Showing posts with label Cocktails. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cocktails. Show all posts

Monday, July 26, 2010

Big fat dinner vs. lean and modern

Further to my waxing endlessly on my love of Greek food...

In 2008, one of the chef's in the Blushing Hostess stable of dream chef's, Michael Psilakis, created a menu for a modern green dinner party for Bon Appetit which, according to my research, is accurate in flavor but light on the actual meal, which should involve, perhaps, three or four tons more food than the Chef called for. Obviously, this is geared to the American audience of the magazine but, I am hopeful that including a lot more food here would make it perhaps more authentic and the kind of meal that begins at 2 pm and ends at 2 am. Because, those are my absolute favorite. I fear this might be the sort that begins and 5 and ends at 8.

The Modern Greek Dinner Party
Chef Michael Psilakis, for Bon Appetit



Smoked Salmon Tarama with Pita Chips
Dried Fig Slouvaki
Scallops with Cauliflower, Dried Cherries, and Capers
Sun-dried Tomato and Garlic - Crusted Lamb Rack
Roasted Garbanzo Beans and Garlic with Swiss Chard
Spiced Fresh Orange and Honey Sorbet



This is relatively light for a Greek meal. Where is the table full of little bites? Meatballs? Cheese? Vegetables? Honey pastries? Puddings?

Comparatively, here is the menu provided for a dinner by another writer:


The Summer Buffet
Rosemary Barron

Mezethakia
Black Olives and Lentil salata
Beet Salad with Allspice
Cucumber Salad with Honey and Vinegar Sauce
Country Bread
Pita Bread
Moussakas
Potatoes in a clay pot
Islands Greens Salad
Nut Pastries with Fragrant Honey Syrup
Honey Cakes


Now, this second menu is more my style for authenticity as well as creating the feeling of a great feast in progress. But, choose your weapon.

Now then. To go with the small-bite (mezethes) portion of either menu, be sure to find a good bottle of ouzo, it is available in all broad-minded package stores these days. I like it cold, plunged into an ice bin in the freezer even. It takes a little of the edge off. The best ouzo's, and really the only ones Greek's will recommend, are from the island of Lesvos. Ouzo is anise-licorice in flavor, and like absinthe - which it stepped in to replace when absinthe was prohibited - it is often mixed with cold water and a couple of ice cubes which causes the drink to become milky white. Or as I say, drink it as cold as you can stand it and eat as much as you possibly can. If the day is 110 degrees in the shade in Greece, this will make ever so much more sense.



"The key to drinking ouzo is to eat snacks known as mezedes. These keep the effects of the alcohol from overwhelming you and enable you to sit and drink slowly for hours in a profoundly calm state of mind where all is beautiful and life is fine. In the villages where life is slow ouzo is partaken day or night."
- greekfood.com

Whether this dinner goes big-fat or lean-modern, if you are not serving dinner in your beflowered courtyard then the all-white suggestion here will help to best show off the colors of the food.



In a nod to the favorite patriotic color of Greece, you might consider a few winking blue delphinium tucked into the centerpieces.

A few thoughts for a long, ouzo drenched evening. Enjoy...

Photo credits: Bon Appetit, 1&2. marthastewart.com, 4.








Featured sponsor

my choice for boys bedding

Saturday, July 24, 2010

In from the garden



I found myself with a dozen limes this week. When I worked in Mexico, I was addicted to lime agua fresca. I have recreated something like it here. It was perfect to have in the fridge coming in from hours in the garden. Not to mention, easy on the eyes.

I grow several mint hybrids, among them pineapple mint, which I have used here. I also love this mint in a light vinegar sauce over grilled lamb, for muddling in mojito's, and for it's multi-color talent in garnishing desserts; worth planting if you can find it.

Blushing's Sparkling Lime Aqua Fresca
Serves 6

1 cup sugar
1 cup water - for simple/ sugar syrup
1 cup lime juice
3 to 4 cups sparkling water to dilute the limeade
Garnish: thinly sliced limes and pineapple pint

Make simple sugar syrup: Heat the sugar and water over medium heat in a small saucepan only until the sugar is dissolved completely.

While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 limes, enough for one cup of juice.

Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes.

Fill the glass with one third lime-ade mixture, top with sparkling water.

Serve with or without ice, sliced limes, and mint.



