tea berry-blue

This weekend, we harvested the hops in our garden.

Hops are a beautiful thing. Just the scent that ripples off them while I was picking them was so elegant, floral and bitter at the same time.

The thing about hops, though, is that they are miserably underused. They’re basically only used in beers and some bitters, and once in a while in something like a brine or an infusion of some kind. (I brine my turkey for Thanksgiving in heavily-hopped beer). But hops in other things? Not much. They’re woefully underappreciated for something with such a unique and sophisticated flavor.

Fresh hops only happen once a year, in September or sometimes early October, and they’re so delicious. So this weekend, I made a cocktail with them:

notes:
Comb 9 is a gin distilled with honey. If you can’t get it, I recommend a lighter and more floral gin, like Damrak, Greylock, or Death’s Door.
Ethereal has a fairly unique smoky flavor profile. The only other gin that comes close to it is Catoctin Creek. If you can’t get either of those, I would recommend a 1/4 oz more of the base gin with a 1/4 oz of mezcal.
Bo Nardini Bassano Rue Flavored Grappa is exactly what it says it is. If you can’t get it, any plain or herbal grappa with do (stay away from fruity ones)
Adam Elmegirab’s Dandelion & Burdock Bitters can be bought at Cocktail Kingdom. If you can’t get them, Angostura or another herby bitters (not a fruit-flavored one) is fine.
I am not sure where you can find hops! I grow them myself!

Mirrored from Nommable!.

Man, it’s been a busy week with a dearth of updates. Not because there’s nothing to say, but because I’ve been doing so much stuff!

A few months ago, my old high school friends Jo and Amy (Yeah, I should have been named Meg or Beth) emailed me to ask if I wanted to judge a bolognese cookoff between the two of them and Jo’s dad, Ian.

I said sure, as long as my mom could judge, too (my parents are friends with Jo’s parents, even though they didn’t actually become friends until after we graduated from high school). My mom, in turn, invited everyone up to the house in Connecticut.

The bolognese cookoff quickly became a mini-event. Jo’s husband Erik and I are both amateur bartenders and decided to each make an Italian-themed cocktail for the event. I also made dessert, and my mother made homemade pasta dough, which Jo’s dad, Ian, turned into delicious homemade noodles.

Sadly, Amy was sick and couldn’t make it, even though she was the only one encouraging smack talk via email. But she did send her sauce along to try.

Ian won the cookoff, but of course his sauce is the only one I didn’t take pictures of actually on the noodles.

First come cocktails, then come pics.

1) Erik’s Artichoke-Cherry Punch

This is totally my first ever guest cocktail! Erik uses slightly different measurements than I do so I am keeping his drink according to his own recipe:

Ingredients for 1 cocktail:
1 wedge blood orange or regular orange for garnish
2/3 jigger Cynar
1/2 jigger Maraschino
1/4 jigger Grappa
5-6 oz unsweetened fresh lemonade
ice

Instructions:
Mix Cynar, Maraschino, & Grappa in highball glass over ice
Add lemonade
Add orange wedge

Erik is also looking for suggestions for a better name than “Artichoke-Cherry Punch” if you have one you would like to recommend.

2) Hibiscus Negroni

Ingredients for 2 cocktails:
4 oz gin (I used Bombay Sapphire)
2 oz red vermouth (I used Punt E Mes)
2 oz Campari
2 oz hibiscus syrup*
2 canned hibiscus blossoms
2 slices of orange

Instructions
Mix all ingredients but hibiscus blossoms in a pitcher over ice
Place hibiscus blossoms in the bottom of two chilled old fashioned glasses
Add liquor
Garnish with orange

Next, massive massive photos of delicious food! Click on the cut to see!

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

Man, it’s been a busy week with a dearth of updates. Not because there’s nothing to say, but because I’ve been doing so much stuff!

A few months ago, my old high school friends Jo and Amy (Yeah, I should have been named Meg or Beth) emailed me to ask if I wanted to judge a bolognese cookoff between the two of them and Jo’s dad, Ian.

I said sure, as long as my mom could judge, too (my parents are friends with Jo’s parents, even though they didn’t actually become friends until after we graduated from high school). My mom, in turn, invited everyone up to the house in Connecticut.

The bolognese cookoff quickly became a mini-event. Jo’s husband Erik and I are both amateur bartenders and decided to each make an Italian-themed cocktail for the event. I also made dessert, and my mother made homemade pasta dough, which Jo’s dad, Ian, turned into delicious homemade noodles.

Sadly, Amy was sick and couldn’t make it, even though she was the only one encouraging smack talk via email. But she did send her sauce along to try.

Ian won the cookoff, but of course his sauce is the only one I didn’t take pictures of actually on the noodles.

First come cocktails, then come pics.

1) Erik’s Artichoke-Cherry Punch

This is totally my first ever guest cocktail! Erik uses slightly different measurements than I do so I am keeping his drink according to his own recipe:

Ingredients for 1 cocktail:
1 wedge blood orange or regular orange for garnish
2/3 jigger Cynar
1/2 jigger Maraschino
1/4 jigger Grappa
5-6 oz unsweetened fresh lemonade
ice

Instructions:
Mix Cynar, Maraschino, & Grappa in highball glass over ice
Add lemonade
Add orange wedge

Erik is also looking for suggestions for a better name than “Artichoke-Cherry Punch” if you have one you would like to recommend.

2) Hibiscus Negroni

Ingredients for 2 cocktails:
4 oz gin (I used Bombay Sapphire)
2 oz red vermouth (I used Punt E Mes)
2 oz Campari
2 oz hibiscus syrup*
2 canned hibiscus blossoms
2 slices of orange

Instructions
Mix all ingredients but hibiscus blossoms in a pitcher over ice
Place hibiscus blossoms in the bottom of two chilled old fashioned glasses
Add liquor
Garnish with orange

Next, massive massive photos of delicious food! Click on the cut to see!

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.