March Drink of the Month - the D'Angelo

For Christmas this year, I decided to go back through six years of Bar Kiley posts and assemble the best of the best into a little book for friends and family. I'm still figuring out how best to produce said book, so it hasn't hit shelves yet (my parents and sister got galleys in their stockings), but the process of revisiting and tweaking 60+ recipes was a lot of fun. It also reminded me that I am really bad at naming original drinks, as is evidenced by the except below from the entry for the "Blade":

There is an old axiom: never let your idiot friends name your drinks when they are sleep deprived and watching old Marvel movies. Blade is made from hibiscus syrup (more on that in a moment), so it has a really pretty ruby hue. Hypothetically, if you and your friend are both sleep deprived because of travel and small children AND you happen to be watching the 1998 super hero/horror classic Blade, you may be tempted to imagine your drink as a goblet of blood, and name the tipple in honor of the movie. But that would be an incredibly dumb name, so no matter what you do, you should probably never promise your friend that they can name the drink you’ve handed them. Otherwise you’ll end up writing a 150 word essay in a cocktail book on why your drink has such a dumb name…. hypothetically.

I intensely dislike naming drinks because my naming conventions often come down to terrible puns, and no one needs more of those in their lives. With that as a given, I'm going to leave the name of the D'Angelo shrouded in mystery. I will say that it is an homage to one of the worst professors I ever had at Notre Dame, but the drink has nothing to do with her personality, subject matter expertise, or dress. It was a name association/pun, which I had better keep to myself in order to continue to project an aura of mystique.

The drink for this month began as a recreation of a tasty happy hour beverage I enjoyed at LatinicityRosa Maria from Latinicity became a sweet and sour porch sipper called the D'Angelo, and I hope you enjoy the fruits of our tinkering!
in downtown Chicago. It was a sweet and syrup-y (and likely spiked with soda-y) vodka drink made with lime, passion fruit, and rosemary. Down in the basement lab, we tweaked it into a passion fruit daiquiri riff with added notes of rosemary for complexity. The

Ingredients: 2 oz white rum, 1.5 oz lime juice, 1 oz passion fruit syrup, 0.75 oz rosemary simple syrup

Preparation: For the rosemary simple syrup: combine 0.5 cups water and 0.5 cups granulated sugar in a saucepot over medium heat. Stir until combined, add in 3 large sprigs of rosemary. Steep rosemary over medium heat for 10-15 minutes. Allow to cool, then strain and store for up to 3 weeks. For the cocktail: combine all ingredients in a Boston Shaker, shake over ice and strain into an ice filled goblet. Garnish with a rosemary sprig.

December Drink of the Month - Alpine Spritz

Our annual visit to Chicago this year was... interesting. Last year was the first year that we had a Charlie with us for our trip to Macy's, the Kris Kringle Market, and the Millennium Park tree. We thought that trip was challenging (and we did have to bring a lot of supplies for our 9 month old), but it turns out that traveling with a almost two year old is a *little* more difficult. Especially when the aforementioned two year old misses his nap and is teething. We were hoping to take our family Christmas picture at the tree, but the picture here is the best we could do.

Despite the challenges of the Chicago cold with a grumpy little person, we did have one highlight (during Charlie's nap). We visited Eataly, a restaurant that has been on Ann's list for a few years now. While Charlie slept in the stroller, we enjoyed gnocchi, oxtail ragout, and raclette. I also enjoyed an "Apline Spritz" cocktail with brandy, a "cranberry pine shurb," Luxardo  Triplum, and lemon. It was good enough for me to recreate at home, with my own shrub recipe featuring charred rosemary (Ann gave me crap for "burning Christmas trees" again), black pepper, and cinnamon.

For the shrub, pour 1.5 cups of apple cider vinegar into a saucepan. Add 1 cup of sugar, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, and add 12 oz of cranberries, 8 whole peppercorns, and 1 stick of cinnamon.  Char the needles of three sprigs of rosemary, and add the needles only to the mixture. Boil for 5 minutes, until the cranberries begin to "pop." Take the mixture off of the heat, and allow to cool. Strain into a nonreactive jar, pressing the cranberries to extract the maximum amount of juice. Store for up to 4 weeks.

Ingredients: 1.5 oz brandy, 0.75 oz cranberry-rosemary shrub, 0.75 oz orange curacao, 0.75 oz lemon juice.

Preparation: Combine the ingredients in a Boston shaker. Shake over ice, strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a rosemary sprig.