This refreshing drink, with lime, mint and sugar, sets the mood for the meal ahead - with a little rum to spice things up.

Preparation Time

5 minutes

Ingredients (serves 6)

• 3 limes, cut into quarters
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 12 fresh mint leaves
• 180ml light rum
• Ice cubes, to serve
• Soda water, chilled, to serve

Method

1. Place the lime wedges, sugar and mint in a cocktail shaker. Use the end of a rolling pin to pound until roughly crushed.
2. Add the rum to the shaker and shake until well combined.
3. Divide ice among six 250ml (1-cup) capacity serving glasses. Strain rum mixture among the glasses. Place 2 lime wedges and 2 mint leaves in each glass. Top with soda water to serve.

Notes & tips

• Time plan tip: Make this recipe just before serving.

Source

Australian Good Taste - September 2007 , Page 84

Recipe by Kerrie Sun

Mixing alcohol with energy drinks such as Red Bull is like ‘mixing cocaine with heroin’, a drugs expert had claimed.

Don Serratt, founder of British drug treatment center Life Works, said mixing extreme quantities of the stimulant caffeine with the depressant alcohol was ‘a very dangerous cocktail’.

He was responding to a study which found young adults were twice as likely to be hurt and require medical attention and twice as likely to travel with a drunk driver if they had the cocktail, than those who did not mix their drinks.

In the first study of its kind, American researchers questioned 4,271 students from 10 U.S. universities about their drinking habits and the consequences.
Read the full story

Linda Barnard
Toronto Star
Reduce, re booze, and recycle. That’s After Five’s new motto.

Bet you’ll have a pumpkin destined for the dumpster next week. Well, why not use it to make a seasonal-flavored vodka and a pumpkin martini?

The recipe is a two-step process using infused vodka, which is all the rage with culinary mixologists.

No, it’s not Yuckaflux, the party people mixture of whatever fruit you have on hand cut up and steeped in the contents of your liquor cabinet. This is more sophisticated stuff.

Rice Bar chef Brock Shepherd makes all kinds of inspired cocktails with shochu (a vodka-like Japanese spirit) and añejo tequila infused with spices and fruits at his Kensington Market eatery.

You can do the same at home. All you need is a clean jar or bottle with a tight-fitting lid. Steep lemons and hot peppers in vodka for a serious Bloody Mary. Sprigs of fresh rosemary in vodka make a zippy martini. You get the idea.

Let the mixture rest in a cool place out of sunlight – the fridge works well – from a couple of days to a week until it has the desired strength of flavors.

Today, we’re using fresh pumpkin and spices in a recipe from funky Philadelphia Phillyist website (phillyist.com) courtesy of writer K.Nadine Kavanaugh.

“I went through a phase of infusing vodkas with absolutely everything I could think of,” Kavanaugh emailed when I asked if she’d share her recipe. “I even came up with a credible gingersnap vodka, as well as chocolate hazelnut, cucumber thyme, toasted walnut, ginger, lemon rosemary, and all sorts of citrus combinations.”

I cut the pumpkin into small enough pieces to feed into a clear wine bottle, added the spices and vodkas, topped it with an air-tight bottle stopper and let it steep for a week, shaking it occasionally.

The result was delicious – think pumpkin pie with a boozy kick. Strain the infused vodka through cheesecloth for a perfectly clear result. And make sure you use raw pumpkin for this.

Pumpkin Vodka

(For those wanting less vanilla flavor, use 750 ml of plain vodka and omit the vanilla vodka)

1 clear glass bottle or jar with lid, washed

2 cups raw fresh pumpkin, peeled and cut into small pieces

1-1/2 cups vodka

3/4 cup vanilla vodka

1 long vanilla pod, cut in 2 pieces and split down the centre

4 to 5 in. piece of cinnamon stick

Add all ingredients to a bottle or jar.

Cap tightly.

Steep in fridge for up to 1 week, shaking occasionally.

Strain and keep leftovers in the fridge.

Pumpkin Martini fresh ice

2-1/2 oz pumpkin vodka

1/2 oz amaretto

Shake over ice and strain into a martini glass. Makes 1 drink.