cocktails | kimberly ah

Jul 01 2013

#30DOC Week 4

Thirty Days of Creativity is all wrapped up and I’m happy to say I finished, thanks to a little bit of help from July 1st. Even though I was behind pretty often throughout the month, I am convinced that I would have finished on time if we hadn’t been traveling (And if I hadn’t been so unorganized about getting ready to travel. My original intention was to bring some embroidery supplies to work on during the flight and during down time. I didn’t get my supplies together in time, and as it turns out, there was no down time and flying makes me feel too gross to craft on the plane.) I didn’t achieve my original goals of finishing more art projects for our home and stretching myself artistically. I mainly stuck in my comfort zone (mail art, cocktails…) But, I had fun creating…creating for no reason other than the mere enjoyment of it. Here’s a look at my last projects (including a bonus one!)

6/23 Vesper martinis, 6/24 letter set made with resist embossing & a tie-dye technique, 6/25 galaxy (for a future project), 6/26 artwork celebrating the end of DOMA (a joint project with Naoto who did the calligraphy), 6/27 patriotic mail art (completed on 7/1), 6/28 a perfectly packed bag (my packing skills deserve their own blog post) & a mini summer celebration in an envelope (completed on 7/1), 6/29 another patriotic mail art (completed on 7/1) and 6/30 a stack of Boston postcards!!

That’s everything, and one big thing crossed off of my Summer Manifesto. I’ll be back tomorrow to share more of a manifesto update before I talk about Boston. It’s such a beautiful day out today and I’m anxious to see how our garden is growing!!

Tagged cocktails, crafts, diy, mail art, rubber stamp, snail mail, summer, washi tape

Jun 25 2013

3 Comments

crafty adventures, snail mail, summer manifesto

#30DOC Week 3

This week was another “catch-up” week. It’s like I lost all steam. But the end is near, and it would be silly to quit now! I was tempted to count my new tomato as a “creation” but let’s be honest…it did that without much help from me. Besides, it’s bad enough that I’m counting cocktails!

From the top: 6/16 Letherbee gin & tonics (recommended by Kathy & Chicago-made), 6/17 popsicle themed mail (I stayed up super-late writing letters & had so much fun making these!), 6/18 more mail art, 6/19 birthday card (made at work), 6/20 pun card (made at work…I love a good pun), 6/21 another pun card (I’m not proud of these), 6/22 notecard

If I create something tonight (which I will), I will be all caught up. And, even though we are traveling over the weekend, I’m hoping to remain on track and finish strong.

Tagged cocktails, crafts, diy, mail art, snail mail, summer, washi tape

Jun 05 2013

4 Comments

celebrations, cocktails

Cocktail Perfected: The Blue Hawaii

Naoto & I had a signature cocktail at our wedding–the Blue Hawaii. We chose it because of its pool blue color (pool was our wedding color) and because of Naoto grew up in Hawaii and we shared a wonderful vacation there with his host family a few years before we were married. And, it might be sweeter than my cocktail tastes today, but the Blue Hawaii was right up my alley seven years ago. When I whipped up a batch for Naoto and I on our anniversary, it took us back to the beaches of Hawaii and the party that celebrated our marriage.

The Blue Hawaii has been around since 1957 and has several variations, but for our wedding, we chose this traditional recipe.

Blue Hawaii

3/4 oz light rum

3/4 oz vodka

1/2 oz blue curaçao

3 oz pineapple juice

1 oz sweet & sour (I made my own: 1 part lemon juice, 1 part simple syrup)

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass (or serve on the rocks, but for goodness sake, please don’t put it in a blender!) and garnish with fresh pineapple and an offensively red maraschino cherry. It would be better if you could include a little paper umbrella, too. Enjoy on your anniversary or on a sandy beach.

P.S. Thanks for the cocktail swords, Donovan!

Tagged celebrations, cocktails, wedding

May 20 2013

3 Comments

cocktails, gardening

Cocktail Perfected: The Goliath

Thanks to a timely tweet by North Shore Distillery, I think I’ve found the summer cocktail of 2013. The Goliath is served at The Tiny Lounge in Chicago (note to Naoto: I want to go here) and Refinery 29 shared the recipe last week. It was the perfect storm of ingredients for me, because I happened to have everything on hand Thursday night for a little impromptu happy hour on the balcony. It’s summer in a glass–lime, cucumber, herb-y Chartreuse and gin… so refreshing on a sunny afternoon! Naoto loves this cocktail, which is a little surprising since he hates Chartreuse (crazy!), and we are both excited to drink a few more of these this summer with our very own, community garden grown Japanese cucumbers!

The Goliath

2 oz gin (We used North Shore No. 6 because that’s what we have, but No. 11 is better!)

