You guys really pulled a fast one on me with the poll last week. It was a perfect tie between gin and rum! What’s a mixologist to do?

At first I tried to come up with a drink that had both gin and rum in it, but that proved to be pretty hard. Drinks do exist that use both, but they have a pretty specific flavor profile. Most of them weren’t really in the Halloween spirit so I thought it would be easier and more fun to just make two cocktails: one with rum and one with gin.

Frankly, both turned out better than I was expecting due to some awesome simple syrups.

Two Halloween Cocktails

Yield: 1 drink of each

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Pumpkin Simple Syrup:
1/2 Cup pumpkin puree
1/2 Cup water
1/2 Cup sugar

Pumpkin Martini:
2 ounces rum (spiced rum would be good)
2 ounces pumpkin simple syrup
1 ounce cream
Cinnamon sugar (for rim)

Vampire Blood:
2 cups cranberry juice
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup dried hibiscus flowers

Vampire Blood Cocktail:
2.5 ounces gin
3 ounces club soda
1/2 ounce vampire blood
Garnish with lime

Helpful Equipment:
Cocktail Set

Directions:

1) For pumpkin syrup, just mix all the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to simmer. Simmer for about 5 minutes and then chill and use. It will store in the fridge fine for a week.

2) For pumpkin martini, wet rim and run it around some cinnamon sugar. Then shake ingredients together with ice and strain into chilled glass.

3) For vampire blood, combine ingredients in small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Reduce the mixture down by about 1/3 which should take about 20 minutes. Chill and use or store for up to 2 weeks.

4) For cocktail, mix gin and club soda over ice. Pour over vampire blood mixture and garnish with lime.

Pumpkin Martini

It’s Halloween and I just had to try to mix pumpkin into one of these cocktails. Anytime you’re trying to mix in a flavor with a drink, it’s usually best to try to make a simple syrup out of it which will make it easy to mix into things.

I was a bit worried that the pumpkin wouldn’t mix well due to it’s lumpiness…

Wasn't sure about this...

But after I started stirring this mixture together though, I knew it wouldn’t be a problem. The pumpkin just kind of melted in with the sugar and after a few minutes of simmering I had this surprisingly smooth syrup that I knew would work great in a cocktail.

Pretty silky smooth!

One Note: For the pumpkin, be sure to use just 100% canned pumpkin. Don’t use the pumpkin pie filling stuff. That stuff has all kinds of crazy stuff in it.

Shake It Up

While you could make this drink on the rocks (over ice) if you wanted, it seemed a bit more elegant to make a real martini out of it. That’s means you’ll need a shaker set of some sort if you don’t have one.

Try it with spiced rum....

A Bartender’s Trick

If you want to know a hint to watch for to see if your bartender is a good one and cares about the drinks they are making, see how they handle the glass. A good bartender will always always chill the glass. That means that if the glasses aren’t kept in a refrigerator, they will ice and chill every single glass that they pour into.

It only takes a few seconds and really helps keep your drink cool for as long as possible.

Very important.

At the last minute, I decided to add a cinnamon sugar rim to the glass also just to play off some of the pumpkin flavors. Not essential, but a fun little touch.

For the rim...

Just wet your glass with a paper towel and then run the rim in the cinnamon sugar. After that, just add your ingredients to your shaker with some ice and shake shake shake. Or stir stir stir. Whatever.

It’s a pretty drink and really tasty. I think if I made this again, I might try it with spiced rum instead of white rum.

Beautiful thing.

Vampire Blood Cocktail

Ok. Onto gin land! This is Halloween play on gin and juice basically. I wanted to make a blood red syrup and then add it to a gin soda and I figured it would be cool looking and delicious.

You’ll need some red stuff to start. I used real, pure cranberry juice, but you could also use pomegranate juice.

making blood!

See those withered flower things down there? Those are hibiscus flowers and they turn things bright red and give them a light floral taste. I love them in cocktails.

Here’s an up close look at these weird things.

They kind of look like what I would imagine vampire flowers would look like actually.

Up close!

Anyway, just like the pumpkin syrup, just mix all these together and bring them to a simmer. The only difference is that with this one you want it to simmer and reduce for about 20 minutes to thicken it up a bit.

Making blood!

A Chill Tip

For both of these syrups, they are best when they are cold. They will take hours to cool off completely in the fridge. What I like to do is set up a bowl with some ice water in it and then put the syrup in a smaller bowl inside the larger bowl. Stir the syrup and the ice water in the outer bowl will chill the syrup down in just a minute or two.

