I bookmarked this cocktail recipe a few weeks ago — I can’t remember if I found it via Liqurious or Serious Eats — but it’s ultimately courtesy of Olga at Mango & Tomato, a great foodie blog featuring original recipes and restaurant reviews from Olga’s adventures in food-tourism.
Much like Olga confesses in her post, as a kid I was more likely to spring for a glass of tomato juice or V8 (seasoned with a ridiculous amount of black pepper) than a milk shake or soda.
Unfortunately, really awesome Bloody Marys are hard to come by. I tend to hate pre-maid mixes, and usually “fresh” ones consist of little beyond ice, tomato juice, rail vodka, and a sad stalk of celery.
Well, sort of. It’s hanging on by a thread in the mid-Atlantic, what with the hurricane-level showers we’ve been dealing with the last few weeks.
But I just got one year older today, I wore a hoodie for the first time in months, and Dogfish Head’s Punk’n Ale is finally in my tummy again. So it feels Fall-y. Decline-y. Dying-y.
But Karen at Tasty Trials offered up this last gasp of summery deliciousness recently—the Raspberry Limoncello cocktail:
To make:
1 lemon
4 basil leaves, roughly torn
6-8 raspberries
1/2 teaspoon superfine sugar (optional: if you’re a girl-drink drunk like myself, you’ll want the sugar. If you like your drinks crisp & tart, skip it.)
1/2 ounce limoncello
1 ounce Citron vodka
champagne, to top off
ice
Cut the lemon in half, then cut each half into quarters. Use 2 pieces per cocktail.
Muddle lemon, basil, raspberries in a glass, until raspberries and lemon are well mashed. Fill glass with ice. Add limoncello, vodka and sugar (if using). Stir. Top with champagne.
Drink up! I doubt there will be a post tomorrow, as I’m leaving ass-early in the morning for Chicago to sling my wares at Renegade Handmade this weekend, so have a fun one, and if you’re gonna be in Chicago, swing by Wicker Park (Division St. side) to say hi!
(Photo & cocktail courtesy of Karen at Tasty Trials)
Poor Canada. Actually, no; poor Canadian liquor companies.
Like the U.S., Canada is saddled with a pretty sad rep abroad when it comes to its alcoholic exports. Both nations have thriving microbreweries, but by and large the rest of the world only knows us for Budweiser and Molson, respectively. Meanwhile, we’re inundated with awesome gin from Scotland (Hendrick’s), excellent vodka from—seriously—France (Grey Goose), and some seriously amazing rum from Portugal (El Dorado). Not to mention the tidal wave of awesome beers from Belgium and Germany!
Which means that the average Canadian beverage company is reduced to some pretty insane levels of gimmickry to make in-roads internationally. To wit: Frozen Ghost Vodka.
Sure, every product should have a story behind it, but to go to the lengths these guys have to drum up interest in some vodka? If it’s that awesome, shouldn’t its quality do most of the heavy lifting for you, marketing-wise?
I apologize for the lack of a WTF post yesterday; I was playing hooky and losing my body weight in sweat at the ballpark watching the Orioles lose to the Red Sox.
It was hot. Like, unnaturally hot. When I left the house last night at 11pm to pick up our pizza for dinner, it was 90°. Right now it’s 102°. Tomorrow’s projected high? 106°. DO. NOT. WANT.
Anyway…what better way to stay cool than a refreshing libation? This tasty treat is courtesy of Carrie Vibert at Poet In The Pantry. Looks and sounds delicious, but we need a snappier name for…
Blueberry Lemonade for Mamas and Papas
Ingredients:
ice cubes (Carrie suggests freezing blueberries in the cubes for presentation)
2 oz blueberry vodka (I recommend Stolichnaya’s)
3 oz lemonade (Store-bought is OK, I guess, but seriously: make your own. Juice of 1 lemon, 1/2-1 Tbsp. of preferred sweetener, and a pint of club soda should do it. Experiment with those ratios until you hit on something you like.)
slice of lemon
Drop some ice cubes into your glass. Pour the blueberry vodka and lemonade over them. Stir. Garnish with a slice of lemon. Get crunk!
Smirnoff? Absolut? Seagram’s?! NO, Michael Bay. No.
I get that you need to offer parents some way to dull the pain of sitting through your lump of childhood-ruining waste, but this is not the way. In fact, I cannot think of a WORSE way to add another $8 on top of a $12 ticket than being forced to drink “Michael Bay’s X-Plode Juice” while losing two hours of my life. $20 to be trapped in a life-sucking machine? Talk about a Pit of Despair.
(If this Youtube analogy causes Michael Bay to re-make Princess Bride, I will jump right out my f@#king window.)
For those of you not on the East coast…be very, very thankful. Yesterday our temp topped out at around 96° F, and today we’re expecting it to hit triple-digits.
So of course what better way to cool down and take your mind off the heat than some refreshing cocktails? My wife and I met our good friends Adrienne & Tony for drinks and had some truly delicious concoctions, courtesy of our friend Anna at @bad_decisions. First up, the “Delicious Hibiscus” (N.B., this is not its official name. None of us can recall if it even has one, but this works for the purposes of blogging):
Vodka, champagne, and either creme de cassis or hibiscus syrup (can’t remember which!), garnished with a hibiscus blossom. Pretty to look at and pretty tasty in my tum-tum. Plus, the blossom is edible and very yummy—tastes like a thicker Fruit Roll-Up, or a sweeter version of fruit leather.
