Foodies and gourmets - This is a thread devoted to vaping and cocktail mixology combos!

[Vwls]

So I am a huge foodie and I love to dabble with gourmet cooking, growing my own herbs and veggies, and mixing amazing cocktails at home. Adding to this now vaping, as I've been clean off analogs for 2 weeks! Yayyyy!

I've yet to discover the juices that make my heart happy, but as I explore the almost endless landscapes of e-juice flavors, I am of course combining them with the cocktails I love best.

Tonight I tried the following combination:

Homemade guacamole (world's best) with a Skinny Margarita (not your average Margarita) and G.T.F.O by Mister-E-juice.

World’s Best Guacamole
Another great recipe in the Football Couch Potato Series

You’ll need:
8 ripe avocados
4 cloves fresh garlic, pressed or finely chopped
½ of a large onion
3 Serrano chilies, chopped finely (you can add some finely chopped Habanero too if you like it HOT)
2 ripe, firm tomatoes, chopped into small cubes
Chopped fresh cilantro
¼ cup pomegranate seeds
½ of a fresh lime
Sea salt

Cut the avocados in half, remove the pits, and spoon the halves into a large bowl. Add the garlic, onion, Serranos, tomato, a handful of chopped cilantro (if you're lazy, just use fresh-made pico de gallo from the supermarket in the veggie aisle) and pomegranate seeds: mix with a large spoon. Do not mash. The mixing process will break the avocado up perfectly. Salt to taste (best to use fresh ground sea salt) and squeeze the lime on top – mix again.

Serve with fresh tortilla chips (you can make your own tortilla chips by slicing up fresh-made tortillas and frying them in olive oil till crispy.)

Skinny Margarita
This is the one served at True Foods, if you have ever heard of it. It's addicting.
1/2 oz triple sec (they use Hiram Walker)
1/2 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
1 1/2 oz silver tequila (they use Casa Nobles or Partida)
fresh cucumber slices
fresh mint leaves
orange slice

Muddle 4 thick slices of cucumber and a full handful of fresh-picked mint leaves in your shaker. Add the other ingredients plus crushed or chipped ice. Fill a tall frosted glass with whole ice cubes, cucumber slices, fresh mints leaves and a slice of fresh orange. Shake the cocktail vigorously until ice crystals form on the outside of the shaker, and strain into the glass. Top with a splash of soda water. (By the way - I double this recipe for a full cocktail.)

Salud and vape away!

 

[III BIRDMAN III]

What ohm load is this cup

Now I'm hungray

 

[Baditude]

Grats on your milestone!

Those pics look absolutely delicious. The only way they could be improved upon would be if we could see you in the pics, too.

 

[Butters78]

Ejole! Lol

That's fancy to me and my wife. I just buy avocados and she mashes them up and just adds salt. Hehe it's good tho.

 

[Butters78]

It looks really good tho! Pass that ova hea! I want some tamales btw! Hehe

 

[Vwls]

Ejole! Lol

That's fancy to me and my wife. I just buy avocados and she mashes them up and just adds salt. Hehe it's good tho.

Half the fun is in the growing and making... but I'll post something fast and easy that doesn't require any fancy footwork... but still tastes gourmet. Just for you and the wife.

 

[Caridwen]

Looks good! Moved to the lounge.

 

[Butters78]

Half the fun is in the growing and making... but I'll post something fast and easy that doesn't require any fancy footwork... but still tastes gourmet. Just for you and the wife.

That sounds great!

 

[Vwls]

Here you go Eric )

Chic Cheese and Crackers
A Lazy Gourmet Recipe

The trick here is to impress your guests with something that tastes fantastic and gourmet, but that took you little to no time to prepare (and with minimum suffering to the wallet).

Easy enough – you’ll need a bottle of dry red wine with this snack, preferably a cab or red zin.

