Every little thing we can do for ourselves, our family and friends during these frightening days enables us to feel a bit better. For me, making immunity boost shots helps fill that need.

I first spotted and began buying the little immunity shots at Trader Joe’s late last year. A few weeks later, I found them at Costco for a better price. Eventually, I got tired of them and stopped putting them in my cart.

But all along I’d wash out and save the little bottles with the thought of using them for some sort of homemade Christmas gift to give in 2020. I hadn’t given any thought about exactly what I’d fill the tiny bottles with, but I knew I’d think of something by December.

Well, the use of the bottles came sooner than expected. Last week, I created a homemade version, filled the bottles, and gave them to family and friends to give them a boost of immunity. Here is a list of what is in the recipe and the benefits of these immunity-rich foods:

Ginger: anti-inflammatory, supports digestion, helps with motion sickness, reduces pain, is rich in antioxidants, and boosts the immune system.

Citrus: excellent source of vitamin C, a nutrient that strengthens the immune system and keeps your skin smooth and elastic.

Coconut Water: has anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties that can help increase your body’s immune system and fight viral infections like flu.

Turmeric: a natural way to help bolster the immune system by increasing the immunomodulating capacity of the body. Add turmeric to your diet during periods of stress or during flu season to help give your immune system a boost.

Raw Honey: anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, rich in antioxidants, strengthens the immune system, and anti-inflammatory.

I did not use honey in my batch only because I drink at least three shots a day and I didn’t want the added calories. Also, I only had 20 little bottles, so I filled those to give away and then I poured the rest into the empty coconut water box and keep that in the refrigerator. A serving is 2 ounces or 1/4 cup.

If you were to use an actual shot glass to drink from, you’d need to fill it three times for one servicing. I use a 1/4 cup liquid measuring cup made by OXO to drink my shots. WARNING: This is a strong drink, especially without the honey, so slam it back like you would a shot of tequila, the faster the better. This is by no means a sipping drink. 🙂

I created a couple of signature cocktails and a mocktail for the Harmony Boards Launch Party last week.

photo credit: Robert Westerman

This first recipe was the big hit of the night. You’ll know why when you see the ingredient list:

• Fresh lemon juice – check.
• Sugared rims – check.
• Fresh ginger – check.
• Everyone’s favorite alcohol, Vodka – check!

Of course, not everything can go off without a hitch. I’d made the Ginger-Lemonade and other components for the cocktails at home earlier in the week. Then Kim and I transported and prepped everything at the venue on Tuesday, the day before the party.

(I should stop here to say that the venue is one of the charming Airbnb that Kim’s son and daughter-in-law, Cody and Chanté, operate. Cody and his Chisel Built company do the remodel and Chanté does the interior design. You can visit this home, known as the Zona Rosa, and their other vacation rentals at Chisel Built Stays.)

Late Tuesday night, around midnight, I woke up from deep sleep to remember that the lemonade had to be poured onto sheet pans and frozen. Oops!

photo credit: Robert Westerman

I was so concerned that I’d forget in the morning, that I got up and put the sheet pans in my car. It wasn’t until I arrived at the house, pans in hand, that I realized they would not fit in the freezer. Now what?

I poured the lemonade into a couple of dozen small plastic cocktail cups and put them in the freezer. I knew I wasn’t going to get the same easy effect as I’d get by spreading it on sheet pans, where the frozen slushy-like mixture could be simply scraped off into a pitcher. I was going to get frozen lemon cubes. But, in a pinch, a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do!

photo credit: Robert Westerman

When it came time to mix up the cocktails, a few of the cups were still slushy in texture, which is what we needed. But most were rock hard. Poor Kim took on the task of breaking and mashing those lemon ice cups down. It all worked out in the end – everyone raved.  Thanks, Kim!

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I first created this cocktail for the last class, a Comfort Food-themed menu, in my 3-week cooking series at Les Gourmettes. I served it again as my Signature Cocktail on Thanksgiving. If ever there was a Comfort Food Menu – it is Thanksgiving!

To me, it’s important to use one big ice cube for this cocktail, either a square cube or a round ice ball.

I have both types of ice molds, but my round ball mold only makes one at a time, whereas the square mold makes 6 cubes at once. Since I had 16 cocktails to make for the cooking class and 12 more for Thanksgiving, of course, I went with the square cubes.

