a year later, I’ll take the happy blur. Happy blur is what we were going for, after all.

As for the details, for those of you who get into this kind of thing: the ceremony benches were planks of white oak milled from trees on the property. The tables, too, were made by hand and painstakingly finished to showcase the beautiful wood. I did the flowers myself, with the help of my bridesmaids, using homegrown dahlias, garden roses, astilbe, eucalyptus and hypericum. Plus cosmos, Queen Anne’s lace, and leucothoe borrowed from a neighbor’s garden two days before the wedding when it turned out one of the flower companies I had ordered from was a scam. Those missing flowers were the only near disaster of the whole DIY affair, and the day was promptly saved by my incredible friend Veronika, who bought all the roses at Wholefoods before she left Boston, and several generous neighbors. Cosmos and Queen Anne’s lace have a special place in my garden now.

And, since this is a food blog, the menu: for the happy hour, ceviche, buttermilk fried chicken bites in a waffle cone, and sliders (at the bride’s insistence!) with blue cheese and candied bacon. Dinner was family style, and heaping platters of espresso-rubbed flank steak, lemon rosemary roasted chicken, sweet corn succotash, and smoked gouda mashed potatoes made their way up and down the length of each table. We skipped the cake and instead went for mini pumpkin cheesecakes, blueberry pies, and banoffee parfaits. Everything was incredible and our caterers, Bar Harbor Catering Company, did a truly fantastic job. Not only was the food delicious but the event planning and coordination that they provided was just really game changing. Last but far from least, The Spragues captured everything perfectly, while somehow managing to seamlessly  join our guests in the party.

Beyond these pictures and memories, I have one more thing to share with you: our signature cocktail recipe. We wanted something that was autumnal without being overly cozy, to suit that in-between season of mid-September in Maine. We ended up with the Liquid Ditty: bourbon, dry hard cider from Bantam, Calvados, and honey-sage syrup. (An aside, Trevor and I just engaged in a rigorous debate about what to name this cocktail. A search on “Golden Apple” led us down a Wikipedia rabbit hole through Greek mythology to recently discovered dwarf planets. “Apple of Discord” was deemed unfit for a wedding cocktail, and I couldn’t convince him that “Apple of Bliss-chord” was hilarious. We considered “The Spitz,” named after the Esopus Spitzenburg apple tree in our front yard., but ultimately, we’ve settled on the “Liquid Ditty.” It’s a reference to Poe’s poem “The Bells,” which Trevor strongly associates with our wedding day. Plus, it’s catchy. Alternate name suggestions still welcome.) Nearly a year later, I’ve mixed up another batch to drink on the porch with Trevor. It’s just as delicious as I remember it – crisp and appley with just a hint of sage. We’ll be drinking these all September.

The Liquid Ditty: Bourbon, Calvados, and Cider Cocktail

A crisp and refreshing cocktail for the season in between summer and fall. Hard cider, Bourbon, Calvados, and honey-sage syrup come together for a chilled autumnal sipper. We came up with this drink to celebrate our wedding and now it’s a September favorite.

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe.

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door

Ingredients

For the honey-sage syrup:

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup honey
• 15 leaves fresh sage, roughly chopped

For each cocktail:

• 1 part Calvados
• 2 part Bourbon
• 1 part honey-sage syrup
• 1 part chilled hard dry cider, such as Bantam Wunderkind
• 1 sage leaf, for garnish
• ice

Instructions

For the honey-sage syrup:

Bring all ingredients to a simmer. Let simmer for 3-5 minutes, until sage is bright green and syrup is foamy. Remove from heat and let steep for 10 minutes.

For each cocktail:

Stir together Calvados, honey-sage syrup, and Bourbon to combine. Pour over ice in an old-fashioned glass. Top off with cider, garnish with a sage leaf, and serve.

The post Our Wedding // Liquid Ditty Cocktail appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Happy May, and Happy Margarita Week! It’s year two for the tequila-fest that Kate over at Hola Jalapeno puts together in celebration of Cinco de Mayo. Last year, I contributed these Sparkling Lemongrass Ginger Margaritas. I was still feeling very inspired by all the amazing Vietnamese, Japanese, and Chinese food we ate while in Asia, so it was only natural to work some of my favorite Asian aromatics into a traditionally Mexican drink.

For this year, I dialed things back a little bit. It can sometimes feel like I’m constantly trying to outdo myself when I come up with recipes. I want the recipes on this blog to be creative and inspiring – I’m not here to write about super simple recipes or cooking basics. However, simple doesn’t always mean tired and overdone. Simple recipes can be a wonderful way to let the flavor of an incredible ingredient shine through. Think burrata cheese, high quality olive oil, and perfectly crunchy sourdough. So while last year’s contribution to Kate’s Margarita Week was exotic and new, this year I’m keeping it simple with Passion Fruit Margaritas. Just a perfect, balanced drink that lets the passion fruit sing accompanied by high quality tequila.

I developed a crush on passion fruit during my first few trips to Colombia two years ago, and since then it’s blossomed into a burning romance. Whilst I burn through some of my food obsessions in a month or two (like when you fall in love with a new song and play it non-stop for two weeks, only to realize that you never want to hear it again after that), others are a slow build. Passion fruit is one that’s here for the long haul. It’s so wonderfully tangy and fragrant, the perfect complement for desserts and drinks. I daydream about the passion fruit gelato at Santini in Portugal, and I can slurp down a fresh passion fruit juice in minutes.

The only downside to my love for passion fruit is the cost. Passion fruit are hard to find and exorbitantly expensive in Boston, running $2 a piece (if anyone in Boston has tips for where to get them cheaper, please share! I’ll bring you a margarita). This might be the only drink I’ve ever made that cost more to make at home than it would have to order at a restaurant.  At least I had a lightbulb moment when reading this post by A House in the Hills that you can grow passion fruit (obviously). True, it typically grows in subtropical places like Colombia and Australia. But we’ve tried lemon trees and avocado trees and olive trees, so why not give passion fruit vines a try? One day we’ll live in California/Portugal/Mexico where we belong. Until then, I’ll be forking out the cash to get fresh passion fruit for my margaritas and desserts.

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Passion Fruit Margaritas

Makes 3-4 margaritas.

• 6 fresh passion fruit
• 1 lime, plus more for garnish.
• 4 teaspoons sugar
• 4 oz. white tequila
• 2 oz. orange liqueur
• ice
• coarse sea salt, for rimming glasses

1. Cut the passion fruit in half, being careful not to spill the juice out of the center. Scrape the pulp and juice into a small food processor. Pulse 2-3 times just to loosen the seeds from the pulp. Pour through a strainer into a bowl, separating the juice from the seeds.
2. Cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice into the bowl with the passion fruit juice. Add the sugar and stir to thoroughly combine.
3. For each drink, add the following ingredients to a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice: 1 oz tequila, 1/2 oz orange liqueur, 1 oz passion fruit juice mixture. Shake vigorously for 20 seconds, then strain into a salt-rimmed glass. Add a few passion fruit seeds and a slice of lime for garnish. Serve immediately.

The post Passion Fruit Margaritas for Margarita Week 2017 appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Last year, Trevor and I spent Valentine’s Day in the executive lounge of the Hong Kong Airport Marriott. It was actually quite nice – we were at the tail end of our 6 weeks in Asia, waiting for our connection back to the US, having just come back from an incredible vacation in Japan. We were really exhausted, and for two entire days we didn’t leave the hotel. We never travel like that – we are always on the go, exploring, trying new things. But we were tired, and it was raining, and we’d already spent 5 weeks in Hong Kong. So we just stayed inside the massive hotel, taking long showers, watching TV, and working from the top floor lounge. There was unlimited free wine and snacks. If every Valentine’s were like that, I’d be perfectly happy.

This year, Trevor will be working at the restaurant and I’ll probably be home catching up on the 5 weeks of miscellaneous chores and errands I didn’t do while we were in Portugal. When Trevor gets home we’ll probably sneak in an episode of Arrested Development and maybe I’ll pop open a bottle of champagne. Actually, I think I’ll definitely pop open a bottle of champagne. And I’ll bake something chocolatey. It may be subdued, but we’ll make it just as romantic as a big dinner out. In my book, a few hours together is all you really need to appreciate someone you love.

However, if your plans are a bit more exciting than mine, I have something festive for you: Chambord-Hibiscus Champagne Punch. This is what I would be making if I were throwing a little dinner party or girls’ night for Valentine’s Day. I seem to have a bit of a thing for pink, sparkling drinks. I’ve got Raspberry Sherbet Champagne Floats and Rhubarb Prosecco Spritzers and now I’ve gone and made a whole punch full of Chambord and hibiscus-infused-vodka and champagne. It’s quite easy to put together, and a little dangerous – the way a good punch should be.

I partnered with Drizly to bring you this recipe – they dropped off the Chambord and champagne within an hour, and we were ready to go. Drizly works with a number of fantastic cocktail bloggers: you can find more recipes on their Tastemakers page.

Disclosure: As a Top Shelf blogger, Drizly provided me with the alcohol for this post free of charge, but I was not otherwise compensated. As usual, all opinions are my own!

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More pink and sparkling drinks…

Blood Orange Mimosas

Raspberry Sherbet Champagne Floats

Strawberry Champagne Shrub

Chambord-Hibiscus Champagne Punch

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe. Serves 4-6.

• 1 cup frozen raspberries
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup hibiscus-infused vodka, chilled (recipe below)
• 1/2 cup Chambord
• 1 1/2 cups champagne, chilled
• fresh raspberries, for garnish

1. Place the raspberries, water, and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Simmer until the sugar has dissolved and the raspberries have become very soft and started to disintegrate. Remove from the heat, let cool to room temperature, then pour into a glass jar and refrigerate until chilled.
2. Mix the chilled raspberry syrup, hibiscus-infused vodka, and chambord together in a punch bowl. Add ice. Just before serving, add the champagne to the punch, then ladle the punch into glasses. Top each glass of with a little bit more champagne and a few fresh raspberries. Serve immediately.

