Freetini: Bonus July 4th Cocktail

Freetini

First and foremost, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Amie!  Cheers to another year!

Since our main plans for the 4th of July generally involve relaxing on the patio, soaking up some sun and enjoying a couple cocktails it seems appropriate to come up with a seasonal drink to celebrate the season.  Layered drinks are tough to make and more common in shots, so to capture the red and white and blue I focused more on the non-liquid components.

I'm struggling coming up with a name for this one, so let's go with Freetini but don't be surprised if next time you look at this post it's been replaced with something better.

Ingredients:
Vanilla Vodka
Sparkling Water
Cranberry Juice
Blueberries

Michelle stumbled across a star-shaped ice cube tray at Target in the dollar section and that seemed like the most theme-appropriate choice for this drink but you could use any ice cube tray.  Fill the tray with cranberry juice and freeze overnight.  Add 2 oz of vanilla vodka to a shaker with ice and shake to give it a good chill (if you keep your vodka in the freezer you could skip that step).  Strain into a martini glass and add a splash of sparkling water to taste.  Add a few blueberries (we discovered that frozen berries float and fresh berries sink...at least initially) and a few of the cranberry ice cubes.  Crank up some good tunes and get ready for the fireworks!

Bonus bonus cocktail (not pictured):  add several cranberry ice cubes to a low-ball glass along with a few blueberries.  Pour in a shot of regular vodka, top off with Fresca and give it a stir.  Vodka Fresca is a great standby cocktail on hot days and with the addition of the red and blue makes an easy summer theme drink.

42: Summer Cocktail Week 6 (Amie & Bonnie)

42 coming soon!

Savage Sidecar: Summer Cocktail Week 6 (Adam & Michelle)

Savage Sidecar

With only 3 days between our Week 5 & Week 6 cocktail unveilings the pressure was on this week.  I went back to one of my ongoing favorites, the Boston Sidecar (see May 14th blog post "Awesome Answer to a Manic Monday") to attempt a new variation and I'm pretty excited about the results!

A Sidecar traditionally contains lemon juice.
A Boston Sidecar swaps in lime juice and white rum.
A Savage Sidecar is our new creation that swaps in grapefruit juice and pisco.

Despite being named after our current home town, this is our pisco-themed drink for the summer, not our home town tribute drink.  I'm not normally a big fan of grapefruit juice but it adds an understated brightness to this cocktail and is likely toned down by the three shots of alcohol mixed in with it.  This was also our first attempt at using orange bitters and it turned out to be a really good match for the pisco and highlights the orange flavor of the triple sec.

I normally serve the Boston Sidecar up, but we tried this both up and on the rocks and agreed that over ice was the better choice for the Savage Sidecar.  Of course, our decision might have been swayed by the fact that it's been in the 90's all week.

Ingredients:
Pisco
Brandy
Triple Sec
Fresh Grapefruit
Orange Bitters

In a shaker add equal parts (I generally use a jigger...1.5 oz of each) pisco, brandy, triple sec and fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice along with 2 dashes of orange bitters.  Shake with ice to chill/mix and strain over ice in a glass.  Garnish with a thin strip of peel from the grapefruit and enjoy!

Basil Mantis Apertif & Garden Rasta: Summer Cocktail Week 5 (Amie & Bonnie)

Basil Mantis Apertif & Garden Rasta

This week's theme was inspired by a nifty little garden creature, the praying mantis.  They are so cute (in a completely alien-like way) and make any yard a happier, healthier place to be!  To top-off the thrill of our yearly hatching success, a related internet search offered a new and surprisingly complex mixology ingredient: Chartreuse.

Chartreuse is an herbal liqueur produced by Carthusian monks in the French Alps and the carefully guarded recipe is made from 100+ herbs, plants and flowers.  Green Chartreuse (see also: the yellow variety) has intensely floral and herbal flavors, highlights with hints of cloves, citrus, thyme, rosemary and cinnamon, is 110 proof and is not inexpensive.  As someone who enjoys intense flavors (e.g. drinks espresso over ice), this elixir was enjoyable to sip upon and intriguing as an experiment in exploring the flavors as they rolled along the taste buds.  Muddling in a sprig of basil served to cut the sweetness and really bring focus to the more herbal elements thus resulting in our first beverage, Basil Mantis Aperitif.  To escort this spirit from aperitif to true cocktail, we again muddled fresh basil and added lemonade and Kraken spiced rum which inspired a more refreshing beverage, Garden Rasta.

