Nibbles & Sips

Fun with food and beverages: recipes and opinions about what, how, and why we eat.

Review & Recipes | Van Gogh Rich Dark Chocolate Vodka

Sips
Rich Dark Chocolate Vodka and 2 of its progency

Rich Dark Chocolate Vodka and 2 of its progency

One good review deserves another, doncha think?

At least it does when the product—in this case Van Gogh Rich Dark Chocolate Vodka—is as tasty as it looks and sounds.

First the basics: Van Gogh Rich Dark Chocolate Vodka definitely lives up to it’s name. It’s not a super-sweet milk chocolate flavor, you’re definitely getting serious cacao, here, and while the edges of such intense chocolate are there, it’s not as harsh as dark chocolate can be. I also found this flavor to be smoother than the PB&J vodka I sampled two weeks ago—just a rounder mouth feel overall.

That said, this is a liquor, not a liqueur, so it’s not as unctuous or rich as you would get from, say, a Godiva chocolate liqueur.

They sent along some suggested recipes to try and, after the PB&J Frappe last time, I was all about the Banana Parfait this time.

Van Gogh Chocolate Banana Parfait
Created by The Cocktail Guru, Jonathan Pogash

2 oz Van Gogh Rich Dark Chocolate Vodka
2 scoops Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
1 cup Milk
1 Banana

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a parfait glass and garish with whipped cream, cocoa powder, and sliced bananas.

As you can see, I went with one of my red wine goblets instead of a parfait glass—there’s just something so awesome about a wine goblet filled with smoothie that I can hardly put it into words. I also opted for some vodka-spiked chocolate whipped cream I had on the bar. It was a nice contrast though it weighed the top of the “parfait” down so much it started to overflow even the bounty of my glass.

Outtake: the overflowing parfait cocktail--delicious and messy!

Outtake: the overflowing parfait cocktail–delicious and messy!

Comparing the two, I still side with the PB&J Frappe, but this was still an excellent dessert smoothie. I’d say it could easily serve two; I did share a bit with Todd but I admit, I downed most of this one on my own.

Too much? All things in moderation, folks, even moderation!

Milky Way Martini

2 oz Van Gogh Rich Dark Chocolate Vodka
1 oz Butterscotch Schnapps
½ oz Van Gogh Vanilla Vodka

Combine all ingredients into a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously and pour into a chilled martini glass.

This is a lot like the candy bar shots we would make with chocolate liqueur back in the day, but as a martini it’s a bit… lacking? Generally speaking you stir cocktails comprised of all alcoholic ingredients, so I did stir this one per the usual custom (I’m such a recipe rebel, right?). Once I tasted it, though, it needed something, something like milk, so I’d suggest you add 1-1 ½ oz cold milk to the ingredients and then, yes, shake it to your hearts delight and you’ll likely be much happier with the end result.

Y’all know I’m a sucker for good packaging and the Van Gogh bottles are gorgeous works of functional art, so extra points for that. All in all I enjoyed the Rich Dark Chocolate Vodka and look forward to playing with it in future recipes.

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I was provided a bottle of Van Gogh Rich Dark Chocolate Vodka for the purpose of review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Recipe | Low-FODMAP Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Nibbles

One of the biggest challenges for me, starting off this Low-FODMAP Lifestyle (especially since we started just after Thanksgiving so I was facing Christmas without cookies, etc.), was finding high-quality, good-tasting bread products that didn’t include wheat, barley, rye, or any of other high-FODMAP ingredients.

Thankfully (though I consider it a bit of a double-edged sword–but that’s a topic for another time), gluten-free foods and products are a lot easier to find these days, and those products are an excellent place to start when you’re going low-FODMAP, but gluten-free doesn’t automatically mean FODMAP-free (or, rather, low-FODMAP–FODMAP-free would be really tough). Many times a gluten-free cookie or break will include high-FODMAP fruit-derived sweeteners like apple and pear juice concentrates, fructooligosaccharides (aka FOS), high-FODMAP fiber additions like inulin, or even simple ingredients like honey or agave nectar that are no-nos for those of us on this diet.

Consequently, I found myself getting better results baking from scratch than using mixes–even pre-made gluten-free flour blends–but sometimes you really do want that convenience factor. So I keep trying whatever I can find.

One product I’ve been fairly happy with the is Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Yellow Cake Mix.

