Summer cocktails

It has been a tumultuous week and I will write about that a little later.  But the thing that has been getting me through this week, and many others, are my summer cocktails.  Now, if you know me, you know that a cocktail for me is fine anytime of the year, winter, spring, summer, fall.  So the cocktail I call my "summer" cocktail could well last until fall and maybe winter and why not next spring?  But these two are what I am drinking now.  Along with wine.  And sometimes beer.  But not mixed up.  At least, not too often.

A cross between a mint julep and a whiskey sour, how could that not be great?  BTW, Trader Joe's makes a nice, simple house bourbon for $14.99 and if you are making mixed drinks, it is smoother than Jack Daniels (well, yes, what a surprise!) and cheaper and actually has more taste.  Not as good as Bulleit bourbon but $5 less. 

For my summer cocktail, I make a simple syrup (and if you need a recipe for that you need to go back to grade school) which often has a lot of mint added when I take it off the heat.  If I have mint.  If not, just the syrup is fine.  But you need mint for this drink, so either forage (which is what I do, in the 'hood) or buy it.  If you make your syrup minty, then pour a bit in a nice size glass, at least 18 ounces capacity.  A bit means maybe two tablespoons.  If you make your syrup without the mint, then pour the same and add about six or seven mint leaves and muddle them.  I use the end of a wooden spoon but if you have a muddler, use that.  Just bruise the leaves, but bruise them hard, so they will notice it in the morning.  If you use minty simple syrup, do the same but only use a couple of mint leaves.  Muddle away.

Then add ice cubes, enough to come up to about an inch from the top of the glass, so maybe six.  Or seven.  Or three if the glass is small and you cut down on the syrup from above.  Whatever.  Then pour in bourbon, maybe two ounces.  Stir and then squeeze a half lemon over it all and stir again.  Any kind of lemon, although mine are usually meyer lemons because I steal them from the 'hood and I don't feel bad about that.  Stir. Taste. It should taste minty and lemony and not too sweet.  Add more lemon to taste. 

Drink.  If you are at home, drink irresponsibly.  If you are not at home, use your discretion.  This drink tastes so good that you can drink one in three minutes. That is fine, no judgement here (I have done it now and then, but maybe ten minutes, not three) but make the next one much, much smaller.   It's a little sweet, but not too much, lemony, bourbony and refreshing.  Yumm.

Second drink:  for this you need some sort of grapefruit soda, tequila and lime.  In Mexico they make this with Fresca, which is hard to find these days.  Trader Joe's sells a nice Italian grapefruit soda which doesn't have too much sugar, is tart and lasts for two weeks in the fridge.  Use a tallish glass, like a gin and tonic glass.  Put in ice, pour in decent tequila, add a generous pinch of salt and squeeze in at least a half lime, maybe more if the lime you pick isn't very juicy. Stir with a long spoon, then fill it up with the grapefruit soda and stir again.  Taste.  It might need more lime or soda or salt or (!) tequila.  Again, you can sip this like lemonade, so be careful, but it is quite refreshing.

When I lived in Inverness, in the big white house, my friend Stacey and I drank these (with Fresca) while watching "The Godfather" which she had never seen (and she was in her 20's!) and we ate Gino's pizza rolls.  We were sitting on an old double bed with a wood frame and we decided to turn the bed to better see the movie.  With several tequila and Fresca drinks in us, we didn't do it well, we laughed enough to pee our pants and we cracked the bed frame.  It isn't until this day that I am confessing this.....  sorry, Margaret.  Your frame, our fault.  But it was a great day; "leave the gun, take the cannoli" is now part of our family lexicon.  Along with "it's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business."

OK, I digressed.  Two summer cocktails.  Try them.  And for dinner tonight, a great summer treat:  home-grown tomatoes from a friend, chopped with a little salt and basil, on toasted bread with fresh burrata.  So delicious.

That's it for now.

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