Back to the cocktail!

Then just add your gin and club soda (or tonic) to a tall glass with ice and a small shot of the vampire syrup and you’re all set!

Feel free to garnish with a lime and some fangs!

Awesome drink.

Both of these drinks are freakin’ delicious and you better bet that I’m going to be having one or two of both over the Halloween weekend.

Healthiest drink ever?

While I was at the beach a few weeks ago I read Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. If you haven’t read it and are at all interested in running or just cool stories, I highly recommend it.

The book tells a bunch of different stories – it follows a hidden Mexican tribe of runners, a few people who run super-marathons (100 miles without stopping), and one crazy dude name Caballo Blanco (white horse) who used to be the latter, but is now closer to the former.

I really related to the author in the book because, like him, I enjoy running but I’m just not great at it. I usually run 3-5 miles and then just kind of decide that beer is way more fun than running the next 3-5 miles. The idea of running a marathon, or four in row, is not something I can even picture in my mind.

As you can imagine, if you’re running 60-100 miles at a time, it’s pretty darn important what you fuel your body with. When the author was hanging with the cool Mexican tribe, Tarahumara, they introduced him to a drink called Iskiate which he claimed gave him an immediate boost of energy. Like, he drank some and then ran 10-15 miles. No sweat.

It should go without saying that I had to try this stuff out.

Iskiate

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes + time to chill

Ingredients:

4 cups water
2 limes, juice only
1/4 cup raw chia seeds
1/4 cup agave nectar, honey, or sugar

Directions:

1) Mix water, and lime juice in a small pot until steaming, but not boiling.

2) Stir in chia seeds and stir well so they don't stick together. Add sweetener and continue to stir.

3) Cook for another minute or two, stirring continuously.

4) Chill completely and drink a cup or two of it a few minutes before doing something active.

The Chia

There are really only 3 ingredients in this drink. It’s dumb simple to make, but the key ingredient is a good dose of chia seeds.

I think Chris McDougall does a great job of summing up the nutritional power of these little guys:

In terms of nutritional content, a tablespoon of chia is like a smoothie made from salmon, spinach, and human growth hormone. As tiny as those seeds are, they’re superpacked with omega-3S, omega-6S, protein, calcium, iron, zinc, fiber, and antioxidants.

And guess what… they don’t taste that bad to boot!

Just three things!

Here’s a close up shot of those little guys. Unlike flax seeds, your body can digest these whole so there’s no need to grind them up or anything.

Up close.

Making the Drink

While you could make this drink one cup at a time, I decided to make a larger batch of it and then just store it in the fridge. It’s good for a few days without a problem.

To do this, I added the lime juice and water to a small sauce pan and let it heat up. Once it was steaming (no need to boil it) add in all the chia seeds. Stir them up really well. They might stick together some, but that’s okay.

A quick simmer...

Add the agave nectar and continue to stir it. If you don’t have agave, you can definitely use honey or sugar. Agave is the real deal though.

Agave or sugar... whatever works.

Just stir this all together really well for a minute or two and then stick it all in the fridge to cool down.

Once the drink is cool, you’ll notice that most of the seeds have settled and all the seeds are partially dissolved. I don’t know how else to describe it, but as the seeds dissolve, they give the drink a very light slimy texture. I realize that doesn’t sound appetizing, but it’s not heavy at all. That said, I’ve never drank anything like it in my life.

Nice and cool.

Once it’s chilled there’s no need to serve it with ice or anything. You can just drink it straight. I added some ice to mine though just to keep it really nice and cold.

It’s good to give the drink a stir every once in awhile or all the seeds will settle. You want those seeds!

Tastier than it looks!

The Results

I did a little unscientific test yesterday to test this drink out. Normally after I cook at the homeless shelter on a Tuesday, I’m pretty spent the rest of the day. I usually try to get in a short run or something, but it’s never a fun experience. I usually just want to go to bed!

Today though, I drank a big glass of Iskiate about 20 minutes before going for a 3 mile jog. It definitely wasn’t like I turned into Superman or anything, but I did feel a lot better! Considering I didn’t eat anything all morning before the run, I had a good amount of energy and when I normally hit a wall (mile 2ish), I just breezed right through it! I definitely felt like I could’ve ran for a few more miles.

Now, of course, this could’ve been 100% psychosomatic. I could’ve felt better running because I thought I was supposed to be feeling better while running.

But who cares? Psychosomatic or not, the run went well! And the drink is actually quite refreshing because of the lime and sugar.