I bought it on a lark one shopping trip and then heard from a Facebook friend that it makes a fabulous banana bread, so had to give it a try.

Fun Fact: February 23rd was National Banana Bread Day

Low-FODMAP Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Mini-Loaf

Low-FODMAP Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Mini-Loaf

The same friend mentioned upping the bananas a bit more than the recipe on BettyCrocker.com called for, so I added a third banana to the mix just to see what happened. I also kept in the vanilla from the box instructions, even though the recipe didn’t call for it, and left out the nuts but added some chocolate chips. Upon hindsight I also used the amount of butter the box called for (2 sticks or 1 cup) instead of only half of it–oops! It sure did turn out to be a moist quick bread, though!

Low-FODMAP Banana Bread
adapted from BettyCrocker.com

1 box Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Yellow Cake Mix
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe Bananas (3 medium)
1 cup Butter, softened
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
6 oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

  1. Preheat your oven to 350° Fahrenheit.
  2. Combine cake mix, bananas, butter, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on low 30 seconds, and then medium to high for up to 2 minutes–you’re usual cake-mix method. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  3. Butter only the bottom of a loaf pan (or a set of mini-loaf tins–I managed to make 8 small loaves with one mix) and pour in the batter, smoothing the top as best you can. For a single loaf pan bake for 1 hour, for mini-loaves start checking on them after 30 minutes. Once a toothpick or knife inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean it’s done.
  4. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan(s), then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Wrapped in plastic this banana bread will last at least 4 days on the counter–that’s as long as ours lasted, but seems about right. Gluten-free foods do sometimes tend to dry out more quickly than those containing wheat, so storing it in the fridge would be a good idea for longer storage.

Look at those chips!

Look at those chips!

Since the Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Yellow Cake Mix uses a combination of rice flour and potato starch to replace the wheat flour and sticks to plain sugar instead of substituted and other additives it qualifies as Low-FODMAP. Bananas are one of those tricky ingredients–some IBS sufferers can tolerate the 1/2 banana that’s cleared by the FODMAP gurus, others find even that much too much. Ripeness is a factor, too–too ripe and the sugar balance gets thrown off. To work around that, freeze some bananas when they just have the tiniest specks of brown on their peel (perfect ripeness) and then defrost to use in recipes. This also has the benefit of making the banana easier to mix in to the batter, since the freezing process does the heavy lifting of tearing through those cell walls for you!

As to the chocolate chips, make sure you read the label and select a brand that does not include milk or lactose as an ingredient to keep this banana bread low-FODMAP overall. So far I’ve found the Nestlé Tollhouse and Enjoy Life brands are good for this.

A common malady of GF mixes is a gritty texture to the finished product. This is generally because of the type of flours being substituted and a hard thing to work around when mass-producing this sort of product and needing to give it a decent shelf-life. All of my GF flours suggest keeping them refrigerated after opening, though the only thing I really do that with is the xanthum gum since it’s so blasted expensive! Whether because of the superiority of the mix itself of the addition of several “softening” ingredients (butter, eggs, and bananas) is hard to say, but we didn’t have that problem with this particular recipe.

We enjoyed our banana bread warm from the oven (quality control, you know), at room temperature the next morning for breakfast, I sliced up a few loaves to serve to guests one evening and then we split the last loaf between us and topped it with some ice cream (Bryer’s Lactose Free Vanilla) for a Friday-night dessert.

Even though it wasn’t quite as quick as mixes can be (the only time savings was the measuring of the flour, sugar, and leavening, really) it was nice to find a mix that yielded a nice end product that even folks not on restricted diets enjoyed. It’s something I wouldn’t hesitate to keep on hand for those quick-fix moments when I want something sweet without too much fuss.

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This is not a solicited review of any kind. I purchased the items referred to above and received no compensation from the brands or manufacturers. Opinions of the brands listed above are based on personal experience and indicate no relationship with the brands other than any other consumer would enjoy.

AlcoHOLidays | National Margarita Day | The Choco-Rita

Sips

The Choco-Rita Cocktail

The history of the margarita is hotly debated. Sometime in the 1930s or 40s someone concocted it, but whether it was a Texas socialite or one of the two south-of-the-border bartenders that claim the honor, it remains a wonderful drink for warm days.

