Greetings from Les Petites Gourmettes’ Austin correspondent, Marissa, coming in today with a super simple gin/Kombucha/Aperol quarantine cocktail recipe. Austin has been similar to, I think, most other places as we all shelter in place and social distance. Luckily, Jeff and I can both work from home, so we work during the week and then take walks and bike rides around our neighborhood, do YouTube yoga videos, have Zoom dates with friends and family, watch movies, play games, and drink cocktails, and cook.

I have been cooking a ton while we shelter in place, and trying lots of great new recipes, but I am still too embarrassed to share my final products, which are often yummy, but usually not pretty. Maybe someday! In the meantime, we’ll focus on the bar cart…

For this cocktail, I used this recipe, but halved it.

Kombucha-Aperol Quarantine Cocktail

• 1 cup gin
• 3/4 cup Aperol
• 1/2 of a 16-ounce bottle chilled ginger kombucha
• Club soda
• 1 tangerine

My son, Connor, came over yesterday afternoon for a Virtual Happy Hour with my daughter and son-in-law, Marissa and Jeff, who live in Austin, Texas.

We used Zoom to connect online and then went to JackboxGames and played two different games from that site, Drawful, and Fibbage. We had a blast and we are going to “gather” again next week.

Marissa and Jeff had leftover pasta for dinner. I made a Harmony Board to share with Connor. And once he arrived, we made my version of our favorite drink, a Frozen G & T, from an Austin restaurant we love, Loro.

Have you heard of 1908 Empress Gin? I hadn’t until I saw a post on Instagram by my friend, Beth McDonald. The second I saw her photo, I knew I needed to get some of that gin! The cocktail Beth posted is called the Q1908. It is named after the year the Fairmont Empress opened and the name of its bar, the Q Bar.

The amazing thing about the gin, besides that it tastes wonderful, is that it changes color depending on what is added to it, which changes the pH. For instance, adding citrus turns it purple, and adding tonic turns it pink.

You can learn all about the making of the gin and its history if you go to this link and click on the “Watch Now” tab of Our Story. It will be worth your time. I love the cocktail and I love the gin!

The recipe calls for the use of COUPE GLASS. What is a coupe glass? It’s basically an old-fashion champagne glass. The coupe is a stemmed glass featuring a broad, shallow bowl. Nowadays tall fluted glasses are preferred for champagne. But coupes are fun and retro. I know I have some of my grandmother’s etched coupes around the house, but couldn’t lay my hands on one. So I used a wine glass from the same etched pattern. Darn it, I need to find those glasses!

Here is a photo of an etched coupe, it’s more intricate than my grandmother’s design, but you get the idea.

I have a thing for cucumber in cocktails, it’s so bright and refreshing. My all-time favorite is the Cucumber Martini.

What makes this drink different is the addition of mint simple syrup and the infusion of cucumber into the gin instead of muddling.

This is the second of two signature cocktails we served at the Harmony Boards launch party.

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This is a recipe I posted nearly four years ago, very soon after the birth of this blog.

Since it’s been so long and is buried deep in the archives, I feel it’s time to remind you about the summertime goodness and refreshment of my cucumber martini.

Cool cucumber, tart lime, luscious lime-simple syrup, herbal gin, and a boat full of ice  …  what more could a parched girl living in a sweltering, arid, suffocatingly hot, dry, scorched, oven-like desert want?

OK, honestly, maybe a bowl of ice cream … but even without the ice cream, this cocktail will do just fine!

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I can’t believe not one of you made a comment yesterday about my awesome tub photo.

Come on people, I cleaned up. I made sure the pumas stone, heel file, razor, shaving cream, loofah, and other junk was out of the photo. I’d had a pedicure just a couple days before, so my toes looked all pretty…

I even lit the bird candle!

And not one comment about any of it. I have to say, I’m a little disappointed.

Oh well, even so, I will still do as I promised and give you three recipes today. Three in one day! Yeah, no problem. 🙂

Karen and Bob enjoying their Blackberry- Meyer Lemon Gin & Tonics. Bob had shoulder surgery on December 26th, so my cocktails were a good substitute for any pain meds.

I’m just here to be of service.
Seriously though – Cheers to a speedy recovery, Bob!

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I’m wondering how long this new feeling I’m experiencing will last? “What feeling?” you ask – Guilt, that’s what! It’s 11:15 PM and although I’ve worked diligently on the blog off and on all day (setting up links and learning new things- thanks, as always, to Cyndi)

I have yet to post anything for the day. I don’t bother much with the emotion of guilt, I don’t find it to be very productive, so this is a new feeling for me! Honestly, I really am having a great time and am so excited about my 9-day-old blog in fact my horoscope – I’m a Scorpio – has been crazy dead on. Today’s for example:

“You’re feeling wonderful. Exhilarated, excited and anxious for all new things to happen. Well here’s a newsflash: just thinking about change – the way you are – means it’s already started. Everything begins as a thought – as an idea – right? So now your only job is to get the show on the road with some action. Map out a battle plan on paper and get it started.”

WOW! Anyhow besides slaving away on the “inner workings” of this site, I was also messing with my cable/TiVo connection for a larger part of the morning… sometimes all this techno stuff just really ticks me off. After doing back-bends, restarts, consulting TiVo.com, and finally having to call them twice, it all came down to unplugging it all (TV, TiVo box, cable box, and VCR) waiting 10 seconds, and plugging it all back in so it could all reboot and be happy again. That’s all it took! And honestly, that is what I usually think of first, WTH?!

The day wasn’t a total loss though, because I enjoyed a wonderful “end of the summer ladies-who-lunch” date at Lon’s with Barbara Fenzl and Kim Howard, my “Cooking Partners in Crime.”  So hurray for that! Anyhow, since we only had leftover salmon, peppers, and pesto available for dinner, I will just have to put up a cocktail recipe for today!

My BFFs, Peggy and Anne, and I discovered this great drink at Ocean Prime Restaurant back in the late summer of ’08, on a girl’s night out. I served it at a Christmas party in mid-December and then in January, I shared it with my other BFFs, Jen and Jeff – who live in Illinois. We hadn’t had it again until this month, twice now! First with Peggy and Anne a couple of weeks ago and then again last night with the Froggatt’s at our Basil & Bay dinner. I know it sounds like a strange combo, but after serving it to more than about 3 dozen different people, I haven’t found one person who does not absolutely love it- so don’t knock it till you try it!

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