{"id":2038,"date":"2011-12-30T18:44:23","date_gmt":"2011-12-31T00:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=2038"},"modified":"2011-12-30T18:44:23","modified_gmt":"2011-12-31T00:44:23","slug":"a-toast-to-longer-days-french-75-sorbet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=2038","title":{"rendered":"A Toast to Longer Days: French 75 Sorbet"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fthesoupblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D2038&amp;layout=button_count&amp;show_faces=true&amp;action=like&amp;font=arial&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;width=450&amp;height=30\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width: 450px; height: 30px;\"><\/iframe><\/div><div id=\"attachment_2040\" style=\"width: 443px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?attachment_id=2040\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2040\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2040\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2040 \" title=\"Champagne\" src=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Champagne.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"433\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Champagne.jpg 619w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Champagne-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Champagne-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Champagne-250x250.jpg 250w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Champagne-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 433px) 100vw, 433px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2040\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Uncorked!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>When I was younger, I thought the beginning of a new calendar year was a stupid thing to celebrate.<\/p>\n<p>It might have made sense if the new year actually coincided with some astronomical event like the winter solstice. The first day of spring, the true season of rebirth, would have been even better.<\/p>\n<p>Instead the new year begins ten days after the winter solstice. Ten days after shortest day of the year. And ten days after the earth is at its farthest point from the sun.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t get any more arbitrary than that.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, now that I\u2019m older, I don\u2019t have as much of a problem with arbitrary celebrations. And as arbitrary celebrations go, New Year\u2019s Eve is one of the best.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, as I\u2019ve grown older, I\u2019ve been able to partake of that greatest of celebratory beverages\u2014champagne. And by champagne I mean any sparkling wine, it doesn\u2019t have to be the French stuff.<\/p>\n<p>My first drinking New Year\u2019s was centered around a couple of splits of the Italian bubbly, Asti Spumonte. Subsequent events have featured various California champagnes and on the one Silvester (the German New Year\u2019s) I spent in Berlin, we drank Sekt (the German version of champagne).<\/p>\n<p>All sparkling wine is good. (<em>Okay, maybe not cold duck.) <\/em>This foamy wine is representative of the kind of effervescent evening New Year\u2019s Eve is supposed to be. And since I\u2019ve been married, I\u2019ve learned just how sparkling that could be.<\/p>\n<p>During the years my wife and I spent the last day of the year in Chicago, my in-laws hosted a costume party that saw us dressed alternately as Burt &amp; Loni, Sonny &amp; Cher, Michael Flatley and company, Larry King &amp; Marlin Brando, Liza Minnelli and her husband, etc. etc. etc.<\/p>\n<p>At each of these affairs, my father-in-law has blended a delicious champagne punch. He calls it the French 75\u2014a drink that, according to some, originated at Harry\u2019s Bar in Paris and was named for the punch it packed\u2014like that of a French 75 mm cannon.<\/p>\n<p>Now that my wife and I spend the post-Christmas holidays in California, we no longer attend this annual soiree. I\u2019m pretty sure we haven\u2019t been banned, although my brother-in-law says I brought the party to new levels of inebriation. Either way, I thought it would be fun to share some of that festive atmosphere with the rest of the world (<em>or at least those who actually read this thing<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p>What better way than to transform the French 75 into a sorbet?<\/p>\n<p>Think of it as my toast to all of you and my wish for an exciting and transformative new year ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Cheers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>French 75 Sorbet<br \/>\n<\/strong>(about 1\u00bd quarts)<\/p>\n<p>Simple syrup<br \/>\n1 \u00bd cup water<br \/>\n1 \u00bd cup sugar<br \/>\n2 cups champagne or sparkling wine<br \/>\n1 cup cognac<br \/>\n\u00bd cup lemon juice<br \/>\n\u00bc sugar<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Combine the water and sugar in a sauce pan, heat over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, then cool. This is your simple syrup.<\/li>\n<li>Combine the simple syrup with the champagne, cognac, lemon juice and sugar.<\/li>\n<li>Stir to dissolve the sugar then freeze the mixture in an ice cream freezer for about 35 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>Put the now frozen sorbet into your refrigerator\/freezer for a couple of hours to give it a chance to firm up.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong> NOTE: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>When freezing ice cream, you need to use an ice cream freezer to ensure that a certain amount of air is mixed into the frozen cream. This gives it a lighter, less icy consistency. When freezing sorbet, you may also freeze it in a popsicle mold, a bowl or on a sheet pan. Be sure to stir the mixture occasionally to limit the size of the ice particles. Larger chunks of ice make for granita, miniscule chunks make for a nice smooth sorbet (an ice cream freezer is ideal).<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo Credit: <\/em>\u201cUncorked\u201d from the good folks in Microsoft\u2019s clip art division<em>.<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>This is the second New Year\u2019s for the Soup Blog and much has transpired since that initial posting back in 2009. I now have a full-time job and a burgeoning free-lance client base. I also have a growing family and new hope for the future despite the bleakness of the economy and the difficulty still facing so many of us. Best to you all.<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I was younger, I thought the beginning of a new calendar year was a stupid thing to celebrate. It might have made sense if the new year actually coincided with some astronomical event like the winter solstice. The first day of spring, the true season of rebirth, would have been even better. Instead the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,135],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-no-dairy-products","category-sorbet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2038"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2048,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038\/revisions\/2048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}