Grapefruit Buck

Grapefruit Buck     (makes 2 large drinks)

3 oz Vodka (a smoother vodka like Grey Goose works well with this drink)

3 oz  St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur

6 oz of freshly squeezed white grapefruit juice

1 splash of ginger beer

Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice and serve up in martini glass, add a splash of ginger beer as a float

This drink is from the Four Seasons San Francisco and was long a favorite until I made them so often, that yes, I burned out on them. Two or three years later, I am ready to bring them back. I made them for my mom while she was visiting and she made the happy cocktail noises-- and even claimed: "Lynnie, this is one of the best drinks I have ever had in my life." Now granted, I come from a long line of women who get verbally excited over all the particulars regarding food and drink and often recklessly spout out loads of praise invariably laced with superlatives.  This, paired with my clear understanding that everything in life is about expectation, requires me to implore that you, perhaps, lower yours.  Because... I do in fact hope you love this drink.  It is brightly acidic, pleasantly floral and has so many complimentary flavors dancing about in your mouth. It may not be the best drink you have ever had in your life, but it is damn good my drinking friends. 

The Fruit:
My friend Virginia moved to Aptos and along with her move came the loss of my dear friend AND the loss of my fresh grapefruit supply. We used to make salty dogs at her house every January when the grapefruits came in and sit outside and watch the boats go by on the Delta. She would always drop huge bags of grapefruits at my door, freshly picked from her tree. She was like cocktail citrus Santa. 

So my mom and I are driving back from the market, lamenting that we did not know someone with a grapefruit tree, and she screams: "pull over!"  She had seen a grapefruit tree peeking out over someone's fence, and it was loaded. Ten minutes later, Reba had made friends with Karen. It was Karen's parent's house and she had just lost her mom. We talked to her, my mom consoled her and she gave us a HUGE box of grapefruits. As we picked them, we talked and we laughed about various things while exchanging recipes. It was such a lovely moment of human connection. She encouraged us to come back anytime to get more.  Needless to say, the visit ended with a lot of hugging. I should also mention I come from a very long line of nurturing, gregarious, fearless, do-anything-for-the-recipe-women. 

CHEERS!

Japanese Kiwi

Japanese Kiwi (makes 4 martini-sized drinks)

7 oz of Vodka
4 oz Sake
Juice of 4 limes
5 oz Simple Syrup
5 kiwis 

Puré kiwis in a mini food processor, pulse until smooth with some small chunks remaining. You can add a quick pour of simple syrup depending on the ripeness of your kiwis. 

add first 4 ingredients in a shaker of ice & strain into martini glasses. Add about 3 heaping table spoons of kiwi into the martini glass & stir to incorporate.

garnish with a lime wheel 

(because sakes have varying sweetness and limes have varying tartness…once you make the drink in the shaker, pour a little into a glass, taste and you may need to add more lime or more simple syrup to taste). 

I had this drink at Paragary's, a Sacramento restaurant that opened in downtown Stockton several years ago (it is no longer there). I ordered this drink and could not believe how interesting the combination of flavors was. They called it The Lounge Lizard which I changed for obvious reasons… I told the bartender that night that her tip would double if she could manage to sweet talk  the ingredients out of the bartender. She returned --after what I can only assume was a lot of eyelash batting- with it written on a napkin.   It was worth every penny!

Cheers! 

Classic Champagne Cocktail

Classic Champagne Cocktail

1 bottle of Dry, Extra Dry or Brut Champagne or Sparkling wine
Sugar cubes
Angostura Bitters

drop 1 sugar cube in the bottom of a Champagne flute, add 3 dashes of Angostura bitters, top with Champagne. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

The first time I had this classic version I was 32 and living on the east coast. I was at the bar at The Ryland Inn, a culinary wonderland in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. We had stopped off to have a cocktail before we were seated for dinner and, unusually enough, I was stumped on what I wanted as an aperitif. The bartender recommended this to me and I was instantly a lover of this elegant and simple drink. It is the liquid equivalent to stately posture & wearing pearls. 

The Ryland Inn



Film Buffs Enjoy this trivia:

In the film "An Affair to Remember" 1957 Deborah Kerr's character asks a champagne cocktail at the bar in the ship she travels with Cary Grant. In the Woody Allen film "Match Point", Emily Mortimer orders a champagne cocktail at a restaurant with Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

In the Francis Ford Coppola/Mario Puzo film The Godfather Part II FRANK PENTANGELI says-"MICHAEL, your sitting high up in the Sierra mountains. And your drinkin' - uh, what's he drinkin'?" WILLIE CICCI says "Champagne", FRANK PENTANGELI replies "Champaign, Uh, Champaign Cocktails -- and you're passing judgment on how I run my Family."

Negroni (Franzia style)

Negroni 

(makes 1 drink)

2 oz Gin

2 oz Campari

2 oz Sweet Vermouth

Splash of Ramazzotti (Medium-Style Amaro)

Splash of Cynar (Artichoke based liqueur) 
Orange peel

Pour all ingredients into a lowball glass and stir. 
I like them at room temperature, but if you prefer a colder version, simply pour the ingredients into a shaker and strain into your glass. 

My friends Paul & Michelle Franzia are seriously on the short list of my most favorite people to hang out with. They possess that beautifully rare combination of cultured, worldly and smart with healthy doses of humility and grace. But they maintain a few key ingredients that move them beyond the liking designation into the category of loving them. They are real, there is no pretense, and they are often wonderfully, inappropriately edgy, especially Paul!  When sitting and talking with them, I am never bored--and never censored.    