It’s not the most visually appealing drink ever created, but hey, if people run 60 miles and attribute even a fraction of their energy to a simple-to-make drink with three ingredients, you better believe I’m on board with it!

Welcome home!

If you are lucky enough to have visitors come over at some point this summer, you should greet them with a cold beverage.

It’s freakin’ hot out there and anyone who ventures out of a controlled A/C environment deserves a cocktail.

There’s really nothing fancy about this drink, but it’s one of the most refreshing drinks I’ve ever had. Not only will it cool off your guests, but it’s a great way to start off happy hour.

Gin Lemonade

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Cups simple syrup (make syrup with 1 part water and one part sugar)
2 Cups lemon juice, freshly squeezed (about 12-14 small lemons)
1 1/2 Cups gin
15 fresh mint leaves

Helpful Equipment:
Juicer (if you use a juicer frequently you might want to upgrade a bit from this model)

Directions:

1) Add sugar and water to a pot over medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Cool completely.

2) Juice lemons and add syrup to lemon juice.

3) Wash mint and smack them a few times to release oils.

4) Add mint to a large pitcher with gin and lemonade.

5) Add ice and serve!

The Simple Syrup

If you wanted to take a shortcut you could use one of those frozen lemonade mixes for this drink, but I really think it tastes better with freshly squeezed juice. It only takes a few minutes and it’s worth doing it right in my opinion.

As you might guess, two cups of lemon juice has a pretty tart flavor so you’ll need a lot of sugar to counteract it. The best way to get sugar into a beverage is with a simple syrup. The ratio I always use for my syrup is 1 part water to 1 part sugar.

In this case, two cups of each should do the trick. Add these to a pan and set them over medium heat. Stir until the syrup is hot and the sugar is dissolved.

It's simple really.

You’ll want to let the syrup cool before using it which is fine because you have some lemons to squeeze anyway!

Lots of lemons!

Any lemon will do really...

If you’re a good juicer, you should be able to bust these out in a few minutes. If you make drinks a lot with fresh squeezed juice, it might make sense to get a really nice juicer. They make automatic ones that make juicing really easy. I haven’t quite gotten there yet, so I still do the work by hand.

Juiced!

Finishing the Drink

There’s one trick to this drink that makes it pop: slapping the mint!

Mint leaves have lots of oils in them which give them the wonderful fragrance. The oils won’t really come out though unless you bruise the leaves somehow. You could do this by muddling them, but for this drink, I like the whole leaves in the pitcher.

So I just lay the leaves out on a cutting board and literally smack them!

Slap that mint!

Giving them a few slaps will bruise them and make them really fragrant.

Then add them to a large pitcher and you’re ready to go!

Pretty simple...

Add the lemon juice, simple syrup, and gin and stir it all together!

If you’re serving it immediately, add ice to the pitcher as well. If you’re making this in advance, chill it without ice in it so it doesn’t get watered down.

This is one of those drinks that people will be able to smell as soon as they come in. It’s really tasty!

Delicious drink!

The only thing I’ll mention about this drink is to be careful! There’s a fair amount of booze in it and you can barely taste it. When I was having one of these guys, I felt like I could’ve easily put down the whole pitcher, which would’ve been a bad idea.

If you are having some friends over during these hot days or just want to treat yourself to a nice little happy hour, give this guy a shot!

It's like dessert!

“Shut the front door! This tastes like a milkshake. It’s basically a dessert!”

That’s what I said in my best Stacey London impersonation when I tried this shake for the first time. Betsy and I had something similar to it in an airport and it was so good that we tried to re-create it when we got home.

Our version tasted even better. It tastes so delicious that you would think it has tons of bad stuff in it, but it’s completely healthy.

It’s a fantastic way to start the day.

If you’re not a fan of the fruit smoothie (or just want a change), this is an awesome weekday breakfast.

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

Yield: 2 large Smoothies

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas
1/2 cup peanut butter, creamy
1/3 Cup yogurt
1/3 Cup tofu
1/2 Cup milk
1 1/2 Cups ice
1/4 Cup chia seeds (optional)
1/4 Cup ground flax seeds (optional)
1/4 Cup agave syrup or honey (optional)

Helpful Equipment:
Blender!

Directions:

1) Add banana and peanut butter to a blender. Add ice on top.

2) Spoon in other ingredients.

3) Blend until smooth!

Smoothie Ingredients

The base of this smoothie is a good amount of ripe banana and creamy peanut butter. These blend together perfectly and make for a really delicious flavor base. Both ingredients have a lot of good stuff going on.

