Monthly Archives: January 2016

Cocktails for Fall and Winter

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The winter chill in Southern California has subsided for a bit, but cooler temperatures and rain are forecast for this weekend. I often look to the internet to find new cocktail recipes made with the spirits that suit the season. Here are the recipes I discovered and am adding to my cocktails repertoire.

Hot Toddy

While suffering with a miserable cold in December, I searched for Hot Toddy recipes hoping that this hot drink might provide some relief. This recipe posted on Liquor.com by top bartender and mixologist Jacques Bezuidenhout features a video on how to make it. I liked the lemon twist with cloves as it gave the drink some cheerful color.

INGREDIENTS:

PREPARATION:
Fill a mug with boiling water and let stand for a minute or two to warm. Meanwhile, stick the cloves into the lemon twist and set aside. Empty the mug and fill about halfway with fresh boiling water. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Add the prepared lemon twist and stir. Add the lemon juice and whiskey, and stir again.

Irish Cider

Over Thanksgiving, I was looking for a drink that included whiskey. As I happened to have some apple cider on hand, this Irish cider recipe fit the bill, especially since Jameson Irish Whiskey is one of the key ingredients! It was created by Bill Ward at the Dream Downtown hotel’s Marble Lane bar and restaurant in New York City. The recipe was posted over two years ago in this NY Daily News article on Irish whiskey cocktails for St. Patrick’s Day by Gina Pace; it looks like Marble Lane has since closed.

Cocktail cider

Irish Cider – using seasonal snowman glasses!

 

Irish Cider

Created by Bill Ward at Dream Downtown’s Marble Lane

  • 1½ oz. Jameson Irish Whiskey
  • ¾ oz. Blackwell’s Rum
  • ½ oz. apple cider
  • ½ oz. lemon juice
  • ½ oz. agave syrup
  • Ground cinnamon

Combine the cider, lemon juice and agave and simmer until it’s reduced by about one-quarter to one-third. Let cool. Put all ingredients into an iced cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. Strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass and top with ground cinnamon.

Blackberry Fizz

Shortly before New Year’s Eve, I read Spencer Spellman‘s post on 7 Easy Champagne Cocktail Recipes. Spencer is frequently posting drool-worthy cocktail photos, and this Blackberry Fizz recipe intrigued me since it included one of my new favorite spirits, gin!

Instead of champagne, I made our fizz’s with Cava and served them on New Year’s Eve while we were enjoying a quiet evening at home with the dogs. I really enjoyed the mix of the gin and cava, and with the blackberry and lime mixed in, I think this would be a perfect celebratory drink for the warmer months as well.

Cocktail blackberry top

Spencer Spellman’s Blackberry Fizz – the blackberries and lime garnish make for a colorful, festive cocktail.

Spencer Spellman’s Blackberry Fizz

Quoting Spencer:

This may just be my favorite champagne cocktail on the list. Alright, so perhaps that’s because it’s one that I came up with. But it’s really so delicious, refreshing, and fruity. Additionally, it’d make a great summer champagne cocktail for making in batches. Because everyone likes champagne, right? You’ll want to first muddle the blackberries in a cocktail shaker good enough to break up the berries and release the juice. Next you’ll add the rest of the ingredients (except for the champagne) with ice to the shaker and shake. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice and top with champagne.

  • 2 oz. gin
  • .75 oz. agave
  • .75. oz. lime juice
  • Several blackberries, muddled
  • Champagne
Cocktail blackberry ingredients

Making the Blackberry Fizz with Bombay Sapphire and Cava.

 

Candy Cane-Kahlua Hot Chocolate

Believe it or not, winters in Los Angeles can be chilly. When the temperature dips into the 40s and we turn on the heat, it is a perfect time to make hot chocolate. I wanted to make something a bit more involved than regular hot chocolate, and since we had not had any Kahlua in a while, I searched for hot chocolate and Kahlua recipes and found this by Natalie Migliarini on Delish.com.

I love the addition of the candy cane – perfect for all the candy canes that you receive for Christmas and never end up eating. I served the hot chocolate in my Christmas markets mugs from the Christmas market in Budapest and the Schloss Schönbrunn Christmas market in Vienna. It pairs perfectly with my home made sugar cookies for a decadent dessert.

Cocktail hot chocolate

Candy cane-Kahlua Hot chocolate served in mugs from European Christmas markets.