To buy:
Ritz Toasted Sweet Home Sour Cream & Onion “Chips”
Fresh-picked basil (or buy at Trader Joe’s)
Small fresh-picked or heirloom tomatoes (if you can’t get either, get the organic tomatoes on the vine from Trader Joe’s – they have the most flavor outside the first two choices)
[shopping note to novice lazy gourmets: tomatoes should be quite firm to the touch, not squishy - don’t be afraid to touch them all till you find what you want!)
Package of Primo Taglio Goat Cheese (Shopper’s hint – this cheese is a LOT cheaper at Fresh ‘N Easy markets than at the other big chains. No idea why.)
Course-grind fresh cracked black pepper

To do:
Slice the tomatoes and crack black pepper on them.
Pile a chunk of goat cheese on each cracker.
Add a slice of tomato to each goat-cheesed cracker.
Top with a young basil leaf.
Serve

As with all budget/lazy gourmet recipes, experiment with other items you have lying around the house. Another cracker will do just fine in this recipe, but the Ritz crackers pack a LOT of flavor, so if you choose something milder, be sure to add an ingredient that returns fullness and zest to the snack.

Enjoy!

 

[CookingWithGuns]

As my screenname suggests, I spend a lot of time cooking. Grew up in the kitchen, never really left. Looking forward to seeing this thread grow. For what was posted so far, two quick things regarding avocados. Be careful growing them, they go bad easy. Also, buy California, not Mexican imported as those don't have the same regulations so wind up being one of the top foods that cause food poisonings.

 

[Vwls]

I can't grow my own avocados unfortunately, as I don't live in the right climate. I do grow tomatoes though, and citrus. And a lot of herbs - basil and mint are staples in so many things I cook/mix.

What are your specialties, Guns? And do you DIY your vaping juices?

 

[CookingWithGuns]

I can't grow my own avocados unfortunately, as I don't live in the right climate. I do grow tomatoes though, and citrus. And a lot of herbs - basil and mint are staples in so many things I cook/mix.

What are your specialties, Guns? And do you DIY your vaping juices?

I can Cook just about anything, yet for some reason I can't grill chicken, or do an easy over egg. Soon as i have steady income again I'll be doing DIY juices

 

[InTheShade]

Also, buy California, not Mexican imported as those don't have the same regulations so wind up being one of the top foods that cause food poisonings.

I typed a big old response to this, but I'll delete it in the spirit of the thread - let me just say that Mexican avocados are perfectly safe in any guacamole and you don't need to worry about their high pressure pasteurization process - it's excellent.

 

[CookingWithGuns]

I typed a big old response to this, but I'll delete it in the spirit of the thread - let me just say that Mexican avocados are perfectly safe in any guacamole and you don't need to worry about their high pressure pasteurization process - it's excellent.

Hey I'm just telling you what I learned from being in the industry for so long. They may statistically be considered safe to eat, but they are still among the top in contaminated produce, second only to spinach (from any source) at one point recently. Some are of higher quality than American avocados but they make up the minority imported to here. The problem is the US doesn't force the same growing regulations on Mexican avocados, and the growing areas for them coincidentally tends to be in contaminated soils. I won't even bother touching on the devastating effects they had on the Californian job market as that isn't for this thread. However from a culinary standpoint, Mexican avocados are the only food I avoid using if possible.

Now, for all you people that like your meat rare... Did you know, between American raised chicken, beef, pork, lamb, and wild game meat that pork is actually the safest to eat raw today? And chicken is the only one that has any real danger to it. Amazing how times have changed. Now amazingly it is actually pretty safe (and some love it) to eat raw chicken in Japan.

Anyways, tip of the day. Searing your meat does not "seal in the juices"and in fact help dry it out, albeit unnoticeably. So focus on your cooking of it, don't assume because you seared it that you can Cook it a bit longer or have more leeway in your cooking times. A sear should only be used for textual or presentation purposes.

 

[Butters78]

Thanks for the great recipe! My wife and I will have to try it.

 

[Vwls]

Today's yummy combo: the chocolate martini with a mild menthol vape.

