I'm a southern gal with a passion for cooking and baking from scratch, the old fashioned way!
Another one of my first cookbooks when I was growing up was the the Anne of Green Gables Cookbook. I’m not afraid to admit it – I love those books AND the movies! I have to watch every time Anne comes on public television. This Old Fashioned Homemade Lemonade was a summer favorite year after year.
When I was a little girl, I used to love to mix up “potions” – usually the remnants of nearly empty shampoo and lotion bottles, mixed with a few squirts of hand soap and perhaps some bubble bath. I’d put my potion in a bottle and mix it up, and then attempt to sell it to my Mom, her friends, whoever was around. Yep, I was the little entrepreneur.
Well, Mom should have known back then that her little potion-mixer (apothecary, perhaps?) would be a bartender one day. During my brief career as a mixologist, my absolute favorite drinks to make were the ones that had many ingredients: Bloody Marys, Long Island Ice Teas, etc. Even better than that? A drink that requires a muddler. I love to muddle. What can I say? Dirty martinis, mint juleps, mojitos . . . Muddling just plain rocks.
Mint Juleps
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
about 10-15 fresh mint sprigs
Crushed ice
Bourbon (recommended: Makers Mark or Woodford Reserve)
In a small sauce pan, boil together water and sugar for 2-3 minutes to make a “simple syrup.” Pour into a container and add the mint leaves from 10 of your mint sprigs. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Then use a strainer or a slotted spoon to fish your used mint leaves out of the mint syrup.
To make a mint julep, put your crushed iced in a small glass. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of the mint syrup and then pour 2 ounces of bourbon over the top. Stir gently, and garnish with your extra mint leaves. Serve immediately.
You can store your mint syrup in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 3 months. One recipe yeilds about 20ish mint juleps.
We hosted a lovely wine tasting party at our home last month, and I wanted to share my menu and pairings with you!
Let me preface this post by telling you a bit about my (limited) wine knowledge, and the type of crowd that we were catering to.
Me, I’m a wine lover. What can I say? I grew up Catholic. Catholics like wine.
I am also a former bartender (in one of my many past lives) – and I learned a LOT about wine during that fun-filled time. That said, I am by no means a wine expert – nor am I much of a wine snob. I like good wine, and I like good deals. So the wines that I chose for our tasting ranged from $8 per bottle to $20 per bottle. I also tried to select some “classic” reds so that my friends could figure out what a “real cab” and a “real syrah” taste like.
Which leads me to my friends. My wonderful friends, who range in wine-experience from the Arbor-Mist-fans to the small-Italian-label-red-winos. In between, we had some inexperienced wine drinkers, like my hubby, and guests who would mainly stick to white wine but wanted to learn more about reds. So you can see, we had a full spectrum of palettes to try and please. Part of the point of the party was to get our Arbor Mist friends away from the juice and into some *real* wines.
And it was also to extend the rest of our vino repertoires into uncharted territories and varietals that we had not tried in a while. Myself, I get into a chianti-and-zinfandel-rut sometimes, and it was great to get out of my comfort zone and enjoy some other reds!
I was lucky to have the advice of some Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s employees to guide my wine selections, and I also received some help from other foodie friends.
Without further ado, here is a report on the result!
Sliced hard salami
St. Andre Brie with water crackers
Sombrero Rioja – bright and fruity, even our red-wino-phobes loved this red
Toad’s Hollow Rose – refreshing and totally dry, the opposite of a white zin, this rose was awesome, perfect for a spring afternoon or a summer picnic
Da Vinci Chianti Classico – everything a chianti should be, in my humble opinion; ripe and robus, easy to drink!
Praxis Syrah -a beautiful Syrah although a bit dry for some of our guests’ taste
La Crema Pinot Noir – this was the #1 favorite for those who knew their red wine, light and delicate – super smooooooth
Dynamite Merlot – a great classic merlot for easy drinking – our inexperienced red winers really enjoyed this one
Avalon Cabernet Sauvignon – this was a very bold, somewhat dry red that appealed to the seasoned red wine lovers, but not so much to the Arbor Mist addicts
Menage a Trois Red – we loved this red blend, not just for the funny name, but for its gorgeous fruity flavors and depth
Chocolate Ganache Cake
Dark chocolate truffles
Milk chocolate toffee truffles
Rosenblum Vineyards Zinfandel – this was one of my favorite wines of the night, but then again I am a fan of a nice, bold Zin – it paired up perfectly with dark chocolate!
La Ferme Julien Rose – a fun bargain Trader Joe’s wine that paired nicely with dessert, for those who had gotten as far into the deep reds as they could handle
One of my favorite delicacies of southern cuisine is a tall glass of ice cold sweet tea. People in other parts of the country might not completely understand our love affair with this curious beverage, but I’ll bet that if I poured you a glass after a hot day in the sun and set you in a rocking chair on my front porch, you’d start to understand.
