Cucumber Vodka Gimlet

The vodka gimlet is my drink. Has been for years. And it doesn't even have to be fancy. Vodka and Rose's Lime Juice on the rocks is perfect, especially when made for me by my husband Jeff. But so much sugar. As for fancy ones, my favorite is the Market Gimlet, made with cucumber vodka, at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Cucumber in cocktails = so refreshing.

Anyhow, I recently decided it was time to make a less sugary vodka gimlet inspired by the cocktail I used to have while on biz trips to the West Coast. I opted to do this on a Tuesday afternoon. And why not? That's the beauty of working from home and being the boss.

XOXO,
Amy

Cucumber Vodka Gimlet
(Makes two gimlets)
6 ounces vodka
8 slices seedless cucumber (or regular cucumber with seed section removed)
1 ounce fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons sugar (granulated or powdered)

Muddle the cucumber with the sugar in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. (I used the handle of a wooden spoon.) Add the rest of the ingredients and half a cup of ice. Shake vigorously and strain into two glasses. Garnish with slices of cucumber or a lime wedges.

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Skip and Go Naked on Independence Day

As I write this post, I'm about to head to my home state -- Ohio -- to spend the Fourth of July with my family. There's a chance we will celebrate with our favorite summer drink, the Skip and Go Naked -- talk about Independence (Day)! The Skippy is the perfect way to beat the heat. No fancy ingredients required. Check it out.

XOXO, Amy

Pomegranate Wine Spritz

Friday ended a loooooong week at work (but aren't they all?) and marked the end of summer as the kids head back to school today. To honor these events, on Friday evening, I made happy-hour-in-the-'hood drinks for me and my neighbor Judith. I guess you could say I was inspired by Andrea's Watermelon Raspberry Rum Punch.

Cheers, y'all!

XOXO,
Amy

Pomegranate Wine Spritz

POM Wonderful juice
Vodka
Sparkling white wine, chilled

Add one ounce of POM to each Champagne flute, followed by one ounce of vodka that you pulled from your freezer. (Tell me you DO store the vodka in the freezer.) Fill flutes the rest of the way with sparkling white wine. Stir gently; I used a chopstick.

If desired, pour some POM (just POM) in a shot glass for your 6YO so she can enjoy an end-of-summer "cocktail," too.

Skippy (aka Skip and Go Naked)

I love when I get to hang out with my Ohio family. We play cards, usually euchre, gin and knock poker, while drinking Skippies. The Skippy is short for Skip and Go Naked. But I can assure you that we are fully clothed -- if not fully sober -- while partaking.

And it turns out we are not alone. Just Google "Skip and Go Naked" and you will find plenty of recipes, some called "Hop, Skip and Go Naked."

Also, ask your friends if they have heard of this frozen limeade/beer/vodka concoction. Andrea and Erin have pals in Illinois and Wisconsin respectively who refer to this drink as the Strip and Go Naked. If I had to guess, I would say all this nakedness has to do with the Skippy being the perfect drink in the heat of summer. (Hello, it's approaching 100 degrees in Charlotte as I write this!)

The traditional Skippy -- at least in my family -- is made of limeade, beer, and vodka. However, I do like the Skippy with cranberry, beer and vodka. If you are looking for a poor man's margarita, make a limeade, beer and tequila Skippy.

About the beer: think cheap, canned, all American beer. Absolutely do NOT waste your craft brews on the Skippy.

XOXO,
Amy

Skippy (aka Skip and Go Naked)

6 oz. frozen limeade (or pink lemonade or cranberry)
6 oz. cheap beer
6 oz. vodka (or tequila)
Ice (amount varies by taste)

Blend together equal parts of limeade, beer, and booze along with the right amount of ice for you and your fellow Skippy drinkers. How slushy do you like your Skippy? How strong? Only you know the answer. Experiment -- that should turn out well!

Ideally, you can find a 6 ounce can of limeade concentrate, but they are hard to find. That's what works best; you dump the entire thing into the blender and then fill the empty can up with beer and toss that in the blender, and repeat with the booze of your choice. Most standard home blenders will accommodate 6 ounces -- max! -- of each of the main ingredients (limeade, beer, and booze), allowing plenty of room for ice. The Vitamix might be roomy enough for a bigger batch; I'll have to try that.

Another thing to try: One of Andrea's friends makes her Skippies over ice and to cut down on the limeade -- which has a ton of sugar -- she uses some lime-flavored La Croix sparkling water.



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Mint Julep

Happy Derby Week, y'all! It's that time of year when I always miss my Old Kentucky Home. It's also that time of year when I wish I liked the mint julep, the traditional drink that honors the fastest two minutes in sports. This former Kentuckian likes mint, likes bourbon. But the combo has always been...meh. The hubby, who I met and married in Lexington, KY, has always agreed. Until now and I will get to that.