I also added some agave syrup for a bit of sweetness. You could use honey or just leave it out.

Nice ripe bananas are good.

This smoothie works best with creamy ingredients. To round out the smoothie, I added some yogurt, milk, and tofu.

Yes. Tofu. It might sound strange but you literally can’t taste it and it gives the smoothie some body and a ton of protein.

Other good stuff.

Two other add-ins that Betsy and I have been putting in our smoothie lately is flax seeds and chia seeds. The nutritional benefits of these seeds are pretty numerous and kind of unbelievable.

A quarter cup of each seed in this recipe (so 2 Tablespoons per smoothie), will provide you with almost half of your daily fiber needs and about 9 grams of protein.

That’s pretty amazing work for a handful of seeds. If you can, get the flax seed meal which is already ground. Humans can’t digest whole flax seeds so you’ll need to grind them if you get the whole ones. Chia seeds you can leave whole though.

Nutrition in a bowl!

Making the Smoothie

You can basically just toss everything in your blender if you want, but I find that it blends a lot better if you layer it in a specific way.

Start with the bananas and peanut butter which will blend really easily. Then add the ice on top.

Banana on bottom!

If you add the ice first, the blender might have a hard time getting started.

Once the ice is in you can scoop in all your other ingredients. The measurements in this recipe are pretty approximate. I usually just eyeball it.

Everybody in the party.

Put a lid on it and blend it until it’s nice and smooth!

The seeds will never blend smooth so you’ll have some texture to the smoothie which I like actually.

This is a spoonful of my finished version.

So good!

This recipe makes two really big smoothies, probably about 2 1/2 – 3 cups each. Betsy and I have this for breakfast and it keeps me plenty full until lunch!

Plus, did I mention that it tastes like a milkshake?

Great way to start the day.

Whether you’re a smoothie expert or a beginner, I have a hard time picturing how someone wouldn’t like this thing.

The only reason you shouldn’t try this is if you happen to be allergic to peanuts!

So refreshing!

Ok. So my hopes and dreams so far appear to be true about Colorado. It is, in fact, not as smoldering hot as DC. But that’s kind of like saying it’s not as hot as the sun in a microwave.

I do live in a desert now though, so it can still be pretty hot some days.

So when raspberries won last week’s poll, the first thing that came to mind was some sort of refreshing beverage.

It doesn’t have booze in it (but it could) and will chill you out on a hot summer day.

Yield: 1/2 Gallon Lemonade

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

6 large lemons, juiced (about 1 1/4 Cups)
1 Cup hot water
1 Cup sugar
6 ounces fresh raspberries (about 1 1/2 Cups)
3-4 Cups cold water
Fresh mint (optional garnish)

Helpful Equipment:
Mini food processor
Juicer
Strainer

Directions:

1) Mix the one cup of warm water with 1 cup of sugar in a small pot over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and the liquid is simmering. Remove from heat and let cool.

2) Juice lemons. Mix lemon juice with simple syrup mixture.

3) Add raspberries to a food processor blender and process until smooth.

4) Add raspberry pulp to a strainer. Pour lemonade mixture through strainer. It should pick up lots of raspberry color and juice. Repeat a few times. You should be left with mostly seeds in the strainer.

5) Dilute lemonade with 3-4 cups of cold water.

6) Serve with crushed ice and mint.

Making Lemonade

To start this lemonade, add the one cup hot water and one cup sugar to a small pot and heat it until it’s simmering and the sugar is dissolved. Then let it cool.

When it comes to lemonade, there’s something to be said for the quickness of a mix. But when you’re in the mood for a seriously refreshing drink, nothing beats fresh-squeezed juice.

I have just a normal $10 juicer that gets the job done okay. If you don’t have a juicer, you can also just use a fork to press on the inside half of the lemon as you wring it out. That’ll maximize your juice levels.

Depending on the size of your lemons, you might need more than six. You’re looking for about a cup of lemon juice. Six really big lemons gave me a bit over a cup which is perfect.

Fresh squeezed is always best.

As far as the raspberries go, I kind of just guessed that a small container of raspberries would do the trick. That’s six ounces of fresh berries.

I love raspberries. It might be my favorite berry.

About a pint.

Now obviously you can’t juice a berry, so you have to process or blend them to get the juice out.

You could use a food processor, a blender, or I guess a fork if you want to do a lot of work.

Just blend it up until it’s smooth!

Buzz it up!

