Thursday Happy Hour: Cocktail Recipes, Drinks, Music, and Good Times

Bonterra Chardonnay 2007

Betty Homemaker Strikes Again

Inspired after trying to pronounce the ingredients on my store-bought loaf of 100% whole-wheat "bread," I transformed into my alter-ego, Betty Homemaker, and set out to make the perfect loaf of homemade bread. 

So far, I've made more than six delicious loaves, and flour dusts nearly every crevice of my kitchen. I'm exhausted. It's much easier to buy a loaf of bread than bake your own. Thankfully, I had the perfect wine to go with healthy, home-baked (yet far-from-perfect) No-Knead Bread: A glass of buttery Chardonnay, of course.

Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot Barleywine

Hops and Hoops

I don’t have TV. Which, most of the time, is okay with me.

Except when March Madness rolls around. Just about any TV show is available online -- except live sporting events.

I head to a pub for a little b-ball action and some beer. On tap, the perfect basketball brew: Bigfoot barleywine.

This is a big beer, and it seems like a fitting choice given my big dreams for the Big East teams in the tournament this year. (Yep, my beer loyalties are out west, but with sports I am an east coaster at heart.)

Cool Hand Luke

Just Like (but not really) Cucumber Salad and Iced Tea

Heated to the bone after our 8-mile desert bike ride, Davy suggested we walk over to The Amigo Room for an early cocktail. "You'll really like the space," he told us. Oh, yes. We had already heard about their drinks made of super fresh ingredients.

"It's not on the menu," he said, "but if you like fresh, ask for a Cool Hand Luke. That's all I'm gonna say."

He was right. It's part summer salad, part mojito-fusion, and all refreshing. That with the Figa cocktail that G ordered -- a blend of Earl Gray tea, fig-infused vodka, and other yummy things that balanced earthy and bright -- we were both smiling.

Tait the Ball Buster 2008

Love (of Wine) Will Keep Us Together

It was a dichotomous night with friends: Wine and dinner at an upscale restaurant followed by karaoke at an unpretentious bowling alley bar. A fitting way to celebrate the 40th birthday of my multifaceted (and talented!) friend, Cyndi.

Another multifaceted feature of the evening: Our wine selection. Tait the Ball Buster (who could possibly resist a wine with a name like that?) is a complex Shiraz blend from Australia, rich with fruit and berries, mildly spicy and a hint of sweetness, and was well suited to our wide variety of entrees. It went with everything from my prime rib, to pasta, roast chicken, and grilled sausage—a fantastic bottle to share over dinner. We liked it so much, in fact, we ordered a second one.

Cantillon Iris

A Beer to Remember

I’ve made a few journeys to beer country. (That’s Belgium in my book.) So as I flipped through the Facebook pics of friends that are currently over there enjoying all the sights and tastes, I was instantly brought back to a few of my favorite experiences.

One was my introduction to gueuze and lambics -- those funky ales that hardly taste like beer at all.  And the best place in the world to get them is at the Cantillon brewery in Brussels, Belgium.

So I was super psyched when I found a bottle of Cantillon’s Iris 2007 vintage at a local Whole Foods recently.

Basil Hayden's Kentucky Bourbon

Simplicity

Tonight's drink is pretty simple. And that's good. On the slow recovery from a nasty cold, I need some quiet time. Shelly is busy giving a presentation to peers, which leaves me with an empty house, a stack of new reading and my favorite drink.

Here's a little secret: All these fancy recipes we list here? I make them for our guests but when it comes to mixing something for me, it's a couple of large ice cubes in a heavy rocks glass, and a good measure of bourbon. It serves as a reminder that the best ideas are generally the simplest ones.

Irish Cream

Thinking Green 

It's St. Patrick's Day. We could make corned beef and cabbage. We could pop open a Guinness at a favorite pub. Or we could really surprise our friends and whip up a batch of Irish Cream.

So, okay, we plan to do all three.

Homemade Irish Cream is rich and frothy and easier to make than you might think. If you don't plan to go out tonight, swing by the grocery for the ingredients below and have some Irish fun at home.

