Paddington

I've long been fan of a little bear called Paddington so I knew I couldn't miss the movie but I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did - so much that we got the marmalade out when we got home and created this. Taken from a recipe in the winter Imbibe magazine but where they used homemade lemon/grapefruit marmalade we added a little grapefruit juice to compensate.

1 1/2 oz Hennessay Cognac
3/4 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz Fresh Meyer Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Fresh Grapefruit Juice
1 tsp Orange Marmalade
Meyer Lemon peel for garnish

Shake all the ingredients together 'dry' first (without ice) to 'dissolve' the marmalade. Add ice to chill and strain  into  chilled cocktail glasses. You might want to spoon some of the marmalade bits into the glasses too. 

Proceed to stick your snout in and guzzle it down Paddington style.

Ginger Snap Side Car

I may have mentioned this before but one of my favorite holiday flavors is ginger so I knew I had to try this side car when I saw it for a pre-Nutcracker drink last week.  Himself recreated it for me here. Too bad there are no molasses cookies left to go with it.

2 parts Brandy (though I'm sure bourbon would be good too)
1 part Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur
1/2 part lemon juice
Ice
Sugar and cinnamon rim

Rub a lemon slice around the rim of the glass and dip in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon to create the sugared rim. Shake the rest of the ingredients with ice and pour into glass.

Thanksgiving Cheer

 

For our anniversary this year we treated ourselves to a cocktail dinner at Catoctin Creek Distillery - the first legal distillery (since Prohibition) in the wine producing area of Loudoun County, Virginia. We came away with brandy (and more besides!) - a brandy made with a pear wine from the area. Thanksgiving was a great reason to open the Pearousia to toast and give thanks.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

1/2 - 3/4 oz Pearousia Pear Brandy

1 tsp Sugar

4-5 oz Prosecco

 

Pour brandy in champagne flute and add sugar to dissolve. Top with prosecco. At the distillery they made this with sparkling apple cider which was also good - if you do that there is no needs to add sugar. 

Nine +

 

It was our anniversary recently and we needed a little something something to make with the cava I'd bought to celebrate. This is what we came up with based on John Cusimano's drink Mid Morning Nap.

Ricard Pastis
1 1/2 oz brandy
Some freshly squeezed lemon juice
Dollop agave syrup
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Cava

Coat the inside of a cocktail class with the pastis. Shake the brandy, juice, syrup and bitters with ice in shaker. Strain into the glass and top off with cava (or prosecco or champagne).

Here's to more drinks to share together on this day!

 

Sicilian Side Car

 

Or a Sicilian Side Track - I have a post ready on how we used our Cherry Bitters but this week I've been thinking of a dear friend who is moving away from the area and in her honor I made one of her favorite cocktails - the Side Car. But why Sicilian? I used Solerno blood orange liqueur instead of Cointreau and celebrated my friend's Italian roots. (I totally made that last part up - I'm all out of Cointreau!)

2oz brandy or cognac
1oz Solerno Liqueur
1oz freshly squeezed lemon juice

Shake all together with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

Here's to new adventures and the mountain air of Colorado!

Princess Peach

1 1/2 oz Brandy
1/2 tsp Pastis
1 tsp Grenadine
Slice of peach
Top with sparkling wine/champagne
Shake first three ingredients together with ice in a shaker. Pour into flute, top with sparkling wine and add slice of peach.

We picked peaches yesterday and it was reason enough to open a bottle of prosecco but what to put with it that used peaches and wasn't the ubiquitous Bellini nor too taxing to make? Thanks to mixology ap we found one called American Rose that required nothing more than a slice of peach in it. That I could handle! After making a cobbler and peach ice cream it was all I was able to muster but we thought there was nothing necessarily 'American' about the drink with French liqueur, Spanish brandy and Italian bubbles so we changed the name. 

And yes, it was good enough for this princess. 

Red Hot Jazz

The sisters met recently at the Cork Jazz Festivaland created this. For me! To post on my blog! I love them.

Chilled champagne or prosecco
1 shot of cognac
1 sugar cube
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Optional: Hibiscus flower in syrup

Saturate sugar cube with bitters and place in champagne glass
Pour in cognac and top up with champagne

Best served with full measure of sisters or 3/4 if full measure is not available!

Sangria

For me, the perfect sangria is a refreshing fruity beverage that you can sip for hours over lunch under the hot Spanish sun and when you get up you fall over. With this in mind (and consulting many Spaniards on it over the years), this is how I make sangria:

A bottle of full bodied red wine -Spanish obviously preferable

A glass of brandy – again let’s stick with a Spanish coñac

A glass of triple sec

A whole lotta (but not too much) orange juice

Slices of fruit – whatever is handy

Lots of ice

Mix together with thirsty friends (wearing cool shirts!), food on the grill, a dry evening and kids now old enough to occupy themselves in the pool and you get a successful evening - though no-one fell over when they got up from the table.