Life: So, yeah...food!

I realize I haven't done a great job of keeping you posted about life or food via my blog. Twitter is my new favorite tool for annoying updates about myself and you can find me @kristamaesmith.

But I do have a few things, I would like to share with you.

First in food.

April 5 is officially Cafe Rio Day in Utah. So thank Governor Gary Herbert for giving you a reason to sit down with chips, salsa, guacomole, relleno and margaritas today. Or is that just me?

Meditirina was kind of a let down last time I was there. The house made sangria was delicious and the patas bravas were as delicious as I remembered. However the Drunken Oreos were soaked, not dipped, in port wine, not a reduction sauce. All in all, Manfriend and I still had a good experience, but I think I'll stick with my own Drunken Oreos in the future.

And I'm on a mission to steal the bruschetta recipe from the Meditirina kitchen as well. Balsamic and tarragon soaked strawberries with chevre cheese on top of crisp, buttery bread. Mmmm....so good!

In the past two months Millies and the Soup Kitchen have been mainly responsible for keeping my grease quota. But I've blogged enough about them for you to know how much I love burgers and onion rings from both of these great Sugar House icons.

Second in life...

I'll be graduating May 29 at 1 p.m.-ish at the E Center in West Valley, UT. If you like me enough to read my blog, you are invited. Of course, leading up to that I'll be in a panic about finishing my senior project, writing a research paper, writing a film theory paper, editing the paper and writing a column. So in advance, I'm thanking you for your patience. (Especially, Manfriend!)

I'm in the middle of my application to teach in Taiwan, but I feel good about getting it done on time. Next weekend, I should be able to get the video done. Once I have my passport, I will be elligible to begin training.

Otherwise things are pretty normal. The St. Patrick's day party was fun. We played "Apples to Apples' for forever. Long enough anyway for me to leave and talk with Harry. The sidecars were awesome! The combination of one part cognac to three parts lemon juice is so good! I love the sour tanginess of it.

I'm looking forward to trying an old school daquiri with rum and lime juice, next.

The potatoe skins were pretty good. I completely forgot to add any butter. Luckily, no one seemed to notice. I think they were distracted by the bacon. Or the booze, whatever.

Finally I tested out the Black Magic Chocolate cake recipe Amber recommended. My version didn't come out quite as good. I think because I did a buttercream frosting instead of cream cheese frosting. So next time, Sis, my chocolate will beat up your chocolate. Or at least, taste as good. The cake was easy to bak and did well divided up into a dozen cupcakes and a 9" square cake pan.

The next shindig I'm putting on will be the Mad Men cocktail party. So get out your cocktail wear and tell me your favorite classic cocktail. We'll be partying Don Draper style following my graduation.

I know, you're excited. I am.

Drunken Oreos

It's not like there could possibly be enough posts about alcohol, right?

I thought today I would share with you one of the most simple and delicious deserts I've run across. This recipe is rip-off from Meditrina's own Drunken Oreos. Mine is not as delicious as the original, but does a fair imitation.

Drunken Oreos
To begin you will need the following tools:

Hardware:
One 2-quart sauce pan
One mixing spoon
One ice cream scoop
One shallow bowl
One fork
Two desert plates

The yumminess comes from the following:

Ingredients:
1 Cup port wine
1 Tbs. lemon zest
8 Oreo cookies
1/2 cup of red wine
Vanilla Ice Cream (a real ice cream with actual cream and vanilla bean is best)

First, you will make a port wine reduction sauce. This is the trickiest part of the whole dessert and requires patience. Pour one cup of port wine into a 2-quart sauce pan over medium low heat. Add one tablespoon lemon zest. Let the mixture boil for about 1/2 hour constantly stirring. When the mixture is close to being as thick as sauce, but still thin it is done. There should be about 1/3 the amount of the original liquid left in the pan. Turn off the stove.

Now, the sauce is done, so onto the the dunking. Pour 1/2 cup of red wine (whatever you have will work) into a shallow bowl. Using a fork, dunk an oreo into the wine then flip the oreo over so both sides are soft. You want to dunk the oreos quickly so they're soft, not soggy. Place four oreos on each dessert plate. Now the oreos are ready.

The next step is the ice cream. Top the oreos with couple scoops of ice cream. Now, using your mixing spoon drizzle the ice cream and oreos with the port wine sauce.

Bust out your spoons and enjoy.

A couple of things: First, this dessert sounds, tastes and looks far more expensive than it is. Second, This dessert is also very easy to add or subtract from to serve however many people you have. The recipe I found for port wine reduction sauce also suggested an orange zest. I haven't had an opportunity to try that out, but it sure sounds yummy!