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.

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Just a quick hello today to share with you a series I’ve been working on over the past few months. I’ve been collaborating with La Crema Wines to come up with three winter salads – salads that are healthy and fresh dishes but still hearty enough to make a filling meal on a cold night.  It’s tempting to eat comfort food all winter long – it’s what we crave! – but I find that keeping my diet balanced (e.g. following that bowl of cheesy, comforting pasta at lunch with a lighter salad at dinner) can help me stay feeling energized and motivated.

The first salad in the series is an all-white stunner. Roasted cauliflower, crunchy Belgian endive, sweet pears, grapes, and toasted pine nuts all come together with a blue cheese and buttermilk dressing to hit all the notes a salad needs: savory, bitter, sweet, and rich. I served this one with a glass of La Crema Monterey Chardonnay, which has a buttery richness that complements the funky blue cheese and bitter endive really nicely. Find the recipe here.

Sticking with the monochrome theme, the next salad is a festive mix of red fruits and veggies. With Russian red kale, beets, red cabbage, fresh pomegranate seeds, and balsamic vinaigrette, it’s tangy, juicy, and really good for you. Served alongside a glass of La Crema Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, it makes a light lunch or dinner that will leave you satisfied without feeling bogged down by heavy carbs and dairy. Find the recipe here.

The last salad in the series, and my favorite, celebrates sweet, juicy January citrus – such a welcome relief in the middle of the winter. This salad, featuring grapefruit, blood orange, fennel, and white-wine poached shrimp, is super simple, but still very flavorful, light, and satisfying. The rich and buttery shrimp offset the fresh tang of the citrus and the faintly sweet crunch of the fennel. Serve this salad with a glass of La Crema Monterey Pinot Gris. Its clean brightness and slight acidity are the perfect match for the tangy flavors of the salad. Find the recipe here. 

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of La Crema. The opinions and text are all mine.

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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.

I was planning to post this last night, but for some reason when I got home from my run in the 35° weather, I just didn’t feel like a cold veggie smoothie. I felt a lot more like this pumpkin, black bean, and chorizo soup (delicious, we added half a jar of tomato jam for sweetness and it was perfect). But this morning when I woke up, carrot-grapefruit-mango smoothies were the first order of business.

Some of you who follow me on twitter or instagram may have heard that I recently became the owner of a Vitamix. And a pretty fancy one at that. It was a bonus of sorts from my real job (I love the thing, but I can’t ever see paying $600 for a blender), and perhaps it’s just because it’s new, but I’ve been blending up a storm. Green smoothies (or orange ones as it may be), have become a daily treat, and I love starting my day with them – they’re so immediately energizing, I feel like I should make a video game powering-up noise when I drink them. I know a lot of people who think drinking green smoothies is a completely frou-frou thing to do, but I’ve been trying to convert them one sip at a time. Seriously, green smoothies taste like mangoes or bananas or apples, not spinach. The spinach is just a bonus.

Since I made drinks for both rhubarb week and pea week, I figured it was only logical to whip up a carrot based drink as well. Carrot juice and booze did not strike me as a stellar combination (although I think this could change my mind), so I decided to go the healthy route and turn my stubby little garden carrots into a frothy smoothie. The trick to making a smooth drink from whole, raw carrots is to peel and grate them first – a little time consuming, but worth it for the creamy texture you’ll get (and much cheaper than buying carrot juice!). The Vitamix could probably handle them just cut up into chunks, but I’m still getting the hang of the correct ratios for using it, so I grated them this time around as well. The result was a thick, vibrant, tangy breakfast full of beta-carotene, vitamin A, vitamin C, and fiber. Drink your vegetables!

Carrot-Grapefruit-Mango Smoothie

Serves 1. Inspired in part by this and the Carrot-Grapefruit Juice in Vegetarian Everyday.

Note: This can be made in any blender, but if you’re using a weaker one, you’ll want to chop up your grapefruit and blend on high. If you’re using a Vitamix, you could probably get away with not grating the carrots, but I like the extra smooth texture that grating them gives.

• 1 c. water
• 2 small carrots, peeled and finely grated
• 1 ruby red grapefruit, peeled and cut into quarters
• 1 c. frozen mango
• 2-3 ice cubes (only if using Vitamix)
• maple syrup or agave to taste (optional)

1. Place ingredients in blender in order listed. Blend on high until thick and smooth. Serve immediately.

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For my birthday this year I threw a panini party at my house, complete with made-to-order paninis, blackberry margaritas, sparkling sangria, a tiramisu cake, and all my favorite Bostonians. Hosting is always stressful, but I managed to get everything cooked (with massive amounts of help from Trevor), relax, and really have a great time.

I’ll let the pictures tell this story (although I’ll be honest, some of the panini shots came from the next day – it’s hard to simultaneously cook paninis and have fun and think about pictures!), but know that if you’re trying to think of a cheap, easy, and diet-accommodating way to feed a lot of guests, paninis and sangria are a great way to go.