1 oz freshly squeezed lime juice

1/2 oz simple syrup

1/4 oz Green Chartreuse

5 slices of cucumber, + a few slices for garnish

Soda (optional…I liked it better without)

Add all ingredients (except the soda) to a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake vigorously to break up the cucumber. Strain into a glass with ice. Top with soda (we had it both ways, I prefer it without the soda) and garnish with cucumber. Enjoy on your balcony after you’ve tended to the garden.

Tagged cocktails, garden, gardening, summer

May 01 2013

4 Comments

cocktails

Cocktail Perfected: The Aviation

April showers bring May flowers…hopefully saying goodbye to a cold, rainy April means saying hello to a warm, bloom-filled May.

This cocktail might be my spring favorite…nothing whispers “hey warm weather” like gin, lemon, maraschino and violet. The creme de violette is one of many gifts from Naoto to my liquor cabinet while he was unable to consume alcohol. I swear, he made a hobby of buying everything on my cocktail-making wish list while he was sober for two months!

I really love the aviation for it’s sweet, tart and floral flavors. The creme de violette might be an acquired taste for some people, but it was instant love for me. It reminds me of those Chowards Violet Mints which remind me of something a grandma would eat. The delicate violet sweetness is kind of lovely and tastes like a sweet flower.

Aviation

2 oz gin (I used North Shore No. 6)

1/2 oz lemon juice (freshly squeezed!)

1/2 oz maraschino liqueur

1/4 oz creme de violette

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry. (I used an Unbound Maraschino Cherry…they were a birthday gift from Naoto and are so delicious they deserve their own blog post!) Enjoy during a garden party on a fresh spring day!

Tagged cocktails

Mar 25 2013

3 Comments

celebrations, cocktails, what's for dinner

Fondue Fun Night

On Saturday, Naoto and I hosted our first ever Fondue Fun Night. We had a fun time planning the party, checking out fondue recipes and dusting off the fondue pot–which was one of my first purchases when I got my own apartment. For some reason, fondue has always sounded like fun to me. The community, the bite sized food, the pretty forks, the cheese… We clearly need to break out the fondue pot more often because it was a great party.

We used a modified version of this recipe. We mixed everything up in our yellow pot, then transferred it to the fondue pot. Once we put the cheese mixture into the fondue pot, disaster struck. The flame under the pot went out and the fondue was just a big hunk of gloppy cheese. Thankfully, Karen & Naoto saved the day with some quick Googling, a little more wine and a little more fire…and once people started eating and stirring the pot, the cheese was just right.

We served apples, pears, broccoli, prosciutto, tiny potatoes, carrots, grape tomatoes, red and yellow peppers, zucchini and of course bites of bread for the fondue. Karen made deviled eggs and I made a grape salad and an orange pineapple Jell-O salad to keep with the 70s theme along with the Brandy Alexanders for dessert. There might have been a mini bourbon tasting in the middle of the party, too. Maybe…

It was a perfect not-a-birthday-party…friends, food and good fun!

P.S. I always wish I had taken more pictures…

Tagged celebrations, cocktails, food, home

Mar 04 2013

2 Comments

cocktails, homemaking

Cocktail Perfected: Brandy Alexander

Naoto has been spoiling me by filling our liquor cabinet with bottles of booze that have been on my wishlist for a long time. Last weekend it was Chartreuse, this weekend it was dark creme de cacao (among others which shall be shared soon). I’ve been talking about making a Brandy Alexander for a long time and this weekend I finally did.

Do you ever enjoy after-dinner drinks? When I was little, I remember my grandma ordering a Grasshopper after a family dinner at the Duck Inn. It was so green and pretty that I couldn’t wait to grow up and try one. When I was in my twenties, I ordered one at a restaurant and the bartender had to look it up in a book before he could make it…I had no idea it was so old-school! In spite of being a grasshopper-making novice, he managed to make a deliciously minty-rich cocktail.

On Saturday, after a quick trip to Michaels to pick out more frames for the rest of the artwork floating around here, I invited the neighbor ladies over to try a Brandy Alexander with me.

Brandy Alexander

1 1/2oz brandy

1oz dark creme de cacao

1oz half-and-half

1/4t nutmeg

In a shaker filled with ice, add brandy, creme de cacao and half-and-half. Shake until chilled and pour into cocktail glass. Garnish with nutmeg. Enjoy with your neighbors on a chilly winter night.

The Brandy Alexander was a hit, but we could only drink one–it’s rich and dessert-like…so Naoto opened up a bottle of wine and made up this fancy snack for us to enjoy. (Sorry for the weird angle of the cell phone picture!) The green cheese is a pesto gouda from Trader Joe’s–perfect for St. Patrick’s Day and so tasty!

