Born to Fetch Highballs

The cocktail that pleases every member of my family is a bourbon and ginger ale. Mom, Dad, my three brothers, me, and my adult niece can all drink a bourbon & ginger. I'm not saying it's our favorite, but we can all drink it.

I believe that I was conceived for the purpose of fetching beers and making highballs. To Mom and Dad, a highball was a bourbon and ginger ale - or Wink, if we had it in the house. (Anybody seen Wink in a store lately? I haven't seen it in about two years.)

I believe I was taught to make a bourbon and ginger ale properly at the age of six. You see, by then my elder brothers (aged 12 and 13) were beginning to have lives of their own outside the house. My parents needed another runt around to fetch them drinks. (They were good planners.)

The proper way to make a highball is to fill the glass (of the size pictured) all the way with ice. Then pour it about halfway full of bourbon. Then fill the rest of the glass with ginger ale (or Wink). Then you swirl it with your finger. This is the proper way. My brother Bob will confirm. He was taught the same method.

The highball pictured here is not proper. I have embellished it with cherries, which I am trying to use up because I am in the process of moving. The presence of a swizzle stick and brand-name bourbon (Jim Beam) is entirely too highbrow for a proper highball.

Over the years this drink has come to make me think of Christmas - probably because it's the only thing I will enjoy that is available at many Christmas parties that are held in hotels. You know, where there is an "open bar" (table with a skirt) and the only beer offered is like melted yellow snow.

Highball means Christmas means family means love. Cheers!

Good & Wicked: The Magic of Presentation

These are my new discount cocktail napkins. The other side is pink and says, "Feeling good, very good." So I imagine the green side is the "before" and the pink side is the "after."

But I am not one to be defined by black-and-white (pink-and-green?) definitions. So by the magic of a form of Japanese transfiguration, I can use both sides of the napkin simultaneously, proving you can be both good and wicked at the same time.

Potion Ingredients

Finally figured out what to do with old business cards.

Morgueritini

Accidentally created a new potion called the Morgueritini. It's the same as the Margueritini but instead of regular vodka, you use Blavod black vodka.

The Marjito

A triumph! Another in my collection of purple cocktails featuring Marie Brizard Parfait Amour, a liqueur that is purple but tastes like orange. This one, of course, is a spin on the Mojito. I used fresh mint from my brother's garden.

Cheers!





The Marjito
1 oz. white Rum
1 oz. Marie Brizard Parfait Amour
1 oz. fresh-squeezed lime juice (about one lime)
1 oz. soda water (Seltzer)
1 tsp powdered sugar
3-4 mint leaves (muddled)
Another sprig of mint for garnish
Crushed ice

Take 3 or 4 mint leaves and muddle them (bruise them with a muddle or the end of a spoon or something) with powdered sugar and about half the rum. Pour into tall highball glass. Add the rest of the rum, Parfait Amour, lime juice, and soda water. Fill rest of the glass with crushed ice. (You can use a blender to crush ice cubes.) Stir, stir, stir! Add another sprig of mint for garnish.

Salut!

The Mortini

The Mortini is the same as the Margini, but it calls for Blavod Black Vodka instead of regular clear vodka. Unfortunately, they aren't selling Blavod in my local ABC stores this year. When will NC privatize liquor stores?!

1 1/2 oz Blavod Black Vodka
1/2 oz Marie Brizard Parfait Amour
1/2 oz fresh-squeezed lime
Splash of cranberry

For extra pizzazz, garnish with a smidge of dry ice. (Just don't let your lips come in contact with it!)

Witch's Brews

What's on tap at my Halloween party?

Big Boss Hell's Belle Belgian Blond
Blue Moon Belgian White
Blackened Voodoo Lager
Black Toad Dark Ale
Ichabod Pumpkin Ale
Magic Hat Not Quite Pale Ale
Pete's Wicked Ale
Rogue Dead Guy Ale
Wychwood Hobgoblin Dark English Ale

I also have a few bottles of wine with spooky names and just about every kind of spirit you'd like to raise, including Strega, a strange and spicy liqueur that means "witch" in Italian. I also have Blavod black vodka, but my supply is running low because the lame-o ABC stores in NC don't seem to carry it.

The Magic Wanda

This potion is based on a drink called the Magic Woman that I found while browsing a cocktail recipe website. It's very refreshing. And, of course, purple.

The Magic Wanda

1 oz light rum
1 oz gin
1 oz Marie Brizard Parfait Amour
1/2 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 1/2 oz Sprite

Serve on the rocks in a tall highball glass.

The Margueritini

This potion has nothing to do with tequila or margaritas. The name is based on my name in French class: Marguerite. Like my first two potions, it is purple and contains Parfait Amour, but in an effort to achieve more purpleness, it contains Chambord. Since Chambord adds more sweetness, I found that I had to include lemon juice instead of my usual lime.

The Margueritini

1 oz vodka
1/2 oz Chambord
1/2 oz Marie Brizard Parfait Amour
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice

Shake with ice and serve in a chilled martini glass. Garnish with lemon slice.

The Margerita

After the success of my first potion, the Margini, I then wanted to create a Margerita. (Pronounced like "Marge-a-rita.") It had been a long time since I had tried tequila. I'm so glad the quest for the Margerita brought me back to this spirit which had been missing from my liquor cabinet for far too many years.

Unfortunately, my early attempts at creating the Margerita involved gold tequila, which I found to be too smoky in flavor for what I wanted. Once I got the clear kind, it was just a matter of getting the proportions right. Incidentally, I also wanted the Margerita to be purple, like the Margini. So this potion also uses Parfait Amour instead of Triple Sec. This is a frozen (blender) recipe. I'm not big on margaritas on the rocks.

The Margerita

1 oz tequila (the clear kind)
1 oz Marie Brizard Parfait Amour
1 oz fresh lime juice (about a whole lime)
1 tbsp Grenadine (about a third of a shot)
1 tbsp Blue Curaçao
1 1/2 to 2 cups of ice

Blend all ingredients in electric blender on high setting and add ice until you get the consistency you want. In the photo, I used a green, apple martini rimming sugar.

The Margini

A few years ago, I decided I wanted to create a drink called the Margini. I wanted it to be purple, and I wanted to like it. The problem with purple is that it usually requires red and blue, and using food coloring, to me, is cheating. The only blue ingredient I could think of was Blue Curaçao, but I figured you'd have to mix it with Grenadine (red) to get purple, and that sounded too sweet already.

Then one day my brother said he read an article about some unusual spirits. He thought I'd be interested in Strega (Italian for "witch") or Parfait Amour, which is purple. Unfortunately, in North Carolina, one must purchase liquor at State-run ABC stores, which don't typically cater to unusual interests. Fortunately, I like to travel, and I found a bottle of Marie Brizard Parfait Amour at a liquor store in Banff, Alberta.

Marie Brizard Parfait Amour is a liqueur that is purple in color but tastes like orange - with maybe a hint of vanilla or violet. I find that it can be used in place of Triple Sec or Blue Curaçao. I believe there are other brands of Parfait Amour out there which may have a different flavor, but I haven't come across them, so I don't know if they would work as well.

My first couple of attempts to create a Margini were a bit too sweet, but I finally perfected it with this recipe, which is based on my brother's Cosmo recipe (only instead of Triple Sec, the Margini has Parfait Amour).

The Margini

1 1/2 oz vodka
1/2 oz Marie Brizard Parfait Amour
1/2 oz fresh squeezed lime juice (about half a lime)
Splash of cranberry juice

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Serve with a small twist of lime rind.

This was my first potion.