How you doin’?  Even though the dog days of summer might still be here, Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer. This is a Labor Day cocktail that will make you wish summer wasn’t coming to an end at all. My End of Summer Grilled Watermelon Margarita will keep those good vibrations going for just a little while longer.
 
Since watermelon is a classic summer food, why not take that watermelon off the table, put it on the grill and then in a cocktail glass? This uniquely summer cocktail blends high heat with cool melon for the ultimate refreshing summer libation.
 
Prep and cook time:  45 minutes (takes a little time, but I’s well worth it)
Yield:  8 servings
 
Ingredients 
1-1/2 pounds peeled and cubed seedless watermelon
11 limes
1 medium red grapefruit
16 ounces tequila reposado
4 ounces orange liqueur such as Jalisco 1562 Orange Liqueur or Patron Citronge
Tajín Clásico or other chili lime seasoning, for the garnish
 
Directions

1. Use a melon baller to scoop out 8-16 balls from the watermelon; chill to use for the garnish.
2. Using a chef knife, slice the remaining watermelon into 2-inch chunks.
3. Heat a BBQ grill to medium-high until hot, 5-10 minutes.
4. Place the watermelon pieces on the grill and char lightly, turning occasionally, until caramelized, 4-6 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and let watermelon cool to room temperature.
6. When cool blend the grilled watermelon in a blender until smooth. Chill until ready to use.
7. Cut 1 lime into 8 wedges.
8. Cut the remaining limes and grapefruit in half and juice, keeping the juices separate. Chill until ready to use.
9. Pour 1 ounce of lime juice onto a small plate.
10. Place 3 tablespoons of Tajín on to another small plate.
11. Dip the rims of the glasses into the lime juice, rotating so the outer rim of the glass is coated in lime juice. Then dip into the Tajín to coat the outer rim.
12. Combine 2 ounces of the tequila reposado, 1 ounce watermelon juice, 1 ounce lime juice, 1/2 ounce  grapefruit juice and 1/2 ounce orange liqueur in a cocktail shaker with ice.
13. Shake vigorously like you mean it to combine.
14. Pour in the cocktail glass and garnish with a lime wedge. Drop a watermelon ball(s) into the glass or place 2-3 on a cocktail pick and place on the rim.
15. Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make a total of 8 cocktails.

ChefSecret:  If you don’t have a melon baller, cut the watermelon into 1-inch cubes.

Quip of the Day:  Q. Why is there a ring of salt around the rim of a margarita glass?  A. To keep the spirits from escaping.
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to  Feeding America, Tunnel to Towers, Union Rescue Mission and/or American Red Cross.

#Cocktail #HappyHour #EndOfSummerGrilledWatermelonMargarita #Tequila #PatronCitronge #Tajin #Watermelon #SummertimeHappyHour #Cheers #2024Recipes #URM #T2T #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup  
 
                                                                            ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2024

How you doin’? When my dad was running concessions at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, I got hooked on going to rodeo events when they came to town. I loved to be around the horses... they are truly magnificent animals. 
 
Cassie, our hotel general manager, has kids who are active and winners on the rodeo circuit. Last fall, Joan and I met up with her family at South Point Hotel and Casino where they have rodeo events several times a month. It’s always exciting to watch these brave equestrians, but even more so when they are kids you know. Now we go there several times per month to watch these beautiful creatures and their handlers in action.
 
These rodeo goers travel all around the United States on the circuit competing for prizes from “just for the hell of it” to a million dollars.  Last week I had one of the rodeo moms tell me that it an expensive hobby and the least expensive part of the sport is buying the horse!
 
When Perspectives was designing the bar program at Universal City for the Cripple Creek Saloon—a cowboy bar at the Los Angeles theme park—we developed this recipe that I still make at home today. It pairs perfectly with my 14-hour Texas-style smoked beef ribs.

So put on your best 10-gallon hat, that special belt buckle, spit-shined shit-kickers (cowboy boots) and chaps… then belly up to the bar and enjoy a Rhinestone Cowboy Cocktail. Now, that’s what you call “Cowboying!”
 
