June 13th is World Gin Day. Celebrate by making a Gin Martini Milkshake: gin, vermouth, and ice cream!

If the concept sounds strange to you, think of all the sweet drinks made with heavy cream, from Brandy Alexander to Irish Coffee to White Russian. This recipe simply uses “frozen cream.”

Not a gin lover? Substitute rum, tequila, or vodka.
 
 
RECIPE: GIN MARTINI MILKSHAKE

This recipe is by Allison Kave from Butter & Scotch in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. She calls it a Bloodhound Shake, and makes it with Carounn gin, a small-batch Scottish gin made with foraged Celtic botanicals.
 
Ingredients Per Serving

1. COMBINE all ingredients in a blender and mix until blended.

2. POUR into a parfait glass or a pint glass. Top with whipped cream and a slice of fresh strawberry.
 
 
MORE ALCOHOL & ICE CREAM

If you like the gin milkshake, check out these ice cream floats with liqueur.
 
 

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Some people like to dip their fries in mustard. Why not potato chips?

This recipe is from gourmet mustard producer Maille, which used its Maille Old Style Whole Grain Mustard.

We love them with a cold beer, with a sandwich or with grilled meats. If you want to bring something to a cook-out, make lots!

Prep time is 3 minutes, cook time is 4 minutes. There are other nifty recipes on the website.

RECIPE: KETTLE CHIPS WITH WHOLE GRAIN MUSTARD

Ingredients For 4 Servings

1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F.

2. SPOON the mustard into a flat-bottomed bowl. Add the potato chips and QUICKLY but gently toss with clean hands. The chips should NOT be saturated with mustard; you just want a very small touch on each chip.

3. SPREAD the chips in a single layer on a non-stick baking sheet (silicone baking mat preferred).

4. BAKE, stirring once, for about 4 minutes; then remove from the oven and broil on low for 2 minutes to crisp. Watch carefully to avoid burning!

5. COOL and serve within 24 hours.

The bowls have a bed of salad greens, with layers of toppings such as beans, cheese, corn, dips (guacamole, hummus, salsa), grains, legumes, noodles, proteins, sour cream, tomatoes and more. Each layer of ingredients adds more flavor and texture.

According Katie Ayoub’s article in Flavor & The Menu, Chipotle’s Burrito Bowl now surpasses its burritos in sales. Jamba Juice added five Energy Bowls to its lineup last September. Panera rolled out Broth Bowls in January and KFC launched two new Chicken & Rice Bowls. On The Border introduced Border Bowls in April. The list goes on.

Bowls cross comfort-food and global flavors with better-for-you fresh vegetables and smaller portions of protein. They provide tastes of multiple favorites in one dish. They’re a hit.

Make your own bowls at home with the layer-by-layer guide to ingredients below, and add your own to the list.

A tip: If you plan your menus for a few days, you can have leftover beans, grains and proteins with which to construct your bowls.

A homemade version of Chipotle’s Steak Burrito Bowl (hey, where’s the grated cheese?). Here’s the recipe, from GimmeDelicious.com.

Salad greens plus:

 
PROTEIN

From On The Border, the popular Shrimp Border Bowl, with grilled shrimp and
Tex-Mex fixings.

PRODUCE

 
FLAVOR BINDERS

 
We can’t wait until lunchtime!

But ricotta is so versatile: It’s a topper, a binder, a stuffing (cannoli, crêpes, dumplings, pillow pasta), and an ingredient in cheesecake, pancakes, puddings, and more.

This is the first of three tips on ricotta: Enjoy it for breakfast! If you like cottage cheese, you’ll like ricotta; and if you don’t enjoy cottage cheese, you may well like the flavor and texture of ricotta.
 
 
WHAT IS RICOTTA

Ricotta is a fresh (unaged) cow’s milk cheese that’s used extensively in Italian cooking. It’s soft and spreadable like cottage cheese.

Technically, ricotta isn’t a cheese at all, but a by-product of the cheese-making process. The name “ricotta” means “recooked” in Italian (from the Latin recoctus).

Ricotta is been made from the whey left over from making other cheeses. After the curds are coagulated from the milk with rennet, the whey is drained off and the curds are pressed into cheese.

What to do with all the leftover whey had long been a concern with cheese makers. Many simply fed it to their pigs, a practice that is continued today. Famously, the whey drained from making the “king of cheeses,” Parmigiano-Reggiano, is used to feed the pigs that become Parma ham (prosciutto).

Ricotta and honey for breakfast. Delicious! Photo courtesy Murray’s Cheese.

While ricotta in the U.S. is typically made from cow’s milk whey, in Italy it is also made from goat whey, sheep whey, and even water buffalo whey.

Regardless of the whey used, ricotta is the freshest of cheeses and should be consumed promptly. Supermarket brands tend to be stabilized for longer shelf life, but there is nothing like fresh-made ricotta—higher in price, but so worth it. Ask for it at a cheese store or an Italian specialty market.
 
 

Depending on the preference of the cheese maker, fresh ricotta can be the consistency of cottage cheese or slightly less moist. Photo courtesy Caviar Russe.

Ricotta salata is made specifically from the whey of sheep’s milk, but it is not sold fresh like ricotta. It is pressed, salted (salata), and aged into a hard, white cheese. Mildly salty, nutty, and milky, it is an excellent grating and shaving cheese, often used to garnish pasta, salads, and cooked vegetables.

Here’s a photo and more about ricotta salata.

There’s also ricotta affumicata, an aged cheese that is smoked in the early part of the maturing process. Like ricotta salata, it can be eaten with bread or grated over other foods.
 
 
USES FOR RICOTTA AT BREAKFAST

When Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet*, eating her curds and whey, she was having a bowl of cottage cheese: Curds are the lumps and whey is the liquid. That was in England. If she’d have been in Italy, she would have eaten ricotta instead. Here’s how we enjoy it at breakfast:

 
We’re off to enjoy a breakfast of these “curds and whey.” Do you have a favorite way to enjoy ricotta for breakfast? Let us know.
 
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*Have you ever wondered what a tuffet is? It’s a hassock, a piece of furniture used as a footstool or a low seat. Your great-grandmother likely had one that matched the sofa.
 
 

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While your municipality takes care that no disease-producing microbes are in your tap water, you can still have beer for breakfast. Put it in your waffles!

Here’s one of the delicious beer-infused recipes we received from the Craft Brewers Association at CraftBeer.com, contributed by Nicole, author of Dula Notes.

Nicole uses Bell’s Double Cream Stout, one of her favorite local Michigan beers, to add spice and character to homemade waffles.

Try it now: It might be just what you’re looking for for Father’s Day.

And if Dad really likes stout, consider gifting him these stout glasses from Spielgau, or these from Libbey.
 
RECIPE: WAFFLES WITH STOUT

Ingredients

A glass of stout. Photo courtesy Spielgau.

1. MELT the butter in a medium pot over low heat. Add the buttermilk and stout, stir and heat until warm. Turn off the heat.

2. COMBINE the flour, sea salt, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon and cardamom in a large bowl. Whisk to blend.

3. WHISK the eggs in another large bowl until well beaten. Add the vanilla and whisk to combine. Pour about one cup of the warm butter/buttermilk/beer mixture into the eggs and whisk vigorously to combine. Pour the rest of the mixture into the bowl, whisking constantly.

4. ADD the liquid mixture to the dry mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until the flour disappears, but the batter is still a little lumpy. Take care not overmix, but make sure that the flour is incorporated. Let the batter sit as the waffle iron heats up.

Check it out. And only buy real maple syrup!
 
TYPES OF BEER

Check out the difference between stout and other types of beer in our Beer Glossary.