Apple Crisp Cocktail

After a long and exhausting day, there's nothing better than sitting down to a delicious cocktail with a blanket and the remote and watching an hour of trash TV.  My dear husband has learned that there is a particular look I get at the end of a terrible day that suggests he'd be better off silencing his complaints about my dramatic TV shows and just coming along for the ride. Fall is officially my favorite season, but here in Hawaii, it doesn't exist in nature, so my only option is to create some sort of artificial fall wonderland in my home. Garlands of fall leaves, pumpkins and gourds and spice scented candles are pulled from storage. I make pumpkin muffins and pumpkin pancakes and roasted root veggies with pumpkin vinaigrette dressing. And inevitably, my cocktail repertoire gets an infusion of fall flavors as well. Tonight, I decided to play with a new bottle of honey-ginger syrup my husband picked up at the liquor store and concocted this delightful combination. It uses rye whiskey, which is so far outside my normal drinking routine, but seems seasonally appropriate.

Apple Crisp Cocktail

• 1 1/2 -2 1/2 oz. of rye whiskey (I used Templeton's). Mix this to taste (and how early you have to be up the next day).
• 1 oz honey-ginger syrup. (I used a bottled variety, but I included a recipe for an easy homemade version below).
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon.
• 2 oz. fresh apple cider or high quality natural apple juice
• Cinnamon sugar for the rim of the glass

Mix a spoonful of sugar and a dash of cinnamon in a shallow dish or small saucer. On another saucer/plate, add a few drops of honey-ginger syrup. Place the rim of the glass on the plate with the syrup and twist to coat the entire rim, then dip the rim in the cinnamon sugar. Add a large cube of ice.

In a shaker, mix the rye, lemon juice, syrup and juice or cider. Add a cube of ice and shake to combine. Strain the cocktail mixture into your rimmed glass and garnish with an apple slice and cinnamon stick, if desired.

Honey Ginger Syrup

In a small saucepan, add 1/2 cup honey and 1/2 cup water. Add a 1/2 inch piece of ginger (peeled and sliced) to the pan and heat over medium heat until mixture boils. Allow to reduce for a few minutes, until it reaches a syrupy consistency. Remove from heat and cool. Store in a jar or lidded container in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.

A drink and a good magazine

Last weekend, I found myself with a couple of hours of quiet time one evening, and rather than sit in front of the TV, I decided to catch up on my reading. I'm a subscriber to Click Magazine, a gorgeous photography magazine filled with inspiration and tips, but I've been so busy,  I haven't had time to sit and just enjoy the last issue. I decided that a delicious cocktail, a fuzzy blanket, a comfy pair of PJs and a magazine were the perfect recipe for my unexpected evening alone. I'd recently picked up a new bottle of Ransom Old Tom gin, so I decided to mix up something cool and refreshing with it: a cardamom and mint cocktail. The recipe calls for Lillet blanc, a fortified wine from France that is frequently enjoyed over ice in its homeland, but most often finds it way into cocktails here in America. It pairs beautifully with gin, and the mint and cardamom add a cool and refreshing twist. Here's the recipe if you'd like to give it a try.

Cardamom and Mint Cocktail

• A handful of mint leaves (at least 5 or 6)
• 2 teaspoons sugar or agave syrup
• A generous pinch of ground cardamom, or 2 cardamom pods
• 1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice (from 1 lime)
• 2 ounces Lillet Blanc
• 1 ounce gin, I used Ransom Old Tom gin this time, but Hendricks is also delicious

Reserve 1 or 2 mint leaves for garnish, then toss the rest in a cocktail shaker. Dump in the gin and muddle the mint leaves to release their minty goodness. Add the Lillet, sugar/agave, cardamom and lime and a bunch of ice. Shake what your mama gave you (and what's in the cocktail shaker) for a good minute. Yes, a whole 60 seconds. Strain into a martini glass or coupe and garnish with the reserved mint leaves.