Candy Cane-Kahlua Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

  • 1/2 c. whole milk
  • 1/2 c. heavy cream
  • 1 candy cane
  • 3 tbsp. sipping chocolate
  • 1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 oz. Kahlua
  • whipped cream
  • candy canes

Directions

  1. In a saucepan over low heat, warm whole milk and heavy cream.
  2. Add 1 candy cane and stir until melted.
  3. Stir in sipping chocolate and vanilla extract.
  4. Remove from heat, stir in Kahlua, and pour into glass.
  5. Garnish with whipped cream and candy canes.

Do you have a favorite winter cocktail? Share the recipe or a link in the comments below.

Flashback: Penn Alumni Explore the World

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My Uncle Terry from Colorado visited our family in Southern California after Christmas this year. During his visit, he asked if I chronicled my many journeys around the world. While I keep track of places that I’ve visited, I have not yet put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), to capture most of the truly memorable moments of my journeys. Starting this blog was my attempt to do just that.

Today I look back on the first blog post I wrote for the Penn Alumni blog, Frankly Penn. It was about the Baltic Cruise I took in 2005 – it is hard to believe that it was ten years ago. I shared one of my most memorable travel experiences – visiting a Russian Orthodox church service with my friend Christel. Reading about it again transports me to that church, and the sights, the sounds and the smells we experienced. It reminds me of why I travel, and why I continue to want to explore more of our amazing world and learn about the people that live here. I hope you enjoy it!

This post was originally published on the Frankly Penn blog on April 22, 2011.

Penn Alumni Explore the World

As the Director of Penn Alumni Travel, I have been fortunate to see much of the world, traveling with fellow Penn Alumni and friends on Penn Alumni Travel programs. While the sites we see are often iconic, sometimes, it’s the stolen moments of unexpected serendipity that stay in your memory and make each trip special.

In the summer of 2005, we were on the Historic Countries of the Baltic cruise. The itinerary included stops in Gdansk, Poland, several former Soviet republics – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Copenhagen and Stockholm. It was a wonderful trip – a small ship with 100 passengers from various institutions around the U.S., including Penn. Everyone seemed to get along well, no matter your alma mater. I still remember climbing to the top deck late one night (with the infamous white nights of summer, dusk started around 11 p.m.) to find a few of the Penn travelers sharing Cuban cigars with alumni from LSU.

St. Petersburg

I had never been to Russia before, so arriving in St. Petersburg was fascinating. It was hot, and humid, and the city just shimmered. Since our ship was small, we were able to dock relatively close to the central part of the city. As we took a bus to tour the major sites, there were young brides and grooms everywhere, taking photos against the city’s landmarks.

Bride and Groom

Everyone seemed to smile when we saw another pair of newlyweds.

The Happy Couple

We toured the Peter and Paul Fortress, visiting the tombs of the czar and his family. We had an early morning tour of the Hermitage– the architectural details of the building itself were amazing, not to mention the vast art collection.

The Hermitage

We traveled outside the city, visting Petrodvorets, (Peterhof Palace), which lived up to its reputation as being the “Russian Versailles”, and Catherine’s palace, Tsarskoe Selo,, walking through the recently restored Amber Room (no photos allowed). En route, it was fascinating to see the Soviet architecture – such beautiful palaces and museums from long ago contrasted with the blocky modern buildings of the former USSR.

Peterhof

Catherine Palace

All these sites were amazing to see, but it was something I experienced not on the itinerary that remains lodged in my memory. The cruise director on our ship had lived in Russia for several years, and she shared tips about St. Petersburg with the passengers – where to have lunch, what to do if encountering gypsies, and suggestions for places to visit, including a Russian Orthodox church service. Intrigued, I decided to visit the church not far from where our ship docked. Christel Pailet, Director of UCLA’s travel program, decided to join me.  The cruise director informed us that orthodox services go on for hours, so she said we could stop in, stay as long as we liked and leave on our own timeline. She also recommended that we cover our heads and shoulders. We brought along a shawl and set out – about a 10 minute walk from our ship.

This is the church where Christel and I attended a service as seen from our ship

From the outside, Russian Orthodox churches are beautiful and massive. Inside, this church seemed small and intimate. It was dark, with only minimal light streaming through small windows.  There were maybe 15-20 people inside. There were no pews so everyone stood. There was chanting coming from above, from monks or priests we couldn’t see. It seemed like the chants were coming from the heavens. Every once in a while, the worshippers would bend over and touch the floor with their hands. Christel and I stood in wonder, watching, listening, not understanding anything being said or chanted but transfixed by the spirituality of the service.

