This has become my go-to drink this summer! It’s bright and tart, with just the right amount of sweet. While not traditional, I use cucumber-lime vodka because I love the hint of cucumber. Check out my latest video on YouTube to learn how to make it. It couldn’t be easier! Cheers!
Continue reading “Cucumber Lime Vodka Gimlet” →
Chambord with Rosé is a beautiful variation on the more traditional Kir which is simply made by combining Crème de Cassis, a blackcurrant liqueur, with leftover dry white wine and swirling the two together in the glass. When making Kir or its more elegant cousin, Kir Royale (which is made with champagne), I often substitute Chambord, a black raspberry liqueur, for the standard Crème de Cassis. The two liqueurs are very similar in taste, with the exception being that Crème de Cassis is slightly sweeter and syrupy in texture, whereas Chambord is more refined in flavour, with notes of blackberries, Moroccan vanilla, honey and citrus playing off the predominate raspberry flavour. It’s not quite as sweet as Cassis and is a bit thinner in texture making it easier to swirl into the wine. In my opinion, the two can be used almost interchangeably but, since raspberries are my favourite summer berry, I always have a bottle of Chambord in liqueur cabinet. Continue reading “Chambord Rosé” →
Blood orange season is painfully short, isn’t it? I see them in the market one day and the next they’re gone. Their scarcity makes me love these ruby-red beauties even more. They’re the perfect way to brighten a grey winter’s day.
Let’s talk about whiskey sours. This drink always makes me think of the bootlegging cowboys in the prohibition era Wild West. I don’t know why and I’m not even sure if this was served at all in bars of the Wild West – I think, more likely, they shot their whiskey straight – but it’s an image that I love to entertain. The product of an overactive imagination, I guess, heavily influenced by Brad Pitt’s character in Legends of the Fall. I mean, do you blame me? Continue reading “Blood Orange Whiskey Sour” →
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I’m a bit of a history nerd – especially when it comes to my favourite branch of history: Cocktail History. I find it fascinating to delve into the mystery and legends surrounding the Golden Era of Cocktails. (And by “Golden Era” I, of course, mean prohibition era, whence all the best cocktails originated.) It’s always useful to have a few fun facts up my sleeve about what I’m serving, if only to pull out as a bit of small talk to liven up the conversation should it happen to run dry.
In the canon of classic cocktails, the Sidecar tends to get a bad rap or is simply overlooked as a stuffy libation lost in the smoke from bars of the past. I’m not sure why – maybe it’s because no one on Instagram has endeavored to make it “cool” again in the way they have the Negroni or the monotonous Margarita, but it seems to me that the Sidecar has been pushed to the side in favour of more socially lucrative drinks. Strange, because a drink with such an elegant blend of fine French liqueurs seems like it should warrant a little more “Insta-attention,” don’t you think? Continue reading “The Sidecar” →
I’m kicking off the weekend with an Earl Grey Hot Toddy and a few good books. Old books are my weakness. I can’t resist. Sorry e-readers, nothing beats holding a real, hardbound book in your hands. The weight. The texture of each page between your fingers. The smell of a time long forgotten, pressed between the pages and preserved in the spine.
It’s been my dream, ever since I was a little girl, to have my own library, overflowing with antique books. All of the classics – Hemingway, Twain, Longfellow, Capote, Hugo, Verne, Mitchell – really, I could go on forever! Continue reading “Earl Grey Hot Toddy” →
If there’s one thing you will always find on my counter or kitchen table in the summer, it’s a watermelon – the bigger the better. Like a basket of apples in the fall, or pumpkins in winter, it’s an iconic part of our ever-changing “kitchen table still life.” I will let it sit there, getting riper by the second in the afternoon heat while I admire its variegated jade and emerald skin, until someone reminds me that I really should cut it so that we can enjoy it with more than just our eyes. And then the boasting starts. Who can eat the most? Who will take the title of Watermelon Master? This contest is almost always initiated by my husband, Rich, who claims to be able to eat the entire watermelon in one sitting. I don’t doubt that he would, if given the chance, but it’s an accolade that the kids are not willing to let him have. While I certainly don’t condone these brutish, gluttonous brag-fests, I have to admit, they’re wildly entertaining. Continue reading “Watermelon Mojitos” →
I’m a bit selective when it comes to bringing items into our home. My husband would argue that I’m just paralyzingly picky. I blame it on my tendency toward perfectionism. I spent a year scouring antique shops and flea markets for a painting for our dining room. Something with a bohemian flare to fit with the rest of the house, in soothing hues of blue and green to match the green walls in the room, which, I should mention are not yet green. When I finally found it – an antique reproduction of a John Audubon blue heron – I knew intuitively that it was the one. But about the green walls – that is to say, the walls which are currently just a vision of a painting project we planned three years ago. I can’t seem to find just the right shade. Green, but not too green – more of a silvery-teal, like Tuscan kale after it has just been washed. I’ve been through dozens of paint swatches, each an infinitesimal variation on the same shade, of which my husband claims to see no difference. I haven’t settled on the right one. Selective or just picky? The problem, I think, lies in the curtains. Continue reading “Moscow Mule + Ginger Beer Tonic” →
We all know the rules: drink 8 glasses of water a day, limit alcohol and caffeine, cut out refined sugar, etc, but I believe that what we are drinking is more important than what we’re not.
I’ve written a lot about my inside-out approach to skin care. While I try not to obsess over what I eat (or drink), and I thoroughly subscribe to the notion of everything in moderation, including moderation, I do like to make conscious decisions and choices that naturally nourish my skin from the inside out. I don’t spring back from a day of eating junk food or a night out drinking as easily as I did in my twenties, and it shows on my skin. Continue reading “Green Tea and Rose Spritzer” →
August 1997.
I was in a floral print mini skirt and a black leather bomber jacket that smelled of cigarettes and musky perfume (Malibu Musk, to be exact). The jacket matched my favourite combat boots and a scarf in the same print as the skirt held my hair back in a high pony tail in that 1950s-preppy-meets-punk-rock-grunge style that was so popular in the 90’s. A pair of Ray-Bans perched atop my head. I felt so grown up at 17. Continue reading “Cerise Chérie Cocktail” →
Have you ever watched a film or read a book that spoke so deeply to you (good or bad) that you found yourself thinking about it months, even years, later? When the opening scene of a movie shows a woman giving birth on the kitchen table while the cook frantically tries to collect all the amniotic fluid in pots so that it can be dried and the remaining salt used to season the food, you know it’s going to be one of those movies. Like Water for Chocolate came out in 1992 but I only just watched the whole movie a few years ago. To be honest, after the first scene I turn it off, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it until I made myself watch the entire thing, and I’m so glad I did, though I sill relive the scenes in my mind. Continue reading “Chocola’Tita” →
Cerise Chérie