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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Summer cocktails

August 10, 2012 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

Pimm's cocktail.

I love cocktails! I usually like basic strong stuff. I grew up with this big family of males and somehow I thought I needed to show them that I could drink too. I will never forget when my oldest brother, John, (12 years older), found out I was going to college in NYC at Parsons, and at the next family party asked me what I was drinking. When I replied, “Rum and Coke,” he spewed out his drink and said, “Kid come over here. Let me pour you a Scotch. You can’t go to NYC and ask for a rum and Coke! They’ll laugh you right out of there!!”

Since then, I learned to love a simple single malt Scotch on the rocks (not too many rocks and not too hard to love) or a super cold straight up martini. I like gin or vodka, depending on how I feel. But as I’ve gotten older, I need things lighter.

So this summer, I’ve discovered Pimm’s! It’s lighter but you can still make a drink with a kick – after all, why do we drink when we drink? And it’s different and refreshing for the summer. Gin based, the recipe is a secret, as it says on the bottle. It’s some kind of berry mixture with a little nice bitterness, but no cough syrup flavor like Campari. It’s nice! Try it and tell me what you think. Now I’m not a sweet person (although many people tell me I’m sweet, ha!), I don’t particularly like sweet things, but if you do, add some simple syrup to this recipe and you’ll be just fine.

With love, enjoy!

Mary’s Pimm’s cocktail

1.5 oz. Pimm’s
1.5 oz. gin – preferably Hendrick’s
1 oz. Pellegrino
I tall sprig of mint
Additional mint for garnish
Squeeze of fresh lime (optional)

Pour the Pimm’s, gin, and Pellegrino over ice in a cocktail shaker. Add in the mint sprig. Cover and shake vigorously, longer than you think you should. Now I realize you’re shaking out all of the carbonation out of the Pellegrino, but I don’t like those bubbles anyway. Pour into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with additional mint and a squeeze of fresh lime if you like. Sip and relax!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: Campari, Coke, Hendrick's gin, lime juice, mint, Pellegrino, Pimm's, relaxation, rum, Scotch, simple syrup, single malt Scotch, summer cocktails, vodka

Remembering Harriet

August 7, 2012 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

Her outlook on life was always positive. If my kids broke something or something didn’t turn out the way I wanted it too, she’d loudly say, “NEVERMIND, it’ll all work out.” Or, “Nevermind, it’s replaceable.” Her attitude was: move on, no big deal, don’t dwell on it. She was right!

She had a wonderful way of decorating all of her homes, little funny things all over. She always had a small lamp on the kitchen counter with a beautiful simple glass jar full of honey underneath it. First of all, having a low light source in your kitchen is different and provides such warmth. I made sure to have that in my little temporary apartment. And then, having the light above the honey made it absolutely glow. In her den in the large NJ home, she placed a chair and footstool, smack dab in the middle of the room, sideways in front of the fireplace and facing the view of the city. A bold positioning that made perfect sense, but definitely quirky – definitely Harriet!

Dish cloths with clothes hanging scenes, clothespins to close chip bags, stores of tipsy olives for her vodkas, these things completed her kitchen. She drank her vodkas out of Simon Pearce glasses in every house. We liked them so much, we made sure to get some for us for our country house. One burner on her stove would never light the normal way. She’d take a skillet and give it one hard bang and voila, it would light. She loved to put an apron on me and then arrange a dish towel through the waist tie a certain way – her way – which she insisted was best.

And one of the best things she taught me and said over and over again while we were moving back into the city, “Don’t second guess yourself, Mary.” I keep hearing her saying that to me often.

We are in Vermont now, vacationing with my two brothers and their wives. My brother Steve has a beautiful home overlooking Crystal Lake. Harriet loved her big old house in Dorset. We have so many happy memories from there, skiing in the winter and relaxing in the summer.

Love you Harriet and miss you.

Ancram Backyard painting

Harriet’s favorite painting that I did

The loons on our cocktail cruise on Crystal Lake, Vermont.

The loons on our cocktail cruise on Crystal Lake, Vermont.

 

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: decorating, hanging clothes, hanging sheets, Harriet, honey, lamps in the kitchen, lighting, quirky, saying goodby, Simon Pearce, tipsy olives, Vermont, vodka

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