Cocktail: Ogden Donkey

My friend Aimee proposed one evening that we make something called a "Moscow Mule" which is a gingery vodka drink. We made some, and they were pretty good, but we agreed that they were a little sweet and needed more bite.

I set to work. To make the Moscow Mule I had to make ginger syrup which you make by boiling 2 cups of water, one cup of sugar, and about a half cup sliced fresh ginger root. Cook until the liquid reduces by half.

When I decided to increase the bite, I added a few lemon slices to the above.

I strained out the chunks and set aside the ginger-lemon syrup. I put the ginger slices and lemon chunks into a one pint mason jar and filled it with vodka, letting it sit until the next evening.

To make the Ogden Donkey (Aimee's coinage) mix like this:

2 oz gingery lemony vodka from the jar
1/2 oz (1 tbsp) ginger-lemon syrup
2 oz sparkling water
Lemon twist
Serve over one giant ice cube

You can re-infuse more vodka with the chunks in the jar at least 5 times; likewise, I suppose you could do one larger batch all at once. However, since the lemon and ginger slices were also soaked in sugar from the syrup- making, you may want to add additional sugar if you infuse a couple quarts of vodka at once. When I re-infused in the one pint jar, I added about 1/4 cup of sugar to ech batch after the first batch. After you add the sugar, shake it really well. Shake again before use.

You can also add the ginger slices to the cocktails as garnish. The hardiest among you may eat the slices after draining the cocktail.

Mason Jar Coffee Roasters

If you've read my earliest posts on this blog, you'll know that one of our goals/challenges was finding some replacements for great bread, great granola, and great coffee so that our mornings could continue to achieve the apex of taste, refinement, and profound gustatory satisfaction we had enjoyed in the Adirondacks thanks to the Dogwood Bread Company of Wadhams!, NY.

The solution: we found a way to bake crusty, no-knead artisan bread in a 7-quart dutch oven; make our own delicious granola; and I started roasting my own coffee beans. There is some great artisan bread available regionally - coffee and granola, too - but it largely emanates from Logan at the Crumb Brothers bakery. Logan is far away by my standards, and though amazing, I wouldn't consider the Crumb Brothers an Ogden local.

Also, roasting coffee in a variety of semi-failing popcorn poppers at 5AM in 10-degree weather twice a week all winter long (I do it in the garage to contain the massive amount of smoke it produces) wears a little thin after awhile. Fortunately for me, I have discovered Mason Jar Coffee Roasters right in here in Ogden (well, Washington Terrace, really).

Tom, the owner/roaster is a great guy. He's got a great staff. The place was established in August 2012, and at the time of writing, they're still developing some ambiance - but way in the plus column, the place is spacious, friendly, plenty of seating, sofas, a scrabble game, and my 3-year-old feels pretty at home cruising around in there.

They have a drive-up window, and they sell jars of amazing, freshly roasted coffee. Mason Jar also features loose-leaf tea (another very hard to find item in Ogden - Union Station Fermentation has some, too). Mason Jar usually has a nice plate of donuts and fritters on the counter if you need a snack. But the main feature for me is the shiny coffee roaster in the back of the main room, surrounded by all the lovely sacks of coffee...

I'm a black coffee drinker, but if you like a latte, make sure to ask for the Cinnamon Honey Soy Latte - using real honey and real cinnamon. Somehow, it magically almost tastes like chocolate. And if you want to skip the magic and go straight for the real thing, the house hot-chocolate is soul-satisfying and worth the trip. They're not open Sundays, but they're open daily from 5:30AM-7:00PM (double-check for current hours).

Smogden, Utah

What's up with this, Utah?

The air has been worsening for a week straight. The ground-level visibility is probably a mile or two in the middle of the day. You can taste the air.

I grew up in Missoula, MT, which had a geographically-imposed inversion, just like the Wasatch Front. The difference is, in Missoula, they got sick of it 25 years ago and took aggressive steps to improve the air, so they could have a healthy community.

Here, the plan seems to be to wait for the wind to pick up.

Here's a more detailed and informative look at Daily Kos.

These ladies are also sick of it.