Ginger Syrup - The Mixology Experiment

In an effort to be healthy I have been going to the local farmers market on Sundays for my fruit and veggies for the week. Well this one booth had these big ginger roots, I had to buy one. Great! So I asked myself, "Yo, what do u do with this big root-o-ginger?" Ahh yes, the answer was easy, make ginger syrup for ginger martinis. Note, how easy I stray from the "healthy lifestyle" pursuit.

Quick e-mail to M.I.

G-Daddy to MIHOTT
OK , I got this big chunk o'ginger. so what is ur recipe for ginger syrup. Can I make it with dark rum??

MIHOTT to G-Daddy
Equal parts water, sugar & Ginger (peeled & chopped). I usually do med to med high heat & stir a lot up front while the sugar is melting, then let it simmer until it's syrupy, about 30 min. That's it for the syrup.

For the martini, I experiment, usually 1/2 rum, 1/2 syrup or do thirds with triple sec.
Good luck!

Well for starters, no dude is gonna peel ginger root. Look at that thing, its alien. I just cut it small enough to go in my Black and Decker One-Touch chopper. Presto I got at least a pound of finely chopped ginger root. Now I happen to enjoy dark rum. So with that said I figure I'll go all dark and use dark brown sugar also. With those small deviation I proceed to make my own batch of ginger syrup.

OK so I melt the sugar in with the ginger and have this nice rich brown liquid...with all kinds on ginger peel pieces floating on the top. No worries, the house is equipped with a small strainer and I proceed to fish most of the chopped pieces of ginger skin out of my precious syrup. Simmer for 1/2 hr to 45 minutes. Hmmm, Doesn't look so bad.


I happen to have some blue sake bottles and some extra corks. So there, I have ginger syrup.

CONCLUSION: Let's say that for a first try I found all of the mistakes. Honestly who likes a brown martini? What was I drinking...I mean thinking? The dark rum was too strong, it clashed with the ginger. White rum next time.

Same with the brown sugar, white sugar next time. Oh yea, and if you don't want to peel then you need cheese cloth (hmm perhaps coffee filters will work). The strainer doesn't get all of the fines.

Good things. I got two containers of sweet chopped ginger root I have been cooking with. Ginger teriyaki tuna!!. The pineapple was great alone without any rum. The rum is great alone without any ginger. Mix the syrup with sparkling water for really good ginger ale.

Kick Ass Fun Update

So here is what I have found. I have the best Super Bowl Sundays if I don't watch that goofy football game. So for the last two Sundays in a row I have hit Ward's Rafters. What a funky place. The third story of this woman's house in Kaimuki...who would have known??

http://www.yelp.com/biz/wards-rafters-honolulu

On Superbowl Sunday was, "A Tribute to John Coltrane". Man that was hot.

Here is the play list for you jazz purest.

1st Set
Bessie's Blues
Good Bait - sweet
I Mean You
Lazy Bird - waltz
The River
A Love Supreme - dudes, tore it up way to close a set!!! Satomi was just awesome on piano

2nd Set

Giant Steps
Moment's Notice
Ohm(sp) Original composition I thought is sounded like the funky part of The River
Something about John Coltrane - Flute
Impressionsw/Neil on Sax also for duet/ Neil can blow also....sigh started thinking about work on this tune.

3rd Set

In Walked Bud
Mister Day
The Creator Has a Master Plan - a Pharoah Sanders tune

This Sunday was just as good. Valentines Day, Mom and Pop's anniversary, which leads to an entire separate blog post. In Summary, that was two Sundays in a row of kick ass fun!

Where was all the Fun and Happiness???

LOL.... back in April I posted some "short term goals" 30-60 days. Well with the year ending I figure I'll give a brief summary.

Lose weight...Yes I did. I even kept it off thru the holidays.

LEED AP... Yes I did. Now the good sustainable green building folks want me to select a speciality by 2011 so I'll have to get PDH's for that. Arrrgh

30+ engineering PDH's for my 2010 AK engineering license...Yes I did This was pretty cool.

Scuba Diving.....No, I didn't. Nothing, zippo, didn't even get wet. How lame is that? the most fun thing one that stupid list and I do nothing. yo G-daddy ur priorities are really f'd up. Sigh my pursuit of water colors was down also. I did only 7 post cards and 6 of those were Christmas cards of the same thing.

Years ago I had a TAB business with some college buddies. It wasn't a huge money maker but, every year we would have a big pizza super bowl party (hey, it was tax deductible). So at the party I would announce the word of the year. Remember Peewee's Play house? ok I digress. The phrase for 2010 is "Kick Ass Fun". I am going to focus on kick ass fun. This will be the one of the funnest years of my life.

Not saying 2009 wasn't fun. A few friends did come visit me on Oahu. I did get to the Big Island. Had a fun road trip from Denver to AZ thru New Mexico. However, more Kick Ass Fun in 2010 will be had by all.

Primo and Segundo on da island brah!

CHECK IT OUT!!!

Primo and Segundo were in HI for Christmas.

The highlight was a night at the Dragon Upstairs Lounge in Hono Downtown Chinatown. Another awesome Jazz show, the drummer was choke as they say in the 808


They also got to pound sweet rice to make moshi(sp) for the new year. I guess rice pounding is a Japaneses new years tradition. The neighbor does this every year and he invited the boyz and I over.