Featured sponsor

my choice for boys bedding


Friday, July 23, 2010

The Fizz Event at PX blue light


Today, a peek at a very special event I attended this week to support another fabulous Virginia winery, Thibaut Janisson, and their creamy, delicious sparkling wine, Fizz. The event was held in partnership with PX Blue Light, as close to a modern-day speakeasy I have found.

We are off to beautiful Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, just a hop from Washington, DC. This section of the city has always very much reminded me of my haunts off Charles Street in the flat of the hill in Boston. When in the nation's Capitol, do not miss a visit.



This is my fabulous boss (seriously, she is), Rachel Martin, EVP of Boxwood Winery, with Claude Thibaut, founding partner of Thibaut Janisson Chateau and winemaker of Virginia Fizz.



PX Blue Light's legendary mixologist, Todd Thrasher, worked with the concentration and speed of a master, carefully crafting each Virginia Fizz cocktail with care for the guests crowded into PX to sample his luxe cocktail creations.



Todd developed a varied cocktail menu focused on all the bright, hot colors of a sparkling Virginia summer to best show off Fizz as a great sparkling wine for cocktails.

PX Blue Light
Virginia Fizz Cocktail Menu

PX Champagne Cocktail
Cavalier cherries, house-made cherry bitters, Grand Manier, Bacardi 151, and Virginia Fizz sparkling wine

Tahitian Dream
hibiscus tea, vanilla, Liquor 43, Woodford Reserve bourbon, and Virginia Fizz sparkling wine

175 Degree Cocktail
Grapefruit skins, yellow cardamon, bay leaf, Patron Silver Tequila, and Virginia Fizz sparkling wine

Summertime
Yellow watermelon sorbet, verbena fizz, pickled watermelon rind juice, cardamon, and and Virginia Fizz sparkling wine







The details at work at PX create a the snug, clandestine feel of a luxe speakeasy
tucked away off a street corner. There is, in true speakeasy style, no sign out front, and only a blue light above the door to let you know you have arrived.

The wrought iron protected shelves in the wall, looking not unlike a sorcerer's workshop, encase Todd Thrasher's self-made bitters in a dozen flavors or more. This attention to detail, this seriousness of his craft, is what sets Thrasher aside from every other mixologist in Washington, DC.



There is something about a glowing surface and cocktails in a range of enticing colors that I cannot resist. Bottles of homemade cherry bitters wait their turn in the PX Virginia Fizz Cocktail on the bar. The sweet and salty preserved lemons will make their way into The Tahitian Dream Virginia Fizz Cocktail.


PX is nothing short of a cocktail historian's tribute to drinks gone by. Small touches make the room elegant and studied but not overwhelmed with antiquities. Here, an antique absinthe dispenser sits on a former window sill, set off by the low glow of candles twinkling against dark, polished wood. PX's three rooms are filled with these small thoughtful cocktail-driven considerations.





The juxtaposition of Todd Thrasher's beautifully conceived cocktail menu against PX's ocean of rich navy velvet and dark wood walls caught my eye.



The room was jammed with happy guests holding cocktails which were no less than promised: Magnificent to the eye, dancing on the palate, and full of a delicious Virginia sparkling wine now adored by the crowd for its ability to make a great cocktails: Virginia Fizz of Thibaut Janisson.







Featured sponsor

my choice for boys bedding

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Cremant Verveine: Start now for the weekend


Cremant D'Alsace is the white sparkling wine of the Alsace region of France in methode champenois (the traditional champagne method). As you probably know, unless a sparkler is made within Champagne, it cannot be called a champagne, even though it is, more or less, precisely the same thing. In the region of Alsace, that same animal goes by the name Cremant.

To get your mitts on a bottle, let's just say that in areas with out savvy, interested wine dealers and consumers, this bottle might be hard won, but worth the struggle. Exotic and under-appreciated but generally not expensive.

So, you have to beg, borrow, steal, perhaps cast aspersion on a mother or two, challenge the wine guy to a duel, and absolutely threaten to Yelp him if he does not capitulate and give you the goods by this very Friday. And then you need to pop home, throw the door open, and like a mad cocktail-making Alsatian, order up some Lemon Verbena tea. To do this, you could go here. Or here. Which is not unlike a local specialty market, if one happens to be handy to over charge you on organic stuff with attractive labels.

Now then.