This is my stud-muffin boyfriend making me this Tiramisu Cake from Smitten Kitchen, and me very happily eating a slice that is way too big for me.

This is the most delicious sangria ever – made with strawberries, plums, grapefruit juice, and sparkling wine. The recipe, which comes from the new book Home Made Summer, is at the bottom! (P.S. You can enter to win a copy of this book and two others until the end of the day tomorrow, Weds April 24th!)

And this is my poet friend Noah, who takes his strawberry-muddling job very seriously. (As he should).

This amazing bowl of bread has two sources – that huge, dark loaf came from the restaurant L’Impasto, and it’s truly some of the most amazing bread I’ve ever tried. The smaller, bacon-studded baguettes? Yeah, Trevor made those. He’s awesome. (He’s been baking his way through the artisan bread baking book, Local Breads, and I am the happy taste tester for many of his experiments.)

And this is what the bread turned into – delicious, oozy, paninis. The one on the left is caramelized onions, mustard, and a mixture of blue cheese and cheddar, and the one on the right is the classic fig jam, prosciutto, and goat cheese combo. Yum. And now for that sangria recipe…

Cava Sangria

Recipe adapted slightly  from Home Made Summer. Serves 4-8, depending on how thirsty you are.

• 2 peaches or plums, washed and thinly sliced
• 1 orange, washed and thinly sliced
• 2 large handfuls strawberries, hulled and sliced
• fresh juice from 2-3 large grapefruits, or 2 c. store-bought juice
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• a few sprigs fresh mint
• 1/2 c. brandy
• 1 bottle chilled cava, or other sparkling white wine
• sugar to taste (optional)

Combine all the fruit, the grapefruit juice, the cinnamon sticks, and the mint in a large pitcher and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour. Just before serving, stir in the brandy, then pour the wine over the top. Taste, and stir in sugar if it is not sweet enough. Serve cold.

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Just here to quickly share the recipe for this salad, which is one of the first recipes in this year’s winter cleanse. I started the cleanse today, and so far haven’t cheated! (Except I had one single sour peach ring, because I haven’t seen them in ages, and I love them. I don’t feel bad about it.) I’ll be posting the full menu for week one of the cleanse on Sunday, along with some additional healthy breakfast recipes tomorrow or Saturday. Until then, you can take a peek at last year’s cleanse (week one, week two), or just enjoy this healthy salad, which manages to be both filling and refreshing at the same time.

Hope everyone’s resolutions are off to a good start!

Grapefruit and Avocado Salad with Ginger-Cassis Dressing

Adapted from Bon Appetit. Serves 1.

• 1/2 ripe avocado, peeled and sliced
• 1/2 large grapefruit
• 2 large handfuls spinach or arugula
• 2 TBS ginger-cassis dressing (see below)

Cut peel off grapefruit and cut supremes away from inner membranes. Layer grapefruit segments and avocado slices over the greens and drizzle with the dressing.

Ginger-Cassis Dressing

Recipe from Bon Appetit. Makes ~2/3 c.

• 2 TBS finely chopped shallot
• 2 TBS finely minced fresh ginger
• 3 TBS high-quality olive oil
• 3 TBS creme de cassis (black-currant liqueur)
• 4 tsp sherry vinegar or white wine vinegar
• salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a small tupperware with a lid and shake vigorously to blend. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Store extra dressing in the fridge and shake before serving.

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In the past two years I’ve participated in several recipe development challenges hosted by Marx Foods, an online company that sells specialty meats (think alligator, kangaroo, and frog), truffle products, mushrooms, unique pantry goods, and lots of other culinary goodies.  The first challenge I participated in was the four-part “Ridiculously Delicious” challenge they hosted last winter, for which I made dill and feta stuffed cucumber cups, spicy cherry-chocolate souffles, and a trio of wasabi-centric recipes using fresh wasabi.  Then, this summer, I participated in the dried chile challenge, and made a smoky-sweet adobo and corn frittata, which I very much enjoyed.  And now it’s time for another challenge!  This time around the challenge is to make a sweet recipe using fregola – an ingredient I’d never even heard of until this month.  I have yet to win one of these challenges, but maybe this will be my lucky recipe.

