Top o' the mornin'!
Hooray for Thanksgiving! Tomorrow I will stuff myself to the gills with your traditional delicious fare, then proceed to the couch to let my tryptophan soaked body pass the f out for a few great hours in front of a football game. Besides the delicious sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and gravy smothered turkey, I must not leave out the special ingredient: alcohol. Nothing makes a family get together, or a big meal, (or both in this case) better than good old alcohol.
I assume many will be having a glass of wine or a nice dark beer with dinner. This is fine and dandy for the casual drinker, but I'm trying to keep my eyes blurred while shoving mashed potatoes in my mouth; you know, something that packs a punch. My libation of choice this year will be the mighty Mint Julep. I know, this isn't anywhere near horse race season, and who drinks mint drinks at Thanksgiving? Well I do. Why? It's frickin delicious. For bourbon lovers such as myself, this is the ultimate potent potable. Let's start off with the recipe:
Water
Sugar
Mint
Bourbon
Ice
That's it. Simple. Delicious. The only catch for this wonderment is the preparation. If you are butt lazy, which I usually am, you can mix these ingredients in a glass and muddle and drink. This is a waste. The true method takes a bit of time, but is well worth it.
To start, heat a large pot on the oven and fill with a ratio of about 1 to 1 cups of sugar to water. Boil with tons of fresh mint leaves in the pot (well, not tons, but plenty, enough to cover the pot). Muddle that around, and keep heating for about 10 - 15 minutes, until a syrup forms, and it gets sticky (finger tests work great). Let it cool for about 30 minutes. Now it gets messy. You need to squeeze all the syrup out of the pot, filtering all the mint leaves out of the syrup. You wont get it all out, this is ok, mint never hurt anyone (except for that one time in Baja California, but that's a different story). Squeeze as much as you can out and place it in a container. This is your mixer. When you are ready to imbibe, take out your favorite glass and fill it with ice. With your best bourbon, fill the glass with 5 parts of bourbon to 2 parts simply syrup. Yes, this drink is hefty on the booze. This ratio can be tinkered with to taste, but I find this ratio works just fine. The sugary syrup takes away the bite of the bourbon, and the mint just makes it that more refreshing.
There you go, the great Mint Julep. After two or three, that turkey will be up and dancing on the table. So, in recap, I am thankful for Thanksgiving, for time off work, for delicious food, for heavy drinking, for couches and televisions and Thanksgiving Day football, and most of all, bourbon (with mint and sugar).
Happy Turkey Day!
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