Old Fashioned Dead Guy

Rogue is a great brewery from Portland, OR. They've been running a distillery as well for the past 10 years. They do cool stuff like grow their own barley and hops for some of their beers. They make a chipotle stout thats really weird and rad.

Its really hard to find their booze in Philly. I bought some while I was in California. They distill the wort used to make Dead Guy Ale. Which makes it a somewhat unusual whiskey. Its not bourbon or rye but all barley instead. Unlike scotch whisky though, it is not at all smokey. I made an old fashioned with it like this:


Old Fashioned Dead Guy
3oz whiskey
Orange slice
Maraschino cherry
1 tsp cane sugar
Angostura Bitters

Muddle orange, cherry, bitters and sugar in a rocks glass. Add whiskey and stir. Add ice and stir. Sip slowly while the ice melts in.

Chairry Cookie

When I bake, I use a scale. It ensures accuracy of the recipe and it ensures consistency every time. Texture and flavor are preserved. When I first try out recipes, they are usually written in volume. I will measure by volume while I have the measuring cup on a scale and a notebook on the table. From there, I slightly modify the ingredients until I am most pleased with the results. One recipe leads into another and yet another varies from that...
This recipe started with a snickerdoodle; devolved into a sugar cookie; adjusted into a chai snickerdoodle; and, seasonally apporpriately, morphed into a chai flavored cherry cookie.

Chairry Cookie (Chai/Cherry)


123 g butter (or earth balance margarine)
8 g chai spice (or if, like normal people, u don't make yr own chai spice for baked goods in bulk, perhaps 1/2 tsp cardamom, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp clove)
182 g cane sugar


216 g flour 
2 g baking soda
1 g salt

12 g brown flax seed
47 g Cherry Herring
4 g vanilla
4 g vinegar

10 fresh cherries

Cut Cherries in half, pit and dust with cane sugar. 
Let sit in a small bowl while you prepare the dough.
In a small bowl, whisk flour baking soda and sea salt. (maybe about 1/4 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp of soda?)
Cream spices with butter in a large bowl.
Cream sugar into butter.
Make vegan eggs in a small bowl.
-grind flax seeds super fine in a coffee grinder
-whisk flax seeds with liquid for about 30 seconds
--for the liquid; strain out the cherry/sugar water from the fresh cherries into a measuring glass and then add Cherry Heering to make 47 grams
Beat fleggs into butter/sugar jawn.
Stir in vanilla and lastly vinegar.
Preheat oven to 350.
Line half sheets with ripped in half parchment.
Scoop cookies using a number #20 ice cream scoop and youll get about 15.
Use a tablespoon scoop or actual spoon and youll get about twice as many. (10-12 min bake)
Space cookies about a dozen/ half sheet and theyll bake in 15 mins or so.
You want the edge to be just barely golden.
Let cool on the pans on a wire rack at least ten minutes.

The bigger size is more appropriate for half of a cherry.

Manhattan

The Manhattan is one of those classic cocktails that most people have heard of, even if they dont drink cocktails and even if they dont know what it is. I made my first one about 7 months ago when I was first getting into mixing drinks and I thought it was kind of gross. There is an important lesson here: precise measuring and specific ingredients make a huge difference. That first Manhattan I made had bourbon and either Angostura or no bitters at all. I now question if that is even a Manhattan at worst and at best its a bad Manhattan. In the past month or so Ive realized that I really enjoy a well made Manhattan. Also, its nice that you don't need soda or simple syrup or fresh fruit etc.

Manhattan

2oz Rye Whiskey
1oz Sweet Vermouth
few dashes Orange bitters
garnish with maraschino cherry

Chill a cocktail glass if you have time or freezer space.
In a shaker filled with ice, add rye, vermouth and bitters.
Shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Or just stir and strain.
Garnish with a cherry.



I made this with Redemption Rye, Carpano Antica Vermouth, Regans Orange bitters and homemade maraschinos. And it was so good. Don't be scurrd of those bitters, the orange is really crucial.


The cherries were unmeasured and needn't be. I had cherries that would go bad if not eaten immediately, so I put them in a jar, covered them with vodka and added a few tablespoons of sugar. They are not cloyingly sweet like "real" maraschino cherries. I like that. If you want to be real fancy and the cherries are nice enough, leave the stems on for a more elegant garnish.