Short thoughts

[magid]

I want to figure out what flavor would go with pink grapefruit in booze. None of the things I've used before sound right (cinnamon, vanilla bean, ginger, hot pepper), nor the things I've considered for other combinations (lime-mint and lime-cranberry, for instance). Suggestions?
(Side note: making liqueurs means I'm generating a number of empty 1.75 L vodka bottles. Can anyone use them?)

I wonder if I can use a drill press to put holes in date pits to turn them into beads.

My current crochet focus has switched from the hyperbolic surfaces in DMC8 thread to using regular yarn to make hats (yarn gives so much surface area so quickly in comparison!). What I'd really like is to crochet a zany top hat (where "zany" currently implies a wider crown and angled sides plus regular brim, but could mean something else).

I should start thinking about Purim costumes. I haven't tended towards dressing up as something/one in particular, rather than just dressing up in general. Perhaps that should change.
(At least mishloach manot feel very much under control, since I have many many canned things (pickles, jams, applesauce) and possibly liqueurs that I could just put together and deliver.)

Both years I've gone to Burning Man, I've used solar power to cook most of my food, using an Indian-style spice tin and some foil. The setup works great for things like couscous, but I wouldn't use it for unstable proteins or longer-cooking grains/beans. It might be time to invest in a solar oven, which would likely be usable at least some of the summer here, too.

At Arisia, I got to play test a new game written by majes. It's a cooperative card game called Rise Against Monsters (link to download the pdf).

Random links:
An interesting analysis of the State of the Union addresses through US history.

I'm not sure what to call this, really, other than interesting. And art. And black and white. (Hat tip to Chillguru.)
Some interesting body painting (some possibly NSFW).

Performance (video): the Top Secret Drum Corps of Basel, Switzerland.
Johnny Weir ice skating to Lady Gaga's Poker Face, with what could be Korean commentary. Disco lights and sexy skating; what's not to like?
eta And another video I find strangely compelling that I finally found again: a lip-synched Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night (done in a single take with dozens if not hundreds of students). /edit

Humor: flow chart which religion should you be?
a periodic table of SF TV and movies (not at all complete. I mean, Firefly's there, but not Buffy? Vampires not enough to make it SF? Close Encounters didn't make the cut either. Etc. Still, cute.)

Tech: integrating data displays into clothing; I don't love the dress, but the technology is pretty interesting.

Comments

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

I think ginger actually sounds lovely...maybe cardamom?

[magid.livejournal.com]

Ginger might, but it's not at all obvious to me that it would work, the way apricot-hot pepper or pear-ginger do. Hrm.

I don't have enough of a sense of cardamom to be able to say (and would a cardamom pod release enough flavor if put in booze, the way a cinnamon stick or vanilla bean do? No clue.).

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

My only concern re:grapefruit/ginger would be that it would taste too much like something you picked up at Bath & Body Works.

You could also maybe go 360 degrees and do basil or thyme...that would make for an interesting martini.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Do you often taste your bath products? ;-P

The herbs are intriguing. Though these aren't right for martinis, since it's not infused (i.e. flavored) vodka, but liqueurs, which have sugar in them, and a very different mouth feel (think sipping little tastes of fruit-booze).

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

Mmm little tastes of fruit-booze...I've got a homemade blueberry liqueur waiting at home we've yet to open. Need to work on getting some vanilla ice cream for that.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

I've sprinkled cinnamon-sugar on grapefruit before and it was quite nice. Since these are liqueurs, cinnamon might work. But I guess it could also be easy to overpower the grapefruit flavor with cinnamon. So maybe not.

[magid.livejournal.com]

So far, a single cinnamon stick in about a quart of fruit + vodka hasn't been too overpowering, and the first round infusion with pink grapefruit (last week's batches) have a strong grapefruit scent; I have hope it will stand up well. So cinnamon with grapefruit might be a way to go after all.

[cellio]

I once made a mead that called for putting one cardamom pod in each bottle at bottling time, and that worked really well. Since vodka is stronger than mead, I would think that it wouldn't have any trouble drawing the flavor out of cardamom.

I also like the mint and rosemary suggestions.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the voice of experience. I will have to get some cardamom pods next time I'm at the store.

Grapefruit

[cnoocy]

Salt, possibly
Cherry? I know grenadine is traditional in grapefruit drinks.
Peach

Re: Grapefruit

[magid.livejournal.com]

Salt in a sweet liqueur? Might work. Though my first association is making Moroccan preserved lemons (lemons + salt + time), which are fabulous, and yet not at all something I'd want in a drink.

