As many cookbooks may reside on my creaky bedside bookcase and kitchen shelf, I rarely use recipes when I cook. Baking, of course, requires precise measurements and more well-defined guidelines, but cooking is an entirely different craft. A pinch of this, a dash of that, cook until it looks right, and you’ll get the best results, I promise you. It takes time to hone one’s skill, to learn what it takes to get to the perfect stage of doneness, whatever that might be; Practice really does make perfect, as they say.
The ingredients themselves are also up for interpretation, more dependent on what’s in the fridge than what’s written in some text. If I can get my hands on it, that’s what’s for dinner. Special occasions may get more planning, a specific component sought out complete a dish, but no way am I going to plunk down more cash for wild ramps when I’ve got perfectly good leeks in the fridge. No, they aren’t the same thing, but that’s where you start getting creative and forge into new territory, and conceive entirely new flavorful combinations.
And thus, some of the best meals are made while cleaning out the vegetable crisper. Or, in the case of mixed drinks, the fruit bin.
I’ll be the first to tell you that I don’t drink. Not even a little bit. Not at all. But I can truly appreciate the ingenuity in creating a decent glass of sangria, a compilation of pretty much any fruit around, plus red wine and possibly another more potent spirit or two (or more.) If I did drink, I would definitely want to celebrate the close of another long, hot, and tiring week, and knock back a glass or two of this anything-goes sort of beverage. Especially if it were to involve ripe summer berries and zesty citrus… Sort of like this, maybe- And of course, those fruits are definitely up for debate, depending on what’s around. But since I don’t drink, I can’t say for sure. …I just thought that someone looking to celebrate the arrival of the weekend might be interested. Happy [hour] Friday!