Prep time:  7 minutes
Yield:  1 cocktail
 
Ingredients 
1-1/4 ounce white rum
1 ounce Bacardi Dark rum
1 ounce apricot brandy
2 ounces fresh orange juice
2 ounces pineapple juice
1/2 ounce Sloe Gin
1/2 ounce 151 Proof Rum
Orange peel
 
Directions

1. Fill a bucket glass with scooped crushed ice.
2. Build the cocktail over the ice starting with the white rum, Bacardi, apricot brandy and orange and pineapple juices.
3. Over the back of a spoon slowly bleed the Sloe Gin over the ice.
4. Float the 151 rum on top of the Sloe Gin.
5. Garnish with a slice of  orange peel.
6. Carefully light the 151 and serve.

ChefSecret:  Because of its high alcohol content, Bacardi 151 is particularly flammable among liquors. For this reason it was often used as the ignition source for "flaming shots" and cocktails.

Quip of the Day:  On the rodeo circuit the more secure way to double your money is by folding it in half and putting it back into your pocket.
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to  Feeding America, Tunnel to Towers, Union Rescue Mission and/or American Red Cross.

​#Cocktail #HappyHour #RhinestoneCowboy #Rum #151Proof #SloeGin #Bacardi #SummertimeHappyHour #Cheers #2024Recipes #URM #T2T #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup  

                                                                               ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2024

How you doin’?  The exact origin of the Gibson cocktail is unclear, with  numerous popular tales and theories about its genesis. According to one theory, it was invented by Charles Dana Gibson, who created the popular Gibson Girl illustrations. Supposedly, he challenged Charley Connolly, the bartender of the Players Club in New York City, to improve upon a martini. As the story goes, Connolly simply substituted a trio of pickled onion for the olive and named the drink after the Charley.

Another version now considered more probable recounts a 1968 interview with a relative of a prominent San Francisco businessman named Walter D. K. Gibson, who claimed to have created the drink at the Bohemian Club in the 1890s. Charles Clegg, when asked about it by Herb Caen, also said it was from San Francisco, not New York. Other reporting supports this theory. Edward Townsend, former vice president of the Bohemian Club, is credited with the first mention of the Gibson in print, in a humorous essay he wrote for the New York World published in 1898.

Yet another theory is that the Gibson after whom the drink was named was a popular California onion farmer, as seen in the publication. During the winter of 1852 and '53, snow fell in Onion Valley, California to the depth of twenty-five feet. Even the towns of Gibsonville, Seventy-Six, Pine Grove, Whiskey Diggings, and several others where people had nothing to do but drink, found their martini of the day was a bust without olives so they substituted pickled onion for the olives.

Other stories of the drink's origins are boundless like many of the other origins of legendary cocktails so take them for what they’re worth and just enjoy the gin.

My Gibson is made with gin (or vodka) and dry vermouth, and is often garnished with a pickled onion. In its modern incarnation, it is considered a cousin of the ubiquitous martini, distinguished mostly by garnishing with an onion instead of an olive.

Ingredients 
2-1/2 ounces gin or vodka (I prefer Hendrick’s Gin)
1/2 ounce dry vermouth
Garnish: 3 pickled cocktail onions
 
Directions

1. Add the gin (or vodka) and dry vermouth into a mixing glass with ice and stir until well-chilled. Do not shake or you will “bruise” the gin.
2. Strain into a frozen stemmed martini cocktail glass.
3. Garnish with skewered cocktail onions.

ChefSecret:  My gin of choice is Hendricks. Hendrick's uses a blend of spirits produced from a Carter-Head Still (1948), of which there are only a few in the world, and a small pot still, built in 1860 by Bennett, Sons & Shears. Both have been restored to working order after being bought at auction in the 1960s by the former William Grant Life President, Charles Gordon. The two stills produce strikingly different styles of gin due to their different construction and methods of distillation and the blend makes the difference.

Quip of the Day:  A man and his wife are at a restaurant and the husband keeps staring at a drunken lady swigging her gin at a nearby table. His wife asks, “Do you know her?” “Yes,” sighs the husband. “She’s my ex-wife. She took to drinking right after we divorced seven years ago, and I hear she hasn’t been sober since.” “My God!” says the wife. “Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?!”
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to  Feeding America, Tunnel to Towers, Union Rescue Mission and/or American Red Cross.

#Cocktail #HappyHour #GibsonCocktail #GibsonGirl #Hendricks #Gin #PickledOnions #SummertimeHappyHour #Cheers #2024Recipes #URM #T2T #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup  
 
                                                                                ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2024

How you doin’?  It’s Friday and almost time for Happy Hour.  Here is a cool refreshing cocktail popular for 100 years. There are at least two drinks from the early 20th century that were known by the name 'Alexander', but which are nevertheless different drinks.
 