To make the cocktail, you'll need to stock up a bit. Buy the following:

Godiva original chocolate liqueur
Creme de Cacao
Bailey's Irish Cream
Vanilla vodka (any brand will do)
Half-and-half
Chocolate syrup (probably best not to skimp on quality here - go with Hershey's or better)
Chocolate wafer cookies (any chocolate cookie that is dry in nature will work)
A bar of milk chocolate, or shaved chocolate

First, prepare the glass:

Use 2 small plates with an inside circumference that matches the rim size of your martini glasses.
Crush the chocolate cookies or wafers by placing them in a plastic bag and crushing with a kitchen hammer or muddler.
Then rim one plate with chocolate syrup, and the other with the cookie crumbs.

Dip your martini glass into the chocolate till the rim is well-covered, then lift off, and dip into the cookie crumbs.

Drizzle a bit of chocolate syrup into the martini glass to make it pretty.

Now it's time to practice mixology.

Pour into your shaker:
2 ounces Godiva original chocolate liqueur
1 ounce Creme de Cacao
1 ounce vanilla vodka
1 ounce Baileys
2 ounces half-and-half

Add a small handful of chipped ice (not too much for this drink - you don't want this to get watered down), and shake vigorously for 30 seconds, or until ice crystals form on the outside of the shaker.

Pour into the pre-prepared martini glass and garnish with shaved chocolate. I "shaved" my own by taking a milk chocolate bar from Trader Joe's and using a grater on it.

Vape suggestion with this drink: menthol varieties. I vaped Mount Baker "Menthol" mixed with a touch of Mister-E-Liquid's "RY4" to calm down the heavy menthol taste of the Mount Baker juice. PERFECT with the chocolate flavor of the cocktail Enjoy!

 

[CookingWithGuns]

^^^^^^

I haven't done this specific recipe yet, and could be wrong, but suggestions from similar experiments follow

360 and van Gough chocolate vodka are cheaper similar quality cheaper substitutes.

If you don't want to use chocolate syrup, add a sprinkle of sugar to your ground chocolate, and rim your glass with a Lemon or lime wedge quickly.

Cut out the half and half, instead add an ounce each of Bailey's and Creme de Cacao. Though depending on your preferred flavour, make it 1 of whichever (Cacao vs Bailey's) you prefer and up the vanilla/chocolate vodka an ounce.

 

[skyztheLynnit]

The chocolate martini looks great!! Thanks Vwls! thanks for the pics.. yummy..

 

[Vwls]

^^^^^^

I haven't done this specific recipe yet, and could be wrong, but suggestions from similar experiments follow

360 and van Gough chocolate vodka are cheaper similar quality cheaper substitutes.

If you don't want to use chocolate syrup, add a sprinkle of sugar to your ground chocolate, and rim your glass with a Lemon or lime wedge quickly.

Cut out the half and half, instead add an ounce each of Bailey's and Creme de Cacao. Though depending on your preferred flavour, make it 1 of whichever (Cacao vs Bailey's) you prefer and up the vanilla/chocolate vodka an ounce.

Thanks! I tried a few combinations and this one (my post above) came out the tastiest, but one recipe I want to try involves using 'chocolate whipped' flavor vodka and chocolate milk. That's it - just those two! The chocolate whipped vodka apparently has the flavor of real cream built in... not sure yet if that would annoy me because I like the flavor of real cream much better than fake... Pretty much always opt for the real thing over a substitute. The traditionalists always call for creme de cacao in chocolate martinis, but I am still playing with this.. I usually start with the most traditional recipes, and then tweak till it tastes perfect. One thing's for sure - I'll always pick a recipe that calls for Baileys over one that doesn't. Everything's better with Baileys!

 

[Vwls]

OK guys - this combo's for you. It does not involve any cooking! (And very little shopping.) All you need is a few Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stouts and your favorite chocolate flavored e-juice, and you are all set. It tastes gourmet and oh so satisfying! Enjoy!

(Note - make sure it's Samuel Smith - the other Oatmeal Stouts just don't measure up.)