Nellie's Gift
My grandmother baked an angel food cake every summer for my birthday. I loved the sticky, tacky feeling of the cake from the late August heat. She served sliced strawberries alongside, slick and slippery from their time tossed with sugar. Birthday morning, I’d skip into the kitchen to see the cake cooling upside down on a dark green wine bottle. Where the bottle came from is a mystery to this day – my grandparents didn’t drink. But this inconsistency went unnoticed at the time. My parents didn’t allow sweets (I still don’t have a sweet tooth, although it could easily have gone that way – you want what you can’t have) so my grandmother’s defiance of their rule thrilled me both in the belly and the brain. Later that evening, we’d eat by the lake, candles often blown out by the breeze before I could make a wish. But it already had come true.
Makes 2 drinks
+ 4 strawberries
+ 4 ounces bourbon
+ 2 ounces rhubarb liqueur
+ ½ ounce fresh lemon juice
+ 2 teaspoons quick mint simple syrup (see below)
+ 4 dashes rhubarb bitters
+ Ice cubes
+ Large ice cubes
Muddle the strawberries in a shaker. Add the bourbon, rhubarb liqueur, lemon juice, mint simple, and bitters. Add ice and shake to chill. (Taste – if your berries aren't super sweet you may need a little more simple.) Strain into 2 rocks glasses with a large ice cube in each.
Garnish: whole strawberry on rim
Quick Mint Simple Syrup: Scrunch up some fresh mint leaves to get about 1 tablespoon. Put the leaves into a small bowl with 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon water. Microwave until the sugar starts to dissolve, then swirl to fully dissolve. Remove the mint.
