Blackberry Mojito Recipe

What to do with blackberries?

Make blackberry syrup,

then make a blackberry mojito!

Last year, I spent two days cutting down blackberry vines in my yard. This year, they're back in full force. I read that dumping boiling water on the roots will kill them, but I haven't tried this yet.

I'm trying to live off my land as much as possible this summer - I have blackberries everywhere - they're food, might as well eat them - or drink them!

Here's how to make a blackberry mojito. I adapted Natalie's recipe from Tastes Lovely and Dana's recipe from Minimalist Baker to suit my taste.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 oz rum
• 2 oz blackberry syrup
• soda water
• 7-10 mint leaves
• 1/2 lime (quartered)
• 1 cup crushed ice

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Grab a  highball glass 
2. Add mint leaves, lime wedges, rum and blackberry syrup. 
3. Muddle with the base of a wooden spoon if you don't have a muddler. 
4. Make sure the limes are muddled and the juice is squished all through that goodness. 
5. Stir it up a bit. 
6. Add crushed ice. 
7. Top with soda water and garnish with a wedge of lime. 

Stir it up from time to time as you're cocktailing - it keeps the melting ice flavoured with the blackberry mint lime rum goodness!

Check out my Pinterest for more cocktails.

25 Cocktail Party Must Haves

Friends are coming for cocktails tonight.

25 things to have on hand:

1. hand size snacks such as -  popcorn, cheese, pickles, crackers, wasabi peas, Cheezies, or other nibbles - nuts with a vintage nutcracker are always a hit, make sure you have a bowl for the shells
2. ice, ice and more ice
3. cocktail napkins and regular napkins
4. coasters
5. vintage serving bowls
6. tea lights, candles, lighter
7. ice bucket or two
8. soda, tonic, juice (cranberry, orange, tomato), pop, cold flat or carbonated water
9. cocktail straws, cocktail picks
10. garnish -  lemon, lime and good cocktail cherries (check what your drink recipes call for)
11. extra toilet paper
12. whiskey, bourbon, rye, rum, vodka, gin, dry and sweet vermouth, cognac, two bottles of both white and red wine, beer, bubbly
13. clean cloth to quickly wipe up spills
14. plenty of clean hand towels in the washroom
15. bottle opener and corkscrew
16. a game - personally I can't stand games but some people love them at parties
17. burgundy glasses, beer glasses, martini glasses, rock glasses, champagne flutes
18. list of cocktail recipes - check the drink section of my blog, or Art in the Age and MasonShaker have some of my current favourites
19. clean house slippers if you insist your guests take their shoes off
20. organized front closet with empty hangers (no wire hangers)
21. bitters, simple syrup (easy to make - boil two parts sugar, one part water or 1:1 shaken until sugar dissolves)
22. an empty garbage under the sink
23. cocktail shaker
24. phone number for a cab or designated driver service - the host should pay or prearrange
25. appropriate music

originally published September 24th 2008

image from the collection of Stacy Reynaud

Hot Buttered Rum with Apple Cider

What you need:

• 2 tbsps butter
• 1 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 2 tsps pumpkin pie spice
• 2 oz dark rum
• 12 oz hot apple cider - my recipe
• Serves two

What you do:

• Whip butter, brown sugar and pie spice
• Chill until firm
• Divide butter mixture and rum between 2 six ounce mugs
• Stir in hot cider

stacy reynaud

9 Ways to Deal With Your Drunk Guests

Originally published February 14, 2010

It's your party and your guests are your responsibility. Be attentive and don't get drunk yourself.

9 things you can do to try and curtail the guest that over drinks:

1. You should mix your guests' drinks.
2. If a guest proceeds to the bar to make their drink, go with them and ask them to grab the ice, mix or whatever while you pour the drink.
3. Avoid having more than one bottle of liquor visible.
4. Make it obvious you use a jigger to pour drinks and hand them to your guest before he/she pours his/her own.
5. When it is obvious a guest has had too much to drink, don't offer them anymore. Fifty percent of the time, they'll get mad. There will always be someone there to assist you in dealing with them. They usually get embarrassed, then sit down and be quiet.
6. If your guest has drank so much that he/she is going to pass out, have two or three other guests assist you in taking them to a bed to sleep it off overnight. If they have a spouse or guest with them, offer them accommodation or a safe ride home.
7. Always have coffee, tea, soft drinks, water or juice available.
8. You are responsible and liable for your guests, including seeing that a drunk guest is taken home. Ask a good friend, take him/her yourself if they live nearby, or call a cab, give directions, and pay for it. I've been to some parties where you must drop your keys in a bowl before you're allowed to enter.
9. Simply put, don't invite people who cannot control their liquor.