As Kentucky journalists, Jeff and I worked a few Derby Days and at the end would "reward" ourselves with a sickly sweet julep at Churchill Downs. Flash forward 15ish years and I finally decided to make the julep myself.

Y'all I love this julep. Maybe that's because I added in a few basil leaves. Maybe it's just because I made one expressly for me and hubby rather than consuming one made en masse at Churchill. I am sharing this with you just in time for you to hit the liquor store and make your own juleps to sip during Saturday's big race. Hurry -- those ponies aren't going to wait on you!

XOXO,
Amy

PS: Jeff said "this is the best mint julep I have ever had."

Mint Julep
Adapted from thebar.com
Makes 12 cocktails

15 ounces bourbon
30 mint leaves, plus extra mint for garnish
6 (or more) basil leaves
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Ice

Wash mint and basil leaves, pat dry and place in a small bowl.

Cover leaves with 3 ounces of bourbon and let soak for 15 minutes.

Remove mint and basil leaves from bourbon and place in cotton cloth. Wring leaves over the bowl with the bourbon. Dip the cloth back into the bourbon and repeat a couple times. Really bruise the leaves. This is your mint extract.

For a mintier extract, put the bruised leaves into the bourbon; otherwise, leave as is. Set extract aside.

Now make your simple syrup. Bring one cup of water to a boil and stir in one cup of sugar. As soon as sugar dissolves, remove from heat and let sit -- covered -- for one hour.

Combine mint extract and simple syrup in a glass jar or container. Seal the jar and refrigerate overnight. BTW, if you kept the mint leaves in your mint extract, you will want to strain them when combining with the simple syrup or before mixing your julep.

Fill rocks glasses with ice and one ounce of bourbon. Add marinated julep mixture to taste -- more if you want a sweeter julep and less if you don't. Garnish with sprig of mint. Enjoy!

Superfruit Smoothie

I just shoveled. The tip of my nose is still burning from the cold and my ears are tingly. The smell of damp mittens is lingering in the air. An errant bit of snow is melting in my sock.

Yet I want a smoothie. An ice cold, refreshing smoothie.

On a recent trip to the mall (to pick up some new contacts for the husband and get free samples at See's Candy), I swung by Panera for a Superfruit Smoothie. According to the nice lady behind the counter, it contained Greek yogurt and berries. I slurped that Superfruit Smoothie down like it was my job. It was dang good!

But since I don't get to the mall every day, I had to figure out how to make one at home. Just for cold, snowy days like this. So I can sit on my couch in my plaid PJ pants and striped socks and really enjoy it.

Superfuit Smoothie
Serves one very thirsty gal

6 ounces blueberry Greek yogurt (about 3/4 cup)
8 frozen strawberries (about 1 cup)
5 ice cubes
Splash of juice (I used about 1/8 cup of cranberry apple juice.)

Toss all of the ingredients in the blender and blend until very well combined. If you're having a hard time getting your blender going, you might need to add a bit more juice.

Iced Tea

I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day. Mine was particularly celebratory because I bid adieu to my twenties and turned the big 3-0. Yes, that's right...I'm thirty. 

I always thought that my thirtieth birthday would be traumatic and terrifying. But you know what's a million times scarier than turning thirty? Having a baby. Guess what I'm gonna do in, oh, a week. Have a baby. So the big birthday was nothin'. 

My fantastic husband hosted an end-of-summer/Labor Day/birthday/don't-have-a-baby-yet barbecue in our backyard in celebration of my special day. It was great. He planned everything so I could just enjoy myself. He even decorated with signs and balloons and a horse-shaped pinata.

Did I mention that I have the best husband ever? Yeah, I do.

Anyway, the husband ordered ribs and smoked pulled chicken sandwiches from my favorite BBQ restaurant. He bought my favorite cheesecake for dessert. But we were stumped when it came to a special birthday beverages for me. I'm off the hard stuff, so I let my friends enjoy the booze. Pop makes me too burpy, and no one wants that. So I decided to make iced tea. 

Lightly sweetened and refreshing, this iced tea was just what the birthday girl needed. 

Iced Tea

Adapted from Eating Well

12 tea bags (Use your favorite black tea. For decaf tea, I like Typhoo.)

4 cups boiling water

1/4 cup sugar

4-6 cups cold water

Lemon wedges, for serving

Steep tea in boiling water for 3-5 minutes. 

Remove the tea bags and pour tea into a large pitcher. Stir in sugar until it dissolves. Add 4 cups cold water and taste the tea to see if it's diluted enough. Add the extra 2 cups of water if necessary. (In case you were wondering, I steeped my tea for the full 5 minutes and used all 6 cups of water.) 

Refrigerate the iced tea until it's totally chilled, about 2 hours. Serve with lemon wedges.    

