Sundays by the River

The last Sunday in February brought the tiniest hint of the possibility of spring. This year's groundhog did not see his shadow, the traditional sign of an early spring, but I'd assumed it was because there was so much snow on the ground that he refused to leave his den! But perhaps he was right after all.

The New York Sour

We came across a picture of this drink in an issue of Plate Magazine and it looked so inviting that we had to make a batch and see if it tasted as good as it looked. And, so it does. It has a sweet and sour kick and the red wine adds an interesting note in addition to providing it's attractive two-tone look. Some of the recipes we've found include the orange juice and some don't but we think the drink is too sour without it. Almost all the recipes, however, call for 1/2 oz. less whiskey than we used but we'll leave that up to you. Cheers!

The Maple Leaf

This is our favorite new cocktail that we didn't even know we'd like and that came about through a chain of events.

The Vodka Gimlet

Recently I was lamenting to a colleague with a culinary degree that none of the cocktail recipes we look up are ever quite right and she helpfully pointed out that I am a twit. Well, OK, she was far more diplomatic than that but I got the salient point. It seems that both chefs and mixologists purposely alter their published recipes just a bit so that while your home version is fine, you need to return to the restaurant/bar for the version that's great. A good strategy but, not in our house...we experiment!