Here’s a quick recipe for a Friday cocktail. You will need:

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 lemon, zest peeled off
1 big sprig rosemary + 1 small sprig
2 oz vodka (or 3 oz, depending on your mood)
ice

Add the sugar, your strips of lemon peel, rosemary and water in a small pot. Bring to a boil and let sugar dissolve while stirring. Remove from heat and let cool. Dig out lemon and rosemary and discard.

Combine 1/2 of your syrup (or a little less, depending on how sweet you wannt it), the juice of 1/2 a lemon, the vodka and some ice. Mix and strain out into a martini glass. See, you have enough lemon/rosemary syrup to make yourself another. Excellent. Garnish with a small piece of rosemary. I found this really nice as the scent of rosemary was very strong every time I took a sip!

I was very excited about this challenge’s theme — Cinco de Mayo, as I love Mexican food. When I cook Mexican food, I tend to make these types of dishes up, rather than follow a cookbook’s specific recipe. This challenge had my sorting through my cookbook collection looking for a suitable contender from my large collection of books.

As I mentioned in Friday’s post, The El Paso Chile Company Margarita Cookbook is the only Mexican cookbook that I appear to have. So, that is what I used for this month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge. Of course, the cookbook is more Tex-Mex than Mexican but I figured that it was close enough for my needs.

Opening the book up, I discovered a theme — it contained mostly drink recipes. Makes sense. There’s a big ol’ margarita on the cover and it is called the “Margarita Cookbook” after all. I pondered briefly and decided I could work with that and made myself the Tequila Sunrise from page 50. Then it was time to pick some recipes.

The last few pages of the book are devoted to snacks and a few main dishes. I chose two appetizers for my Cinco de Mayo celebration and starting cooking.

Here’s the thing though — all of the recipes in the “Margarita Cookbook” involve tequila. Problem? Not really. So, go grab your bottle and cook along!

Tequila Sunrise
1/2 cup orange juice
2 ounces tequila
1/2 ounce Chambord liqueur
1 lime wedge
Optional: splash of club soda

Fill a glass 3/4 of the way up with ice. Add the juice and tequila and stir. Slowly our the Chambord down the side and let it settle to the bottom of the glass. Top with club soda if desired and serve with a lime wedge. Ahhhh! Refreshing!

Charred Tomato Salsa Borracho
3-4 large tomatoes
1/3 cup minced white onion
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup tequila
Juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeno chile
3/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 cup cilantro

Char the tomatoes and pepper under the broiler until blackened. If the pepper finishes first, just remove it and place in a plastic baggie to steam. Let the tomatoes cool slightly and core.

Remove the blackened skin from the steamed pepper and chop, removing the seeds and stem. Add with the tomatoes (do not remove the tomatoes’ charred peel) to a food processor, along with all of the other ingredients.

Process until fairly smooth. Serve with chips.

Rounding out my WCC#5, is a “Boilermaker” Bean Dip. Yep, not only is there tequila in this bean dip, but also beer. I made a half recipe of what was in the cookbook. I’ve listed my smaller, slightly-different-than-the-original version below.

Boilermaker Bean Dip
1 15-oz can of traditional style refried beans
1/4 cup Mexican beer
2 tbsp tequila
1-2 tsp canned chipotle chilies in adobo
1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3 green onions, chopped

Combine the beans, beer, chipotle and tequila in a sauce pan. Stir over medium heat until bubbly and hot. Add the cheese and mix until melted. Transfer to a serving bowl and add the chopped green onions. Serve with chips and enjoy (along with the salsa and tequila sunrise)!

On a related note, I keep my extra chipotle in the freezer. After opening a can, I use what I need and then wrap each pepper and some adobo sauce up in plastic wrap and freeze all my single servings in a big freezer bag. That way, whenever I need a small amount of chipotle (and most recipes just call for one or two peppers) I can just grab what I need.

This fun little number packs quite a punch. The ginger is spicy and the vodka is…well…vodka. In my version, I used vanilla vodka, as that’s all I had on hand, but citron (or any other variety) would probably work just fine too. Before you can have a drink, you need to first make a ginger-lemon simple syrup but that can be done in under a half an hour. Ah, you’ll be on your way to drinking in no time!

This is based on a recipe I saw on Food Network but I changed it into more of a ginger lemon drop (rather than just a ginger martini), so it’s different. Ha!

Ginger Syrup:
1 lemon, peel removed with a vegetable peeler into strips
2 cups coarsely chopped fresh ginger (peel too)
1 cup sugar
2 cups water

Add the ginger chunks and lemon into a food processor and process until finely chopped.

Transfer the mixture to a pan and add sugar and water. Mix and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Strain the mixture and cool. It can be refrigerated for up to 1 week. So, now that you have your ginger-lemon syrup…here’s what you do with it.

Ginger Lemon Drop
Ice
3 ounces vodka, (vanilla, citron, unflavored or ?)
1 ounce ginger syrup, recipe follows
Juice of 1 lemon
Twist of lemon

Fill a shaker or pitcher with ice. Add the vodka, ginger syrup, and lemon juice. Cover and shake vigorously, or stir, until combined and chilled. Strain into a martini glass. Add twist and serve. Ahhhh.

And remember, ginger is good for the digestion!

Wow, these are frickin’ awesome, as Carl would say.

Here is Christy’s recipe again:

The Bees Knees

1/3 C hot water
1 Tsp lavender
1/4 C honey
6 Tbsp gin
2 Tbsp lemon juice

This makes 2 small (6 oz) drinks (or as pictured above, one HUGE drink). Steep the lavender in the hot water for 4 minutes and then strain. Mix the lavendar water with the rest of the ingredients and add ice. Strain out into cocktail glasses.

I found it helpful to the honey first with the strained, hot, lavender water so that it melts, then mix that with everything else. Yum!

***

So, jwa’s 34th(!!) birthday is coming up and we’re looking for a restaurant to have a nice, leisurely, tasty meal. Not too fancy, but still, an occasion restaurant of sorts. Oh and we ususally don’t eat out on Saturday nights (Sunday is actually my favorite night to eat out), so I’m hoping stuff isn’t all unreasonably crowded and hectic.

As of now, the list has been whittled down to:

* Wildwood.
Never been. Have heard great things (obviously). We really want to try it sometime, but I fear trying a place I really, really want to love on a birthday is a recipe (hee!) for letdown.

* Paley’s Place.
See above.

* Three Doors Down Cafe.
Sadly, again, never been. Pro: Walkable. Con: No reservations on a weekend could be annoying and not much of a festive experience.

* Wild Abandon.
Sigh. Again with the never tried. Walkable. Great name. Have heard nice things but I think I may want to try this place more than he does.

* Rivers Restaurant.
We’ve been here before as well but never for dinner (just brunch, which was pretty good). The dinner menu looks intriguing.

* Castagna — affectionately dubbed Costanza around the house.
We’ve been here before and liked it, so maybe this is a possibly — but it is fun to try someplace new…

Hmmmmm…my goal is for him to make a decision and for me to make a reservation today. Edited to add: Okay, so I think he has decided on Wildwood…Yay!