The basic margarita consists of tequila–usually silver, though I prefer gold, lime juice, and orange liqueur. Do not–I repeat, do not–let me catch you using sour mix or triple sec in a margarita; that’s just rude. If you want a sweeter margarita to pair with the salted rim, add a bit of sugar syrup to your shaker but leave the sour mix on the shelf. And you know how I feel about triple sec. Just don’t go there.

In case you haven’t caught on, today, February 22nd, is National Margarita Day and we’re very happy to celebrate that here at Casa de Sips!

Of course, as much as I love a good, classic, Margarita on the rocks with salt, paired with some rich and spicy Mexican food, I also like to mix things up a bit and play with the classics.

Which is why I’m offering you this alternative to the classic:

The Choco-Rita

1 oz Orange Juice
3/4 oz Anejo Tequila
3/4 oz Chocolate Vodka
1/4 oz Orange Liqueur
cocoa powder and/or crushed cacao nibs for garnish

Rim a shallow cocktail glass (margarita-style or coupe) with cocoa powder or some crushed cacao nibs. Combine all ingredients in a shaker glass half full of ice. Shake until frosty and strain into the prepared glass. Sprinkle with remaining cacao nibs if you used them.

This cocktail is a meeting between a traditional margarita and those chocolate oranges you see at the holidays, the ones you get to smash on the table to break into segments.  As usual in one of my cocktails, neither the orange, nor the chocolate, nor that unmistakable tequila flavor overpower any of the other ingredients. Instead, each sip is a little different and your tongue will pick up hints of the chocolate and orange midst the warmth of the tequila.

You can use a blanco or silver tequila if you insist, but I do encourage you to try a golden tequila for that added depth of flavor. For my version of this I used Partida Anejo Tequila, Van Gogh Rich Dark Chocolate Vodka (which I’ll be sharing more about next Tuesday), and–of course!–Cointreau liqueur. In a pinch you could use a premium unflavored vodka and a bit of chocolate liqueur, but it won’t quite be the same.

It’s Friday and National Margarita Day, what are you drinking tonight?

Review | Better Food For Dogs by Bastin, Ashton & Nixon

Nibbles
Cover of Better Food for Dogs

image via Amazon.com

Honey, tonight we’re eating dog food!

And you know what? It wasn’t half bad.

Let me back up a second before you think I’ve completely lost my mind.

When I picked up Better Food for Dogs (with the oh-so-adorable wrinkly bulldog puppy on its cover), I was expecting a few lists of things dogs should never eat and a lot of recipes for treats, “muttloaf” and things of that nature. What I found was a book full of information that every dog owner can use, including many “Doc’s Doctrine” sidebars from Dr. Grant Nixon, D.V.M., the veterinarian that contributed to the book along with David Bastin and Jennifer Ashton–former dog bakery owners and dog-lovers themselves.

The recipes come only after a rather thorough examination of what the proper diet can do for dogs. The authors purport that does benefit from varying diets just as humans do and that it’s difficult for them to receive all the nutrition they need from a steady diet of only one sort of food. They even take on the topics of vegan diets for dogs as well as the raw diet trend–neither of which they are highly in favor of (the first as it’s not realistic for canines, the second for concerns of food safety).

While there are a dozen of yummy-sounding treats at the end of the book, the bulk of the recipes are for the everyday food for dogs, their two meals a day, and are divided between the Basic Recipe–a combination of beef, chicken, turkey, or lamb for the protein and either rice, macaroni, or potatoes for the carbohydrate, along with a veggie blend–in quantities enough for 4 servings at a time, and single-serving Gourmet Recipes. All of this is them broken down into suitable amounts for the different sizes of dogs out there–everything from 5 lb teacup breeds to 150 lb behemoths in 5-lb increments. And then there are charts for the additional needs of bonemeal (for calcium) as well as the other nutritional supplements needed (again, by size of dog).

The Gourmet recipes range from breakfast fare (Cottage Cheese, Fruit and Toast; Oatmeal, Yogurt and Fruit; even a Breakfast Burrito) to dinner options (Stir-Fried Ginger Beef with Greens; Salmon and Dill Pasta; Tomato and Chicken Rotini) and total 20 in all. Not each size of dog gets a version of each recipe, but it’s simple work to size  up or down by finding  the recipe you want in another size that can be easily doubled or halved to meet the proper calorie count. It’s a whole lot easier than making a small dog coat fit a medium dog!