There’s a problem with this mess though: seeds. Raspberries have tons of little seeds in them and they are just not appealing in a drink. It would feel like you had tons of little dirt pebbles in your lemonade.

Not good.

So I think one of the most important steps is to make sure you strain the raspberries.

Now, when you pour your raspberry pulp into the strainer, it’ll just kind of sit there. It’s pretty thick.

So go ahead and mix your simple syrup and fresh lemon juice together. Then slowly pour this through the strainer also. It’ll pick up the raspberry juice on the way but leave behind the raspberry seeds and any of the lemon pulp that got through also.

Seeds are no good.

I poured my juice through my strainer a few times. Just get a fresh bowl to set under the strainer and pour the liquid through again. Every time it’ll pick up a bit more raspberry color and flavor. Also, use a fork to mush the pulp around and force the juice through.

After two or three times through, you’ll be left with nothing but seeds basically.

What's left.

So you now have about 4 cups of really intense juice. If you taste it, I think you’ll find that it’s way too strong.

I recommend diluting it to about half strength. So add 3-4 cups of cold water to it and stir it up.

It’ll keep in the fridge for a few days. Not that it’ll last that long.

Gotta love the color!

I poured some of this over crushed ice and threw in a few mint sprigs.

The mint sprigs are pretty optional, but I dig them.

Mint is pretty optional

If you can’t get out of the heat, give this a shot.

And if you want to spice it up a bit over the weekend, add 2 shots of vodka or gin to a glass of this for a really solid cocktail.

How grown up can jelly be?

I used to live in a large group house in DC and every year we would throw a massive Halloween party. We would usually have between 150-200 people show up at this party. So yea. We needed a lot of booze.

One of the housemates was always on Jello shot duty. We’d make a few hundred of them and they were always a big hit.

While it’s pretty quick to mix some booze with some Jello and get a really tasty shot, sometimes you may want to class it up a bit.

When that times comes, ditch the plastic cups, put aside the box mix, and make these suckers.

Lemon Drop Jelly Shots

Yield: 25 shots (8x8 pan)

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes + 6 hours chill time

Ingredients:

Lemon Syrup:
4 large lemons, cut into eighths
2 Cups water
1 1/2 Cups sugar

Shots:
2 Cups lemon Syrup (you may have some left over)
1/2 Cup water
4 envelopes gelatin (1 ounce)
1/2 Cup Triple Sec or Cointreau
1 1/2 Cups vodka
Large raw sugar for garnish

Directions:

1) For syrup, cut lemons into eighths and add to a medium pot along with sugar and water. Put over medium heat.

2) As syrup heats, stir regularly and mash the lemons to get out juice and oils from the rind.

3) Once simmering, stir for 5 minutes and then remove from heat to cool a bit.

4) Strain to remove any lemon pieces.

5) Add water to measured amount of syrup and sprinkle gelatin over the top.

6) Heat mixture over low heat and stir to dissolve gelatin. It might take 5-10 minutes to get it all dissolved.

7) Remove from heat and add in booze.

8) Pour into an 8x8 dish and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

9) Cut into cubes with a sharp, hot knife (run it under hot water).

10) Serve cubes sprinkled with raw sugar.

Adapted from the Jelly Shot Test Kitchen.

A Lemon Syrup

Most of the bitter-sweet flavor in these jelly shots comes from a strong lemon syrup. The basics are pretty simple. Just lemons and sugar!

Basics.

Cut your lemons into eighths and add them to a medium pot with the sugar. Add the water and put this over medium heat.

This will smell good!

As this gets hot and cooks, use a large spoon or something to mush the lemons down. Try to press out the juice.

If you’re wondering why you can’t just juice the lemons and add the juice it’s because there is tons of wonderful lemon flavor in the rind. As they get hot, they’ll release all sorts of awesome lemon oils that will make your syrup way more flavorful.

So bring this syrup to a simmer, mashing the lemons the whole time, and let it simmer for about five minutes.

You should see something like this!

Ummm... don't stick your finger in this.

Your syrup is done now. I recommend straining it just to get out any lemon bits and then you can immediately use it in your shots!

The Shots!

Instead of Jello, we’re using straight gelatin for these guys. This results in a really firm jelly that tastes exactly like what you put in it.

Oh. And you’ll need some booze!

Lots of gelatin!

Mix the syrup with some water and sprinkle the gelatin over the liquid. Let this sit for a few minutes and the gelatin should start to dissolve.

You’ll need to heat this up ultimately to dissolve all the gelatin. So you can either mix it in a pot over low heat, or mix it in a metal bowl and put the bowl over some simmering water (double boiler) to slowly heat the mixer.

