You guys are really HUGE BANHAUSERS!
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Originally posted by Primrose6789
You guys are really HUGE BANHAUSERS!
I resent this!
I'm not huge!
I have two pair of sweatpants from prior years, and I can't keep them up -- they just fall off me.
The Banhauser tag I wear with pride, though.
Incidentally, lots of people here put maple syrup on bacon and eggs.
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Incidentally, lots of people here put maple syrup on bacon and eggs.
I'm having bacon and eggs a lot for breakfast, so you just gave me an idea...
By the way, I had a quick stop at a kebab store during work tonight. While I was waiting for my order, I noticed that they had a pizza topped with french fries on the menu...
I had some pita with kebab meat, in case you were wondering.
So as I said, no poker tonight, but I thought that driving home at 11 PM is actually kind of relaxing. I'd still prefer other hours, but working late every now and then isn't all that bad after all.
Anyway, I wanted to post some bartending stuff. While I do have some photos prepared for more step-by-step guides, let's do something different today. Remember how our last two drinks, the Mojito and the Caipirinha, used granulated sugar as a sweetener? That works all right for these drinks, because there is muddling involved, but for stirred or shaken drinks, it would be a better idea to use sugar syrup, also known as simple syrup, instead.
Practically speaking, simple syrup is essentially just a liquid version of sugar, which works just as well as granulated sugar for sweetening your drinks, but is a lot easier for mixing purposes since you can just combine it with the other liquids, with no risk of sugary residues at the bottom. It works great for cocktails, but you could potentially use it for all kinds of other sweetening purposes. One spoon of simple syrup should be about equal to one spoon of granulated sugar.
It may be possible to buy ready bottles of simple syrup, but there is really no need to do that, because it is quite easy to make at home. Today, I will show you how to do that.
First of all, we should prepare a little bottle or jar for our simple syrup, because we are going to prepare more than what we will be using for just one drink, so we will need to store the rest in the fridge. This one holds about 300 ml.
As for the ingredients, we just need equal amounts of water and sugar. It depends on how much you are willing to make, but keep in mind that 1 cup of water plus 1 cup of sugar does not equal 2 cups of simple syrup, because the sugar is going to dissolve. More likely, you will be stuck with about 1.5 cups in this case. I believe I used around 200 ml of both in my case.
Now put both the sugar and water into a pot or saucepan.
Bring the water to a boil and keep stirring, then keep simmering it until the sugar has completely dissolved.
After the sugar has dissolved, turn off the heat and let it cool.
Then transfer it into the bottle or jar that you have prepared after it has sufficiently cooled down. Don't expect a similar consistency as maple syrup and the like, it should be quite fluid, almost like water.
And that's all there's to it, you got a bottle of simple syrup ready to be used with all of your drinks. Put it in the fridge and it should keep for at least a month, though I have gotten use out of it for much longer.
In the next few days, I'll try to show you a few drinks that you can make with your new simple syrup.
When making candy, you make syrups of varying strengths.
1:1 is common, and I don't know what would be the strongest one we've used.
A lot of candy recipes also call for molasses or brown sugar (most likely for colour and flavour) and regardless of the strength of the starting solution for candy making you boil the mixture until it reaches a certain temperature.
The texture of the finished product depends on the temperature the solution reaches.
It's loads of fun and you get to eat it when you're done.
My specialty was peanut brittle.
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
When making candy, you make syrups of varying strengths.
1:1 is common, and I don't know what would be the strongest one we've used.A lot of candy recipes also call for molasses or brown sugar (most likely for colour and flavour) and regardless of the strength of the starting solution for candy making you boil the mixture until it reaches a certain temperature.
Oh, yes, that's another thing I forgot to mention. Instead of keeping the simple syrup "simple", you can infuse it with all kinds of ingredients. I believe this is usually done during the cooling or possibly the simmering phase. Personally, I have never tried it, but there are really a lot of ways to be creative with it. These flavored syrups can have many uses in cocktails as well, and they are an easy way to add some unique spin to a recipe that would normally call for simple syrup.
Some variations I have heard of include cinnamon, rosemary, honey, sesame seeds, raisins... the possibilities are virtually endless.
Infusing the syrup with some ingredients may affect its shelf life.
For the homemade allspice dram, I have made a brown sugar syrup, which worked just like the simple syrup mentioned above, except that it used brown sugar.
