In the paraphrased words of Little Edie, I believe this is the best thing to drink for today, you understand.
Last week, I invited myself over to my friend Matthew’s place, because he has a generous balcony overlooking Bleecker Street and I really, really wanted to soak up some sun, have a drink or two, and heckle passing pedestrians. Matthew was into two of those three things.
He suggested sangria, which made me think immediately of red stained fruit chunks and hangovers. And yes, together. (Too much?) So I feigned interest and went shopping…in my refrigerator. Thanks to some serious cooking experiments from my new favorite cookbook Plenty (Ottolenghi!), I had a fridge full of various herbs, a sad Meyer lemon, and a wrinkly orange, which I am only now realizing that Matthew threw out immediately upon receipt. Oh, also a nice bottle of Pinot Gris that I had lying around.
Pause. Let us acknowledge the fact that I am a secret alcohol mixing savant.
We muddled up some basil, a little thyme and some lemon slices with the wine, added a generous dash of the limoncello we made a few weeks back, threw in an unmolested spring of rosemary, and let it sit until we got bored of waiting. Let’s say it was 20 minutes. We poured it over ice, and both immediately broke out spirit fingers. Ok, ok, fine, just one of us. It was light, refreshing and aromatic with just a touch of sweetness. Kinda like the ultimate spring/summer beverage.
Look at the plate of tasties. Matthew is a good host. Unless apparently, you are his parents. (Shhh.)
Maybe you prefer your day drink to more diluted? Perhaps a glug of some nice club soda.
A little sweeter? A bit of simple syrup or a can of a citrus-y soda wouldn’t hurt you one bit.
I would definitely suggest using a white wine on the drier side that you would drinking straight. This is not a jug wine situation. (Is there a jug wine situation anymore?) Letting it sit for an hour or two while you twiddle your thumbs also seems like a good idea in retrospect.
So, I’m going to keep “experimenting”. Feel free to “help”.
Smartest. Cleverest. Smartest. 