The Cocktail Nerd

Best friend No. 2 gave me some watermelon, so what to do but make cocktails?

So here we have a watermelon mint G+T. No full recipe this time because I didn't bother to measure anything.

I put the fresh watermelon into a food processor until pureed. Then I muddled some mint and (stevia) simple syrup at the bottom of my glass. I strained some of the watermelon puree into the glass and added ice. From there, it was a basic G+T -- I freepoured some Bombay Sapphire and topped with some (diet) tonic water.

If you're wondering about the colo, Empress is indigo from butterfly pea which interacts with citrus to become pink or purple, depending on amount.

Salty Empress

1.5 oz Empress 1908 gin

Juice of one grapefruit (about 4 oz)

Serve over ice in a salted rocks glass. Garnish with an optional lime or grapefruit wheel.

AND WE'RE BACK!

It's been a while. So what've been up to over the last few years? I'm no longer a journalism student -- I moved to the capital, got a job I loved at the local paper, got laid off, floundered for a bit and currently work as a data analyst in a COMPLETELY unrelated field. And I've gotten better at layering -- I'm still not GOOD at it, but I can at least do it some of the time.

Now, to the drink. I got some blueberry simple syrup from The Produce Box and immediately thought "I can do some stuff with this!" So I then proceeded to do the absolute most basic thing I could: LEMONADE. This could've been really good if I'd changed the proportions (ie more of the blueberry syrup or less lemonade). As it stands, it's fine. Why share if it's just "fine"? Well, I needed an intro for my return to Tumblr and I've never shied away from showing my failures.

Ingredients are 8 oz lemonade (freshly squeezed lemon juice would've been been better), 1 oz blueberry syrup, 2 oz vodka (I used Grey Goose) and 1/2 oz peppermint schnapps.

This week’s Bourbon Heritage Month post is a quick version of this. I, unfortunately, didn’t have enough room in my fridge to store scratch-made mint sweet tea for two days. So instead, I made simple syrup (1 part water to 1 part sugar) and steeped a mint tea bag in it, and let it cool.

Quick Mint Julep Moderne

3 oz bourbon

Mint tea-infused simple syrup

Double post! The second picture is a bourbon brown sugar pork loin.

The first photo is the primary post for Bourbon Heritage Month. It’s a Peach Bourbon Rickey, an extra fruity twist on @damnrightimnerdy’s favorite “old man” drink.

Peach Bourbon Rickey

Lime Juice

Bourbon

Peach Brandy

Living in Pirate Country, we’re all about purple EVERYTHING.* We’re also about drinking—the town motto is “You can’t spell ‘parties’ without ‘Pirates,’ after all—and our Halloween party is so legendary that my day job doesn’t even bother opening. Third thing we’re about? FOOTBALL. While the rest of the state is obsessed with basketball, ECU is firmly a football school. Like we’ll talk about basketball if you ask us, but for us, it’s just a filler sport between football and baseball seasons—and baseball isn’t as popular here as it used to be.

So is it any wonder that I’d do a drink to celebrate the first Pirate Football game of the season? And because I AM a Pirate (as are my parents, my uncle and my cousins), I’ve got to do it with rum.

So without further ado, I present to you the…

Pirate Purple Daiquiri

Rum (I used Kraken Black Rum)

Lemon Juice

Blue Curacao

Grenadine

Triple Sec

Happy Tailgating!!!

Note: I wrote this post on Aug. 26 using Tumblr mobile, but I forgot to format it on my computer until now.

Happy (belated) Whiskey Sour Day!

I was going to make a traditional whiskey sour today, but then I saw a post from “The Savory” with some variations. It included this twist on the drink: Unfortunately, I didn't have any Meyers, so I just used regular lemons. It was still pretty tasty. I also left out the egg whites and swapped out the lemon twists for the traditional maraschino cherry.

If you didn't visit the link, the recipe for Katie Webster's Maple Meyer Lemon Whiskey Sour is:

½ cup Bourbon Whiskey or Whistle Pig Whiskey

¼ teaspoon powdered egg-whites, such as Deb El Just Whites

4 cups ice, divided

3 shakes Angostura Bitters

1/3 cup freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice

¼ cup pure maple syrup, preferably dark amber

pinch salt

2 lemon twists

So one of my favorite books right now is sexcriminals, written by the always awesome mattfractionblog and drawn by the fantastic zdarsky. If you haven’t been reading it, go to the Image Comics website and get the first issue RIGHT NOW. I can wait.

…

Got it, read it and proceeded to order the trade? Good.

Now, I recently got some cherry juice and was looking for ideas for what to do with it. And when I saw the name of this drink, I knew I had to make it. Mostly because I’ll take any opportunity to talk about "Sex Criminals."

Now, since this is a drinking blog* let's get to the drink.

Sexy Little Suzie

1 oz. Amaretto

1 oz. Peach Schnapps

2 oz. Cherry Juice

Sour Mix

So I lied about what the next thing I posted was; sue me. In my defense, I also said I’d post regularly. That should’ve clued you in that I’m a lying so-and-so.

For those of you that don’t know, I live in North Carolina. And in my beloved state, we have a chain called “Cook Out.” Cook Out serves burgers and hot dogs, which, while tasty, are NOT the reason people go there. You visit Cook Out for the milkshakes.* All 40-ish of them. And that doesn’t take into consideration the mix-and-matching that some customers do.

Cook Out “fancy” shake flavors include the traditional vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. They also have those flavors that have gone from exotic to mainstream like banana pudding and peanut butter. There’s the surprisingly delicious Hi-C punch and orange push-up. And then there’s the seasonal flavors.

In the fall, Cook Out has a pecan pie shake. And I don’t mean some pecans and graham cracker crumbs. They literally put an entire piece of their pecan pie into a milkshake. December brings a traditional eggnog. Some Cook Outs sell Cadbury Egg shakes around Easter. Finally, the chain busts out my favorite from July 1 to Aug. 31.

Three words for you. Fresh. Watermelon. Milkshakes.

I LOVE those things. I crave them all year long. So I decided to make one, despite there being a location around the corner and it firmly being Watermelon Shake Season. Mostly because I had some leftover watermelon (the rest is going in a watermelon-tomato-feta salad).

Cook Out Knock Off: Fresh Watermelon Shake

Ripe watermelon, cubed (for best results, freeze it first)

Vanilla ice cream

Honey

Splash of Milk

Put serving glass is fridge or freezer.

Put all ingredients into blender.

Blend until smooth.

Pour into chilled glass and enjoy.

The actual drink will be tinted pink, though you can't tell in the low-light pictures.

I bought a milkshake machine recently, but I wasn't entirely sure it was powerful enough to handle the watermelon chunks. That said, the blender doesn't give the extra thick consistency that Cook Out shakes have, so I'm going to try making it with the dedicated milkshake maker next time.