Cherry might be interesting. If only cherries were in anything like the same season as grapefruit! (The cherry liqueurs I made earlier this year were from Cambridge fruit :-). Similarly, peach. I think this summer I might have to find room in the freezer for some fruit, so I can combine winter and summer fruits.

Re: Grapefruit

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

Oooh - if you're going the grenadine route, pomegranate would be pretty fabulous.

Re: Grapefruit

[magid.livejournal.com]

I wonder if I can find organic pomegranates. (And they'd be a pain to deal with, I suspect, given I'd have to filter them somehow. They're so little!

Re: Grapefruit

[cnoocy]

Could you stick the seeds in a press or mill of some sort?

Re: Grapefruit

[magid.livejournal.com]

Probably, but it becomes more of an involved process at that point, compared to what I've been doing (not to mention the potential mess).

[gilana]

A quick perusal of grapefruit sorbet recipes shows mint as a common ingredient, so that might actually work well. Or what about brown sugar?

[magid.livejournal.com]

Mint might work, though I'm inclined to experiment with lime-mint as my first foray into using leaves.

I just started another batch of apple-cinnamon-vanilla that I'm going to try with brown sugar instead of white, so that might be a good way to go.

Emerging from the ether to suggest...

[theora.livejournal.com]

...juniper berries. Like gin and grapefruit, very tasty. But probably would use a light hand as juniper berries are pretty potent.

Re: Emerging from the ether to suggest...

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'd have never have thought of this! Do you know where I could get juniper berries?

Oh, and that triggers another thought: perhaps black peppercorns.

Re: Emerging from the ether to suggest...

[(Anonymous)]

Pretty sure Penzey's carries them, and I wouldn't be surprised if Harvest did too. Maybe Whole Foods?

Black pepper would be interesting, too.

Re: Emerging from the ether to suggest...

[theora.livejournal.com]

Oops, that was me.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Grapefruit + honey is OMG SO GOOD. (Drizzle honey on grapefruit. Place grapefruit under broiler for a few minutes.)

If you clamp the date pits securely, I don't see why you -can't- drill holes in them.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I haven't yet played around with liquid forms of sweetener for these; the second round sugar pulls the boozy juices out of the fruit, and I suspect it would be less intense for already-liquid stuff like honey and molasses. It might be interesting to put some in partway through the second round, though. That opens up a whole world of possibilities: honey, molasses, maple, agave...

I wasn't sure whether they'd shatter, but perhaps that's not a concern.
(I keep on being intrigued by date pits since reading about the 2000 year old pit found in some archaeological dig that they've gotten to grow. I almost want to see whether I could make some sprout, though what I'd do with a date palm were I successful, I have no idea. And while I know most fruit has seeds that I could grow, it feels more immediate with dates. Anyway, something about not wasting their potential entirely makes me think about using them in alternate ways, even though it destroys their reproductive capability.)

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

If you drilled the pits soon after removing them from the dates, I think they'd have enough moisture still in them that they wouldn't shatter. Drilling slowly would probably also help.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

this was what I came in here to suggest.

[megmuck.livejournal.com]

I like the mint idea; rosemary also strikes me as an intriguing combination. If you can't get to Penzeys for the juniper berries, you could also stop by the spice store next to Christina's ice cream in Inman Square or Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge or the South End. Or you could just pick some - there are plenty of juniper bushes around.

[magid.livejournal.com]

The spice store next to Christina's is also Christina's, just with less convenient hours. No clue why they expanded that way, but it's useful.

I think I know what juniper bushes look like, and if I'm correct, I wonder why more people don't pick the berries. Perhaps I should make a batch of juniper liqueur over later this year.

Oh, and your suggestion of rosemary makes me think that lavender might also suit. The advantage of lavender being that I'm overwintering a shrub of it in the kitchen, so I have fresh leaves and buds /flowers right now (and very much local and organic :-).

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, what amazing suggestions for grapefruit pairings, such creative thinking.

Anyway, I came across a site tonight that I thought would interest you. Go to http://www.ihatecilantro.com/taste.php to check it out.

Oh, and last weekend when I heard it was the 50th anniversary of bubble wrap I also thought of you.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

My brain told me this morning that raspberry and grapefruit would work well. I don't know that I trust it, because of the hour, but who knows!

I think the rosemary suggestions also sound intriguing.