Archive for: soda
Jones Soda Co. is known for their inventively flavored sodas and unique label designs. Their normal sodas range from Root Beer to Fufu Berry, but their most original are the holiday drinks that they put out a few times each year. The Turkey and Gravy Soda, part of the Thanksgiving and Christmas variety packs, is notorious for being a bit… adventurous, but when I saw their Halloween Cans recently, I had a good feeling from the get-go and couldn’t resist trying at least one of the flavors. The cans are all 8-ounces and have great spooky designs for each candy-inspired flavor: Lemon Drop Dead, Spooookiwi, Candy Corn, Buried Pomegranate.
I opted for Lemon Drop Dead. The can has an all-over mummy wrapping and gives no hint to what exactly the flavoring of the soda within is. The best way to describe it is to say it is a lemonade-ginger ale combination, with the fizziness and not-too-sweet taste of the ginger ale, and a vibrant lemon flavor from the lemonade part of the mix. There aren’t many lemon sodas out there and this one is definitely a winner, seasonal or not, if you’re a lemonade fan. But since this is a seasonal item, I’ll set a few cans aside to set out on the drinks table at the next Halloween party.
Although it was nothing in size compared to the record-setting Coke float, I guess you could say that I was just a little inspired by the giant ice cream soda because I decided to make myself a – much smaller – root beer float. Floats, and ones made with root beer in particular, pair perfectly with hot dogs, hamburgers and just about any other summer day when you feel like a regular soda isn’t quite indulgent enough.
Making soda into a float is not rocket science: start with a big glass, add a scoop or two (or three) of your favorite vanilla ice cream and pour over the root beer. There are a few tricks to making a good one, however. First, it is important to spring for a good quality ice cream, or even a gelato. The richer ice creams hold up to the soda, while cheap, over-aerated brands will dissipate quickly in the carbonation. Lower fat ice creams often contain water or ice and can even dilute the drink. Second, while it is nice to get a good head on top of the float, pouring technique is crucial to avoid getting a glass of foam. Put the ice cream in first, then pour the root beer gently down the side of the glass. As it fills up, pour straight down, allowing foam to form and top off the drink.
Finally, don’t forget to serve your float with both a straw and a spoon to get the most out of the treat!
Ordinarily, I would make ribs in the oven. They would be seasoned, sauced, wrapped tightly in foil and baked long hours at a low temperature until the meat was falling-off-the-bone tender. I am not thrilled with the heat that this generates in my kitchen, butt the only real problem I see with this method is that it renders my oven unavailable to other baked goods. I like to have cornbread with barbeque and it just doesn’t turn out quite right when you try to bake it in a 250F oven.
To free up that valuable oven space, I used my crockpot. I have a 5 quart slow cooker (crockpot), so I used 4 pounds of baby back ribs. If you have a small one, use two. This is important because the sauce will scorch a bit if you are not filling your cooker with enough meat. And who ever complained about a few extra ribs?
I was incredibly pleased with how well these turned out. I needed two spoons to get the ribs out, rather than tongs, because the meat came off the bones as though it had never been attached. And the taste? Teeth were completely unnecessary.
I started with a recipe from Epicurious for barbeque sauce and altered it a bit according to the comments left by other users and my own tastes. The sauce was on the sweet side, but the paprika and dash of red pepper flakes cut it just enough. It was great with the ribs. You could taste many flavors in the sauce, and while you can taste a hint of root beer if you know it is there, no one else is likely to guess the “secret ingredient”. If you don’t have root beer, substitute some brand of cola. I like the sauce to be a little thinner for roasting and crock pot cooking, as opposed to grilling, where I like it thick. If you like it thicker, continue to reduce the sauce down to 1 1/2 cups, which will take an additional 10-15 minutes.
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Thank you elise for picking such a great theme. Gelatin really set me off on a series of recipes that I wouldn’t ordinarily have made. Beyond making Jello as a child, rather poorly, I might add, I had no experience with gelatin before this event. I seem to be a bit hooked at the moment, though. Gelatin is very easy to work with and can be mixed with just about any liquid to make an easy, light jelly or mousse.
While scouting for appealing recipes, I came across a recipe on the Food Network website for Root Beer Gelee and Vanilla Panna Cotta. I love root beer floats and that is what came to my mind immediately when I saw their photo. How could you not love a tall glass of cool root beer poured over a big scoop of vanilla ice cream? I imagined that the combination of panna cotta and root beer would be similar in flavor. It turned out to be a great combination.
Unfortunately, I had no root beer and used vanilla bean cream soda instead, as you cen see in the photo, so this is not actually a root beer float. I really enjoyed this dessert, though, and think that it would have been fantastic with root beer. Root beer has a stronger flavor than cream soda and, though the vanilla melded well with the panna cotta, I think something slightly more assertive would have been more interesting.
It didn’t take very long to set the gelatin, but do be careful when pouring in the panna cotta layer. I would advise you to pour it down the side of the glass to avoid putting pressure on the surface of the root beer layer. You can leave it in your fridge for quite some time before serving, but because the panna cotta layer is not so thick, I would suggest letting it soften slightly at room temperature for 10 or 15 minutes before serving.
