Honeymoon Cocktail

It's Halloween and we sure had lots of witches, goblins,superheroes, princesses, etc. come by. We gave out 150+ packages of candy!

I chose a 'Honeymoon Cocktail' for tonight. 
It was extremely good, so good I fixed a second round, but used a new bottle of Benedictine.  The second drink was better than the first one! I suppose 20 years may be too long to keep a bottle of liqueur. This cocktail may be about the best one we've had.

The recipe (page no. 98 from our Bartender's Guide):

3/4 oz Benedictine
3/4 oz Apple Brandy (Laird's)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon Triple Sec (LeRoux)

Shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass. I garnished the drink with a slice of orange.

Salud!

Hotel Plaza Cocktail

We cleaned out the garage, finally, after moving in 5 years ago and  now have 2 cars in the garage! 
It's too early to get all the results, but Auburn is ahead and we hope all of our other favorite teams win today.

We selected a 'Hotel Plaza Cocktail' tonight.  I think it is probably the same recipe as another cocktail I have fixed - but under a different name.  It was good nontheless.

The recipe (page no. 99 from thr Bartender's Guide):

3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth (Noilly Prat)
3/4 oz Dry Vermouth (Noilly Prat)
3/4 oz Gin (Booth's)

Stir with ice and strain into cocktail glass.  Decorate with a crushed slice of pineapple.  (What does crushed mean?)
I didn't have a pineapple, crushed or noncrushed, so I used a slice of tangerine.
It was a good swap.

Cheers

Soother Cocktail

We had dinner tonight at Brandt's Maisonette with 2 other couples. We asked Paula Brandt to mix us a 'Soother Cocktail' and even though it was a new drink to her - she got it done!  She even found an older edition of the Bartender's Guide than mine.

The recipe (page no. 162 from our Bartender's Guide):

1/2 oz Brandy
1/2 oz Apple Brandy
1/2 oz Triple Sec
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp powdered sugar

Shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass.
Paula garnished the drink with a lemon slice and added a cherry. 

We enjoyed this drink and the food.  I tried the duck which was really excellent.

Bombay Cocktail

We had several friends over to enjoy tonight's cocktail with us.  I picked a 'Bombay Cocktail' to fix.  One of our guests didn't care for the licorice taste of the Absinthe, so I got a Scotch (Macallan Single Malt, of course) and water for him. That he liked!

The recipe (page no. 45 from the Bartender's Guide):

1/2 oz Dry Vermouth (Noilly Prat)
1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth (Noilly Prat)
1 oz Brandy (St. Remy)
1/4 teaspoon Absinthe (La Fee)
1/2 teaspoon Triple Sec (LeRoux)

Stir with ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Earlier I fixed a big pot of Pastalaya (recipe courtesy of Kenny Wells), so we had a great snack with our drink.

I enjoyed the drink, as did our guests, although I could tell it was not one they would seek out again. Oh, well ...

Cuban Cocktail No. 2

Today we had our 3 grandsons here in the afternoon.  We enlisted their help to get candy ready for the trick-or-treaters on Halloween. I think they really enjoyed the candy adventure. The drink of the day turned out to be - a  'Cuban Cocktail No. 2'.

The recipe (page no. 70 from the Bartender's Guide):

Juice of 1/2 lime or 1/4 lemon (I used a Meyer Lemon)
1/2 oz Apricot Brandy (LeRoux)
1 1/2 oz Brandy (St. Remy)
1 teaspoon Rum  (Bacardi)

Shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass. I garnished with an orange slice (I had some fresh oranges).

It was a very good drink!

Cheers.

Between the Sheets Cocktail

We're back home tonight from our trip to Biloxi and Ocean Springs Miss. I found a 'Between the Sheets Cocktail' that is a lot like the Boston Side Car that we had last night. Actually, it's exactly the same except that the lime juice is replaced by lemon! It's on page 39 of the Bartender's Guide.

I fixed 4 cocktails for our neighbors and ourselves

The recipe for one drink:

Juice of 1/2 lemon (Meyer Lemon)
1/2 oz Brandy (St. Remy)
1/2 oz Triple Sec (LeRoux)
1/2 oz Rum (Bacardi Light)

Shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass. 

I used an orange garnish since we think it enhanced the drink (Boston Sidecar) we had last night in Biloxi.  We all liked the drink.

Salute.

Boston Side Car Cocktail

We arrived at the Beau Rivage Resort in Biloxi this evening on our way to Ocean Springs, MS.  We asked the bartender to make our cocktail for today, a 'Boston Sidecar Cocktail'  (We had found this in our Bartender's guide this morning before leaving home.)
After consulting a reference app, the bartender made the drink and it was delicious!

The recipe in the Bartender's guide (I don't have the page no. with me):

3/4 oz Brandy
3/4 oz Rum
3/4 oz Triple Sec
juice of 1/2 lime

Shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass (I like the way he strained the drink; he separated the top and bottom and used the gap as the strainer). The garnish was an orange slice.

Don't know exactly if he followed this recipe - but it was good.

Cheers.