P.S. Yes, that eccentric architecture is my attempt at paying homage to the Praying Mantis with a vegetable medley garnish (asparagus tips, spinach stem, basil leaf and pea pod precariously held together with many-a-toothpick)!

Ingredients:
Green Chartreuse Herbal Elixir
Kraken Spiced Rum
Lemonade
Basil Leaves

Basil Mantis:
Muddle 2-3 basil leaves in 1-2 oz Chartreuse.  Strain into aperitif serving glass.  Optional: garnish with garden-inspired and edible artistic creation.

Garden Rasta:
Muddle 2-3 basil leaves in 1 oz Chartreuse.  Add 1 oz Kraken spiced rum and 2 oz lemonade.  Shake and pour over ice.  Garnish with basil leaves.

Chartreuse is beautiful in color, strong in spirit, and I look forward to continuing the Chartreuse journey to experience which of its other elements can be brought to the forefront of the mixology experience.

99 Roses: Summer Cocktail Week 5 (Adam & Michelle)

99 Roses

It all started with a most awesome Jack Rose at Marvel Bar in Minneapolis (which is an amateur mixologist's dream--stop in if you ever get a chance and can find it).  My cocktail app had a basic recipe for a Jack Rose with Applejack, lemon juice and grenadine but it was disappointing to say the least compared to Marvel Bar's work of art.  So I set out to create my own variation.

After a couple failed attempts to find Applejack and one disgusting apple-something return to the liquor store I finally settled on 99 Apples.  By the way, our local liquor store will let you return or exchange almost anything as long as the bottle isn't empty--shout out to Marketplace Liquor!  It took a lot of experimenting to find the right balance of 99 Apples (99 proof apple schnapps) to brandy and it all finally came together when we substituted pomegranate liquor for the grenadine--proof again that adding more liquor to liquor is often a winning strategy.  The result is a sophisticated cocktail with a nice depth of flavor: 99 Roses!

Ingredients:

99 Apples

Brandy

Pama (Pomegranate Liquor)

Fresh Lemon Juice

Aromatic Bitters

I started by finding a plastic glass a little skinnier than our low-ball glasses, filling it part way with water, submerging a small cut rose and freezing overnight.  Before mixing your cocktail set the plastic  glass in a bowl of warm water until the ice comes free, then set it in a low-ball glass.  The fancy ice is optional, but it creates a fun and unique effect for this drink.  Add 1/2 oz 99 Apples, 1 oz Brandy, 1/2 oz Pama, a dash of bitters and juice from half a lemon to a shaker with ice.  Shake briefly to mix and strain into the low-ball glass.

Caramel Apple Martini: Monday Martini

Caramel Apple Martini

We've been busy getting ready for Summer Cocktail Week 5, but in the process of researching stumbled across a recipe that turned into a marvelous Monday martini: Caramel Apple Martini.  The proportion of vodka really cuts the sweetness, although there is still a distinctive caramel apple flavor.  This drink would pair perfectly with fall football and chex mix (is it reverse alliteration when two words end with the same letter?).  I love the clear amber color, but can't figure out what would make a good garnish.

Ingredients:

99 Apples

Vodka (used Absolut)

Kahlua

Butterscotch Schnapps

Chill a martini glass with ice.  In a shaker combine 1 ounce 99 Apples, 2 ounces vodka, 1/2 ounce Kahlua, 1/4 ounce butterscotch schnapps.  Add the ice from your chilled glass and shake well.  Strain into the martini glass and enjoy!

Ka-Cinna Slide: Summer Cocktail Week 4 (Adam & Michelle)

Ka-Cinna Slide

Special thanks this week to my mom and dad who were visiting over the weekend and inspired this week's cocktail.  It's clear where Amie and I received our passion for a good drink...followed by another good drink!  One of their favorite desserts / cocktails / it's-okay-to-enjoy-between-meals-during-lent-if-you-can-get-it-through-a-straw treats is a Kahlua Supreme, which is simply Kahlua blended with vanilla ice cream.  That seemed like a good base for our dessert-themed beverage, which got kicked up two notches with the addition of two more liqueurs.  See the bonus cocktail below for the other half of the inspiration used to create the Ka-Cinna Slide.

