FORAGE happy hour: Bloody Marys

There are a few drinks/liquors that, if presented to either Alicia or I, will always elicit an "ohh yeahh". These are: chilled Patron tequila shots, spicy margaritas, vodka anything, sangria and bloody marys. We LOVE a bloody mary. Love em. And listen: I know everyone has their own way to make a bloody and some of y'all may be like, "what, gross! my way is better!" but ya know. Variety and all that. Please excuse the inexact measurements. You gotta just feeeeeel when it's right. Forage Bloody Mary makes (about) 2 3 cups Tomato juice 2 shots Absolut Citron Old Bay seasoning pinch Cayenne pepper small palmful Celery salt (1) Lime juice (1) Lemon juice Worcestershire Tablespoon Dijon mustard Spoonful Horseradish In a pitcher, combine Old Bay, Cayenne, Celery Salt with the squeeze of half a lime and half a lemon, the worcestershire, mustard and horseradish. Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture is fully combined. Add tomato juice, vodka and stir until combined. I like to add a little water to the mixture after I've combined all the ingredients to thin it out a little bit. Taste, and then add seasoning until you're happy with the outcome!

happy hour at FORAGE: watermelon sangria

I feel like sangria is one of those drinks that you don't really need a recipe to create. If you have fruit and wine and you put em together long enough, I'm pretty sure it makes sangria. This watermelon sangria is no exception but lemme tell you...it's the best sangria I've ever put together. Tastes like summer and stuff.

Ingredients:
(serves 4ish)
2 cups watermelon chunks
Handful of blueberries
2 tablespoons sugar
1 lemon, sliced
1 lime, sliced
1 apple, cut in quarters
Lemonade
1 bottle fruity white wine
Triple sec
Ginger ale, club soda, or any other carbonated beverage (I used a can of orange vanilla Polar Springs water)

Put the watermelon, blueberries, sugar and a splash of lemonade in a pitcher. Using the non-business-end a wooden spoon (like me) or an actual pestle (like a normal person), macerate the blueberries, some of the watermelon, sugar and lemonade together until the blueberries are just burst. Add in the rest of the fruit, the wine, a few splashes of triple sec and top it all off with the lemonade. Let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours. Mix before serving; pour in glasses over ice. Top off each glass with a splash of something fizzy.

happy hour friday at FORAGE: southern Pimm's cup

I only listen to Jack Johnson in the summer, Deathcab when it's raining, exclusively. I binge on Talenti gelato for dinner on those 90 degree evenings in July and stock up on hot chocolate in the cooler months. I can't put peppermint anything in anything unless December 25th is around the corner and the neon sneakers stay on the back shelf of my closet until I can wear them with a sundress. All this to say: I like celebrating a season with things I consider its most essence-y.

Enter the summery Pimm's Cup. I first had this throw-back British invasion drink last May, when I was visiting my girl LT in Portland, ME. It's refreshing, light and decidedly different - it's just as easy to mix up a pitcher of Pimm's as it is sangria but feels a bit more exotic (as anything British feels more exotic than Spanish, right?). I found a recipe for a "southern" version of a Pimm's Cup in InStyle magazine last summer and just tried it out last night. Purists will most assuredly balk at the extra ingredients (while researching, I stumbled upon a comment thread on a PC recipe on a mixology website and things got heated re: the right way to make a PC) but whatevs, this was great!

Ingredients:
(serves 4)
1 1/2 cups Pimm's liquer
1 cup lemonade
1 bottle ginger ale (I used Reeds)
1 small bunch fresh mint
4 strawberries, hulled and quartered
1 lemon, sliced thin
20 thin slices cucumber

Prep your mint, strawberries, lemon and cucumber.

Evenly distribute those ingredients in chilled pint glasses and gently muddle (I use the end of a wooden spoon)

Combine Pimm's, lemonade and ginger ale in a pitcher and stir.

Fill glasses with ice, pour and enjoy! I think you could just as easily combine all the ingredients in the pitcher ahead of time and just cut up extra cucumber, lemon and strawberry to add to the glasses when you're ready to serve. 

I made my friend Jacquie the guinea pig for this particular recipe - we sat outside on my front porch for hours, enjoying the warm evening air until the ice melted in our glasses. We had a third member of our party - my cat Stormy couldn't allow herself to not be privy to the conversations, as evidenced above - that little head got as close to the screen as she could manage.

Happy Memorial Day weekend to all our FORAGEers. We say thanks to all the men and women who have died protecting our country.

Cheers,

Megan

happy hour friday at FORAGE: anniversary punch

We're big on birthdays, anniversaries and holidays here at FORAGE -- we're never ones to miss an occasion to celebrate!  Wednesday was beaucoup vintage's 3rd anniversary and while bv no longer exists in its physical form, we cheers'd to my first biz venture anyway. I texted Alicia at 2:30 to ask if she'd be down for a cocktail before our mid-week shift change (she gets mornings, I get afternoons) and   she said yes (duh) so I threw together a cocktail before running out of the house. It turned out surprisingly well (we continued to text about it that evening. Alicia: "Remember that cocktail you made us at 3pm today?" Me: "Yes, I remember it." Alicia: "I've been thinking about it.")

I plan on posting cocktail recipes here on the reg since cocktails are something we drink on the reg. Here's the first!

Anniversary Punch (makes 2 cocktails)
1 handful fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon sugar
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
14oz lemonade
3oz vodka
Splash of blueberry lemon sparkling water
Sprigs of fresh mint
Ice

Macerate the blueberries in a small bowl with the sugar and lemon juice until the berries are just smashed and the juice and sugar have become incorporated.

Fill 2 mason jars with ice. Add 7 oz lemonade and 1.5 oz vodka to each jar. Add a couple spoonfuls berry mixture to each jar and screw the lids on to the jars. Shake well.

Re-open the jars and add the sparkling water and mint to the top of the jars. Add a straw and enjoy!