You'll make that lemon verbena tea and be sure it is well steeped. You will want it to have the heady scent of a verbena leaf just plucked from the stem, so do extend your perky little nose over the steeping vat and determine whether it is up to snuff. When your verbena tea is completely cool, refrigerate it for a good long while until it is cold.

Fill half a champagne flute with the iced lemon verbena tea and top with Cremant D'Alsace. Now you've a Cremant Verveine. Garnish the platter with verbena leaves if you grow it, or lemon leaves. I don't mind the tiniest tip of lemon balm as a garnish as well.


Featured sponsor

Saturday, May 22, 2010

The Virginia Gent wedding tradition


A friend of mine was married here in Middleburg this past weekend. The week before, he said, "We're pretty much ready to go, we buried our bottle today, so there is not much left to do."

I cannot help but cherish the tradition of old Virginia families gathering together before a wedding to bury a bottle of Virginia Gent Bourbon in the garden for, "the hard times ahead."

I wished him the best; it is heartening to know that in a pinch, he has an old friend and a bit of his family's luck and love resting in the garden next to house.

And for all those not in Northern Virginia, it couldn't hurt...

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Hand of a Master: Governor of Tahiti's Punch



Occasionally, for drinks at summer parties, he may prepare a "Governor of Tahiti's Punch" - by inserting a bruised vanilla bean in a bottle of medium rum (Bacardi or Mount Gay) twenty-four hours in advance of the party. When guests arrive, the mysteriously flavored run is poured over crushed ice in champagne glasses and garnished with a slice of lime.

- Bloomingdale's Book of Entertaining, Ariane and Michael Batterberry, (Random House, 1976)

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Flor de Jamaica



Have you ever had a glass of garnet hued agua de jamaica? It is one stunning drink that is not to be missed! Clementina
- Reader comment on the tamarind post.


I had not, though I have had a well-dressed and unforgettable hibiscus margarita in New York, at one of Aaron Sanchez's places. So, I was game.

Flor de Jamaica is hibiscus flower, it comes dried as you can see, or canned in a syrup. In neither case is the flower visually appealing. As a dried flower specimen, they would be among the ugliest. But they are an exotic, inexpensive, exciting finished syrup to have around the bar when brought to a boil in sugar syrup, steeped, and strained, like tea.

I wanted the the Flor de Jamaica water, ginger ale, and champagne mixtures suggested by various sources to have a novel flavor never before encountered with cocktails around here. But in truth, it makes something not unlike grenadine, only more fresh and lively, and I would use it in exactly the same places. It is novel, to a point: Just not the point of newness on your tongue. But try it, it is a beautiful garnet tone and, unlike grenadine, twinkles magically in a pitcher. Finally, a great conversation starter...


Friday, February 26, 2010

Tamarindo: The Mexican School



In a former professional life, I spent a great deal of time in Central America. Largely not the Central America of luxe places like Cabo (for all the Mexican it isn't); lovely though, for sure.

Anyway.

It was my job to run around in the outlying areas negotiating for things that would constitute factories and workforces and for a time I hung about it some rather unsavory tribal areas of the Mexican states which were great (for the food) but also challenging (regarding personal safety). I tried to think of the former and pretend to have little knowledge of the latter.

Fast forward, supermarket: Anywhere, USA. The person behind me inevitably wants to know what I have and secondly what I am going to do with them: Garam masala. Coconut milk. What have you.

Yesterday, it was the tamarind pods. There were huge baskets of them in the store, fresh and beautiful. "Tamarind. For drinks." I answered.

"Wow." She said, "Like another language."

"Right." I said with a raised eyebrow, you know, because it is. Lordy.



Moving on. I use Rick Bayless's books on Mexican food because his cooking is the closest I have found to true Mexican (which has no relationship with your local Chili's, trust me on this) regional cooking. Much of the food is spicy and hot-flash inducing so, it is helpful and kind to roll out cooling drinks and cocktails.

Aguas frescas, as a drink class in Central America, were the precursor to sodas and remain the wealthier, better looking, more amusing cousin from out of town which sells itself in street stalls all over in its hometown. Essentially, they are drinks easily prepared in the traditional way by mashing fruit with a fork before mixing it with water and sugar. There is a long list of varieties, but the bigs are lime, melon, hibiscus flower, guava, and tamarind.