In the shade of monkeypod trees...

Here in Hawaii, we've been dealing with record-setting rains and even flooding of downtown areas, thanks to an unusually-busy hurricane season. Beaches have closed due to sewers overflowing and running off into the ocean, and the usually-blue skies have been endlessly grey for weeks. Our family has managed to squeeze in a little beach time here and there, but mostly we've been trapped indoors or the kids have been playing in the rain in our front yard. Over the weekend, we saw a small reprieve from the wet weather, and although the skies were still a bit grey, we braved the insanely humid conditions to head over to one of our favorite restaurants on the island, Monkeypod Kitchen. The food at Monkeypod is good and of great quality (albeit a bit expensive), but our favorite part of the restaurant is the cocktail menu and the open-air, laid-back atmosphere of their patio. With live music every day and a gorgeous stone patio flanked by tropical flowers set in the shade of their namesake monkeypod trees, the restaurant is a wonderful reprieve from the day-to-day frustrations of island living. Brad and I sip a cocktail while listening to the trade winds mingle with the notes of the acoustic guitar, and the kids run and play in the grassy lawn surrounding the patio. A slice of the Hawaiian good life.

I like Texas

Yeah, well, I like Texas, ain't it fine hereI like to pick my guitar down at Ol Gruene HallAnd drink that Miller Lite beerYeah, well, I like Texas, man, there ain't no doubtJust listen to me, 'cause I know what I'm talkin' about

Well, there's old dancehalls and little cafesWhere you can get a taste of the Lone Star StateYou can strap on boots and have yourself a laugh or twoWell, there's no line dancing just straight romancingThat Hill Country love is what I fancyThe streams running clear and the skies they are so blue

Pat Green - I Like Texas Lyrics | MetroLyrics

In May, our family went home to Texas for a visit. While there, we visited the quaint, historic town of Gruene with my in-laws, taking the opportunity to introduce our kiddos to the old Texas dance hall tradition. You see, Texas dance halls are not the den of iniquity that is the modern club. Although there's plenty of drinking (which leads to scores of risqué behavior among the participants once they leave the dance hall), dance halls are generally family-friendly places to grab a beer, listen to live country music, and two-step around the dance floor in your favorite pair of scuffed cowboy boots. Gruene Hall is one of the oldest halls and the longest-running dance hall in Texas, so it was a lovely treat to plop down at one of the long communal tables, sip a cold beer after an afternoon of antique shopping in the Texas heat, and listen to a couple of old guys pick their guitars.

It was just a Tuesday afternoon when we were there, so the hall was fairly empty. My husband and I have visited many a dance hall in our youth, so we couldn't resist the urge to twirl around the barren dance hall floor and two-step our way down memory lane--despite our lack of proper footwear (PS--flip flops are not the ideal shoes for dancing). Brad and I made a few lonely turns around the floor, staring into each other's eyes and remembering those first twirls around a different dance floor in our dating days, oblivious to the stares of those who sat on benches and watched. Then we each grabbed a kiddo and began the painstaking tradition of teaching them to dance the Texas two-step. There were a few toes injured in the process, some aching backs as we bent down to dance with our short little partners, but it was such a treat to laugh and smile and twirl around the floor.

Gruene Hall-Photographing Under the Influence-Narrow Gate Images by Angela Parker

You put the lime in the coconut....

If you've ever heard the song, then you can't possibly read that title without singing the tune. Heck, I can't ever mix the drink without singing it.

On a trip to Maui last spring, I visited a cute wine bar and ordered a drink called the Lime and the Coconut. It was delicious, light, refreshing and not too sweet, perfect for a hot day. When I returned home, I couldn't wait to try to replicate it. Although the wine bar used Svedka Colada vodka, I wasn't about to make a special trip to the liquor store (have I mentioned that my cocktail experimenting generally takes place in PJs after the kids are in bed?), so I pulled out the Belvedere vodka and added a little Malibu rum from a bottle that someone had left at my house after a party and had been shoved in the corner of the liquor cabinet and forgotten. I squeezed in a little lime juice, poured in the coconut water, and added a touch of agave to balance the flavors, and ended up with the perfect summer drink. And since coconut water is lauded for being so healthy and hydrating, it's guilt free, right?? Repeat after me: hydration is important!

