Cocktail O' Clock!

Happy Friday everyone! What a fun filled week this has been...and I'm looking forward to a wonderful weekend too. Guess what? It's cocktail o'clock! Because I've been featuring lemons all week, I've decided to create a cocktail using them too. Reminiscent of a lemon drop martini, I've fancied it up a little by infusing a lemon simple syrup with rosemary.

Simple syrup really is simple to make. Usually it's equal parts water and sugar, boiled until the sugar dissolves. But in this case, the syrup is made from freshly squeezed lemon juice and sugar and is infused with a touch of rosemary, which lends a wonderful herbal note and cuts the sweetness of the sugar.





The recipe, adapted from Epicurious, is a spritzer of sorts--syrup and vodka over ice topped with a splash of club soda or seltzer. If you'd like to make a martini, just shake one part lemon syrup with 1 1/2-2 parts vodka, depending on how strong you like it. Strain it into a sugar rimmed martini glass and toast to this life. As my Danish grandfather would say, Skol!





Lemon Rosemary Fizz
Printable Recipe

This cocktail is like a sophisticated and fancy version of lemonade. The herbal notes of rosemary are the perfect counterpoint to the sweet syrup made with sugar and lemon juice, and the club soda adds just the right amount of bubbly goodness. Of course, this drink would make a wonderful mocktail too if you omit the vodka. Adapted from Epicurious.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Total time: 1 hour
Yield: makes 8 beverages

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
2 rosemary sprigs
8 ounces vodka
Chilled club soda or seltzer water

Preparation:

1. Place sugar, lemon juice and rosemary sprigs in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes, until sugar is dissolved.

2. Chill syrup for one hour in the refrigerator. Remove rosemary sprigs.

3. Pour one ounce of syrup and one ounce of vodka in eight ice filled (8 ounce) glasses. Top with club soda and garnish with a sprig of rosemary if desired. Stir and serve immediately.

**Turn this into a martini by shaking 2 ounces of lemon syrup with 2 ounces of vodka in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Strain into 4 martini glasses that have been rimmed with sugar. Top with a splash of club soda and garnish with a sprig of rosemary.