Hibiscus-Infused Vodka

Makes 2 cups.

• 2 cups vodka
• 2 bags of hibiscus tea, such as Tazo Passion

1. Cut open the tea bags and empty the contents into a sterilized pint jar. Pour the vodka over the tea and stir a few times with a clean spoon to mix. Cover the jar with a lid or plastic wrap and let infuse at room temperature for 6-8 hours. When it is done infusing, strain the vodka through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean jar. Use in recipes as directed.

The post Chambord-Hibiscus Champagne Punch with Drizly appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I’m on vacation this week, and after four solid days, I’m finally starting to relax into it. It’s so amazingly quiet here in Maine right now, it’s helping me let go of some of my anxieties, one by one. I love it. Even though vacation can sometimes be an excuse to drink more than you normally would, I want to leave this vacation feeling healthy and refreshed, so I’ve been trying to cut back, only grabbing a beer or pouring a glass of wine when I want that specific thing, not just accepting any drink that’s available or offered. Drinking less makes the quality of each drink I do have that much more critical, so I’ve been leaning on wines and beers I know I love, and delicious, not-too-sweet cocktails… like this one, the “Green Derby,” which is to celebrate the fact that I’m joining Drizly’s Top Shelf blogger program.

Drizly, a Boston-based start-up turned full-fledged company, is an alcohol delivery service that partners with local liquor stores to deliver beer, wine, and booze to your front door in an hour or less. You’ll pay the same price as you would at the store, plus a small delivery fee in most regions, for the convenience of having your party ingredients dropped off at your door. It’s the perfect solution for that last minute pre-party panic moment: “Are we going to run out of beer? Who’s going to get more beer?!” or for those of us city-people without cars where the prospect of walking home with four bottles of wine and a case of beer is not pleasant.

When thinking about what I’d want to feature for my first Drizly post, I took stock of our borderline-overflowing bar. Trevor and I love to experiment with different spirits from our travels, so our bar is quite a hodgepodge – myrtle liqueur from Italy, sake from Japan, Maple liqueur from Vermont, aguardiente from Colombia. One thing conspicuously missing, however, was absinthe, that famed, anise-scented green spirit banned for nearly a century for it’s reported hallucinogenic properties. It has only been allowed in the US since 2007, and only in the past year or two have I started to see it on cocktail menus. With Drizly’s help, we added a bottle to the top shelf.

It took a bit of experimentation to get a cocktail that we were both happy with – I wanted this drink to be strong and reserved, more refined and mature than my typical booze + juice + champagne-to-top-it-off approach to cocktails. The absinthe is strong in both flavor and alcohol content, so our first attempt had an overpowering amount of absinthe. We tried mixing it with pisco, but it didn’t quite work, so we moved on to bourbon, which was a much better match. Absinthe is traditionally served with a sugar cube, so we muddled some coarse sugar with basil and grapefruit for sweetness and additional herbality. We topped the whole thing off with just a splash of tonic to smooth out the drink. It’s a drink that’s worth drinking.

Disclosure: As a Top Shelf blogger, Drizly provided me with the absinthe for this post free of charge, but I was not otherwise compensated. As usual, all opinions are my own!

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Green Derby Cocktail

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe. Serves 1.

• 8 leaves fresh basil
• 2 pieces grapefruit peel
• 1 TBS turbinado sugar
• 1 TBS fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. Absinthe
• 2 oz. Bourbon
• Ice
• Tonic water

1. Add basil, grapefruit peel, and sugar to a cocktail shaker. Use a muddler to crush the sugar into the basil and grapefruit peel until the basil is crushed into small pieces. Add the lemon juice, Absinthe and Bourbon to the shaker, along with 2-3 ice cubes. Put the top on the shaker and shake vigorously for 60 seconds, until the outside of the shaker is frosty. Strain into a coupe glass and serve immediately.

The post Green Derby Cocktail – Absinthe, Bourbon, Basil, and Grapefruit appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

We spent last weekend in Maine, in what felt like the real kick-off to the summer. I love the way Maine smells – like pine needles drenched in sun, freshly cut hay, lake water, wood shavings, and the occasional whiff of smoke. When I step out of the car I inhale deeply, taking in everything sweet and fresh and good about a place where days are spent outdoors and the windows are always open. It was a blissful few days. I went swimming every day, hiked on mossy trails and rocky ones, ate fried seafood overlooking the harbor, and caught a few beautiful sunsets – one from a small cabin deck with a 180° view of the ocean, one from the middle of the harbor, bobbing gently in our boat, and two from the picnic table where we gather for wine and dinner. I can’t wait to go back.

While we were there, we put together a sunny Sunday brunch featuring Stonewall Kitchen products in celebration of their 25^th anniversary. Stonewall Kitchen is a Maine company through and through, headquartered in a beautiful space in York, Maine. They are probably most famous for their jams and jellies (especially the Wild Maine Blueberry Jam!), but I’ve tried a number of their sauces and spreads and all of their products are truly high quality and delicious. Started by two young men selling their jams and chutneys at a farmer’s market, Stonewall Kitchen has expanded into a company that is a household name for many. You can read more of their story, and check out all their delicious products, on their anniversary website, Taste of 25 Years.

For our brunch, we used four Stonewall products to put together three delicious recipes. First, Sea Breeze Mimosas, the simplest thing in the world to make – just a splash of chilled cranberry-grapefruit Sea Breeze Mixer, a dash of cranberry bitters, and a healthy pour of prosecco. If you’re getting an extra strong start to your day, a little bit of vodka added to the mix doesn’t hurt either. Second, a Smoky Roasted Garlic Hash – potatoes sautéed with shallots, Roasted Garlic Oil and smoked paprika, strips of roasted red pepper and poblano, a sprinkling of scallions, and a crispy olive-oil fried egg to top each serving. And to finish off the dish, an essential topping: Habanero Mango Hot Sauce. This smoky, slightly sweet, slow-burn hot sauce is absolutely delicious – I’m kicking myself for leaving it behind with my family (we put it on everything from eggs to burgers to baked beans over the course of the weekend).

The last recipe, and in my opinion the star of the show, Wild Maine Blueberry Jam Doughnuts. These are the doughnuts of your dreams – light, just a little bit chewy, rolled in a generous amount of cinnamon sugar, and stuffed to the gills with Wild Maine Blueberry Jam. There’s a trendy/hipster doughnut shop near us in Boston that makes jelly doughnuts that I dream about (so much so that I got one for my birthday breakfast for the past two years) – and these were even better. Every single one of my family members tried to have just one and ended up eating two – even my weight-lifting, sugar-avoiding little brother.

Congrats to Corinne of Spare Cake on winning! A Giveaway! I have good news – Stonewall Kitchen is also hosting a giveaway to send one reader their own set of products to make a delicious, Maine-inspired brunch. In addition to the four products I used in these recipes, you will also receive a canister of Farmhouse Pancake and Waffle Mix and the most adorable Downeast Coffee Mug to round out your brunch-making kit. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below telling me your favorite way to spend a summer morning. By entering the giveaway, you are agreeing to the contest rules as outlined at the bottom of this post.

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Stonewall Kitchen, but all opinions are honest and my own as usual.

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Sea Breeze Mimosas

Serves 1.

• 1/4 c. Stonewall Kitchen Sea Breeze Mixer, chilled
• 1 dash bitters
• 1 oz. vodka (optional)
• 1 c. chilled Prosecco

1. Pour Sea Breeze Mixer into a champagne glass. Add 1 dash bitters and vodka, if using. Top with chilled Prosecco. Serve immediately.

Wild Maine Blueberry Jam Doughnuts

Makes 12 large doughnuts. Recipe adapted from Taste of Home and Serious Eats.

• 1 c. milk, heated until warm but not hot to the touch
• 2 packages active dry yeast
• 1/4 c. plus 1 TBS sugar, divided
• 3 TBS softened butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 c. AP flour
• 1 1/2 c. bread flour
• canola oil or shortening, for frying
• 1 c. sugar mixed with 2 tsp ground cinnamon, for coating
• 2 jars Stonewall Kitchen Wild Maine Blueberry Jam

1. Place warm milk in a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast over the top of the milk, along with 1 TBS of the sugar. Stir for 30 seconds, then let stand 10 minutes, until yeast is foamy. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and remaining 1/4 c. sugar together until light and fluffy. Stir in salt, then beat in eggs until completely mixed in. Add milk and both kinds of flour and stir until a smooth dough is formed. Knead dough until it is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in the fridge overnight.
3. When ready to fry doughnuts, remove the dough from the fridge. Shape into a flat disc, then roll out on a floured surface to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Use a biscuit cutter or glass to cut 3 inch circles out of the dough, and place doughnuts on a baking sheet or tray. Re-roll any scrap dough to make more doughnuts. Cover doughnuts with a towel and let rise for 20 minutes.
4. Heat canola oil or shortenining in a high-sided frying pan or dutch oven until the temperature reaches 350-375ºF. Fry doughnuts one at a time in the hot oil, flipping once. Doughnuts should fry for about 1 minute per side before they are golden brown on the outside and cooked all the way through. You may need to adjust the temperature up or down as you go.
5. Combine the 1 c. sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon in a paper bag. Immediately after frying each doughnut, place it in the paper bag and shake the bag to coat the doughnut with cinnamon-sugar before placing it on a plate to cool. Repeat the frying and sugar coating process until all doughnuts are cooked.
6. Once the doughnuts are cool to the touch, begin filling them. Place the blueberry jam in a pastry bag fitted with a pastry tip. Insert the pastry tip into the side of the doughnut and fill until the doughnut is heavy and jam is starting to come out the front of the doughnut. Serve doughnuts as soon as possible after filling them.

