Infusing Rum with Mango

It's so stinking hot today (105 degrees) and I have some mango rum waiting for me to finish this post. 


California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) has a wonderful Mango Mango Mojito. I often find myself sliding up to the bar while waiting to pick up my to-go order. For my birthday I decided to treat my girl friends to some mango mojitos while we were relaxing up in the North Georgia Wine Country. You can buy mango rum but this was lots more fun.

This was a HUGE jar. Any mason jar will also work that holds the quantity of the bottle plus room for the mango slices.

Infused Mango Rum


1 bottle of decent quality rum


1 jar of sliced mangoes in light syrup




Go to your local adult beverage retailer and get a decent bottle of rum. I'm not a big rum drinker so I went with Bacardi. It's a good and moderately priced rum. 


Go to your local grocery store and pick up a jar of mango slices in light syrup. I got mine from the refrigerated section at Publix. If you can't find the jars just grab a can or two from the canned fruit aisle.


(I really hate peeling mangoes.)


Using a fork, remove about 1/2 of the mangoes from the jar and place in a mason jar or other large mouth jar.


Pour about 1 cup of the light syrup into the jar


Pour the entire bottle of rum into the jar, reserving the bottle to refill once the infusion has been made.


Screw on the lid.


Put it in your pantry or another cool and dark spot in your home.


Every few days go and give it a good swirl to get everything moving around. No need to shake it...just annoy it a little.


After two weeks give your rum a try. Or do what I did and just let it infuse for 3 weeks and throw caution to the wind.


Fish your mango slices out of the jar with a fork.


Pour your mango infusion back into the original rum bottle or use a nice flip cap bottle if you have one. Use it to make mango mojitos on smoldering summer days.


Save the rummed up mango slices and muddle those with your mint in your mango mojitos. They're also nice chopped into big chunks and served very cold with toothpicks for a grown up snack.


Tonight I'm taking some to my neighbors' house and we're going to make mango pina coladas. We're just going to mix some mango infused rum with one of the freezer section Bacardi Pina Colada Mixers. Tonight the blender will be the only one working.

MEPS, Papers, Wonder Files and Trapper Keepers

Hubs found out today that he has his MEPS physical scheduled this week. Things are getting really exciting around here. He's so pleased it wasn't scheduled for next week. You aren't supposed to do any running or exercise for 48 hours before the physical to reduce any chance of injury. Had they scheduled it for next week he wouldn't have been able to run in the Peachtree Road Race. Who doesn't want to run in 100 degree Atlanta heat? 

I read that Air Force JAG had about a 5-7% acceptance rate. I also read that in December they had something like seven hundred applicants and only 25 were selected. To make things even more tense, one of his law school classmates was accepted for JAG and was later disqualified following the MEPS evaluation. Nope, no nail biting here. 

A few weeks ago there was some scrambling to get copies of medical records. Let me say it now: Even if you are just thinking about going into JAG, get a hold of your medical records as soon as the thought runs through your brain. It turns out that most doctors and hospitals only hold records for ten years. Crazy, right?

I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to get copies of immunization records. It took a phone call and four days later they arrived in the mail. Booyah!  While he won't need them for MEPS he will need them for COT. If you don't have your immunization records they will re-vaccinate you within the first four days of class. Feeling like he's been hit by a truck the first week of COT doesn't seem like a wise use of time so I'm sure he'll take his records.

I found these on an end cap at Target and bought one. It seems to work  for our paperwork gathering needs.

We started researching what he would need for MEPS, COT and other situations and started gathering those records (birth and marriage certificates, etc.) and putting them into a central location. I read on other blogs and forums that a lot of people had tried the Wonder File as an alternative to the accordion filing systems. So far it works but we're just getting started. While I can always open it up and spread it across the kitchen table the accordion may be easier to manage on long travels. I'm also going to look at school notebooks. I'm beginning to think a Trapper Keeper may be easier to organize, wouldn't scream "steal me" in case of a break in and be sturdier in transit. 

Doesn't this just scream "I'm ORGANIZED"? 

