It’s almost here – that special day devoted to all things love. A lot of people focus on having a Valentine to celebrate the day with, but no matter whether your status is single, “it’s complicated”, or old married couple, you deserve a cocktail! The …READ MORE
The Vodka Soda is pretty much the un-cocktail. It’s typically meant to be as tasteless and chuggable (is that a word?) as possible. Admittedly, most of the time when I thought of a Vodka Soda, I thought of a drink meant to induce drunkenness with as few calories as possible. And that’s about it. I definitely dismissed it altogether for a while there. But it was actually my aversion to it made me want to do some tweaking and throw a few back in the name of R&D. After trying a bunch of easy variations, I’m ready to stand behind the Vodka Soda as a really fun and delicious cocktail template.
If there’s one drink that’s the embodiment of summertime in America, it’s good ol’ fashioned, homemade lemonade! The simple, timeless combination of lemons, sugar, and water creates the most refreshing beverage during these dog days of summer. Pretty much every recipe out there will tell you to juice some lemons, add sugar and water, stir well – and voila! Good stuff. The really smart recipes will instruct you to make a quick simple syrup first, which is a big improvement. But I have an upgrade that will make for the best damn lemonade you’ve ever tasted – and you still only need those three ingredients: lemons, sugar, and water!
August is here, and in southern New Hampshire, the ripe, crimson cones of sumac trees are dotting the edges of roadways and fields everywhere you look. The Staghorn sumac, or Rhus typhina, is very easy to identify thanks to those spiky red cones coated in fuzzy fibers, reminiscent of velvety deer antlers. Sometimes confused with Poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix), the staghorn, smooth, and winged sumacs that grow throughout the US are actually all edible – and quite delicious! Fortunately, there is no confusing the edible from the non-edible sumacs, as Poison sumac produces white berries, and edible varieties produce red ones.
It’s a brand new year and that means two things: setting new goals and getting back on track with old ones! One of my goals this year is to return to the healthy eating habits I strayed from during my pregnancy (morning sickness put me on a carb heavy diet). After my daughter was born, it was just too easy to continue eating quick and less than nutritious meals on a regular basis. After a long day, and especially with a new baby, easy wins. Now that Isla is a toddler, easy is still winning on most nights. So that’s why my New Year’s eating plan is made up of delicious, fresh, and very healthy meals that are also super quick and easy!
Chances are, when you think of a Screwdriver, you think of…well, a pretty uninspired cocktail. Perhaps one of the least loved and universally unappealing of the two-ingredient cocktail recipes, the Screwdriver is a simple combination of vodka and orange juice. Sharply acidic while still tasting quite bland, there’s admittedly not much to love. I guess it’s the unlovable nature of the Screwdriver and it’s incredibly simple template that drew me to try to re-imagine it in clarified form. Plus, I really wanted to see if it would turn out completely clear.