I promised my friend, new mom April, that I'd share a delicious cocktail recipe, but decided to share five different drinks with TCK readers today as a part of her link up. Since tomorrow is the official start of summer, what better way to herald in a new season than by clinking a bunch of unique and delicious drinks?

1. Roman Holiday
This recipe comes from Katie At The Kitchen Door. I had to look up Amaro. Have you heard of it? I hadn't. The article I found about it likened it to sweet vermouth, which I love, so I planned on just swapping that in the recipe. Then, at our friendly neighborhood liquor store after a happy, energizing day at work, I spotted a gorgeous, almost vintage-looking bottle on the shelf. I must have been caught up in a Gregory Peck daydream because I bit the bullet on Amaro Montenegro.

The drink is a mix of rosemary-infused lemon-honey simple syrup, amaro, and prosecco. I knew April would love this - I learned about rosemary simple syrup from her ages ago!

Love, love, love La Marca. My mom bought it for me and my bridesmaids to sup upon while prepping for my wedding and it is crisp and refreshing and affordable.

It is PHENOMENAL. It's bubbly and refreshing, floral from the lemon and herbs, with an wonderfully rich, bitter undertone from the Amaro. I also highly recomment Food & Wine's excellent article about amaro that includes a very comprehensive run-down describing the different variations. (I know this because, four sips in, I nerded out and searched the whole web for info on amaro. I've used it other cocktails since and my love for it continues to grow.)

2. Tuscan Rosemary Lemon Drop
What to do with leftover rosemary... make more cocktails! The Nest mixed two of my favorite flavors - rosemary and lemon - in a delicious and refreshing beverage.

Their recipe calls for a plain simple syrup. I used more of the fresh rosemary and made a rosemary-infused simple syrup (I used 1/4 cup sugar and water). Then, mix in a shaker:

1 1/2 ounces vodka
1/2 ounce limoncello
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/2 ounce Rosemary Simple Syrup

I garnished with a slice of lemon. This is delicious. It's tangy and sweet all at the same time, with the great flavor and aroma from the rosemary. Definitely a winner!

This would also be outrageous in bulk for any kind of outdoor summer event. To lessen the alcohol component (or stretch your ingredients), you could also add in lemon-lime seltzer for a more refreshing twist.

3. Ginger Peach Iced Green Tea (non-alcoholic)
This recipe came about because I'm high maintenance. First, I have a tea obsession. It's Republic Of Tea Ginger Peach. Second, I'm pretty sensitive to caffeine so I opt for the decaf version. Lastly, I try to choose green tea when I can for both antioxidants and fewer-tooth-stain reasons. Let's call that "health" instead of "vanity", yes? I decided to DIY a caffeine-free green tea version of this flavor combination.

The ingredients:
12 cups of water
13 tea bags (I used decaf green by Twinings)
3 yellow peaches, pitted and sliced
1" knob of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
Lemon & honey to taste

Bring water to a boil in large pot. While water heats, embrace your OCD and tie one of the tea bag strings around the remaining 12 strings. It'll be easier to fish these out of the pool later on.

Once boiling, turn off heat and add tea bags, peaches, and ginger. Steep 10 minutes, then strain out the floaters.

Sample and season with honey and lemon to taste. Cool and then refrigerate until ready to serve.

I took a Tupperware bottle of this to my office and it's a really refreshing pick me up. Best of all, it hit all of my annoying must-haves - decaf, green tea, and the delicious spicy ginger and sweet peaches. I'll certainly be making more batches of this as summer wears on.

4. Mi-Madras
I'm taking a trip to The Cape in August and I cannot wait. A quaint little beach house a block from the beach, a big back yard with a grill, and all the fabulous beach cocktails I can stand. This basically means I'll revert to my college-era drink choices and opt for fruit juices glugged with vodka.

The Madras is one of my favorite cocktails - orange juice, cranberry juice (cocktail), and vodka over ice. I took inspiration from the fizzy Roman Holiday above to try a mimosa-esque twist.

I made a simple syrup from cranberries and orange juice (plus some zest). Once it steeped and cooled, I mixed it with an ounce of vodka and topped off the glass with prosecco (gasp, more La Marca). If you don’t want it to be quite as strong (sue me - I like alcohol in my alcoholic drinks) you could certainly swap club soda for the prosecco.

This drink was fruity, refreshing, and I loved the bubbly fizz. Plus, it's pink and pretty drinks are tastier, right?

5. Maker's Mademoiselle
Of all places, I found this recipe on the Pottery Barn website! It basically adds fresh citrus juice to a Mint Julep and I am now obsessed with this drink.

I didn't make a mint syrup - I simply ripped off a handful of fresh mint and muddled it in the bottom of a cocktail shaker with about a tablespoon of granulated sugar.

I also doubled all of the proportions to end up with two drinks. Finally, I added about 1/4 teaspoon of honey to the cocktail shaker to smooth out the bright citrus flavors.

