One of my favorite Julia Child’s quotes is “I enjoy cooking with wine – sometimes I even put it in the food I’m cooking.” So, I was all liquored up over this month’s spirited Recipe Redux theme: cooking with booze!
I try to always have a bottle of dry white wine in the fridge to add to sauces for pasta dishes. White wine, shallots, olive oil, lemon, reserved pasta water, and you’re done!
When I saw the challenge this month to make a healthy spirited recipe, my mind automatically zeroed in on this bottle of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey Whiskey that Steve got for Christmas last year (along with the 5 other bottles of whiskey he got last year – can you guess what his drink of choice is?). Well, actually, first my mind went to something with Bloody Mary’s, but that’s pretty much always where my mind goes first when it comes to alcohol. :)
But the Honey Whiskey has such an interesting sweet flavor profile that I knew I had to use it. And how fitting that just last week, I tuned into a webinar hosted by Recipe Redux and Healthy Aperture and sponsored by the National Honey Board on…you guessed it! Honey! Honey has so many functional benefits – from preserving to emulsifying to acting as a antimicrobial! Marie Simmons, Author of the cookbook Taste of Honey, said that she likes to make a simple non-fat salad dressing with equal parts lemon juice and honey. Now doesn’t that sound refreshing!
One of my all-time favorite smells in the world (besides fresh basil) comes from street carts that are making roasted nuts. Cinnamon roasted almonds – seriously, nothing smells better. I wanted to try roasting nuts and home and fill my apartment with that sweet aroma.
Honey Whiskey Roasted Pecans
Ingredients:
2 cups raw pecans
1/4 cup Jack Daniel’s Honey Whiskey (can substitute with any whiskey variety)
1/3 cup raw honey
1/2 tsp salt
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Bring whiskey and honey to a boil. Add pecans and stir to coat. Let simmer for about 5 minutes and then remove from heat and drain liquid.
Transfer pecans to the baking sheet and roast for about 10 minutes, turning pecans over once halfway through baking time. Let cool to room temperature prior to serving.
Check out what other spirited recipes my fellow Recipe Reduxers are concocting this month by clicking the link below:
