Liquor: The Carlos O'Brien

Last weekend or thereabouts, right when I started the Facebook page for this little blog, my good friend Sara Say-So asked me for a cocktail recommendation for a small dinner party she was throwing with her new husband Evan. (Can I just say, it is still so freaky to me that my friends from high school are now all doing the rounds of getting married and having babies, made ludicrous by the fact that I was actually divorced at 21, made even MORE ironic by the fact that Say-So's husband is my ex-husband's cousin...and I used to date Say-So's older brother back in high school...and Say-So and Evan got married in Barcelona, where my ex-husband and I went on holiday before getting married. IT'S A TEENY TINY WORLD Y'ALL.)

Of course in order to make any sort of recommendation on what to drink, I needed to know what they were eating, too. When she said fish, only two real things popped into mind--a Moscato for Thai or Asian inspired fish, or tequila for any sort of Caribbean/Latin American preparation. All of this was highly ironic given that I was in an aquarium at the time, but I digress.

Tequila it is! And what a fine choice indeed, given that I've been obsessed with Jose Cuervo Silver ever since I had a well-intentioned Nacho Night with some friends that ended with the usual debauchery--and woke up clear as a bell and awesome the next morning. I can't explain this devil magic, but I'm sticking with it! Tequila and lime is the quintessential combination, of course, but keeping in mind my current my love affair with the earthy spiciness of ginger, here's what I came up with:

The Carlos O'Brien: named by and created for the inspirational couple. I'm expecting an invite to the next dinner party you guys! :)

The Carlos O'Brien
makes 1 drink

What You Need
3 ounces white tequila, Jose Cuervo Silver preferably
2 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice
2.5 ounces ginger simple syrup (Requiring 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup water and 1 large piece of ginger, about 10 inches long; recipe follows.)
Club soda, to top off

What You Do
1. First things first, we gotta make the ginger simple syrup. Peel your piece of ginger and slice it up into a bunch of thin little rounds; the more surface area available the more ginger infusion we can eke out. In a small pot, combine the water, sugar and ginger pieces and bring to a low boil. Reduce, then simmer gently uncovered for 20-30 minutes until the syrup has thickened and turned a beautiful amber colour. Remove from heat and cool, straining out the ginger. It'll keep in the fridge for about a month.

Thin it out with a bit of water if you find it thickening too much in the fridge.

2. OK, drink mixing time! It's all pretty easy from here; just squeeze the limes through a strainer, and in a cocktail shaker filled with ice combine the lime juice, tequila, and ginger simple syrup. Shake for about 30 seconds and strain into a glass over ice. Top with club soda to taste, and serve with a lime wedge garnish. Ta dah!

Liquor: The Weasley

One of my goals for this year is to figure out how to add some coding and widgets and gidgets and whatever to this blog so that people can Pin recipes directly to their Pinterest boards and e-mail certain entries to their friends, etc. Unfortunately I seem to have magically forgotten everything I learned when I built my first few websites--I blame vodka induced amnesia (and lack of recent practice!). Or...in the theme of today's entry, did someone Obliviate me?

What's the perfect drink for staring at HTML coding until your eyes cross? ALCOHOL! But more specifically, whiskey, since that's what I like to drink these days. And because I am on a ginger kick as of late (that started with the ginger infused broth of whiffy wonder in my Thai Chicken Noodle Soup) and also because I am a HUGE geek, I present to you...

THE WEASLEY. 

 In my mind, of the 'Fred & George' variety.

You've seen this kind of thing from me before.

My thought process: "Hmmm...whiskey....firewhiskey...and ginger, like THE quintessential gingers...but if it's going to be like firewhiskey it should also have a tiny bit of a spicy kick to it...but still sweet...and of course, it should also be HOT. Because, obviously."

Just a head's up, this recipe does require a wee bit of advance planning as you should let the whiskey infuse with the ginger for a night or two. The longer you let it go the more ginger flavour you'll get, but I wouldn't let it infuse past two nights.

