Monthly Archives: October 2013

The Poison Apple: a bright red cinnamon-apple cocktail

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The Poison Apple

The Poison Apple

This week’s H.O.A.G.Y (Help Out A Gal/Guy, Yeah?) comes from my friend Sazerac –she’s from Baton Rouge, y’all—who texted me with this request:

 “I’ve decided to be Snow White for Halloween!  I want to make up a ‘poison appletini.’ Can you help me?!” 

Of course, gal!  We’ve got your adorable backside covered.  Sazerac also said it needed to be a simple cocktail, since folks would be mixing up their own at her party.

The result:  With a day or two of prep to start an infusion and freeze up some “poison apple” ice balls, the drinks only had three ingredients and they were both gorgeous and delicious, especially if you like your cocktails on the sweet-spicy side.  If you don’t have the time or equipment to freeze ice balls – which look supah cool, but I’m warning you they are a pain in the ass to remove from the trays, the red food coloring gets EVERYWHERE, and beware the red shits the next day—regular old ice cubes work just fine and the drink is still a beautiful clear red color.

24 hours + in advance:

  • Start your Cinnamon Vodka Infusion:  to a clean glass quart jar, add 25 cinncinnamon candyamon hard candies, and cover completely with not-expensive vodka (about 3 ½ cups).  Store in a cool place out of direct sunlight, and shake the jar a few times a day to dissolve the candies.  After one or two days, strain the vodka through a fine mesh strainer to remove any candy pieces that did not dissolve.  I poured the vodka into an oversized clear liquor bottle and labeled it with a cool sticker label for the party.  This will make about 20-25 cocktails.
  • Make the Poison Apple Ice balls:  I make these in my kitchen sink to trap spills.  Fill up the bottom half of your ice mold almostball ice trays all the way to the rim with water.  For a tray of 4, add about 12 drops of red food coloring and an optional 4-6 drops of cinnamon oil (available at most baking supply stores).  For cripes sake be careful with the cinnamon oil and food coloring: the former is super strong flavored, and the later will stain everyfuckingthing it touches.   Tightly secure the ice mold lid, tip it slightly to remove excess water, and move the ice mold to a flat spot in your freezer.  I put paper towels under the tray to collect the red staining water as the trays froze.
Snow White and Sexy Jesus (aka my gals Sazerac and Saketini) - Halloween 2013

Snow White and Sexy Jesus (aka my gals Sazerac and Saketini) – Halloween 2013

The Poison Apple

1 oz. red hot cinnamon-infused vodka

1 oz. Applejack (such as Laird’s)

1 oz. ginger beer (Sazerac likes using diet ginger ale)

Add all ingredients to a large wine glass or martini glass, stir gently to combine.  Add a couple of ice cubes or a poison apple ice ball.

Happy Halloween, y’all!

The Poison Apple

The Poison Apple

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Corny Candy Cocktail

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Corny Candy cocktail

Corny Candy cocktail

Now, this is how you make a safety cone orange cocktail, my friends.  One week left until Halloween!  I love this holiday: the weather, the ancient ties to pagan harvest festivals like Samhain, the slutty costumes, the silly-themed food, and especially the outrageous cocktails.  I started a couple of infusions last week in preparation for the festivities.  The one I’m sharing now uses a candy-corn infused vodka that is shockingly hunter-vest orange.  Fabulous!  I’ll post the other one (hint: it’s called The Poison Apple, for my gal Sazerac who is dressing as Snow White) after it premières at her party this weekend.

Corny Candy Cocktail

2 oz. candy corn-infused vodka*

2 oz. blood-orange sparkling soda

Pour both ingredients over ice and stir gently.  Garnish with a couple of candy corns threaded on a toothpick (make sure they are fresh from the bag, if they are dried out they will crack right in half).

