A toast to all of the wonderful mothers out there … especially mine! Happy Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 12th!
Bellini
Fill a Champagne glass about 1/3 of the way with chilled peach nectar*, then top off with chilled Champagne. Enjoy!
* If you can’t find peach nectar, try fresh or frozen peaches pureed with a little peach juice, or use peach sorbet for a sweeter cocktail. Another variation is to add a splash of Peach Schnapps and a little lemon juice before the Champagne.
Mint Julep is the official cocktail of the Kentucky Derby, and yet, despite its renown, is not widely popular apart from Derby celebrations. Though it is refreshingly cold and steeped with tradition, the flavors of this classic cocktail (Bourbon, mint, and sugar) are just – to some palates – not very well rounded. Having read that some bars are experimenting with variations on the Mint Julep, I decided to try my own creation – a Raspberry Mint Julep. The addition of raspberry mutes the mint slightly and blends well with the rich flavor of Bourbon. I think this pleasant cocktail could be served for almost any warm weather occasion. Let me know what you think!
2 oz. Woodford Reserve or other good Bourbon
1 oz. Raspicello or other good raspberry liqueur
5 mint leaves, plus leaves for garnish
5 raspberries, plus one for garnish
1 t. sugar
shaved ice
In a chilled Mint Julep cup or highball glass, muddle together mint leaves, raspberries and sugar. Add Bourbon and raspberry liqueur. Fill cup/glass with shaved ice, top with a Boston shaker, and shake well. Garnish with raspberry and mint leaves. Enjoy!
Note: Mint Juleps are traditionally served in a chilled, beaded silver cup and held with a napkin around the base.
For the February issue of The Morning Star’s newsletter, I wanted to create a Valentine’s recipe that would be both easy and fun. With the recent popularity of Chocolate Martini’s, I decide to create my own version of this dessert cocktail – an enjoyable little project if I do say so! This is what I came up with …
Cupid’s Arrow
- makes 2 strong cocktails -
3 oz. Chocolate Vodka (I use Cupcake Devil’s Food Vodka)
2 oz. Raspberry Liqueur (I use Pallini Raspicello)
2 oz. Chocolate Liqueur (I use Meletti Cioccolato)
Half-and-half
Dark chocolate
Fresh raspberries
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add vodka and liqueurs. Shake well. Strain into two chilled martini glasses. Drizzle a little half-and-half over the top of each. (It will sink to the bottom then raise to the top, creating a marbleized effect.) Shave a little chocolate over the top of each cocktail then garnish with fresh raspberries. Enjoy!
Tips: Chill glasses in freezer for ten minutes before serving. Use chilled ingredients. The drink should be served very cold, but you do not want it diluted by melting ice.
In my previous post, as part of the Two Little Chefettes’ Cooking Challenge, I published a recipe for Brown Sugar Cinnamon Syrup. One way to use this syrup is in cocktails and mocktails in place of plain simple syrup. Brown Sugar Cinnamon Syrup imparts rich cinnamon and caramel flavors to drinks. The Happy Reindeer Daiquiri is an excellent example. Cheers! Happy Holidays!
Happy Reindeer Daiquiri
2 oz. rum (or apple juice, for an alcohol-free drink)
1 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 – 1 oz. brown sugar cinnamon syrup, or to taste (recipe)
Maraschino cherry
Cinnamon stick
Pour rum, lime juice, and brown sugar cinnamon syrup into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well. Strain into a coupe or martini style cocktail glass. Garnish with Maraschino cherry and cinnamon stick. Serve immediately.
Cheers!
The ingredient for this month’s Two Little Chefettes‘ Cooking Challenge is cinnamon. For the challenge, I made Brown Sugar Cinnamon Syrup because it can be used to add rich cinnamon and caramel flavor to so many dishes. Pour over French toast, pancakes or waffles. Use to glaze coffee cakes, muffins, scones or brownies. Add to coffee, cocoa or tea. Drizzle over apple pie with ice cream. Use in place of simple syrup in cocktails and mocktails. There are so many ways to enjoy Brown Sugar Cinnamon Syrup!
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Syrup
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 c. granulated white sugar
2 c. water
12 inches of cinnamon bark (e.g. 3 four-inch long cinnamon sticks)
Place ingredients in a 2 qt. non-stick saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the syrup comes to a simmer and sugars are completely dissolved. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 15 more minutes. Remove from heat. Allow to cool. Transfer to a glass jar, cover, and refrigerate overnight. Remove the cinnamon sticks. (If there is any chance that there are splinters of the cinnamon bark in your syrup, strain the syrup into a clean glass container.) Cover and store in the refrigerator.
Note on color: the syrup looks quite dark – like dark maple syrup – when it is in a container, but looks considerably bit lighter when it is poured.
Related Articles:
whisksandchopsticks: Apple Crisp
feedtheburn: Cinnamon Buns
In addition to this blog, I write a monthly e-newsletter for the bed & breakfast called The Morning Star Update. For the November issue, on which I am currently working, I am planning on featuring a cocktail that people could serve before Thanksgiving dinner – that is, if they eat their holiday supper late in the day. At this time, I am leaning toward using Blood and Sand, a cocktail named after the Rudolph Valentino silent film from 1922. ( In the film, Valentino played a Spanish matador undone by fame, a woman – Rita Hayworth – and booze.) A classic cocktail from the 1930′s and 40′s, Blood and Sand is nevertheless one of the rare cocktails made with Scotch. It is heavy and fruity, but not overly sweet, and is typically a medium caramel brown color, though it can lean toward orange or red. If you have a favorite cocktail that you would like to recommend for celebrating the holidays, I’d love to hear about it. In the meantime, if you try a Blood and Sand, enjoy, let me know what you think of it … and of course, unlike Valentino’s matador, drink responsibly.