Next, Anna made us the “Sensation”, which is a lot like a mojito, but served in a martini glass and made with gin instead of rum:
Lime juice, fresh mint, maraschino liqueur, gin, and served in a sugar-rimmed glass (in lieu of simple syrup or muddling the sugar and mint in a tall glass like a traditional mojito.)
Anything in particular you guys are imbibing to keep cool as the weather heats up? Let me know in the comments section below!
In honor of today being Cinco de Mayo, I’ve created some free downloadable beer charms to help you keep your drinks straight as the night wears on (a tricky endeavor, to say the least.) Just click on over to my freebies page and download one (or all) of the three themed sets so your fiesta guests remain cootie-free this afternoon and evening! Each printable set includes six charms (perfect for that six-pack you’re picking up on the way home) featuring fun Ex-Boyfriend characters from my designs, including kawaii guys, cute critters, and adorable monsters!
In general, I’m kind of a pushover. I really love pleasing people; even complete strangers. Working for 8 years in retail only made this condition worse: I was trained from an early age to please people above all else.
And it’s a tough habit to shake; even now, I straighten messy shelves in stores, put things where they belong if I find them out of place (to my wife’s chagrin, this does not extend to our home), and say “please”, “thank you”, and “have a nice day” with the kind of sincerity and frequency that would make Oscar The Grouch vomit all over the inside of his trashcan.
Therefore, it’s incredibly jarring when I see people (grown adults mind you, not children) behaving badly in public. Being rude to servers and desk clerks, causing scenes, using coarse language when kids are within earshot. Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens in pretty much every possible social situation across the board, but seems to be especially prevalent in restaurants and bars. So when we were at our favorite bar a few weeks back and chatting with Chris and Ana, a couple of the bartenders who were off for the evening and just there for a couple of drinks, we asked what customers did that most annoyed them. I thought it would make a good blog post, and since it’s of the list variety, it allows me to discuss booze TWICE this week!
And so, the top five things that will piss off your bartender:
5. Getting pissy if something you want isn’t available,no matter how common: “We had this guy that came in a few days in a row. Each time, he asked for Bud Light. Each time, I explained that we didn’t have any. I finally kinda lost it and just said, “Sir, we don’t CARRY it. We will NEVER carry it. I can get you something better, but I can’t get you that.”"
4. Don’t haggle over the cost of a drink: “There’s an extremely annoying regular at the other bar I work at, and one time he ordered a drink and asked for it to be made with a specific brand of rum. I explained that we didn’t have that, but I could make it with something else. He agreed, but then when it was time for him to pay his tab, he started trying to haggle with me because he “knew” the substitute rum was less-expensive than what he’d originally requested. It costs what it costs; this isn’t a flea market.”
3. Trust your bartender: “This doesn’t annoy us as much as it makes us laugh, but when you come up to the bar and ask for, say, a round of Cuervo shots, and we explain we don’t have any, but we have something better that costs the same, and then you give us a skeptical look and say “Better than Cuervo?” as though we’re mad, it cracks us up.” Bartenders drink. A lot. And yes, there are some spirits that are empirically better-tasting than the stuff that’s widely-available and heavily-advertised. Trust your bartenders, they won’t steer you wrong; after all, they want your tips.
2. Don’t be a cheapskate: “Thank you’s” are nice, but they don’t pay the rent. And I’m not saying you should empty your wallets for a guy or girl that’s just popping the top off a bottle and handing it to you without so much as a smile, but tipping is how we do things in America. 15% of the tab is acceptable, but I always shoot for 20%. 25% if the service is great and I’m friendly with the staff (which it usually is and I usually am at Bad Decisions).
1. It’s not your TV, so don’t ask for the remote: Unless you’re in what can reasonably be termed a “sports bar”, don’t bug the bartender about changing the channel. If you want to scream at the television for three hours while replacing the blood in your body with a crappy domestic light beer, go to the sports bar across the street or just stay home. If you walk into a quiet place and everyone is laughing at an episode of Archer or Chappelle’s Show, you are probably in the wrong place to begin with.
March is awesome for a number of reasons: the weather gets a teensy bit warmer (I can rock a hoodie without hiding it under a winter coat), baseball returns from its 3 1/2 month hiatus (my wife wishes it would stay away permanently), and I move from beer & wine mode into something a bit more fun—spring cocktails!
Taylor Mathis is a NC-based food photographer who also dabbles in foodie-ism and mixology on his blog Taylor Takes A Taste. He recently wrote a post about his adventures in spirit-infusion that got me super-excited for even warmer weather.
In it, he describes his usual process for infusing stuff like vodka. Some important tips he shares:
1. Be patient: Infusing takes time (about 2-3 weeks), and until you’ve done it a few times, it might be up to snuff based on the need to adjust ratios of the flavors you’re attempting to infuse.
2. Surface area is key: The more surface area of the flavorings you expose to the spirit(s), the more flavorful the end product will be. Unless you’re dealing with citrus rinds (which contain potent oils that contain intense flavor without the acidity of the fruit’s actual juices), you’ll want to remove as many impediments as possible; skins, seeds, etc. Note that Taylor slices his cranberries in half—otherwise very little of the tart flavor of the berries is going to pass through the tough skin.
The most exciting thing about infusing spirits is its relative ease—it doesn’t involve the expensive equipment and long wait that beer-brewing requires. Definitely a fun weekend project worth looking into.
And I highly recommend poking around the rest of Taylor’s site to see some very impressive food photography!
our customers