Mead has never let me down. If they can keep a 9 year old organized, I'm sold.

The current Trapper Keeper design. 

Homemade BBQ Hot Sauce

I made this finishing sauce to go on the BBQ pork shoulder that's currently cooking up for my husband. This is my version of the sauce you might find on the table at BBQ restaurants for dripping onto your pulled pork. I spent time in North and South Carolina so I used ketchup, mustard and vinegar. Don't judge!


BBQ Finishing Sauce


1/2 c Ketchup
1/2 c Apple Cider Vinegar
1/3 c Yellow Mustard
1 c Water
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp Powdered Mustard
1 tsp Chipotle Chili Powder
1 tsp Ancho Chili Powder
1 tbsp Red Pepper Flakes
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Paprika
2 tbsp Dried Onion Flakes


Add all the ingredients to a sauce pan and whisk it together. Turn the sauce pan to medium low heat and let it go for 10-15 minutes without boiling just to get it hot and the flavors working. If you like more heat, add more red pepper or chipotle powder. Let it completely cool. Transfer it to a recycled hot sauce bottle or to a plastic condiment squirt bottle using a spout. Park it in the fridge for at least two days. Add a few tablespoons of water and give it a shake if you'd like it thinner. 


It's fun making your own hot sauces! I loved playing with all the peppers and spices in my cabinet. I'm already thinking about what else I can put this on and which sauce will be next.

Greek Tuna Salad

I made a tuna salad almost entirely of foods living in my pantry and fridge door. It was so good! If you like Greek salads you can really have fun with this.


1 can of tuna packed in olive oil, excess oil poured off
1 tsp pepperoncini peppers, diced
A splash of the pepper juice from the jar.
1 tsp kalamata olives, diced
1 tsp capers, chopped 
1 diced hard boiled egg
1/2  green onion, diced
1 tbsp mayo or more to taste
Pinch of dried oregano
1 tbsp sun dried tomatoes, diced
Zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon
Black pepper to taste (The peppers and olives add plenty of saltiness. Taste before you add more.)


Stir...
Chill...
Serve


Or do what I did...


I slapped two halves of an English muffin in the oven for a few minutes, scooped some of the salad on the muffin and topped it with a little (okay, big) slice of goat cheese. Stick it back in the oven for a few minutes and crank it up to a broil for a minute at the very end. 


It will change your life!


Don't be afraid of adding an egg to tuna salad recipes. It makes it creamier and it stretches the recipe.

Pantry Confidential and Uses for Powdered Drink Mixes

A little area in my pantry is dedicated to drink mixes. You know, Kool-Aid, Crystal Light, those nifty instant coffees from Starbucks that I keep in case zombies stop by for coffee?

I used the Kool-Aid brand for this. You can use any brand of unsweetened  lemonade. You'll find the unsweetened kind in the tiny packets, not in the big packets or tubs.

I finally got around to trying a cool trick using Lemonade powdered drink mix to clean the dishwasher. Don't try grape or any other flavor. It's got to be plain unsweetened lemonade. It's the citric acid that does the trick.


Step #1: Pour powered Lemonade drink mix into door.


Step #2: Start the dishwasher and make sure the drying cycle is engaged.


Important: No dirty dishes or soap. Run this through an empty dish washer. The citric acid neutralizes soap scum and soap in general, so adding washing soap and trying to wash a load of dishes at the same time will just be like washing them in lemony smelling water. No bueno.


I haven't tried this method with a load of already washed plastic storage containers (they sometimes absorb odors) or a load of (washed and clean) soap spotted glasses. I did empty a packet into a load of hot water in my washing machine. It was too diluted and didn't really do anything. Instead of trying it again with even more lemonade I will use it to clean out my coolers. I hate opening a cooler and smelling bleach. Bleh!


I've mentioned before how I have to get my pantry under control for when we move. I'm all about planning for emergencies and having enough food to feed us for a few weeks in case of the zombie apocalypse or (even more unlikely) a snow storm in Atlanta.


I'm all about emergency preparedness. 


