Bourbon is king

Of all the base spirits, I think Bourbon is my favorite.  I love the butterscotch color, the vanilla/spice flavor.  It can be sophisticated without being boring or pretentious.  It may be a battle between Bourbon and Gin, with Rye coming a close third.  A war where everyone wins!

Salted caramel desserts seem all the rage these days, and for good reason.  I decided to join the fray.  I made ice cream with caramel, bourbon and sea salt.  OMG.  DO NOT MAKE THIS AT HOME!!!!!!!!  Unless you want to eat a quart of ice cream in one sitting.  Wow.

One can of sweetened condensed milk

One pint of cream

Caramel syrup

Sea Salt, course

Bourbon (I used Woodford Reserve)

Whisk cream and milk, add in caramel syrup (1/4-1/2 cup to taste)
Add 2-3 oz bourbon, continue whisking.  Add a few shakes of salt in, place in ice cream maker.  Half way through once the ice cream is solidifying, add a few more shakes of salt so that when you get the finished product, you will get occasional chunks of sea salt.  Soooooooooo delicious!

the fruits of summer

The mission of the cocktail journey, though far from complete, has made blog posts somewhat self limiting.....the more drinks I make and discover, the more I find drinks I like a lot and want to repeat, thus less need for blogging and sharing (over the internet....I always share in person!).  But sometimes a new twist on an old favorite makes a post necessary....and sometimes the fringe use of etoh in other recipes make an appearance too.  

A wonderful friend who also happens to be a culinary genius brought me some fantastic grapefruit infused gin.  She made the infusion with Texas grapefruits from a local farm, and though I did not taste the actual fruits, she assures me they are the sweetest grapefruits she has had.  And she had them in spades.  So, how to make use of an abundance of grapefruit?  Gin of course!!!!  She juiced the fruit, boiled with some sugar, and then combined the gin, juice/syrup and the zest.  After infusing for some time, straining the zest/rind out and voila - amazing treat!  The infused gin is thicker than straight gin, has a light pink color, and I mixed it with a bottle of fever tree light tonic. which is not particularly sweet so combined well.  I added a dash of Angostura bitters and made the singularly best summer drink of 2012.  Thank you Kate!

In a tall glass with lots of cracked ice, pour 2 oz infused gin and 1/2 oz plain gin.  Add 3-4 oz (or to taste) fever tree light tonic.  Dash or two of bitters (I used Angostura).  Enjoy!

A cerulean cocktail.....

A summer time beauty.  It tastes good too!  Kind of like a less sweet pina colada.  This is not particularly sophisticated, but it sure is fun.  

Blue Hawaiian

1 oz rum

1 oz blue curacao

2 oz pineapple juice

1 oz cream of coconut

Shake/stir and enjoy on ice

I can hear a ukulele playing in the background, and feel the tradewinds......if only!