Smoky Roasted Garlic Potato Hash

Serves 4.

• 8-10 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, washed and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• sea salt
• 2 TBS Stonewall Kitchen Roasted Garlic Oil, divided
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 poblano pepper
• 1 red pepper
• 4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 3 large shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 4 eggs
• Stonewall Kitchen Habanero Mango Hot Sauce, for serving

1. Add the cubed potatoes and white vinegar to a large pot. Fill with cold water to cover the potatoes and salt generously. Bring to a boil over medium heat, and boil gently until potatoes are just tender when poked with a fork, about 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes, then toss with 1 TBS of the roasted garlic oil and the smoked paprika. Set aside.
2. Preheat the broiler to high. Place the poblano pepper and red pepper on a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet, then place under the broil. Broil until pepper skin is beginning to blacken and blister, then use tongs to turn the peppers to another side. This should take about 5 minutes per side. Once peppers are blackened all over, remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Once cool, remove and discard the stems and seeds, and slice the pepper flesh into thin strips.
3. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat and add bacon. Fry until browned and crispy, about 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently, then add the sliced shallots and saute until golden brown. Add the cooked potatoes to the pan and season generously with sea salt. Fry the potatoes until golden brown all over, stirring occasionally, about 15-20 minutes total. Remove from the heat and mix with the sliced peppers. Transfer to a large platter.
4. Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a frying pan. Carefully crack the eggs into the hot oil and fry sunny-side up. Place the fried eggs on top of the potato hash. Serve with the Habanero Mango Hot Sauce.

Giveaway Rules

• No purchase necessary
• Void where prohibited
• One entry per household, and only entries answering the listed question will be considered
• The sponsor of this giveaway is Stonewall Kitchen
• The estimated retail value of the products is $49.25
• The odds of winning will depend on the number of entries received
• This contest is only open to U.S. citizens over the age of 18
• The contest will open today, July 11^th, 2016 at posting time and will close at 11PM EST on Friday, July 22nd, 2016
• One winner will be selected randomly and contacted via email (so please leave an accurate email address!). If I do not hear from the winner within 48 hours, the winner forfeits their prize and an alternate winner will be chosen.
• I will post the winner here by Monday, August 1^st, 2016

The post Stonewall Kitchen Maine Brunch (and Giveaway!) appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

This month marks the one year anniversary of buying and moving into our house. It’s a little hard to believe it’s already been a year! We had grand plans for the house when we bought it (we still do) but we’ve progressed a little slower (OK significantly slower) than we planned. Our major accomplishment is that we’re halfway through renovating our basement, and really, that’s mostly thanks to Carl (thank you Carl!!!) and to Trevor’s dedicated trench digging. And Trevor has painstakingly renovated the guest room – it’s almost done and is going to look gorgeous with the new orange couch we bought. But even though the to-do list for the house is miles long, I love living in it the way it is. Because it’s ours!

The last time I moved, from the sunny Davis Square house I shared with three roommates, to the little Inman Square apartment Trevor and I moved into, the place that will always be our first apartment, I wrote this post, about all the things I would miss and all the things I was looking forward to. This time, I didn’t have the time to indulge in that kind of thinking before we moved, but now that things are calmer and our new house is starting to feel like ours, I find myself thinking about it more – what I miss, what I love.

There’s so much that I love about our new house. One of the biggest things is the light – every room in our house is filled with sun, and we know at any given time of day the best spot to curl up in the sun for a minute or two. The sun is also the key to the second thing I love – having our own garden, which is thriving. We don’t have tons of space but we are making the most of it: in the front we’ve replaced hedges with a hodge podge of flowers – foxgloves and heather and poppies and whatever else tickled our fancy at the nursery. After much deliberation on varieties, we planted an apple tree this spring, and regularly talk about the wealth of apples we’ll have in oh, say, five years. And along the side of the house are the herbs and veggies and fruit bushes, planted neatly in raised beds that get 10 hours of sun a day this time of year. Almost every night you can find Trevor and I out “walking the grounds,” checking each plant’s progress and then sitting on our stoop to discuss. I love that.

I’m surprised how much I like living in a neighborhood. “Neighborhood” wasn’t particularly high on our list when we were house shopping – we were coming from a series of city apartments where neighbors weren’t really a concept that had much impact on our lives. We never even met any of our neighbors in Cambridge. So we were really lucky to end up moving into a place where neighbor is a word with meaning – people who will take in your trash barrels and check on your house while you’re away, who chat across fences when you both happen to be out. Families with kids that spend all day playing outside. It’s great. And when it’s nice, I like to take long evening walks around the nearby streets, looking at houses and gardens and just enjoying the fact that there’s little traffic and lots of fresh air. In Cambridge I only walked places when I had a destination or an errand – here I walk just to walk.

There’s more. I love having my own office. It might sound materialistic of me, but one of my favorite things is sitting at my gorgeous new desk, with a homemade latte in my favorite mug, snuggled up in my extremely soft jersey robe, catching up on emails and blogging with the early morning sun falling softly through the window. It’s “me-time” at it’s finest. I love that the entire house is filled with gorgeous wooden floors, deeper in color than most. I love that we can change whatever we want about the house. And I like the new routines we’re building, like the Friday morning dates we have at Tamper cafe, one of only two remotely trendy/interesting eating establishments within walking distance.

The list of things that I miss is shorter. I miss being able to walk 30 steps around the corner and find myself in one of best local grocery stores/butchers in the city, the kind of place where you can find pork belly and black pudding and fava beans without having to give it a second thought. Ditto for being able to walk across the street and choose from a selection of trendy bars and restaurants. I miss having a house cleaner – something we could afford when we had fewer rooms and no renovation costs. And I miss being a little closer to our friends, although honestly, we’ve been just as social as before – having easy access to the highway means an Uber home from downtown is only $20 and 15 minutes, which is very doable a few times a month. And I honestly can’t think of anything else I miss. Nothing about the house itself. Just walkability and a handful of individual establishments.

We have a friend who is currently studying for his Master of Wine examination, who knows vast amounts more about wine than I could ever hope to. We have another, mutual, friend who recently brought a bottle of champagne to a soccer game to celebrate a finals win (they lost), only to find upon popping the cork that the champagne had gone flat. Upon discussing this event our wine-y friend told us – “Never save champagne. Open it up on a Tuesday night just because.” We are guilty of holding on to two bottles of fancy champagne that I know have been improperly stored. So we heeded his advice and opened one, just because, and also to celebrate our home-ownership anniversary. We drank half and the rest we poured over this gorgeous Rhubarb Campari Sorbet, which we slupred while watching Game of Thrones (now #champagneofthrones).

A few things to note. One, yes, it might seem wasteful to pour Veuve Cliquot over sorbet. I say, whatever floats your boat. Two, yes, the sorbet in some of these photographs is not at all set – it was almost Game of Thrones time and I couldn’t wait any longer. I need a blast chiller. Three, because of the aforementioned not-set sorbet, I photographed these again the next night. And yes, I opened another bottle of prosecco. Only this time, it was a $10 bottle of La Marca that’s been in our fridge for 2 1/2 years, so, about time. Which brings me to the main point of this paragraph – the prosecco was actually a much better match for the sorbet. It is significantly sweeter and blends better with the sweet and tangy sorbet. So, in conclusion, open your fancy champagne on a Sunday night just because. But if you’re going to pour it over sorbet, open the $10 prosecco instead. Or open both and live it up.

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Rhubarb Campari Sorbet

Makes 1 1/2 pints (3 cups). A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe.

• 1 lb. rhubarb, roughly chopped into segments (about 4 cups chopped)
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 c. sugar
• 3 TBS campari

1. Add rhubarb, water, and sugar to a large saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer until the rhubarb is very soft and almost falling apart, about 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and transfer to a blender. Blend on high until the mixture is a very smooth puree. Always use caution when blending hot liquids! Pour the blended mixture through a fine mesh strainer, using a spatula to press the mixture through the strainer into a large bowl. Stir the campari into the strained rhubarb puree until evenly combined. Chill the mixture until very cold.
2. Churn the chilled rhubarb puree in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Once churned, you may need to let the sorbet sit in the freezer for another 1-3 hours before it is firm enough to scoop.

The post The New Place // Rhubarb Campari Sorbet with Prosecco appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I am a lover of tequila. Like, I am the person at the end of the night asking if we can do tequila shots, not because I am hammered and making poor decisions, but because I genuinely like the way tequila tastes. Especially with lime and salt, and if I get to clink glasses with a bunch of friends, all the better. Trevor and I even went to a tequila tasting dinner once, although sipping room temperature tequila from champagne glasses was a little much, even for me.

My friends all know that I love tequila, and I also happen to have very polite, very generous friends, so every time we throw a party, we end up with at least one more bottle of tequila. We now have 4 mostly full bottles (and that’s down from 5 only because Trevor just finished off a lingering bottle a few weeks back), which is arguably too much tequila. If I ever make any new friends, I think I’ll tell them that I love vodka, just to even out my collection. (Although I absolutely don’t love vodka. 90% of the vodka I’ve ever purchased has gone into make Penne alla Vodka. The other 10% was probably consumed in the form of jello shots.) To be fair to myself and Trevor and our drinking habits, we also have 5 open bottles of Whiskey/Bourbon and 7 bottles of rum (5 of which are Captain Morgan from the campaign we did with them two years ago), so we might just be booze-hoarders. Perhaps after I finish the 5-month long project of cleaning out my closet, I should move on to cleaning out the liquor cabinet. For which the obvious thing to do is throw a massive party, except now all our friends are old and mostly drink wine and beer. But I’m digressing, let’s get back to tequila.

