Bloody Mary Bar

One fine day, with four of my best Bloody Mary drinkers, I set out to make the perfect mix for Bloody Marys by setting out a Bloody Mary Bar, or lab, with lots of ingredients for us to experiment. The results were a different story. We definitely didn’t create a best possible mix. Instead, it turns out, we each made a VERY different version of the classic drink, and almost all of us strongly preferred the version we created. So what I learned was that for serious Bloody Mary conoisseurs, a Bloody Mary Bar is the way to go, so guests can customize their Bloody Mary to suit their particular tastes. Aside from a Bloody Mary Bar yielding the best possible results, it also was incredibly fun. It turns out hosting a Bloody Mary Bar is a brunch in and of itself it you set out enough ingredients. I also recommend asking guests to bring any special fixings that are unique, or that they can’t live without in their desired concoction. I served my Bloody Mary Bar with killer chilaquiles, but really, what wouldn’t pair well with a customized drink? Also, this Bloody Mary Bar was decked out with homemade … Continue reading

Pamplemosa

What’s in a name? Well, when you’re asking about the breakfast cocktail Pamplemosa, grapefruit juice and champagne. Flashback to 2006. My sister and I, (and later Sam!), enjoyed a “Thursday is our day off” adventure club. We’d beach and brunch or hike and lunch or late afternoon swim and gin cocktails drink followed by fancy dinner in our new sunburns- I swear the Earth knew not to rain on Thursdays that Summer. One particular week at brunch, when given the choice of Mimosas or Bellini’s I asked for a Mimosa with grapefruit juice. It turned out that Heidi and Sam preferred grapefruit too. “What do you suppose they’re called” someone asked? Being 2006, we couldn’t just pull out our iphones and discover the answer. And even if we’d been able, it turns out there wasn’t a concise answer. But we agreed that we loved the name “Mimosa” and set out to name our preferred concoction. I don’t remember the other names we considered, because as soon as we got to the French word for grapefruit (pamplemousse) it was easy to settle upon the Pamplemosa. Funny enough, it turned out that French was the correct language for our brainstorming as the … Continue reading

Tangerine and Rosemary Spritzer

It was early Sunday morning and all the liquor stores were closed. With no champagne on hand, we decided that instead of a mimosa, we’d have to head for the hard stuff. Citrus was an obvious choice to pair with the salty breakfast menu and gin was the bottle in the freezer. Here’s the fruit of our labor. 2 ounces Hendricks gin 4 ounces tangerine juice (or orange + lemon) 1 stalk muddled rosemary orange vanilla seltzer (if you can find it- the polar brand is amazing; if not, a drop of real vanilla extract and seltzer) ice Muddle the rosemary. Pour all the ingredients in a large wine glass over ice. Enjoy with the savory olive bread french toast. … Continue reading