Oh, and pickled red onions are tasty, too.

Lagunitas Brown Shugga

Sunshine on My Shugga

Even in a city like San Diego where the sun never sleeps, it can be hard to find that perfect combination of great beer and good outdoor atmosphere. One of my favorite places is Downtown Johnny Brown’s.

Look up, and you see blue sky framed in high rises. Look out and you see the fountain-filled plaza in front of the Civic Center. Look around you and you see brightly tiled tables and potted palms.

Look in your glass, and you’re bound to find something tasty in there. On this particular day, I was savoring a Brown Shugga from Lagunitas Brewing.

Cucumber Sweet Tea

Texas Beckons with a Sting of Sweetness 

Lucky me, I have a new big client project this month. Bitter-sweetly, I've chosen to skip out on South by Southwest (SXSW), a Film+Music+Interactive event in Austin, Texas, so I can focus on it.

I love Austin, and I hate to miss out on great music, interactive innovations, super friendly people, and tasty traditions.

To bring me a little closer to the festivities, I've invited some friends over to play on the guitar, giggle over the #sxsw Twitter stream, and sip a new tea drink: we call it Cucumber Sweet Tea.

And it's simply addictive.

Lodi Zinfandel

Annual Quest for Zin

I get lost in Lodi, California. Easily. It's south of Sacramento. East of San Francisco. It's burgeoning wine country. But it feels more like miles and miles of farmland.

Somewhere along the way, we've made it an annual road trip. So I have no excuse. But boy is it flat.

We've chosen to drive the 7+ hours north because the trunk can hold many more bottles of wine than a suitcase. Buying wine from the hands that sealed it is somehow magical.  Lodi zinfandels are our special treat: big, juicy, and inexpensive complexity to get dizzy over. But it seems the secret is out. Lodi zins are everywhere -- in San Diego, anyway.

It may be time for another home blind wine tasting with friends. Who's in?

Kern River Citra Double IPA

A Taste of Spring Fever

East coast or West coast, about this time of year everyone is itching for spring. And a string of rainy days had made that itch worse here in San Diego.

So I was disappointed to find the patio closed at one of my favorite beer joints recently.

But I quickly recovered when I heard my friend rave about the beer he was drinking – a very citrusy IPA from Kern River Brewing, aptly named Citra.

This beautiful orange beer has an aroma that instantly transports you to citrus groves and the fresh outdoors. And the slightly viscous body is soft and smooth and absolutely heavenly going down.

We sat inside on our bar stools, sipping our tastes-like-the-outdoors beers, and continued to dream wistful dreams of the coming spring.

Grapefruit Fizz

Fun with the Out-Laws

Any minute now, G will back from the airport with his parents. I should be doing one more house pick-me-up, but I already worked hard today. And it's happy hour.

Sipping on a Grapefruit Fizz, I sit back, waiting for the headlights to swoop across the windows. This drink is ... different. Bright. It's oddly similar to a Dark and Stormy.

The grapefruit makes me think of Borrego Springs. Years ago, my dad had a tree or two in his yard there, and my sister and I would weave in and out of the branches to fill paper sacks of the sweetly floral fruits. Tickled. Over grapefruit.

This is what I'm thinking when the door swings open with a rush of night air and a penguin shuffle of suitcases. Heyyy! Maybe we'll escape to Borrego Springs this weekend to see the desert flowers.

2007 Rudolf Müller Eiswein (Ice Wine)

Drip, Drip, Drip

Though we still have massive amounts of snow on the ground in the midwest, the steady trickle off the roof means one thing: The thaw is here. And it couldn't come any sooner.

I am more than ready to toast the beginning of the end of this icy season by opening a bottle of Rudolf Müller Eiswein with my sweetie.

I made some simple crostini with toasted baguette topped with blue cheese and drizzled with honey to counterbalance the sweet and intense flavor of the eiswein.

Hooray, spring is on its way! We've made it (almost) through another Minnesota winter.