At our last party, I had Operation Red Nose on speed dial and had our guests enter the number in their phones prior to tying one on. The service was great, and our friends who used it were thoroughly impressed. It's free over the holidays as well, and they're currently looking for volunteers.

The Craft Beer Advent Calendar

Remember last year's Whiskey Advent Calendar? Well, this year you get beer. There are two beer advent calendar options in Canada.

Canada's Craft Beer Importers have released their 2nd Annual Craft Beer Advent Calendar. The very large box contains 24 beers (isn't there a song about this) which consist of ten beers from Canada, thirteen from the US and one from Mexico. There are only 8700 calendars available and you can find them at private liquor stores in Western Canada. For a list of stores go to their Facebook page here.

BC's own Phillips Brewing Company brings us the Snowcase Calendar. They've pulled 24 different craft beers from their repertoire and bundled them up in a cute box. The Phillips offering is also limited edition so pick it up now. I know that the Village Taphouse and Libations in West Van have them.

From a marketer's perspective, I think both companies could've done a better job with their packaging.

How to Make a Rosemary Maple Bourbon Sour

 stacy reynaud

This is a damn fine cocktail.

3 ounces good bourbon
1 1/2 ounces freshly squeezed lemon juice
3/4 ounce maple syrup
1 large sprig of rosemary (grow it on your deck or a sunny window all year)

Combine bourbon, lemon juice and maple syrup in a cocktail shaker
Crush the rosemary in your hand and add it to the shaker
Add ice to just above the liquid, cap and shake vigorously for twenty or so seconds
Pour over ice in a rock glass
Add rosemary and lemon for garnish

Recipe adapted from the mason shaker

Enjoy!

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How to Make a Ginger Snap Cocktail

 stacy reynaud

We actually tried this two summers ago and loved it but I never got around to posting about it. Of course, this summer was all about basil gimlets and basil boozicles so it was forgotten once again, until I started thinking about pumpkin pie. The two are not related whatsoever.

What you need:

• 1 part Snap Organic Liquor (neutral spirit with blackstrap molasses, ginger, and spices)
• 1 part vodka
• 4 parts ginger beer
• lime wedge

What you do:

• In a rock glass, add Snap and vodka over ice. 
• Pour in four parts ginger beer. 
• Stir
• Garnish with a lime wedge

The Perfect Autumn Drink - How to Make Hot Apple Cider

Last weekend we apparently had 100 kmh (62 mph) winds here in West Van*. I used to love storms - that is until December 2006 when Tilley (our cat) and I watched, from our apartment on the edge of Stanley Park, as windows were blown out across the street and 10,000 trees were snapped like match sticks.

Usually, autumn is crisp and sunny in Vancouver and Septembers are the best time to visit. My birthday falls in the beginning of October and we can usually count on a nice, bright, crisp celebration in Whistler. Well, this September we had three times the average rainfall for September and it seems Fall just turned its back on us. 

To welcome in the dank which will be ours for the next nine months, I decided to make our own spiked hot apple cider. Super easy.
 

 
What you need:

• 4 cups apple juice
• 1 orange
• 5 cinnamon sticks
• 5 cloves
• spiced rum (optional)

What you do:

• slice orange 
• add all ingredients - except the rum - to a pot
• bring to a light boil
• simmer for 15 minutes
• add one or two ounces of spiced rum to a cup
• pour hot cider through a sieve into the cup
• serve hot with a cinnamon stick

recipe serves four 8 ounce cups or two mugs

*In case you were wondering about our bud Humphrey, (the hummingbird). He and his hummingbird chums survived the storm. They were right up at the feeder first thing the next morning.

Summer Basil Gin Popsicle Recipe

stacy reynaud

I refuse to let all this basil we have go to waste. Voila - the basil gin boozicle!
I didn't want to use those creepy silicone popsicle molds,  nor the $30 stainless steel mold
from Whole Foods, so I improvised.

 

For the mold I used little recyclable plastic cups, (100 of them cost less than $3), and the popsicle sticks are craft sticks, (bag of 150 less than $3). You can get craft sticks at a craft store or that big box store that starts with W. If you want to be really swish - dye the craft sticks with food coloring or blackberry juice.

What you need:

• 1 cup gin
• 2 cups water
• bunch of fresh basil leaves
• 2 limes - juiced
• 2 tbsp agave syrup
• blender
• tinfoil
• craft sticks
• small cups

What you do:

• add everything to the blender and pulse slowly. Don't go too fast or it will get foamy and that stuff doesn't freeze
• pour the mix into the little cups
• pop a tinfoil hat on them
• slice the middle of the hat with a knife and insert the craft stick
• put the cups on a tray in the freezer for no less than 24 hrs.
• you can omit the water if you want - it just won't freeze as solidly

Strawberry Mint Muddle is Not Leningrad Stew - Cocktail Recipe

stacy reynaud

Voila - mushy strawberry mint cocktail!