Refreshing, yes. But, more importantly, they make sense with the food the way red wine makes sense with smoked fresh mozzarella and sage in Tuscany. Somethings were made for one another: agua fresca tamarindo and the blazing Northern ancho chili dishes; and it does not matter if you are watching a snowstorm from a window in Middleburg, Va. Oreo = milk. And that, is just the way it is.

Agua fresca tamarindo and the accompanying cocktails take a couple of hours of inactivity depending on the freshness of the beans. Leave at least an hour, but better if it is two, for the beans to soak. Your patience will be rewarded. Once you have made the master recipe for the water, you can put it in the fridge and use it the next day, the cocktails below are loose, delicious additions to agua fresca tamarindo.

I suggest you make something spicy and authentic and find yourself a good blizzard in which to enjoy these as alternatives to margarita's (which cannot say for themselves that they are high in vitamin B and calcium like the tamarind fruit if you needed one more reason to start steeping exotic pods).

Agua fresca tamarindo

1 pound fresh tamarind pods
Sugar (about 1 cup)
Water to cover

*these ingredients may be reduced in proportion

Rinse tamarind pods. Bring 2 quarts water and the sugar to a boil in a medium pot and add pods. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until just tender and the water is brown, about 15 minutes. Mash the pods, seeds, and pulp gently with a fork. Allow to sit steeping for at least an hour, if not two.

Strain through a fine sieve, pressing hard on the tamarind to extract as much essence as possible, into a 3-quart pitcher.

Taste and adjust the sweetness to your taste but go easy, it should be tart and sweet all at once. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve and stir before pouring.
I prefer mine over ice with a lemon wedge.

Blushing's Virgin Tamarindo
for one cocktail

2 parts agua fresca tamarindo
1 part ginger ale
1 wedge of lemon

I don't stir or shake, but you know your rights; you can do what you want.

Blushing's Tamarindo
for one cocktail

2 parts agua fresca tamarindo
1 part dark rum
Splash ginger ale
Twist

Combine the agua fresca tamarindo, rum, and ginger ale in a cocktail shaker with two ice cubes. Shake quickly and pour into a rocks or martini glass and garnish with a twist.

Blushing's Dark and Stormy Tamarindo
for one cocktail

Lime wedge
2 parts agua fresca tamarindo
1 part dark rum
Splash ginger beer

In a double old fashioned glass, muddle the lime gently only to extract juice. Add a few ice cubes, the agua fresca tamarindo, dark rum, and ginger beer. Stir gently. Garnish with more lime if you wish.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Absolute Boston



This is the new black tea and elderflower infused Absolute vodka inspired by Boston. Proceeds will benefit the Charles River Foundation. It is as good reason as any to indulge curiosity if you have been party to the St. Germain craze.

"Everyone loves elderflower — you can’t turn around in a bar without getting hit by a bottle of St. Germain — but the addition of tea is what makes this vodka so intriguing. Yes, elderflower is strong at first sip, but the tea component comes along quickly after, and in fact starts to dominate the vodka within a few seconds. The finish offers a lightly bitter black tea character, which makes you rush back for another sip to get that sweet elderflower back onto your tongue."

- drinkhacker.com

I would love to hear the thoughts of those who have tried it while we try to locate a bottle here in the arctic tundra.

Monday, January 25, 2010

The Venice Spritz: Breakfast of Champions



Since Blushing is otherwise visiting Venice Lido today to recap the dramatic Chanel fashion show at the edge of the Adriatic, a cocktail in honor of Coco: The Venice Spritz.

Regularly consumed at all hours of the day by the natives, the Venice spritz is part of the Venetian lifestyle which takes some conditioning. I once met our import agent in my hotel lobby and he announced in a booming voice, "Let's go get something while we have a little bit of time!" Having been in Venice for a bit by then, I might have suspected it was not an Americano.

I was still trying to lift the haze from the night before when a vendor insisted we drink his homemade grappa. When I tasted the Spritz, which I assumed was some sort of morning juice cocktail, I was so surprised I struggled through laughter to swallow it.

"Eh?!" The agent said. "Like you say about your coffee! Jet fuel!"

6:30 am: Prosecco and Campari. Welcome to Venice.

