Friend of NickDrinks.com (and my wife), Lish Dorset, made some amazing handmade bar towels. Check out her blog for the full write-up.

Years ago I used to sell appliqued towels at the Detroit Urban Craft Fair. The towels were always a hit because it was a practical gift to give to someone or to keep for yourself. While I made all the appliques, I used vintage-looking towels that were ready made by ACS Home & Work (a Michigan company) as I could never find toweling fabric that I liked to make the actual towels myself. That was then.

Post Link

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Vermouths of the world are just a wine infused with spices and fortified with high-proof booze. I’ve was interested in trying my own ever since I came across this post by Serious Eats Drinks blog. There are some out there spices you need (like Wormwood Leaf) which I get online. Try Dandelion Botanical Co for online herb and spice purchases.

Here is the recipe from Serious Eats Drinks, you will need the following:

• – The peel of one orange
• – a bottle of neutral white wine such as Ship of Fools by Chateau Grand Traverse
• – 1/4 cup raw sugar
• – boiling water
• – 1/2 cup VS or VSOP Cognac
• – 1/2 cup sweet sherry
• – 1 cinnamon stick
• – 1 teaspoon of dried chamomile flowers
• – 8 cardamon pods
• – 1 star anise
• – 1 teaspoon dried lavender
• – 1/4 teaspoon wormwood leaf

The bummer of this recipe is there are lots of spices/herbs that the average person might not use often. However, you are that weirdo that is making your own sweet vermouth so I wouldn’t worry about that.

Take 1 cup of wine add all the herbs/spices and orange zest. Take it up to a boil then let it simmer for 5 minutes.

While you are simmering the wine, pour the sugar (and only sugar) into another pot (medium heat) and melt it. Once it is all melted take it off the heat. Let it cool for a bit then slowly add 1/4 cup of boiling water to it to make a caramel paste. If it seizes up, just slowly scrape at it with a wooden spoon. It will eventually come up.

Strain the spices/herbs out of the wine infusion then add back to a pot with the remaining wine and bring to a boil. The Serious Eats recipe calls for only 3.25 cups of wine overall which leaves about 1/2 cup in the bottle. Personally, it seems like a waste. Unless you want to drink it while you cook. Your call.

Add the boiling wine to the caramel syrup along with the sherry and cognac. Let that cool and you are ready to serve.

Vermouth is best cold and will eventually go bad. The rule of thumb is a month but my undeveloped palette isn’t as picky. I could see it going a bit longer but use your judgment. If it tastes off alone, it will likely taste bad in a cocktail.

Let me know if you try this recipe yourself. If you are in the Metro Detroit area, I’m happy to share my spice haul too.

Budmo!

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I’m off to my first blogger conference with my wife. It’s called SNAP Conference and is in Salt Lake City. I have a sneaking suspicion I will be one of the few boys there. I’m also near panicked at the level of preparation I did not do for this event. Not only did I not a door decoration for my room but I don’t have a duct tape suit for the Duck Tape prom. The one thing I could bang out is a cool business card. You should see what these crazy DIY bloggers are doing. Search #snapconf to see.

I visited my friendly neighborhood TechShop and enlisted the help of Ashley to use the laser cutter. We spent the next two hours tweaking the design and optimizing the placement of text, folds and cuts. I’ve used the cutter for plexiglass and wood but never paper. Glad I didn’t catch the place on fire.

Since all the visiting DIYers have cool cards to share, I thought mine would reflect my love of booze and DIY. You get the folded card and one one half there is a dinosaur with a martini (hence #dinotini). You color him in to your choosing then punch it out and fit it together.

The social media mavens are blowing me away with their savviness. If people would like to post pictures of their finished coloring projects and tag them #dinotini, that would be awesome.

See everyone at the event.

Budmo!

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About 2 months ago, I was introduced by a friend to the local Bell’s Field Sales Rep, Monica. She asked if I could help her build a ball drop for the release of Oberon – 3/25/13 at midnight. Getting the chance to mix my passion for making and drinking was an offer I couldn’t pass up.

I enlisted the help of Russ Wolfe to assist with electronics and prototyping.  We went through a number of different designs to drop the ball from escapement-style (think clock pendulum) to motor controlled via iPhone app. In the end, we decided we were over-thinking it and kept it to a hand crank.

The lights on the other hand, we knew, would add so much. So we combined a custom set of Christmas lights (hand assembled within each of the beer bottles in the sphere and strip based LEDs. The LEDs were cool because they were tricolor and could therefore make any color. This was great because it kept up with the Bell’s color scheme.

The base is wood with laser cut sides. We used some ceiling diffuses to help spread the LED light across the panel.

Overall, I am really happy with the way it turned out. It is way over engineered (1,500 lb aircraft cable) but it got the job done.  I even got to do a little machining for the custom hand crank arbor.

More Pics on Flickr

Stay tuned for the next project. I’m sure that will be fun too.  Budmo!

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Anyone who has visited one of the great craft cocktail bars have seen a giant jar of red orbs suspended in a dark sauce and thought those must be maraschino cherries. Every so often you get one in a drink and to your delight it isn’t as sweet or as artificial as the neon red maraschino cherries you get in the store. Preserved cherries are different from maraschino cherries which have a lot of science in them for better or good.

According to Wikipedia after the berries are preserved in a brine solution with sulfur dioxide and calcium chloride, they are soaked in a suspension of food coloring.  Science is awesome and has it’s place in the world but sometimes, you want something a bit closer to the soil.

Enter preserved cherries.  These are simple to make and will last up to 6 months in the fridge.

Preserved Cherries (yields 2 quarts)
– adaptation from Saveur.com

• 2 quarts cherries
• zest of 1/2 a lemon
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup white wine
• 8 allspice berries
• 2 tsp. black peppercorns
• 1/2 cup pomegranate molasses

1) First you need to prepare the cherries.  I used frozen so this was just defrosting.  If you go with fresh, you will need to pit all of these.

2) We are going to make some simple syrup.  Mix two cups of water with two cups of sugar.  Bring this to a boil and let it thicken slightly (about 5 minutes).

3) Add everything to the pot except the cherries and simmer for 20 minutes.

* The hardest thing to find is the pomegranate molasses.  You can make your own but I hate working with pomegranates.  They are a mess.  I found mine in Holiday Market in Royal Oak, Mich..  Look for a well-stocked super market or a Mexican grocer.

4) Turn off the heat, add the cherries and let cool.

5) Ladle the cherries and sauce in to two quart jars.  Store in the refrigerator and use within 6 months.

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