Cosmopolitan Sorbet (Page 862)

RECIPE #1037
Date: Wednesday, October 13, 2009 -- 10pmLocation: Bloomington, INKitchen: My ApartmentRecipe Rating: A-


I picked this recipe because it was quick and boozy, which is just what I was in the mood for last week. I started by boiling sugar and water and then adding cranberries and simmering until the cranberries had burst. I drained the mixture in a sieve, then discarded the solids. I cooled the syrup in the refrigerator, then stirred in vodka, lime juice, and Cointreau. I froze the sorbet in an ice cream maker. This sorbet was delicious! It was certainly an adults-only dessert, as it was very boozy. But it had a lovely cranberry flavor with just the right amount of booziness. The dish was well balanced -- the Cointreau gave the sorbet a subtle orange note, and the lime juice went beautifully with the intense cranberry flavor. This would be lovely served in martini glasses as a dessert or intermezzo as part of a holiday meal.

The recipe is here.

Things lately continue to be busy. On Thursday after I taught my classes I drove up to Chicago. There was a conference over the weekend at the University of Chicago in honor of the 70th birthday of one of the big names in my field. It was a fun conference, but not super relaxing, as I was one of the speakers. There were 130 or so people present, making it the biggest audience I have given a research talk in front of. So, it was nerve-wracking, but I think my talk went well, and the conference was quite interesting.

I drove back to Indiana yesterday morning and now I am trying to get caught up with work. Between buying a house, commuting back and forth to Michigan, having 330 students, and the usual researching and attending conferences, things have been so hectic lately that I have been forced to all but give up some of the things that I love. For instance: cooking. Cooking has definitely taken a back burner this past month, and I miss it. As I eat cereal for dinner every night, while working, I look longingly at The Book. Things are going to calm down in the not-so-distant future, and then cooking will be on my priority list once again. The other thing I have abandoned is running for pleasure. The marathon is less than three weeks away, and I have continued to train of course. But I have so little time to run that I haven't even attempted to find time for shorter runs. So, in the last 5 or 6 weeks, I haven't gone on a single run shorter than 14 miles. Today I decided enough was enough -- I needed to have a nice, short, pleasant run. So I made time this evening to run 4 miles and it was lovely.

I am slowly checking things off my to-do list, and it is my sincere hope that a week from now I will have some time to relax. And in three weeks, once the marathon is over, I will really have some free time again. So, I apologize for my blog silence as of late, and although it will continue in the near future, I hope to be blogging almost daily again very soon.