Sitting on the patio sipping on some sangria. At my local Cub store they have this frozen sangria fruit mix you can buy, large nice slices of oranges, peaches and cherries.
It’s so simple add a bag of fruit a bottle of dry red wine, 2 cups of 7up and 1/2 cup of brandy. mix together in pitcher and serve.
I like it when things are simple and delicious.
cheers robin
I have a few staples at the holidays and eggnog is one of them. Thankfully there is no calorie counting allowed during the holidays. I made this recipe last year and have been thinking about it ever since. It is worth the effort the taste and quality is above anything you can buy in the carton. I suggest making it at least two weeks ahead of time. It is quite boozy, so the longer the nog ages the mellower the flavor of the liquor. Rumor has it the eggnog can last for a year in the frig. But no worries it will be gone before that.
“The word nog was an Old English term for ale, and a noggin was the cup from whence it was drunk.
Although most Americans think of eggnog as something they get out of a milk carton during the two-week period leading up to Christmas, eggnog descends from sack posset, a strong, thick English beverage built upon eggs, milk and either a fortified wine (like Madeira) or ale. It was a highly alcoholic beverage, often served so thick it could be scooped. It was also very much an upper-class tipple, as rich folks were usually the only ones who could procure the proper ingredients.”
Take the time to celebrate any occasion, these champagne floats are sweet, bubbly and creamy. Pick your favorite sherbet flavor scoop into the glass and pour some champagne over the top and watch all the sparkly bubbly action that comes to life with your first scoop. Or you can wait for the sherbet to melt and sip. Ice Cream and bubbly could be for breakfast or dessert.
cheers
Hot Off the Press: a new magazine start-up called Our Green Plate—focused on farm to table and food culture in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. #ourgreenplate
I had the opportunity to do some recipe photography for the magazine. It was so much fun to work with the art director Brian Donahue at BeDesign Inc. and Karla Spies the amazing food stylist and set design collaborator. 
The recipes are delicious and perfect for the bounty of cucumbers harvested from the garden.
Cucumber Martini
1 serving
7 1⁄2 tablespoons or a scant 1⁄2 cup vodka, preferably organic
1 1⁄2 teaspoons cucumber simple syrup*
1 cucumber 1 lime
lemon bitters (optional)
Peel and thinly slice the cucumber. Cut the lime into eighths. Place 4 cucumber slices in the bottom of a cocktail shaker and add the simple syrup. Squeeze in one of the lime pieces and muddle them together.
Fill the shaker with ice, add vodka, cover and shake for about 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Add 2 or 3 drops of lemon bitters and garnish with thin slices of cucumber.
*For cucumber simple syrup, mix 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water together in a small saucepan. Heat on low, stirring, until sugar is dissolved, about 5–8 minutes. Remove from heat, add 6 or so cucumber slices. Pour in glass jar and store in the refrigerator up to a week.
Tzatziki Dip
This is a very flexible recipe; you can make it with or without the herbs, and omit any herb you don’t like or don’t have. If you just have parsley, that’s delicious too. If you like it extra garlicky, add another clove. Bottom line: it’s basically impossible to mess this recipe up!
4 servings
1 cup full-fat Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
2 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 clove garlic, mashed to a paste or put through a garlic press olive oil
Peel and grate the cucumber on the large holes of a grater. Place in a small sieve and sprinkle with 1/2 tablespoon of kosher salt. Let it sit for 10 minutes and then squeeze out all the excess water. Mix the cucumber in a small mixing bowl with the Greek yogurt, garlic, chopped herbs, and lemon juice. Allow to rest in refrigerator for an hour or more before serving to develop flavors. Taste and add salt and pepper as desired. Serve on a plate or in a bowl with a little olive oil drizzled on top (optional).
This Lemon lime shrub is a refreshing beverage to sip on as the temps and humidity keeps rising. The discovery of shrubs continues for me,. I found this recipe and many more in this book by Michael Dietsch, this is a great resource for process and recipes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-orourke/cookbook-review-shrubs-by-michael-dietsch_b_7336720.html
I mix this lemon lime shrub with sparkly water and either vodka or gin for a simple cocktail. With shrubs I suggest using a milder vinegar like a champagne or white wine and start by adding the vinegar in small quantities and continue to taste till you like the flavor.
Ingredients
Process
In addition you do a process called oleo-saccharum with the peels of the lemons to add some more in-depth flavor to the sugar with blending the oils of the lemon peels and the sugar.
the sugar will add some zesty flavor to your shrub.
cheers
I discovery a shrub at a farmers market in Madison Wisconsin, a lady was selling kombucha and this syrup called a shrub.
The fascination still continues as I read about the history and google recipes online. As most things usually go once you discover something then you start to notice it.. My friend Karla and I did some research and made a few shrubs at home. There are a lot of techniques for making shrubs we use the cold process.
The shrub is a fruit, sugar and vinegar syrup that can be mixed with soda, booze or both. A shrub is both tart and sweet; the acidic trace enhances the fruit and smooths out the sweetness of the sugar. In colonial America shrub syrup was a method to preserve fruit before we had refrigeration. And a thirst quencher on hot days.
As I mentioned there are several methods to making a shrub, I use the simple cold process.
Recipe
Ingredients are all equal parts
1cup fruit diced up into pieces
1 cup sugar
1 cup vinegar {cider, champagne or balsamic}
Place fruit in bowl. Cover with sugar and stir.
Cover and store in refrigerator until juice exudes from fruit and starts to combine with sugar to form syrup. This may need a couple of days. Don’t worry how long the fruit sits in the frig it will not harm the syrup.
Strain syrup from fruit. I use a cheese cloth and squish lightly on the fruit to express any remaining juice. Add any remaining sugar into syrup.
Add vinegar and stir to combine.
Pour into clean bottle. Store in refrigerator.
Check to see if all the sugar has dissolved.
I’ve read that you can keep the shrub in the frig for up to a year.
Cocktail Mixture
2 parts spirit {gin,vodka,rum ect}
½ part shrub
2 dashes of bitters {lemon,orange ect.}
other options are to add:
1 part flavored liqueur
combine ingredients with ice in cocktail shaker poor over ice in glass and add a splash of sparkly water.
images styled with Karla Spies
If you like fireball this is even better. I found this recipe published by Matt Allyn and have made it a few times. This is a nice fall whiskey for sipping round the fire pit while the leaves turn colors.
I have made the mistake of letting it infuse for too long and the cinnamon will over power the flavor. I suggest trying a sip after four days and check the flavor until you find it just right. Another treat we enjoy is a hot apple cider with some cinnamon whiskey.
enjoy
Instructions
photoappetite 