Thing Fifty: Pear Blossom

I actually made this recipe up back on May 18th, but only posted about it on Facebook. Since it's a cocktail recipe, I'm using my cocktail icon instead of my usual Swedish Chef. :) I wanted something fruity to drink, but not just citrusy, something springlike and refreshing. Since my bridal shower back in September, I've had a bottle of pear vodka sitting on my bar, barely touched, and I've wanted to find a good use for it. Well, this was it. I mixed two ounces of the pear vodka with one ounce of Lillet Blanc, half an ounce of lemon juice, and half an ounce of simple syrup. The result was fruity, slightly tart, with the subtle floral taste you get from pears and also from the Lillet, and very drinkable. I decided to call it the Pear Blossom, for lack of anything better that came to mind. I think the thing that makes me proudest about this cocktail is that I created it by using the kinds of ingredient ratios I've seen in other cocktails, balancing strong and sour and sweet. My instincts on how much of everything to use turned out to be spot-on.

I am drinking one now, as it happens, and it is lovely!

Thing Fifty-One: Thai Peanut Chicken

With this entry, I'm finally past the halfway mark on the 100 Things challenge! Jeez, it's only taken me...FOREVER. When I started, I wasn't even engaged yet. Sheesh. Anyway, the past two nights, I've had a really tasty dinner. I had some leftover coconut milk after making some shrimp in a Thai-style sauce for dinner with my husband on Saturday night. I had also just replenished our supply of peanut butter. Clearly, this called for a nice peanut sauce.

I started with a base of those two things--the coconut milk and the peanut butter--whisked together. To that, I added fish sauce, soy sauce, lemongrass, ginger, garlic, galangal, Sriracha, lime juice, and brown sugar. I tinkered a little with the balance, adding a bit more of this, then of that, until it was just right. Then, I pounded chicken breasts to an even thickness, and seasoned both sides with salt, garlic, ginger, galangal, and lime. I cooked them in my grill pan until they got nice grill marks on both sides, and were done all the way through. I let them rest for a few minutes, before putting the sauce on top. I served it with corn on the cob (lightly microwaved in the husk, then charred over a gas burner) and salad, both nights. So delicious.

The nice thing about this dinner is that the most time-consuming part of it was making tonight's salad, since I had to wash the fresh lettuce from the farmers' market and spin it dry before making the salad. All in all, it was quite fast.