Then, we noticed what we assumed to be a priest. He was standing slightly off center on the ground level. He was speaking in hushed tones with a woman who was clearly upset. Tears were streaming down her face. He seemed to be comforting her, or maybe it was a confessional, we could only guess. Then, he would stop speaking to her, say some words aloud for the service, and resume speaking with her. After about twenty minutes we left, fascinated by what we had witnessed. We wondered why this woman was so upset and what the priest was telling her for comfort. Other worshippers came and went while we stood and watched. When I saw Christel recently, she said it was one of her most memorable travel experiences. I couldn’t agree more.

This year, Penn Alumni Travel is visiting the Baltics again. I look forward to visiting these countries as I join the Penn travelers on the May 31 departure. Two famous historical figures will come aboard the ship for lectures – Lech Walesa and Mikhail Gorbachev. Plans are underway to repeat this trip next year, and as these departures sold out very quickly, you should make your reservations early!

Kiera Reilly, C’93, Director, Penn Alumni Travel, in front of St. Petersburg’s Church of the Spilled Blood

View more photos from Penn Alumni travel here.

Originally published on the Frankly Penn blog on April 22, 2011.

Reflecting on the “Best” of Instagram 2015

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Here are my best nine Instagram posts from 2015:

Best Nine

A week or two ago, I noticed people posting a photo collage on Instagram with the hashtag #2015bestnine. I googled and soon learned how to discover your best nine photographs you shared on Instagram that garnered the most likes.

It is quite simple – visit http://2015bestnine.com/, type in your Instagram user name, and the site searches your posts and compiles the top photos in a collage you can post to Instagram, share to Twitter or save as an image. The site also compiles your total number of likes (5,332 for me) and the total posts you shared in 2015 (299 – almost one per day!).

I was surprised to see my results – all the photos are from right here in southern California – and it was fun to remember the story behind each one.

My most liked photo (in the top left of the collage) is from a calligraphy workshop this fall in downtown LA at the Design Love Fest studio. I have followed Lauren Essl’s feed, @BlueEyeBrownEye, for a while, and I was excited to be able to participate in one of her workshops. I took the introduction to calligraphy class, and I learned enough to address all of my Christmas cards this year with calligraphy!

From Lauren Essl's Blue Eye Brown Eye introduction to calligraphy workshop at Design Love Fest in Downtown LA

From Lauren Essl’s Blue Eye Brown Eye introduction to calligraphy workshop at Design Love Fest in Downtown LA

The middle column of my photos is from right here at home – almost daily walks along the Strand in Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach are always Instagram worthy. The middle photo is with a Paradise Bowl – delicious acai and pitaya bowls that are perfect after a long walk along the beach! Sometimes it feels redundant to keep posting photos of the beach at sunset, but every time I am there, the scene is so beautiful I have to take another picture!

Paradise Bowls are the best after a long walk/run on the Strand.
Another beautiful sunset in Manhattan Beach

Below the calligraphy post in the first column are coffee photos, both from Two Guns Espresso in Manhattan Beach (they also serve coffee at the Manhattan Beach Yacht Club at the end of the Manhattan Beach pier). Nothing makes me happier than a delicious espresso, and Two Guns makes the best Flat Whites around! These photos make me miss visiting Caffe Luxxe in Brentwood – my office used to be close to their San Vicente location, and I enjoyed stopping in for a cappuccino (and sharing it on Instagram) before going to the office (n.b. they roast the beans for Two Guns).

The column on the right is food – the top is a chicken sandwich from the Free Range LA food truck. They were in front of Stumptown Coffee in downtown LA, right around the corner from the Design Love Fest studio where I took my calligraphy class! Since Free Range LA says they are #ChickenGawds, I had to try one of their sandwiches. I had the “classic” but they allowed me to customize it by adding some of the “original” slaw. Mmm, mmm, good!

The original sandwich from the Free Range food truck. It was huge - I didn't have dinner that night.

The classic sandwich from the Free Range food truck. It was huge – and oh so good – I didn’t have dinner that night.

The bottom two photos are from a blogger gathering at Gloria’s Restaurant and Bar in Huntington Park. Thanks to Chef Turok (Brian Menendez) for organizing the event and inviting me. The food was delicious, the margaritas yummy (they created three different ones for us to sample), and the mariachi music was fantastic!

Enjoying the food and music at Gloria’s!
The mango chamoy margarita at Gloria’s

2015 was so much more than these nine photos, but it is fun to share things daily and then see what resonates the most. It will be interesting to see what I post this year, and which ones become favorites. Have you discovered your #2015bestnine? Let me know in the comments below!

Happy New Year! Here’s to a great 2016!