Your New Favorite Summer Drink

joanna — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 18:41:12 +0000

Welcome to your new favorite summer drink. I am calling it: The Cure for What Ails You, or just “The Cure” for short. That’s an absolutely unique and original name which no one has ever used before, and googling “The Cure” will for sure take you right to this entry.

Anyway. You can make it with or without alcohol: it doesn’t matter, it’s refreshing either way.

As a homemade soda, this is like a combination of ginger ale and Sprite, but not as cloyingly sweet. Add tons of ice, a shot (or jigger) of vodka, a fancy straw or swizzle stick, and it’s the perfect summer party drink. (Bonus: because the simple syrup is made with agave nectar instead of sugar, you won’t have a debilitating hangover the next day!)

I have visions of a large glass pitcher filled with The Cure—the glass beaded with perspiration, paper-thin coins of ginger, lemon, and lime floating among the ice cubes—on a platter with some light snacks. Add a porch, sunflowers, and loved ones, and you just might make it through August without losing your mind.

The Cure for What Ails You

1-2 tablespoons Ginger-Agave Simple Syrup (recipe follows)
juice of half a lemon
juice of one lime
1-1.5 oz vodka (optional)
lots of ice
4-6 oz of club soda

Fill a large glass (pint glasses are nice!) with one tablespoon simple syrup, lemon and lime juices, and vodka if you’re using it and stir with a spoon or swizzle stick. Add plenty of ice. Fill to the brim with club soda. Taste and add additional simple syrup if it’s too tart for you, but give it a try with less sweetener first! This is an adult drink and you’re an adult now, right? Right. Give it one last stir before serving.

Ginger-Agave Simple Syrup

1/2 cup agave nectar
1 1/2 cups water
several large unpeeled chunks of ginger

Add agave nectar and water to a small nonstick pot and use a whisk or fork to combine. Add the ginger chunks: keep the chunks large, because you don’t want to fish tiny pieces of ginger out of your drinks. Bring to a low boil over medium-high heat, then lower to a simmer and simmer for a half hour, stirring every few minutes. Cool in the pot, then store (with ginger) in a lidded jar for up to a month in the refrigerator.

If you end up making this a lot, please take pictures and share them with me! I’d love to see how this drink factors into your summer celebrations.

Cocktail Recipe: The Flashsideways

joanna — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:22:51 +0000

If you follow my Twitter, you already know about my LOST blog. It was only a matter of time before LOST started to creep into my cooking, since it has fully permeated the rest of my life.

The other night, I created a cocktail for a dinner party. It’s pale pink and features lots of juice. When my friend Jess asked what I was going to name this cocktail, the name seemed obvious: The Flashsideways.

Here is the recipe for a pitcher of cocktails:

3 cups cranberry juice (or cranberry blend, so long as it’s 100% juice and not a “cocktail”)
2 cups vodka
1 1/2 cups peach schnapps
1/2 cup simple syrup
the juice of one red grapefruit
the juice of two lemons (I used Meyer for extra sweetness)
2 tablespoons grenadine

After you mix the ingredients in the pitcher, you then add to each cocktail: a splash of lemon-lime soda (sugar-sweetened only, high fructose corn syrup is a hangover waiting to happen).

Adding the soda at the end not only retains the fizziness of the soda, but it will let each person control how strong their drink is. If you want a weak drink, you just fill the glass halfway from the pitcher, then fill the rest with soda.

There might still be time for you to make a pitcher before the latest episode of LOST airs if you hurry!

joanna vaught » cocktail

Your New Favorite Summer Drink

Cocktail Recipe: The Flashsideways