When Kate from Hola Jalapeño reached out about participating in an enticing-sounding event called Margarita Week, I was on board for all sorts of reasons. One, I love margaritas. Two, not gonna lie, I was really thrilled to finally be included in one of those fun online blogger events that I see happen all the time but never get invited to. Three, Kate is super sweet and has been leaving nice comments on my blog forever, which always reminds me how bad I am about the friendliness part of blogging. Four, I thought that if I could make enough margaritas, maybe I could kick another bottle of tequila. This was a win-win-win situation.

My contribution to Margarita Week is this Asian-inspired Sparkling Lemongrass-Ginger Margarita. It’s loosely inspired by a Lemongrass-Ginger Hot Toddy that we had several times at one of our favorite restaurants in Hong Kong, Chôm Chôm. I will definitely be sharing that hot toddy with you in the future, but since I’m hoping hot toddy weather is behind us until next fall, we’re doing it in margarita form for now. This has a fragrant lemongrass-ginger syrup, tequila, spicy fresh ginger beer, and an utterly addictive sugar-salt-lemon-ginger rim. Once you have the lemongrass-ginger syrup in your fridge, it takes all of 60 seconds to put these together.

For lots more margaritas, be sure to check out Kate’s Margarita Week page, as well as some of the totally gorgeous drinks below (I’ll keep updating as the week goes on, so check back for more tequila). If you join in on the fun, be sure to use the #MargaritaWeek hashtag!

• Mexicana Margarita from Vanilla and Bean
• Elderflower Margarita from Autumn Makes and Does
• Broiled Grapefruit Margarita from The Cookie Rookie
• Strawberry Rhubarb Margarita from Nutmeg Nanny
• Mint Cucumber & Smoky Jalapeno Margarita from She Eats
• Honey Margarita from Sweet Life Bake
• Frozen Peach and Chambord Mezcal Margarita from Holly & Flora
• Fresh Ginger Margarita from Always Order Dessert

Sparkling Lemongrass-Ginger Margaritas

Serves 4.

• 2 stalks lemongrass
• 1 c. plus 2 TBS sugar
• 1 c. water
• 1 1/2 inches fresh ginger root, peeled and cut into slices
• juice of 1 lemon
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 8 oz. tequila
• 2 bottles ginger beer, cold
• ice to serve

1. Make the syrup. Use a serrated knife to cut the lemongrass into pieces about 1 inch long. You will only be using the juicier, white part of the lemongrass, not the dry green end. I usually use about 2/3 of a fresh lemongrass stalk. Add the lemongrass, 1 cup of the sugar, the water, and the ginger root slices to a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer, then simmer on medium-low until the syrup is fragrant and the lemongrass and ginger are soft, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Strain the syrup into a clean glass jar, discarding the leftover lemongrass and ginger. Set aside. (After making margaritas, store any leftover syrup in the fridge)
2. Combine the remaining 2 TBS sugar, lemon zest, grated ginger, and sea salt in a small bowl and mix together until evenly combined. Rub one of the used lemon rinds around the rim of each glass you are using to moisten the rim, then dip the glasses one by one into the sugar-salt mixture, pressing the sides of the glass against the bowl to create a sugar-salt rim.
3. Add 2 TBS of the lemongrass-ginger syrup and 2 ounces of tequila to each glass, being careful not to disturb the sugar rim. Add 2-3 ice cubes and use a long spoon to give the drink a stir. Top the drink up with cold ginger beer and serve immediately.

The post Margarita Week! // Sparkling Lemongrass-Ginger Margaritas appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I like this time of year more and more as I get older. I’m not talking about the holiday season. That I’ve always loved, and actually the holidays seem to become a little more stressful and a little less joyful every year – but I’ll save that topic for another day. I’m talking about the time between the holidays, the normal, early winter days.

I typically approach winter with a feeling of dread. January and February are usually so HARD for me – it’s dark, the snow and the cold the past few years have been relentless, my skin gets so dry that I can’t sleep, and my emotions get all out of whack. Last year I tried to combat it with an end of January trip to the USVI, which helped a little, but February, and even March, to be honest, were brutal. Thankfully, we’ll be skipping a solid 6 weeks of that awful deep winter time this year – thanks to my job, it seems I’ve become a snowbird at a young age.

But December is a different story. I vividly remember walking home from work one night in mid-December last year – it was cold, but very bright. After I passed through the hubbub of Harvard Square, it suddenly felt deeply quiet, the kind of quiet that is rare in a city. The kind of quiet that I associate with being in the woods, with a soft blanket of snow reflecting the moon into the night. The moon was full, the trees, stripped of their leaves, left stark echos against the blue-black sky. And I realized, all at once, that I love that quiet, that stillness. It’s a stillness that only comes with true cold, with the earth settling into sleep. So there is a part of winter that I love, and it felt significant to me to recognize this, to embrace something I was dreading.

These past few weeks I’ve been experiencing the same thing – a feeling of calm on cold, moonlit evenings, and on brisk, crisply sunny mornings. Enjoying the quiet as I wait for the bus in the early morning light, watching my breath form puffy clouds in front of me. It’s a nice counterpoint to the chaotic joy of the holidays.

As you may recall, another reason I can get behind winter is warm cocktails. Over the years I’ve posted a number of my favorite recipes here, like this Burnt Sugar Hot Buttered Rum and this Nutella Melt. Last year I did a little round-up of all my favorite winter cocktails… which it seems I might have to update soon. My first contribution to that list for this season is this Mulled Spiked Cider with Port and Cranberries, which also has a little red wine, apples, and clementines. Like many of my favorite drinks, it’s inspired by Maria and Tara‘s genius book Winter Cocktails, which pretty much becomes a fixture in my kitchen at this time of year. This warm, sweet, boozy drink was the perfect thing to warm us up over the lazy long weekend… and the leftovers are just the thing to look forward to coming home to after a stressful weekday.

Mulled Spiked Cider with Port and Cranberries

Inspired by Winter Cocktails. Serves 4-6.

• 2 whole cinnamon stick
• 2 whole star anise
• 10 whole cloves
• 3 c. apple cider
• 2 clementines, scrubbed and cut into thin slices
• 1/2 c. fresh cranberries
• 1 apple, cored, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• 1/4 c. white sugar
• 2 c. red wine
• 3/4 c. tawny port
• brandy or Bourbon to taste, optional

1. Add the cinnamon, star anise, and cloves to a large saucepan or dutch oven and toast over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the apple cider, clementines, cranberries, apple, and sugar and gently simmer until fruit is soft, about 10 minutes. Add the red wine and port and continue heating just until the drink begins to steam, then remove from the heat and cover to keep warm. Ladle into mugs to serve, removing any cloves that you see as you do so. Adding a splash of brandy or Bourbon to each if you like your drinks a little stronger!

The post Winter Stillness // Mulled Spiked Cider with Port and Cranberries appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I have news – really big news! As of twelve days ago, Trevor and I are no longer just boyfriend-girlfriend/roommates/long-term-snuggle-buddies… he made the whole thing official and asked me to marry him!

Part of me feels hesitant to write, or even talk about it – it’s such a personal moment and a huge, emotional decision, to commit to spending the rest of your lives together. The other part of me wants to tell everyone I see and take obnoxious photos of my ring. Basically, in real life, I’m alternating between blushing and gushing. But I know that 1 or 2 or maybe even 10 years from now I’m going to be back here hoping to remember what I was feeling and thinking right now, so I’m pushing my reservations to the side for a moment and sharing.

Here’s the story. Saturday morning we took a leisurely drive through Western mass and up into Southern Vermont. It was a brilliant day, cold and crisp and cloudless, and every turn seemed to take us through a tunnel of golden leaves more vibrant than the last. Everything glowed. We checked into a lovely inn in Dorset, VT, in the early afternoon, and went for a cold and quiet walk for the last hour of daylight, marveling at the colonial houses before wandering up a wide, wooded trail simply marked “Town Trail.”

As we turned around it began to snow, then hail – not enough to be uncomfortable or wet, just enough to rattle through the leaves and fade the golden landscape to gray. By the time we were back at the inn, the snow had cleared. We changed into warmer clothes and sat by one of the many fireplaces, drinking big glasses of Malbec and reading and nibbling on blue cheese and pickled green tomato pizzas the lovely innkeeper had put out for us. As the dark and cold grew deeper, we bundled up for a windy, back-roads drive to SoLo Farm & Table, where seemingly everyone else in Southern Vermont had gathered for a cozy meal in the farmhouse. I had mushrooms and duck egg on toast followed by the tenderest rabbit with bacon, prunes, baby eggplant, and roasted vegetables. We ended with a shared chocolate pot de creme before stepping back outside into the gentle snow.

Back at the inn, full and warm and sleepy, sitting in the low light in front of the woodstove in our room, Trevor kissed me and told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me, and asked me would I marry him? And of course, with the biggest smile and a pounding heart, I said I would and kissed him a lot more times. We didn’t tell anyone until we got home the next afternoon, so all morning we reveled in our temporary secret, driving around in the alternating sun and snow and holding hands and just enjoying being together.

And here’s the more important part: I get to spend the rest of my life with an incredible man. There’s so many little things that I’m thrilled to have every day. The way all the tension leaves my body when I slip into his arms at night. Yelling “goodbye, I love you!” from the front door to the bedroom every morning, even though we’ve already kissed goodbye. The hug I get every time I walk in the door. I have a man who will drop everything to come pick me up if it’s raining and I don’t want to wait for the bus, and who meets me with takeout when I have to work late. Who insists on dropping me off and picking me up at the airport every trip, even though it’s sometimes a bi-weekly occurrence. Who comes home from a 12-hour day and spends 3 hours more working to fix our house. Who makes spicy chicken noodle soup when I’m sick and tirelessly helps me with my photo shoots and does all the dishes when I just look tired. Trevor is smart, hard-working, handsome, supportive, sweet, and most importantly, kind. I have a lifetime of being cherished ahead of me, and of giving back all the love I have. And I’m so excited for every minute of it!