Another easy variation that is used in some drinks is called sweet and sour mix, or often just sour mix. To make that, just combine two parts of your simple syrup with one part lemon juice and one part lime juice. In other words, you'll want to have simple syrup and lemon/lime juice in equal measures. It is not necessary to boil it together, either add it during the cooling phase or afterwards, when the syrup has already cooled. Just remember to give it a good shake or stir.
I still found some leftovers of it in a bottle in the fridge, not sure if they're still good. I should probably make some new one before I use it in a drink, it may have been in there for about half a year by this point.
And yes, there are other ratios than 1:1 sugar to water when it comes to making simple syrup that are used for other purposes like baking and cooking. For the purpose of mixing cocktails, though, the 1:1 ratio should be the most common, at least.
The Banhauser tag I wear with pride, though.
Incidentally, lots of people here put maple syrup on bacon and eggs.
Glad to hear that, Vorpal! 
I noticed that they had a pizza topped with french fries on the menu...
Banhausers unite! :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:
The golden poo is waiting at the end of the year..... :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:
Happy Fourth of July
...from my vice president.
You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get this bear off his smartphone for five seconds...
Unfortunately, there won't be any time for backyard BBQs. I may not even have time for poker today. But we'll hit the tables again by Monday at the latest, and in the meantime, prepare your drinking glasses.
Originally posted by Primrose6789
Happy 4th of July, Trumpy-bear!
I see you need a nice hairdo?
That would give him something new to tweet about, at least.
That's mo
Originally posted by Primrose6789
Happy 4th of July, Trumpy-bear!
I see you need a nice hairdo?
That's more of a hairdon'tTo all USians -- happy Independence Day, and may you someday return to on-line poker!
Oh, last time I did his hair very nicely! ♠_love:
At least that´s what I say... ♠_ugly:
And even though I cannot really politically agree with trumpy-bear :sifflote::sifflote:..... I at least do his hair nicely ..
So he can twitter to have his hair done by a pretty and charming leftist :f_ugly::sifflote:
As I said, I wanted to present some cocktails that make use of simple syrup, but first, let's have a few shots in celebration of July 4.
The first one requires some layering, which is a mixing technique that involves floating drinks of different densities on top of each other. This is usually achieved by carefully pouring the drinks off the back of a spoon, to make sure that it hits the liquid below it slowly and at the right angle. I have heard that some people use syringes for that too.
Maybe I will deal with this technique in more detail at a later point, but first, let's just quickly have a Red White and Blue Shot.
This one involves grenadine, white crème de cacao and blue curaçao in equal measures floated on top of each other. No need to measure anything with those small shot glasses in my opinion, just eyeball it.
Looks very nice and it actually wasn't as gross as I thought it would be. My grenadine was probably expired too, but who cares, I don't even like grenadine.
And if layering is too complicated after all, there's another solution I have found today: The Freedom Shot.
This one is made with one part scotch, one part Irish whiskey, one part 151 overproof rum and two parts bourbon. Unfortunately, I didn't have any Irish whiskey at home right now, so I used some rye instead.
According to the recipe I found, it is important that all people taking this shot must shout "FREEDOM!" before ingesting it.
Not much success at poker yesterday, except for a Badugi mincash, but that doesn't matter - because Vorpal joined the 2-7 Triple Draw this time and ended up shipping it. Well done, sir!
And I actually tried that maple syrup on bacon and eggs thing yesterday. Wasn't bad, the only problem was that I had it on a bacon and egg sandwich, so it was almost impossible not to get syrup all over my hands. I didn't even dare to touch my coffee mug because I feared that if I did, I would never be able to let go of it again.
Speaking of syrup, I promised some cocktail recipes that make use of simple syrup. Let's get to it in a separate post...
All right - cocktails. We're going to get two for one today, because we will be making a John Collins and a Gin Fizz.
Why both? Because they use virtually identical ingredients: gin, carbonated water, lemon juice and simple syrup. So what makes them different from each other? Simple - a John Collins is stirred and a Gin Fizz is shaken. This is also a nice opportunity to demonstrate the difference between shaken and stirred drinks.
Now you may have heard of a drink called Tom Collins before, so what's the difference between that and a John Collins? Well, nothing really, except that a Tom Collins is made with a particular brand of gin known as Old Tom, which has since become very hard to get. If you manage to get your hands on it, feel free to make a proper Tom Collins, but if you use any other kind of gin, it would technically be a John Collins instead. Many people still use the name Tom Collins despite not using Old Tom gin, which can lead to some confusion.