Until it's time to move and I have to deal with it all.


Where's a zombie or snow storm when I need one?


In addition to all of the other projects that need to happen, I'm trying to use the stuff in my pantry instead of making a ridiculous donation of capers, artichoke hearts and seven kinds of gourmet vinegar to the local food bank. (They'll get the more practical canned goods if there are any left.)

I have issues...and capers for days.

Big Pimpin' Tuna Salad and Fun with Condiments

I love condiments. (By condiments I mean toppings, marinades, sauces and pickled stuff.)


I don't recall meeting a condiment I didn't like and try to take home. So if condiments were like hookers and the grocery store was like a red light district...Well, you get it. I like them a whole bunch. Condiments, not hookers.

Hey baby, you wanna date?

I am overwhelmed. Almost everywhere I look there is a surplus of something that needs to be consumed or used. While it would be noble to donate the condiments to a local food bank, I'm thinking they won't find the jars of capers, marinated artichokes and hot cherry peppers as useful as other foods. 


I've heard mixed reports of movers either allowing or not allowing you to pack food. While it would be really nice if they'd pack everything, I think glass jars of picked okra and chow chow might make for a big mess once they break in transit. I'd rather eat it than pick it out of everything I own. Military wives are great at blogging their moving adventures (Thank you!) so I'm heeding some of their advice.


What's a pimp to do? 

What's a housewife to do?

I started thinking of dishes that use a lot of condiments. My goal is to use at least something from my awesome collection every meal. 

There's a whole shelf in my pantry devoted to condiments. The door of the fridge is also full.

The first thing that jumped out at me was the five cans of tuna. Helllllooo! Tuna salad may be the finest condiment disbursement meal of all time. I went digging. And ended up with a salad full of condiment-y goodness.


Big Pimpin' Tuna Salad 


1  small can of tuna (I love the kind packed in olive oil found in the highfalutin section of the store. It's not dry and it actually has flavor. Gasp!)
1 tbsp of the Hot Green Tomato Relish (pictured above)
1 tsp of Deli Mustard w/ Horseradish
1 tbsp of Mayo
1 Hot Cherry Pepper (pictured above) seeded and diced
1 hard boiled egg, diced
1/2 scallion, sliced thin
1-2 tbsp of diced bell pepper.
1 tbsp of sun dried tomatoes or 1/2 small tomato, diced
Salt and pepper to taste

Best of all, it takes a cutting board, knife and bowl. No kitchen disaster necessary.

Stir and have at it. PS...it's super easy to double. If you only have water packed tuna, add a splash of olive oil. And start buying the good stuff packed in olive oil. It's tuna, not a Whopper with cheese, it will be okay. Trust the pimpness.


There are so many tuna combinations. Tomorrow I may try a Greek version with pepperoncini peppers, kalamata olives and more of those yummy sun dried tomatoes from Trader Joe's that I've been stocking up on like they're some antidote to the zombie apocalypse. 

Spicy Boiled Peanuts

I started eating boiled peanuts as a child. Maybe it's a southern thing. Maybe it's because peanuts are grown locally, they're cheap and easy to find. I buy raw nuts from the farmer's market and only make boiled peanuts with them. I'm sure there are other things, but why mess with perfection. 


I don't care. 


I love them. 


I only started making them on my own since we moved to Atlanta a few years ago. Boiled peanuts are super easy to make but not fast. I like easy. Resist the urge to undercook these. I like to be able to split them with a pinch of the fingers, have minimal fibrous shell and the nuts to have a bean like softness without being mushy. That takes patience. 

Serve them hot or cold. They all have a bit of spicy salt water inside so keep a napkin ready.

Spicy Boiled Peanuts

1-2 lbs of green (That mean raw, green, not roasted) peanuts, well rinsed. 
Pot of water. I use a 6qt soup pot filled 1/2 full.
2 tbsp salt
2-3 tbsp red pepper flakes or to taste


Clean your peanuts by soaking them in cool water and rubbing them together with your hands to remove all bits of sand and dirt. You may need to swap out the water if you get particularly gritty nuts.

