Drink and a nosh: Income Tax cocktail and sweet potato coins with gorgonzola and bacon

I loathe taxes. We had a lovely weekend last weekend, starting with a concert, followed by leisurely walks in warm weather and the season opener for gin and tonics on our friends' fabulous porch.

And then we spent nearly 5 hours doing taxes on a gloomy Sunday afternoon. I reached the point of nearly sobbing out loud, progressed to wanting to open a vein and then moved on to wanting to open fire. And that was before I killed 8 million trees printing out the forms because we couldn't mail in the state returns because the software sucks and so do the state of Iowa rules for nonresidents. Hence this week's Drink and a Nosh theme, ahead of the upcoming deadline.


Income Tax cocktail
From "Pocket Posh Cocktails" by John Townsley

Ingredients
2 ounces gin
1 ounce fresh orange juice

¼ ounce sweet vermouth

¼ ounce dry vermouth

2 dashes Angostura bitters

1 orange peel

Method

Combine gin, orange juice, sweet and dry vermouth and bitters in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel. Regret at leisure.

Rating: Not horrible. Far better than doing taxes. But while it's got a fair amount of booze, it's not enough to make you not care about why you started drinking in the first place. I wouldn't repeat it more than once a year. And as for the software rating, it's time to chuck H&R Block to the curb. Grrrr.

Sweet potato coins with gorgonzola and bacon

Adapted from PreventionRD.com, adapted in turn from Cheese Curd in Paradise, which got it from  The Jey of Cooking. It's like the begats.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons orange juice

½ tablespoon brown sugar

2 sweet potatoes, sliced into ½-inch rounds

3 slices bacon, cooked and chopped

1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt

3 tablespoons gorgonzola cheese crumbles

2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk together orange juice and brown sugar in a large bowl. Add sweet potato slices and toss to coat. Place slices on baking sheet. Season with black pepper (I used lemon pepper seasoning). Bake for 60 minutes (or 45 on convection), flipping rounds half way through.

Remove from oven and transfer rounds to a serving platter. Combine yogurt and gorgonzola in a small bowl. Spoon mixture onto potatoes. Garnish with bacon and chives.

Rating: Nice. The topping is piquant against the sweet roasted potatoes. It's kind of a nice way to mix it up instead of a crostini base. And, well, there's bacon. Topped by chives that we rescued from snow that morning.

Play along: There's the obvious: The Beatles "Revolver," features "Taxman." Or if you need relentless optimism to counteract the horror of taxes, try Jeremy Messersmith's new tunes for ukulele. A few videos of covers of his "Everybody Gets a Kitten" will cure the tax blues. But be warned: major earworm alert.