I did it the second way just because I was worried about burning the sugar. You can do it either way though if you’re careful.

Great blooming gelatin!

Note that this is a lot of gelatin. It might take you 5-10 minutes of stirring as the liquid gets hot before all of it is dissolved. Take your time. There’s no rush.

Once all the gelatin is dissolved, pull the jelly mixture off the heat and add your booze!

Important note: Don’t continue to cook or heat the mixture after you add the liquor. Alcohol evaporates really quickly and if you continue to heat it you’ll lose all the punch in the shots!

Once everything is mixed together, you should have this beautiful shimmering liquid that will smell like an alcoholic lemonade stand.

All ready!

Pour this into an 8×8 dish and stick it in the fridge for at least 6 hours. That was enough to get mine to set completely. Ideally you can do overnight, but 6 hours should do the trick.

When cutting the squares, the easiest way to do it is to run your knife under hot water and then it should slice right through the jelly.

You could obviously make these as big or small as you want, but I found that a 5×5 cut, yielding 25 cubes, was a perfect size.

A hot knife is your friend.

I scooped these into some individual mini-cupcake tins and sprinkled them with a good amount of raw sugar.

The shots themselves are pretty tart and lemony (which is good) so the sugar helps cut that a bit.

If you’re curious, I did the math and each of these shots has about 2/3 of an ounce of booze in it. So if you eat three or four of these, it’s basically like having a martini. And you could eat a few of these way faster than you could drink a martini.

So be careful!

But yea. They are tasty and perfect on a hot summer day!

Elegant and bacony!

A few weeks ago I was visiting a friend who is a certified bad ass mixologist. Every time I see him, which isn’t often enough, he’s always cooking up strange syrups and brews in which to make me happily drunk.

When I walked into his kitchen on this day there was a strange jar full of some new experiment on his counter. I asked him what it was and he just smiled.

“Smell it.”

So I opened it and took a whiff. BACON. Smokey bacon. And WHISKEY. Together in one happy liquid.

I took some notes on what he did and after confirming that the results were freakin’ delicious, I thought I’d reproduce the process here for making your own bacon bourbon! It turns out that it isn’t that hard really. Also included in this post is the perfect recipe for a bacon Manhattan!

Bacon Bourbon

Yield: 12 ounces bourbon.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes + resting time

Ingredients:

12 ounces bourbon. I prefer Maker's Mark.
3-4 thick slices of bacon.
A jar of some sort with a tight lid.

Bacon Manhattan (one drink)
2 ounces bacon bourbon
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
Dash of Peychaud' s Bitters
Maraschino Cherries (garnish)
Crispy Bacon (garnish)

Directions:

1) Render fat out of bacon by microwaving it for a minute or two or cooking it slowly in a pan. Be sure not to burn the bacon. Just get the fat out.

2) Add the liquid fat to the bourbon in a jar with a lid.

3) Let sit at room temp for 5-6 hours, shaking occasionally.

4) Freeze for at least an hour so fat solidifies.

5) Strain out fat solids. Once you get out the big pieces, use a coffee filter to make sure it's as clear as possible.

6) Store bourbon in the freezer or fridge. It should keep for many weeks.

Starting the Bourbon. There’s really no trick to this recipe. It just requires some time and patience, as do all good things. I definitely recommend using a pretty good bourbon for it though. The bacon flavor is not so intense that the bourbon quality doesn’t matter at all.

The end result is mostly bourbon with a tiny back taste of smokey bacon. So use decent stuff please.

A mason jar has many uses.

To make this infusion, you just want the bacon fat. I’ve found that the best way to get as much fat as possible out of the bacon slices is to either cook them on low for 20 minutes, or just microwave them (covered) in a bowl until all the fat renders out.

It’ll only take a minute or two in the microwave. Be sure not to burn the bacon or it’ll end up giving a burnt flavor to the bourbon.

Delicious bacon fat.

Once you have all your bacon fat, add it to your jar of bourbon! Depending on how fatty your bacon is, you’ll get varying amounts of fat from your slices. Ideally you want a few tablespoons of fat for the bourbon.

Add the fat to the bourbon and it should form little globs and float around.

See what I did there?

It’ll probably solidify pretty quickly which is fine.

The Waiting. Let your bourbon sit at room temperature now for 5-6 hours. Ideally, you could give the jar a shake every half an hour or so just to stir up the fat. I’m not sure that it’s really necessary to do that though.

