1. butter a pie plate or 9 inch cake pan + preheat oven at 350 degrees
2. wash and rinse the cranberries
3. pour cranberries, walnuts/pecans, and sugar+ salt, into the pie plate or cake pan
4. make the batter, mix up sugar and butter. beat the eggs with the vanilla and almond extract. mix with the sugar and butter. add the flour.
5. pour over the cranberries and walnuts/pecans. add a little salt.
6. bake for 45 minutes.

here is the recipe, nantucket cranberry pie. happy thanksgiving!

this all started because, i wanted to make a poptail (popsicle + cocktail) and i had a pineapple to make a granita.

why this is a slush and not a poptail recipe; i love the idea of a poptail. i don’t like the liquor to liquid ratio (1:6).

i like my drinks strong, and if i followed with a 1:6 ratio for a poptail, it’d be frozen solid, but the liquor amount would be almost non-existent for my overly indulged liquor self.

first thing i made was the pineapple granita. start with that, simple syrup – one cup water, one cup sugar, medium to high heat. next, screw off the stalk of the pineapple. yes, literally, twist it right off. magic!

see how my fingers are not protected? do not cut like me. protect your fingers. cut the pineapple in half lengthwise. cut each half again, lengthwise. from each section remove the core. then cut into chunks. the simple syrup is probably done. turn it off. let it sit at room temperature.

gather up all your pineapple chunks and throw them into a blender with half a shot of the pineapple vodka. blend!

grab a bowl and a fine mesh strainer. put the pineapple puree through the strainer once. pineapple has a lot of excess materials that separate, that’s why i did this, i think it makes for a smoother product.

see? separation! i probably could have strained it a few more times but i think once is definitely good enough for a granita. push as much of the pineapple liquid as you can through the strainer.

find a freezer safe container. pour in the pineapple puree and simple syrup. whisk together, making sure it’s well incorporated. freeze for 3-4 hours.

after 3-4 hours, take out of the freeze, and repeatedly scrape the surface with a fork… then, it’s back in the freezer for another 2 hours. (this all depends on your freezer of course).

looks like sherbet doesn’t it? that’s because the sugar content for my granita was high. if you want it more ice-like, use half a cup of sugar for one cup of water when making the simple syrup, options.

crushing ice. i have an ice crusher. i love it. i love ice. it works like magic.

if you don’t have one, you can use a blender.. or get very crazy, and grab a few bags, load them up with ice, and get a hammer! this will work but i haven’t tried it. crush up a lot. i used close to 4 cups of ice cubes for 2 drinks.

start packing your glasses with crushed ice. find the bottle of pineapple vodka.

one shot of pineapple vodka in each glass. then pour one and a half shots of x-rated fusion over the top. (if you haven’t tried x-rated fusion liqueur, it’s a french vodka infused with passion fruits, blood oranges, and mangos. sofuckingood).

garnish with a large amount of pineapple granita…. all finished! so good. so good. so good……. and, so very strong. be careful! i mean it. careful.

summer drinks. this is one of those.

i started making thyme lemonade a few years ago after finding it in some martha stewart magazine; maybe it was her short-lived blue print. i miss that magazine so much.

last summer i started drinking lavender infused vodka at this bar called district in the sheraton in downtown phoenix. i don’t even remember what the lavender infused vodka came in. but i’m sure it was the lemonade.

i instantly wanted to infuse vodka with lavender, rose petals, thyme, etc.. and i guess you could reverse it; infuse the vodka with thyme and infuse the simple syrup (for the lemonade) with lavender.

first, remove ½ cup of vodka from the bottle. drink it up. burnburnburnburn. it’s two shots i think. second, measure out ¼ cup of lavender flowers.

next, panic and realize that all your plastic funnels have paint all over them. or maybe you just don’t have one. anyway, find a piece of copy paper and make a paper funnel.

after all the flowers are in the bottle, use the back-end of a fork or spoon to mix up the lavender a bit. try to break them apart (but don’t worry too much about this). now, shake, shake, shake.

now put the bottle in the freezer for four days. only four days, seriously, lavender is some strong shit. really, even three days would work.

four and a half days later, it’s done. it’s finished. and it’s amazing… get out the fine mesh strainer and cheese cloth. double up the cheese cloth a few times. start straining. this goes pretty quick.

i didn’t even bother to really try to extract more liquid/vodka from the flowers by pushing on them, but if you wanted, you really could. it is vodka after all. while it’s straining, rinse out the vodka bottle and get out as many lavender flower bits as you can. get them all out. you’ll pour the strained vodka back into the original bottle.

there, it’s done. i put it back in the freezer.

on the vodka brand/choice. i like svedka. i have since i first tried it. it is clean and it is affordable. now, i am no vodka snob. i usually stick to svedka, favored skyy (dragon fruit and soda water is to die for). when i am in a snobby mood, i will opt for jewel of russia (my favorite vodka – ever), but really, svedka does a fine job.

OK - the lemonade.

when buying lemons, very important. do not, do not, do not, buy lemons that feel light. they will be too dry to juice. find lemons that feel heavy for their size.

this is an optional ingredient (but for me, kind of, essential but i cook a lot so i like to have extracts on hand), lemon extract. i am going to use it. you don’t have to. but it does add a punch, such a richness, like ohhhh this is good, so i really do recommend it. and i promise if you do in fact use it, you’ll always use it, lemon poppy-seed muffins, lemon pound cake, more lemonade.

i received a fancy juicer as a gift.. i never use it. and you don’t need one, really. i like mine though (especially when i get to use it.)

so… i ran out of white sugar. i almost had a full cup of white, i think i was about 3 tablespoons short, so i ended up throwing some brown sugar spoonfuls into the white to make a full cup of sugar.

i use a 1:1 ratio for simple syrup. one cup sugar, one cup water. it is basic and it is easy, and that ratio is perfect for cocktails. start with 1 cup sugar in a pot, add 1 cup water and turn the heat on high. next, clean 3-6 sprigs of thyme. toss the cleaned sprigs into the simple syrup. bring to a rolling boil and turn off and remove from heat. leave the thyme in there.

i only needed 5 lemons to get a cup of juice, but, i have needed up to 10 in the past. this will vary a lot i think. to get the most juice out of your lemons, fork the skin a few times and put in the microwave for 5-15 seconds. if you’re juicing by hand, that makes it a lot easier.. also! squeeze the lemons over a fine mesh strainer or colander so it catches the seeds.

when you have a cup of lemon juice, add 1 teaspoon of the lemon extract to the juice, and, remove the thyme from the simple syrup.

add 3 cups of water and the lemon juice to a pitcher. when the simple syrup has cooled to luke warm, add it to the pitcher as well. stir stir stir. cut up some lemon slices and throw some thyme sprigs in the lemonade.

for the cocktails – mix 1/2 cup of vodka for each 1 to 1 and 1/2 cups of lemonade. garnish with a lemon slice and sprig of thyme. these are some serious cocktails. they’re strong but don’t taste it at all.

i finished mine, in like, 3 gulps. very lady like.