The Weasley
this recipe makes two drinks; I split it up so that each would have a different whiskey


What You Need
Whiskey, about 1/2 cup per drink, brand of your choice: for one drink I used Jack's Tennessee Honey since I figured the sweetness would be offset with the ginger and lemon and spice, and I was right. I used Maker's Mark in the second drink and that was also lovely. Obviously, you don't have to do two different brands; just pick one and go with it!
1 medium piece of fresh ginger, about 4-5" (Fresh ginger packs quite a punch, so if you're not familiar with it, take a little lick/taste of the raw peeled ginger so you can get a feel for it and then decide how much you want.)
1 lemon
4 dashes ground ginger, so 2 per drink

2 pinches (and I seriously do mean a PINCH) red cayenne pepper, so 1 per drink (optional, really, since ginger can be pretty spicy, though it's a different kind of spice)
Smidge of honey, optional, to taste (if you're not using Jack's Tennessee Honey)
Club soda or tonic water, optional, to top off (I don't enjoy whiskey neat)

What You Do
1. So, here we go! First, carefully peel your fresh ginger root with a vegetable peeler or by using a spoon to scrape off the skin. Ugly thing, isn't it? But spicy and fresh and sharp and lovely. Dice it up into small pieces (you can see one floating in my drink, above) and make sure to trim off some of the rough, stringy outer edges. Toss it into your whiskey of choice, about 1 cup or so in a Mason jar, and let it infuse for 1 or 2 nights.

I assure you, that waiting time only happened because a) I got too busy to mess around with cocktails and b) I found a bottle of wine I forgot I had in the meantime.

2. So two days have passed and you're back; or, alternatively, a few hours have passed and you're impatient. Whatever. Strain out the whiskey or just fish the ginger pieces out and pour into two glasses. Slice the lemon into quarters and squeeze one quarter into each drink. Add two dashes of ground ginger to each drink, plus the pinch of cayenne pepper if you're brave, and the honey if you want. The nice thing about this recipe is that you can mess around with the proportions to basically whateverthehell you want depending on what you like--sweet, sour, spicy, whatever. This is your party.

3. Microwave for about a minute each until piping hot and smelling utterly boozy and wonderful. Top off with club soda, if desired, garnish with the leftover lemon and maybe a piece of ginger if you want, (I thoroughly enjoyed chewing on a couple of the pieces of ginger whilst drinking) and let the honey-whiskey-spicy-lemony-gingery goodness warm you from the inside out.

Warm you from the pain of losing Fred.

*sob*

Cheers, mates.

Liquor: Halloween Candy Corn Martini

I started this little project about a week ago, but because I can't count (apparently), by posting today I'm not giving YOU enough time to try this recipe yourself. Seriously, I fail so hard. The only reason why this takes 5-7 days is because you're doing your own infusion of candy corn vodka--MAYBE you could find a version in a liquor store? I mean, it's seasonal and god knows they flavour vodka with EVERYTHING these days (maple syrup, anyone? how 'bout butter? Swedish fish?). It was super easy to make, though, so if you have any extra candy corn left over from Halloween this week, do have at it! (The candy corn alone was difficult to find; for some reason I had to go to three different stores to find it and even then I almost had to fight this woman off for the last bag. Lady, I WILL have my candy corn vodka--this is not amateur hour!)

If you don't like vodka, you probably shouldn't make this. And we also probably shouldn't be friends. Now, if you don't like candy corn, well...I was worried that I would wind up with a sludgy sickly sweet mess, but I was wrong! The vodka absorbs the buttery taste of candy corn plus the iridescent orange colour, but leaves a lot of the tooth-aching sweetness behind. It really was very mild.

To make the candy corn infused vodka you'll need 2 parts vodka (I used Absolut) to 1 part candy corn; so, 2 cups of vodka and 1 cup of candy corn. I wasn't sure I would like it, though, and I'm the only vodka drinker in the house, so I halved it to 1 cup of vodka and 1/2 cup of candy corn. Throw into a clean Mason jar and stow away in a cool dark place for 5 days.

Bonus: doubles as a Halloween decoration. Sort of. If you're reaching.

When your five days of infusion are up, it's time to strain the vodka. Look! All the candy corn disappeared! 