The Lime and the Coconut

1 1/2 oz. vodka (I love Belvedere, personally, but feel free to substitute another quality vodka)

1/2 oz. Malibu coconut rum

Juice of half a medium lime (about an ounce)

2 oz. pure coconut water (I like VitaCoco, but there are plenty of great options)

1/2 oz. agave syrup (you could also substitute simple syrup here, whatever you have on hand)

     Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously for 60 seconds. (I said daahctor, ain't there nothing I can take...I said, daaaaahctor, to relieve this bellyache...You put the lime in the coconut and drink them both up....) Strain into a chilled martini or margarita glass and serve with a lime wheel.

The Lime & the Coconut

Introducing my new project...and the drink that inspired it.

I love a good cocktail. Forget cheap sugary drinks or the swill we guzzled as broke college kids. I adore quality spirits combined in new, inventive ways that are designed to bring out the subtle flavor nuances of the ingredients. For me, it isn't about the buzz...that's just a secondary payoff to the process of playing with flavor and tickling the palate with new, subtle combinations.

My love of booze began back in law school, when I moonlighted as a cocktail waitress and occasional bartender to pay my way through school. Although my tastes have improved considerably since those days, the joy of mixing and experimenting began behind a stainless steel bar in a cajun food restaurant and expanded to my own liquor cabinet. Over the years, I've visited some of the best bartenders of the craft cocktail movement, tasted the creations of adventurous mixologists, and sampled the eclectic pairings of booze-minded chefs. As a result, I love nothing more than to play around in my own kitchen with new cocktail recipes and a couple of nights a week, you can find me dragging out the jigger and shaker, digging through the produce drawer, and mixing up something tasty to drink.

Tonight, as I sipped my drink, I thought: wouldn't it be great if I could marry my love of booze and my love of photography?

And just like that, a new personal photography project was born.

The timing is perfect. This week, I will conclude my first 365-day photo project. I've been considering where to go from here: will I continue daily shooting, or transition into a weekly project? Or do I just take a break from the pressure of a 365?

I'm not entirely sure what I'll do after my 365-day project concludes...but I can tell you, it will include a bunch of photos of cocktails. Booze and a camera...sounds like heaven to me.

Tonight, I decided to play with a recipe for Bee's Knees. This is a classic cocktail from the Prohibition era that used citrus and honey to cover up the shudder-inducing bathtub gin that was a staple of the time. Tonight, I decided to drag out the Lehua honey from Big Island Bees. My husband picked up a jar of this delicate honey infused with cinnamon, and it is amazing. Sweet and slightly floral, the honey is balanced beautiful by the woodsy cinnamon. I couldn't wait to shake it up with one of my favorite gins, Hendricks. Although I would have preferred to use Botanist Gin, alas I am currently out, and I figured the light and floral Hendricks would work well with the honey. And since I was using the Hawaiian Lehua honey, I decided to translate the name into Hawaiian.

Here's the recipe:

Meli Kuli (Bee's Knees)

2 oz. Hendricks gin

3/4 oz. freshly-squeezed lemon juice

1 oz. hot water

1 tsp. Lehua honey (Can't find it? Feel free to substitute any local, unfiltered, raw honey. Be adventurous--there are more than 300 varieties of honey in the U.S., all with their own flavor profile. You can't go wrong!)

     Place hot water and honey in a cocktail shaker and stir or shake until the honey is completely dissolved. Add gin and lemon juice and ice. Shake for a full 60 seconds, then strain into a chilled martini glass and serve.