Blackberry Mint Margarita

Do I have a tale to tell you!  Two months ago I bought a new Nikon camera and a speedlight.  My friend Vicki sent me to Roberts where she'd discovered great service and very knowledgable sales people.  She was 100% right.  Vicki's a wonderful photographer!  Here's the link to her website: http://www.studiovphotography.com/.  I was getting used to the camera and really feeling like my photographs had improved a bit.  Then, late last week my speedlight quit working.  Connie pulled out the manual and went through every option.  He couldn't get it to work.  ARGH!

I got the notice from Foodbuzz that I was one of the twelve bloggers chosen to highlight Food and Wine magazine for the next month.  Absolutely one of my favorite cooking magazines.  I love sitting down with it and just reading for ideas.  Then, I go back and clip recipes.  How in the world was I going to do Food and Wine justice with the old point and shoot?  Time for a trip downtown.  The verdict:  three weeks before I'd get the unit back.  ARGH again!   Well, thanks to the wonderful folks at Roberts, I have a loaner for the whole month if necessary.  Now, bad photographs are my fault and not the camera's...

So, with that I'm ready to start blogging about Food and Wine.  The first place I went when I found out I was selected was to my old emails.  They regularly send an email called The Dish.  It's always a compilation of recipes around a theme.  Favorite Southern.  Muddled fruit drinks.  Best Gazpachos.  Summer produce.  Lots of great ideas to choose from.  I printed a couple dozen recipes.  Then, I got home and my October issue was awaiting me.  Maybe I'd cook the issue like I did for another magazine's challenge a couple of years ago.  A perusal of the recipe list opened my eyes to two things.  One, there were about 70 recipes in this issue.  No way to do that in one month.  And, two, a few of the recipes called for ingredients I'd prefer not to cook.  Veal and veal kidneys for example.  Back to plan A. 

How best to kick off the Food and Wine month?  A cocktail of course!  Connie put this together before he went off to his bridge game.  He's such a fun bartender to have around :-)  Down to the basement to get the simple syrup and the limes and a couple of things I needed for the dishes I wanted to make while he's playing bridge.  Oops, forgot the limes.  No problem.  Still have to feed the Princess Gracie.  She's not very subtle when she wants to be fed.  MEOW.  Ok, limes are in hand.  Didn't we have some fun new skewers?  Yes, but where???  Ah, in the bar. That makes sense.  Whew, the drink's finally put together and we can clink glasses and smooch (my favorite part of cocktails!)  So, what did I think?  It's very refreshing.  The blackberry is such a different flavor from our normal drinks.  I'd give these guys a 4 on a scale of 1-5. 

Blackberry Mint Margarita (serves one)

Ingredients:

8 blackberries, 2 skewered on a pick
Ice
10 mint leaves
1 1/2 oz tequila
1 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz simple syrup


Directions:
Muddle six of the blackberries in a cocktail shaker. 

Add the ice, mint, tequila, lime juice and simple syrup.  Shake well.  Fill a rocks glass with ice cubes.  Strain the drink into the glass.  Or, if you don't mind it a bit "chunky" just pour it in.  Top with the berries skewered on the pick.  Toast the one you love and enjoy.

adapted from Food and Wine, originally from the Hungry Cat

food and wine.com

FOOD and WINE is giving away a year-long subscription to a lucky reader from Kate's Kitchen. Click here to enter and read official rules here.


This post is part of a series featuring recipes from the FOOD and WINE archive. As a FOOD and WINE Blogger Correspondent, I was chosen to do four recipes a week from FOOD and WINE. I received a subscription to FOOD and WINE for my participation.