Dudes, it was SO GROSS looking the first day--the candy corn had dissolved into these ghostly, floating tendrils of white that looked like snot floating in the vodka. 

Never fear. Shake up the jar, and then strain it through cheesecloth (fold over a few times to make it a tighter strain) into another glass or bowl. I found the easiest way to do this was to rubber band the cheesecloth around the mouth of a drinking glass and pour the vodka slowly through that. The cheesecloth caught everything and left only clear orange vodka behind. Presto!
 

Cheers to Mondays, cheers to candy corn, cheers to being holiday-specific drunk!

Candy Corn Martinis

makes 1 decently sized martini

What You Need

1 1/2 ounces candy corn vodka

3/4 ounce vanilla vodka (I used Absolut Vanilla)

1/2 ounce white vermouth

3 dashes Angosturra bitters

What You Do

Shake over ice in a cocktail shaker and serve.

Look, I failed on multiple levels with this little project, because I had intended to line the rim of the glass with Pop Rocks all cute-like. But do you think the four different stores I went to had Pop Rocks? NO! Do you think the fifth store had RED STRAWBERRY Pop Rocks? Of course. Because, that's what Mondays are just like.

I finally got home and thought OK, I'll make a compromise and edge it in green decorating sugar that I have on hand. So I open the drawer and--hahahahahahaha. I only have red sugar left. At that point I decided I just wanted to get the damn vodka inside me as soon as possible, so I chopped a candy corn in half and quit at life for the night.

Liquor: Pumpkin Juice!

It's Halloween, so of course everything is pumpkin EVERYTHING right now! However, the inspiration for this particular recipe actually comes from my nearest and dearest favourite fantasy series...Harry Potter. These are the books that opened the world of fantasy, magic and make-believe to me, that provided me--as a geeky, gangly, unpopular and painfully awkward 11-year-old--another world to disappear into when mine was so unbearable.

I am only slightly less awkward and gangly as a 23-year-old and about eleventy-billion times more geeky (hello Hunger Games, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and Batman...) and I still love Harry Potter as much as I did at the first turn of the first page. And since it's Halloween, the movies have been playing on ABC Family every weekend and I've been loving every minute. :)

Pumpkin juice is a beverage often enjoyed by Harry, Ron, and Hermione and in my current inundation with pumpkins, I decided to give it a whirl. I know it *sounds* weird, but I assure you it is delicious, refreshing, interesting, and definitely worth a shot! Now of course...the kiddos enjoy this straight up, but I discovered that it's even MORE delightful with a splash of Maker's Mark over ice. My girl friend Tiny Bird preferred it with some Gosling's dark spiced rum, and Lilypad liked it with brandy. (Drinking it in her Hermione Granger Halloween costume, natch.)

Pumpkin Juice
makes about 5 cups

What You Need
1 small pumpkin, known as a pie pumpkin in most stores OR 1 cup tinned pumpkin puree (100% pure puree, not pumpkin pie filling!)
2 cups apple juice (I used the freshly pressed Simply Apple brand, which is stored next to the refrigerated lemonades in your supermarket)
1 cup white grape juice
1 cup pineapple juice
Dash of ground ginger
Dash of cinnamon

Now, here's the thing. I'm currently on a kick about doing everything from scratch, so I made my own pumpkin puree. It was a fair amount of work, and it turned out smoother and a bit thinner in consistency and lighter in color than the kind you get from the tin. It takes time and a bit of patience, but no special skills. Feel free to make your life easier and just use one cup of the tinned stuff, skip to step 3, and we're good to go.

What You Do
1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Slice the pumpkin in half from pole to pole and scrape out the seeds and stringy bits. I found this to be easier after pricking it with a fork in several places and microwaving for 1 minute. Less likely have a knife slip and stab yourself this way. Unless there's something we need to talk about. Lay the halves facedown on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until very soft. (It made the whole house smell sweet and wonderful as the natural sugars in the flesh were rendered out!)

2. When the pumpkin is cool enough to handle, slip the skins off (they turned very leathery in the oven, very interesting) and discard. Using a fine mesh sieve and a rubber spatula, working in batches, force the pumpkin flesh through the sieve into a bowl. This was the most time consuming part, for me, because you really have to mash it through thoroughly, scraping as you go. Toss the pulpy mess left in the sieve. Stir your beautiful puree together (it has a natural tendency to separate from its juices) and measure out 1 cup.