I did find THIS cool multi-round ball mold on Amazon. I’m adding it to my Christmas list!

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Our friends, Lori and Jonathan Vento, were in town last week. We wanted to get together with them along with Tram and Steve, but none of us felt like cooking. Come on – It’s August – It’s hot – Our energy level is low, at best!

I offered our house for Friday night and Lori had the great idea of just getting take-out. We decided the thing to do was a Chinese Take-Out Pot-Luck Dinner Party.

Coincidentally, my friend, Chef Joshua Hebert of Posh was selling some excess kitchen and dining wares he’d recently acquired from a restaurant that closed. I met him at a hangar at the Scottsdale Airpark on Thursday and purchased some lovely Asian dishware.

One little thing like this is all it takes for me to go all out with a theme! Now it’s ON like Donkey Kong!

The Ventos are former neighbors of ours, so as a surprise for them, I invited two other neighbor couples, the Codys, and the Cavans. On Thursday afternoon, I learned that Friday was Lori and Jonathan’s 27th wedding anniversary. Now we really did have a party! Tram and Steve picked up a cake, and everyone brought their favorite Chinese take-out to share and an anniversary for the adorable couple!

Since I was hosting, I didn’t want to leave the house to get take-out, so I made a cocktail, soup, and a fruit dessert. Today, I’ll share the cocktail recipe. Tomorrow we’ll have another entry for the new weekly Travel Tuesday feature. Then, on Wednesday I’ll post the soup recipe, and Thursday I’ll share the dessert (no oven, no-bake, in other words – the perfect dessert!) recipe.

Chinese Take-Out Pot-Luck Dinner Party Menu

~Orange-Ginger Sake Champagne Cocktail

~Lemongrass-Ginger Coconut Chicken Soup

~ Tram & Steve brought Chow Mein and Beef & Broccoli from Nee House Chinese Restaurant

~ The Anniversary couple also brought Chow Mein, along with Orange Chicken, from Chop and Wok and some cookies and candies from Sprouts. (which I forgot to put out, so I have them all to myself! Just kidding, I gave the cookies to my dad and the candies are destined for Connor’s house.)

~ The Codys picked up Chicken Lettuce Wraps from P.F. Chang’s, which Whitney beautifully served on a lovely wooden tray with a vintage covered serving dish and a stoneware pitcher for the sauce. They also brought a big bowl of fortune cookies. It’s not a Chinese dinner without fortune cookies!

~ The Cavans brought Fried Rice from Yume Sushi Grill, which Dana transferred to a big chafing dish to keep it piping hot. Smart girl!

~ Tropical Fruit stuffed Pineapples with Coconut Yogurt Sauce

~ Chocolate Mousse Anniversary Cake

It was all delicious! Even having two types of chow mein was fun since it was great to taste them side-by-side and compare.

I have a TIP to share for this cocktail recipe. Actually, it’s a good tip for any recipe where you are using herbs in the body of the dish and again for garnish. When removing the leaves, in this case, the mint leaves, strip the leaves below the tip of each sprig and save the tops, the tip of each sprig, for garnish. Too many times, people strip off all the leaves and realize too late that they need some pretty pieces to use at the end of the recipe. Get in the habit of always reserving the pretty tips and you’ll never have that issue again.

Orange-Ginger Sake Champagne Cocktail

• 1 bottle sake, chilled
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh ginger
• 1/3 cup fresh mint leaves, plus 8 to 10 sprig tips for garnish
• 5 navel oranges, divided
• 1 bottle champagne or sparkling wine, chilled

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The original craft that Tram planned to bring for the Craft Party was a very cool black and white-painted harlequin pumpkin. She and I looked at several options on Pinterest and we were both quite excited about it.  Then… time passed and well, if you’ve read this blog for more than a few months, you know that Tram has adorable 7-month-old twins, Zak & Zoey. 

Yeah, I know! They are just about the cutest thing on this Earth! And to think that when they start talking up a storm, they will be calling me “Aunt Linda” – I’m super excited about that!

Anyhow, Tram has her hands more than full. As the party approached, I decided to take the pressure off and offer an easier craft option. One that I could help her with and one that was close to her strength. One with coffee! You also probably know that Tram and her husband, Steve, own Press Coffee Roasters.

