Pirate Juice

Pirate Juice has unknown origins. Its shadowy past includes appearances at Luca’s, my favorite bar in Locust Point until it closed in 2010. Not many know its ingredients or how to create it, but we have decided to share with you its secrets.

To make pirate juice properly, you will need:

• 3 cups Malibu Coconut Rum*
• 1.5 cups Pineapple juice*
• A dash of Naked Berry Blast juice (or something similar)
• 1 orange, cut into wedges
• Sliced fresh strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries for topping. Apples, clementines, and blueberries are good, too.

*The Malibu and pineapple juice mixture is 2:1, so feel free to mix more than 3 cups/1.5 cups.

1. Mix the Malibu and pineapple juice.
2. Squeeze the orange wedges into the Malibu/pineapple juice mixture.
3. Fill a glass with ice and pour in the Malibu/pineapple mixture. Add a dash of Naked Berry Blast to the glass.
4. Top with fruit, and preferably, a straw. A paper umbrella too if you have one.
5. Drink outdoors for maximum enjoyment. A well-timed “arrrr” wouldn’t be misplaced, either. Happy summer cocktail drinking!

trixy treats

Trix aren’t just for kids anymore, rabbit.

You will need 2 bags of marshmallow and one box of Trix fruitalicious swirls.

1. Melt the marshmallows in a large pot over very low heat, stirring frequently, for 15-20 minutes.
2. Mix in the Trix.
3. Transfer the mix onto a buttered pan* and let cool; cut into squares with a sharp, buttered knife.
4. ENJOY!

* this is a LOT harder than it sounds. The marshmallow increases in stickiness and strength as it cools. When trying to smooth out the mixture, my hands stuck fast to the sticky, blobby mess – I battled with it for 15 solid minutes, trying to free myself. It was like wrestling Swamp Thing. Or a hydra.

homemade thank you cards

lights! camera! christmas!

it’s almost christmas! dani and i are heading down to our parent’s house in north carolina with our family for the weekend, and as we haven’t been down there for awhile, it won’t be decorated properly. our dad bought a tree (our family’s first ever artificial tree – sad), but that’ll be about it! so, last night, i decided to make festive christmas decorations to bring down to the beach. after seeing these lovelies on hellogiggles, i fashioned something similar using the following ingredients from the dollar store:

they turned out fantastic! i made two, and i wanted them to turn out slightly differently, so i snuck small branches off our christmas tree and stuffed the pieces into one of the jars. if you need a last minute holiday centerpieces or decorations, these are simple, festive, and perfect!

happy decorating!

healthy cupcake

yesterday was my lovely colleague xanthi’s birthday. she didn’t want anyone to make a fuss, no singing, no cake, no balloons. although i find it hard to understand why someone wouldn’t use their birthday as an opportunity for unabashed preening and favor-mongering (make me tea. fetch my book.), it was her day, and so we stashed away our party hats and instead settled for leaving things on her desk for when she walked in. waiting for her was an adorable card, a fantastic smelling candle (birthday cupcake! it smelled so glorious you wanted to eat it. we are unfortunately not allowed to light things on fire in the office, and so we were unable to see it in its full glory), and my contribution:

the healthiest cupcake you’ll ever eat!

to your good health (and many more birthdays),

katie

sea-salty caramel-y hot cocoa

hot cocoa = winter, snowball fights, warmth, family, friends, books, comfort. the draw and idea of hot cocoa is irresistible, however, both dani and i have found we don’t actually like drinking it, and tend to abandon our mugs about halfway through.

my mini holiday season goal was to make/find a hot cocoa recipe that would basically be good enough to where we wouldn’t put down our mugs and wander off in search of other things (like something savory to combat the sickening sweetness of most hot chocolates).

i found a yummy sounding recipe on http://realmomkitchen.com. i didn’t just want to make a cup of hot cocoa, though – i wanted it to be a gourmet treat, and nothing could possibly be more gourmet than combining the gorgeous flavor of sea salt caramels with homemade chocolate-y hot cocoa.

you will need:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup half and half
• 4 cups whole milk
• jarred caramel sauce
• whipped cream (homemade or store bought)
• sea salt

1. mix the cocoa powder, salt, and sugar into a saucepan.

