I was too busy tasting all the New Orleans cocktails during Mardi Gras to post. And sorry, but I don’t remember all the ingredients either. Maybe next year I’ll keep track.

‘New Orleans Cocktails’ was going to update and post tonight. But too busy being a New Orleanian, and drinking. What am I drinking tonight?

“In my kitchen”

2 ounces of Vodka (I’m at home; I’m not driving anywhere)

3 shots of Pompeii Grenadine (picked it up at Dorignac’s in the produce section)

Fill with lemonade

Garnish with an orange slice and a side of King Cake

Maybe next time we can articulate our visit to Bellocq in Lee Circle. Until then, Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

New Year’s Eve is coming up soon and I don’t know about all of you, but I love the bubbly. Even a few glasses of $4 Cold Duck can make me feel decadent. Of course, by the end of the night I’m in “f*ck it” mode and drinking straight out of the bottle. But some of us like to entertain guests, or ourselves, with a more dignified glass of the bubbly.

Here’s a few recipes that should leave quite the impression on your guests and your own palate.

Chris Hannah, head bartender at Arnaud’s French 75.

Champagne Holiday Cocktail

1 ounce bourbon

1/2 ounce Campari

1/4 ounce lime juice

1/4 ounce Stirrings ginger syrup

2 ounces Champagne

Clove-studded orange peel

Fill a shaker halfway with ice, place first four ingredients in shaker and shake. Pour over an ice-filled wine glass or snifter, top with Champagne and garnish with clove-studded orange peel.

Ambrosia

1 ounce brandy

1/2 ounce Applejack

1/4 ounce Cointreau

1/2 ounce lemon juice

3 ounces Champagne

Combine the first four ingredients in a flute. Top with chilled Champagne and gently stir.

Lavanda

4 lavender sprigs

3 ounces gin

1-1/2 ounces Lavender simple syrup (see below)

Ice cubes

Chilled prosecco

Place the flowers from two lavender sprigs, the gin and the lavender simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Use a muddler or a wooden spoon, muddle well. Fill the cocktail shaker halfway with ice cubes. Shake vigorously. Strain into 2 flute glasses. Top each with chilled prosecco and garnish each with a lavender sprig. Serve immediately.

To make lavender simple syrup: Place 1/4-cup fresh lavender, 3 cups sugar and 1-1/2 cups water in a saucepan. Heat over high heat, stirring until it reaches a low boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, still stirring for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. That makes about 3 cups — plenty for a couple of rounds of cocktails. (This simple syrup is yummy in freshly squeezed lemonade as well.)

It’s that time of year in New Orleans for hot drinks by a cozy fire. Ok, well, maybe we can all pretend considering it’s around 60 degrees in this city. But New Orleans is having its moments when a hot drink seems apropos.

A cocktail made with boiling water, sugar and spices is traditionally referred to as a “toddy,” and made with whiskey or sherry. Warm alcoholic beverages, like toddies, have their origins in Europe where wines and ciders were mulled with spices to take the chill off cold winter days.

After molasses began being imported from Jamaica, and distilleries opened in New England in the 1650’s. Colonists began adding distilled rum to hot beverages such as toddies and nogs. In the contemporary United States, the term “hot toddy” and “hot buttered rum” can be used interchangeably, although variations of each will occur regionally.

The Hot Buttered Rum

Boiling water
3 heaping bar spoons brown sugar
2 ounces Dark Rum
A couple cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 pat of unsalted butter

Before making your drink, put hot water in your cup so that the cup warms. Empty the cup and put the sugar in the cup with a little hot water. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the rum, cloves, cinnamon stick, and stir. Fill the remainder of the cup with some more hot water and top off with the pat of butter.

There will be a $20 per person wine flight at Pravda at 1113 Decatur street Dec. 11th starting at 9 p.m. until the wine runs out. If you don’t see it happening on the inside then check the beautiful courtyard they have. It’s certain to be worth the $20 and more. If there’s a large enough turn out Pravda will hopefully let them continue. I used to be a regular patron to Rickilane’s wine flights and they are always a treat. Plenty residents are happy to have him back in NOLA and providing his top notch wine flights again.

In one of Tennessee Williams essays “Where I Live,” Williams gives us a little glimpse into his creative inspiration:

“It was in New Orleans that I wrote most of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire.’ At that time, I was under the mistaken impression that I was dying. I didn’t feel I could eat much, but in the evenings my only close friend would bring me a bowl of oyster stew and in the afternoons, when I had finished my work, I would go around the corner to a pleasant bar called Victor’s and have myself a Brandy Alexander, which I thought would give me strength to get through the rest of the day. It was a somewhat irrational idea, since after the brandy Alexander I would always swim about 15 lengths of the Olympic-size pool at the New Orleans Athletic Club, but without that idea of imminent death I doubt I could have created Blanche DuBois.”

Brandy Alexander:

1.5 ounces brandy
1 ounce dark creme de cacao
2 ounces heavy cream (I’m lactose intolerant and just used Lactaid milk. Lactose free ice cream could also work if you have the same needs or Vegan).
Freshly grated nutmeg

Combine all of the ingredients. Add ice and shake vigorously for
about a minute. If you use a heavier, more ice cream type of substiute for the heavy cream, I would recommend a blender).

Strain into a chilled, stemmed martini glass. Or Brandy glass if thicker.

And top with a just a bit of freshly grated nutmeg.

The Pimm’s Cup was born in a London bar at the hands of a bartender named James Pimm, the Napoleon House has taken his creation and put a slight twist on it.

The drink takes Pimm’s original recipe and adds lemonade, Sprite and a cucumber garnish. While it is the Napoleon House’s signature concoction, you can find it in most local bars. Of course, when ordering it in New Orleans, you’ll most likely get the NOLA twist.

Pimm’s Cup Recipe

• Fill a tall, 12 oz glass with ice and add 1 ¼ oz. of Pimm’s #1
• Add 3 oz. of Lemonade
• Top off with Sprite or 7-Up
• Garnish with  cucumber

This is a variation on the traditional Milk Punch that is popular in New Orleans. The recipe is from Susan Spicer of Bayona and Herbsaint restaurants.

Brandy & Herbsaint Milk Punch   
    1-1/2 ounces brandy or bourbon
    1/4 ounce Herbsaint (especially Herbsaint Original)
    1/4 ounce simple syrup
    4 ounces whole milk or half-and-half

    Shake with ice and strain into a punch cup, and garnish with freshly grated nutmeg and/or cloves.