• Fill 5 quart soup pot half-full of water
• Add salt and red pepper flakes and bring to boil
• Add in peanuts, close lid, reduce to simmer and walk away
• Really, walk away. Turn on the vent over your stove too. Note: That much pepper steam will make you cough if you hang out too close to the stove. It's a good trick to make this when no one needs to be hanging out in the kitchen. *hack*
• Keep an eye on the water level, add more as needed
• After 2 hours, try a big one. Add more salt and pepper as need and continue cooking until the peanut is easy to break with a good squeeze and the nut has a cooked bean softness, but not mushy

The boiled peanuts in the photo took about 3-3.5 hours. After they're done, remove pot from heat. Let the nuts cool down in the cooking water. Use a slotted spoon to move a serving to a bowl and let them cool down until they're safe to eat. I let the rest hang in the water until I want more. After they're cool I use the slotted spoon to put them in baggies and stick them in the fridge. They're just as good cold out of the fridge as they are still warm from cooking.

These cold boiled peanuts...going with me to the pool on a hot Georgia day.

Serve with napkins (or just eat them over the sink) and a bowl to collect the shells.

Some day I'd like to own a big 5 gallon pot to make bigger batches. I have such fancy housewife dreams. 

Book Swaps and Urban Swap Meets

Two blogs in two days. Dang. I'm practically loitering on the internet.

I'm trying to organize a swap meet for exchanging books with neighbors in my condo community.

While I donate to the Salvation Army and Goodwill frequently, it requires effort and planning. Books are heavy suckers and the thought of hauling them is exhausting.

Living in a dense urban area is great, but taking things to a charity is problematic. I don't know a single person with a pick-up truck so everything needs to fit into my car and that may mean multiple trips. That's after I've hauled everything to the car in the parking garage. With urban living you need to get creative when it comes to getting rid of stuff. Yard sales aren't an option when you're living in a condo or high-rise. In addition to it being against the rules, there's just no parking. Since square footage is a premium we all seem to have stuff to get rid of because there isn't much storage.

I approached the HOA of our condo about reserving the club house and hosting a book swap between residents. This idea is still floating around my head and the details need some fine tuning, but this is what I have so far...

1. Bring your unwanted books to the designated location between 6p and 7pm. The sale starts at 7pm.
2. Exchange your books for paperback or hardback book tickets, one ticket per book.
3. Look through the books and select some based on the tickets available. 
4. Go home with some new books!
5. All remaining books will be donated to charity after the sale

Honestly, I would gladly give five or even ten books to come out with one I've not read. 

If this swap works out between residents I am hopeful we can arrange for future Swap Meets for other categories. I know I need to get a handle on my collection of books, DVD's, home decor, glassware and holiday decorations/ornaments. 

We have too many DVD's too. I think I'll go through and pick out my must
haves and set the rest aside for the next event.

Giving My Condo Bulimia--Pre-Move Purge

Things are a little less unknown on the hub's new job and move front. From what I understand, we won't know where we are moving until November or move until early 2013. There are a thousand things that need to happen between now and then, and any one could alter that plan. Overall, I'm really geeked! Five years ago I was so career driven I wouldn't have tolerated talk about moving to parts unknown. It was all about market size and income. To think of the adventures I would have missed. *sigh*

Adventures like cleaning out all the junk I can't take and still make the weight limits.

Oy!

Yes, the Air Force gives you weight limits based on your rank and dependents. Too bad they don't adjust the weight by numbers of dead relatives giving you furniture...

Or random collections of things you never use but couldn't stand to part with...

Or your level of pack-ratness on a scale of 1-10...

Or the number of states where you rent storage units...

Or just the fact you are 40, have been married for going on ten years and have STUFF. For. Days.

I vow to make sure I am out of a product before buying a new one! These were found in my laundry/utility room. Let me say that again...LAUNDRY ROOM! Not the CDC and not in the camping gear. (I don't camp.) There's also a can of spray in my BBQ basket, another in my beach bag and at least two more in the bathroom. I live in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the US and have to walk a block to see grass. Impressive, no?

