Peach Old Fashioned {Cocktail Recipe}

A gifted bottle of Michter's bourbon plus the first peaches of the season equalled a lovely cocktail a few weeks ago. Alas with the derecho and heat wave, I took to drinking the bourbon straight up for awhile. Now I'm back to share this cocktail recipe with you.

A traditional Old Fashioned includes a muddled orange slice. For the summer season, I substitute a peeled peach. How do you peel a peach? If the fruit is ripe, the peel should remove from the flesh with a gentle tug of your bare hands.

I like to make Old Fashioneds because they are simple to put together: line up the glasses, fill with fruit, muddle, add ice, top with bourbon. I like to drink Old Fashioneds because bourbon is my favorite spirit and the mix of liquor, fruit, and bitters is clean flavored and refreshing.

Do you enjoy an Old Fashioned?

Peach Old Fashioned

Makes: 1 serving

1/2 fresh peach, peel removed 1 maraschino cherries or 2 home-canned tiny sour cocktail cherries scant 1 teaspoon sugar 2 dashes Angostura bitters 2 ounces good quality bourbon ice

1. Place peach, cherries, sugar, and bitters in the bottom of a low ball glass. (If you don't have a low ball glass collection, a half pint jam jar works well for this casual cocktail.) 2. Muddle gently with a cocktail muddler or the end of a wooden spatula. 3. Add ice to fill jar about two thirds full. 4. Pour bourbon over the ice. 5. Stir gently to combine and serve.

Sour Boozy Cocktail Cherries {Recipe}

I love a good cocktail but I despise maraschino cherries. The rubbery red-flavored spheres resemble the natural fruit in name alone.

I decided to tackle creating cocktail cherries at home when faced with an extra quart of fresh local sour cherries after making sour cherry preserves.

While searching for a recipe, I discovered a bit of history. Apparently cocktail cherries used to be pitted cherries soaked in maraschino liqueur, hence the name.

During prohibition, one of America's cultural mistakes, cocktail cherries had to be remade without the alcohol. The sickeningly sweet, artificial maraschino cherry was born.

Most recipes for DIY cocktail cherries either fall in the camp of the traditional (soak in maraschino liqueur) or modern (can in sweet, flavored syrup).

All recipes recommended pitting the cherries but I came across a suggestion that the pits themselves could make a liqueur.

I combined all these ideas into my sour boozy cocktail cherries. They are boiled in vanilla syrup and canned with pits and bourbon. The result is a flavorful hybrid with balanced sweetness that begs to be made into an old fashioned.

My hope is that the pits will age and flavor the syrup so that when the cherries are gone, the syrup will be an enticing liqueur of its own.

[print_this]

Sour Boozy Cocktail Cherries

makes 4 half pints

1 1/2 cups demara sugar

1 cup water

4 allspice berries, crushed

1 vanilla pod, sliced open

4 cups fresh sour cherries, pitted with pits reserved (approximately 1 quart)

2 cups bourbon (we like Bulleit)

1. Mix sugar, water, allspice, and vanilla in a heavy bottomed pan. Heat over medium high until boiling.

2. Add the sour cherries and pits. Boil for 5 minutes.

3. Turn off the heat and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes. Pour in bourbon.

4. Ladle cherries into sterilized jars. Cover with some of the steeping liquid and pits to quarter inch head space.

5. Top with a new lid and finger tighten a ring. At this point, cherries may be stored in the fridge for up to one month. If you desire to preserve them longer, can using the following directions.

6. Boil in hot water bath for 10 minutes. Remove to a level surface and allow to cool completely. Remove rings and wipe off jars.

7. If excess syrup remains, strain and use for cocktails or dessert topping. Store in refrigerator.

[/print_this]

Added to Hearth and Soul 55.

Repeal Day Rant

Not long ago, in an era of our country's history rife with stifling regulations, the Women's Christian Temperance Union convinced the US congress to pass the Eighteenth Amendment outlawing alcohol production and sale in 1919.

Prohibition did little to stop drinking or the "societal ills". A good many righteous individuals drank their way through the time period with such clever techniques as labeling liquor as medicine, opening speakeasies, and brewing up bathtub gin.

And so it was that Franklin Delano Roosevelt successfully campaigned for president in 1932 on a platform that included repealing prohibition. The Twenty First amendment was ratified on this day in 1933. Many economists believe that the increased tax revenue and employment from the repeal of prohibition contributed to drawing America out of the Great Depression.

Cheers, right?

Well, sorta. Though liquor is legally available, it remains a frustrating item to purchase. When we were in bourbon country last month, a part of the state that thrives on tourist money, we could find nary a shop open to sell Kentucky's finest on Sunday. In fact there was nothing open on Sunday before noon, save church.

Did you know that the Jack Daniels distillery is located in a dry county in Tennessee such that you can not even sample their whiskey on site? The acquisition of alcohol is so disparate across state lines that we have 'check local liquor laws' on our pre-travel to-do list.

The making and selling of alcohol products are regulated beyond sanity. The proprietors of Kinkead Ridge, arguably the finest winery in Ohio, are so frustrated with Ohio inspectors and regulations that they have hinted they may move their winery out of state. Artisan distillers MiddleWest Spirits can never say with certainty where their OYO vodka is in stock (other than their own store) because they deliver cases to the state and the state distributes it, not necessarily following customer demand.

God forbid you might want to make your own liquor, say if you have some hard cider you made from local apples that might make a tasty brandy. It's flat out illegal to distill spirits for personal use according to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. And we would never do anything illegal.

In sum, I'm thankful for those who fought the good fight to restore legal alcohol consumption to Americans on this day 77 years ago. But I hesitate to celebrate when regulations still exist that hamstring businesses and constrain my ability to provide for myself that which generations have drunk before me.

Bourbon Country Mini Vacation

My thirtieth birthday gift from my parents and in-laws was two nights stay at the Rose Hill Inn in Versailles Kentucky and babysitting for Lil.  So it was that last weekend, a warm one for November, Alex and I headed south to explore bourbon country. We started our vacation by choosing the path less traveled, taking route 35 to route 62 south through Washington Court House.  We stopped for lunch at the Courtview Restaurant.  This diner/cafe was of a different time, with regulars receiving their own stock of non-dairy creamer, specials locals clearly follow, and a 'this store is armed' sticker on the front door.  The sign pulled us in and, frankly, was the most memorable part of the place.

We drove from Washington Court House to the Ohio River, crossing into Kentucky at Maysville.  The remainder of the drive was as picturesque as can be with tobacco farms yielding to horse estates.  It was our first time seeing tobacco drying in barns and first realization that even cigarettes were seasonal.

Rose Hill Inn provided delightful accommodations.  The bed and breakfast was clean, spacious and historic.  The innkeepers provided personal recommendations when asked for and served a two-course breakfast of fruit salad and an egg entrée.  We have stayed in another B&B in Versailles and a hotel in Louisville on previous visits to bourbon country; the Rose Hill Inn was superior to both and a place we are sure to return.

On Friday evening we ate our best meal of the weekend at Holly Hill Inn.  They expertly prepared local meats and vegetables in a romantic and charming setting.  When asked, the waitress was able to name the farm the rabbit and chestnuts came from; her familiarity with the ingredient sources led me to believe that she might even be able to give me directions to the farms should I want to visit.  As the menu changes seasonally and the prices are extremely reasonable (I took advantage of a $35 three course prix fix offering) Holly Hill Inn will be on our must-visit list for the next time we visit bourbon country or are anywhere near Kentucky.

Stay tuned for summaries of the Buffalo Trace and Woodford Reserve distilleries we toured on Saturday and a rant reflection on trying to buy bourbon on Sunday.