Ingredients:
1 - 2 ounces white rum
3 big ripe strawberries sliced
3 big fresh mint leaves
2 - 3 tsp. blue agave syrup
Add all ingredients to a rock glass and muddle with a wooden spoon
Add ice cubes
Top with soda and stir
Eliminate the rum if you don't want a boozy version.

Enjoy!

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Essential Coffees That are Dishwasher Safe

Hey, remember this?
Well you can buy it, for a kind of weird function.

Essential Coffee Information

Now wouldn't this be a cool poster?

source Helen K

The Business of Bourbon

My parents were Scotch drinkers. Which meant that if I ever wanted to have a few shots of liquid courage before going out I either had to grow a fondness for scotch or figure out some way to get into their unopened vodka bottle without being noticed. To make a long story short, my Dad approached me a few years ago expressing his embarrassment when he poured his friend a vodka soda only to have his friend politely comment on the lack of actual vodka in the soda. Now who in their right mind would've thought my Dad still would have had that same bottle of vodka that was watered down weekend after weekend in 1989? We both laughed about it. That's all we really could do.

Remember New Coke?  I always question brands and their ulterior motives - even if in reality they don't have one. Last week when I heard that Maker's Mark had 'underestimated' the demand for their bourbon five years ago, (barreling less of it for the five year aging process), and had in turn decided to water down future batches, (to ensure supply met demand), the first thing I smelled was foul play. To make matters worse, to state that no one would even know the alcohol content had been lowered from 90 to 84 proof, (an overall decline of 7% in alcohol), the company, that thought it was being transparent, actually made it sound as if Maker's Mark drinkers were without palette and therefore it was without consequence if they watered the booze down. In no way am I accusing Maker's Mark of anything dirty, (no publicity is bad publicity), however the Maker's Mark brand equity is at stake and I find it hard to believe a company could be so blatantly dumb unaware of the damage such a move could have on that equity.

Always the entrepreneur, I'd planned to head right to the liquor store to stock up on 90 proof Maker's Mark for resale at a later date. But wait, could this move on my part actually be the desired end result of a marketing tactic?

How to Reuse Bottles

a soap dispenser available here

lights available here

a hummingbird feeder available here

a wind chime available here

  torches available here

a chandelier available here

and don't forget they also make excellent boot trees.

The Whiskey Advent Calendar - an early gift

No more cheap chocolate! Behind each of the 24 doors is a 3cl sample of whisky - including a 50 year old Scotch (full bottle worth $560). Get it here. Prefer gin? Go for the Ginvent calendar

6 Things I Got Into in 2011

rollerblading, Nickelback, spandex, iCulture, cow print, Charlie Sheen.
You know I'm joking, right?

1. Lindeman's Framboise Lambic
2. Doubling my 1967 Tias Eckhoff for Lundtofte collection.

3. Vintage dinner napkins because new ones feel disgusting on one's skin.
4. Organic Blackstrap Molasses (unsulphured) - In late June I found out I was anemic. My get back to health regime included a morning dose of Floravital, Megafood - Blood Builder, and Chewable Vitamin C ; which was followed in the afternoon by one big spoon of blackstrap molasses in a cup of warm unsweetened almond milk. It worked, I am now attractive to Vampires again.

5. smashing, melting and refrigerating

6. Definitely not a new fixation but I finally found a record player (a cool enough for the MoMa vintage Bang & Olufsen Beocenter 7000 I may add) and pulled out all the old Zeppelin - which is so much better on vinyl.

How to Make a Sweet Italian Cocktail

2 oz Bourbon
1 oz Campari
1 oz Martini Bianco
1/2 tbsp honey
1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Fresh thyme sprigs
* serves two or one biggie

Add all ingredients (except thyme) to a martini shaker - do not add ice as the honey won't blend
Shake it
Pour over ice into rock glasses
Garnish with fresh thyme sprig

How to Make Ginger Ale - Simple Recipe

What you need:
frozen ginger (24hrs in the freezer)
lime
soda water
blue agave or corn syrup
ice
grater/zester
tall glass
dark rum (optional)

What you do:
pour in about 2 tbsp. syrup
add ice
peel about an inch off the frozen ginger
grate 2 tsps. frozen ginger into the glass
zest about a tsp. of lime into the glass
squeeze in the juice of one large lime wedge
(optional) add dark rum
top off with soda water
stir