Joking aside, I've been cooking a lot with bourbon.
- Keep a bottle in the freezer. Use it instead of ice water when you're making pie crust. Not only does the alcohol make the crust more tender (alcohol doesn't bind with gluten), it adds a nice malty, smoky taste to apple, pumpkin, or pecan pies.
- Speaking of pies, add a tablespoon or two of bourbon to your favorite recipes. Like, if your cheesecake recipe calls for a cup of milk, add a splash of bourbon to the measuring cup before filling it to the one-cup mark with milk.
- Three words: Bourbon Barbecue Sauce. Put it on everything...burgers, wings, chicken nuggets, ribs, pulled pork, whatever.
- Next time you make a powdered sugar glaze, use bourbon instead of water.
- Rum cake? Pfff. Bourbon cake, my dude.
- And nearly any recipe in the world--sweet or savory, entrée or dessert, humble or upscale--can be improved by pouring yourself a bourbon old-fashioned beforehand.