4th of July
This year’s celebrations won’t look the same as in the past, but this mess of a photo depicts how I most love to celebrate the summer, in any year. On the beach with my family, a good book (last year I read everything from John Boyne), some music, white wine, cribbage and some easy to assemble dishes. I think we can still manage all that. We use a plastic milk bottle crate to bring the clean dishes in and transport all the dirty dishes home when we are done. No need for plastic. This menu can be fully assembled at home and enjoyed anywhere. I love the easy of the trifle in a mason jar. Just layer store-bought pudding, berries, pound cake, or anything you love.
Fourth of July Menu
The Siesta
Recipe from Bon Appetit, makes one cocktail
Fill a shaker with large ice cubes. (Any cocktail that contains citrus juice should be shaken, not stirred, so the juice mixes evenly throughout the cocktail.) Add 2 oz. tequila blanco, ¾ oz. simple syrup, ¾ oz. fresh lime juice, ½ oz. Campari, and ½ oz. fresh grapefruit juice to the shaker, cover, and shake for at least 30 seconds, until the shaker is cold as all hell. Remove the top and strain the liquid through a mesh strainer, into a glass. The Siesta is traditionally served in a coupe glass, but guess what? I don’t really like coupe glasses. I like glasses that feel like they’re not going to fall over. So pour it into any kind of cocktail glass you want.
Add a grapefruit peel as a garnish. Most siesta recipes will use a lime wedge, but I prefer the extra dose of bitterness and aroma from the grapefruit rind.
Spring cocktails don’t need to be delicate or floral. They don’t need to be poetic or precious or covered in cute herbal wreaths. The only thing a spring cocktail needs to do is remind you that there is life to live. And that after you finish your first, you better be in the act of making or ordering a second.