Cheeburger!

Monday was a glorious day—the most glorious of the year so far. Ann and I both got home in the late afternoon and just before 5:00 she said, "Make us a cocktail and let's go outside on the patio and listen to music!" And so I rummaged the liquor cabinet (almost never used) and the refrigerator and came up with a pretty decent tangy cocktail made from freshly squeezed clementines and limes, agave nectar, Campari, St. Germain, Absolut Citron, and the tail end of some girly bottle of mango-blood orange flavored cordial called X-Rated.

Clementine, Campari, St. Germain, and Vodka

We had planned to have burgers on Sunday after visiting Linden, but through a miscommunication, I thought Ann was getting the burger and she thought I was getting the burger. OK, so I f*cked up. No burger in the house on Sunday, but rectified on Monday.

Yes! Jimmy Buffet: Eat Your Heart Out!

This burger was really, really good and perfectly cooked, I might add. These are two things that don't seem to coincide when going out for burgers: good burger and good cooking. My only regret is that it is not tomato season.

Chief Burgermeister!

What to Drink with Burgers

Cocktails, Anyone?

Kelley came over this weekend and what better opportunity to craft a new cocktail from the bottle of St. Germain that I just got? Over the last year, I've been reading a lot about St. Germain, an elderberry flower liqueur just launched in 2007.

I had no clue what elderberry flower liqueur might taste like. I was imagining something kind of floral and lilac-like, something that I might not like. Wow, was I wrong! This liqueur has a gorgeous perfume of passion fruit, pears, dried peaches, and dried apricots, but mainly of passion fruit.

I can see lots of dessert and sauce applications for this liqueur. How about a splash of it in a fruit salsa, or crème anglaise, or crème brûlée? But mostly I can see excellent cocktails and I devised one that is still unnamed.

1-1/2 parts vodka
1-1/2 parts St. Germain
1/4 part Campari
2 dashes orange bitters
1/2 part fresh lemon juice
1/2 part simple syrup
Float of prosecco

Rim a chilled martini glass with colored sugar (this cocktail is tart). Shake all ingredients except the prosecco and strain into the glass. Float prosecco on top. Cheers!

Finally, I was taking some bottle photos for the restaurant blog with one of my trusty assistants. Have you ever had just too much help with something? Here then is Martini in action.