When your parents give you plums

Make cocktails.

First of all, Val and Doug deserve praise for growing the plums.  The plums we were sent home with were fresh out of their yard.  We tried them pre-cocktail and they were delicious.

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But a little alcohol never hurt anything, so we went to the good ol’ interwebs and searched plum + cocktails, and wouldn’t you know, Martha Stewart had a solution for us.

Martha’s recipe seemed Tuesday-Bridge-Club or Garden-Club appropriate: delicious, refreshing, and lightly alcoholic.  Just alcoholic enough, we imagined, to get the ladies in a tizzy.

We, however, like drinks that put a little hair on your chest.  Not literally, of course.

In retrospect, the additional vodka (not in Martha’s recipe) may have been unnecessary, but we considered it a nice rounding-out of the flavor palette.  Give them a try before the summer is out.  You won’t be sorry, but you may be drunk. We were.

 

Drink with Aplomb, Plum Cocktail

(Loosely based on Martha Stewart’s Recipe)

(Makes 2 drinks)

6 oz plum simple syrup

6 oz sparkling water

2 oz lime juice

6 oz gin

2 oz vodka

2 lime slices (for garnish)

plum slices (for garnish)

 

The plum simple syrup is easier than it sounds.  Slice plums into 6ths or 8ths.

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Heat up 3/4 cup of water and 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar until it boils.  Add the plums and simmer for 12-15 minutes.

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Remove from heat and chill.

Fill a glass with ice, the plum syrup once chilled (include a few plum slices), the gin, the optional vodka, the lime juice and then the sparkling water.  Stir, serve…

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… and enjoy.