A refreshing Mint Julep. Photo by Ampen |
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Make it more fun by dressing up like the 150,000 fans at Churchill Downs—or at least wear a fancy hat—as you enjoy your cocktail and the race.

The race track, in Louisville, Kentucky, was named for brothers John and Henry Churchill, who leased the land to their nephew, then president of the Louisville Jockey Club and Driving Park Association. “Downs” is a British term for gently rolling hills.

Called the fastest two minutes in sports, the first leg of the Triple Crown is only 1-1/4 miles.

But back to the cocktails:

The ingredients of a mint julep are simple: bourbon, mint, sugar and crushed or shaved ice—similar to a Mojito, which uses rum instead of bourbon. The gentry served their mint juleps in silver or pewter cups, but a tall glass does just fine.

Check out these two mint julep recipes.

An easy way to do something special for Mom is to serve her a cocktail created just for her.

That was the thinking of Sauza Tequila, creator of the Mama Rita Margarita.

Most moms enjoy a Margarita as well as a glass of wine, so here’s a twist that combines both.

The recipe uses agave nectar instead of sugar for a lower-glycemic (and tastier) cocktail.

> International Cabernet Sauvignon Day is celebrated the last Thursday Before Labor Day.

> The history of Cabernet Sauvignon.

> The history of the Margarita.

> The history of the cocktail.
 
 
RECIPE: THE MAMA RITA MARGARITA

Ingredients For 1 Cocktail

 
Preparation

1. POUR all ingredients over ice in a mixing glass.

2. SHAKE and strain into a martini glass and garnish with a lime slice.
 
 
Find more of our favorite cocktail recipes, including the classic Margarita and many variations, by pulling down the menu in the right-hand column.

[2] Use any Cabernet Sauvignon—although with a great producer like Mayacamas, you may wish to save it for drinking on its own (photo © Mayacamas Vineyards).

A terrific combination of flavors. Photo
courtesy Melissas.com.

Sweet-tart grapefruit, tasty fennel, and tangy olive flavors come together with super healthy spinach leaves and grapefruit segments.

 
RECIPE: SPINACH & GRAPEFRUIT SALAD

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. CRUSH the fennel seeds with a mallet or the back of a large spoon.

2. COMBINE the vinegar and fennel seeds in medium bowl. Gradually whisk in oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. TOSS the radicchio, spinach and olives in bowl. Add grapefruit segments and dressing to coat. Serve.
 

Find more of our favorite salad recipes.

May is the month for delicious ramps. Their season is fleeting: late April to early June. They are worth seeking out.

Ramps (Allium tricoccum) are wild leeks—also known as spring onion, ramson and wild garlic. In French, they are called ail sauvage, wild garlic, and ail des bois, garlic of the woods, because of their combined garlic-onion flavor. They look like a more exotic scallion.

Ramps don’t take to cultivation, so for a brief period each spring, they are picked in the wild. The entire plant is edible, from the broad, smooth, green leaves that look like daffodils to the scallion-like bulb.

Wild ramps can easily end up in one’s yard—where they are typically pulled out and thrown away (as our family did), not only because of their long leaves but for their strong garlic aroma. If you notice a plant by this description, take it to the kitchen instead of the trash can.

The name is of English origin, attributed to a folk name, “ramsen,” the plural form of hramsa, an Old English word for wild garlic. Early English settlers of Appalachia—a prime ramp region—saw the hramsa growing. The name later became shortened to ramp.

How To Enjoy Ramps

 
Join Alex Guarnaschelli of the Food Network in the video, as she shops for ramps.

FOOD TRIVIA: The city of Chicago is named after ramps: The plant was called Chicagou in the language of local native American tribe. Seventeenth-century explorer Robert Cavelier came upon a thick growth of ramps near Lake Michigan. When he asked the locals what it was called, he was told: Chicagou.

While our friends were getting ready for Cinco de Mayo parties—a.k.a. “how much tequila can you drink in one evening, in a small New York City apartment or cramped Mexican restaurant?”—we were enjoying the lovely view from THE NIBBLE’s conference room while sipping memorable tequila with the international business director of Tequila Herradura.

While some 1,300 different tequila brands are produced by Mexico’s 146 distillers, only a handful are exceptional. If your palate demands the best—the smoothest and most complex—look no farther than Herradura. It is so well made that the blanco (silver)—the unaged expression that is typically recommended only for mixed drinks—is a beautiful sipping tequila.

In the case of Herradura, which ages its tequilas twice as long as government regulations require, in new American oak barrels, even the typically unaged silver/blanco is aged for 1 and a 1/2 months (this imparts a slight yellow tinge to a type of tequila that is usually clear). It’s one of the practices that makes a great tequila.

RECOMMENDATION: Get yourself a bottle (it retails for about $35) and start sipping snifters of fine tequila. Using a snifter instead of a shot glass focuses the wonderful aromas. Point your nose to the middle of the snifter top.

We enjoyed all four expressions of Herradura tequila. We started with the silver (or blanco, aged 45 days; enjoy with appetizers), and each expression got better and better: the reposado (aged 11 months; enjoy with fish and chicken), the añejo (aged 2 years; enjoy with moles and other sophisticated dishes) and the extra-añejo (Selección Suprema, aged four years; enjoy sipping, like a fine Cognac or aged rum).

When tequila makers take shortcuts to get their products to market faster (in order to get paid faster), the resulting practices create tequila headaches:
1. Not waiting a full 7 years for the agave plant to mature.
2. Not trimming all the leaf parts away from the piña (the heart of the plant that is used to make tequila), thus incorporating bad juice from the leaves.
3. Using chemicals for faster fermentation.
4. Cooking the piña too quickly (think of it as microwaving a steak instead of grilling it).

It goes without saying: You’ll never get a headache from Tequila Herradura, just happy memories.