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.

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We’re leaving for vacation in the morning and I still have about a million and one things to do before that, so I apologize in advance for the brevity and scatteredness of this post. If it illustrates the situation for you, let me just share that I’m sitting in a pile of laundry, eating leftovers of this penne alla vodka cold out of a plastic tupperware. Food blogging isn’t all rustic wooden tables and nice ceramics, guys. Sometimes it’s cold leftovers in tupperware.

Anyway, penne alla vodka. When I was in college, most likely in similar states of chaos, I used to order penne alla vodka from the local Italian place for late-night delivery. It came in a big aluminum container, was just spicy enough, and the sauce to pasta ratio meant I was always spooning sauce out of the container long after I’d eaten the last bite of penne. I hadn’t thought about those glorious containers of terrible-for-you noodles until this fall, when I suddenly started craving them, and since then I’ve whipped up a batch more times than I should probably admit. Let’s just say that I brought a bottle of nice vodka home from Russia last year, and about 90% of it was used in this recipe. That may sound like a waste of good vodka to some, but I don’t regret it one bit. It’s just the perfect thing for harried nights or after a particularly long day – it only takes 20 minutes to make, and hits all the tangy, salty, creamy, spicy notes I crave when I’m feeling less than motivated. I use the Serious Eats recipe as a base, but tone down the vodka and quadruple the red pepper flakes. If you have the time, blend the sauce for that smooth and thick consistency that coats penne so well, but if you’re in a hurry, or just don’t feel like washing your blender, I can attest to the fact that it’s just as good a little bit chunky.

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Penne Alla Vodka

Adapted from Serious Eats. Serves 6.

• 3 TBS butter
• 1 small white onion, peeled and finely diced
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• One 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 c. vodka
• 1/2 c. heavy cream
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 lb. penne pasta, cooked to al dente

1. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring frequently, until onion is fragrant and translucent, but not browned, about 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for 2 minutes longer, stirring.
2. Stir in the tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Add the vodka and cook until the alcohol has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Transfer the sauce to a blender, and blend on high until smooth. Return to the saucepan and stir in the heavy cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then toss with the penne and serve immediately.

The post Cravings: Penne Alla Vodka 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.