So this is Christmas...
A cocktail recipe and a see you next year.
Alternative title: It’s a bad day to be an ice cold beer.
I hope you’re currently ending every meeting with ‘Let’s circle back on that in the new year’ and fine-tuning your witty out-of-office notification. Mine’s a cartoon picture of a trussed turkey sunbathing/roasting on the beach. Classic.
I’m super aware that my Christmas may not look like your Christmas - and that’s part of the fun. We lean very heavily into a Pākehā (white) Christmas.
The BBQ gets lit and bottles of beer and wine bob in a plastic bucket filled with ice. There are homemade crackers filled with bad jokes and silly hats and a themed quiz that my sister will win for the 3rd year running. Since we already had our ham two weeks ago, Christmas lunch is going to be super simple. I’m thinking a thinly sliced hunk of beef, minty, buttered, boiled potatoes, horseradish cream, and a salad (tbc). A whipped cloud of a pav with strawberries too.
I know you don’t need ANOTHER recipe thrown at you right now. Instead, how about a fun and fruity but also a little bitter and refreshing cocktail?
Say hello to the enzoni.
Remember during the first lockdown when bars and restaurants were being super kind and sharing recipes so you could make them at home? Hotel Ponsonby shared the recipe for my favourite cocktail of theirs and (soz about it but) now I just make them myself. It’s perfect for any of your Christmas festivities. But also for having after a long day at the beach, or for sipping while seeing in the New Year.
Are you excited? I’m excited. Let’s do this.
Hotel Ponsonby’s enzoni - for one
Ingredients:
7 red grapes
30ml Gin
30ml Campari
20ml lemon juice
15ml sugar syrup
Ice
Put two grapes on a toothpick and place it in the freezer.
Add the remaining grapes into a cocktail shaker or makeshift vessel, and give them a good muddle. Add the remaining ingredients. Shake well and strain over ice.
Add the frozen grape toothpick to garnish.
Note: If you’re only making one, feel free to skip the sugar syrup and put ½ tsp of caster sugar in with the grapes when muddling. But, I highly recommend these for a group so have kept the sugar syrup in the ingredient list. You can make two or three at a time.
Here are some boring but hopefully helpful reminders for this time of year.
Have a quick cleanout of the fridge, like now. Get rid of that curry paste that’s been there since last Christmas. You need the space for goodies.
Organise your shopping list in order of how you walk through the store. For example, vegetables first, then bakery, meat, dairy, and pantry goods. That way you don’t pinball around the shop bouncing off other people in the quest for duck fat (it’s in the butchery fridge).
Make sure to add toilet paper, kitchen towels, and dishwashing liquid to the shopping list - sucks if you run out.
Prep as much as you can beforehand. I know I’m a broken record but ‘Christmas day you’ will thank ‘organised you’. Write a prep list and tick it off as you go.
Delegate. I normally get someone else to do that last shop, the one where you buy buns and strawberries. Also, get someone else to bring ice. Save yourself the freezer space.
Try to get a load of dishes through and have the dishwasher empty before everyone arrives. It helps heaps at the end.
Going to Christmas at someone else's house? Take a container. We always have leftovers but finding containers for everyone is often a struggle. I know it’s the season of giving but I have very few good, leak proof Sistema’s, don’t make me share them.
DO NOT APOLOGISE. ‘Sorry, the ham’s a bit burnt’, ‘hmmm, it’s not my best pavlova this year’, ‘Sorry, the potatoes have gone cold’. DO NOT DIMINISH YOUR WORK. Honestly, everyone is just happy to be invited and probably hasn’t even noticed. So sit down, STAY sat down, and enjoy it.
Phew, I think that’s all I have for you this year.
I’m going to be taking a bit of a break from sending these out as we’re heading to Mexico for three weeks. I’m hoping to return tanned, tranquil and taco-filled. Follow me, if you’d like. I’m not very good at posting in real time but I’ll try my best to balance the fine line between wanderlust and obnoxious.
Ngā mihi o te Kirihimete me te Tau Hou!
Rosie xx