Here’s an easy cocktail this week (and it doesn’t even involve gin!)

1 sugar cube
bitters (try Peychaud’s)
Champagne

Soak the sugar cube in bitters and place in bottom of flute. Fill with champagne. Sit back and watch it sparkle!

Did you ever have one of those days? Maybe one of those weeks? Here’s something that will pick you up and set you right again. And when you’re done, there’s a delicious cherry waiting for you in the bottom of the glass.

(The name comes from the old days of serious drinking, when one of these would have been the morning hangover cure. Yes, morning! We can’t recommend it until happy hour, though.)

The Corpse Reviver (no. 2)

Ingredients:
1 ounce gin
1 ounce Lillet Blanc
1 ounce fresh lemon juice
1 ounce Cointreau
1 drop absinthe or pastis

Procedure:
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker; fill with ice and shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

We’re starting to see tons of beautiful, delicious strawberries at the farmer’s markets. While you can just add sliced berries to sparkling wine, here’s another way to enjoy their juicy sweetness.

Strawberry Smash

3 strawberries, hulled and washed
6 mint leaves (or try basil!)
muddle these in a shaker, then add:

1 oz. gin
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup

Shake and strain into a flute, then fill with sparkling wine and garnish with another strawberry.

Strawberry Booties

If you are looking for the ultimate in Spring accessories for baby, it doesn’t get any more adorable than these strawberry booties. The booties are worked in fingering weight yarn on US#1 needles. The pattern is by Kathy Popadin and is a paid download. Try these in O-Wool 2-ply for an all organic and sustainable option!

Photo by Shake Your Booties

Your cocktail for the day!

2 oz. Cognac
1 oz. Cointreau or Grand Marnier
3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Sidecar is a true classic cocktail, the earliest printed recipe for which dates to 1922. While there are many stories about the origin of this drink, all of them refer to a regular bar patron who frequently arrived at his local watering hole in a motorcycle sidecar. Don’t skimp on quality and you’ll have a truly delicious, delicately scented, citrusy cocktail that is the perfect way to cap off a long evening of knitting.

This week’s featured cocktail is Silver Bells, which is a wonderful little thing available from our neighbors at Vermillion Restaurant. The drink was created by Vermillion’s former bar manager Aisling Fitzpatrick.  It has been an annual holiday time treat for 3 years and recently won “Best Martini in Alexandria” at the Chamber of Commerce Martini’s and Mistletoe event.  The Silver Bells combines vanilla vodka, lime, ginger syrup & sparkling wine and is delicious! It is definitely a favorite among the yarnistas here.

To try out this drink, join us at a Vermillion Happy Hour: Monday thru Friday, 4pm til 7pm- in the bar and lounge area. Their happy hour features house cocktails, wine, draft beer and appetizers for great prices – apps are $4 each, drinks range from $3 to $5!