cocktails | kimberly ah

Jul 10 2012

mojito mint

Last week, my bookclub friend Peggy brought me some mojito mint from her garden. My mint is still painfully small, and the grocery store mint was pale and wilty, so this was a welcome treat for a summer drink. On Friday night, I decided to make myself a cocktail. We were out of rum, and I was anxious to try Broker’s gin, so I decided to whip up a gin mojito.

Gin Mojito (or Muddled Mint Gin Fizz)

10 mint leaves

4 lime wedges

1/2oz simple syrup

2oz gin

club soda

In your cocktail glass, muddle mint leaves and 1 lime wedge. Add the rest of the lime and continue to muddle until most of the juice is extracted from the limes. Add ice, simple syrup and gin. Stir. Top with club soda and stir again. Garnish with a lime wedge and mint leaf. I wish I could say I enjoyed this one on the balcony, but instead I was working on volunteer stuff. It was delicious though…I sometimes find it hard to mess with a classic, but in this drink, gin works!

***update: this drink is almost a Mint Gin Fizz, which has almost the same amounts of the ingredients, except you leave the mint leaves un-muddled…

Other than making mint & gin based cocktails, this is what I’ve been doing during the last few days of silence:

It’s time once again for another Honor Flight and my dining room has been transformed into the mail room again. Thanks to Peggy’s help, mail for 93 veterans is all packed up ready to go at 3:15 tomorrow morning! I’m going to try to get a good night’s sleep this time!

Jun 27 2012

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cocktails

happy hour

Yes, another post about a cocktail enjoyed our balcony on a summer evening. Sorry. I can only blog what I know.

It seems, on the nights Naoto comes home early, I can only think of making a refreshing cocktail and enjoying some good outdoor time with him. Last night we made The Royal Martini from the Leopold Bros website. It turns out, that their version of a Royal Martini is not the “real” Royal Martini, but we enjoyed it anyway.

1 1/4oz gin (We like Clearheart.)

3/4oz Michigan Tart Cherry Liqueur (Leopold Bros. I suppose you could use any cherry liqueur, but I’m sticking with what I know!)

Shake with ice until chilled and pour into a cocktail glass. Enjoy outside on a mild summer night, with cheese & crackers.

Jun 25 2012

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cocktails, gardening, summer manifesto, what's for dinner Aside

I have been making progress on some of the Summer Manifesto items–even if it IS only the easy ones!

* dine outside (whenever possible)

I have been eating my lunch outside almost every day, and when Naoto is home, we always eat dinner outside (pictured above is the somen we enjoyed for dinner last Thursday…please notice that I am the one using the chopsticks!)

*eat watermelon

We sliced open a watermelon last night. It wasn’t the sweetest, reddest, most delicious melon I’ve ever had, so I would like to revisit the watermelon again…I ate mine with fleur de sel because salt makes everything better. I think Naoto was channeling his inner produce manager in the picture below.

* raise mint & basil for drinks and dinners

My basil is flourishing but my mint is growing so, so slowly that I wonder if I ever will enjoy a mojito this summer. I replanted it on Saturday, so I’m hoping it takes off before winter.

* try 3 “classic” cocktails

I’ve perfected the Tom Collins at home and I think it just might be a new summer favorite. And on Saturday night, I tried a Negroni at a local Italian restaurant. It was bitter, but a little bit sweet and delicious, but not one that I loved so much that I want to perfect it at home right now.

* document summer & FINISH my summer minibook

I’m making slow progress on this. I hope to show the beginnings of my book this week!

The other stuff on the list are set for July & August, but I’ve already had a couple of failures on two manifesto items (sad face).

* tend to my garden daily (no dying plants in September!)

Although I have tended to my balcony garden almost daily, I am sad to report we’ve had a few plant casualties already. My daisy plant never grew or bloomed and it keeled over this weekend, my cilantro missed a few waterings and couldn’t be revived and one of my geraniums got too much rain (a while ago, back when it actually rained) and never recovered. It’s stem was black, it’s leaves were yellow and brown and it had to be removed this weekend. My balloon flower might be the next to go. But everything else is looking green and bright and healthy…the 2011 geraniums I had inside all winter are even back to their dark green and blooming selves. I think next year, I might go 100% geranium. Chin up, green thumb.

* wear sunscreen & sunhats when I’m outside

I am super-good about wearing my sunhat, especially in the morning when I don’t want to comb my hair. But, I slacked on the sunscreen, both in Iowa and while dining al fresco, and I paid for it. I bought some sunscreen last week and have vowed to be more proactive. And, I have a pretty new wide-brimmed sunhat that I’m excited to wear.

So, that’s the state of my summer so far. Right now, I’m heading outside to enjoy the gorgeous weather and read a bit (wearing a hat & sunscreen, of course!)

summer manifesto, in progress

Jun 23 2012

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cocktails

cocktail perfected: Tom Collins

I had my first Tom Collins earlier this month during our trip to Dubuque. I couldn’t stop thinking about the gin-ny, tart deliciousness. So, for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been experimenting with making my own at home. It got Naoto’s happy hour approval on Thursday night when we had cocktails on the balcony after work. We used our new Iowa gin, Clearheart, and I highly recommend it. It beat my previous Tanqueray attempts by a long shot…and it’s only $18 a bottle…a good price for a small distillery. (I just looked at Clearheart’s website–it’s only available in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska right now. I’m sad for you readers in the other 46 states & beyond…)

The perfect Tom Collins:

2oz gin

2oz freshly squeezed lemon juice (none of that bottled stuff)

1 oz simple syrup

2 oz club soda

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, add the gin, lemon juice & simple syrup. Shake until chilled. Pour over ice in a Collins glass (or, because we don’t have Collins glasses, a rocks glass), add club soda and garnish with an orange slice and maraschino cherry.

Enjoy outside (or at a supper club).

May 02 2012

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cocktails, what's for dinner

cinco de mayo…early

When I decided to make these simple tacos for dinner tonight, it didn’t occur to me that we are creeping up on Cinco de Mayo…I mean, I still think it’s the beginning of April, for goodness sakes.

The recipe is from an old episode of Everyday Food-the PBS Martha Stewart show that is like a thirty minute taste of the magazine.

SIMPLE CHICKEN TACOS

Shredded chicken (I just baked up 2 chicken breasts the only way I know how–in foil packets to keep in the moisture, 400 degree oven for 30 minutes-ish, or until my meat thermometer says 165 degrees.)

Diced sweet onion

Cilantro

Sliced avocado

Tomatoes (not in the original recipe, but they add a bit of sweetness)

Limes, for squeezing on at the end

Corn tortillas, charred on the gas burner (mmm…the blackened goodness!)

Chop everything up while the chicken is baking (except the avocado…do that right before serving), char your tortilla, pile everything on, squeeze the lime, add a sprinkle of salt and you’ve got dinner. It was so easy that I had time to make a fresh margarita. See those glasses with the cactus stems? I’ve had those since I turned 21 and this might be the first time I’ve used them in a decade…when I got them out of the liquor cabinet, I noticed they still had paint chips from my old white built-ins on the bottoms of them…needless to say, they got a good wash before this use AND based on Naoto’s reaction, they will be used again soon for another margarita night.

EASY MARGARITAS

2 parts tequila

2 parts triple sec

1 part fresh lime juice

Shake (with ice) and pour over ice in a salt-rimmed margarita glass. While delicious, I think the recipe could use more lime…

I like dinners like these, with little room for failure. With my cooking skills, these go-to recipes come in handy.