We haven’t done anything official to celebrate yet, but I did make us a little cake and open a bottle of champagne last weekend. The cake is packed full of apples spiked with a little bit of bourbon and drizzled with salted caramel for a supremely fall-ish dessert. And the champagne, besides getting drunk it’s own, worked very nicely to top off a simple cocktail of apple cider and bourbon and bitters. So, cheers to Trevor, to us, to the past 7 years and hopefully the next 80!

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Salted Caramel Apple Cake

Serves 8-10. Adapted from Dorie Greenspan via Epicurious.

• 3/4 c. AP flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 3 TBS bourbon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 8 TBS butter, melted
• 3 large apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 1/3 c. salted caramel, plus more for serving
• Greek yogurt or whipped cream for serving

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, bourbon, and vanilla extract until frothy. Whisk in half of the flour until incorporated, then half of the melted butter. Repeat with the remaining flour and butter, leaving a small amount (less than 1 TBS) of melted butter to the side to grease the cake pan. Add the sliced apples to the batter and gently stir to coat the apples with the batter.
2. Brush a 9-inch springform pan with the remnants of the melted butter, then place the springform pan on a baking sheet (to catch any leaks). Pour the batter into the pan, using a spatula or wooden spoon to smooth the apples into a flat top layer. Drizzle the cake with the salted caramel and transfer to the oven. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake and release the springform cake. Serve with whipped cream or yogurt and a drizzle of salted caramel.

Bourbon Apple Cider Sparkler

Serves 2.

• 3 oz. bourbon
• 1/2 c. apple cider
• few drops bitters
• chilled champagne

1. Add the bourbon, apple cider, and bitters to a cocktail shaker with a few ice cubes. Shake for 15 seconds, then strain into coupe glasses. Top off with champagne and serve immediately.

The post Engaged! // Salted Caramel Apple Cake appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

September is here and I’m thrilled by it. This month has been the light at the end of the very long tunnel of this year. I’ll be here all month, it’s the beginning of my favorite season, we’ve settled into the new house enough that it feels exciting to work on it instead of overwhelming, and, did I mention, I’ll be here all month? NO AIRPLANES.

We’re off to a good start, September and I. I took Friday off to get organized before going into the long weekend, and take care of a few things that I’ve been meaning to do for months: giving the house a thorough cleaning, ordering office furniture, processing the huge backlog of blog receipts I have, etc. Friday night we went out with good friends – it was cool enough to wear jeans and there was a back-to-school buzz in Harvard. I had one too many glasses of wine and had a great time. Saturday when I woke up there was a pleasant chill in the air – the kind that makes you snuggle a little longer in bed and revel in the simple pleasures of a good sweatshirt and a bowl of apple pie oatmeal. We did yardwork all day and then had my mom over for a big pile of pulled pork. Today we spent at the beach, soaking up the still-strong sun and finally-warm-enough water. And there’s still an entire day of the weekend left to enjoy!

I have a few things I’m focused on this month. First and foremost, I want to enjoy myself and relax, spending as much quality time with Trevor and with friends as I can. Second, I have to get rid of this travel weight, so long fall runs and healthy meals are in order. And third, I’m going to get this blog back up and running! It’s been a slow summer here on Katie at the Kitchen Door, and I mean to make up for that with plenty of delicious new recipes in the next few months. It will help that, with the arrival of our new stove next Friday, we’ll finally have a fully functional kitchen… and temperatures that make us feel like cooking again.

So here’s a fall drink to celebrate the arrival of this lovely month. A few weeks ago I was doing some recipe development for a client that involved figs and bourbon and I decided to set aside some of both to make a fig-and-vanilla-infused bourbon. Now that it’s ready I wanted to showcase it in a simple twist on a classic old fashioned, adding a splash of maple liqueur and a twist of orange to the bourbon and topping it off with a little club soda. It’s stronger and less sweet than my typical cocktail choices but it feels just right for fall – dark and brooding and featuring one of fall’s most sensual fruits.

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Fig-Bourbon Old Fashioned

Serves 1.

• 1 sugar cube
• Dash of bitters
• Chilled club soda
• 2 oz. fig-and-vanilla-infused Bourbon (recipe below)
• 1 oz. maple liqueur
• ice
• 1 orange twist
• 1 maraschino cherry

1. Place the sugar cube in a short glass. Top with the bitters and a splash of club soda and use a muddler to stir/smash until the sugar cube is dissolved. Add the Bourbon and the maple liqueur and stir to combine. Add ice to fill the glass and garnish with the orange twist and maraschino cherry. Top off with more club soda if desired.

Fig-and-Vanilla-Infused Bourbon

Adapted from Bourbon and Toast.

• 2 c. Bourbon
• 6 figs, washed and halved
• 1/2 vanilla bean

1. Place the figs and vanilla bean in a sterilized pint jar. Top with the Bourbon and seal the jar with a lid. Place in a cool dry place out of direct light and let sit for 2-4 weeks, until the Bourbon has taken on the color and flavor of the figs.

The post Welcome, September // Fig Bourbon Old-Fashioned appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

The Book: A few years ago, Quirk Books reached out to me about reviewing a book called Winter Cocktails that had just been published. They sent over a copy and it quickly became one of my most used and best loved cookbooks. I’ve shared a number of recipes from it here, including Nutella Melt with Frangelico, Burnt Sugar Hot Buttered Rum, and Chocolate Stout Affogato. Now, the same talented ladies have teamed up to write a second book – Summer Cocktails, but of course. I love making and shooting cocktails: they’re quick to make, instantly rewarding, and they provide endless opportunities for creativity. Plus, at the end you have a cocktail to drink. So I was really excited to dive into this book, and I was not disappointed.

The first section of the book contains classics, always with the option for a clever, modern twist. Mint Juleps go further South with cilantro and ginger-infused rum, and Shirley Temple grows up with a splash of Bourbon and Campari. Next we move on to summer punches, large format drinks and pitchers to set out during backyard soirees, like a frizzante and herb-laced Italian sangria, basil and rhubarb vodka spiked lemonade, and peachy bourbon punch. The “Frosty Drinks” section includes all things blended, ice cream based, or best served with an umbrella. Frozen pineapple gets lots of opportunity to shine in fancy ginger-lemongrass piña coladas and blended with tequila and cointreau, while boozy pops made with everything from avocado and tequila to mango and sake will keep you cool (and really relaxed). The last section of the book is reserved for antidotes, “hair-of-the-dog” daytime mimosas, shandys, and micheladas to help you recover from the night before, if that’s your sort of thing. There are also a few, choice, non-liquid recipes included – think sliders, breakfast tacos, and other things you might start to crave once you’re a few drinks in. In short, this book is full of good stuff: tons of creative ideas, gorgeous photos, and enough inspiration for every summer party you’ll throw.

The Drinks: As we get into the sticky-hot heat of August, refreshing, thirst quenching drinks are just about the best thing in the world. While I was tempted by the boozy milkshakes and sweet punches, I knew that they might feel a little too heavy. But a Watermelon and Pisco Refresher? I was 100% sold on that. I’ve been drinking a lot of pisco in Chile, and I just bought a bottle to experiment with at home, so that was an added temptation. This drink is delightfully fresh from the watermelon, cilantro, and mint, and surprisingly spicy from the little bit of jalapeno that’s added. I may or may not have had one, gone for a run, and then come back and had another one… that counts as hydrating, right?

Recipe Shortlist: Kentucky Mule (with Bourbon and Ginger Beer); Fresco de Arroz con Piña; Bollywood Margarita (with Curry Leaves, Tomatillo, and Coriander Tequila); Moroccan Mint Iced Tea; Pink Ladies Lemonade (with Rhubarb and Strawberry Vodka); Peachy Keen Bourbon Punch; The Luxe Cherry Milkshake

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Disclosure: I received a review copy of Summer Cocktails from Quirk Books, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Watermelon Pisco Refresher

Recipe adapted slightly from Summer Cocktails. Serves 2.

• 3 c. cubed, chilled watermelon
• 3 oz. Pisco
• 1/4 c. packed fresh cilantro leaves
• 1/4 c. packed fresh mint leaves
• 1/2 jalapeno, seeds removed, sliced thinly
• 1/4 c. sugar
• pinch of salt
• ice

1. Muddle the cilantro, mint, jalapeno, sugar, and salt in a cocktail shaker until fragrant. Add several ice cubes to the shaker.
2. Add the watermelon and the Pisco to a blender and blend until smooth. Let settle for a few minutes, then scoop the foam off the top and discard. Strain liquid through cheesecloth or fine mesh strainer into the cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Strain into ice-filled glasses and garnish with additional watermelon slices, cilantro, and mint. Serve immediately.

The post Book Club: Summer Cocktails // Watermelon Pisco Refresher appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

This week has my head spinning. I don’t want to jinx it by writing about it but we may have found our first house. Saturday night I arrived home from Chile, Sunday we went out for a round of open house visits like we’ve done almost every weekend since the beginning of February, Monday we went back to one of the houses for a second visit, and Tuesday we made an offer… which was accepted! Now we’re gearing up for several weeks of legalities and formalities – the inspection, purchase agreement, appraisal, and so on. It’s all new to me and completely overwhelming. I’m stressed to the point of exhaustion but also really excited (although I’m trying to keep my excitement somewhat in check until it’s a sure thing). It doesn’t help that I fly back to Colombia for a week on Monday morning. There’s so much going on! But before then, I’m going to do my best to enjoy the long weekend and celebrate my 26th birthday (tomorrow!) in style, starting with this springy pink cocktail.

