Thirsty Thursday: Strawberry Ginger Smash with Homemade Ginger Beer

In case you didn't know, the Hubs (and me, technically...I'm more of an assistant) is a home brewer.  We've been brewing for several years now.  It's a fun if periodically frustrating hobby (like most hobbies, probably), that gives you a tangible result in the end...that can also get you buzzed.  Earlier this year we decided to branch out from our usual beermaking to make some spicy ginger beer from an extract kit we found at our local homebrewing store.

The full packet makes 16 Liters, so we bottled four 2-Liters, and then put the rest in the fermenter with some yeast.  The yeast gobbles up some of the sugar and converts it to alcohol, and boom...you have hard ginger beer.

BOOM, is right...since we decided to use champagne yeast.  Which not surprisingly, makes the bottles fizz up like crazy when you open them...much like a bottle of champagne.

Anyway, aside from those incidents, it's tasty stuff...providing you like ginger. Like, REALLY like ginger.  This stuff will go up your nose and make you cough.

Much like the other super-spicy ginger beer, Q, this makes an excellent moscow mule. Or Dark & Stormy  But since we've already made those here before, I wanted to try something a little different.

INGREDIENTS: (per cocktail)
4 hulled strawberries
1 tsp honey
5-7 mint leaves (note: I think this would be equally delicious with basil)
1/2 lime juice
3-4 oz strawberry infused vodka 
8 oz homemade ginger beer 
Crushed ice

DIRECTIONS:
Place the strawberries, mint, and honey in the bottom of the glass and muddle with a wooden spoon.  Then top with crushed ice.

Add the lime juice, vodka, and ginger beer.  Garnish as desired.  Kick back and enjoy with a nice cheese plate.

Featured cheese: Mango Ginger Stilton

Slainte!

Thirsty Thursday: The SoCojito.

Hi…have we met?  I’m a Beer Girl.  Unless I’m being a wine girl (not to be confused with a Whine Girl…which may or may not sometimes happen, we won’t go into that).  But usually, a Beer Girl. 

But sometimes, you have a crummy week & you have to hit the hard stuff.

…in a really tasty and fruity, refreshing kind of way.  Because you’re still a total Liquor Pansy.  Yeah, that’s right.  We haven’t forgotten about that time you barely sipped on a perfectly good 12-year smooth-as-a-baby’s-bum whiskey and let it get warm.  Sinner.

That’s where something like this concoction comes in handy.  Three sips in, and whatever cruddy things happened no longer matter, because your taste buds have gone on vacation to the Keys.  And you can finally zone out and play Candy Crush for an hour, because YOU DESERVE IT.

*coughs*

AAaaaaanyway.  Moving on.

Vacation in a glass.

(PS- Perspective on life:  This glass is neither half-empty, or half-full…it’s just freakin’ HUGE.)

 

INGREDIENTS:
50 mL SoCo Lime

20 mL simple syrup (2 tsp sugar, 2 tsp water, heated up for 20 seconds and stirred until dissolved)

(NOTE: If you’re watching your calories, you could use a packet of Splenda & water instead.)

1/4 lime

3-4 mint leaves

seltzer water (to taste)

DIRECTIONS:

Muddle the mint leaves in the bottom of your glass (I have a small mortar & pestle, so I just use the pestle, but you could also just use the back of a small spoon), then squeeze the lime juice into the glass. 

Add the SoCo & the simple syrup and swirl.

Then top off with the seltzer water—you can be as conservative or liberal with the water as you want.  SoCo Lime tastes great, so you don’t need much—it’s just to give the drink a nice refreshing fizziness.

Sip, relax, and enjoy.  And ignore your husband when he says it tastes like toothpaste…he’s just had a bad day, too.   (And it TOTALLY doesn’t taste like toothpaste…unless you have mojito-flavored-toothpaste, in which case, please share.)

Thirsty Thursday: Frozen Watermelon-Lime Margarita

Maybe I’m a cheapskate, but frozen fruit is expensive.

So I like to stock up various fruits when they’re in their respective peak seasons at super-cheap prices, and then freeze them myself. 

Example?

A 14oz package of Dole frozen strawberries can go for $2.50 at Wal-Mart.  OR---I can buy a 16 oz carton of fresh strawberries for 99 cents, wash, hull & halve them, and then freeze them myself.   That’s a 12 cent per ounce savings.  And with the recent popularity of “green” and fruit smoothies, there are probably families out there spending at least $10-20/month just on pre-frozen fruit and smoothie mixes.  For the upper end of this scale, these families could save up to $144/year just by freezing their own when things are on sale.  Aldi’s constantly has random fruits under a buck—and as I’ve mentioned before, if you don’t like the quality of the produce at Aldi’s, you can get Wally-World to price match it.

ANYWAY… this also means I have a veritable crap-ton of fruit in our freezer right now.  Which my husband likes to remind me of, because it’s taking up valuable retail space where more manly things, like meat and ice cream, could be. Because the two shelves filled with everything from chicken tenders to elk steaks apparently isn’t enough meat.  (…love you, honey…) ;-D

This weekend I organized our freezer and decided it was high time to use up some watermelon (I went a little crazy when they were marked down to $2.99 for a large seedless).  Did you know you can freeze watermelon???  I didn’t, until this summer.  Granted—it’s not so great for “freezing then thawing” uses, but if it’s intended to remain in a frozen state (think frozen yogurt, smoothies, granitas, etc) then everything is peachy-keen!

You know what I like in a frozen state?  Margaritas.  And when you use frozen fruit?  No ice needed.

 

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen watermelon

juice and pulp of one lime

2-3 tablespoons sugar (start with 2, then taste & add more if necessary.  The amount needed will depend on how sweet your watermelon is.)

1/3 cup tequila

pinch of salt (optional, but I think it makes the flavor of the watermelon pop)

 

Directions:

Combine the above in a blender and pulse, using the “ice crush” setting.  Pulse until no large chunks are visible.

Wet the rim of a glass with lime juice, and then dip in a shallow plate/bowl of sugar.

Garnish with lime slice & straw.

INHALE. Savor on your back porch as the sun sets on another weekend.

Makes two small (10 oz) margaritas (or one big @$$ one).

NutriFacts:

Calories 190.1

  Total Fat 0.7 g

  Saturated Fat 0.1 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.2 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 0.2 g

  Cholesterol 0.0 mg

  Sodium 3.5 mg

  Potassium 199.6 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 23.1 g

  Dietary Fiber 0.9 g

  Sugars 20.8 g

  Protein 1.1 g