Long Term Ginger Storage, Ginger Infused Vodka and My New Toy

Look at my new toy! It's a six and a half quart enameled cast iron dutch oven. I've been wanting one of these for ages but never managed to get one, mostly because the ones everyone always said were the best were two hundred dollars a pop. I don't have that kind of money for a pot. But this one was only fifty bucks and it's Cook's Illustrated's best buy! They said it was just as good as Le Creuset at a fraction of the price. But I don't know what to do with it first. I'm thinking pot roast, since I have one in the freezer. Anyway, I'm sure you are all much more interested in the vodka.

But before you get any, go vote for Emily from Sugar Plum to win the Quaker Oats Viewer Quickfire Challenge! Whew, that's a mouthful. But you all know her and know she's the bomb. So go show some blogger love.

Anyhow, I love ginger. But when I buy it fresh (the best, hands down) it tends to get nasty before I finish off a whole chunk. I heard a while ago that if you peel it and store it in vodka it keeps for a really long time. Plus you get ginger infused vodka. That's win-win as far as I'm concerned, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Get it? Vodka? Shot? Eh?
*crickets*
Fine.
We'll just move on.
Here is what you need. Ginger root, vodka and a glass container that has a tight fitting lid. You could probably use plastic, but I wouldn't. Something about storing infused vodka in plastic tweeks me out, I'm not sure why.You'll also need something to peel with, of course. Anyway, this couldn't be more simple. Well, unless you didn't have to peel the ginger. But you do. So that's what you should do. But first, the obligatory arty shot. Got it? Ok, let's move on. Peel the ginger. I did it in big chunks, although I don't remember if that was how I had heard about it being done. But I figure it will work out better later on when I just want a piece for a recipe. Man, do I love fresh ginger. Let's have another look. Good stuff, kids. Then I plopped it into a jar. Now, I've been cooking since I was a little kid, but I really started getting creative with it when I was a teenager. And ever since then I have dreamed of a recipe that had "now cover it with vodka" in it. I think that this, while not a recipe per se, fulfills that dream. Because now you cover it with vodka. You should really use a good one for this if you are planning on drinking it (and why wouldn't you drink it?). I guess that should go without saying, but I'm sometimes surprised at what people will drink. I just filled the whole jar up. And that's it. The ginger will keep, I'm told, for months, recipe ready. And after some time (I'll let you know how long it takes UPDATE: it takes at least two weeks. Longer is better.) you have ginger infused vodka. I'm thinking of making faux-mojitos (fauxitos?) with it in the future. I have all kinds of other ideas for what else I'm going to do with it too.