Making my own Grenadine

After reading so many different ways to make Grenadine, the cold method, the hot method etc.... Everyone has their own methods it seems. I decided to experiment with an idea I had about making my own. I basically combined the hot and cold method of making it.

I decided to make a simply syrup very thick with water and add my pomegranate juice. I have to say it came out fabulous. No cooked flavor and with the ease of heating. :)

I took 1 cup water to 2 cups of sugar and about 1/8 cup of karo syrup, I know some don't like this, but it will help keep the sugar from crystalizing. I brought this to a boil until the sugar was dissolved and clear. I set it aside to cool

Once the simple syrup (will be very thick) is cool, not cold, it was pretty much luke warm so it was still easy to work with, I added the pomegranate juice and Vodka.

My proportions were 1 cup simple syrup to 1 1/4 cup pomegranate juice. I have to tell you, not only did it come out beautiful, but the taste was incredible. No cooked taste and so simple to put together.

I added 1 oz Vodka to the whole bottle of grenadine to help with preserving.

8/14/10

Comment: I tried the Grenadine and it turned out fabulous, I hope it keeps for a while. I will let you know

Pear & Raspberry liqueur cont.

ok today I filtered the pear liqueur with the vodka and honestly it was too sweet and not enough vodka in my opinion, I added about another 1/2 cup of vodka to the 16 oz bottle of pear and about 1/4 cup to the Raspberry. Both are a little sweet so I am going to let them sit for a while longer to see how they turn out

13 days and 64 days and counting

It's 13 days until the ladies weekend in Lincoln City. There will be 11 of us this year. We will miss Kathy and Racheal, Kathy is traveling around the US right now, they are in Texas or Oklahoma, last I heard. On the search for good barbeque. Don's favorite. Racheal has a new job and can't get the time off, we are sad to be missing them. But for the 11 of us 4 days at the beach will be so much fun, we always laugh a lot and eat and shop. What more can girls ask for!!

64 days until our Anniversary Cruise. We just got upgraded to and SB suite guarantee, due to price decrease on the web site, the price only went down for 2 days, so it was great that I found it and now we will either have an SB or better suite. I am so excited for both of these trips, I am sure enjoying this Spring and planning for all these vacations.

I spent yesterday with my daughter, grandson and son-in-law. We enjoyed the day and got to see about 1/10th of the pictures they have of their trip to India, we will have to go back to see more. It is a beautiful and yet there are very poor areas of India. They gave us some gift from their travels. Larry got some cooking utensils and some spices, I got a wall hanging, a table runner and some bed pillows, all with traditional Indian designs and all hand done. Very beautiful!!!

Plans for Alaskan Cruise

Well, we just booked and paid for our cruise we are taking in May for our 31st wedding anniversary. This will be our 2nd honeymood. We are going to Alaska for 7 days. I am so very excited, we decided to book a suite and go as first class as we could afford. This will be the first real vacation we have taken in our married life. Don't get me wrong we have been to the beach many times, camping, to Wisconsin to be with family and to Las Vegas, all were fun, but this to me is a vacation that we can really enjoy by ourselves and be pampered, ok, that's what I want, I think Larry will enjoy it, but I will have to let you know on that piece.

I will post from time to time to give updates on the next few months.

Pear Liqueur & Pear Brandy

This weekend I am working on my own Liqueur and flavored Brandies for the holidays. I have so far made Raspberry Brandy with honey (in an attempt to recreate Chambord, we will see how that turns out. I also have made Blueberry brandy and Blueberry liqueur with Vodka. Also this weekend I started a pear brandy and pear liqueur with organic pear juice. I couldn't find a recipe for the liqueur with pear juice so I decided to try and modify a pomegranate recipe with pear juice instead.

The recipe for the pear so far is:

1 1/2 cup of pear juice

1 1/2 cup of vodka or brandy (I am making both)

The pear juice I bought is organic and has some pear pulp in it.

it needs to steep for 2 weeks or more. Shaking once a day.

I will keep a post of information as we go on.

3/6/10

Honestly after waiting several month for this liqueur to be just right they were wonderful, but they vodka infused was really much better, I expected to love the brandy more, but the brandy offered a flavor of it's own, where the vodka was a clean pear flavor. Really, I was surprised as I usually don't like vodka, but after the infusion of several month it really did take on the flavor of the pear and not the vodka at all. I also had made some blueberry vodka, and it was fabulous, I also tried using honey instead of sugar and it gave it a little bitter flavor, the sugar was by far the better option.

I am now in the middle of making Limoncello - I used 10 Meyer's lemon zest and steeped it for 45 days and then strained it and added a simple syrup to it, I tasted it when I added the simple syrup, but personally I didn't think it had enough lemon flavor, I am going to add some fresh lemon juice and see how that works, but I want to add it to a little amount first to see how it goes. If I can get it the way I want it, I will let you know exactly how well it came out.

My Personal Blog

I have the most wonderful grandson, becoming a grandparent is truly a gift, I didn't know it could be so wonderful, how lucky we are, he was born February 10th 2008. We got to enjoy spending time with Charlise while she was in labor, in the end he was a very large baby and had to be delivered by c-section. He was healthy as was my daughter.