Blog

Cocktail Camp!

Cocktail Camp!

I recently presented at the second annual Cocktail Camp PDX, a day-long series of seminars in Portland geared toward the home bar/spirits enthusiast. I, along with Columbine Quillen, a rockstar of a bartender/blogger from Bend, Oregon, talked about homemade syrups, sodas, bitters and tinctures. Columbine wrote about […]

Read more

The Margarita, aka the Tequila Daisy

The Margarita, aka the Tequila Daisy

There’s been a bit of a hot debate going on for a while about constructing the perfect margarita. Tommy’s in San Francisco promotes their 100% agave margarita heavily, which uses agave syrup instead of orange liqueur to sweeten it. It makes sense; eliminating the orange aspect makes […]

Read more

Citric Acid

Citric Acid

As I mentioned before, I treat my ingredients like a cook rather than a food producer. Yet when you get into food production, as I have been doing while expanding my Small Hand Foods syrup line, there are a few scientific things you must pay attention to. […]

Read more

Green Chartreuse Marshmallows

Green Chartreuse Marshmallows

Every winter we put a hot drink on the menu at the Slanted Door. The last couple of years it’s been a hot buttered rhum cider. It’s insanely good: a trademark Erik Adkins concoction, rich but perfectly balanced. I love it, but I also crave new things, […]

Read more

Canning, aka Stress Relief: part 2

Canning, aka Stress Relief: part 2

There I am, stressed out about work and fresh from a visit to my friends’ farm in the Capay Valley (my number one stress reliever). As always, I was sent back with a dozen eggs from their hens and bags full of what they had growing. Which […]

Read more

Canning, aka Stress Relief: Part 1

Canning, aka Stress Relief: Part 1

I haven’t posted in a long time. I know, and I’m sorry. I have a number of partially finished blog posts in the queue. But mostly I am bogged down by the practicalities of running a business. I love cooking, and I love bartending, and I started […]

Read more

Cook For Hire

Cook For Hire

Since I’ve had someone else making some of my syrups for me, I’ve had a lot more free time. So when Erick Castro of Rickhouse texted me asking if I make a cranberry syrup, I answered “No… but I could make some. You want?” I figured hey, […]

Read more

Possibilities

Possibilities

I’ve been spending much of my time lately transitioning two of the syrups I make through my Small Hand Foods label, Gum Syrup and Pineapple Gum Syrup, to larger production. On a good day it takes me ten hours to make eight cases of syrup by hand, […]

Read more

Process

Process

Since I started Small Hand Foods, I often get people asking me about my syrup-making process, so I thought I’d share some of it here. When people find out what I do, one of the first things they say to me is, “Wow; you do all of […]

Read more

Grenadine

Grenadine

I make and sell a grenadine through my company Small Hand Foods. It differs vastly from what is currently on the market, and some people have been asking why. First and foremost is the issue of taste. There are generally two kinds of grenadine on the market: […]

Read more