Monkey Gland

I have been busy lately with dog and house sitting. It's a nice job but doesn't let me spend a lot of time at my own place. When I finally had a some time off the weather was crap. So, Cocktail Time! The problem with making cocktails is large number of different liquors and mixers and such that is needed. I am slowly adding to my bar with each cocktail but I am discovering that some of the simplest are some of the most delicious.

A quick flip through The Savoy Cocktail book found this interesting one. It is named after the experiments of the 1920's where Serge Voronoff grafted monkey testicle tissue onto human testicles for ... therapeutic purposes... It did not work. But it did give us a cocktail!

The recipe from The Savoy Cocktail Book is not very exact. Yeah...

This version is from a wonderful book my boyfriend got me for the Holidays about Paris in the 1920's. It is older than the Savoy version and is a lot lighter on the absinthe and grenadine.

 I may or may not have used this as an excuse to buy absinthe.

Here is the older, original cocktail. My cute salt and pepper couple mirror my reaction.

The Savoy version was a bit better but their smiles are way too big.

All in all not a good cocktail. I have discovered that I am not a fan of absinthe. If you are a fan of licorice tasting liquor then you might want to give this a try. Start with the older, lighter version and add dashes as you want.

My Rating: Not good. Not therapeutic!

Chocolate Cherry Cordial

Between work and my surprising new side gig, dog sitting, I have not been able to spend as much time as I want baking lately. Consider this a late Valentine's day treat. Who doesn't love chocolate cherry cordials! Cherry cordials actually remind me more of the holidays than valentines but they look very valentines-y.

This recipe was requested as payment for the cookbook Hershey's 1934 Cookbook. It is a 1971 reprint and contains a whole section on life in the 30's, "A decade of mixed blessings."

Canning looks so exciting in the 30's! You have to wonder if she is canning something chocolate...why would you can chocolate?

Although I love old recipes, I am not the person who gets excited to do a bunch of research. This kind of updated recipe is right up my alley. Just old enough to be vintage but not too old to understand.

I confess...I did not use Hershey's chocolates.

 I don't have a double boiler so a pan on a boiling pot will have to do. The mix of semi-sweet and milk chocolate is interesting.

While that is melting, I got to work on the centers. My kitchen is small enough to do 2 things at once.

It's like play dough! I was very tempted to switch out the vanilla and almond flavoring for rum or brandy. Maybe next time...definitely next time!

 So cute! All ready for their chocolate coats. There was enough filling for just under 4 dozen cherries.

 So tempting to just eat spoonfuls of the chocolate. But I resisted.

The shallow pan made rolling the cherries very easy. I should have let the chocolate cool a bit more because it started to melt some of the fillings. I was not able to swirl the chocolate for a decorative touch.

 After a short time in the fridge and a couple of days on the counter, they are finally ready!

Well, unfortunately the centers never liquified. They are delicious but not exactly what they are suppose to be.

These were so easy and quite delicious but the cordials never formed. I suspect it was human error and that I left them in the fridge a little too long. Personally I thought the chocolate was a little too thick in part of the cherries but that came from rolling them. I have a chocolate mold for chocolate covered cherries that I will probably use next time. I loved the taste of the mixed chocolates!

My Rating: Keeper! But I'll try some other flavors next time. Just for fun.

Friends and Family Rating: "Amazing!" "Wow, these are so good."