Ingredients:
Vanilla Ice Cream
Kahlua
Irish Cream (used Merry's but Bailey's is good, too)
Cinnamon Schnapps (used After Shock)
Chocolate Syrup
Cherry (optional garnish)

Ka-Cinna Slide:  Drizzle chocolate syrup on the inside of a martini glass.  Add 2 big scoops of vanilla ice cream, 1 jigger of Kahlua, 1 jigger of Merry's, 1/4 jigger of After Shock to blender.  Blend until smooth.  Pour into prepped martini glass and garnish on the rim with a cherry.

Bonus Cocktail (after drinking two Ka-Cinna Slides tonight I can't decide if the official name of this shot is offensive or not so it'll remain nameless for now): shake equal parts Kahlua and After Shock in a shaker and strain into a small glass of ice.  Garnish with a cherry and enjoy!

U-Haul / Ode to Moving: Summer Cocktail Week 4 (Amie & Bonnie)

U-Haul / Ode to Moving

After a weekend of U-Haul boxes, spackle and cleaning supplies, nothing hits the spot like traditional pizza and beer!  So in honor of Bonnie's successful moving adventure it seemed apropos to pack a beer-related theme this week.  Other than using Guinness as a base for Bloody Marys and in the St. Patty's Day chugger, Irish Car Bomb, I really had no context for the notion of a beer cocktail.  Experiments were as bad as good as they were bad and in the end we found that, just like pizza, some prefer spicy pep and others a tangy blend.  We also found that a medium-bodied, creamy and smooth stout consistently provided both the solid structure and flavor to usher this beer cocktailing experience to refreshing success.

Ingredients:
Oatmeal Stout (used Ninkasi, locally brewed here in Eugene)
Strawberry-infused Vodka (see Adam & Michelle's Cocktail Week 3 for infusion details but use plain vodka and strawberries)
Dark Spiced Rum (used Kraken)
Jalapeno Pepper, chopped

U-Haul:  Pour cold beer into your favorite beer glass or mug (we used the occasion as an excuse to break out the 20oz Pilsner glasses).  Add 2 ounces strawberry-infused vodka (chilled is ideal).  Stir and enjoy!

Ode to Moving:  Pour cold beer into your favorite beer glass or mug.  Pour 2 ounces spiced rum into a small dish (if this weren't a beer theme I'd suggest a souffle cup).  Add 1-2 tsp chopped jalapeno, with or without seeds, depending on preference.  Muddle the jalapeno into the rum (we used the bottom of a shot glass).  Strain, add to beer, stir and enjoy!

Song Pairing:  Who knew there was such a perfect song, complete with music video pairing, to depict the weekend's activities?!?  Warning: not for the meek or humor-challenged.

UHAUL Song Pairing

Old Fashioned: Happy B Day!

Old Fashioned

That's right...Happy Bourbon Day!  Thank you to Michelle for the friendly reminder that today is indeed National Bourbon Day.  Check out the CNN article linked below for just the right amount of history.  What a great excuse to open my new bottle of Maker's Mark and branch out to something new--an Old Fashioned.  In the spirit of stepping outside my comfort zone, you'll notice the measure of all the ingredients is unusually vague which kills me just a little bit but makes this drink easy to customize to your own taste.
Eatocracy Article

Ingredients:
Bourbon (used Maker's Mark)
Simple Syrup
Bitters (used Angostura)
Lemon Peel

Add a splash of simple syrup, a dash of bitters and a couple ounces of bourbon to a low-ball glass.  Give it a swirl to mix.  The colder the better with most of my drinks so I added a handful of ice, although that's optional.  Strip a thin slice of peel from a lemon, twist it over the drink and drop in.  I also added an optional splash of cold water.  While I normally enjoy drinks with a little more sweetness or citrus, I won't have a problem finishing this off and can see a second in the not too distant future!

