Sounds yummy! And creative. (I will admit, the pie sounds more up my alley. Who doesn't eat pie,for heavens sake?????) I admire you for changing your plans to accomodate one person. And you got a keeper recipe as a reward!

I get to watched Chopped - and other cooking shows - while on the equipment at PT. I too find it amazing that these contestants can actually make something eatable out of some of the strange things they put together in the basket. It's interesting to read how you adapted your 'basket' into a yummy dessert.

I forgot in the above ingredients, the juice of one lime.

Amylou, we have a picky eater who has a very narrow range. He hates sauces of all kinds. He hates cinnamon. He doesn't like cooked fruit. No pie. He's actually pretty easy to accommodate because his druthers are very specific and unchanging, and what he'll eat is all simple food. I didn't nix the pie for him. I did that because I didn't have time or the desire to make time to bake by the time I knew there was a dinner party. If I'd made pie, I would have served it a la mode, so I'd have some vanilla ice cream for the picky one. Same with the apple topping. He just had his ice cream plain and everyone was happy. :)

Thanks, Kate. I guess what the Chopped thing does is make one assess the extractable components of pantry items. Like soda (when reduced) is something like simple syrup with flavor. :)

ROTFL! It was just a dribble. :) It did reinforce the ginger, and the anti-sweet flavor I was looking for to offset the ice cream. The Chopped part was just considering using the ginger ale at all, while I was packing up my ingredients. :) The vermouth was all "this will be good". :) If it had been sherry on the butcher's block, I would have passed... (fine with apples, but not ginger ale!).

ETA: 2Many, thinking on your gummy bears, I suppose they would work as a sugar source, but the color and flavor might have overpowered the apples. I can see using them as a sweet tickener, like if it were pie and one had neither sugar nor tapioca/flour/cornstarch. ... Though at that point, wouldn't a trimming of the crust be better? I think if it really were a required ingredient, the strawberry gummy bears--a couple of them only--should be melted in the vermouth and reduced with fresh strawberries to be a glaze or something. Ick. Last year I thought of melting in water some little peppermints that had glommed into one big lump to make a kind of mint simple syrup, but then I thought if I wanted mint simple syrup, I could just use sugar and mint from the garden!

Yeah, just a dribble you say… : )

You are most definitely more adventurous than I am if you considered melting a glob of stuck-together peppermints for simple syrup! Waste not, want not, but I'd agree, I use mint from the garden and sugar/water for a mint simple syrup (makes a lovely start to ice tea mint juleps).

Not to gross anyone out, but last year I was tossing rinsed mint rather quickly into my pan of boiling sugar water and noticed something odd rolling around in the boil… a fat green caterpillar had held on. It did not survive. Needless to say, I tossed it. Almost turned me off mint syrup, which I also love on blueberry crepes.

Speaking of (not the boiled caterpillar), your mention of Chopped, your apple topping dilemma, and the dry vermouth, the wonderful end results, my musing on appletinis… has led me to this:

Photos for uploading · More Info

PS: do not think on the gummy bears, puleeze do not! LOL!

Ooh 2Many love the appletini idea! I will be infusing some vodka with apples, a slice of lime and maybe some ginger as soon as I get home. It should be ready just in time for the weekend! Yum!

ROTFL!! Don't worry, 2Many, I've never seen a strawberry gummy bear. Or maybe that's the generic red one? I think I ate a gummy bear once in the early 1990's... I think you have to be a kid.

I think I still have the peppermints. I think a better use might be to take my decommissioned meat mallet to them and use them in some kind of baking that calls for candy lumps, or peppermint bark or something. The mint syrup was for something I was making, but nothing ever came of it. Now that I have a big mint bush (in an urn so it won't spread), I don't have to worry about it. :)

I'm good at imagining flavors, so this stuff doesn't scare me. Nor did ginger ale plus dry vermouth. :) I'm not sure why they had dry vermouth by the stove with oil, though. I sometimes use sweet vermouth in cooking, but I'm not sure when one would use dry.

Enjoy your drink! Have a great weekend. Don't drive!

amylou, just about the only way I eat fruit is in pie. Or cobbler, crisp, grunt, dumplings, muffins, cake or cookies....well...you get the idea, LOL.

Plllog, you lost me on the vermouth. I owned a bar for so many years that I cannot see dry vermouth without thinking "martini", which definitely is not what I would put on ice cream. The use of ginger ale is a pretty good idea, I'll try to file that away in my mental file for the next time I need something to add to fruit. Not that I'll remember until I need it, then I won't have ginger ale...(grin)

Annie

LOL! Annie, I get it. I can't stand martinis so to me vermouth is aromatic sweetened wine, therefore a cooking ingredient. :) But not usually the dry kind... I keep soda pop on hand for company. There's always Coke, orange and ginger ale, and the ginger ale is especially good for those with upset tummies. :)

Plllog, I also keep soft drinks on hand. One son in law drinks Mountain Dew, one drinks those Monster energy drink things or Gatorade. Ashley changes her mind constantly, Amanda likes sparkling waters, not sweetened, but occasionally will drink a regular Coke I drink caffeine free Diet Coke as does Elery. The Princess likes the cold Starbucks mocha in bottles, her brother only gets sugar free pop so he gets my Diet Coke (I'd drink regular Diet Coke if it weren't for Bud). Madi and Maci like Sprite or Orange or BubbleGum. Yeah, there's a bubble gum pop and it's blue. It's also vile, but they like it and only get it here.

