Pimms Cup

It’s Olympics o’clock! Nothing says London in the summer more than a refreshing ‘cup’ of Pimms No. 1 so that’s exactly what we’re planning on imbibing tonight while watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. I am sure there are many ways we could mix this into some great cocktail (like this one) but I think I’ll stick to the original and have it with 7-up, citrus fruit, cucumber and a sprig or two of mint. Nice thing about this is you can make a big jug of it and drink it all night long - though I may think differently about this in the morning!

I’ll be honest about Pimms, it was never a preferred drink of mine – those summer evenings in the Pavilion at Trinity College, or times visiting friends in England watching cricket on the village green from the local pub – I usually favored beer. But tastes do change and I’m willing to give it another go!

By the way, we’ll be going for a Ruby Murray beforehand so I might partake of a beer or two too!

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.

Pinpom Fireworks

or to give it its full title - Pineapple-Pomegranate Fireworks. After cocktail #3 I went in search of something else to make with pineapple vodka – not that I wouldn’t try another couple Hawaiiah-tinis - but this summer is about variety after all and I came across this one which was perfect for the birthday celebrations over 4^th of July week.

This is what it asked for…

½ oz. Van Gogh pineapple vodka

½ oz. Van Gogh pomegranate vodka

½ oz. pineapple juice

Champagne

What we had was the SKYY vodka from last time, pomegranate liqueur and sparkling wine and I might even have left out the pineapple juice on one of the occasions I made it (eek!). Anyway – the poor man’s Pin-Pom Fireworks was born and was suitably served in plastic cocktail glasses!

When we were going this high style only the best linens and table ware would do!

Hawaiiah-tini

 

Hawaiian shirt Friday – it’s official! We’re making good use of our Hawaiian shirts this year and I concocted this little experiment-tini after seeing it on the cocktail menu of this place. It calls for Van Gogh pineapple vodka and Patron Citronge. We found SKYY vodka much more preferable (and about $15 less expensive!)

For this I think I put in 2 oz vodka, 1 oz Citronge and I added a splash of pineapple juice to it too. (Peggy Olsen in Mad Men says that cocktails should always have at least 3 ingredients - that works for me!) I poured it over crushed ice and it went down very well. Eamon enjoyed some pineapple juice and pineapple slices.

I know a Blue Hawaii is a completely different drink but if you had a couple of these maybe everything looks like this...

Pink Grapefruit Friday

Temperatures were hitting 100 when we made this (as they will today) and there is no finer refreshing drink on a steamy hot day. Himself found the recipe here and it calls for a beverage called Pink Grapefruit ICE – a flavored water which we couldn’t find but easily substituted with grapefruit flavored Italian soda.

2 oz. vodka
4 oz. chilled Pink Grapefruit Sparkling ICE/grapefruit soda
Splash of lemon
Splash of white cranberry juice
Mix all ingredients and serve in an eight-ounce glass with ice. Toss in a handful of blackberries to garnish.

By the way, for Eamon I added a splash of the grapefruit into the cranberry juice but as sweet as the grapefruit soda was he didn’t think much of the taste. Then I put a flower in my hair, himself and the kid were wearing their Hawaiian shirts and we sat on the balcony and sweated in style. This was so good, we made a second batch and dinner was put off a little longer. Ah, I love Fridays!

Cyclist's Widow

Would you be very disappointed to hear that the first cocktail of the summer was a non-alcoholic one? Well, it kinda started out that way.

1 tablespoon grated ginger

Juice 3-4 limes

4 cups of water (sparkling is good too!)

Sugar (or stevia) to taste

It’s a very refreshing drink and I made it while himself was on the eastern shore for the MS bike ride as most of my company for the weekend was under 9 years of age. It didn’t go down so well with the underage set, sticking to their boxed beverages so I added gin to it and called it a ‘cyclist’s widow’.

By the way we love us some Hendrick's gin and it's likely this was the wrong vehicle for it. It wasn't a bad drink but the gin didn't sing in it.