Smitten Cocktail: The Oh Snap!

If you like ginger, then you will love this drink. SNAP's claim to fame is that it tastes just like Pennsylvania Dutch gingersnap cookies — and it does.

That's not all. First, it's organic, if that sort of thing matters to you in your libations. And it's made from real stuff! Besides the obvious ginger, the other ingredients are blackstrap molasses, vanilla, rooibos tea, brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves … which are basically the same ingredients I used to make the gingerbread cookies from my last post. (No butter in SNAP, though, thankfully.)

And it's from Philly! Hooray for local booze!

Pennsylvania is not known for progressive liquor laws, so I was excited to see my local spirits shop had SNAP in stock. (Thank goodness for our proximity to Philadelphia, or we'd never get this stuff.) Within seconds of spotting the bottle on the shelf of the liquor store, I decided that the first drink I made with this stuff I would call the Oh Snap!, regardless of what I put in it or how I drank it. There was a handy little recipe book that came attached to the neck of the bottle, and, as it turns out, in it was a drink with 1 oz. SNAP, 1 oz. spiced rum and ginger beer called — you guessed it. I don't care. I'm still calling it the Oh Snap! (with exclamation point), even if I'm not as clever as I think I am.

I had ginger beer on hand, but I didn't feel like adding rum. I poured in 2 oz. of SNAP, added the ginger beer, and voila — a drink that's easy, yummy AND fun to say!

I'm going to try it in a "martini" next (in quotes because the only thing martini about it will be the glass). I'll rim the glass with brown sugar and then mix SNAP with vanilla vodka.

Smitten Cocktail: The Roof Garden

For the past month, I've been drinking nothing but Pimm's Cups. (Wait. That sounds bad.)

I know these drinks are nothing new, and quite possibly passé to the more discerning imbiber, but I have only recently discovered them, and I love, love, love them. They are delicious and fruity and fancy, and they're the official drink of Wimbledon. What's not to love?

I've been on a recent quest to not drink such lame cocktails. I've always been a wine or beer or vodka tonic sort of drinker, and lest I make anything in my life easier instead of more complicated, I thought I'd branch out a bit. My husband said tonight, "You like a cocktail you have to work for."

This coming from a man who drinks PBR or Seven & Sevens 99.99% of the time.

We have a toddler-level shelf of cookbooks in our kitchen, and Benjamin likes to pull out the Food & Wine 2005 book of cocktails. I'm sure this is just because it's one of the smallest and most portable. So, tonight, while doing his usual laps around the kitchen, dining and living rooms, he made a pit stop at the cookbook shelf and yanked out the F&W cocktail book yet again.

It was just sort of laying on the living room floor, and as I was bemoaning our lack of lemonade (no Pimm's Cups for me tonight), Scott picked it up and found another recipe using Pimm's. I took the book from him to check it out, and I just happened to then open it to another page. That's when I found the recipe for the Roof Garden.

The Roof Garden is the creation of Grace in Los Angeles (a place, not a person), and it looked divine. After making it myself, I can attest to its diviness (divinity?). Not only did I have all of the ingredients on hand, but it uses fresh mint and lemon, which is a winning combination in my book as far as summertime libations go.

One thing I love about this book is that the editors have included a little story to accompany each recipe about the restaurant, the bartender or the drink itself. The story for the Roof Garden says the drink was so named because of its use of thyme and mint, which are two herbs that thive in urban rooftop gardens.

Roof Garden

15 mint leaves, plus 1 mint sprig for garnish

2 thyme sprigs

2 tsp. sugar

2 oz. vodka

1 oz. fresh lemon juice

1 oz. simple syrup *

1 to 2 oz. chilled club soda

* I make simple syrup with 1 part sugar to 1 part water. Mine is also infused with mint, but yours doesn't have to be. Just pour the water and the sugar into a saucepan, stir, and warm it on the stove until the sugar dissolves, then let it cool. I store mine in a jelly jar in the fridge. I don't know if this is the best way to make it, but it's how I do it.

In a cocktail shaker, muddle the mint and thyme with the sugar. Add the vodka, lemon juice, simple syrup and ice, and shake well. Strain into a highball glass over ice, top with club soda, and garnish with the mint sprig.

The first time I made the Roof Garden, I followed the recipe exactly, just so I'd know how it was supposed to taste. It was very, very tasty, but a little too sweet for me. I cut the sugar down to just 1 tsp. The amount of simple syrup stayed the same. I think the key ingredient here is the lemon juice. Don't skimp on that.

Another word of caution: Roof Gardens go down very easily, which can be good or bad, I suppose.

Recipe courtesy Grace, Los Angeles; Food & Wine Cocktails 2005

Don't Mind If I Do

I was reading an article in this month's In Style magazine about retro holiday cocktails. Since my darling husband came home from the grocery store yesterday with a surprise carton of eggnog, I thought I'd go ahead and add a splash of spiced rum and a sprinkle of nutmeg and have my own cocktail last evening after our young lad toddled off (OK, was carried) to bed. It was even tastier because I drank it out of a martini glass.

I got inspired to create a vintage-y spiked 'nog photo. Cheers!