Just a couple of cocktails to take you through the weekend. Enjoy!!
Garrick Club Punch by David Wondrich
- 4 Lemons
- .5 cup Superfine sugar
- 1 cup Fresh lemon juice, strained
- 1 (750-mL) bottle Gin*
- 4 oz Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur or Grand Marnier
- 24 oz Seltzer water or club soda, chilled
Glass: Punch or highball
Preparation
Peel the lemons with a vegetable peeler, avoiding the white pith. Muddle the peels with the sugar in a 3-quart pitcher or punch bowl and let stand for 30 minutes. Add the lemon juice and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Add the gin and Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur or Grand Marnier, and stir. Fill the pitcher or bowl halfway with ice and add the seltzer or club soda. Stir again and serve in individual punch or highball glasses.
Lennart by Mr. Mixologist
- 1.5 oz Xante
- 0.5 oz Fresh squeezed lime juice
- Sprite or 7 Up
Glass: Highball
Preparation
Pour the Xante and lime juice into the highball glass filled with ice. Top with Sprite and garnish with a lime wedge.
24th August 2012
Just a couple of pics from my night out with my family in Chicago. My cousins, BFF and I went to a jazz club downtown. The band, affectionately know by us as The Craigslist Band, was quite good. Even if the drummer looked like L’il Darryl. Think Rickey Smiley…
I ordered a Lemon Drop martini. Vodka, Triple Sec, Lemon Juice. Sugar on the rim, garnish with a lemon wedge. Sweet and a bit sour, Easy-Peasy.
Restaurant Week
You have to love getting a bargain. When that bargain is food or drinks…I’m such a happy camper! That’s why I always partake in DC Restaurant Week, RW for short. RW occurs twice a year and restaurant around DC offer a 3-course prix fixe meal, $20.12 for lunch and $35.12 for dinner. I’ve found some amazing restaurants this way. Places that are normally super expensive are now affordable, I try them, I like them, I go back later and have no problem paying full price. This year I met my girl and colleague Karima for lunch at The Hamilton. She is so amazing!!! Every time we get together, I leave so inspired and on fire!! Hype!! LOL!! But anyway. I ordered the lobster bisque to start, crab cake with creamed corn for my entree, and peach pie with ice cream & blueberry bourbon sauce. And even though it was lunch and I had to get back to my day job, I wouldn’t be Girl Meets Glass if I didn’t order something ;-) I had the Albarino. It’s creaminess and stone fruit flavors were perfect with the crab cake. I love its fruit-sweet, not sugar-sweet flavor. I’m telling you Albarino is so underrated. All in all, a great lunch. Because it tasted delicious…yeah, but more importantly, because I needed a nap after!!
Pouring wine for the Young Winos of DC at Bell’s Wine & Spirits last night. I picked out a few of my faves for the summer.
Picpoul de Pinet (Coteaux du Languedoc)
~ serve extra chilled, crisp and refreshing with lime and pink grapefruit on the palate
Chateau Montaud (Provence)
~ flavors tart berry fruit and maybe a little sour cherry. Perfect for picnic and patio sipping
Villafane Torrontes (Argentina)
~ one of my fav wines, so unknown by most. Great replacement for those that want to venture beyond Riesling. Extremely aromatic with a nose of honeysuckle, jasmine and peach. Full-bodied with tropical fruit flavors
Kung-fu Girl Riesling (WA State)
~ for the Riesling lover in all of us. Same fruit flavors but not the sugar-sweetness you’d expect
I like manly men. I like broad shoulders, strong backs, biceps… Sorry, this is a drinking blog and I was distracted. But anyway! I like for a man to be a man. This includes what’s in his glass. And yes there is a double standard here, because I (a girl) can drink whatever I want. But a man at the bar sipping any colorful beverage through a straw with any type of fruit floating on the top, he won’t get my real name. Of course there are exceptions. Like if he is actually on a beach with his feet in some sand, he sure can sip that colorful daiquiri or mai tai. But that guy that ordered the Strawberry Daiquiri at Red Lobster AND dipped the strawberries in the drink to eat them - one and done.
