Boozy Strawberry Slushee

It was a chilly day in SF, but come dinnertime we still wanted a frozen treat.

This is a blend of frozen strawberries, the juice of one lime, a few ice cubes, a dash of water, two tablespoons of simple syrup, a shot of tequila, and a half shot of cointreau. Easy, delicious, and if you have a powerful blender you can make it almost as thick as sorbet (just add no water). It's also really tasty poured over vanilla ice cream, sort of like a Hawaiian Lava Flow.

Tropisueno

More happy hour updates!

Tropisueno is one of newer restaurants along the revamped Yerba Buena Lane between Market and Mission Streets. Of of the handful of restaurants, it's the cheapest but maintains a chic, upscale vibe.

Happy hour specials take up two pages on the bar menu, but the highlights include $5 margaritas with two shots of El Jimador blanco and plenty of fresh lime juice, $3 beer, $2 taco truck style tacos, $3 fish tacos, and a bunch of other stuff we didn't order (fresh guac, salsa and chips, huge quesadillas, and more). The fish tacos were, hands down, the best I've had in SF and better than most in LA. I'm definitely going to be back for more (and for photos, naturally).

Grand Cafe Happy Hour

Happy hours are popping up all over SF as restaurants make a concerted effort to get patrons in the front door during these tough times. Grand Cafe may just have some more of my business in the future! Every night of the week they feature an entree plus wine or beer for $18, and on Monday the bar menu is half off. That means you can get fifty cent oysters, $6 steak tartare, $10 steak frites, or $5 mussels. Sounds pretty tempting to me! I had a peach infused bourbon cocktail tonight just to kill some time and quell some cramps, but I'll be back!

Tequila Passionfruit Sorbet

A warm long weekend calls for a treat. But at the same time, a heavy dessert doesn't always hit the spot, so today we had a passionfruit sorbet. I didn't want to make a big batch or actually whip out the ice cream machine though, so I made a small sorbet-slushee in the Vita-Mix. If you don't have a super powerful blender, you'll have to settle for a slightly more watery concoction that's equally tasty.

For one cup:

• 1/3 cup frozen passionfruit pulp
• 3 tablespoons simple syrup (or other sweetener)
• 1/2 shot blanco tequila (feel free to use rum or vodka)
• 1/4 cup ice cubes
• 1/8 cup water, plus more just in case
  

Combine everything in a blender, and pulse until everything is broken up. Turn off the blender, stir everything, and then turn on again. If you have a blender that you can gradually turn higher and higher, it will work better. With the blender on, drizzle in more water until the mixture just starts to loosen up and blend freely. Because this is a thick, almost solid frozen dessert, you want the blades to slowly churn and break up the ice. Turning it up to high won't work because a pocket of air will form around the whirling blades, whereas slowly turning blades will allow the mixture to fall back down around the blades and get blended. If you want, pop the mixture into the freezer for awhile. I suspect it would get too hard after awhile, but an hour or two while you eat dinner would make it a perfect sorbet.

Note: my mixture has seeds because I also added a few cubes of frozen fresh passionfruit. It's pretty to look at, but I think a seed-free sorbet would taste better. Juice from half a lime or lemon would also be a nice addition.

Passionfruit Margarita

Today, the temperatures dropped by over 20 degrees in San Francisco compared to yesterday. It's a crazy city we live in. Thank goodness we went to Sausalito yesterday! Today we holed up at home, ate comfort food, and sipped cocktails. There's one for all y'all out there:

Passionfruit cocktail (enough for two lowball glasses):

• 1/4 package Goya passionfruit pulp (in the freezer of your local Mexican market)
• juice of one lime
• 2 cups ice
• 2-3 shots 100% agave tequila
• 1 shot agave syrup, simple syrup, or your sweetener of choice
• 1 shot Cointreau (optional, and which can take the place of sweetener)
  

Throw everything into a blender and combine until slushy. If the blender gets stuck, add a little more tequila or water. If you're not too good with blended drinks, leave out half the liquid to start and add it slowly as the blender gets going. In my experience, if you start out with too much liquid in the blender, large chunks of ice will start bouncing around in the liquid and never pulverize. If you start out with not enough liquid, the blender will get stuck but you can turn it off and add a little more liquid without doing any harm to the machine.

Pour into a glass with a salt rim, which is what I forgot to do here. Top with a few dashes of bitters for some color and to take the edge off the sugar. Cheers!