The CookingBites recipe challenge: non-sparkling alcohol

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

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Welcome to the CookingBites recipe challenge. The current challenge ingredient is non- sparkling/non-fizzy alcohol (includes non-alcoholic equivalents along with grape juice, verjuice, apple juice & pear juice* for those not wanting to use non-alcoholic equivalents to alcohol) and SatNavSaysStraightOn is our judge. To enter, all you need to do is post a recipe which contains non-sparkling alcohol, tag it cookingbites recipe challenge, and post a link to it in this thread. The winner becomes the judge for the next challenge. There is no restriction on the number of entries you may post. Deadline: midnight, end of day Saturday, 30th November UK time (GMT). Detailed challenge rules can be found here.

*If I've missed a fruit juice that typically can be made into something alcoholic, just ask.
 
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This morning, I divided my red wine beef stew in freezer portions.
I left part for tonight, with the bones

Recipe - Beef in red wine

I used wine that was on special, far too sweet for my taste, so compensated with red wine vinegar
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Nicely reheating in a very old enameled pot that belonged to my parents
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And then there's the full meal with rice and cucumber onion pickles
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(Edited to add recipe link)
 
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Kicking off with a cocktail:

Recipe - Apple Hot Honey (Cocktail)

Ahhhhh Autumn…the time of pumpkin patches and trick-or-treating and apple orchards. I don’t know how it is where everyone else lives, but around here, the cooler temps and falling leaves signal, “Get thee to the orchard, now!” and locals descend on nearby orchards like an infestation, to buy fresh apples, apple fritters, apple pies, apple cider doughnuts, and apple cider. It’s a treasured local ritual. Orchards get so busy around here, the police come out to direct traffic around them.

This drink is Autumn in a glass - very simply made with fresh apple cider, honey-flavored bourbon, and cinnamon schnapps, topped with a friendly little apple garnish:

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Proper cider tastes nothing like that watered-down pizz-colored stuff sold at the market as “apple juice” - good apple cider is intense…sharp and sweet, as it’s usually made from a blend of tart apples with sweeter ones for balance, and cloudy, as it’s unfiltered. You can see the deep brown color of the liquid in the little jar above and how opaque it is. It’s also a fresh product, perishable, which is why people drop everything to plan at least one orchard visit per season (we’ve been on three this Fall, with one more in the works).

Back to the drink - the pic above is great for sipping on the porch during those last warm days of second summer, but this is also right for a more elegant evening cocktail, mixed in a cocktail shaker and strained into a coupe. MrsT and I have even enjoyed this as a hot toddy. It’s an all-occasion drink.
 
Not an entry, but it bears repeating, I make this cocktail when the Neighborhood Gal Pals get together, it's a fav...
Cosmopolitan Cocktail My Way
We've nicknamed it a Skinny Cosmo (I'm sure that a thing somewhere) because I don't use sugar and it's diet juice

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This one was for my gal pal who's birthday is on Halloween ...
 
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