2. add the half and half, and stir until blended

3. cook over medium heat until the mixture boils, stirring constantly

4. add the milk, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches serving temperature.

5. remove, whisk until frothy, and ladle into mugs.

6. top with whipped cream, caramel sauce, and sea salt (sprinkle the sea salt directly onto the caramel to get the desired sea-salty-caramely taste).

this hot cocoa is delicious! it’s creamy and chocolate-y and so much better than store bought. i had to shoo dani away from the pan multiple times, where she was trying to weasel samples with a spoon. and as if the deliciousness of the hot cocoa itself wasn’t enough, the sea salt and caramel on top really give it an extra, festive oomph.

it makes everything tasty

the massacre of 2011

our turkey’s soul, and the souls of all other turkeys that have passed, were spinning in their little turkey graves during the event at our parent’s house this past thanksgiving.

the event started innocuously enough: our mom got up at 5am to stick the turkey in the oven. please see the turkey timer we’d given our dad the night before as a thanksgiving host present:

legs down = uncooked, legs up = cooked.

mom then went back to bed. the gorgeous 26 pound turkey roasted slowly over the next several hours, covered in foil until it was deemed appropriate to begin the basting process.

note the turkey timer's leg position, and refer to the diagram above. is this turkey cooked yet? no. <-- a fact our parents chose to ignore, and a fact which would return to haunt them.

our parents pulled the turkey out of the oven, and our greedy little eyes drank it all in – crispy skin, plump haunches, smothered in herbs – and blood pooling beneath its wings. the bird, it appeared, was not fully cooked.

the event

after a closer inspection, it was revealed the wings and legs were not fully cooked, while the rest of the bird was moist and succulent.

making the only decision they could at the time, our parents decided to hack the bird’s wings and legs off. the difficulty of this was exacerbated by our dad’s refusal to use a knife made for sawing through bone.

the images that follow are not for the faint of heart.

by the time they finished with it, it wasn’t even recognizable. we hope your turkey escaped the oven with a modicum of dignity. happy thanksgiving!

this post is dedicated to our wonderful parents, who know that doing fowl tasks together makes them much more fun.

instant prehistoric!

while in harper’s ferry for my birthday weekend adventure, dani found a packet of mysterious pills guaranteed to turn into prehistoric creatures once placed in water.

disturbingly enough, a different package read “for a good time, place capsules in water …” not particularly kid friendly, in our opinion – but what do we know about advertising?

dani bought a pack for our brother’s girlfriend, amanda. we all gathered round to observe this jurassic park-like experience.

voila! baby dinosaur!

it was actually kind of gross to watch.

we have no idea what amanda is going to do with so many mini sponges.

happy gift giving!

senoritas

hedgehog greetings

dos senoritas has a hedgehog, a little albino african pygmy. his name is 고슴도치. it means ‘hedgehog’ in korean and is pronounced ‘kosim-doch’i', but we call him dochee for short. he is beautiful:

this is dochee at his first birthday party. he likes hats - look at his smile!

this is how you turn our beautiful little dochee into a birthday card:

1. get some toothpicks

2. wite-out!

3. coat the toothpicks with wite-out and let dry

4. make a suitable background

5. construct a dochee out of paper and a peach colored crayon and glue to the front (be sure to give him a red eye to make it authentic). make a festive birthday sign to glue to the back of the card

7. attach your toothpicks (with super glue or a hot glue gun, whatever you can scrounge up). for fun, write in dochee language around the edge of the card.

(dochee has two languages, sniff-hiss and whiffle)

8. voila! your dochee card is complete and ready to be given to some lucky friend for his/her birthday!

(for the purposes of this card, the dochee does not need legs. he does, however, have them in real life)

katie!