This cocktail is inspired by our long weekend in New York this winter. The trip was Trevor’s Christmas present to me, and it was wonderful – we spent the first night in a beautiful old inn in Newport, where we had a superbly elegant French dinner and slept in a room that made me feel like a complete princess. The next morning we continued the drive into the city, arriving in time for the matinee of Les Miserables, which was incredible – I was in tears basically every time Val Jean opened his mouth. We spent the evening restaurant hopping, sampling big soft pretzels and candied pork belly at Pony Bar, incredible pizza at BSide Brick Oven Pizza, and a series of whiskeys at  On The Rocks. I’m not a huge whiskey drinker and actually had sort of a difficult time convincing the bartender there to make me a cocktail (“it’s a whiskey bar, not a cocktail bar”), but once I did, I very much enjoyed the Bourbon Sour he made me. Although I know a Whiskey Sour is about as classic as it gets, it was new to me and I felt a bit more grown-up then I usually do at bars, since there was no fruit, champagne, or sugar rim to be found in my cocktail for once. I’ve made my own spring version here, adding rhubarb and a dash of vanilla to the sour mix for color and a hint of sweetness. This drink is super easy to make and will liven up any spring gathering, so give it a go.

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Rhubarb Bourbon Sour

A refreshing spring cocktail made from fresh rhubarb syrup and bourbon, with a hint of vanilla.

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
• Yield: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. chopped fresh rhubarb
• 1 c. sugar
• 3/4 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 c. water
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Bourbon
• few drops bitters

Instructions

1. Combine the rhubarb, sugar, lemon juice, and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over low heat and simmer gently until the rhubarb is completely soft and the mixture is syrupy, about 8-10 minutes. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t boil over. Strain the liquid into a bowl or glass jar. Stir the vanilla extract into the rhubarb syrup. Keep the stewed rhubarb for another use.
2. For each cocktail, add ice, 1 part rhubarb syrup, 1 part Bourbon, and a few drops of bitters to a cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously for 20-30 seconds, until foamy, then strain into a chilled glass. Garnish with extra rhubarb stalks if desired, and serve immediately.

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Two weeks ago, Trevor and I got back from a gorgeous week spent in the US Virgin Islands. Since then, it has done nothing but snow in Boston. Snow on snow on snow. Record-breaking snow. Headed into the 5th snow day of the past two weeks tomorrow, I thought perhaps we all could take a moment and indulge in some pictures of white sandy beaches and aquamarine water. And when we’re done hating New England/February/cold/precipitation, let’s make an over-the-top tropical cocktail and pretend we’re all on an island together.

Where We Stayed

I booked this trip on a whim back in August, when I happened to see a great deal on flights to St. Thomas. It was originally booked as a Thursday night to Monday morning sort of trip, so we decided that the easiest thing to do would be to stay on St. Thomas and wander over to St. John for the day if we wanted. Of course, between numerous airline schedule changes and the blizzard, we actually ended up being away for a full week – not exactly the weekend getaway I planned, but I can’t say I mind the extra downtime too much. We booked a villa at Pavilions and Pools through AirBnB (the listing is here, if you’re interested – we would recommend it and it’s certainly a better deal than most hotels!). It was a great spot – a private plunge pool, a big private deck, a comfortable and bright bedroom and sitting room, an outdoor-ish shower, and a small kitchen. The privacy and extra space were great, as was spending each afternoon lying on the pool floaties with a glass of cold chardonnay and a book. We were able to walk to both Sapphire and Lindquist beaches, and the team at Pavilions provided us with snorkel gear and beach towels. The roads in St. Thomas are windy and hilly with no sidewalk or shoulder, so even the 1/2 mile walk into Red Hook was out of the question, but we could easily flag down the $1 open-air safari taxis at the entrance to the villa complex for a 3 minute ride into town. We chose not to rent a car and are glad – we didn’t want to spend all our time driving and the adventure of driving on those crazy roads (and on the left!) was not high on our list – but if we had wanted to explore more of the island we would have spent a fortune on taxis (taxis charge per person and rates are not really standard). As it was, we were happy with our two beaches, the dining options in Red Hook, and the easy ferry to St. John.

What We Did

This trip was booked with the explicit purpose of not doing much, so I had to continually remind myself that it was OK to do just that. Trevor had a miserable sinus infection for most of the trip, but he let me drag him around a little bit anyways. Sapphire Beach was the easiest option – just a short walk down a dirt road from Pavilions and Pools. It is gorgeous, but a bit crowded with cruise traffic. Lindquist was a semi-treacherous 5 minute walk down the busy road, and charged a $2 per person fee, but was much quieter and longer, and the lack of amenities gave it more of that remote, desert-island feel (this may have been enhanced by the commercial they were shooting of white horses running along the beach). We snorkeled at both beaches and it was really awesome – I don’t think I’ve been snorkeling since I was 8 or 9 and it really is so cool. We must have seen over 30 different types of fish, and the reef at Lindquist was intact with purple fans and brain coral and many other formations. I probably spent 10 minutes floating and watching a huge school of “Dorie fish” (I mostly only know about tropical fish because of Finding Nemo, sorry) nibble at the coral.

On our second day we took the ferry from Red Hook over to St. John, about a 20 minute ride. Cruz Bay seemed like a much cuter town than Red Hook, although we didn’t walk around and explore at all. Instead, we hit the trails of the USVI National Park – starting right behind the visitor center in Cruz Bay, we took the Lind Trail down to Honeymoon Beach and then connected back to the Caneel Hill Trail, which took us up and over two major hills and down to Caneel Bay Resort. I had thought there was a separate beach at Caneel Bay, but the public beach access signs led us probably another mile back to Honeymoon Beach, so we ended up just hiking back to Cruz Bay instead of taking a taxi from Caneel Bay as planned. If I did it again, I would do a loop, starting on Caneel Hill to begin with and then taking Lind Trail back from the beach on the way back. Caneel Hill is not the most popular trail in the park, but it was convenient that we did not have to take a cab to a trailhead and back again, and it was a challenging and well-maintained trail with great views of the islands from the top of Caneel Hill. On our last afternoon we took a safari into Charlotte Amalie, the major town on St. Thomas – since it was Sunday, I knew that some places would be closed, but literally, everything in the whole town was closed! All the shops, restaurants, bars… it didn’t seem like a town that I would love spending time in (just a bit touristy and shopping-oriented), but if you do go, definitely don’t go on Sunday.

What We Ate

The USVI are not really reknowned for their culinary offerings, and overall we found the food on the island a bit boring and overpriced. Of course, we’re spoiled by the wealth of interesting and affordable restaurants all over Cambridge and Boston, so we have high standards. That said, a few places we ate at are worth mentioning here. Off The Grid, a BBQ food truck located at the top of the hill down to Sapphire Beach was a great stop – they had delicious ribs, pulled pork, wings, sausages, and brisket all sizzling away on a big outdoor grill, plus a sweet and tangy “painkiller” BBQ sauce made with rum and pineapple juice, and good veggie sides like grilled sweet potatoes and rice and beans. They served beer and sangria and we enjoyed our meal at their picnic tables, looking out over the islands.

Our one fancy dinner was at Caribbean Fish Market, one of the few restaurants on the islands that is open on Sundays. The ambiance was nice – it’s part of a resort complex but right on the beach, and we ate outside with live piano music. My chicken was actually quite good, somewhat surprising at a fish restaurant – it was stuffed with bacon and spinach and served with a mango chutney and sweet plantains – but Trevor’s tuna was very bland, certainly not worth $38. I’m not sure where I’d come down on the restaurant in the end – although it seemed overpriced, it was on par with every other nice restaurant on the island, and I think the same is probably true for the food quality. In Red Hook itself we only really partook in liquid dining, but we did have quite a fun time at Melt killing time before dinner. The bar has a younger vibe, and we loved that they have games available – a table behind us was playing Connect 4, there was skee ball and some sort-of skinny air hockey, and Trevor and I spent a solid hour playing Texas Hold ‘Em. The sandwiches there looked good – we were tempted to call off our nice dinner and stick with grilled cheese and tater tots, but we didn’t in the end. Next time. It’s worth mentioning that we were there in the late afternoon so it was a quiet crowd – I’m not sure what it would be like later at night, but likely a lot livelier and less conducive to board games.

This Cocktail

Neither Trevor nor I actually had any froofy tropical drinks while we were away – we mostly drank $4 rum and cokes served in plastic cups, and I don’t recall there being any drink umbrellas (something to improve upon during our next vacation, surely). But rum and coke in a plastic cup doesn’t exactly have that “transport me out of the snow and onto the beach” effect, so I’ve come up with something a lot more exciting. I’m calling it Piña Sunrise, as it’s somewhere between a piña colada and a tequila sunrise. It has three layers – a grenadine and pineapple layer, a pineapple and pineapple layer, and a coconut sorbet layer. Each layer is laced with rum and coconut rum, and it’s all frothy and cold and sweet and exactly the sort of thing you should drink on the beach. I special-ordered drink umbrellas to top it off, just to complete the vibe. So drink up! Winter will be over soon.

Piña Sunrise Cocktail

Serves 2.

• 1 scoop coconut sorbet
• 1/4 c. whole milk
• 3 ice cubes
• 3 oz. coconut rum, divided
• 1.5 oz. white rum
• 3/4 c. frozen pineapple cubes
• 3/4 c. pineapple juice
• 1/2 tsp grenadine plus a dash for glasses

1. Add the coconut sorbet, milk, ice cubes, and 1.5 oz (one shot) of the coconut rum to a blender, and blend until smooth. Pour into a container and set aside.
2. Add the remaining 1.5 oz of coconut rum and 1.5 oz of white rum to the blender along with the pineapple cubes and pineapple juice. Blend on high until smooth. Pour half the mixture into a container and set aside. Add the grenadine to the mixture still in the blender and pulse a few times to mix.
3. Place a dash of grenadine in the bottom of two glasses. Divide the pink pineapple-grenadine mixture between the two glasses. Carefully pour the yellow pineapple mixture on top of the pink layer, then carefully pour the coconut sorbet mixture on top of the yellow layer. The layers may mix slightly, but you should see a gradient going from pink at the bottom to white at the top. Serve immediately (with a cocktail umbrella!)

