Saturday, December 29, 2012


Tonight: Twelve Mile Limit

I had some leftover rum for a punch I'm making for New Years Eve so I turned to my bible, "Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails" by Ted Hiagh and thought this sounded like the best way to put that bit of Jamaican Rum to good use. The drink dates back to prohibition when the government changed the range of interdiction to twelve miles outside the U.S. You could board your steamer passage cruise and let the boozing begin right there on the ship once outside of U.S. territorial waters. Although a bit summery tasting for this cold wintery evening, it is a delicious cocktail that I will revisit often. It could become a summer staple.



Ingredients:

  • 1 oz white rum (I used Appleton White Jamaican)
  • 1/2 oz rye whiskey
  • 1/2 oz brandy
  • 1/2 oz grenadine (homemade)
  • 1/2 oz fresh meyer lemon juice

Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Lemon twist  (or something better than what I managed to carve out with the worst knife ever).

Friday, December 28, 2012

The Elderflower Sidecar

I promised a St. Germain post and got sidetracked. So, as long as I'm just sitting here watching Candy Spelling buy a condo, I thought I'd fix this one up that's been on the back burner.

Incase you don't know, St. Germain is an all-natural Elderflower liqueur. It is made in France and, since it's debut in 2007, has quickly become a bar and tasteful home bartender staple.  If you are unfamiliar with it, visit this site http://www.stgermain.fr/ and then promptly go buy yourself a beautiful bottle.

There are several ways to enjoy St. Germain but my first and favorite is equal parts of gin, St.G, and a nice medium-dry white wine. However, when I was experimenting with variations of the Sidecar last month, I came upon this, and am having it at this very moment.



Ingredients:

  • 1.5 oz St. Germaine
  • 1 oz Brandy (I used Courvoisier)
  • 1/2 oz Cointreau
  • 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
Shake vigorously and serve up with a lemon twist or over ice.

Tonight: Remember The Maine cocktail


Kind of like a Manhattan. The Absinthe replaces the bitters and the Heering adds a touch of sweetness. It's a wonderfully balanced drink.The recipe comes from Portland Craft Cocktails.


Ingredients:
  • 2 oz Rye (I used Old Overholt)
  • 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
  • 2 barspoons Cherry Heering
  • 1/2 barspoon Absinthe

Add all ingredients in mixing glass. Add ice and stir. Strain into cocktail glass and add orange peel.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Tonight: Broken English

This recipe was taken from "gaz regan's Annual Manual for Bartenders 2011 101 Best New Cocktails". The recipe is adapted from a recipe by Colin Shear at Philadelphia's
Franklin Mortgage & Investment Company. I cannot WAIT to go to this place. In the meantime, I gathered the ingredients and, i have to say, it is amazing. I also have to say, the wrong measurements could completely throw this off.


Ingredients:


  • 2 oz gin
  • 1 oz sweet vermouth
  • 1/2 oz Strega liqueur
  • 1/4 oz Fernet (I used Luxardo but Fernet Branca is easier to find)
  • 1 tsp Benedictine
  • 2 dashes orange bitters (I used Regans but Angostura orange bitters are pretty easy to find now)
  • 2 dashes Peychauds bitters

Add all ingredients in mixing glass. Add ice and stir. Strain into chilled cocktail glass and garnish with grapefruit twist. 




Tuesday, December 25, 2012

A toast with a "Christmas Shrub"

A delightful, unexpected Xmas cocktail. We started out with some old-school egg nog and have moved onto this. A traditional shrub recipe includes apple cider vinegar and sugar, and hopefully mixed with alcohol. This particular shrub is made with fresh ginger and mixed with Prosecco and a splash of pomegranate juice. Yum.

Ginger Shrub:



  • 1/2 cup ginger, finely minced
  • 1 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 cup Sugar or artificial sweetener if you must.



Heat the ginger and vinegar in a saucepan over high heat until just boiling. Remove and let cool for 24 hours. Strain the ginger out of the liquid but don't press the liquid out of the ginger.

Put the liquid in saucepan and add the sugar. Bring to boil then simmer for a few minutes.

Let cool then serve with your favorite spirit. (Gin, rum, vodka.) I chose prosecco as the ratio is approx a small amount of shrub to a large amount of booze. It's not nice to be tanked on Christmas.

There is talk of this being served with Sprite instead of alcohol. I haven't quite put the pieces together yet of why anyone would consider that.


Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Tonight's Cocktail: Black Dahlia 

So tonight i was in the mood for something different and decided to dust off one of the bottles of (lately ignored) vodka and try a Black Dahlia. I have had this in the back of my mind since an episode of "Revenge" (Season 1) I was watching on DVD a couple weeks ago. I have since learned this is not the classic recipe, but this combination sounded good and, although a bit sweet for me personally, it did the trick.

The Gallery Bar at the Biltmore Hotel in LA, where the original recipe was born, was where actress Elizabeth Short (posthumously known as "The Black Dahlia") was last seen before her gruesome murder in 1947 (so the story goes). The drink is still on the menu and is as follows:


  • 3.5 oz Citrus vodka
  • 3/4 oz Chambord Raspberry liqueur
  • 3/4 oz Kahlua Coffee liqueur


Sometimes cocktails take on a life of their own and the ingredients start changing a bit. Tonight I'm doing the "Revenge" version, which is:


  • 3 oz Vodka (I used Absolut for the first one and Pinnacle blackberry (seemed appropriate?) for the second...couldn't really tell the difference)
  • 1 oz Creme de Cassis (Blackcurrant liqueur- I'm using Joseph Cartron)
  • a dash of blackberry liqueur (I decided it would be a good vehicle for the blackberry syrup I made a couple weeks ago. so, while it's not actually a liqueur per say, I didn't really see the need to seek out blackberry liqueur when A)I made syrup already and B) it's not even in the original recipe


Shake ingredients and strain into martini glass. I had no garnish. I suppose a lemon twist would have been nice. Next time.


Monday, December 17, 2012

Drink Of The Month: Manhattan

An undisputed classic. Up until recently I have always been more of a gin or vodka man but, especially now that the months have become cooler, I have been really embracing bourbon and rye.
In the past month or so, I have had several different variations of this with bourbon vs rye but I think I found my (simple) favorite.

Ingredients:

  • 2 oz Rye Bulleit (though I have been using Old Overholt as well so I don't tear through my Bulleit)
  • 1 oz Sweet vermouth
  • 2 dashes Angostura bitters


STIR in glass and pour over large ice cube in rocks glass. Garnish with cherry.



My favorite restaurant in Harrisburg, Bricco has a house version. Angels Envy bourbon with Luxardo maraschino poured over a huge spherical cube. Nice touch.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Tonight: Fantastic wine for 12/12/12

So, tonight being 12/12/12, the last time we will ever see a consecutive date in our lifetime, I decided to open the special occasion wine cabinet (aka "rubber band wines") and uncork this wonderful 1993 Chateau du Perier Medoc. 
To accompany such a nice wine, we split some leftover Tony's frozen pizza and a cheeseburger.



I believe you are what you drink..not what you eat. Though I don't have a bad word to say about Tony.