In Jack's Manual on The Vintage & Production, Care & Handling of Wines, Liquors & More (1910) by Jacob Abraham Grohusko, the 'Alexander Cocktail' is described as three parts rye whiskey, one part Bénédictine, with a piece of ice and a twist of orange peel. In Recipes for Mixed Drinks (1915) by Hugo Ensslin, a drink by the same name is made with equal parts of gin, white crème de cacao and sweet cream, shaken with ice, and strained.
 
From what I was able to find the Alexander was originally made with gin, but the modern version is usually made with brandy and is called a Brandy Alexander. The International Bartenders Association calls for brandy in its Alexander. There are numerous variations… Coffee Alexander substitutes coffee liqueur (such as Kahlúa) for crème de cacao. The Blue Alexander substitutes Blue Curaçao for crème de cacao. Brandy Alexander substitutes gin for some form of brandy; other variations also exist.
 
Here is my favorite variation which was popular at The Custom’s House Restaurants in Northern California—The Frozen Brandy Alexander. I used to make up my own stories and told my guests that this was named after Alexander Hamilton right after the American Revolution. A good story is a good story.

Prep time:  5 minutes
Yield:  1 serving
 
Ingredients 
1 ounce bar brandy
1 ounce dark creme de cacao
2 scoops vanilla ice cream                
1/2 scoop crushed ice  
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
 
Directions

1. Working with a blender can, add the brandy, crème de cacao, ice and ice cream.
2. Blend on high until you get a nice creamy texture, and the ice has been well blended.
3. Pour into a tall cocktail glass. 
4. Garnish with a shake of ground nutmeg.
5. Serve and enjoy! Cheers!

ChefSecret:  I like to dress this drink up with a little drizzle of chocolate syrup running down the inside face of a tall cocktail glass. You can also top it off with a couple of mini marshmallows.
 
Covid-19 Quip of the Day:  I took my date to the bar last night. It was very romantic. I got us a table and ordered a Brandy. The waiter asked, “Snifter?” "No, we just held hands."
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
-------------------------------------------
To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to  Feeding America, Tunnel to Towers, Union Rescue Mission and/or American Red Cross.
 
#Cocktail #HappyHour #Brandy #CremeDeCacao #VanillaIceCream #FrozenBrandyAlexander #IceCreamCocktail #LightItUp #SummertimeHappyHour #Cheers #2024Recipes #URM #T2T #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup 
 
                                                                               ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2024

How you doin’? July is Ice Cream Month, so let’s scoop and toast to that!
 
Here is my creamy, dreamy, boozy and delicious Rum & Chocolate Frozen Milkshake recipe. It’s easy and popular, and in my house ready in just five minutes with a few simple ingredients—cold milk, chocolate syrup, vanilla ice cream, rum and more rum and chocolate sprinkles—you can make a delicious Happy Hour for two. You can choose your favorite consistency by blending until it's just right. Just blend, pour, garnish, flame and enjoy with loved ones! 
 
Prep time:  5 minutes
Yield:  2 (10 oz) frozen cocktails
 
Ingredients 
4 scoops vanilla ice cream (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup whole milk (cold)
1/4 cup chocolate syrup
1-1/2 dark rum
1 teaspoon chocolate sprinkles
1/4 ounce 151 proof rum
 
Directions

1. Place the ice cream, milk, chocolate syrup and dark rum in a blender container.
2. Cover and blend until smooth.
3. Garnish with chocolate sprinkles.
4. Float 151 rum on top and light on fire.
5. Serve flaming immediately. NOTE: extinguish flame before consuming!! Duh!

ChefSecret:  For a more intense chocolate flavor substitute chocolate ice cream for the vanilla ice cream.

Quip of the Day:  Rum doesn’t solve any problems, but neither does milk. So, stick with the rum. 😊
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
-------------------------------------------
To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to  Feeding America, Tunnel to Towers, Union Rescue Mission and/or American Red Cross.

#Cocktail #HappyHour #Rum #ChocolateMilkshake #IceCreamCocktail #LightItUp #SummertimeHappyHour #Cheers #2024Recipes #URM #T2T #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup   
                                                                               ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2024