5 posts tagged “cocktails”
What's your favorite time of day and why?
Well, that’s such an easy question, it hardly bears answering. My favorite time of the day is: Happy Hour!!
Tonight, the Beloved is enjoying a zanahorita, and I’m prepared to enjoy a tall, cool tequila sunrise, which I think is an incredibly under-rated drink. It’s also a great, easy drink to make and perfect for summer:
Tequila Sunrise
Fill tall glass with ice:
Add tequila to there (first row of blue dots)
Add orange juice to there (second row of blue dots)
Top with club soda
Mix with spoon, and drizzle in grenadine (or maraschino cherry juice). They heavier syrup will collect at the bottom producing the “sunrise” effect.
Happy Friday!
It’s a holiday weekend, so why not start a little early, right? A couple of weeks ago, while we were at Lola in Cleveland, we tried one of their signature martinis -- Hot, Dirty & Bleu -- and really enjoyed it.
So, continuing the apparently recurring themes of reconstituting other restaurants drinks and a new affinity for spicy drinks, here it is:
3 oz Vodka (and use the good-stuff)
¼ oz Olive-brine (from the jar of olives you’re going to use as a garnish)
¼ oz Dry vermouth
~5 drops Tabasco (or other hot sauce)
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled martini glass and serve with a skewer of bleu-cheese stuffed olives. The cold, cold martini, the salty-bleu cheese-olive taste and the spicy hot sauce are a really great mixed sensation. I recommend using a vinegar based hot-sauce (if you have one) and nothing that’s been thickened – I think it will disperse better in your drink. Also, while I'm a fan of the traditional gin-martini as well, I think hot sauce and gin sounds really terrible.
(Of course, you can make it as “hot”, as “dirty”, or as “dry” (varying the vermouth) as you like – that’s sort of the joy of martini-making…)
Bottoms-up!
When I was in my 20s, and you were at a wedding reception (and we're going to one this weekend...) and wanted to get a mixed drink, it was a screwdriver. It was easy and tasty, but it hardly conveyed any sense of sophistication. It's the default for a lot of folks that feel "on the spot" when having to come up with a mixed drink.
Well, I say…put down your screwdrivers!
Tonight’s Happy Hour drink is: Agent Orange
2 oz vodka
1 oz Grand Marnier
½ oz Patron citronage (or cointreau)
½ oz orange juice
Mix the ingredients together with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a cocktail glass. Smooth citrus flavor, with a remarkably small amount of actual orange juice (that's a veiled word of warning).
Happy Friday!!
Note: Apparently, I’m starting a series of some of my favorite drinks using my favorite cocktail shaker.
The Sidecar is a one of the earliest known cocktails – thought to have originated in Europe around the end of the First World War.
The classic sidecar is made with equal parts brandy (or cognac), cointreau, and lemon juice. In many ways, it is the grandfather to very popular drinks like the margarita. Generally, you have the spirit, a sweetened citrus liqueur, and citrus juice (booze+sweet+tart = :D ).
Tonight, my choice is the Chelsea Sidecar.
The Chelsea Sidecar is made with gin in place of the brandy/cognac. You can vary the ingredients to taste. Here’s my version:
2 oz. gin (use a good one too, like Bombay Sapphire or Hendrick’s)
1 oz triple sec (we like the Patron citronage, cointreau is good too)
¾ oz lemon juice
Shake vigorously in an ice-filled cocktail shaker and stain into a martini glass. Enjoy!
As I mentioned last month, this year the Beloved and I decided to stay put for Christmas and New Year’s. What a treat! On Christmas Eve, we met up with a couple of our best friends and exchanged gifts and shared a drink and snackers. As the Beloved snoozed with dreams of sugarplum fairies, I watched “The Nativity Story” on HBO. I thought this was a thoughtful telling of the story of Mary, Joseph and their trip to Bethlehem. It wasn’t really “tense” per se’ – I’d heard the story before – but it was well done.
The morning was full of excitement as we opened stocking stuffers (after starting coffee of course!) by the fireplace (it wasn’t really cold, but we put the fireplace on anyway), and then moved out into living room for gifts. After that, we had breakfast at our favorite spot to have our breakfast strata. After that, we began to field the phone calls from family and friends (we’d turned off our phone/ringers earlier – we’re selfish that way) – there wasn’t even too much too-bad-you’re-not-here guilt making… :)
I think my favorite present was a Nambe cocktail shaker -- very sleek and gorgeously designed. I just loved it. Plus, you can use it to make cocktails. Bonus!
I, of course, forgot to take a lot of pictures during the day, but I can highly recommend one of the stocking stuffers that I received – grey salt dark chocolate caramels. For anyone that digs the sweet-salty combo of chocolate covered pretzels – take my word on it, you won’t be disappointed.
The afternoon was spent relaxing and looking at the books and gadgets we’d received. It was really wonderful. We made a great turkey dinner (crispy skin!) with cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts, with pumpkin pie for dessert. We played cards and relaxed and talked and laughed into the night – as always, it went by too fast, but I wouldn’t have traded it for the world!
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