Boxcars and Oysters

Boxcar (Wille)

So we decided to get out of our drink "rut" of Sidecars and go for something else with Triple Sec. The Boxcar seemed as though it do the trick. We don't know whether the name is from the freight car or from the country singer and, as you'll read, we didn't care enough to find out.

We used this recipe from the Drinks Mixer website. The pink hue of the drink and the frothy body from the egg white were spot on, but the taste was far too medicinal for both of us. Using the Esquire recipe with lime juice instead of lemon may make a better drink, but for us, it's not worth trying. Back to basics!

Oyster Stew

Our Oyster Stew was just kind of made up using an amalgam of this recipe and this recipe. The jarred oysters have been on sale lately so we've probably ingested all of the Cesium that we'd ever need. But we "needed" to use up the cream that we had gotten on sale, so there you go.

Essentially, we sweated some aromatics (shallot, celery, garlic) and added a bay leaf. Then added some Dry Vermouth (the secret ingredient in our risotti), simmer for a while and then strained. We then added the oysters and their liquor, heavy cream and a bit of parsley and thyme. We apologize for the sketchy recipe, but we are writing this from the future (whoooooo).

Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

The Spinach Salad was from our America's Test Kitchen cookbook. You've got to sign-in to the Cook's Illustrated site, but we found an almost identical recipe here. We had no red onion so subbed shallot for the red onion and garlic. And of course, we would not use Splenda or anything of the kind. As Celia Cruz would say, "Azucar!!".