Lemon-Berry-Basil Fizz

School's out and it's time for afternoon cocktails on the porch. We love strawberry and basil together - sweet, bright, fresh from the garden flavors that get a boost from a refreshing blast of lemon. This cocktail is porch-rocker perfection in a glass, right in the height of berry season. Feel free to improvise with other fresh berries!

Lemon-Berry-Basil Fizz

(makes one drink)

2 fresh strawberries, hulled

2 basil leaves, chopped

2 ounces Acqua di Cedro (lemon-infused grappa)

3 ounces club soda

Muddle strawberries and basil in a glass with ice. Add grappa and club soda. Give a quick stir and enjoy.

Spicy Curb A-Peel on Real Estate Resource Video on Demand

Didn't get a chance to see Real Estate Resource on Thursday night? Watch it anytime on demand AT THIS LINK to see Amy make the Spicy Curb A-Peel and learn ways to spruce up your own curb appeal during the winter!

Spicy Curb A-peel

Amy writes:

I am so blessed to have made, during my adulthood, several close friendships with some amazing women. One of my groups of friends is connected through teaching at the same high school. We call ourselves "WTL," or "Work to Live," as a reminder that there is life beyond the school day. Because really, we do need reminding of that fact sometimes.

In the last year, one of our WTLs, Erica, made The Great Escape. She left teaching for a new career in real estate, and within months, she and a new realtor friend, Reba, had their own show on West Hartford's community cable station, WHCTV. The show, called Real Estate Resource, is part The Kitchen, part Watch What Happens Live, but with a focus on real estate. That is to say, it's a talk show with flair.

Never one to hoard her own successes, Erica gave the rest of us WTLs a way to be a part of the show. I am the show's mixologist. I create cocktails based on the theme of each episode and demonstrate how to make them during my segment. Joanne is the flower expert who shows viewers how to decorate their homes with wreaths and floral arrangements. Laura does our hair and makeup and there are plans for her to show off her other artistic skills in future episodes. So far, we've only taped one.

At this point, you're probably wondering why I'm writing about all of this on a food blog. Well, here it is. The theme of our first episode is "Spicing Up Your Curb Appeal in Winter." And so I came up with a drink I call the "Spicy Curb A-peel." With hints of honey, apple, ginger and cinnamon, it's the perfect cocktail for entertaining guests and making them feel warm and cozy in your home during the winter months. As an added bonus, it is made from local and/or artisanal products, including Onyx Moonshine from East Hartford, CT and Yellow Ginger Simple Syrup from Sumptuous Syrups of Vermont.

And while I'll give you the recipe (below), I sure hope you'll check out Real Estate Resource, which is airing on WHCTV every Thursday in January at 8:00. If you don't live in West Hartford, you can stream it when it airs online at this website, or you can watch it ON DEMAND HERE.

Stay warm, and cheers!

Spicy Curb A-peel

makes two drinks

Ingredients:

2 ounces Onyx Honey Apple Infusion Moonshine

1/2 ounce Sumptuous Syrups Yellow Ginger (or other ginger-infused simple syrup)

4 ounces hard apple cider (I used Angry Orchard's Apple Ginger for added ginger flavor)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

curled apple peel, cinnamon stick, or apple slice for garnish

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add moonshine, syrup and hard cider. Stir (don't shake because the hard cider is carbonated). Pour a little of the leftover cider into a small bowl or dish, and the sugar and cinnamon (stirred to combine) into another. Dip the rim of a martini glass first in the cider, then in the cinnamon sugar to coat the rim and allow the cinnamon sugar to stick. Repeat with second glass. Strain cocktail into glasses and garnish as desired.

The Outcome of a Trip to the Farmers' Market

Sunday was the first Sunday we have been home all summer. Yes, we have been gone quite a bit. A family vacation in Maine was followed by a week at work, then a cruise to Bermuda, a trip to New Jersey, and finally, a visit to Pennsylvania. Yes, we realize that all we've told you about so far is Maine. We have a lot to get to, and we will get to it eventually. For now, however, we are settling back into our home, catching up on our laundry and TV, lamenting the state of our garden, and playing with our cats who obviously missed us. And yes, taking our first visit this season to the Coventry Regional Farmers' Market. At last!

The harvest is in full swing (except at our house, where every plant has been choked by weeds or eaten by who-knows-what), and we couldn't wait to make something with the bounty of summer offered by the market's vendors. Since it seems that all we've done is eat rich foods (did we mention that cruise?), we wanted to make a dish that was heavy on vegetables. We bought all sorts of fresh fruits and vegetables and a crusty bread, and when we grabbed the last couple dozen Stonington littlenecks from the fish truck, a dish started to come together in our minds. A beautiful pint of blackberries inspired the pre-dinner cocktail, and for dessert, we split a "boozy" cupcake from the NoRA Cupcake Company Truck.

Note: Everything in these two recipes is fresh from the farmers' market, our herb garden, or the neighbor's garden, with the following exceptions: the pantry staples of olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper; the Italian sausage (from our freezer); the bourbon (Woodford Reserve); and can of beer (Heineken).

Blackberry Mint Julep

(makes 2 cocktails)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup blackberries (saving 2 for garnish)

4 tablespoons mint leaves (saving 2 for garnish)

2 tablespoons sugar

3 ounces bourbon

In a large cocktail shaker, muddle together the blackberries, mint and sugar. Fill shaker with ice then add bourbon. Shake well, then strain into ice-filled cocktail glasses. Serve garnished with a mint leaf and a blackberry.

