Girl+Fire Turns 3!

Three years ago, after being laid up from foot surgery, I came up with the crazy idea to start a blog. And fiery orange one at that.

Three years later, my foot works again. And Girl+Fire is still burning orange. Somewhere along the way, I even learned to cook!

The way I've celebrated this milestone the last two years was to compile a top five list. When going through the posts from the last year, I noticed a distinct trend: alcohol.

Well, I've never been shy about my love for certain spirits. And what better way to commemorate a third anniversary than to pull out the best alcohol-laden posts? Because it's not a celebration without a good drinky-drink!

5. The only non-alcoholic item on this list is the Semi-Raw Kale Experiment. One should blog responsibly, after all. And eat your greens!

4. And then we delve right in to the whiskey posts with Lemon Whiskey Apple Butter. The best way to enjoy a comfort food like homemade applesauce is to cook in some whiskey while making it.

3. Then came the making of Red Wine Sangria. I've since made this for several parties and it always disappears. We'll call that a win.

2. But we always return to whiskey, especially when paired with bacon! The Bacon Whiskey Milkshake was really the best way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

1. Hands down, my favorite meal all year long was the Fluffy Homemade Spiced Pancakes. Made for grown men and young children, they have all become fans of the pancakes. Of course, these pancakes are even more excellent when paired with a lovely champagne. Which is what I actually put in them when making up a batch this last weekend. Champagne pancakes. It's one of the best things about being an adult. And this here blog!

Thanks to all the fans and readers for the last three years. A toast to all of you!

Red Wine Sangria

It's felt like summer here in Los Angeles all winter long. There have been a few relatively cold days, but mostly just unseasonably warm. Since it feels like summer, we've been having summer cocktails out on the patio.

Sangria hails from Spain. Some generations back, both sides of my family do too. So, you could call this a family recipe. Especially since I created it in my parents' kitchen.

We were having a party. Well, I was using their house to have a little afternoon party. It's like I was a teenager and we were raiding their liquor cabinet. Except we were all adults and...I was raiding their liquor cabinet. But I did bring my own wine. Read the part about being an adult; my parents raised me right.

I also made all kinds of food. The kind you've read about. Like spinach in a lime vinaigrette (a riff on the semi-raw kale salad), kale pesto, little wonton cups to eat them out of. But the yummiest part of the afternoon was the sangria.

2 bottles of Charles Shaw nouveau table wine, a liter of ginger ale, a cup of brandy, a bunch of sliced oranges, lemons, limes, and nectarines gets you a quite tasty concoction to ladle out of punch bowl.

Other recipes will tell you to add sugar, strawberries, better wine, etc. You can do that. You can also keep it simple and do what I did: use a wine you've never tasted, betting that it will meld well with whatever brandy was in my parents' liquor cabinet. It was a stroke of luck.

Letting this combination sit for about an hour gives the flavors time to mingle and marry. And then you'll have a delicious good time.

Summer in winter.

print recipe

Red Wine Sangria

by Paulette Fontanez March-12-2012

Ingredients

• 2 bottles red wine
• 1 liter ginger ale
• 1 cup brandy
• 2 large oranges, sliced in rounds
• 3 lemons, sliced in rounds
• 3 limes, sliced in rounds
• 2 nectarines, sliced

Instructions

1. Add all the ingredients into a large punch bowl, stirring to combine.2. Put in the refrigerator for about an hour to allow flavors to meld. 3. Ladle into your favorite glasses.

Details

Yield: 1 large punch bowl

Red Wine Chocolate Cake

Chocolate cake. Two words that delight the senses and make the mouth water. What's better than chocolate cake? Chocolate cake with wine in it!

Unless, of course, you don't like chocolate. Or wine. But that's too crazy to contemplate.

A friend recommended this recipe from Smitten Kitchen saying it was pretty easy. I'm not a baker, at all. But I had a delicious bottle of Cabernet Franc. So very tasty, this wine. And you know what they say about cooking with wine...

If you don't know how difficult it was to leave a 2005 Domaine de Château Gaillard Saumur Cab Franc untouched, your life is semi-charmed. First of all, I was stuck in bed with alcohol-unfriendly sickies. Then I somehow convinced myself that I needed to make the cake with this particular wine, so even once I was better, I still couldn't savor it. Because somehow I'd had the inhuman willpower when I first opened the bottle to save the exact 3/4 cup needed for this recipe. Who am I?

This wine is truly fantastic. I have had many red wines and this was quite near the top of all the delectable red-hued intoxicants that have passed through these lips. I'm fantasizing about it right now as I write this.

That said, I shouldn't have wasted it on a cake. Remember how I'm not a baker? Why I tested a recipe with a bottle of wine that costs more than two dollars is beyond me. I blame the codeine-induced haze I was living in. Deb suggests that the cake comes out of the oven "shiny and smooth, like a puddle of chocolate." It sounds pretty. Mine didn't look like that. It looked like the exact opposite of that.

Don't get me wrong, it tastes good. I ate a piece for breakfast. Then another. Then I put whipped cream and powdered sugar on it and took pictures for you. Then I ate that piece too. And also the other piece you won't see pictures of, but that has cranberry sauce all over it. Yeah, 4 pieces. Then I called some friends and asked them to come eat the rest before I ended up drunk for breakfast.

You shouldn't drink alone, right? You also shouldn't stuff your face with alcohol-infused chocolate cake alone either.

Because sharing is caring. Especially when it's a Cab Franc.

Cabbage & Apples

I'm a liar. Such a good liar that I don't even know when I'm lying. In an earlier post, I told you I hadn't taken pictures of the cabbage and apples I made for brunch. But looking through my camera, I realized I was wrong!

Happy day!

I'd seen this on Melissa D'Arabian's 10 Dollar Dinners. I've never been a fan of cabbage. Like brussels sprouts, it's just not yummy. I usually avoid it in salads, fish tacos, wherever else it lurks. But she swore that everyone she'd ever served it to looooooooooooved it. So why not try it?

The first time, I didn't have fennel so I used cumin. The second time, I forgot about the cumin/fennel completely. And it didn't even matter (I use the Adobo with cumin in it, so it was there, at least).

Original recipe here, modified below (basically I switched out the Granny Smith for a Golden Delicious--they're sweeter--and used my handy Adobo instead of salt & pepper).

Sauteed Cabbage and Apples   
1/2 head red cabbage
1 Golden Delicious apple
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
Adobo to taste
1/4 cup red wine
Splash apple cider vinegar

Core and slice the cabbage into thin slices. Slice the cheeks off the apples and cut into thin wedges.

In a large saute pan, add the butter and melt over medium heat. Add the cabbage, apples, and Adobo, to taste, and saute until the cabbage softens and wilts, about 20 minutes. Deglaze with red wine and stir in a splash of cider vinegar. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve.

When all was said and done, my house smelled like wine and butter. In other words, decadent. And quite yummy. I'm a cabbage convert!

But I still hate brussels sprouts.