Moshed sweet rice...., yup I know that was takin grammatical liberties with conjugation.

The moshi production line.

Three of us at the bar, he he it reminded me of going out with Pops .

No Pain, No Gain or Make Lemonade w/o Sugar

YOW

A lot has happened since the last post.

Amazing, I passed my LEEDS AP test. Hey don’t ask I needed a 170 out of whatevah and I got bare minimum 170. Postponed it from 6/19 to 6/23 and passed the buggah! OK so I met the pass the LEED AP exam goal.

7/15/09 the house I’m renting was jacked. Bastards stole my laptop, back-up HD, Nokia N82 cell phone, both ukulele’s a KoAloha and my KPK, GPS (old as it was), check books and bank files. Bitches took my water color paints and pencils. Took a month to cancel checks, get new accounts (in Alaska), and file fraud alerts at all three credit agencies. The police file was closed in a day, so much for Hawaii 50 in the year 2009. Now I have chains on both gates…kinda silly for a house with jalousie windows and ¾” T&G walls. I mean a tweaked out Samoan could just go thru the wall.

So then I start having dizzy spells. Dr. puts me on the EKG machine and goes hmmm perhaps you need to see a cardiologist and take a baby aspirin daily. Of course then I feel my heart and carotid arteries start throbbing. The dizziness gets worse and so next week I see Doc again which is followed by an immediate head CT scan. Good news here, the small growth in my head is identified as my brain and no tumors or aneurysms are waiting to explode.

But in the back of my mind I think well maybe it is the HBP meds. So I’m now I’m mortified G-Daddy has heart disease. I stop drinking and coffee, and start popping aspirin daily. In addition, I was told to get a HBP machine so I can track my pressure at home. (Why would a doctor tell an engineer to collect and plot data points?) So I’m taking 20-30 readings a day just waiting for the big one to hit me. To be honest, Doc also said it could be stress and do some stretching, exercise, try yoga. So after living in fear for three weeks, I finally get to the cardio stress test. The cardiologist was hilarious, great stand-up. Long story short heart is healthy, changed HBP meds, and dizziness has somewhat subsided.

The point is add the; house break in, HBP meds dizziness side effect, the heart disease scare, plus work stress (next Blog entry) Woo Hoo!! I lost 8 lbs. So, I’m gonna claim an 80% on the lose weight goal.

No Diving
2 more CEU’s more to follow

Ouch... That did hurt

Well that didn't work. Just highlighted how unmotivated my sorry ass is lately. Here is the goal progress summary:

1. Lose 10 lbs (first step in getting off HBP meds those things SUCK). This is a bigger than losing weight, I really want to get on a “whole health” mind set. Eat better, drink less, exercise more. Simply put I’m struggling with mortality. I haven't lost a fucking pound. Hell - no hiking, no rollerblading ,no nothing, this weekend.

2. Go diving, hell I have the gear, I’m in Hawaii. WTF?? Nope didn't do any of that.

3. Pass the LEED AP exam. Test is in June, need to get study materials. Well, I got the materials the test is on the 20th need to learn over 400 pgs in 6 days. Christ i really don't give a rip about LEEDs

4. Christ! I need 30 hrs of PDH’s to keep my license current. First step of this one is in motion. Will be in San Diego in May to attend a seminar but that is only ½ of PDH’s don’t know whether to plan another seminar or collect the remainder on-line. Canceled the SD seminar... lol pig flu worries ....more folks have it here in Hawaii. So the next attempt(s) is to go on-line. And yeah I'm stuck with a nonrefundable ticket to SD. Did attend an Hawaii AIA/ASHRAE "Mold in the Building Environment" brown bag luncheon. 2 PDH's down 28 to go.

Whew!! good thing it was only 4 goals. Folks, the long and short of it is I'm not going to be able to work another 15 years unless I find something more gratifying. The struggle for legal tender just to be part of the great US consumer economy has TOTALLY lost its appeal.

I guess a few simple goals won't hurt?

Howzit, folks yes it has been awhile. I was in Anchorage last weekend. Yeah yeah I know I didn’t see everyone (including Mom). Smile... telling folks here in Hawaii that it was almost 50 deg F. in Anchorage on Sunday makes them shiver. Nevertheless, it was nice, the sun was out, and it was a beautiful day. Anchorage was pretty dusty but hey that is the way the place is b4 the first spring rain. Well, OK maybe a bit dustier than normal due to volcano ash/dust. Primo and Segundo are doing well in the house. lol Primo’s cat is on the new version of Google Earth runnin across the street.

Here’s the deal. I’ve been slacking lately so I need to publish some goals. I need to get back to posting on a regular basis. Both are ways to keep life moving, the proverbial killing two birds with one stone. These are only short-term goals 30-90 days

1. Lose 10 lbs (first step in getting off HBP meds those things SUCK). This is a bigger than losing weight, I really want to get on a “whole health” mind set. Eat better, drink less, exercise more. Simply put I’m struggling with mortality.

2. Go diving, hell I have the gear, I’m in Hawaii. WTF??

3. Pass the LEED AP exam. Test is in June, need to get study materials.

4. Christ! I need 30 hrs of PDH’s to keep my license current. First step of this one is in motion. Will be in San Diego in May to attend a seminar but that is only ½ of PDH’s don’t know whether to plan another seminar or collect the remainder on-line.