Summer cocktails: Cucumber rose gimlet
Is it time for me to categorize this as a summer cocktail? Is that okay with everyone?
Posts tagged ‘cocktail’
May 16
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Summer cocktail: strawberry basil margarita (weekend time!)
Sometimes, you just need something sweet and fresh and boozy. Weekend time!
Two-thirds of your normal margarita equation, together with some fresh garden ingredients. Weekend time!
I also tested this cocktail with gin and lemon juice instead of tequila and lime, and found that version far too sweet and two-dimensional. The beauty of this recipe is that the slightly-smoky flavor of the tequila really shines here among the sweetness of the berries (which also cushion tequilas vegetal agave flavors in a really nice way). I now totally see why strawberry is such a popular flavor for those slushy “margarita”-type things they serve in restaurants.
Enough margarita snobbery for the moment. It’s weekend time!
Strawberry basil margarita
Makes 1, easily scalable
- 3 large strawberries, stem removed and quartered (plus more for garnish, if desired)
- 3 large basil leaves, roughly chopped (plus more for garnish, if desired)
- 2 tsp. sugar, divided
- 1 1/2 ounces tequila
- 1 ounce lime juice
– Sprinkle 1 1/2 tsp. sugar over the quartered strawberries in a small bowl or cup. Let sit for at least 15 minutes so the berries release juice. Smash with a muddler, a fork, or the bottom of a smaller bowl or glass until mainly liquid with chunks of berries.
– In the bottom of a shaker, muddle together the basil and the remaining 1/2 tsp. sugar. Grind until basil is torn into bits.
– Add mashed strawberry mixture, tequila, and lime juice to the shaker. Fill at least halfway with ice, then shake and strain into a cocktail glass. If there’s a good amount of fruit and juice left in the shaker, spoon into the glass as desired. (The less the strawberries are mashed, the more might stay behind in the shaker.)
Winter cocktail: Kumquat-mint daquiri
We just spent five lovely days with our dear friends and their beautiful son. We cooked together, we took walks, we had a fire in the backyard, we drank wine, we listened to music, we went to the zoo, and we enjoyed what seems to be our yearly retreats together – full of important conversation and the making of plans and a wonderful, grounding connection with each other. I loved spending time with their toddler, my godson. He’s the first child with whom I’ve ever had a substantial relationship, and it’s amazing to see the world through his 17-month-old eyes.
Winter cocktail: blood orange rosemary fizz
I fell in love with blood oranges my first year of graduate school. Almost every Saturday morning that year we trekked to Santa Monica to splurge on produce at the farmers market – top-quality, top-price produce to distract myself from how much work I had to do and how terrified I was on a weekly, daily, hourly basis. Blood oranges were unique enough for me to fancy myself something more than a poor, lowly, graduate student with little other than my undergraduate loans to my name, and bitter and tart enough enough to wake me up a bit each time I had one. Eating a couple every day gave me little shocks to the system that kept me going through endless site visits and mapping exercises and paper writing and group projects.
Jan 1
Happy New Year! Finishing the List with one last go-to cocktail
Goodbye 2011!
Hello new year, new adventures, new friends, new foods, new experiences.
I’m ready to say goodbye to the last year – a good year, indeed. Full of laughter and excitement and travel and love. Crammed with delicious, meaningful nourishment of all kinds. And now here’s a new year starting with new projects, new work, new friends, new plans.
We ended the year with a night full of friends and laughter. And French 75s. Read more