So… I found some awesome bottles. Here are the bottles we used. Next, I gathered up all the ingredients needed – except some cinnamon sticks, and the coffee, of course, which I left to the expert! Somehow, between the two of us, we came up with the most popular craft at the party.

Photo courtesy of Tram Mai

Cocktail Infusions!

And not just one flavor, but three delicious options!

Shopping Notes: All of the dried fruits were purchased at Trader Joe’s.  The whole spices can be found at any grocery store. The brown sugar cubes at Cost Plus and the rock sugar at an Asian market.

They come together in no time and make THE perfect hostess gift for the holidays. Or just a super cool thing for your own bar. Enjoy!

To make the Cranberry Infusion:

Gently remove the cork topper.

Place about 5 of each of the three varieties of cranberries in the bottle. Add 2 brown sugar cubes and 8 white rock sugar pieces. Tear 2 of the large pieces of the dried Mandarin fruit into the bottle.

Return the cork topper and add the Cranberry Infusion label.

 (Trader Joe’s carries at least three varieties of cranberries. All have slightly different coloring and textures, so I bought 3 packages for added interest. You can use just one variety and drop in 15 cranberries of the same type.)

To make the Ginger-Cardamom Infusion:

Gently remove the cork topper.

Place 4 pieces of the Crystallized Ginger and 6 pieces of the Uncrystallized Ginger in the bottle. Add 2 brown sugar cubes and 8 white rock sugar pieces. Add 1 tablespoon of Cardamom seeds to the bottle. Tear 2 of the large pieces of the dried Mandarin fruit into the bottle.

Return the cork topper and add the Ginger-Cardamom Infusion label.

(Same thing with the ginger. It would be perfectly fine to just use either ginger, but the two add a better look to the bottle with more variety and interest.)

To make the Espresso Infusion:

Gently remove the cork topper.

Place 2 tablespoons of coffee beans (preferably Press Coffee!) in the bottle. Add 2 brown sugar cubes and 6 white rock sugar pieces. Next, add 1 piece of vanilla bean (cut a vanilla bean in thirds and just add 1/3 of the bean) plus 1 piece of cinnamon stick, and 3 whole loves.

Return the cork topper and add the Espresso Infusion label.

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Happy Belated 100th Birthday to Tax Day! Woot!

Yes, today is April 15th – Tax Day, but the actual birthday was about 10 weeks ago, on February 3rd. That day marked the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 16th Amendment, which allowed for an income tax.

Since my husband is a CPA, it is both the bane and the livelihood of his existence. Congratulations, Dave, you made it through yet another tax season! What is this – your 33rd or 34th? Either way, you are my Man of Steel! My Superman!

I know I don’t tell you often enough, but it is true. I appreciate all you have done and all you continue to do for me and our family! xoxo

Yesterday, I woke up super early, before the sun, because a big ugly black bird, a grackle I believe, was sitting on the fireplace chimney of our master sitting room and he was yapping it up. The chimney creates a mega-horn effect that travels directly into our bedroom.

I went out front and threw rocks in his direction. I’m not very good at throwing rocks. I have no distance or aim, but he finally got tired of watching me try and flew off. If he returns tomorrow, I’m hauling out my Pellet Gun!

I normally reserve my prized pellet gun, given to me as a Mother’s Day gift many years ago, for pigeons. But if that bird starts up with me again…

I may not be good with rocks, but I am an excellent aim with that gun, just ask the loved ones of the pigeons who are no longer around. Enough said!

Anyhow, since I was wide awake and all riled up, I went out into my backyard and started checking out what was happening. It was a beautiful morning, so I took a bunch of photos and ended up posting them on Instagram.

Peaches, pomegranates, Cherokee Purple tomatoes, and the herb garden…

… which is being taken over by the oregano and mint at the moment! I need to get out there and do some serious cutting back!

Are you on Instagram? If so, I’d love to follow you. You can find me HERE.

I also made a big jar of sun tea. It is SO good, it’s already nearly gone… in only one day, with only one person drinking it… me!

Here’s the recipe – plus there are still a couple more garden shots at the end of the post.

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Have you used star anise in your cooking before? Not sure? If you’ve ever used Chinese 5-spice, then you’ve used star anise. And if you’ve ever sipped on Pernod, Galliano, or Sambucca, then you’ve tasted star anise.