After letting the bourbon infuse for a few hours, stick the jar in the freezer for at least an hour. The bacon fat will all float to the top and become really hard. The bourbon obviously won’t freeze because it’s too alcoholic.

This was my bourbon after a trip to the ice box.

Solid.

You should be able to scoop out some of the fat, but no matter what, you want to strain this through a coffee filter. This will remove any tiny bits of bacon or fat that remain in the liquid.

Straining bourbon through a coffee filter is a slow process. Just work slowly and don’t get in a hurry. It’ll eventually all drain through. Mine took probably 20 minutes to finish.

Slow drink.

You can keep the finished bourbon in the freezer or fridge for many weeks without a problem.

It probably won’t last that long though.

The Manhattan. A good Manhattan is one of my favorite drinks in the world. You can make a bacon version now with just a few other ingredients.

The makings of something special.

Add a few ounces of the bacon bourbon to a mixer along with a small amount of sweet vermouth and a dash of bitters. Shake it well with some ice and then you can either serve it in a cocktail glass or on the rocks.

I’m a rocks guy myself. The bacon garnish is obviously optional, but I thought it looked good.

If I owned a bar, I’d charge $10 for this.

Sooo good.

The thing that’s hard to describe about this drink is that the bacon flavor isn’t overpowering at all. After all, bourbon has a pretty intense flavor. It’s hard to overpower bourbon. So when you take a sip of this, you mainly get a familiar bourbon flavor, but then there’s this tiny smokiness near the end. It’s actually pretty subtle, but a really interesting addition.

If you’re a bourbon fan, a bacon fan, or just a cocktail enthusiast, you have to give this a shot.

There’s really nothing like a cool crisp drink on a hot spring day. And while beer is always a good option, sometimes it’s nice to change it up.

I haven’t done a photo roundup in a while so here are 60 refreshing cocktails that would be perfect for a warm Spring day.

Hover over the photos to see the original creator and click on any photo to go to the original recipe!

Phew! There ya go.

If you can’t find something refreshing from that list, you’re on your own!

My cure.

Happy 2011 everybody! I hope everyone had a safe and fun night! It’s at least in the realm of possibility that you woke up today with a bit of a headache. At least for me, champagne always gives me killer hangovers.

And this, my friends, is the best cure I know.

I used to bar tend at a spot in DC that offered all-you-can-drink Bloody Marys for brunch. I was determined to make my Bloody Marys from scratch. No mix for me thank you. After a year or so of this, I’m pretty sure I’ve nailed the best Bloody Mary mix you can make. I’d put it up against any store bought mix any day of the week.

I recommend keeping a jar of it on hand if you’re in for a long drinking weekend!

Bloody Marys from Scratch

Yield: 7-8 large drinks

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

46 ounces pure tomato juice. If you use from concentrate, be sure to shake it well.
1 lemon, juice only
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 Tablespoons Horseradish
1 Tablespoon hot sauce
2 Teaspoons celery salt
1 Tablespoon fresh black pepper
1 Teaspoon kosher salt
Vodka

Garnishes:
Celery
Pickles
Olives
Old Bay
Oysters or Shrimp (Fancy Schmancy)

Directions:

1) Mix all ingredients in a large bowl with a whisk. If you're unsure about an ingredient, add just a bit and taste it. Then add more until you get the flavor you want. Remember that the mix should be pretty strong since it gets diluted with vodka and water from ice.

2) To make a drink, add 1 part vodka to 3-4 parts mix over ice and stir well. Garnish with your choice of garnishes and enjoy!

Making the Mix

Ok. So I claim this as the best Bloody Mary mix out there, but that’s a pretty subjective statement. I like my Bloody Mary’s to be really spicy, really peppery, and have lots of horseradish. If you don’t like those things, then this probably won’t work for you.

A popular ingredient that I don’t add to my mix is clam juice. I’ve found that people are pretty split on it, so it’s something that I add to individual drinks if people like it.

An army of flavor.

Basically, I just pour all this stuff in a large bowl and whisk it well to combine everything. A few tips:

- On the Horseradish, make sure to get just jarred horseradish, NOT horseradish SAUCE. That stuff won’t work. Most supermarkets have grated horseradish next to the pickles and olives or near the mustards.

- If you’re in doubt about one of the ingredients, start with a tiny bit, mix it together and taste it. You can always add more, but it’s impossible to remove it once it’s in there!

- The mix should be almost too strong to drink straight. If you taste it by itself it should be really strong that way when it’s mixed, it still has plenty of flavor. Remember that the mix is going to be diluted by vodka and also water as the ice melts.

