As the saying goes…when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.  Then, find someone to whom life has given bourbon.  Add a grill, a dock, some tunes, and you have a perfect summer day!!

The craft for the day:  Bourbonade.  Stolen shamelessly from my friend Sharon, this beautiful concoction is ideal for a leisurely day when you’ve got some time to invest.  This is craft cocktailing at its finest.  Much like coffee — which comes in many preparation methods — when done at a slow bar, slow does indeed raise the bar.  ‘Slow’ not only bring out the intricacies of flavour, it also gives ample time for conversation over your art.  So, if an hour-ish to prepare a cocktail holds any intrigue, we highly recommend giving this one a try!

Plus, we’ve had a request for “fewer words, more pictures” (of course, missing the point entirely of a blog…).  There might not exist a more photo-worthy cocktail journey…this one is verging on cocktail porn.

Bourbonade

rosemary simple syrup (makes 8-10 drinks)

• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups water
• Heat & stir until it hits boil, then remove from burner
• Add 2 springs rosemary and steep (20-30 min)

grilled lemonade (makes 8-10 drinks)

• Cut 18 lemons in half
• Dredge in sugar
• Grill on medium until it looks like the photo (10-20 min)
• Remove, cool slightly, and squeeze juice out of lemons
• Strain to remove pulp, as desired

mix

• 1-1/2 oz bourbon (rye also is lovely)
• ½ oz rosemary simple syrup
• 1-1/2 oz grilled lemonade
• Top with soda water
• Stir and add ice
• Garnish with lemon slice and a sprig of rosemary

 

Food Pairing:  We went with a bag of chips!  It’s all about balance.  Lots of effort in the cocktail…no effort on the nibbles.

 

Song Pairing:  We’re Going to Be Friends, White Stripes

Ok, Bourbonade, I can tell that we are going to be friends…

 

We Canadians are a hardy lot, but even the most indefatigable winter enthusiast among us is ready to firmly shut the door on both winter and spring, and move on to our earned reward of summer.  Which is why, when the somewhat sporadic warm days of May arrive, we sun-starved Canadians happily doff parkas for tshirts, swap the boots directly for flip-flops, and move from snow-tired SUVs to opened sunrooves and convertibles.

This proud display of optimism (the glass half-full version of oblivion?), is none more evident than on the May long weekend.  Frigid lake waters be damned!  The May “two-four” plunge is a cottage tradition!   Black flies and mosquitos be damned!  Lather on some Deep Woods Off, and stand beside someone with Type O blood (true fact!).  We are ready summer!  You are getting a big fat smooch from us, even if you are still acting bashful and coy!

With that attitude of optimism and unabashed positivism for summer days ahead, we offer you a cocktail salutation to all that is the May long weekend…we give you …

A Full Mosquito

• 1-1/2 oz raspberry vodka
• 5-10 fresh raspberries
• 10-20 pomegranate seeds
• ¼ oz maple syrup
• 3 oz soda water
• 1 lime wedge
• 1 sprig of mint
• muddle raspberries and pomegranate seeds, straining juice into glass
• add vodka and maple syrup; stir to dissolve
• fill glass with ice and soda water
• garnish with raspberries, blackberry, lemon wedge

 

Pairs well with:  Cranberry Vanilla Scones

Huh??  Scones on the dock?  Well, we couldn’t very well ignore that other noteworthy event this weekend.  Alas, with a TV-free, WIFI-free cottage,  Harry & Meghan’s nuptials will have go unwatched by our cottage guests this weekend.  As a close proxy, we suggest a lovely scone pairing — bakery-purchased, or try this awesome recipe (by the best scone baker I know…thanks Barb G! 🙂

• 3 cups flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup Dannon Vanilla yogurt
• 3/4 cup dry cranberries
• combine first 5 ingredients, using pastry blender to make a course mixture
• add yogurt and mix
• mix in cranberries
• turn out onto lightly floured board and knead til well blended
• either make 2 discs and cut into 8 triangles, or make loose mounds of dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes or till lightly browned

 

Song Pairing:  Say Hey (I Love You), Michael Franti & Spearhead

This is the ultimate good cheer, light-hearted, hopeful, buoyant song.  And it’s a love song!  So it works equally raising a glass with friends on the dock, or around the telly celebrating a royal wedding!  Cheers!

The blender has officially come out of winter storage, and taken its rightful summer place on the cottage kitchen counter.  Admittedly, April is a touch early for blender drinks…there is still enough ice on the lake to deter much desire for an icy beverage.  However, there is something anticipatory about the middle of April.  This year in particular, with winter trying to cling on a little too long, we need all the hope we can muster;  fear not, summer is indeed around the corner!  We have officially hit that point when single-digit ‘weeks’ can become part of our summer countdown vernacular instead of ‘months’!

In celebration of this subtle shift (hey, there is always a reason to celebrate!), we give you the promise of a….