I decided to start small with a few self-imposed ideas or tasks.

*Drum roll*

Task #1: Don't buy anything I can't wear or eat.

I'm bad about shopping and convincing myself my life will be a billion times easier...better...more efficient...cooler...thinner...if I just get that whatever item. I've been talking myself out of a food processor and new pots and pans for months. Now I am trying to stick to a bigger purpose. Which brings us to...

Task #2: If something comes in, something else must go out.

This is probably common sense for most folks, not me. Aside from the financial ramifications of buying things I don't need, I really don't need more stuff to sort through come move time. If I absolutely must talk myself into buying something, it needs to replace something and that something needs to go to Mr. Dumpster or Goodwill. I'd like to only replace things that need replacing because it's broken or I'm out of something. I got a pair of hiking boots on sale. I'm about to go into the bedroom and play Pin the Tail on the Shoe Rack and get rid of at least one pair of shoes. I'm also going to use every drop of lotion, conditioner, body spray, etc. before I step foot into Ulta or Bath and Body Works. *sigh*

Task #3: Start now and don't wait until the last minute.

This is harder than it seems. We won't know where we are moving until November and then we won't actually move until 2013. Hubs could be sent to Florida or Alaska or anywhere in between (or possibly some place over seas). Two years after that we could be moving to an entirely different climate. While it would be tempting to wait until we know more, I've decided to start small and purge the unnecessary.

What could possibly be unnecessary you ask?

90% of the contents of my various junk drawers.

The last time I moved I didn't address the junk drawers. On move day everything got tossed in a box and I had to pick unidentified keys out of an impressive collection of ketchup packets, menus from our old city and batteries knocking on death's door. Not pretty.

Other hiding places for unnecessary items seem to be:

Medicine cabinets: toss expired medicines, diet pills (they are so unhealthy),  anything without an expiration date (blister packs can be so mysterious) and toss the pain pills you got when you had your wisdom teeth removed in frickin' 1999. I also tossed some cold medicine that would have expired next month. Maybe I'm tempting the cold and flu gods but I'll risk it so I don't have to toss it this winter. We had a few boxes of bandages with a few band-aids left in each one. I'm not moving 4 boxes of 2 band-aids each. I refuse! I combined those band-aids and I'm sticking them in a plastic travel soap container so I can see them and they don't get squished or just float around in medicine cabinet land.

Laundry Room: You know those little samples of detergent you get in the mail or stuck to a bottle of laundry soap? They were forming their own little colony in my laundry room.

I used them ALL yesterday when I was doing my laundry.

There were some dog treats my dogs never cared for and I'm never going to eat. TRASH!
The cellophane with four clothes pins floating inside. (I saved the clothes pins!) -TRASH! 
They yucky duster wand-TRASH! 
Orphan socks, crusty flip flops, old dog bowls...TRASH! 

Sample packets and trial sizes seem to multiply in my house.  I tried to use every one yesterday 

while I was cleaning and doing laundry. Next week I may try to tackle the supply of toiletries. 

Under the kitchen sink: I got rid of anything that I hadn't used in 365 days and had less than 1/4 of the product left. I'll spare you the details.

When it gets closer to moving day I'll need to be a little more exacting with getting rid of partially used stuff (many professional movers won't take any cleansers, candles or liquids in general.) By purging and going through stuff now I can get a better handle on what's here, what I have extras of and what I need to use up before I buy more.

The housewife arsenal. I found a few boxes of Glad Press n' Seal. While I love the stuff, I had no idea there were multiplying like bunnies in the kitchen cabinet. Who knew?

Now that I've made several trips to Mr. Dumpster, I can't help think of the same thing when I look at boxes full of stuff. I spent money on most of that stuff. It's a box of money that is going down the trash chute.

Tonight I'm going to tackle some shelves in the master closet. I have a bit of a catch-all going on in there too. If I can get past all the junk zones it should make things much easier inside the move-prep window.