real talk. it is freaking cold outside. most of the country is being drenched by winter rain at the moment and socal is no exception. it's been raining buckets all day, and i feel like i'm battling a cold so i need a bit of a pick me up. a warming, kick in the pants kind of pick me up. and i know the perfect thing...

hot toddy
serves: 1 cocktail
prep time: 5 minutes
active time: 2 minutes
total time: 7 minutes
ingredients: 1.5 oz rye whiskey (you can sub whatever whiskey you like or have on hand). juice of .5 lemon. 1 tsp brown sugar. 5 cloves. lemon twist. 2 cups hot water.

while your water is heating, make your twist. as soon as you have hot water, place 1 cup of water into your mug to warm it. 

using a vegetable peeler, peel the lemon not top to bottom, but around the outside of the lemon making a curl. try to keep just a bit of the pith on the peel. curl it up with your fingers and it will hold.

take your lemon twist and poke the cloves into it.

once your twist is made and pricked by cloves, dump out the water warming the mug.

place the brown sugar in the bottom of the mug and pour the remaining cup of water into the mug. 

stir well to combine.

add your clove studded twist to the mug. 

pour in the lemon juice and whiskey.

stir well to combine.

serve hot.

xo, a

hot toddy
serves: 1 cocktail
prep time: 5 minutes
active time: 2 minutes
total time: 7 minutes
ingredients: 1.5 oz rye whiskey (you can sub whatever whiskey you like or have on hand). juice of .5 lemon. 1 tsp brown sugar. 5 cloves. lemon twist. 2 cups hot water.
while your water is heating, make your twist. as soon as you have hot water, place 1 cup of water into your mug to warm it.
using a vegetable peeler, peel the lemon not top to bottom, but around the outside of the lemon making a curl. try to keep just a bit of the pith on the peel. curl it up with your fingers and it will hold.
take your lemon twist and poke the cloves into it.
once your twist is made and pricked by cloves, dump out the water warming the mug.
place the brown sugar in the bottom of the mug and pour the remaining cup of water into the mug. stir well to combine.
add your clove studded twist to the mug. pour in the lemon juice and whiskey. stir well to combine.
serve hot. 

while in la over the weekend, i decided to cook up a meal for us girls before we headed out for a night on the town. i kept the concept simple knowing that i would be in a foreign kitchen with little to non of my regular tools. 

now, i tried to keep it simple, but in my mind homemade croutons are run of the mill. so i was SHOCKED when i went to slice up our bread and i could not find a serrated knife.

how can you survive with out a serrated knife?!? 

then i realized, until wesley filled me in, i had no idea the important things i could do with a serrated knife. sure, it is not a utility knife and by no means should it be your first purchase, but if you like salsa, fresh bread of any kind or you ever need to slice cake, it should definitely be your second or third. 

thanks to its ridged edges, this knife will grip into all those hard to slice surfaces as you work. this saves you from slipping and slicing your finger and having to push so hard that you crush your bread or tomatoes. 

quickly slice tomatoes with out squirting their insides everywhere. 

tomato dicing has never been easier. 

slicing or chopping bread goes from messy to a breeze. 

delicate dessert cakes like pound cake can be crushed under the weight of a normal knife. the serrated knife makes quick, delicate work of slicing it. 

if you are looking to up your kitchen game, or simply want to stop making a crushed, crumbly bread mess every time you need to make your seasoned croutons, the serrated knife is your guy! 

xo, a