Clams with Sausage and Swiss Chard

Ingredients:

4 links hot Italian sausage

6 new potatoes, quartered

6 cipollini onions, peeled and quartered

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 dozen raw littleneck clams

4-5 leaves Swiss chard, stems removed

1 can beer

In a large, somewhat deep cast-iron pan, brown the sausage on all sides over high heat. Remove from pan and set aside to rest. Place the quartered potatoes and onions in the pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook until softened and caramelized. Cut the sausage into rounds and rinse the clams. Place sausage, clams and Swiss chard in the pan. Pour beer over the ingredients and cook, covered, for 10 minutes, until clams open. Serve with grilled crusty bread.

NoRa Cupcake Company's "Jamaican Moon" Cupcake, a chocolate cake soaked with Onyx Moonshine then topped with both mocha and marshmallow frostings and garnished with a chocolate-covered espresso bean. 

Simple Recipes Feature

Our summery cocktail, the Melonshine, is being featured at Simple Recipes this week. Find it here. Simple Recipes is a great blog that features recipes and ideas from bloggers the Fullers as well as other food bloggers they call "Featured Foodies." Stop by and give it a read!

Cocktail Time! The Berry Patch

School may have started, but it's not the end of summer yet! Labor Day weekend is upon us, and fall does not officially start until the autumnal equinox on September 23rd. In the "spirit" of prolonging every teacher's favorite season, we gathered a few tantalizing summertime ingredients to create a cocktail we're calling "The Berry Patch" (special thanks to D and J for taste-testing and tweaking the name). Light, sweet, herby and slightly bubbly, these go down nice and easy!

The Berry Patch

(makes a small pitcher, about six drinks)

Ingredients:

12-14 fresh strawberries, chopped

6-8 leaves fresh basil, torn

1 cup cranberry juice (100% juice, not cranberry cocktail)

1 cup lemonade (we like Newman's Own Lightly-Sweetened)

1 cup vodka

ice

club soda (optional)

extra berries and/or basil leaves for garnish

In a pitcher, muddle the chopped strawberries with the torn basil leaves.

Add the cranberry juice, lemonade and vodka.

Add ice, stir and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Strain into chilled martini glasses. Add a splash of club soda on top if you like it bubbly, and garnish as desired.

 

Rummin' Tea

Amy writes:

Iced tea is the essential drink of summer for me. I brew a pitcher almost every day, adding a quarter cup of sugar while the water's hot so it mixes properly, like my mother taught me. Not too sweet, like sweet tea in the South, but with just a hint of sweetness. No lemon or mint needed unless the notion strikes me.

On my last trip to New Orleans (which was too long ago!), my bestie K and I had drinks at a touristy place in the Quarter. I couldn't help myself - it was hot, and the place had its French doors wide open and the ceiling fans were whirring away invitingly. That was where I was first introduced to Sailor Jerry rum and it's been my go-to rum ever since. "Sailor Jerry" was the moniker for enlisted navy seaman and tattoo legend Norman Collins, and the bottle features a few of his iconic works. In fact, this year is the 100th anniversary of his birth, and the company has put out three limited-edition bottles to celebrate his legacy. 

Now, I don't know anything about tattoos, not actually having one myself. Nor do I know much about the navy, other than the fact that my grandfather served in it years ago. But rum and I go way back, and this Caribbean rum is nicely spiced with hints of caramel that go perfectly with your favorite mixers - coke, ginger ale, juice, or in my case, semi-sweet iced tea. I call it Rummin' Tea and it is my favorite thing to enjoy on hot summer evenings spent on my porchswing watching life go by .

Ingredients:

1 part Sailor Jerry rum

2 parts slightly sweetened iced tea

Combine ingredients in a tall glass over ice. Garnish with lemon or mint if desired.

Cocktail Hour: Sweet Moonlight

Chris writes:

I like Absinthe. I mean really like it. But it has to be the real stuff from the Czech Republic or some other post-Soviet country. A place where they understand that sometimes you drink to make your life seem better - and Absinthe can do just that. It has an unbelievably high alcohol content (160-180 proof) combined with a musty/dirty/bitter taste. There really aren't many nice things you can say about Absinthe other than after drinking something so vile and unpleasant you think, "My life may be bad, but its not that bad." I am not saying that Americanized Absinthe like 'Lucid' isn't good, it just misses the loucheness of the real stuff.

In absence of said 'real stuff', I recommend Pastis Absente. It offers the traditional flavors of Absinthe without the crude alcohol overkill. Originally made in France in 1915, Pastis Absente is similar to Turkish Raki or Bulgarian Mustika. It has the flavors of star anise, sage, cardamom and black pepper found in Italian Sambuca - but is nowhere as sweet; just pure sharp flavor.

One way to balance the strength of the flavors is to mix the alcohol with cold water that has been slowly dripped over a sugar cube. This can be a tedious ritual and calls for specialized equipment. My recipe (below) introduces a little simple syrup along with lemon to offset the harshness and brighten the dank flavors. When mixed with water the Pastis becomes milky opaque with yellow green hues. Just like the moonlight that was scattered across our lawn the night this drink was created. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 measure simple syrup

1 1/2 measures Pastis

1/2 measure water

splash lemon juice

Pour all ingredients in order above into a tall glass over ice.