 
3. In a pitcher, stir together all of the juices and the pumpkin, along with the spices, until the pumpkin is completely dissolved. Chill until very cold, and serve over ice after stirring once again. Spike as needed. :)

Thanks for everything, JK.

Liquor: Old Fashioned

I'm a little bit of an old-fashioned girl. There's something I really like about getting dressed up in a classy dress and heels, slicking on some red lipstick and going out for a drink with a devilishly handsome man in a suit. Vodka and gin are my usual go-tos, I'll admit--but there's something a bit...cliched (?) about sipping a martini in that scenario.

Whiskey, to the rescue!

I've never been a whiskey drinker, not since a rather *interesting* experience with Jack Daniels when I was 16. (Dad, just don't think about it. Trust me.) Since then I have discovered a propensity to date guys who drink whiskey, and lots of it--Jameson, Wild Turkey, Jack's Tennessee Honey, you name it--so I've been around it plenty. I just never wanted anything to do with it. Sorry, Ron Swanson.

This drink--the way *I* make it--is a game changer.

If you would like to know how to make a TRADITIONAL Old Fashioned, go to this website.

I said I was old fashioned, not traditional. "But fruit doesn't belong in a man's drink." Seriously, skive off with that chauvinistic bullfeathers. There's no such thing as a man's drink or a girlie drink, there are drinks and there are drinks and if you're gonna sit there with your nose in the air judging me for putting fruit in my whiskey--well--then you are more in need of this drink than I am, friend!

Here's how I make it. Play with it until you find a way that YOU like it.

 

Jacked Up, Fruity, Deliciously Addictive Old Fashioned

makes 1, but you'll want more

What You Need

1 large shot of whiskey of your choice (I'm a fan of Maker's Mark but I don't know Jack [hah] about whiskey, so use what you like. A blended whiskey like Jameson wouldn't make much sense here, but I can't WAIT to try this with Tennessee Honey.)

2-3 dashes Angosturra Bitters (no compromises here, though I prefer more like 5 dashes)

A couple of orange slices (I used a mandarin in the photo above because that's what I had, and of course, it was delicious.)

A few maraschino cherries, as few or as little as you like (Don't get that artificially dyed iridescent red garbage; do you even know how those are made? Go to the Cocktail/Mixers section of your grocery store and get the real kind.) 

1 teaspoon simple syrup; or a cube of sugar if you don't have any simple syrup and don't want to make your own. (Liquor stores sell bottled simple syrup if you're incredibly lazy like me. Just make sure you don't wind up with a flavoured one by accident.)

Club soda, to top off if you like. Like I said, I can't do straight whiskey no matter HOW much fruit I put in it, so I like this. (I literally just realized that I used tonic water last time. Oh well.)

What You Do

I just happen to already have Old Fashioned glasses, so--in the bottle of an old fashioned glass, muddle up the orange slices and the cherries with the bitters and simple syrup, using the end of a wooden spoon or whatever small blunt object you have around. You don't need to go all Hulk on it, just mash it up a bit o release some of the fruit juices. Add the whiskey and taste it. If you're like me it's goddamn delicious, but a little too strong, so add some club soda and some ice, if you like. Bada bing, bada boom, we're done here.

Liquor: Intense Dark & Stormy

This isn't a real post and it's certainly not my recipe, but it is a damn good drink I have to share. Well, see the thing is it's not really SHARING unless you live in New York and have access to the surprisingly wonderful perfection that is Barrow's Intense Ginger Liqueur. So basically it's just bragging. Even if you're my friend, I love this stuff so much that it's unlikely I'll share it with you. You'd have to be a reeeeeeeally really good friend. Like maybe if you gave me a kidney or something.

Maybe.

But I don't need a kidney right now (maybe a liver in a couple of years) so I guess you're just SOL!