You know you’re in business if you can see specks of stuff in your tomato juice.

Specks are good.

Garnishes

Half the fun of Bloody Mary’s is putting in a lot of fun garnishes. Celery is pretty much a given. I’m not sure I would trust a Bloody Mary without celery in it.

I also like a pickle spear and olives in mine, but you can go crazy. One of my favorite variations is to dip the rim of your glass in Old Bay which gives the drink a certain Maryland feel.

If you want to get really high class you could add a shrimp or two to the drink!

My favorite parts.

Mixing the Drink

My general rule for Bloody Mary’s is 1 part vodka to 3-4 parts mix with lots of ice.

You can very much eyeball this, but if you want to be specific, use a shot glass to measure it. Mix all the stuff over ice and give it a good stir.

Add in your garnishes and you’re good to go.

Cure in a glass.

Now, of course, it would be best to have some foresight so you can have this already mixed up when you need it. I usually just pour my mix back into my tomato juice bottle and write over the label.

It should go without saying that a good Bloody Mary goes great with football which also happens to be in season.

Have a great weekend everyone and happy 2011!

Don't mind if eye do!

There’s no way I could let this week go by without trying something fun for Halloween. Unfortunately I have very few kitchen supplies so I had to get back to basics and try to jazz up something that everybody needs on Halloween: ICE.

I tried to come up with a few different ice cubes that would be spooky. Some turned out better than others and I had some more ideas after I photographed the post which I’ll mention through the post!

Bloody Eyeball Cubes!

I saw this idea first on a Martha recipe. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly though because I didn’t want to go buy green olives just for this. So I just used some tiny black olives that I had. I think they worked fine although maybe not quite as dramatic as the green guys.

There’s no doubt about it though – this is kind of a time intensive situation considering that we’re just making ice cubes.

The most important thing about this recipe is to make sure you have a pretty good paring knife. I really like the Wustof paring knife. It’s a great deal for $11 on Amazon right now.

To start with the eyeballs, get some small/medium radishes and wash them well. Try to get nice round ones and make sure they fit in your ice cube trays before you start cutting.

Slice off one end and dig out a little hole for the olive. I left my olives whole which gave the eyeballs a kind of bulging effect.

A bit labor intensive...

Next, take your paring knife and carefully scrape off sections of skin. You don’t need to peel the radishes. The skin is really thin. Just take your knife and gently scrape. The skin should come off in thin layers so you’ll be able to leave red streaks.

It took me one or two radishes to get the hang of it but then I got pretty good at it.

Pop the olives back in and freeze them in a tray!

These guys would be great in any clear or light colored cocktail where you could see the eyeballs easily.

Turned out pretty cool!

Slime Cubes!

This one is substantially easier. My goal was to make an ice cube that looked like it had streaks of snot in it!

All I needed was some grapes and limes!

Also sangria!

Turns out when you mush a grape, it kind of looks like the biggest booger in the world.

Makin' boogers

I used the lime juice just to keep the snot green and also figured that lime juice goes well in a lot of cocktails so it might actually taste good as well.

I just mushed up a few grapes well and added in some fresh squeezed lime juice. Looks like snot to me!

A big bucket of slime.

I should’ve photographed these in liquid because they looked a lot better in a glass. They turned a bit more transparent so you could kind of see through them.

Also, if you let them melt you’d end up with snot in your drink which is great for Halloween right?

Looks great in clear drinks!

Bloody Rat Droppings!

Ok. So this was kind of my fail of the day. My original idea was to make a bloody bits ice cube with pomegranate seeds and cranberry juice so it would kind of look like guts.

The pomegranate I bought at the store though was completely rotten so I had to change directions.

I went with rat droppings which happen to look a lot like whole black peppercorns.

Rat droppings...

Just add these to some ice cubes with a red liquid and you’re all set!

I think this one might be more about delivery…

One idea I had after the fact was to use tomato juice for the liquid and use the ice cubes for Bloody Marys! Of course, you have to be kind of careful with these because it’s not very pleasant to accidentally bite down on a whole peppercorn.

Bloody rat droppings.

I actually had a lot of fun making these up. The radishes might be a bit advanced for kids, but the others would be pretty fun and easy – especially the slime ones.

Pick your poison!

For Halloween this year, I won’t be making any of these unfortunately because I’ll be in the middle of Indiana driving to Colorado.

But you should make them!

I’m sure there are dozens of other cool things you could do with ice cubes. If you have any good ideas, leave a comment of course!