paaaaaaarty!

Photo fail! I neglected to photograph...anything last night, with the exception of this shot of Sarah finishing off the kiwi/lychee cocktail ('lycheetini'). The pitcher she's emptying out was surprisingly popular, given its less than stunning color. The tartness of the kiwis, though, disguising the surprising punch, is hard to resist.

(recipe given for approx. 3/4 pitcherfull)
in the blender, mix up:
the fruit of 3 kiwis
2 lychee
2 shots of the syrup from the lychee can
10-ish shots of vodka

pour mixture into pitcher, add approx. 1 liter of ginger ale (I busted out the new soda machine)
stir, serve over ice

Additionally, I re-visited the rum cream, made a modified Conquistador with dark rum and bitters instead of bourbon and Fernet Branca (working with what I got on hand, you know), and set out our range of rums of all colors. I ended the night with a couple of light rum, elderflower, club soda mixtures. Feeling pretty awesome this morning.

Failed to make: avocado daiquiris...maybe later in the week.

tarragon buck BUCK!

It seems fitting to have cocktails with fresh tarragon with Kathie B. and Nikki, as it was housesitting for them a couple of years ago where I first fell in love with the herb. I admit that I sliced a lemon for this one, on the side, and that those of us who are not allergic to it indulged for the first round. Due to the fact that we couldn't taste much liquor in these, we were too buzzed by the second round to remember about lemons.

This cocktail also gave us the opportunity to debut the pony set in its entirety -- our first use of the pitcher. Achy & I stumbled upon this little gem last winter driving back from Iowa (we had to make a purchase to use the bathroom).

The recipe was loosely as follows, but in reality I was a little more cavalier with the measurements to fill the pitcher...

Tarragon Bucks (adapted from marieclaire.com)
1 sprig of fresh tarragon, clapped between your hands to bruise, then rubbed on the inside of the glass (I also just jammed a little bouquet in the pitcher to steep; the longer the pitcher sat, the more delicious the cocktails got.)
1 shot vodka (I used the rest of the bottle of Effen in the pitcher)
1/2 shot dry vermouth
topped off with organic ginger beer

mmmmmmmm.....