This week, I am going to finish off the spare room and hopefully get the rest of the frames off of the floor. It’s supposed to snow six more inches tomorrow, so I have a good excuse to stay home and tackle my March to-do list. Maybe I’ll have some progress to share soon!

Tagged cocktails, food, homemaking, Trader Joe's

Feb 26 2013

4 Comments

cocktails

Cocktail Perfected: The Last Word

Chartreuse has been on my must-try list since last year when I started seeing it in so many classic cocktail recipes (cocktail recipe research has become a part of my bedtime reading routine). The problem is, a bottle of Chartreuse is big and pricey…we didn’t want to risk buying it and then hating it. And, the bars we frequent don’t serve such sophistication. But when we were at Fitzgerald’s, Naoto surprised me with a cocktail–The Last Word. It was a pretty shade of green, very herbal, tart and delicious…needless to say, I’ve been talking about making one at home ever since.

I figured Naoto would buy me a bottle of Chartreuse for my birthday, but instead he brought a bottle home on Sunday (along with Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur). He doesn’t like the taste of Chartreuse (crazy man!) so he encouraged me to mix one up for myself in spite of the fact that he cannot drink for awhile.

The Last Word is easy to remember…equal parts of four tasty ingredients, shake and pour…

The Last Word

3/4oz gin (I just used a basic gin, but I’m interested to try this out with one of our more juniper-y gins.)

3/4oz Chartreuse

3/4oz Maraschino Liqueur

3/4oz freshly squeezed lime juice

Fill cocktail shaker with ice, add ingredients, shake until your hand freezes off, strain into a cocktail glass and enjoy on a cold Monday night (while your husband drinks a cup of soup).

Tagged cocktails

Feb 17 2013

2 Comments

adventures, cocktails, Week of Indulgence

#WeekofIndulgence: Bluebird & Fitzgerald’s Club

On Wednesday night Naoto and I attended a little cocktail party at The Bluebird in Bucktown. We had a great time munching on mini sandwiches, drinking old fashioneds (mine is pictured above with my fawn clutch, a Valentine gift from long ago) and catching up with our realtor friend, Nancy.

Since the party ended at 7 and it is the Week of Indulgence we decided to hit FitzGerald’s on the way home to catch a little Jazz concert. FitzGerald’s is a little gem of a nightclub in our “neighborhood” that we don’t take advantage of often enough. On Wednesday nights in the Sidebar (a smaller bar to the side of the main club) they have acoustic jazz and serve classic cocktails.

It wasn’t overly crowded and the music was good and the drink was delicious. I had the 20th Century–gin, lillet blanc, creme de cacao and lemon. There are about a dozen more cocktails on the list that I want to try, so hopefully we’ll make it out again as soon as Naoto is feeling better (or sooner, because I have a built-in designated driver for the next eight weeks!)

Tagged adventures, cocktails, FitzGerald's nightclub, food, jazz

Jan 09 2013

3 Comments

adventures, cocktails

Cocktail Perfected: CAP

I was introduced to lychee liquor in a Chinese restaurant in Japan. It was served with sparkling grapefruit juice and it was really delicious. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so when we came home, it didn’t take us long to seek it out at the liquor store. We came home with a bottle of Soho Lychee Liquor and got to work experimenting with it in cocktails. If you’ve never had a lychee fruit, it is really unusual. It tastes kind of like a pear crossed with a grape and it looks kind of fleshy (for lack of a better explanation). They are not the most beautiful of fruits! You can buy them fresh, but I’ve never seen them anywhere around here. We buy our lychees in a can at Mitsuwa. Even if you don’t try the cocktail, I highly recommend the lychees!

We came up with the CAP* cocktail after experimenting with the lychee liquor and a variety of juices. Once we found what we thought was a good combination, we served it to our friends who found it super-drinkable (as in, they drank way too many!) and delicious. We’ve served it for both of our birthdays for the past two years and for other cocktail occasions.

*CAP is an acronym for a little joke in our home: Caucasian Asian Persuasion. (What can I say? We celebrate our inter-cultural marriage.)

CAP Cocktail

1 oz pomegranate juice

1 oz vodka

1 oz Soho lychee liquor

Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice. Pour in a martini glass and top off with a little bit of sparkling water. Drop in a lychee fruit for garnish.

I know this cocktail is a lot more “cosmo” and a lot less “old-fashioned” but trust me…it’s a nice little treat.

UPDATE: Last night, we replaced the vodka with gin (my favorite, Clearheart, which is slightly more flowery than a London dry gin) and ohmygoodness!!! So good! I can’t believe it took us so long to try this–now we need a name for the gin version! Any suggestions?

Tagged celebrations, cocktails