Hummingbird Cocktail: Summer Cocktail Week 3 (Amie & Bonnie)

Hummingbird Cocktail

Today we're picking-up our friend Lily from the airport.  Planning for her arrival inspired us into our flower-theme pairing and this week's cocktail: Hummingbird.  Since we knew we'd be imbibing early in the day, it seemed the perfect opportunity to use one of our favorite Cavas, a 2007 Brut Juve y Camps Reserva de la Familia, a sparkling wine from Spain.  With this in mind we also braved a new infusion: garden-fresh rose petals into an already-flavored vanilla vodka.  Since you can't very well have a breakfast drink without a sweet treat, we baked-up a batch of cinnamon rolls and integrated our infusion into the glaze.  While the basic infusion worked in bringing out the essence of the rose, it is worth noting that we tried a last-minute petal muddling which was not nearly as successful.

Ingredients for Infusion:
2 ounces Vanilla Vodka (used Absolut)
1 head of a garden-fresh and fragrant rose

Loosen the petals from the rose base, place in a small jar, add vodka, cover tightly and shake daily for 5 days.

Ingredients for Hummingbird Cocktail:
Honey
Hummingbird Vodka Infusion
Cava Sparkling Wine

Drizzle martini glass with honey.  Add 1 ounce of the infused vodka and 2 ounces of the sparkling wine.  Swirl lightly to blend.

Hummingbird Biscuits:

Unroll 1 roll of refrigerated cinnamon roll dough (used Pillsbury Classic).  Cut into various shapes for fashioning your flower-themed artistry.  Bake per directions, but note that different shapes bake at different rates.  For the icing combine the Hummingbird infusion with powdered sugar and a few drops of honey and stir to desired consistency.  After the rolls are cool drizzle lightly with glaze and enjoy!

I'll Have Another: Summer Cocktail Week 3 (Adam & Michelle)

I'll Have Another

There are so many good, fresh ingredients to infuse with vodka throughout the summer that I knew it would play a prominent theme in many Summer Cocktail drinks.  I was super excited to drink the finished product the whole time it was infusing and the end result might be one of my finest creations to date.  The name for our drink, "I'll Have Another" is obviously inspired in part by the Triple Crown hopeful horse, but also inspired by the fact that it's nearly impossible to drink only one of these.

Ingredients for Infusion:

Vanilla Flavored Vodka (used Stoli Vanil)

Strawberries

Fresh Mint

Lemon

Cut the stems off the strawberries, cut into quarters and fill a jar that will seal air-tight.  I used two pints of strawberries for about half liter of vodka.  Pour vodka in the jar until the strawberries are covered.  Let sit at room-temperature for 3-4 days.  Add 10-15 fresh mint leaves along with the freshly-grated zest of one lemon to the jar and stir.  Let sit for an additional 3-4 days.  I stirred it a couple times during that period, but that probably isn't necessary.  Pour the infusion through a fine strainer into a bottle, smashing the strawberries with a fork to get all the liquid out.  I ran it through a strainer a couple times to get most of the sediment out.  Cover and chill the vodka until ready to use.  WARNING: the first time I infused vodka with strawberries and was straining it I thought "Cool--fruit soaked in vodka!  I'll eat the fruit and it will be just like college!"  Umm...no.  Infusing the strawberries for a week sucks all the flavor and color out of the fruit and into the vodka, leaving a white and not great tasting ex-berry.

Ingredients for I'll Have Another:

1 big shot of infused vodka (see above)

Sparkling Water (used plain flavored H2O)

Mint Sprig

Add a big shot of the infused vodka to a low-ball glass over ice.  Top off with sparkling water and garnish with a mint sprig.  The mint sprig should be on top of the ice so when you take a drink you get the smell of mint, which brings out the flavor.  That is the same idea as in a Mint Julep (traditional drink of the Kentucky Derby), which makes it a winning strategy for I'll Have Another.

Bonus Cocktail:  We've only just begun experimenting with what is a versatile infusion.  As a follow-up we made a slightly sweeter martini version, which we'll call "Maybe One More."  Chill your martini glass with ice.  In a shaker add 1 shot of infused vodka, 1 shot of triple sec, 1 shot of lemonade and some mint.  Add the ice from your glass, shake, strain and garnish with a lime wedge.

