They Really Need Family-Only Flights.

Bonjour from Canada South!  Er, Washington State.  Look at how Pacific Northwestern-y everything looks!  Land of salmon, hazelnuts, huckleberries and of the canned Cougar Cheese.  It’s good to be back, save for the canned cheese.

I’m at home visiting my parents this week for the holidays, which meant that I had a full day of flying through three time zones with multiple infants per flight.  Yes, yes it was just what you would imagine that would be like.

BUT!  It did give me the steely resolve to actually plow through multiple chapters of Harold McGee’s On Food And Cooking with six hours of air time and the insatiable need to distract myself from the cacophony of the wee ones.  It was amazing.  With nothing to do but read like I had never read before I absorbed more information than I had imagined possible- which means more inspiration that I can share with you guys!  Geek on!

This first idea came from a classic mead recipe.  I thought that rather than fermenting the ingredients (which is super easy to do), I thought it would have been an interesting twist to make a spiced simple syrup.  If you did want to turn this into mead it’s as simple as adding a spoonful of yeast to the syrup, storing it in a capped glass carbuoy in a cool dark place and forget about it for about a month.

Its a merry Christmas indeed.  For everyone.

Spiced Simple Syrup

Ingredients:

-1 1/2 cup water

-1/2 cup clover honey

-1 thumb sized knob of ginger, peeled

-6 cloves

-1/2 stick cinnamon

-2 sprigs rosemary

How To:

1. Combine all in a heavy bottomed saucepot.  Stir well.

2. Turn the heat on VERY low and cover the pot.

3. Allow the liquid to steep for a good 20-30 minutes.

4. Strain the spices out.

5. Refrigerate after straining.