Thursday, May 24, 2012

Where did all the rum go? Oh yeah. In my face.

Happy post-a-recipe-from-another-blog post lovelies!

So this week I got to thinking... When it comes to food, where does inspiration come from? 


Is it ever possible to be inspired to create something anew?

Or has everything been done (and eaten) before us?

And if that is the case... Is there ever such thing as an original recipe? 

And in such, when - as food bloggers and cooks and food lovers alike - do we begin to plagiarize and/or steal others ideas?

Are we ever really unique? Or are we just thieving gluttons?


In light of this I decided to take a different spin on post-a-recipe-from-another-blog this week. Rather than just take someone else's ideas head on, I blurred it a bit.
Kristina @  Spa Bettie is a fabulous blogger and a terrific lady. She's always coming up with dishes that inspire me as well make my mouth water. She's got a talent for writing interesting posts while taking just gorgeous photographs.... Not to mention the fact that she makes me giddy with giggles.  And if there's one way to my heart it's with humour. And food. Of course. The dame's got both. 

Inspired by her Homemade Bailey's Irish Cream, Bottles in Ice, and Smores Shots in Chocolate Glasses, I decided to take on the world of booze myself. 

I discussed and debated with friends to create a truly collaborative - if not original - beverage. It was sweet yet sour, refreshing yet familiar. And ulimately tasty! And boozy! What else can one ask for to whet one's whistle? 

It was after much experimentation I had to ask, "where did all the rum go?"....and then inevitably answered myself, "oh right. In my face."....oops.

I present you with .... just in time for the warmer weather .... Summer Strawberry Mojitos. 

*Try to find strawberries and mint locally available to you. I received mint in my CSA this past week and still had frozen strawberries from them on hand. If not available, be patient. Summer will arrive and with it the strawberries. And where there's strawberries, oh. OH! There will be mojitos.

Summer Strawberry Mojitos


Ingredients:
serves one drink

2-3 Oz White Rum.
10-15 Mint Leaves, depending on size.
2 Frozen Strawberries, thawed (Or sub 2 Fresh if seasonally available to you) + 1 Fresh.
1/2 Oz Organic Cane Sugar Simple Syrup (or sub agave nectar; local honey).
1/2 Can Soda Water (or if you want to get really crazy, ginger beer).
1 Lime for Juice with 1 Thin Round Cut Out.
Ice Cubes.

What to Do:

Place the mint, lime juice, simple syrup, strawberries, and rum in a martini shaker (or mason jar).

Taking a wooden pestle (or a wooden spoon) massage/muddle the mint into the bottom of the container up to 15 turns to release the oils from the mint.

Toss in some ice, cover and shake well to combine. Give it a good 15 seconds or so of hard vertical shaking action.

Pour into a chilled serving glass and top up with soda water or ginger beer.

Garnish with a straw, lime round and the last strawberry.

Drink baby drink.
 
What do you think about creating original dishes? Or being creative in general? Has it all been done before? When are we stepping on other people's toes? 

 Photobucket

14 comments:

  1. Going back to the classics that use fresh ingredients will never hurt anyone (well I'm sure you'd be hurting if you had 10 of these, but still).

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  2. Cool, refreshing, and delicious, yes please do bring me one of those. Hope you have a special week end and thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
    Come Back Soon!
    Miz Helen

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  3. Ooo...I have the day off and some strawberries. This drink might be in my future.

    As far as originality goes, most of it has been done before, but if people can win Nobel prizes for simultaneously working on the same topic without communicating, we can post brilliant dishes that came to us while looking at all the yummy produce in our fridge and not worry too much that someone has come up with the same thing somewhere before (as long as you don't, you know, google it and then copy the recipe...)

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    1. fair enough. we should come up with nobel food/dish prizes. maybe it should be rum. ;)

      K.

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  4. Yum! I'm definitely going to have to try this drink once strawberries are in season here! My mint is exploding so I don't have to worry about that part. Dang strawberries.. hurry up!

    For my recipes, I get my inspiration from a myriad of places. Sometimes it's a cookbook, sometimes a recipe just pops in my head. I get rather overwhelmed when I think of all the possibilities for a single recipe. There are definitely a lot of classics that can be updated, but there are also other recipes out there that are more original. As long as you give credit to your inspiration if it's from a single source, I'm cool with it. Otherwise, I consider that plagiarism. Dang you college english!

    Have a great day!

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    1. we're fortunate enough to get frozen ones in our CSA so I used them but I can just imagine what it'll be like once fresh ones come around :)

      p.s. don't bash that college english - it taught me how to use a semi-colon. i love punctuation. haha

      K.

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  5. Adding strawberries to a mojito is absolutely inspired! What a delicious looking drink!

    Recently at the Vogue Festival in London, Nigella Lawson said, "Until there are new ingredients, there are no new recipes". I think we are all inspired by others and provided we give credit where we can, then that is a very good thing indeed. I'm very glad you were inspired by Spa Bettie. I'm just off to visit her blog to find out more about the recipes that inspired such a wonderful drink!

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    1. Those are wise words, April.... i hope that doesn't open doors for scary genetically engineered foods! ack! haha. it does make me curious though about chemical gastronomy. there's some pretty interesting shit out there.

      K.

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  6. These look refreshingly delicious!

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  7. Delicious strawberry mojito, Love to try them. Thanks for sharing with Hearth and Soul blog hop. I am going to shout out in our Hearth and soul blog hop face page.

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