I am going to tell you more about star anise than you may want to know – hang in there – there is an fantastic recipe using it that follows.

As you might have guessed, even before you saw the photo above, star anise is star-shaped. It is a dark brown pod that contains a small seed in each of its eight segments. Native to China, star anise comes from a small evergreen tree.

The flavor of star anise is slightly more bitter than that of regular anise seed. Asian cooks use star anise to give a licorice flavor to savory dishes, particularly those with pork and poultry. It’s available whole or ground and is an essential ingredient in Chinese five-spice powder.

It is also used to produce Pernod, Galliano, and Sambucca, and even plays a big part in the production of Tamiflu.

The reason for the sudden extreme interest in star anise is the result of a succulent recipe from Chef John Ash.  Chef Ash was the guest teacher at Les Gourmettes this past week and he made the absolute easiest and most wonderful poached chicken. We then used that chicken to make slider-sized sandwiches and a soup. I’m going to give you his recipe (slightly revised) for the poached chicken today. His sandwich recipe tomorrow, which is seriously to die for, just ask my neighborhood Bunco ladies who ate them up last night! Then, my own soup recipe using the chicken and the stock it produces. Lastly, one final recipe using the remaining chicken.

You are going to want to make this, so go get yourself a couple of chickens!  And while you’re at the store, here is what you’ll need for not only the poached chicken but also for tomorrow’s sandwiches.

• Two young chickens (preferably organic)
• 1 package/bottle star anise (any spice aisle, but the best price is at an Asian market)
• 2 bunches green onions
• 4 ounces fresh ginger root
• 1 package pretzel rolls (Costco has then!) or potato rolls (slider size)
• 1 bunch watercress
• 4 large onions
• golden raisins (optional)

Pantry items

• sugar
• salt and pepper
• balsamic vinegar (preferably white, but regular is fine)
• olive oil and/or butter
• garlic

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For the first time in months, the high temperature has been under 100 degrees. The high 90’s may not seem like much a of reprieve to most people, but for those of us in the Valley of Sun, it’s a huge difference. It is most likely more of  a break mentally, but it makes us happy and gives us hope that fall is finally on its way!

So, duck is not traditionally thought of as a warm weather dish, but it was surprising refreshing, even on a 96 degree day. It was inspired by a recipe I’d seen by Tyler Florence, one of my favorite celebrity chefs.

I saved the water used for steaming the duck, poured it into a large glass measuring cup and chilled it. Then I removed the top layer of fat and used the water underneath to boil jasmine rice as an accompaniment for the duck. Finally, I seasoned the rice with salt and a few dashes of Chinese five-spice. 

Although this recipe takes about 2 hours to cook, the actual hands-on time is less than 10 to 15 minutes.

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About 10 years ago I was completely intimidated by, even the thought of, canning. It had never occurred in my house while growing up and the process of sterilizing the jars seemed like rocket science to me! Then something happened so that I could no longer avoid it. We had a peach tree in our yard and branches were breaking off the tree on a daily basis from the weight of so many ripe and juicy peaches. And guess what? I discovered that not only was canning no big deal or some painstaking process, it was actually fun!

This sauce is wonderful when eaten either savory or sweet. I use it as a glaze and accompaniment for baked ham during the holidays. When heating the sauce to glaze the ham, just stir in one finely minced jalapeno pepper to spice it up a bit.

It is unbelievably delicious and decadent when warmed and spooned over grilled bananas, along with a little warm caramel sauce!

Or use it at room temperature or cold spooned over ice cream or stirred into plain or vanilla Greek yogurt.

The darling little canning jars make a cute name “place card” or party gifts to hand out to your guests as they are leaving your home after a special dinner or holiday meal. Happy canning!

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It’s been raining here in Arizona all week. Yesterday and this morning have been especially harsh; flooding, high winds, closed airports, several feet of snow up north, (plus a leaking roof for me!) – just crazy stuff for our dry desert state!

This weather makes me want to bake and the chilliness and dark skies make pumpkin and spices seem like the perfect thing to pop in the oven. I was planning to make a regular Bundt cake, but while digging through the cake pans, I found my mini-rose-shaped Bundt pan. These pretty little cuties bring a little warmth and sunshine to an otherwise cold and rainy day.

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