I served it in my best ever antique store find - I got 11 of these coupes for $50. As such, the proportions of booze/juice to club soda had to be tweaked. I filled the glass about 3/4 with the mixture and then added a floater of the club soda on top. I loved the fizziness and lightness it brought to the drink, but also loved that the bold bourbon and zesty citrus flavors could take center stage.

Three cheers to the summer solstice! Make sure you can check out more cocktail concoctions on my Happy Hour Pinterest board!

Boozy Book Club Brunch

Last weekend, I hosted the brilliant and beautiful women in my book club for brunch. I wanted to go as girly as possible. Pink roses, floral napkins (that I made! The hems are atrocious!), fancy tropical juices in prosecco, the whole nine yards. My menu was girly as well:

Mini pesto frittatas: fluffy, cheesy, and tiny met my feminine criteria.
Cream currant scones: evocative of a tea party which, girly.
Lavender butter: butter + flowers = girliness.
Grape tomato & basil salad: girls love salad.

I started with the butter. It sounds fancy and it looked fancy and it tasted fancy and it required about 5 minutes of hands-on time. You pour heavy whipping cream into your stand mixer and you turn it on. You continue to check on it until you think it's ready - nope, it's whipped cream. Keep going. You keep mixing until the fats start to solidify and the buttermilk pools at the bottom.

Now, you get your hands all buttery. Squeeze all of the solids together into a lump and press any additional liquid out. Then, you start rinsing the butter. This basically entails pouring a small amount of very cold ice water over the butter and continuing to squeeze liquid out until all liquid from the butter runs clear. You'll end up with a lump.

I split the butter into two different ramekins - one got a pinch of big crunchy flakes of salt and the other got about 1/4 teaspoon of dried lavender flowers.

Then I moved on to the eggs. Martha inspired me with a pesto and tomato frittata, but I decided that mini frittatas were easier for a group and made a tomato salad on the side. I simply halved a box and a half of red grape tomatoes and a box of yellow grape tomatoes. I tossed them with a little olive oil drizzle, a little salt, and some ribbons of fresh basil.

For the frittatas, I scrambled a dozen eggs with some grated fresh mozzarella and half a cup of pesto. I also had to mix it with my little piglet whisk, a gift from our book club's Secret Santa back in December. Thanks, B - I continue to love this little pre-baconous dude.

I poured the mix into a greased cupcake pan (one with 12 cupcake holes). I baked these last after the scones came out of the oven. And the scones were super tasty. I am very particular about scones. I don't want too much grease and I certainly don't want any frosting on top or any additional Starbucks-esque bastardizations. They are perfect in their driest, crumbliest form, which is how the baking gods intended it to be. This scone recipe (also Martha) is absolutely perfect. They're a cinch to prepare and I followed her recipe (almost) to the letter. She has you cut the dough into six wedges, but I had seven attendees, so I went with eight wedges. If I were to do this recipe over, I'd still go with the eight wedges - I think six would have netted too much scone at once.

While the scones cooled a bit, I popped the mini frittatas into the same 400 degree oven and baked for a little over 10 minutes. Basically test the middle for doneness with a toothpick, cool them on a rack for a couple of minutes, and then pop out onto your serving dish.

I snapped one last picture once all the food (and a few of the tropical fruit bellinis) was on the table and then we got down to business.

I don't have any fancy pictures of the drinks area, but I did have these phenomenal (and 100% true) cocktail napkins.

The food was all delicious. The frittatas needed a little work - mostly, additional salt and pepper - but there was only one left at the end of our noshing. The scones, as mentioned, were exactly what I wanted scones to be and they were perfect with the lavender butter. All in all, our dainty yet delicious menu balanced out our insightful yet raucous afternoon, very little of which centered on the book!

Happy Hour: The Pitch & Fork

It's Friday and that means it'll be time for a good, strong cocktail in a few hours! Today I'm featuring a bar in my Manhattan neighborhood, the Upper East Side, where J and I went for happy hour recently: The Pitch & Fork.

Via

We've been to the restaurant for dinner and brunch previously, but were interested in their bar specials. Specifically, they have a 2 for 1 happy hour that applies to draft beers, house wines, and a specialty cocktail of the day. We actually came in thinking that 2 for 1 applied to ALL cocktails and were momentarily disappointed to learn that our little date night would be full price! Nonetheless, we both had a great time, enjoyed a really cozy ambiance, and delicious drinks.

Some quick back story: I won't get into the traumatic details but let's just say that from Labor Day 2006 through the very recent future, I have not touched gin. Eight years on and living in a mixology-happy city, I've decided to give gin a chance. I figured I could ease myself back into it by trying a multi-ingredient cocktail that includes gin. Which brings us to The Pitch & Fork happy hour.

J ordered a martini and I ordered The Royal Pitch. The ingredients listed are: Farmers Organic Gin, Goji Liquor, Lemon Juice & Champagne. It was DELICIOUS. The lemon was refreshing, the goji was fruity but not overly sweet, the champagne kept it light, but the whole thing certainly packed a punch with the gin. I really enjoyed it!

Three cheers to a nice, relaxing weekend with your cocktail of choice!