Bourbon Cocktail with Apple Cider, Lemon, and Maple Syrup

(recipe from Edible Maine magazine)

2 ounces bourbon
2 ounces cider
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce maple syrup
Lemon peel for garnish

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.  Add the bourbon, maple syrup, and lemon juice.  Give it a good shake.  Pour into an old fashioned glass filled with ice cubes and top with the cider.  Give it a stir and finish with a lemon peel.

(Made for Sage and I around Thanksgiving 2017.  Cheers!)

Grapefruit Hot Toddy

(recipe from Thug Kitchen)

2 cups water
2 bags black tea
1/2 cup fresh grapefruit juice (about 1 grapefruit) [I used bottled juice]
2 shots bourbon
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
2 cinnamon sticks

Bring the water to a boil on the stove with a kettle or whateverthefuck else you use.  In a large measuring glass or heat-safe pitcher add the grapefruit juice, bourbon, maple syrup, and the cinnamon sticks.  When the water is boiling, pour it into the pitcher, add the tea bags, and cover that motherfucker to keep it warm while the flavors mix.  Let the tea steep for 3 minutes.  Take out the tea bags and cinnamon sticks and serve that shit immediately.

How to mix a martini.

(from Real Simple magazine)

"There are only a few things you need to know to make a martini the way a man does:  Make it dry, make it gin, make it brutally cold, and keep it simple.  "The quickest way to sissify a martini is to get creative," says David Wondrich, author of a forthcoming book on cocktails.  "Don't garnish it with a sprig of rosemary or put a splash of Frangelico in it or do anything fancy whatsoever."  As for making a martini with vodka, it's certainly possible.  But if it's a man's drink you're after, stick with gin and aim for a gin-to-vermouth ratio somewhere between five to one and eight to one, depending on how strong you like it.  "Any more vermouth and it's unbearably watery," says Wondrich.  "Any less and you might as well be drinking straight gin, which is fine but not a martini."

Recipe

Chill a martini glass in the freezer for at least 5 minutes.  Pour 3 ounces gin (Beefeater, Tanqueray, or Bombay Sapphire - something around 94 proof) and 1/2 ounce Noilly Prat dry white vermouth into a stainless-steel cocktail shaker or a chilled tumbler.  Place 8 to 10 ice cubes (according to Wondrich, cracked or crushed ice chills faster than cubes) in the shaker or tumbler, stir vigorously for about 20 seconds with a long-handled spoon, and strain into the chilled martini glass.  How you finish off the martini is a matter of taste.  A twist is the classiest way to go and yields the cleanest-tasting drink.  An olive is the traditional garnish, and it looks cool.  Take your pick.

(Been on a real dirty martini kick lately.  I just love the write-up of this drink - so much to say over something so simple.  Anyway, I add a spoonful or two of olive juice and two olives and I'm happy.  Cheers!)

Pear Mimosas

(recipe from Real Simple magazine)

Makes 8 servings:

2 bottles Champagne, chilled
4 cups pear nectar
1 lime, cut into 8 wedges

For each serving, pour 3/4 cup of Champagne into a flute or wine glass and top with 1/2 cup of pear nectar.  Squeeze and drop in 1 wedge of lime.

(Pear and lime mimosas are nice.  These were sampled in Vermont, while visiting my dear friend for her father's birthday.  We sipped these at the party, and the day before.  It was a lovely weekend, and so, in my mind, these will always be lovely cocktails.)

Desert Sun

(recipe from a magazine, I'm not sure which one)

"Summaiya Peterman has developed drink recipes for bars all over Manhattan, most recently the trendy Blue Water Grill.  This cocktail is among her summer favorites."

1 serving:

3 oz. Stolichnaya vodka
1 oz. Grand Marnier
1 oz. orange juice
Splash of lime juice
Grenadine

Combine the vodka, Grand Marnier, and citrus juices.  Shake and pour into a martini glass.  Finish with a splash of grenadine and serve.

(I made this in a pitcher for Ladies Night in my garden.  Joann, Alison, Ashley, and Kristen were in attendence, while Amy Casey joined us for a bit via wi-fi (!).  Since I don't have martini glasses, I served them in flutes, with an ice cube or two, and a splash of grenadine on top (found a lovely real grenadine with actual juices at Whole Foods).  Everyone agreed that these were VERY strong drinks.  And they looked like a sunset in a glass.  Cheers!)

Poinsettias

(recipe from Nigella Lawson)

1 bottle champagne or sparkling wine, chilled
1/2 cup Cointreau, Grand Marnier, or other orange liquer, chilled
2 cups cranberry juice, chilled

Mix all together in a large pitcher and serve!

(These are lovely and easy.  My cocktail for Christmas 2011.  Served with cheese and crackers and appies for Joann, Alison and Josie the Thursday before Christmas.  Served Christmas day with Ben, Laura, and Justin.  Served the day before New Year's with mom, dad, and Sage.  A hit! - Nigella will never lead you astray.)

Negroni Sbagliato

(recipe and story from La Cucina Italiana magazine)

"The house specialty at the legendary Bar Basso, which trailblazed Milan's aperitivo scene in the 1960's, translates as "wrong" or "mistaken" Negroni - a fitting name for a cocktail born from a happy mistake.  Maurizio Stocchetto, proprietor of Bar Basso and son of the famed aperitivo maestro Mirko Stocchetto, says one night his father was reaching for gin for a classic Negroni and grabbed a misplaced bottle of spumante by accident.  A customer urged him to add the bubbly instead of the gin.  An instant hit, the drink became the bar's signature.  The original Negroni has similar origins.  In the 1920's, Count Camillo Negroni had his bartender in Florence swap gin for the soda water in an Americano (Campari and sweet vermouth topped with soda water).  There's no telling whether the old Count would have approved of the Negroni Sbagliato, but any number of Bar Basso's stylish clientele will attest to the drink's allure."

makes 1 drink

1 ounce Campari
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1 ounce dry spumante
orange slice for garnish

Fill a rocks glass with ice.  Add Campari, vermouth, and spumante, in that order.  Gently stir and garnish with orange slice.