Venice Spritz

A handful of Ice
2 fingers Prosecco
A splash of sparkling water
One finger Aperol, Campari, or Cynar
Garnish: Orange or lemon slice or peel and a green olive

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Champagne and Cream: Yes, you can

Continuing the sparkling adventures of New Year's lead-up's, now a visit with a cocktail hero of sorts: Champagne Flip. Like nog; but made of champagne.

Possibly you are thinking this is what comes of a tipsy host late in the evening when he stands above the bar, surveys the potential combinations with an imagined stomach of steel that will give way by morning, and begins an ill-fated chemical experiment.

I cannot speak to how this thing originated. It could very well be just as you suspect: The lovely remains of a spirited evening in a castle in post-revolutionary Champagne when someone should have called the carriage two hours before and carted 'ol Pierre home before he took to frothing egg whites.

Let's say it is; Far better than discovering it was developed in the corporate office of Korbel over a marketing meeting, eh? Yah, so let's cling to romance, you and I. And make a noggy-something out of champagne and canapes from truffles and this will be a wonderful, wonderful, if slightly unrealistic, new year.


Champagne Flip

There are many creamy champagne cocktail recipes that call for egg. This one is delightfully frothy and quite nice strained into a flute.

3/4 oz Brandy
2 - 3 dashes Cointreau
1/4 ounces cream
1/4 ounces sugar syrup
1 egg yolk
4 ounces sparkling wine
1 pinch nutmeg

Shake brandy, Cointreau, cream, sugar syrup and egg yolk over ice cubes in a Martini shaker. Strain into a champagne flute, and carefully fill with sparkling wine. Sprinkle with nutmeg.
(Follow FDA guidelines for avoiding salmonella in the use of raw eggs.)


Recipe: Avalon Wine, Photo courtesy: Taste Austraila

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

History in the Mixing: The Seelbach





It never hurts to turn back the clock when you can. Just a touch. What better time than New Years when we would break it full stop to hold off another year passing? This year we can raise a glass to the Seelbach, a four-star hotel on the National Historic Register located in Louisville, whose ownership was sold on December 21st, 2009 to a multi-national group of US and Chinese investors (I know, I know).

A quick tutorial on the Seelbach Cocktail follows. Anyone for quick trip to Louisville to grab a cocktail in the new year?

Possibly also some cheese? The Seelbach's Oak Room has been selected one of the ten best locations in the United States to eat cheese. Ranking among such culinary hitters as Charlie Trotters, Picholine, and Joel Robuchon, it has been hailed by Southern Foodways Alliance for its commitment to the exclusive purveyance of southern artisanal cheeses.




The Seelbach Cocktail
as tested by Blushing's one and only cocktail authorities at Cocktail Hacker
Seelbach Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky, and published in Vintage Cocktails and Spirits, 1917

Cocktail Hacker's orgin notes: "Named for, and created at, the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, KY the Seelbach Cocktail sounds like a seriously delicious libation. This drink is an old one, dating from 1917 and had been lost since before Prohibition. As noted in Vintage Cocktails and Spirits (of which there is a new version) this drink was rediscovered in 1995 by the hotel’s restaurant director and was set to be offered in the hotel with the ingredients remaining a secret. At the urging of the Regan’s the recipe was allowed to be printed in their 1997 book New Classic Cocktails."

1 oz Bourbon
1/2 oz Triple Sec
7 Dashes Angostura Bitters*
7 Dashes Peychaud's Bitters*
5 oz Champagne

1) Build in the order given in a champagne flute
2) Garnish with an orange twist



* Just be forewarned: I like champagne cocktails on the bitter side. You might reduce the bitters if you prefer less pucker, as it were.


And now, a quick pictorial review from the time period in which The Seelbach Cocktail was created and the modern circumstance; at a gallop, naturally.


Seelbach Hotel, ca. 1910 - 1917












"The 1907 addition to The Seelbach in Louisville, Kentucky, included a German rathskeller made of Rookwood Pottery created in nearby Cincinnati, Ohio, by workers hired from the Art Academy. Rookwood Pottery was founded by Maria Longworth Nichols (later Mrs. Bellamy Storer Jr.) in 1880.

According to "The Seelbach Hotel, A History of Louisville Tradition" by J. Theriot in August, 1988, "In making this expensive type of pottery, decorations were drawn by hand on the clay before firing, making the design part of the ware. After baking, various glazes were added in subsequent firings. The floors, columns and walls of the eighty-foot square room were made of the pottery. The ceiling is fine-tooled leather."

