Mojito Cocktail

Fresh Mint and Lime Add Sparkle to This Tall Cuban Cooler

The Mojito is one of the trendiest drinks of the past decade.  And no wonder.  This refreshing cocktail packs a lot of flavor and pleasure into each tall, cool glass. 

The Mojito is a volume drink that takes a while to consume.  And sparkling water helps dilute the alcohol quotient.  So it makes an excellent thirst quencher for a long, hot summer afternoon.  You can have two — and still keep your wits about you.

It’s also exceptionally easy to make. 

Been a while since you’ve had one?  Well, now you know what you’re drinking this weekend!

Cocktail Basics

The Hows and Whys of Mixing Cocktails

This week we’re inaugurating our Summer Sippin’ Series here on Kitchen Riffs.  Each week we’ll do a post about a different drink (don’t worry, we’ll also have lots of food posts throughout the summer).

We’ll highlight an assortment of cocktails, including several of the tall cool ones we typically associate with warm weather.  And we’ll do some Tiki drinks — complete with little umbrellas.  Our first drink will be the Mojito, and that post will go up later this week. 

But first, we need to cover some basics about cocktail mixing.  Think of it as Cocktails 101.  You won’t be ready to apply for a bartending job by the end of this post, but you will understand how to make just about any drink.

There are only a few things you need to learn.  And they’re easy! 

Barbecued Pork Steaks

Finish Summer Right with an Authentic Recipe for this St. Louis Specialty

Where has summer gone? Labor Day is almost here — and for many of us this weekend is the last great cookout opportunity of the year.

The holiday’s best festivities involve firing up the Weber and cooking great slabs of meat. I live in St. Louis, and although St. Louis Cut spare ribs are nationally known, the cut of meat most St. Louisians favor for cookouts is the pork steak.

If you haven’t had these for a while – or worse yet, never had them – Labor Day would be a great time to savor their porky succulence.