*Candy corn vodka:  Fill any sized jar about 1/3 full with candy corns.  Fill the jar up to within ½” of the rim with vodka (use the cheap stuff for this one).  Store in a cool place out of sunlight for 3 days, shaking the jar twice a day or so to encourage the candy disintegration.  After 3 days, strain the vodka through a mesh strainer to remove candy fragments, and decant into a clean glass container.  Shelf stable for about a month, refrigerate for up to one year after that.

I’ve also been writing for SLC’s fabulous City HomeCOLLECTIVE blog recently, and what a freakin’ fun gig that’s been!  To see more on their blog about a fabulous dinner by Pago chefs at Frog Bench Farm, featuring unfiltered totally fab RUTHLewandowski wines, click here.

Pretty in Pink: A Cranberry-Prosecco Sparkler

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I’m super excited.

Pretty in Pink: A Cranberry-Prosecco Sparkler

Pretty in Pink: A Cranberry-Prosecco Sparkler

Tonight I am meeting twenty or so women who are guests of Westminster College’s “Party Board” for a gal’s night out fundraising event supporting the general scholarship fund.  I’m a huge fan of the liberal arts—my undergrad years were spent at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN—and I’m an even bigger fan of women getting together for some fashion, fun, and Autumn-inspired cocktails mixed up by Yours Truly.  I promised them in advance I’d post the recipes on the blog so they can look ‘em up later.  Here goes, ladies!

Pretty in Pink: A Cranberry-Prosecco Sparkler

0.5 oz cranberry vodka*

3-4 oz. Prosecco

To a champagne flute, add 0.5 oz. cranberry-infused vodka.  Top with the Prosecco (how much depends on the size of your glass).  Garnish with a skewer of sugar-dusted vodka soaked cranberries left over from your infusion.  When you drop the skewer into the Prosecco, the sugar reacts to the carbonation of the wine and makes it bubble up even more.  Festive!

*To make cranberry vodka:  (Easily halved if you only need enough for a few cocktails) To a large clean quart lidded glass jar add 10 oz. dried unsulfured low-sugar cranberries.  Pour over enough vodka to fill the jar (about 3 to 3 ½ cups).  Place in a cool place away from direct sunlight, and shake daily for 1 week.  After a week, strain the vodka through a fine mesh strainer, reserving the vodka-soaked cranberries to make lovely garnishes.  If you are going to use the vodka immediately, it does not require refrigeration. If you are going to keep the vodka for longer-term storage, remove all sediment and fruit residue by filtering through a triple layer of cheesecloth or a coffee filter.

The Wasatch Mule

The Wasatch Mule

We also made Pear-Ginger Mules:  Here’s a link to the Wasatch Mule recipe on a past blog post. 

XOXO, y’all!

Simple Syrup in a FLASH!

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Mmmm - smells like fall in here. And booze.

Mmmm – smells like fall in here. And booze.

We’re taking a quick break from our tour of my tiny household and how I can get ‘er done in the midst of harvest, canning, etc.  Are y’all as crazy as I am this time of year?  Fortunately, The Macallan built some handy new shelves in the cellar for me – it’s a perfect temp year ’round for my various brewing, fermenting, and infusing projects.  Let’s just hope the cable guy doesn’t need to get to those wires behind my cider any time soon….

This week’s H.O.A.G.Y (Help Out a Gal/Guy, Yeah?) comes from a friend who needed to make simple syrup LIKE RIGHT NOW in preparation for a cocktail party, because the stuff she’d made a week earlier had already developed a Kombucha-like sugar mother alien thing and she was scared to use it.  I’d be scared, too.

So, here’s how you make simple syrup in under 30 minutes:

Four steps to FAST simple syrup

Four steps to FAST simple syrup

1 – into a pint Mason jar, fill half-way with sugar (your choice)

2 – fill with boiling water up to 1″ from the rim of the jar, stir to dissolve

3 – add ice cubes to the rim of the jar, gently stir to dissolve and cool

4 – place a lid on the jar and the jar in an ice-water bath

It will be ready in 15- 20 minutes.  Enjoy!