Blood and Sand
3/4 oz. Scotch
3/4 oz. Heering Cherry Liqueur or Grand Marnier Cherry Liqueur
3/4 oz. Sweet Vermouth, preferably Vya
3/4 oz. Fresh-squeezed orange juice
Fill a cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Add ingredients. Shake well. Strain into a cocktail glass.
Notes: Cheap cherry brandies and vermouth can make this drink taste like cough syrup. Use good quality alcohol. Fresh-squeezed orange juice tends to have more of a tart taste than does bottled orange juice and so helps cut the sweetness of the vermouth and cherry liqueur. Fresh-squeezed blood orange juice can be substituted.
Officially, the high in Manhattan (Kansas) yesterday was 96 degrees F; but the official temperature is taken at the airport outside of town, and is always lower than what you’ll find recorded on any thermometer in town. According to ours, it was 101. Downtown, we experience heat reflected off streets and buildings and generated by equipment. In fact, different neighborhoods, even different properties can seem to have their own miniature climate zones. The back yard of the house on the corner near us, for example, is always a few degrees warmer than ours because it receives more reflected heat from the brick of Seven Dolors Church.
With the hot summer temperatures – though not as hot as they are likely to get later in the summer – one of our return guests surprised us yesterday with a bottle of Cuban Havana Club rum. When someone shows up at your door with such a gift, and it is so very hot, what can you do but make Havanas, sit on the front porch, and relax?
Havana
recipe from The Art of The Bar: Cocktails Inspired by the Classics, by Jeff Hollinger & Rob Schwartz
1 1/2 oz. Gosling’s rum
3/4 oz. Cointreau
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
Splash fresh orange juice
Dash of Orange bitters
Edible Flower for garnish
Line the rim of a cocktail glass with sugar. Combine ingredients in an ice-filled cocktail shaker, shake, and then strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with flower.
(As you can tell from my photos, I was too tired yesterday to strain the cocktails, but I enjoy the pulp from the fresh fruit anyway … and it was so hot, we really wanted ice. And obviously, we substituted rums.)
For those of you who haven’t yet discovered it, Boozed + Infused is a wonderful and creative blog by two sisters – Alicia and Eileen. Its theme is preserving seasonal flavors by infusing them in alcohol and, of course, tasty ways to then enjoy those infusions. Alicia’s Blueberry Gin inspired me to give it a try and to try it out in some original cocktails. Thank you, Alicia, for letting me share! (Alicia, by the way, says that she got some of her inspiration from Post Prohibition. Isn’t it great how inspiration works?) I tried several recipes made with the Blueberry Gin. I loved Alicia’s Blueberry Pieball cocktail. Of the cocktails that I created, my favorite was Blueberry Gin & Tonic which, by the way, would make an excellent cocktail for the 4th of July. Have you any 4th of July favorites?
Blueberry Gin: Two Methods.
Boozed + Infused’s Method
2 c. frozen blueberries
2 c. gin
granulated white sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1/2-inch cinnamon stick
2 whole cloves
Cook blueberries in a saucepan for 5 minutes, lightly crushing them as they cook. Pour into a 1-qt. jar, add the other ingredients, screw on the lid to the jar, and shake well. Let sit for 1 month, shaking occasionally. (I got impatient and tried the gin in cocktails after a week and a half. It was already very tasty.) Strain and filter. (Alicia says to use a colander, cheesecloth, jellybag and coffee filter. I just used a fine mesh tea filter, but maybe after the gin sits for a whole month more aggressive filtering is needed.)
A Shortcut Which Will Do in a Pinch to Make Cocktails.
1 c. 100% Blueberry Juice Concentrate (I used Dynamic Health Laboratories brand, which I had bought to make the ice cubes called for by Alicia’s Blueberry Pieball recipe – because I couldn’t find plain blueberry juice.)
5 c. gin
2 T. fresh squeezed lemon juice
Combine ingredients in a glass jar. Shake well. Chill until serving.
Blueberry Gin & Tonic
4 oz. blueberry gin
3 oz. tonic water
1/2 oz. lime juice
slice of lime
Fill a tall glass with ice. Add gin, tonic water, and lime juice. Stir. Garnish with slice of lime. Enjoy!
An original cocktail that calls to mind enjoying a shady porch on a hot summer’s evening.
Shady Porch Cocktail
1 1/2 oz. mint-infused vodka
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
1/2 oz. mint simple syrup
3 to 4 oz. Ginger Ale
lime slice and mint sprig for garnish
Fill a cocktail glass with ice. Stir together vodka, lime juice, and simple syrup. Pour over ice. Fill glass with Ginger Ale. Gently stir. Garnish with lime and mint.
(Thank you to Tim S. from NY for being my hand model and drink taster.)
As I write this post, I am taking a break from preparing for a wedding to be held at the B & B this evening. I have the flowers arranged and the wedding cake layers are in the oven. Hopefully that means that all is going well. If it weren’t the case that I still have a lot of work to do and that it isn’t even yet nine in the morning, I might be tempted to have a margarita because it is Cinco de Mayo … and really it feels much later in the day than it is. But I shall wait until the festivities tonight. It is always so exciting to host a wedding!
This is a slightly unusual margarita, being made with lemon juice instead of lime and having a touch of Midori for color and for a little extra sweet-tart flavor.
Lemon Midori Margarita
(1) Fill a cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Add 2 oz. of a reposado tequila, 1 oz. Cointreau, 1 oz. fresh squeezed lemon juice, 1 oz. Midori. Shake vigorously for one full minute.
(2) Run a slice of lemon around the edge of a margarita glass or cocktail glass. Dip glass in kosher salt or margarita salt. Fill glass with ice.
(3) Strain margarita into glass. Garnish with a wedge of lemon. Enjoy!