Fregola is a toasted Italian pasta, similar in size and shape to Israeli couscous.  I could eat couscous all day every day, so I was super excited to try another version of it.  To be honest, I didn’t like the fregola as much as I like regular old couscous – it’s very chewy and has an almost tapioca-like consistency – but it was still an interesting new addition to my kitchen.  Along with the sample of fregola, Marx sent a handful of other goods to inspire a sweet fregola creation – whole vanilla beans, star anise, and saffron.  The contestants were required to use at least one of the extra ingredients along with the fregola.  Almost immediately upon signing up for this contest I knew that I wanted to create a fregola fritter, something that played on arancini – the delicious cheesy fried risotto balls made with leftover risotto which I seem to be eating a lot of lately.  So I made a fregola pudding using milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, honey, and vanilla, and then, after a brief rest in the fridge, fried it up into fritters.  To cut the grease and add another level of flavor, I made a batch of Gourmet’s grapefruit and star anise salad.  My mom and I make this salad every year on Christmas morning, and it’s my favorite part of Christmas breakfast without fail.  Even when there’s vanilla bean coffee cake, maple-turkey sausage patties, and pomegranate mimosas – that should tell you something about how delicious it is.  It was the perfect complement to the slightly sweet, chewy fritters, and the syrup soaked right into them.  I’ll be enjoying the leftovers for breakfast for the next few days (and not even feeling that bad about it – thank you, grapefruit).  I think this is the original recipe that I’m most proud of – I guess there’s something to be said for keeping it simple.

Sweet Fregola Fritters with Star-Anise and Grapefruit Compote

Grapefruit compote recipe from Gourmet.  Makes 5 large fritters.

• 1 c. fregola
• 3 c. milk
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 c. honey
• 1 vanilla bean
• canola oil for frying
• 2 grapefruits
• 1/4 c. water
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 3 whole star anise

1. In a large saucepan mix together fregola, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, and honey.  Scrape out seeds from vanilla bean and add to the mixture along with the pod.  Bring to a gentle simmer and cook, stirring frequently (be sure to scrape any milk skin off the bottom to prevent from burning) for 20-30 minutes, until pasta has just a bit of chewiness left and milk has boiled down to create a thick fregola pudding.  Remove the vanilla bean pod and refrigerate mixture for 1 hour, or until cool.
2. In a small saucepan, dissolve sugar in water, and add the star anise.  Bring to a gentle boil and cook for 5 minutes to create a thin syrup.  Peel the grapefruits and remove their segments, placing in a medium bowl.  Squeeze any excess grapefruit juice into bowl as well.  Add the star anise syrup to the grapefruit mixture and set aside.
3. Heat a 1/2 inch of canola oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat.  When oil is hot, form the fregola pudding into 5 patties about 3 inches in diameter and 1 inch thick, and gently fry for 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown.  Fregola mixture should stay firmly together when formed into patties by hand.  Drain fritters on a paper towel and serve warm, with the grapefruit compote served on the side.

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Over the weekend, I developed three wasabi-centric recipes for the last round of the Marx Food contest that I’ve been participating in for the past 7 weeks.  I only submitted one of my three recipe so the contest, but I still enjoyed the other two.  One of the rejected recipes was for wasabi cupcakes with grapefruit buttercream and caramelized grapefruit.  While the wasabi cupcake wasn’t my favorite, the grapefruit buttercream was incredible and I’m pretty proud of myself for developing the recipe.

My problem with most grapefruit flavored baked goods is that they don’t taste at all of grapefruit – it’s a hard flavor to instill because grapefruit juice is fairly dilute, so it’s hard to maintain its bright, juicy flavor while also keeping a reasonable wet-dry ratio in your recipe.  I’ve tried grapefruit curd that only tasted slightly citrusy, grapefruit frosting that was far too runny to use, and grapefruit cake with a cup of grapefruit juice but no flavor to it at all.  This time, I wanted to really get that grapefruit flavor, so I decided to create my own grapefruit concentrate and use that as my flavoring.  I boiled a cup and a half of ruby red grapefruit juice for about 40 minutes, reducing it to about 1/4 cup of viscous liquid.  This grapefruit reduction was so tart, while retaining its juicy flavor, that I had high hopes for it.  I mixed a basic buttercream up, omitting half the liquid ingredients (cream and vanilla) and added 3 TBS of the grapefruit concentrate to it.  Voila!  The frosting was firm, pipable, a lovely pink-orange color, and actually tasted like grapefruit.  Great success.

Grapefruit Buttercream

Makes about 1 1/2 cups, or enough for 12-14 cupcakes

• 1 1/2 c. grapefruit juice
• 1 stick salted butter, room temperature
• 2 c. confectioner’s sugar
• 1 TBS heavy cream

1. Cook the grapefruit juice over medium-high heat in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally, for about 30-40 minutes, or until the juice has reduced to about 1/4 c. and is beginning to act syrupy.  Skim any foam off the top and discard.  Allow to cool completely before using in the frosting, or store in the fridge until ready to use.
2. In a large bowl, beat the stick of butter with a wooden spoon until it is smooth.  Add 1/2 c. of the confectioner’s sugar and stir in until all of the sugar is incorporated.  Then beat vigorously for a minute or so.  Add the remaining confectioner’s sugar, scraping any excess down the sides.  Incorporate, and then beat vigorously for 3 minutes, until fluffy and smooth.  Add the 1 TBS of heavy cream and beat in.  Add 2-3 TBS of the grapefruit reduction and incorporate thoroughly.  Taste.  If it needs more flavor, add the remaining grapefruit reduction as well as an extra 1/2 c. of confectione’rs sugar in order maintain the consistency.

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