I Don't Give a Flying Fig...I Just Make Them

The quest for fig recipes continues, and tonight I think we found a winner. 

Adam is the chef of the family, and I'm the mixologist, so when I happened upon a recipe online for a Flying Fig cocktail, I knew I had to try it.  Original recipe is found here, I made just a couple of slight variations based on the ingredients I had on hand:

3 fresh organic figs

1/2 ounce St-Germain elderflower liqueur

2 ounces lemon-flavored vodka

juice of half a lemon 

2 ounces simple syrup, or 2 tbsp sugar (to taste)

Fresh mint sprig

Muddle diced fig in the elderflower liqueur (reserve one slice for garnish). Add cracked ice, vodka, lemon juice, and simple syrup. Shake vigorously. Rim chilled martini glass with one mint leaf dropped in.  Garnish with reserved fig slice. Strain cocktail into glass.

Can you say yum?  The muddled fig gives it a most lovely pink color, like a Cosmo.  This will go excellently with the Hawaiian burgers with caramelized pineapple and bacon that Adam is making tonight, recipe courtesy of Bitchin' Kitchen.

Go Happy (and slightly Tipsy)!
Amy

In a Jam and Gardenly Pursuits

Well, the figging continues.  Figs, figs, figs, figsfigsfigsfigs everywhere!  Another round of figs has ripened on the tree and we took in a harvest of I would guess about 10 pounds.  Yikes.  What to do with that many figs?

Well, first I made my dulce de higos, or sweet Ecuadorian figs (recipe found here).  I hope y'all are coming over to eat them because we'll never, ever eat all of them.

Second, I made wine soaked figs, recipe found here.  We had had a little party last weekend, and I had some half-empty bottles of red wine so, well, necessity was the mother of invention here. 

Third, I made my first foray into the world of jam-making and canning.  I'll admit I was scared, but now that I made it through relatively unscathed (there was a bit of scalding-hot splatter, so not entirely unscathed) I am anxious to get to the next batch.  This time I made two:  a quick, microwave type of jam you can make in single can sizes.  It's spicy orange fig jam and it is utterly delicious!  The second I made the old fashioned way which produced about a dozen cans.  Aptly, it is old-fashioned fig preserves.  I thought I'd start with that as the base and try different types of jam for the next batches.

The moral of the story here is that if you like fig jam, you best let me know and I'll be sending you some.


Aren't they lovely?

 In other news, the corn I've planted is going gangbusters and will be ready to harvest anytime now.  This is the first time I've grown any kind of vegetable and I'm ecstatic by how well it's doing!  I feel like I'm at home in Indiana.

I'm also hard at work trying to make the front yard look nice.  We rent, so we don't want to spend a ton of money on plants and things, so my thrifty self is hard at work on this project.  I just made two small beds by the front gate with plants salvaged from a restaurant in Long Beach (they were pulling them out of their planters and putting them in bags as I was walking by they gladly let me take them) and the bricks are salvaged from our backyard.  Just the beginning.

Before



After

Go Happy, Dear Blog Friends!
Amy