Newsletter – Garden Cocktails
Newsletter – Friday 24th April
Well hello you lovely lot! How are you all keeping? Good I hope? The weather has been utterly glorious this week and I don’t know about you but that gets me in the mood for some outside shenanigans. So today does have a little bit of an outdoor element to it, but I am all up for helping you guys with little to no garden space recreate it the best you can. I want us all to have some fun this weekend as it’s keeping the fun that keeps us all going, well, I think so anyway.
So, the theme behind this week as always is taken from some of the odd celebrations held around the world. Believe me, there is a tonne! I love seeing what people are celebrating and this week it’s no different. A mystery to me but today is apparently Pig in Blanket Day! Now, this one took me by surprise as I’ve always associated pigs in blankets with Christmas but hey, apparently today is the day to give them a little love. Now, I’m well aware we’ll have some veggies and vegans with us and don’t you worry, inclusivity is the aim of the game so I’ve found a good recipe for a meat and vegan varieties so everyone can join in, plus, I’ve sourced some great cocktail recipes to accompany them and selected a few of our special tipples that would work well in those drinks.
Pigs in Blankets are a bit of a British tradition and I’m always surprised about the variety that’s grown from that simple sausage wrapped in bacon. My Mum always used to wrap stuffing in bacon and I thought that’s what they were until my later years. I must say discovering the difference was the most delicious surprise! I’ll admit, I’m a vegetarian now but back in my meat eating days I was really partial to these little fellas! So, let’s start from the begining with some simple recipes to get you started.
Firstly, for the meaties, it would have been easy for me to tell you to wrap a sausage in some bacon and chuck it under the grill, but where’s the fun in that? The weather has been glorious recently so I thought I’d share something you could do outside on the BBQ. Now for those of you who are missing the outside at the moment, you may well have to resort to the grill. However, this recipe has something a little extra to the normal affair, plus I’m all about replacing what we can’t do with what we can (the fella and me are doing a faux holiday as ours were cancelled in just a couple of weeks). So, let’s see what we can do to recreate that missing thing. Have the windows wide open, move some furniture so you can lay on a blanket in the sun, put on a youtube video of the sea swash and stick your feet in a tub of water, whatever works for you. For me, I’ve found these little replacements a key to happiness right now so get inventive! Now, the recipe is care of Hellmans and you can find it here:
https://www.hellmanns.com/uk/recipes/bbq-pigs-in-blankets.html
You’ll notice this isn’t your standard pig in blanket here, this is a kind of kebab affair with tomatoes, onions and peppers too. So whether, you’re doing your outside inside or outside, hopefully this will give you something tasty to enjoy.
And now something for the veggies and vegans in the room. A controversial take on the pig in blanket that you may have seen recently. Now you’re going to need to sit down for this, some people wrap that pig up in a pastry blanket, rather than a bacon one. Amazing! You could well take a veggie sausage and wrap it in some fakon but how about this easy recipe for vegan pigs in blankets.
https://www.theedgyveg.com/2020/02/27/vegan-pigs-in-blanket-recipe/
Give it a whirl!
And, sticking with the outdoor theme, I got to thinking cocktails in the garden, with the bbq, and I thought I should offer some suggestions as to some good ones. So here we are. For the gin freaks in the room, how about a red snapper? A personal favourite of mine, a Res Snapper is simply a Bloody Mary, but using gin instead of vodka. It’s a taste sensation, all those big savoury flavours go incredibly well with bbq food. Here’s a great little recipe for one of those. I would give you mine, but honestly, I don’t measure, I just chuck things in and the bigger the taste, the more I like it, so perhaps it’s better to follow something proper! Ghis recipe care of the food network is a doozy.
http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/?utm_source=foodnetwork.com&utm_medium=domestic
And then I got to thinking about you lovely rum lot out there and it got a little tricky. I mean, savoury rum? Savoury spirit made from sugar cane? So, I went the other way. I went sweet, but meat sweet, so care of our illustrious UK establishment Tesco, and here for your drinking pleasure I present to you the Marmalade Mojito, a drink that will surely baste your tongue ready to receive those tasty goodies.
https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/marmalade-mojito.html
Now, as always, I like to showcase a few of our spirits that go hand in hand with this weeks drinks selection. And, due to the cocktails this week they[‘re a mix of gins and rum.
KURO London Dry: A Japanese inspired London Dry gin innovatively crafted here in the UK using botanicals from the Land of the Rising Sun – think silver birch bark, spruce needles and bamboo-activate charcoal. All these amazing savoury flavours are going to do something magical to your Red Snapper. BUY IT HERE
Cana Colmea Honey Rum: Cana y colmea honey rum is made from a blend of quality aged rums and the finest honey, which are combined to make a drink with a fine body and exquisite flavour. This delicious rum will add a magical depth of sweetness to your Marmalade Mojito. BUY IT HERE
Rum Sixty Six Family Reserve 12 year: 12 year old Bajan rum from the Rum Sixty Six range is produced by the Foursquare distillery and bottled at a slightly higher than usual ABV at 43%. Not only a Foursquare a renowned distillery, but that extra bit of ABV will cut through the sweetness to give you Mojito a fantastic little kick. BUY IT HERE
Now I don’t know about you, but I am raging for tomorrow. The weather is looking amazing. So, have a wonderful weekend and enjoy! And if you’re inside, you’ve got a tougher than the rest of us on that count, so you make sure you take those extra steps to make it feel as outside as you possibly can. Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Big love
G&R