Berry Smoothie

It's the end of January. It's cold. It gets dark early. It's really cold.

I could sure use a little taste of summer.

Berry Smoothie
Serves: 1

10 frozen strawberries
15 blackberries
6 ounces Greek yogurt (I used honey flavored yogurt.)
1/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon honey, or more/less to taste

Combine all ingredients in a blender.

Let 'er rip until everything is combined. If you're having trouble blending the smoothie, try adding a bit more liquid.

For Rent by Lady of the House

I've been watching too many food-related documentaries lately. You know, the scary ones that tell of land shortage, soil depletion, genetically modified crops and a slew of other gruesome details that leave you hungry and confused on the sofa? The over-arching theme of each film I've seen is that Americans are eating less actual food than ever, and we're paying for it. So, I've decided to make some necessary changes, slowly. (More on that in posts to come.)

My first endeavor was, I realized, an expensive one. After watching Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, I just had to have a juicer. And then in my search, of course, I just had to have the exclusive version Williams Sonoma and Breville just introduced. Well, that's not happening at close to $400!

And then I did a strange thing...I typed in "juicer for rent SF" and, in the way I stumble upon most of what I do online, there before my very eyes was my juicer, and a wonderful new website to share with you: Rentalic.com

You guys, this is too much fun. You just type in what you're looking for and your zip code, and if it's out there, you can contact the owner. Punch bowl? Huge table for Thanksgiving? Baby toys for your visiting nephew? You name it. And if it isn't showing up, you send a request and people will contact you if they can help. Hey, and while you're perusing other people's stuff, don't forget to post your own. Yes, you could be making money on that trampoline you used to jump on in the 80's!

I'm picking up my juicer tomorrow for a cool $6 a week. I'll be toasting Rentalic and my health, okay and soil depletion! Cheers!

xoxo

{ Lady of the House }

May I offer you something to drink?

Liquid courage. Social lubricant. Nectar of the gods. Whatever you call it, you'd better have plenty of the stuff on hand in the coming months. Nothing seems to strike fear in the party planner quite like booze. Now we all have our reasons for fretting over the issue, but the fact of the matter is we bring far too much anxiety to the wine aisle.

This year, skip the half hour trudge through every label that catches your eye, and pack my list of crowd pleasing bottles. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm willing to bet you and your guests will enjoy the following...

Big Fat Cabs

St. Francis 2006

Rodney Strong 2006

Versatile Syrahs

Qupe 2007

Runquist 2008 (May be a bit harder to find, so order online. This is the one to bring to dinner if you're a guest.)

An Amazing Pinot Noir

Calera 2007

Whites

La Crema 2008 Chardonnay

J. Lohr 2009 Riesling

Bubbles

Skip champagne and go for Prosecco. It's a bit more dry and always makes for a festive toast to any occasion.

Il Prosecco

Go ahead a fill your cart with 6 or 7 bottles, and I'm sure you'll bump into your first grade teacher, your dentist, AND your pilates instructor at the checkout. Hey, it's a good opportunity to invite them over!

xoxo

Lady of the House

Spiked Cider

I recently attended a festive fall fete at my friend Ryan and Niki's house.  Niki had a grand idea to spice things up with some Spiked Cider.  It's fall, and we need to stay warm somehow, right?

After a little digging on the interweb, I came up with the recipe below.  You start whipping this up on weeknights, and you're gonna have a problem on your hands.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

Spiked Cider
Adapted from epicurious.com
Serves: 15

2 oranges
6 cinnamon sticks
25 allspice berries
25 whole cloves
1 gallon apple cider
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup dark rum
1 1/4 cup applejack

Using a vegetable peeler, remove the peel from the orange in strips.  When you're peeling your orange, try to remove only the orange part of the peel.  The white part (a.k.a. the pith) can be bitter.  Cut a piece of cheesecloth (about a 12" square) to create a little bundle for your mulling spices*.  Onto the cheesecloth square, pile the orange peel, cinnamon sticks, allspice berries, and cloves.  Tie your cheesecloth bundle closed using kitchen twine or another thin piece of cheesecloth.  

Pour the apple cider into a large saucepan or crockpot.  Stir in the brown sugar and butter.  Add the cheesecloth packet of spices.  Turn on the heat, medium for a saucepan or low for your crockpot, and let the mixture simmer until you're ready to drink it, at least 15 minutes if you're using a saucepan or 1 hour in your crockpot.  You want the cider to be warmed through and infused with the spices.  

When you're ready to drink the cider, remove the spice packet.  Stir in the rum and applejack just before serving.  Garnish with a cinnamon stick if you're feeling extra fancy.  

*If you don't have cheesecloth, don't dispair!  Simply dump the orange peel and the spices right into the cider with the brown sugar.  When you're ready to drink it, strain the cider before adding the booze.