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Oh, how I love the fact that I make internet friends who love cocktails, too! Meryl has mentioned Horse Feathers a couple of times on Instagram and on the blog, and I was curious to try it. The Gin Gin Mule opened my eyes to the deliciousness of ginger in cocktails, so when Meryl said the Horse Feather was the same, but with whiskey, I was eager for a cool night to try it out. We went out to dinner with our neighbor friends last week (We went to Skrine Chops, our favorite restaurant in our neighborhood.) and came back to our apartment for a cozy night of whiskey and ginger.

Horse Feather

2oz whiskey (We used Cedar Ridge, our favorite Iowa standard.)

4oz ginger beer (You can use ginger ale, but we all loved the spiciness of the ginger beer.)

2 dashes of bitters (Some recipes call for omitting the bitters when you use ginger beer, but again, we all thought the bitters added a little something.)

Pour everything over ice in a rocks glass and stir. Enjoy on a chilly fall night with friends.

I’m not a huge ginger fan, so I was skeptical about this drink when I saw the recipe in my favorite column in the Sunday Tribune. But Naoto loves ginger, so I wanted to make it for him (to make up for the fact that I rarely make dinner). It was really tasty! I thought the ginger beer would be too strong and overpowering, but it was nicely balanced by the gin and the lime and the hint of mint. Plus, say Gin Gin Mule out loud a couple times and try not to giggle!

Gin Gin Mule

1 1/2oz gin

1oz freshly squeezed lime juice

1oz simple syrup (I omitted this and just used a tiny bit of sugar in the mint muddling process)

1 1/2oz ginger beer (not ginger ale)

3 sprigs of mint (ours was fresh from Peggy’s garden!)

Muddle 2 sprigs of mint with the lime juice, simple syrup and gin. Add ice and the ginger beer and shake well. Pour into a cocktail glass with ice and garnish with a sprig of mint. Enjoy on the balcony on a summer evening (or while building a desk, which is how Naoto enjoyed his!)

I have been wanting to try another margarita recipe for awhile now, one that includes agave nectar (supposedly the secret ingredient of all excellent margaritas). So, Sunday afternoon we actually remembered the agave at Trader Joe’s and we decided margaritas would make a perfect rainy evening cocktail.

After a tiny bit of research, I found this super-informative Wall Street Journal article. We made the Classic Margarita (#3) and it was just about perfect!

Classic Margarita

2oz tequila

3/4oz freshly-squeezed lime juice

3/4oz orange liquor

1/4oz agave nectar

Shake all ingredients with ice and pour in a cocktail glass (or a cactus margarita glass) with (or without) a salted rim.

For me, the salt is what makes the drink. We enjoyed our margaritas on the rocks, but the article says that when the margarita is perfected, you can drink it without…I think we’ll have to up our quality on the tequila for that to be the case…but the ratio of ingredients was perfect to us…and the agave–I’m not sure what it adds but it adds something.

While some people might have enjoyed curling up with hot tea and watching this rain, we curled up with margaritas…it works for us.