To complement the room, The Seelbach Realty Company's president, Charles C. Vogt, presented the hotel with a $10,000 gift, a Rookwood-faced clock. Such a collection of Rookwood was very rare and, today, The Rathskeller is one of only two surviving ensembles of this art form.

The Rathskeller (ratskellar, a German word meaning restaurant in the town-hall cellar) was built in Bavarian tradition. The Seelbach's Rathskeller menu offers this description: "As a matter of fact the Rathskeller in every essential, artistic detail, is a reproduction of the underground drinking and council hall of one of the famous castles on the Rhine."

The graceful arches supported by noble columns give a cathedral-like effect. The archway pillars are encircled with Rookwood pelican frescoes, a symbol of good luck, and the ceiling above the bar is covered with hand-painted 24K gold leaf leather detailing the signs of the zodiac.

The Rathskeller achieved immediate popularity. The July 1912 edition of Hotel Monthly describes it as having a "seating capacity from 300 to 400." Not only was it a beautiful nightspot, conveniently located for the after-theater crowds, but it was also one of the first air-conditioned rooms ever built. The Seelbachs vowed to keep the room at least 10 degrees cooler than the outside summer temperatures. To do so required 40 tons of steam-produced refrigeration every 24 hours.

When the hotel was sold to Abraham Liebling, one of the first improvements was for the managers to lease a corner of the first floor to Walgreen Drugs. The Seelbach welcomed this renovation. Since prohibition and the nationwide ban on alcohol sales, the first floor bar had closed and The Rathskeller was little more than an extension of a restaurant. With the drug store on the main floor, the restaurant simply found a home downstairs in the basement.

Several years later after prohibition ended, management moved the restaurant back up to the renovated first floor and closed The Rathskeller for extensive changes. In April 1934, it re-opened with a 56-foot bar staffed by six bartenders. With these renovations, the basement bar moved into a new era. Instead of simply providing a stopping place for late-night theater patrons, The Rathskeller would now offer its own musical and dramatic entertainment featuring local bands and occasional first-run theater.

When Walgreen's lease expired in 1941, management opted to open a new nightclub, tentatively called The Seelbach Café-Bar. The club took away from The Rathskeller and in 1945, when the Legionaries offered to rent the basement, including The Rathskeller, for a members-only club, the managers agreed.

Today, The Seelbach's most treasured heirloom, The Rathskeller, with its dramatic design, lighting, and hand-carved architectural details, is again operated by The Seelbach and is available for private events."


- Katz

Modern photos of the Rathskeller appear below.

* The estimated 4-ton marble bar was removed during The Prohibition.


Seelbach Hilton today











Tuesday, December 29, 2009

In the arsenal: French 75



I thought we would revisit one of my favorite cocktails for your New Year's celebration, the French 75.

"There are numerous stories about the origin of the ‘French 75’ cocktail which became famous in later years. The most popular legend surrounds the World War I Lieutenants who would carry cognac in their canteens to get them through the long days and cold nights in the trenches. Taking advantage of the local French Champagne which was abundant and accessible, the soldiers would use the spent French 75 shell casings laying about them as drinking vessels and eventually concocted a potent cognac and champagne mixture now known as the “French 75”; a cocktail with as much kick as its namesake canon."
- Culinary Adventures

French 75

Shake with cracked ice
1-1/2 ounces of dry gin
fresh juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp. powdered sugar

Pour into glass with ice cubes, fill with sparkling wine. Add a twist of lemon peel.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Clover Club



A magnificent cocktail in pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, courtesy of the kind gentlemen at Cocktail Hacker: Something to whet your whistle while you are keying your donations.

Clover Club
1 cocktail

2 oz Gin (Junipero)
1 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Raspberry Syrup
Egg White


Raspberry Syrup
(12 oz total)

1 1/2 cups Water
1 1/2 cups Sugar
2 tubs Raspberries

1) Rinse raspberries
2) Combine sugar and water in a pot
3) Heat on medium stirring until sugar is dissolved
4) Add raspberries, reduce heat to low
5) Simmer for 30 minutes stirring to break up raspberries
6) Cool and strain out seeds

All credits: Cocktail Hacker

Reminder: Enter the San Lori giveaway here.