by Brian | Apr 15, 2018 | Cocktails, Dedicated Drinker's Diary, Recipes
It’s spring, the season trademarked by the palette of green colors now arriving everywhere. Each new set of leaves from bushes and trees comes with its own native color, one that will gracefully mellow day by day until fall arrives. In our country home, our bedroom...
by Brian | Apr 3, 2018 | Dedicated Drinker's Diary, Recipes
Aperol is now 99 years old. The Italian aperitif is made with bitter orange, rhubarb, different flowers and surely some secret ingredients. At 11% it has half the alcohol of its sibling Campari and a far less bitter taste. The Campari company actually bought out the...
by Brian | Mar 13, 2018 | Dedicated Drinker's Diary, Recipes
Berries, how I love berries. In junior high I made summer money picking strawberries in the hills south of Portland. Those berries fields are mostly gone now, replaced by acres and acres of vineyards. The resulting wine enjoys the terroir of decades of berries that...
by Brian | Mar 12, 2018 | Dedicated Drinker's Diary, Recipes
By far mint is my favorite herb. Mint flavoring in the frosting on my brownies. Mint penetrating deeply throughout my julep. Mint jelly covering my spring leg of lamb. In our Catskills house a decade ago, we planted five thin sprigs. Mint is invasive and we now have...
by Brian | Feb 22, 2018 | Dedicated Drinker's Diary, Recipes, TBT
It’s National Margarita Day so we need margaritas. Or, even better, variations like The Paloma made with grapefruit juice. This recipe comes from a wonderful regional cookbook: The Texas Cowboy Kitchen by Grady Spears and June Naylor....
by Brian | Feb 6, 2018 | Dedicated Drinker's Diary, Recipes
With strawberries available year-round, what can you do with them? On cold winter days, what better than cold strawberry lemonade. Spiked with Prosecco. Once made, we put the lemonade, not in the refrigerator, but out on our screened in porch. It...