A few months ago when I conducted a blind Champagne tasting at a dinner party to start off the evening, Paul pulled me aside and tentatively asked if he could have a Negroni instead.  I lead him to my freezer where I have a shelf all for gin and vodka,  then to my bar with the other goodies. He hugged me in a way that said: "thank you for understanding." It was really funny.  So when I photographed their family a few weeks ago, Michelle had made an amazing meal and they asked if I wanted a drink. Naturally I asked for a Negroni. The way Paul makes them does not lack ceremony, but his production comes not out of pomp, but out of love.  And so here is to Paul & Michelle, who are in  Milan celebrating their 20-year Anniversary, I say to them "Cheers."  

Paul enjoying his Negroni

I also photographed Paul's brother's Family a couple of weeks ago, and I shot this of Brian's Negroni he brought on the shoot into the orchard. I love this! After the shoot with Jenn & Brian, Brian too made me a Negroni. I love my job. 

I personally discovered the Negroni in 2003, while on a work trip to Italy. We were at our hotel bar and let's just say, after a few Negronis in, there was some overly-spirited dancing.  Don't let the herbaceous goodness fool you, this is a one drink deal. 

The History:
While the drink's origins are unknown, the most widely reported account is that it was invented in Florence, Italy in 1919, at Caffè Casoni, ex Caffè Giacosa, now called Caffè Cavalli. Count Camillo Negroni invented it by asking the bartender, Fosco Scarselli, to strengthen his favorite cocktail, the Americano, by adding gin rather than the normal soda water. The bartender also added an orange garnish rather than the typical lemon garnish of the Americano to signify that it was a different drink. After the success of the cocktail, the Negroni Family founded Negroni Distillerie in Treviso, Italy, and produced a ready-made version of the drink, sold as Antico Negroni 1919. One of the earliest reports of the drink came from Orson Welles in correspondence with the Coshocton Tribune while working in Rome on Cagliostro in 1947, where he described a new drink called the Negroni, "The bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you. They balance each other." According to the Corsican newspaper Nice Matin Corse of 1980, Pascal Olivier Count de Negroni is among those who it is believed invented the drink.

Bitter Bourbon Lemon

Bitter Bourbon Lemon (make 2 small drinks)

2 1/2  oz Bourbon
2-3 dashes Angostura bitters
1 oz Simple syrup
Juice of 2 lemons

Put in shaker with crushed ice, pour up in glass of choice with more crushed ice.

(for a sweeter version, add more simple syrup)

I cooked this up, or more accurately, poured this up for our FRIENDSGIVING later tonight. 

CHEERS!

Mojo Indian Pale Ale

I have long been a fan of hoppy IPA, despite the high alcohol content, and in some instances, because of it.  If I am hankering for a beer, I will almost always order an IPA if it is on tap. They range, in my opinion, from metallic and uninteresting, to gloriously complex and varied.

The last time I was at BevMo they were having a small  Firestone tasting, in the back near the bathroom. Talk about happenstance, I was just talking about Firestone to my husband.  My friend Sherm, a chef at a Gatro-Pub in Philly, introduced me to Firestone beer on a trip she made out west. Tasting the Firestone made me fondly remember our time lounging and grilling in the backyard during Shermy's visit.  The tasting also got me in a beer state of mind.   Afterwards, I wheeled about the store, filling my basket with beers from several states, excited to try something new and get my malt and hops on.

Mojo's particular description just flat out slapped a smile on my face, knowing that some brew peeps in Boulder Colorado were at it, unknowingly, on my behalf, making interesting beer that allegedly would be a citrus dream.  And Mojo, my drinking friends, is indeed a citrus-lover's dream. Apparently, the Amarillo hops gives the beer its citrus character. I won't talk about how many fingers of head it has, because, well, I just don't think my mom would approve of such talk.

This beer is somehow summer and fall in a bottle, perfect for a fast-approaching California Halloween. It is creamy and floral and bitter and screams, charmingly, of grapefruit peel.   Several other flavors show up, like pine, that make this beer simultaneously interesting and easy drinking.

Delicious people. truly delicious.

Get this beer for Halloween, don't be scared.

American IPA
7.2%

 A little history, because that's just fun...

IPA was born out of necessity. When the British were colonizing India, the beers they sent down to their troops kept spoiling during the long sea voyage. With an extra healthy dose of hops and alcohol (40-65 IBU and 5% -7.5% ABV respectively), both having great preservative value, their problems were solved, and the world had another distinctive beer style.

CHEERS!

The French Pear

My friend Katina texted me from The Esquire Grill in Sacramento during her anniversary dinner. (I love this). She was raving about the French Pear she was drinking.  I put it in the mental cocktail queue for later, but decided to try it out at a girls weekend at the beach 2 weeks ago. The week before our trip, I went to 3 stores to find all of the ingredients, came home and went to work on perfecting this fresh fall goodness. I figured it would only take me a couple of attempts at most, to get the ratios right. WRONG. I ended up making the equivalent of about 10 drinks trying to get it right. There were overly sweet, overly tart, overly strong versions made.... and my husband hated every single one of them.  And, sadly,  I ended up unintentionally bombed on a Wednesday night.  Hobbies have risks I suppose.

I did make it at the beach and it was good, but not great.  Then, having the ingredients on hand,  I made it-- and tweaked the recipe-- once more at home after we got back from my birthday dinner  last week. AND... I am happy to announce that I am ready to make it for Katina and that we have a winner, worthy of blogging.

The French Pear 

(makes 2 martini sized drinks)

4 oz Grey Goose La Poire

4 oz St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur

2 oz Pear Nectar

Juice of 2 limes

2 oz Simple Syrup

shake in shaker with ice, serve up with a lime wheel