Don't worry, though--I've already e-mailed the owner, Josh Morton, and begged and pleaded to find a way to get it somewhere in DC. This is a snobby city! There are plenty of snootin' fallutin' shops and bars/cocktail lounges that would stock this stuff. DAMMIT, JOSH, GET IT TOGETHER!

My Bonus Dad Harry gave me this half-bottle when I was up in New York recently, as he had picked it up on a weekend trip to Red Hook. I normally don't really care for ginger things (too spicy) and felt skeptical, but was immediately taken in by the freshness and vibrancy of the flavour. It's so hard to describe: it's smooth and slightly sweet without being cloying, tasting clear and vibrant and ginger-y without the punch in the face. I want to put it in everything (going to try the Intense Martini soon), but last night--in a dark and stormy mood myself--settled on the suggestion offered on the tag around the neck of the bottle: an Intense Dark and Stormy. Here's the recipe.

It hit the spot like you wouldn't believe, and I'm not even a dark rum fan after what happened a couple of years ago with my friend Monkey Boy--but that's another story.

I'll keep you posted on my efforts to get this wonderfulness down to DC, and in the meantime, I'll be stocking up on my next trip up to New York.

Liquor: Thug Kitchen's "Endless Summer Gin & Tonic"

This isn't a real post and it certainly isn't my recipe. Today I'm sending you over to the awesomeness that is Thug Kitchen. If you're not easily offended, this dude writes hilarious, easy-to-follow non-pretentious vegan recipes for food that actually tastes good. I've made a couple of his things and while I'm not a vegan and don't stick to any sort of strict diet (life's waaaaay too short for that and you will have to pry my Brie cheese from my dead, cold hands) he's really got some GREAT stuff.

I hopped on there yesterday just to see what's new and saw this entry for an "Endless Summer Gin & Tonic." A couple of weeks ago I was panicking that fall was here and summer was finally over, but no! False alarm. It's been 93 degrees every day for the past 4 days and I'm reveling in my bonus days of summer.

This Blueberry Basil G&T really hit the spot last night when I decided to drink my dinner, and I happened to already have everything on hand. My blueberries were frozen (because I can't keep those bastards fresh and without mold for more than about 32 seconds) so they sank to the bottom of the glass, but I think fresh ones float. Don't matter--this was so fizzy, sweet and sour with a gorgeous refreshing colour that just made me smile.

 I don't have a picture of the finished drink. Well, I do, but it sucks. His photo is better, so go look at it if you want. Or, you could just make the thing yourself.

Bottoms up!

Liquor: Pimm's Cup

I love brunch, and I love day drinking, so it should be a surprise to no one that I love morning cocktails. There's just something about a light drink in the lazy morning that is the epitome of complete weekend indulgence and relaxation. I've been warned that I will find myself swept up in the melee of soccermomhood before I know it (SCARY!) so I'm making a good effort to enjoy this kind of life while I can.

Mimosas will always be my favourite and the go-to classic for most places, although my dear friend and often brunch partner Lilypad always goes for the gold with a Bloody Mary. This cocktail, though, is a wonderful alternative that many Americans aren't aware of: the Pimm's Cup. It's actually a very old cocktail that was historically enjoyed by the colonists (in fact I first discovered it on a fall trip to Colonial Williamsburg a few years ago) and by their erstwhile compatriots back in Britain for eons before that. The sweet, utterly refreshing taste is the perfect way to wake up on a beautiful lazy Sunday, but in fact you can drink it at any time of day, really, since the alcohol content is only 25%. Hell, you can throw it in a tumbler and call it iced tea if you want--don't let those other soccer moms judge you!

Pimm's Cup
makes 1 bomb-ass wake up cocktail. Sunflowers optional.

What You Need
Pimm's liqueur
Sprite or 7-Up
Sliced cucumber, for garnish (this is NOT optional!!!)

What You Do
Stack a tall glass with ice, and fill with Pimm's about a third of the way. Top off with Sprite or 7-Up, add a cucumber slice or two and one on the rim for garnish, and you're golden.

Seriously, the cucumber slice is not optional. The point of including one on the rim is so that every time you tip the glass up to take a sip, your nose takes a whiff of the cuke as an accompaniment to the flavours of the liqueur. There is science behind garnishes, people!