Kracken Up: Summer Cocktail Week 2 (Amie & Bonnie)

Kracken Up

Our concerto of flavors this week features a variety of rum notes and offers Kraken as the main event.  Kraken is a smooth, yet strong black spiced rum with flavor that both stands tall and blends super well.  If I were a bettin' gal I'd bet Kraken makes more appearances this summer than any other item in our cabinet.  We also attempted a rum infusion this week.  Having never infused anything other than vodka, it was a true experiment in terms of ingredients and timing.  I would call in a success in the sense that it worked well for the cocktail, and would add that it deserves further experimenting all around.

Ingredients for Infusion:
8 ounces silver/light rum (used Bacardi white)
40 organic sweet cherries, pitted
1 D'Anjou pear, sliced and quartered
1 Navel orange, sliced, rind left intact (this allows easy squeezing later on)

The strategy for this infusion was along the lines of a Sangria feel.  Instead of a bottle, we used a Tupperware-type bowl for the fruit to be able to soak and dance along the surface of the rum for 3 days.   As these are all subtle-flavored fruits, 5 days might have emboldened the flavor, but the evolving consistency of the pear was an unknown contributor this time around.  On another note, the Pisco adds a lovely salty undertone that lent itself well in creating the snack plate.

Ingredients for Kracken Up:
2 shots Rum Sangria infusion (see above)
1 shot Kraken black spiced rum
1/2 shot Pisco
2-3 shots sparkling soda water depending on preference

Shake with ice, pour over ice and garnish with an orange slice and 1-2 cherries.  Enjoy!

Ingredients for Kracken Snack Plate:
4 ounces plan Chevre goat cheese
4 cap-fulls (approx 2/3 ounce) Kraken black spiced rum
1 ounce dried cranberries
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Mix ingredients in a bowl and serve with your favorite crackers.  We used Wheat Thins.  Pistachios were a crackin' good addition to this pairing, both in keeping with the theme as well as providing salty deliciousness.

Kraken Song Pairing:
"The Rum Diary" (from the soundtrack), favorite version is the live performances and mix by Christopher Young and The Neon Popsicles.  The instrument blend is so fun you'll find yourself socializing and sashaying all over your patio wondering if the orchestra takes requests.

Electric Sunburn: Summer Cocktail Week 2 (Adam & Michelle)

Electric Sunburn

This week's cocktail was inspired by a recent BSET (Best Song Ever Today: not necessarily your favorite song ever, but the song you're super excited to hear in the car today).  When I heard Wires by Matt & Kim I knew it would make a great song pairing for a new cocktail, and so the 'Electric Sunburn' was born.  The song is like popping sparks and electric energy and we wanted the drink to inspire the same feeling.  The combination of lemon and cinnamon flavors add a lively energy to the bubbly and I'm pretty sure it's obvious what makes it pop.  I promise this is the loudest cocktail you'll ever drink, with or without Wires playing in the background!

Ingredients:

Sparkling Wine (used Korbel Brut)

After Shock

Lemon

Pop Rocks (used Strawberry flavored)

Add 1/2 tablespoon of chilled After Shock (store it in the freezer) and 1/4 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice to a champagne flute.  Fill the flute with sparkling wine.  Add a dash of Pop Rocks directly to the drink.  ***As an alternative we tried coating the rim of the glass with Pop Rocks by wiping the rim with a lemon wedge and rolling in Pop Rocks.  It looked cool, but pretty quickly crusted to the glass so wasn't my favorite option.  I liked adding them directly to the drink better as it created a really unique look and sound.

Friday Fine

I stopped at the liquor store yesterday completely sober and still managed to go on an accidental shopping spree.  Among the handful of new items I purchased was Pama, pomegranate liqueur.  I look forward to getting creative with this and I already have something in mind for a "summer cocktail" later in June featuring it, but in the meantime just tried one of the recommended recipes.  It's a pretty basic mix with the potential for improvement, but is a very tasty Friday night patio beverage that goes together fast.

Ingredients:
Pama
Sparkling Water (used H2O)
Lemon

In a low-ball glass over ice mix 2 jiggers Pama, 1 jigger sparkling water and a lemon wedge.  Stir to blend and enjoy!