Spring Thaw

1.   2 oz bourbon
2.   3/4 oz simple syrup
3.   1 oz fresh lemon juice
4.   2 dashes Absinthe
5.   1 sugar cube
6.   5-6 mint leaves
7.   6 dashes Angostura bitters
8.   1 mint sprig

• Muddle first 6 ingredients slightly to awaken the mint, but do not grind;  dump in Collins glass
• Fill glass ¾ with crushed ice
• Add bitters dashes; slightly swizzle to blend into the drink
• Top with more crushed ice

Garnish with mint spring

 

Pairs well with:  Bellavitano Cheese

There’s a lot of flavour complexity going on in this drink — a tartness from the lemon juice, a nice smoky twist from the bourbon, with the faintest hints of anise and fennel (a bit licorice-y!) from the absinthe.  You need a nosh that’s going to stand up to all that, but not add any further twist.  A great cheese it is!  Plus, you still have 9-1/2 weeks to get bathing suit ready, so continue to enjoy your cheese!

 

Song Pairing:  You Can Leave Your Hat On, Joe Cocker

Ok, we couldn’t resist the 9-1/2 weeks pun…get it??  9-1/2 weeks til summer meets 80s movie of the same name…  Just try to resist the striptease — still too cold for a skinny dip!

St. Patricks’ Day may be a little early in the year to evoke dockside memories, but as it is a harbinger of spring, it means summer can’t be far behind!  And while the lake is still-frozen, there is something about St. Paddy’s that brings out the same promise of conviviality as a dock full of friends.  Today, March 18^th, is of course the day after St. Patrick’s Day.  Pints of Guiness may have been on yesterday’s menu, so for today’s post we offer a curated ‘day after’ moment.

So, cheers to all those who are Irish, all those who wish they were Irish, and all those who pretended they are Irish yesterday.

“May the winds of fortune sail you,
May you sail a gentle sea.
May it always be the other guy
who says, ‘this drink’s on me.'”

 

A post-St. Patrick’s Day hang-over cure:  Hair of the Leprechaun

Rim highball with celery salt, fill with ice, and add (in order)

• 1 oz vodka
• 2 dashes hot sauce
• 3 grinds fresh ground salt & pepper
• 4 dashes Worcestershire sauce
• 4 oz Mott’s Clamato Verde (limited time only!)
• Stir, and garnish with anything green! Pictured here:  celery, pickled bean, lime twist, pickled cauliflower

Pairs well with:  Guiness Fondue

• 2 lb grated cheddar cheese
• ½ pint Guinness
• 6-8 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• salt & pepper
• cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp corn flour or cornstarch

Put grated cheese into a 7-inch fondue pot and melt gently, stirring continuously. Add remaining ingredients and stir until the fondue thickens slightly. For dipping use chunks of French bread or toast.

Song pairing:  Black Velvet Band, Irish Rovers

We tried to avoid picking a song that is too cliché to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but…apparently one of the Irish Rovers has a cottage on our lake, so we could not resist!  We refrained from the predictable Unicorn Song, and picked a lesser known Irish Rovers ditty:  Black Velvet Band.  Perfect for a glasses-raised sing-along to get your Irish on (or nursing the fall-out from yesterday’s sing-a-long)!

There is nothing like that perfect summertime moment on the dock.  The sun’s warmth on your face…the sounds of the lapping water…the coconut smell of your sunscreen…the stress of your work-week melting away, as you listen to the loons, the flag flapping in the breeze, and the water skiers zooming by.  You watch the condensation lazily slide down the glass of your favourite cocktail, and think…ahhh… This. Is. Heaven.

This blog was conceived during one such moment, while relaxing with friends on the dock at our cottage “up north” (aka Ontario cottage country) on a perfect summer afternoon.  We were enjoying the inspiration to this blog, the all-time perfect summer cocktail:  a gorgeous melange of coconut rum, pineapple juice, soda water, and fresh muddled strawberries, over ice.  It is truly a 5-sensory stimulation of the amygdala;  a jolt directly to the pleasure-centre of the brain.  And the name says it all…Liquid Sunshine (recipe below).

We got to thinking…if one divine beverage has the power to both symbolize and transport you to a perfect state a bliss, might there be other such celestial beauties??  Capable not just of quenching your thirst, but of teleporting you to your happy place, whatever that might be?  Hence…Docktails was born.

So, our intention this summer, is to curate a weekly summertime moment of heaven, for you to re-create for your own dockside pleasure — a beverage, a song, and appetizer — you add the dock and the company, and you’ll be on your way.

Enjoy!  (and please be patient with the functionality of this site– this blogging thing it new to us!  🙂

Mary and Jackie

An homage to you,  Liquid Sunshine

In a highball, full of ice, add:

• 1-1/2 oz Malibu rum
• pineapple juice (fill glass to 3/4 full)
• splash of soda water
• 2-3 hand-muddled (healthy squish) fresh, in-season strawberries

Pairs perfectly with:

Appetizer:  Proscuitto-Wrapped Asparagus Spears

• wrap proscuitto around asparagus spears
• brush with olive olive, season with sea salt
• bake (350, 8-10 minutes) or grill

Song:  All Summer Long, Kid Rock