Posts Tagged ‘cocktail/beverage’

It’s no wonder my boys adore lemonade. Every time I was pregnant, I drank gallons and gallons of the stuff ““ and it had to be homemade. None of that powdered junk or frozen concentrate. In fact, the first hint I had that I was pregnant with the twins was a sudden craving for lemonade (and full-sour pickles from Carnegie Deli!).

Lemonade makes us all smile, and we even make it from time to time in the cold of winter as a cheerful reminder of warmer, sunnier days. The happy color and the sweet-tart flavor are like liquid sunshine, and we couldn’t think of a better way to end this fantastic summer than by sharing a…

Category: Recipes

A few of these and I’ll be drunk dialing Ina at two in the morning to tell her how much I adore her!

Seriously, these are divine, and they make me think of my Nana Caila for two reasons. First, although she wasn’t a frequent cocktailer, Nana would enjoy an Apricot Sour every now and again, and my sister and I used to love sipping her sweet drink-o. And the second reason involves the maraschino cherry. When I was a little girl, Nana hosted almost all the holiday dinners at her big house in Pawtucket, and her standard first course was a halved, sectioned grapefruit on a fancy cut-crystal plate garnished with a cherry in the middle. I…

Category: Recipes

This was the first real clunker…although it was chiefly due to a less-than-ripe banana. Ben scavenged the ingredients by himself at the farmer’s market, and I knew as soon as I saw green-tipped bananas come out of the bag that the result wasn’t going to be particularly scrumptious. I had planned to try to find the ripest ‘nanner on the underside of the bunch, but while I was still dicing the mango, Ben snatched probably the greenest one from the top, peeled it and dropped it into the blender, which already had all the other ingredients in it. So we whipped it up, knowing it wasn’t going to be particularly delish.

The smoothie was nice and…

Category: Recipes

Growing up with a dad who makes legendary Bloodys, this was going to have to be some Bloody Mary to even hold a candle. And happily, it did!

Ina’s got you puréing celery and grating an onion to add texture, body and complexity to the base, and there’s lots of lemon, too. I even used the Sacramento tomato juice she calls for rather than V8 (the gold can of juice always reminds me of the bar at my Dad’s beach house), and I must say it makes a much fresher tasting, less salty cocktail. I love to keep a pitcher of homemade Bloody Mary mix in the fridge and add vodka when I’m ready to drink,…

Category: Recipes