Here’s our spin on the classic Tequila Sunrise.  Fresh orange juice, tequila, and then we’ve swapped the traditional grenadine for a drizzle of our homemade blood orange syrup. I love this blood orange syrup – it has such an interesting flavor when it’s concentrated in this syrup form. We’ve been sipping this cocktail ever since we made it, while pretending we’re about to jet off to Mexico for spring break. 

Oh wait, Dulcie actually IS on spring break. Sort of.  She’s visiting her family in Florida where it is 80 degrees.  Meanwhile I’m trudging through the snow to give her cat insulin shots twice a day.  I’m trying not to be jealous…

Now here’s a cool trick about making a beautiful Blood Orange Sunrise cocktail.  You need to add the ingredients in a specific order to create the striations of color.  It’s really easy:  first ice, then tequila, then orange juice, and then the cool part:  you slowly drizzle the syrup over the back of a spoon.  This helps it gently disperse, but not mix into the drink too much, and arrive on the bottom of the glass in a pretty layer of red. Give it one gentle stir, and you’re done.

Garnish with a citrus curl, which we’ll show you a tutorial on next time!

Blood Orange Sunrise

• ice
• 1 1/5 oz tequila
• 3 oz Orange Juice
• 1/2 oz blood orange syrup

Add ingredients to your cocktail glass in the order above, drizzling the blood orange syrup last (and over the back of a spoon, as shown).  Give everything one quick stir, and serve.

Here’s another simple but special wintery recipe.  Somewhere along the line we came up with the idea to reduce beautiful (and delicious) fresh blood orange juice to create a syrup.  Probably because we’re always on the lookout for something unique to use in a seasonal cocktail.  This is a winner – sweet and citrusy, but with a slightly bitter piney background note that I really loved.

The recipe is so easy.  Juice a couple oranges, add a little sugar, and simmer until reduced by 1/2.  My main warning to you is that blood orange juice is very…vibrant.  I encountered a few splattering issues.  I had to stop juicing after 1/2 an orange and run to find my apron.  And I may or may not still be finding little red splashes in far flung nooks and crannies of my kitchen.  That may be due to the fact that I’m a bit of a messy cook, though, I’m not sure it’s fair to blame these oranges.

We’ll be back on Thursday with our favorite cocktail (so far) featuring Blood Orange Syrup!

Blood Orange Syrup

Note that this recipes is very flexible – the ratio of ingredients is the most important part.  2:1, juice to sugar.  Reduce by half.  Done. 

• 1/2 cup blood orange juice (we used about 3 oranges to get this much)
• 1/4 cup sugar

Combine in a saucepan and simmer for approx 15 minutes, stirring regularly, until reduced by half.

Oh, and another editorial note.  This recipe is very similar to our recipe for Homemade Grenadine, which is pretty much a Pomegranate Syrup.  Also highly recommend for delicious seasonal cocktails!

After getting over 12” of snow overnight here in Colorado, we decided to celebrate with a bright and sunny winter brunch party.
We kept it simple; Dulcie and I each made a dish to share (and we made the Rosemary Honey together earlier in the week). I highly recommend having a friend like this…being able to throw together a low stress brunch party  with good friends, in the dead of winter, and where you don’t have to cook everything is priceless. Here was our menu:

Winter Brunch Menu

• Sweet Potato Biscuits (recipe below)
• Rosemary Honey
• Baked Eggs with Crispy Hashbrown Crust (recipe coming soon!)
• Orange Juice
• Hot Coffee

Bright citrusy colors mixed with turquoise made the party feel cheery and warm. 

We lit a few candles (which the toddlers desperately wanted to blow out instantly), brewed a pot of hot coffee, and poured ourselves some fresh OJ.
The sweet potato biscuits were flakey and delicious; especially when topped with the sweet and complex rosemary honey. The baked egg skillet, made in cast iron with a crispy hashbrown crust, is deceptively easy to make and so perfect for a winter morning.

We relaxed and chatted to a low key mix of classic jazz and enjoyed the sparkling snow drifts out the windows. Happy winter.

Soundtrack for a Winter Brunch:

Our recipe for Sweet Potato Biscuits was inspired (and simplified) by Martha Stewart.  

Sweet Potato Biscuits

• 1 3/4 cups flour
  
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
  
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
  
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
  
• 6 Tbsp chilled butter, cut into pieces
  
• another 1/2 Tbsp melted butter and more, for pan
  
• 3/4 cup mashed sweet potato
  
• 1/3 cup buttermilk (we used 1 Tbsp yogurt mixed with scant 1/3 c of whole milk)

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. With your hands or a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. In a small bowl, whisk together sweet potato puree and buttermilk; combined with flour mixture. Do not overmix.
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead very gently until dough comes together but is still slightly lumpy, five or six times. If dough is too sticky, knead in up to 1/4 c additional flour. Shape into a disk, and pat to approx 1”thickness. With a biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits as close together as possible. Gather together scraps once, and repeat to cut out more biscuits.
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Butter an 8-inch pie pan. Arrange biscuits snugly in pan. Brush with melted butter. Bake until golden, 20 to 24 minutes.

Lately, I have really been loving Bon Appetit: gorgeous photography, modern style, and solid recipes. In the current issue, the southern issue, there were a couple of easy little recipes hidden among the pages that immediately caught my eye. The first was a recipe for rosemary honey.
In the dead of Colorado's winter, there isn't much produce to be playing around with, and it is time to look into the depths of your pantry for inspiration. A rosemary-infused honey is just the thing to keep my palate interested. I did have to run to the store for some rosemary sprigs, but by this time next year I'm hoping to have a little rosemary plant in my kitchen.
While delicious, Bon Appetit's recipes don't tend to be simple. So I was pleased to find a recipe like this one: less than 5 ingredients (all easy to find) and just a few minutes at the stove. They included this recipe as an embellishment for their skillet-fried chicken, but we have plans for drizzling it over some tasty biscuits (stay tuned). But with all this drizzling, I did realize that my kitchen is sadly lacking one of these.

Rosemary Honey

• 1/2 cup honey

• 1 tbs unsalted butter

• 1 rosemary sprig

• pinch of salt

Bring everything to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Remove from heat and let steep for 30 minutes. Serve right away, or pour into jar and refrigerate.