Even more confusing might be that there are many variations of this cocktail that substitute gin with something else, like a Pedro Collins which is made with rum instead. And if you're wondering about the Collins part, that's just the name of the highball glass that is used to serve the drink. Feel free to use any tall glass that holds around 300 ml.
Also, a Gin Fizz is sometimes made using some eggs, which requires a certain mixing technique called a dry shake. Including the egg white makes it a Silver Fizz. Including the egg yolk makes it a Golden Fizz. Including both the white and the yolk makes it a Royal Fizz. We're going to make a basic one, without any eggs.
Let's get started. Both drinks work fine with bottled lemon juice, but I was feeling fancy that day, so I pressed out some fresh one. A John Collins calls for 30 ml of lemon juice.
Prepare a highball glass by filling it with ice cubes.
Then add 30 ml of lemon juice, 15 ml of simple syrup and 45 ml of gin.
Fill it up with around 60 ml of carbonated water...
...give it a light stir and serve with a straw. Feel free to use a lemon as a garnish, if you're feeling fancy (one of the reasons why I squeezed that lemon in the first place). A cherry is often used in addition to that, but I skipped it.
As I pointed out before, the Gin Fizz will be shaken instead. So just pour 30 ml of lemon juice, 45 ml of gin and 10 ml of simple syrup into a shaker with ice. (As I mentioned in a previous post, I like to fill my cocktail glass with ice first and then simply transfer the ice to the shaker.)
Shake and strain the mixture into a chilled highball glass. Notice the foamy head - all a result of the shaking. (and that's not a speck on your screen, it's on the glass - or was it on the camera lens?)
As before, top it up with carbonated water...
...and serve it after another light stir.
Here are both of them together. Almost identical ingredients (only differing in the ratio, and even that difference is negligible), but one is shaken, one is stirred. Note that the shaken one is served without ice, since it has already been diluted with ice during the shaking process. And don't be fooled by the different glass shapes, they both hold around the same volume.
Which one do you prefer?
Busy week, and not much has changed when it comes to poker. Not many sessions, even fewer sessions where 2-7 Triple Draw is running, and not many winnings.
Mostly due to lack of success in the non-Badugi draw games, we're at a slight loss for the month so far.
I do have special plans for tomorrow, so no poker that day either. And probably neither this weekend, which is packed with further late work shifts. But don't worry, we'll get back to it all. Some time...
Originally posted by Harrier88
I do have special plans for tomorrow
Followers of her blog may have found out what my "special plans" for this Friday were: Pokerstrategy's legendary grindette Primrose was visiting. 
We picked up some nice takeout salads (no banhauser stuff, obviously :f_wink:), and of course, I prepared some nice after dinner drinks: A Grasshopper for me (left) and a Pink Squirrel for Prim (right).
The Grasshopper contains 30 ml each of crème de menthe (green), crème de cacao (white - though I have used brown crème de cacao before and it turned out all right) and regular cream. The Pink Squirrel includes 20 ml of crème de noyaux, 20 ml of crème de cacao (white), and around 42 ml (1.5 oz) of regular cream. Both drinks are shaken with ice.
Crème de noyaux is a pretty rare drink these days and can be quite expensive, so the Pink Squirrel is not a cocktail you'll easily find nowadays - which is one of the reasons why I made it. Though I have found some inexpensive version of crème de noyaux by Bols online before, which unfortunately was only available in North America. It has a taste which is a little like amaretto, but with a certain "je ne sais quoi" to it. So despite the pink color, which usually implies strawberry, the Pink Squirrel has a creamy, almondy, chocolatey taste to it. Nice as an after dinner drink.
We also played some Koi-Koi with my new hanafuda decks that arrived earlier this week. (Actually, the red one was supposed to be a kabufuda deck instead. I'm currently in contact with the seller to resolve this.)
We played with our hands face up and I helped Prim with her moves. Obviously, the game was quite exotic to her, but she managed to get the gist of it, which was very impressive - especially after those Pink Squirrels.
Oh, and she gave my vice president Trumpy Bear a nice new hairdo. I promised him that I would blog about it so he wouldn't have to send her a cease and desist letter.
It was another very enjoyable day, and the grindette will always be a welcome guest at Harrier's bar. 
and the grindette will always be a welcome guest at Harrier's bar
Thank you very much, Harrier! ♠_love::heart:
Oh, and she gave my vice president Trumpy Bear a nice new hairdo. I promised him that I would blog about it so he wouldn't have to send her a cease and desist letter.
This bear always complains about his pretty nice hairstyles made by Prim. 
:f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly: