Author: thestorysofarisalreadyhere

Spiked lemonade for hot summer days

A version of this appeared in the July/August 2019 issue of the Madison County Magazine

The grass is cut and you now have a lazy late afternoon to kill and you don’t want to get yourself all worked up from carving fruit and shaking ingredients. It is already hot enough outside and you just finished mowing the lawn and your hammock is calling.
What do you reach for?
A glass of lemonade, of course. Nothing will refresh in the same way an ice-cold glass of the tart summer staple.
There are many ways you can reward yourself. Pouring some Minute Maid over cheap bourbon would be a quick fix, as would adding a slug of vodka to your grandmother’s signature recipe…which would be great If you had already made a pitcher before you got yourself all worked up. You could always whip up a batch of summer beer, but that is a dangerous proposition without the requisite friends to help you consume it, so you are back to whatever lemonade you have on hand.
Keep these two ingredients on hand you will never have this dilemma and always have a refreshing cocktail on hand: lavender syrup and the vodka of your choice.
This recipe comes from The Manship, known for their wood-fired creations and always adapting and creating with their bar menu. They invented the Porch Swing, which has swung on and off the menu but can usually be ordered due to the simplicity of ingredients.
In any regard, you can make pitchers of this at home to sip at your leisure when a hard days work is done.

Ingredients
• Cathead Honeysuckle Vodka (though we are sure any variety you prefer will do the trick)
• Lemonade (dealers choice)
• Lavender syrup

First to make the lavender syrup bring equal parts sugar and water to a boil in a saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Then stir in about one-fourth of a cup of dried lavender for every three cups of water. Remove from heat, and let stand for 10 minutes. Strain, discarding lavender. Put in its own reusable container and let it chill for future use.

Combine two ounces of vodka and lavender syrup to taste, usually about half an ounce will do, in a Collins glass with ice. Top off with lemonade and stir. This process can easily be multiplied into a pitcher for multiple servings. Feel free to garnish liberally with fresh fruit and herbs.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Drinks for the changing season

AUTHOR’S NOTE: A version of this story originally ran in the September/October 2018 issue of the Madison County Magazine

September and October in Mississippi just don’t mean what they do nationwide. While in New York it may be appropriate to put up the margarita machine and begin serving fall cocktails in anticipation for the Autumnal Equinox in September, Mississippians can expect oppressive heat and days by the pool as late as early October, however, this offers other challenges because sleeves will invariably become necessary before October runs out.
To combat that difficulty we offer a refreshing poolside cocktail that requires minimum ingredients and can quickly be retired for our follow up recipe, a comforting bowl of punch.
The crisp and refreshing Salty Dog is a simple, three-ingredient drink, derived from a cocktail known as the Greyhound. A passage from a 1945 issue of Harper’s Magazine suggests the drink got its name as a signature cocktail of a restaurant called the Post House, commonly located inside bus terminals.
The recipe called for one part gin or vodka, four parts canned grapefruit juice and, of all things, sugar.
Tracking the drinks evolution from there is dicey, at best, but the drink we have today, the salty dog, packs much more if a wallop with two parts gin or vodka and three parts fresh squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice and garnished with salt on the rim of the glass.
The effect is a kind of poor man’s margarita, cold and tart and refreshing, with the salt to keep you thirsty for one more.
Our next selection, a Ciderhouse Porto Sangria Punch, is a quick and easy sangria recipe that will help you ease into cooler evenings and fall weather but will still refresh on days where the temperature stubbornly stays in the eighties or nineties.
It harnesses the fruits of the season, granny smith apples and pears, with enough port and rye whiskey to keep your belly warm, if needed.

Salty Dog

•    2 ounces vodka or gin
•    3 ounces ruby red grapefruit juice
•    salt

Put two parts of your spirit of choice and three parts ruby red grapefruit juice into a shaker with ice and shake vigorously and strain into an ice-filled, salt-rimmed glass. For an extra salty punch put some salt on the ice and top off the final drink with a few shakes of salt as well.

Ciderhouse Porto Sangria Punch

•    1 bottle of port fortified wine
•    24 ounces of apple cider
•    3 ounces of rye whiskey
•    1.5 ounces maple syrup
•    2 Granny Smith apples, cored and sliced
•    2 pears, cored and sliced

Combine all ingredients in a pitcher and refrigerate for at least 12 hours. Serve in tumblers or wine glasses and garnish with apple or pear slices.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The Salty Dog recipes above is some amalgamation of lived experience, cross referenced with with a Google search for written recipes and the sangria punch appears to come from here https://www.liquor.com/recipes/sandeman-ciderhouse-sangria/#gs.eo7wte

URGENT: Catch this twisted southern gothic masterpiece before it expires

As a general, rule going into a movie blind is the best way to go into a movie. However Jim Mickle’s 2014 Southern gothic thriller The Cold In July, based on a novel. by the same name, is one of the few movies I can think of where a little bit of knowledge goes a long way.

I will wait while you watch the trailer:

The trailer sells a compelling movie. Richard Dane (Michael C. Hall) is an everyman who shoots a home invader dead. “Sometimes the good guys win,” the Sheriff tells him. It appears that the man he shot is the son of Ben Russell, masterfully portrayed by Sam Shepherd, a cold-blooded convict who in turn goes out for revenge.

This simple plot promises a riveting cat and mouse game as the mysterious convict sicks himself on the Dane family. In the meantime, Dane deals with the guilt of killing a man while protecting his family and can’t quite shake the feeling that something is not right with the whole ordeal and the way the police are handling it. In the trailer, we see Don Johnson’s private investigator Jim Bob Luke gets involved and we are left with the promise of bloody revenge.

What the Trailer doesn’t say is that that is maybe the first act of the movie and from there it devolves into something decidedly grittier, darker and most importantly, surprising as average guy Dean descends into an underworld he could not have imagined.

I bring this movie up now because it is currently streaming on Netflix and is set to expire on June 1, per this article form Esquire’s website.

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a27561237/netflix-movies-expiring-june-2019/

DONT MISS IT

This post requires a special thanks to my dear friends Taylor White who sent me the trailer and sat me down to watch this modern masterpiece. I was thoroughly stunned by the results and think of this movie often. Thanks, buddy for the enriching addition to my film viewing repertoire.