The post USVI Travelogue // Piña Sunrise Cocktail appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

As has sort of become a tradition for me (and so many other bloggers – I secretly love reading everyone’s year end reviews and getting a little glimpse into their highs and lows), I wanted to take a little time and a little space here to reflect on last year and look forward to the next. I’ll try to keep it relatively short and sweet, but if you’re just hear for the food (no shame in that), skip down to the end for some delicious Russian-inspired zakuski from our New Year’s Eve festivities.

2014, A Year in Review

It was a pretty big year for this blog, especially in the last few months. There were a few months where revenue from this space was actually enough to cover my rent (!), Trevor and I wrote and photographed our first in-print article (I can’t wait to share it with you when it’s published), I worked with a number of great new sponsors and brands, and I created some content I’m pretty proud of. Although sometimes it’s hard to feel progress when you’re working on something day after day, taking a minute to look back at how it has grown over time highlights all the changes.

Personally, this year felt mixed. It may be that I’m letting the stress I’ve been feeling for the past two months represent too much of the year, but like any year, 2014 definitely had its highs and lows. I actually ended up having 3 different jobs this year, all with the same company, which was exciting, but not without its transition stress. I traveled a ton – this was certainly my biggest year yet as far as travel is concerned. I made trips to 6 countries – Ecuador, Hong Kong, Canada, Italy, Malaysia and Ireland – and all of them except for Italy were places I’d never been before. I wrote detailed travelogues of my family’s trip to Ecuador (Quito, The Amazon, Baños, and Cotopaxi) and shared some pictures and memories of our over-the-top dinner at Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, here. The rest of the trips were for work and were mostly documented through Instagram, but in short: Hong Kong is incredibly vibrant and alive and I would love to spend more time wandering through it’s crowded streets; a long-weekend spent solo in Rome in May is just about the loveliest thing there is, for the unhurried bowls of fresh cacio e pepe eaten al fresco, long runs through the Villa Borghese, and afternoons spent poolside; the best part of Malaysia was undoubtedly the food, which was abundant at every meal and convinced me that I would be perfectly happy eating sweet and creamy curries for breakfast for the rest of my life; if someone asked me to move to Dublin I would be happy to go, for the friendly people, the twisty streets, the lively pubs, and unlimited quantities of amazing Irish butter.

Besides travel and blogging, there were a few other things that defined this year for me. I definitely got back into a solid fitness routine over the course of the year, which I documented through these monthly “Fitness Challenge” posts. I started from a place that I was very unhappy with – heavy, tired, and a complete stranger to my old running habits. Getting back in shape was a slow process, but by springtime I was running regularly and eating better, and I managed to keep those habits going all year. And of course, there’s the stuff that really matters – family and friends. I love how much time I was able to spend with my family this year, and being able to drive over for gardening and Sunday dinner almost every week is something I really treasure. I perhaps could have done a little better in prioritizing some of my friendships last year, but it’s something I hope to focus on more in 2015. And finally, Trevor is still the best, I love sharing my life with him, and I love that even after 7 years together I still feel excited to be with him. So that’s a big fat plus sign for 2014.

On to 2015!

Although I’m still reflecting on how I want to shape 2015, there’s a few things that I already know will be focus areas. One thing that I want for myself is to be less stressed. This is probably easier said than done, but I’m trying to think about what habits and routines I can change to allow myself to be more flexible and less likely to end up in a stressed-out, to-do-list-dominated state. I also want to find ways to build more joy and spontaneity into my life, to be more flexible, and to forgive myself and others more easily. I’ve been toying with the idea of some sort of gratitude journaling or instagram project, to keep myself in a positive and thankful frame of mind, but am a little worried that I’ll turn it in to one more thing I stress out about getting done every day. Have any of you tried something like this? What did you think? On a lighter note, I want to read more books, take better advantage of my travels, have more regular date nights with Trevor, and maybe learn to dance on pointe (I have no idea if this is even within my reach, but I’d like to think it is!). What are your resolutions and thoughts for the new year? I’d love to hear about them.

And if you’ve read through all that (not as short-and-sweet as I promised, huh?), then it’s time for some New Year’s eating! We had a fairly mellow New Year’s that was just right – movies and drinks with my brothers, then Veronika came over for snacks and champagne, before we headed with her and Scott to a late dinner in Harvard complete with fun party hats and free champagne. The snacks were sort of a last minute decision, but once I’d gotten the idea of a little Russian-inspired blini spread into my mind, I couldn’t get it out again. New Year’s Eve is a much bigger holiday in Russia than Christmas is, and the evening is filled with lots of zakuski, a buffet of hot and cold appetizers, and vodka toasts. So I whipped up a batch of rye and caraway blini and two easy dips: one made from hot-smoked salmon and cream cheese, and the other from chopped beets, honey, and vinegar. Both got generous helpings of dill and red onion, and spooned onto hot blini for a delightful mix of flavors. For drinks, I went with a sparkly pink number inspired by this Bon Appetit recipe, with fresh grapefruit juice, vodka, campari, and prosecco. Everything was delicious and all together it made for a festive spread.

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Rye and Caraway Blini

Recipe adapted from Food & Wine. Makes 30-40 blini.

• 1 1/2 c. buttermilk
• 3/4 c. AP flour
• 1/2 c. rye flour
• 2 eggs
• 3 TBS butter, melted
• 1 TBS brown sugar
• 1 tsp whole caraway seeds
• 1 tsp coarse kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 c. seltzer or club soda
• canola oil, for brushing the pan

1. Place the buttermilk, both flours, eggs, melted butter, brown sugar, caraway, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a blender. Blend on high until a smooth batter forms, stopping to scrape excess flour down the sides with a spatula if necessary. Let batter sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, or in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
2. When ready to cook the blini, stir the seltzer into the batter. Heat a little canola oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, then pour tablespoon-sized drops of batter into the prepared pan. Cook until bubbles on top of pancake have popped, then flip. They should cook for about 60 seconds on each side. Remove to a plate, and repeat until you have used all the batter, adding more canola oil to the pan whenever it runs out. Best served warm.

Hot-Smoked Salmon Dip

Makes about 1 cup.

• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 2 TBS creme fraiche or sour cream
• 2 TBS finely  minced red onion
• 2 TBS finely minced fresh dill
• 1 small wedge preserved meyer lemon, finely diced
• 4 oz. hot-smoked salmon

1. Beat the cream cheese, creme fraiche, red onion, dill, and meyer lemon together until the mixture is even. Use a fork to flake the hot smoked salmon out of its skin in bite-sized pieces. Gently stir the salmon pieces into the dip. Serve chilled.

Russian Beet Dip

Recipe inspired by Cooks.com. Makes about 2 cups.

• 2 medium beets
• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 TBS finely minced red onion
• 2 TBS honey
• 1 TBS cider vinegar
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh dill
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Remove the greens and tails from the beets and place the beets in a large saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a boil, boiling until the beets are tender when pierced with a fork, about 25-40 minutes, depending on their size. Remove the beets with a slotted spoon and run under cold water, rubbing the skin off with your hands as you do so. This works best when the beets are still warm.
2. Dice the beets into 1/4 inch cubes. In a medium bowl, stir together the cream cheese, red onion, honey, vinegar, and dill until evenly mixed, then stir in the cubed beets. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve cold.

Pretty in Pink

Inspired by Bon Appetit. Serves 2.

• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, from one large grapefruit
• Two 1.5 oz. shots of vodka
• One 1.5 oz. shot of campari
• Chilled prosecco or champagne

1. Add grapefruit juice, vodka, and campari to a cocktail shaker with a few cubes of ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into two coupe glasses. Top each glass off with prosecco and serve immediately.

The post 2014 – A Year in Review // Rye Blini with Smoked Salmon Dip and Russian Beet Salad appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

With Thanksgiving so late in the month and the early onset of wintry weather in much of the US, it feels like we’re hurtling into the Christmas season even faster than we usually do. December begins tomorrow and with it a flurry of excitement – holiday parties, decorating, baking, shopping, spending time with family and friends, and otherwise celebrating the season. While it may seem overwhelming to stick to a budget at this time of year, it’s not impossible, and even entertaining can be done in a way that’s frugal without feeling cheap. When Albertsons tasked me with coming up with a few recipes for throwing a holiday party on a budget, I was up for the challenge. Although my days of scrimping on every purchase (read: college) are getting further behind me, I still tend to entertain with a close eye on my wallet. But that doesn’t mean that the parties I throw can’t still be fun and elegant! When planning a party, I tend to rely on a few tips for keeping both my stress levels and my total expenses low:

• Choose recipes that can serve a crowd. Much of the cost for shopping for a recipe is in the ingredients that you only need a small amount of. If you’re doubling or tripling a recipe to serve a large group, you’re less likely to waste money in the form of lots of little bits and bobs that will be difficult to use up later. Besides, it’s much easier for you as the host to set out a large casserole or serving platter than to concern yourself with lots of small plated dishes!
• Look for ways to extend fancy ingredients. You don’t need to completely avoid luxurious ingredients to stick to a budget, just look for recipes that extend the main ingredient. Dying to serve steak? Slice it thin and serve steak sandwiches with blue cheese and caramelized onions. Want to serve candied nuts but worried about how many you’ll need for a large group? Toss them with homemade popcorn and there’s more for everyone (see below!).
• Cook from scratch. Wherever possible, make recipes from scratch to save money and keep things healthy. An example: making your own pizza dough is easy and requires only a little flour and water – much cheaper than buying one pre-made. Of course, there’s a trade-off here for how much of your time you’re willing to spend doing prep work, so don’t try to do everything by yourself.