Anyway, upset tummies here get Sprite unless I have ginger ale on hand. I have been known to dump a can of Coke over a ham and the girls used to make "Coke chicken", which is cooked in equal ratios of Coke and catsup. It's not as bad as it sounds. (grin)

Annie

That sounds like a variation of the old Jewish brisket recipe: packet of onion soup mix, bottle of Heinz chili sauce (fancy ketchup), and a can of coke. I use caffeine free, which isn't as bitter. I make it because everybody loves it and it's not as sweet as other traditional recipes. The old recipe has packets partly because of its era, but also because those were goods that had a kosher certification, and brought a lot of flavor fast. It sounds like you're still keeping a bar with all those different soft drinks!

Plllog, please, for the love of all that is good, toss that glob of peppermints out! I’m a penny-pincher, but I think they are beyond use… I mean, how old are they??? LOL! They would make a nice bark coating though… if fresher. Gummy bears… you know they make vitamins that are gummy bears now? Uck. Why? “I'm not sure why they had dry vermouth by the stove with oil, though.” So you’re blaming it on the elusive “they” now? But seriously, I use dry vermouth with chicken on occasion – love the flavor, and occasionally in burgers. Remember the Galloping Gourmet? I remember watching him as a child; he used to drink wine while cooking and added it to everything (it seemed to me) and he seemed pretty ‘happy’ all the time : )

Thought for a while I might be his love child because I used to add wine to almost everything and I was always moving quickly around the kitchen! Now I realize not all food is improved with a splash!

Moosemac, drat, I forgot the lemon (didn’t have lime, but added lemon this morning). I prefer gin rather than vodka martinis, and because I’m such a wuss with alcohol, prefer mine ‘dirty’ (weakens it). I’ll add a bit of apple nectar to mine for the ‘dirty’ part. My vermouth smells so apple-y already! Enjoy yours!

Annie, upset tummies also get sprite here too, it’s the only soft drink I drink.

I honestly can't remember the last time I went thoroughly out of the box with ingredients.

2Many, it wasn't my kitchen and it wasn't my vermouth! I don't "blame" them--I'm the one who thought it would be good in the apple topping (and it was)--but I've never cooked anything with dry vermouth before. I also wasn't about to go searching for the brandy. :) Interesting that you use it on chicken and burgers!

You're probably right about the peppermints. It's a sealed packet of expensive, lovely, tiny peppermint pillows, but no so sealed they didn't clump.

Plllog, that collection is in addition to the pitcher of iced tea, the bottled water and the coffee carafe, LOL. Everyone likes something different, I don't know why no one in my family can drink the same thing, but it never gets mixed up with anyone else's, I suppose. And, oddly enough, none of us drink alcohol, so no wine, beer, mixers, don't need vodka or bourbon or rum. Good think, all my space is taken up with soft drinks!

As for the peppermints, that's just a shame. I do make "pink pears" using those cinnamon red hots in the syrup, and I crunch up unused/uneaten candy canes for peppermint bark with dark chocolate. I've been told, however, that you can melt peppermints in vodka and make peppermint vodka. Now what in the world you could use peppermint vodka for, I don't know, unless you made a lot of sweet drinks like grasshoppers or peppermint fizz...

2many, I LOVED the Galloping Gourmet. Grandma used to watch him in the afternoons and I always waited to watch him jump over that chair, LOL. Yes, he was always "a little for the dish and a little for the cook" kind of cook and Grandma was a teetotaler, but she still liked that show!

Annie

LOL! My mother was most disapproving of his alcoholic tendencies.

Re peppermint vodka, I have peppermint schnapps. It lasts forever. No need. :) But I made a most delicious vodka infusion with the rinds of lemons and limes after a margarita party (a friend had never had a margarita that wasn't from mix and I had to enlighten her :) ).

plllog, I didn't know "It's a sealed packet of expensive, lovely, tiny peppermint pillows" but I know what you're talking about now - Yes, I'd most likely try to use those somehow - they have a milder, better flavor than the plain ol' peppermint candies : ) And I'm such a tight-wad, LOL!

I can't believe anyone other than myself remembers the Galloping Gourmet!

I remember the G.G too! Like Annie, my Nan loved him, and she never touched a drop in her life. He always spoke lovingly of Treena.

Graham Kerr is now the GallopingGardener. A few yrs ago on Growing A Greener World...adorable. (I thought I posted this recently)

He starts at about minute 8 if you want to zip through the intro,

the GallopingGardener

What a dear, dear man : ) And he still has is sense of humor and sincere passion for cooking and all things related! Thanks for sharing that sleevendog : )

So cute right? His little basil plants, lol. : )

I miss all the old gardening and cooking shows. GG, Julia Child, Justin Wilson, Gardening By The Yard, ect.

Sherry, I'll add The Frugal Gourmet to that list. I know there was a scandal, although he was never charged with anything, but after that he just went away. I still have a couple of his cookbooks, gifts from RobinKate, a prior CF poster.

Sleevendog, I did watch that clip, and I still think he's funny! I do remember when he went "healthy", I think it was his beloved Treena that had health issues and caused him to change the way he cooked.

Annie