Still, it sounds like a lot of work even cooking every other night on top of cooking for yourself or your family. How tough really would it be?

And that’s when I decided to serve Todd and I dog food for a couple of nights.

We started with one of the basic recipes: Chicken and Rice

Chicken and Rice from Better Food for Dogs

Chicken and Rice for dogs

And that’s when I determined that cooking for your dog is not as out of the question as it might seem. In fact, if you approach it the right way, it’s downright easy!

The basic recipe deals with a protein that easily be bought in quantities and cooked ahead: cubed chicken and ground beef being the most accessible. Package it up in the right quantities and keep it in the freezer until needed–you could do up to a month at a time depending on the size of your dog and the size of your storage space. Put your rice cooker to work to make up enough rice to get your through a week and buzz up a batch of the fruit & vegetable mix and fridge it. After that it’s a quick reheat, stir, and add in nutrients.

And, like I said, it’s pretty tasty. The vegetable mixture is pureed, so it’s a little different than using steamed, chopped veggies in your average one-pot meal, but other than that it’s totally normal food.

For our gourmet selection we went with the Salmon and Dill Pasta

Salmon and Dill Pasta from Better Food For Dogs

Salmon and Dill Pasta–yes, this is dog food!

Tomato, zucchini, spinach, garlic and dill with chunks of tender salmon and pasta make for a good supper no matter how you slice it, and since none of the veggies in this version are pureed, it’s not much different than any other meal we might make.

Now, obviously, we don’t have dogs ourselves but have owned them in the past and hope to in the future when we have enough time to devote to them. Still, I know many people who do–my own mother, for instance–and I would not hesitate to recommend this book to her.

Will we cook for our future furry friends? Hard to say, but at least it’s a discussion we’d be up to having now.

After all, some people consider their dogs akin to children. Would we want children to eat nothing but fortified cereals for every meal? So it’s a questions worth asking: don’t your canine companions deserve a bit more than kibble?

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I received a copy of Better Food for Dogs for the purpose of review. All opinions are my own.

AlcoHOLidays | National Battery Day | High Voltage

Sips

jwalker_highvoltagecocktailGot your history caps on? Today’s cocktail comes with a real charge!

Unlike the seemingly arbitrary assignment of some holidays (yes, PB&J Day, I’m looking at you), National Battery Day makes perfect sense as it falls on February 18th, the birthday of Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the battery.

Volta (from whom we get the word volt–the measure of electrical potential) was a physicist born in Como Italy, who discovered the gas methane in 1778 as well as created what he called a voltaic pile in 1800–an electrochemical cell or, in other words, a battery. With some acidic or brined cloth between them, the stacked zinc and copper get to zapping, and we get electricity. He also had another version called, appropriately enough, the Crown of Cups.

High Voltage

3/4 oz. Pepper Vodka
1/2 oz. Chocolate Liqueur
a couple pieces Crystallized Ginger
2 1/2 oz. Ginger Beer

In the bottom of a mixing glass, muddle the crystallized ginger with the vodka and chocolate liqueur until the ginger is broken up. Fill the mixing glass 3/4 full with ice, top with ginger beer and shake until nice and frothy. Strain into a prepared cocktail glass and garnish with a bit more of the crystallized ginger and a red chili.

When brainstorming this drink for a few days leading up to my own experiments, I was thinking of flavors that would instantly communicate a bit of a zap to the tongue: ginger and chili. Well, turns out, when I did the research, both ginger and chili powder natural sources of copper in the diet, and dark chocolate gives us copper as well as zinc*. Obviously the distillation process has probably done away with the actual health benefits of this drink, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

As for particulars, for the vodka I used Absolut Peppar, the chocolate was–of course–Godiva, and the ginger beer Bundaberg. If you must use ginger ale, at least use something with some bite to it or make up a small batch of ginger sugar syrup (small because the ginger zing fades away quickly) and add it to your own seltzer water to taste.

So if you need something to zap you into action, why not raise your glass to Count Volta (so honored by Napoleon in 1801) and get to your good times quick like a bunny.

Sips & Shots: come for the cocktails, stay for the history lessons. Or not.

Cheers!

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*For the love of all that’s good and right, please do not take your nutritional guidelines from a cocktail article, m’kay? If you think you need additional zinc, copper, or anything else that your body may be lacking, please see a doctor not a bartender.