With these tips in mind, I came up with the following four recipes. The ingredients would be easy to find at your local Albertsons or Shaws, and for a party of 8 should come in well under $100.

Pomegranate Mojito Punch: Punch is one of my favorite things to serve at a party, especially during the holidays. It’s the easiest way to serve a crowd a festive cocktail, and allows guests to serve themselves quickly and easily throughout the night. Adding a pomegranate and mint leaf studded ice ring to the punch bowl ups the elegance factor, with the added benefit of keeping the punch cool for longer than single ice cubes. Plus, if there will be kids at your party, they’ll love the non-alcoholic version of this, and you only have to make one recipe to please all ages!

Popcorn with Rosemary Butter and Honey-Chipotle Almonds: Candied or spiced nuts are always a hit at holiday parties, but they can be hard hitting on both your waistline and your wallet if you rely on them as an appetizer. Extend them by mixing with freshly popped popcorn, seasoned with fresh rosemary butter. Individual newspaper cones make for a cute presentation, and also allow your guests to help themselves, wandering around with their own personal appetizer without worrying about making a mess or finding a place to put their plate when they’re done. The almonds themselves are glazed with a honey and chipotle sauce – just slightly sweet with a deep savoriness from the chipotle powder, they are completely addictive.

Blue Cheese, Ham, and Fig Jam Stromboli: Similar to a calzone, a stromboli is like the jelly-roll of pizza. It feels slightly fancier than just serving a pizza, but is just as economical when you need to serve a crowd. It also allows easy and mess-free serving, and can be customized to use whatever fillings you have on hand. This one combines fig jam, blue cheese, and ham for a sophisticated and rich flavor combination.

Chocolate-Cherry Crepe Cake: Crepe cakes are similar in concept to a layer cake, except the layers are made from crepes instead of cake – good for those who are intimidated by baking cake from scratch. Assembling this neatly takes a bit of patience, but overall I find it easier than baking and decorating a layer cake. Plus, you get a much better ratio of whipped cream to “cake” then you do with a traditional cake. This crepe cake uses chocolate crepes, espresso whipped cream, and cherry jam.

More like this…

Homemade Eggnog

Rum-and-Pomegranate Glazed Duck

Peppermint Mocha Ice Cream Sundae

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Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Albertsons. All opinions are honest and my own.

Pomegranate Mojito Punch

Serves 8-10. A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe.

• 1 pomegranate
• 1 bunch mint, divided
• Ice cubes
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 ½ c. pomegranate juice
• ½ c. lime juice, preferably freshly squeezed (from 4-5 limes)
• 2 c. white rum (optional)
• 2 c. lime seltzer, chilled

1. To make the ice ring: remove the arils from the pomegranate. One way to do this is to cut the pomegranate in quarters and peel away as much of the white skin as possible, then gently rub the seeds to release. Place the pomegranate arils in the bottom of a bundt pan. Place 10-12 fresh mint leaves on top of the pomegranate, then cover with a handful of ice cubes (the ice cubes will keep the pomegranate from floating when you add water). Cover the pomegranate arils with water – you should have water about 1 inch deep in the bundt pan. Place in the freezer and freeze until solid, at least 6 hours.
2. Roughly chop the remaining mint leaves. Add to a small saucepan along with the sugar and 1 cup of water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit for 10 minutes, allowing the mint leaves to further flavor the syrup. Strain the syrup through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl and set aside, discarding the mint leaves.
3. Pour the mint syrup, pomegranate juice, lime juice, and rum, if using, into a large bowl. Stir, then cover and chill until very cold, at least 1 hour. Just before serving, take the punch out of the fridge and add the seltzer. Remove the ice ring from the freezer and briefly run the outside under hot water to loosen the ring from the pan, then invert the ice ring to remove from the pan and carefully add to the punch bowl. Serve immediately.

Popcorn with Rosemary Butter and Honey-Chipotle Almonds

Serves 8 as an appetizer. A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe.

• 3 TBS canola oil
• ½ c. unpopped plain popcorn
• 4 TBS salted butter, divided
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves removed and finely chopped (about 1 ½ tsp chopped)
• 1 ¼ tsp coarse sea salt, divided
• 2 TBS honey
• ¼ tsp chipotle powder
• 1 c. whole unblanched almonds

1. Place the canola oil in a large, heavy-bottomed stockpot with a lid. Heat over medium heat until shimmering, then pour the popcorn kernels on the bottom of the pot in an even layer. Cover with the lid and place over heat until you start to hear the kernels pop. Wearing oven mitts, shake the pot gently from side to side over the heat as the popcorn pops (to prevent kernels from sticking to the bottom and burning). Do this until the pops slow to 1 or 2 per second, then remove from the heat, and shake for another 30 seconds. Once the pops have completely subsided, remove the lid and give the popcorn a few stirs, then cover and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 300° In a small saucepan, place 3 TBS of the butter and the chopped rosemary. Melt over low heat, then pour over the popcorn and stir. Sprinkle 1 tsp of the sea salt over the popcorn and stir.
3. Place the remaining 1 TBS of butter, ¼ tsp of salt, the honey, and the chipotle powder in the small saucepan. Melt over medium heat, then add the almonds and stir to coat. Cook until the honey sauce has thickened and is bubbling, about 3-4 minutes, then spread the almonds out on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool. Use a fork to break apart any clusters, then stir into the popcorn. Serve the popcorn in individual paper cones for guests to pick up and carry around with themselves.

Blue Cheese, Ham, and Fig Jam Stromboli

Serves 8-10. A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe.

• 1 large pizza dough, room temperature (store bought or homemade)
• ½ c. of fig jam
• 2 TBS balsamic vinegar
• ½ lb. ham, thinly sliced
• 2 c. shredded mozzarella
• ¾ c. crumbled blue cheese (about 3 oz.)
• 2 c. baby spinach
• 1 egg

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Combine the fig jam and balsamic vinegar in a medium bowl. Whisk until smooth.
2. Roll the pizza dough out into a large rectangle, about 14 inches wide by 20 inches long. Carefully lift the dough and transfer to a large square of parchment paper placed on a rimmed baking sheet (dough will hang over the edges before you stuff it). Spread the jam in a thin layer over the middle of the dough, leaving 1-2 inches of space from all four edges. Place the ham slices over the jam in an even layer. Sprinkle the mozzarella and the blue cheese evenly over the ham, then top with a layer of spinach.
3. Prepare an egg wash by whisking the egg vigorously with 1 teaspoon of water. Set aside. Fold the short sides of the dough over by about 1 inch, just to cover the edge of the filling. Brush the top of the folded edge with egg wash. Fold one of the long edges over the filling to cover it by one third. Brush the remaining exposed edge with egg wash (to create a better seal when you fold it). Fold the other long edge so that it covers the previously folded portion, pinching along all edges to seal – you should have a long loaf with three layers inside, folded as you would fold a letter. Brush the entire top and sides with egg wash. Using a sharp knife, make a series of diagonal slits on the top to act as steam vents. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Let rest 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Chocolate-Cherry Crepe Cake

Serves 8. A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe.

• 4 large eggs
• 1 c. whole milk
• 1 TBS butter, plus extra for cooking the crepes
• 1 oz. dark chocolate chips
• ¾ c. flour, sifted
• 3 TBS cocoa powder, sifted
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 ½ c. heavy cream
• 2 TBS sugar
• 2 TBS freshly brewed espresso or 2 tsp espresso powder
• 6 TBS cherry jam
• 1 TBS kirsch, grand marnier, or other fruity liqueur

1. Put the eggs and milk in a blender and blend on high until smooth, about 30 seconds. Melt the chocolate chips and the butter together, either in a small saucepan over low heat or in the microwave (heat on half power for 15 seconds at a time, stirring in between, to avoid scorching the chocolate). Turn the blender back on and carefully drizzle the melted chocolate mixture into the batter, just until incorporated. Turn off the blender. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Add to the batter and blend until smooth, another 30-60 seconds. Refrigerate the batter for at least 1 hour.
2. In a medium frying pan, heat a small pat of butter over medium heat. Once the butter has melted. Pour about ¼ cup of the crepe batter into the pan and swirl the pan so that the batter evenly fills the bottom of the pan. Cook until the visible side of the crepe begins to look tacky, about 60-90 seconds, then flip and cook the other side of the crepe for 30 seconds. Remove to a pan to cool. Repeat until you have used all the batter. Depending on the size of your pan, you should have 12-18 crepes. Chill the crepes until cool to the touch, about 30 minutes.
3. Add the heavy cream to a large bowl and beat on high until soft peaks have formed. Add the sugar and espresso or espresso powder and beat until stiff peaks have formed, then chill the whipped cream until you are ready to assemble the cake.
4. When you are ready to assemble the cake, place the cherry jam and the fruit liqueur in a small saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer (you are just trying to thin the jam to a consistency where it is easily spreadable). Remove from the heat. Place a small dollop of whipped cream on your serving platter or cake stand, then place a crepe on the whipped cream to stabilize the cake. Brush a small amount (about 2 teaspoons) of the cherry jam mixture on top of the crepe, then spread a thin layer of the espresso whipped cream evenly on top of the jam. Top with another crepe, pressing very gently. Repeat the process with another layer of jam and whipped cream. Do this until you have used all of your crepes. Chill the cake for at least 45 minutes before serving – this will make it much easier to cut into the layers neatly. Serve chilled.

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