Month: July 2020 (Page 2 of 4)

Three Dots and a Dash

July 21, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

This is it. The one we’ve been waiting for, the victory anthem, 100 days of cocktails. I have been looking forward to this milestone for a while now and we are celebrating with a drink I love and a swanky new vessel ready to make its debut. This is a quintessential tiki drink, lots of ingredients working in conjunction toward a common flavorful goal. The way things ought to be, in the glass and in the world. So, join me now as we stand and make the classic, Three Dots and a Dash.

Notorious BHB

July 20, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

I don’t drink a lot of beer, never have. Sure, I would have one if it was offered, just wasn’t my thing. I could appreciate it but for the most part I just couldn’t get into them and it made me jealous. People who liked beer, really loved it. I wanted that. I wanted to be a part of that club, to enjoy something so accessible on such a deep level. I wanted to see 99 bottles of beer on the wall and get excited as I sang along. But it was not to be. Over the years, I have learned to appreciate many beers and to truly love a few, but I am not a “let’s grab a beer” guy. Maybe I never will be. Still, I had a hankering today, so join me as we stand and make the Notorious BHB.

Mimosa

July 19, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 1 Comment

We did brunch with the family today and since I’m always running my mouth about cocktails, I was put in charge of the bar program. It is a great honor, they said, to be able to provide the drinks. So, I grabbed a couple of bottles of Prosecco and cleared my station to make all the bubbly things. I hope you’ll join me now as we stand and make the classic Mimosa.

Corn & Oil

July 18, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

I have found that when you get up early the day is interminably long. Starting the day around 10 is way more civilized and helps it all to go by faster. So, the last few days of getting up around 6 AM like a normal person have been challenging. Today, I have already been to the farmers market to stock up, walked a few miles with the boy and the dog, picked some wildflowers, played some video games and worked in the garden and that doesn’t even count the things I’ve procrastinated; and it is not even noon. So, regardless of yard arms and their position relative to the sun, I’m having a drink, join me now as we stand and make the classic Corn and Oil.

The Red Queen

July 17, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

“The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things. Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings.” It goes on, but you get the gist. I always loved that poem, obviously I did not learn the original from Lewis Carroll, but had Walt Disney interpret it for me in his adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Now, there is a head screw of a story, whether animated or in the written form. Your world suddenly turned upside down, where nothing makes sense, where you cannot tell who to trust and where the inhabitants often delight in being confounding, even when it is to their own detriment. Let’s dig into that as we stand and make, The Red Queen.

Leg Spreader

July 16, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 2 Comments

A couple of weeks ago we made a Midori Sour. I did not care for it. I lamented that I had never enjoyed a Midori forward cocktail and asked for suggestions. Well, I got one. Tonight’s drink came to me in the form of a picture of a worn index card with a hand-written recipe on it, from an unexpected source, my mother-in-law. I mention that this is odd, for two reasons. Although, I have shared wine and the occasional raspberry lambic with her, I do not think of her as a drinker. The second is the name written at the top of the card. So join me as we stand and make, the Leg Spreader.

To Hell With Spain

July 15, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

There is not a lot of process here. Sure there is a format, but mostly it is off the cuff and I don’t really have any idea where we are going with these drinks and commentary. Hell, I am often as surprised as you are when we take one of these hard turns halfway through. That is a big part of the fun for me, to do some research, make a cocktail and then just riff for awhile. My intent is to do a bit of a “behind the scenes” thing today, but I often start with good intentions, we will just have to see where we end up. So, join me now as we stand and make, the To Hell With Spain.

Pink Lady

July 14, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 2 Comments

I like old movies, a lot. There are whole periods of my life when I didn’t sleep much and mostly spent my nights watching them. Not just the classics, but the mid-range stuff too. Hours spent learning how to be a fella from Bogart, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Jose Ferrer. It is crazy how much influence movies and books from your formative years have on who you become, or at least who you try to become. There are a handful of these films that are truly old friends. Those few ragged VHS tapes that traveled with me, always ready to keep me company at 2:57 AM. Liam has “a thing” with 3 minutes later than that so I had to change the time to mollify him. One of those came to mind the other night as I was thinking about drinks, so join me as we stand and make the Pink Lady.

Honey Wall

July 13, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 1 Comment

One of the cool things about making cocktails from quarantine is having folks reach out with suggestions, requests or just comments, I love to hear how you are enjoying the drinks, or what you are doing to keep sane in this indefinite holding pattern that we call life. This drink is a direct result of my buddy, Matt, suggesting I try Tuaca liqueur. I had never heard of it, but he said it was good, I trust him on these things and I was making a liquor run anyway, so I added a bottle to my curbside pickup and here we are. So, join me as we stand and make, the Honey Wall.

Old Cuban

July 12, 2020 / Monkeybrad / 1 Comment

Every once and a while you stumble across something amazing. That is exactly what happened with today’s drink. After making the French 75 a while ago and then the Lone Ranger, I started researching other drinks that incorporated champagne or sparkling wine. This one seemed a little weird, but we had some cheap prosecco burning a hole in our pocket so we gave it a shot. Join me now as we stand and make the Old Cuban.