The guy that orders The Macallan 15yr neat and sips slowly while watching the game…I like him. The dude that let’s me pour him Armagnac or Dewar’s and soda, I’m a huge fan. A French Connection, that’s cool too. I think it’s sexy when a man drinks like a man.
Notes: 3
As I sat at work, I started planning out my evening. I had clothes to wash, dishes to put away, blog posts to write, and I still had my suitcase out from last week! My phone buzzed, free rental code for the RedBox!! In my head, I kinda drew a line through everything on that list and started thinking about what movie I wanted to rent. I actually did end up mopping the entire apartment, putting a load in the washer and putting away my suitcase. I think I deserve a Monday Movie.
I would’ve loved to title this post Movie & a Merlot…but I didn’t have any Merlot. Movie & a Malbec…way too hot for the French Malbec I had in the cellar. Went with a blind pick, and that pick happened to be the 2010 Lucky Star Pinot Noir.
I like my reds slightly chilled, so I put the Pinot in the fridge for about 15 mins while I loaded the washer and put away the dishes. Multi-tasking!!
This particular Pinot Noir is 100% from California grapes but is 90% Pinot and 10% Zinfandel. According to the winemaker’s notes, the grapes were Kept as whole berries and destemmed/cold-soaked instead of being crushed. This technique enhances the ripe, rich berry fruit flavors in the wine. While it was fermented on the skins for 5-7 days, they took care to not extract some of the rough tannins that can occur with red grapes.
More importantly, did I like it? Yes!! It had the nice, smooth berry flavors typical of Pinot Noir. But then you got a little spice on the end…the Zin. Very light and smooth, this wine is def best served with a slight chill and it also pairs well with chicken or fish (Pinot and Salmon are one of my fav food combos). I paired it with a cheese plate. Even though I’m back from France, I’ve still kept some of the habits. Cheese plates, Pain au Chocolat, Merci!
Oh the movie! I rented Gone with Amanda Seyfried. Not bad, it was suspenseful and I didn’t predict the ending. That’s a win in my book. And it was free, so no complaints from me at all!!
Awesome happens when you least expect it. I’m on twitter all day, not always chatting, sometimes just being a voyeur. I saw a tweet from @TheLiquidMuse AKA Natalie Bovis who was in town and was planning an impromptu meet-and-greet/book signing at The Passenger that night. I went back and forth with should I go, should I not. The drinks are good, I don’t need to spend any more money…blah blah. The Passenger may be a 6 min drive from my job so I talked myself into it. And The Passenger has really really good drinks!!
I get there and order something amazing and head to the back where the signing would take place. I’m the 1st and only one here. True confession - I’m a bit on the shy side. I’m saying this to say that now, since it’s just me and her, I have to say something…but WHAT?? Natalie is so amazing, she just talked away. And had me cracking up. Her current book Edible Cocktails is about everything I’m into right now. Making your own syrups, infusions and incorporating fresh fruits and herbs into drinks. A little bit about The Liquid Muse:
- She’s been in the hospitality industry since age 14 and finally decided to start a cocktail blog, had to do something with all that knowledge in her head.
- 1st book Preggatinis
- 2nd book The Bubbly Bride
- This book, Edible Cocktails. She signed mine by the way :-P
- Has her own small garden in Santa Fe
- Lived in Spain for a year
- Brand Ambassador for Fre of Sutter Home, featured their cocktails in her 1st book
- Writes for the consumer
- Gets behind the bar in her spare time, trains younger bartenders loves to interact with the patrons.
Did I also mention that she is my BFF in my head?? And to further this point, I saw her at Tales of the Cocktail and she remembered me and we took camera phone pics at Whiskey Blue. How cool is that?!
I’ve made several cocktails, syrups, infusions from this book so far. My favs have to be the Summer Sangria, Ice Wine Martini, Shiraz Negroni and the Pineapple Syrup. I plan to feature some of the recipes in my blog in the coming weeks. I’ll probably end up making quite a few of the cocktails, especially since there is so much fresh fruit available in the summer.
Clearly you need this book in your life!! Purchase yours on Amazon ASAP!!
