Strange Baking and Clever Concoctions

This weekend was about strange baking and creating concoctions. The baking involved helping a

middle-schooler create a cookie in the shape of Washington State. He came up with the ideas on how to geographically decorate the cookie with the mountains and rivers, etc. But the young lad was at a loss on making a cookie big enough for a school demo. I've had him as a cooking student before. We made a variety of wings for his Grandfather's Super Bowl party. We were happy to help. Jon is the kind of foam core templates. Meanwhile, I had a lot of cookie recipes. All he needed was a sugar cookie dough that was formulated for heavy decorations. I had some that I've used for Christmas cookies. The big problem was rolling it to an even thickness on the back of a cookie sheet (we needed a baking surface that we could slide the end product from onto a cooling rack then into a box. He was lucky to not have gotten a harder shaped state. Strangely, that isn't the oddest thing Jon and I have ever created in a kitchen. It takes a lot of food to get through a scene involving actors eating. And you should never let the owner of the location permit her dog to be in the vicinity of food props.

Clever Concoctions

In the upcoming title for Vampire Rent Boy, my lead character makes a number of tasty cocktails. I've always been one to share recipes I find. I'm especially fond of cocktail recipes as I was a bartender through graduate school. The setup and breakdown of a commercial bar came back as easily as if I had done it yesterday. My feet and back ache from the memories. Anyway, the two of the four recipes I did (they will appear on the book's webpage tomorrow) are liquids I never made when I tended bar. It was not fashionable at the time. One was an infused vodka (cucumber) and the others was a flavored bitters (orange). One of the drinks I made and consumed was a green tea hot toddy. It was really delightful. I've made many a toddy with hot water, but the tea gave the drink a really mellow taste that was quite lovely. The simple syrups used behind the bar aren't nearly as interesting as recipes, so I didn't bother making those – for now. They are integral to making sweet tea and lemonade, and Summer is coming soon!