Ice Is All the Rage

Everybody is talking about ice right now. The Deans are dubious that you wish to invest in a $10,000 ice machine to make the latest cubes. You can make ice spheres for less than 5 cents with this simple, eye catching trick.

Fill a water balloon slightly less than the circumference of your cocktail glass. Twist a long thin piece of aluminum foil into a ring. Rest the balloon within the nest the ring has created. The ring prevents the balloons getting a flat side and keeps them orbicular while freezing. Put the filled balloons, and his many brothers, into the freezer the day before the party. Plan on one per glass.

At party time, cut the top of the balloon and peel the rubber off the ice. If the sphere is too big to fit into the glass, simply run under hot water until the ice shrinks a bit.

This single ice sphere melts more slowly than conventional ice and maintains the integrity of your signature cocktail. Party guests adore this trick!! You will be amazed at their amazement!!

Use our sphere with this season's Rye Cocktail and enjoy!

Cocktail Shakers Gone Wild

Our new favorite piece of kitchen equipment is one we don’t own at this moment. We’ve owned them in the past, of that we are sure, but where the hell are they now? Like socks in the dryer, cocktail shakers seem to be out and about without consulting us. We know cocktail shakers are the life of the party, and we mistakenly thought we could own one, but evidently you just give temporary shelter to a cocktail shaker because neither one of us can find ours. Hopefully ours have come to rest in some of your bars and are shaking your parties up.

Since we can’t find our cocktail shakers the Deans will waste no time in shopping for new ones. One of us wants stainless, the other wants sterling, and which wants which changes from moment to moment. 

The Williams Sonoma cocktail shaker gets our seal of approval.

The Deans Master Meteorology

July 7

Dear Diary, 

The Deans are on the plane to Alaska and we are praying for good weather. Alaska in the freezing rain does not sound like our kind of vacation. We are taking care of the weather ourselves by drinking Dark and Stormys. By ingesting the foul weather beforehand we are sure to ward off the bad weather when we land.  The tiny tempests in our stomachs will sweep all dangerous weather patterns away. We are now starting on our third Dark and Stormy and have become confident that we are genethuthes.........Alaska here we come!

Dark and Stormy

Cover 2 ounces of Goslings Dark Rum with Blenheim Ginger Beer. Squeeze in a lime and garnish glass with a lime peel. 

The Deans Globe Trot

July 1.

Dear Diary, 

Since we are packing to go on our Alaskan holiday, and bundling our sweaters, long pants and hiking boots in suitcases, we Deans can't but notice our thoughts are drifting to the Caribbean. Who did we think we were when we planned this vacation? We are warm weather mermaids, not snow bunnies. Oh, what to do?

First thing on our to do list is to make a big strong drink. Eureka! It just dawned on us! Nothing says warm weather like a Pina Colada (unless it's Chicken Cane Garden from our book.) As we finish packing, we find our taste buds totally tricked and we imagine the plane is flying south instead of north. Check back next week to see what we drink when we get to Alaska. 

Thanks Diary! You are always such a big help. 

---

PINA COLADA Deans' Style 

INGREDIENTS

2-3 ounces light rum

2 ounces Coco Lopez (cream of coconut)

2 ounces Pineapple Juice

Cubes of ice

1.  Alternatively puree Pina Colada in blender.

2.  If using cubes of ice you may top drink with some soda water, if you feel it needs some leavening. 

What the Deans are Drinking

Spring puts the Deans in the mind of rose. Pink and smooth and it goes down super easy -- a real summer time treat.  Domaine Ott is a particularly good one and we hear it is a favorite of rap stars so you can enjoy feeling edgy, as well.  The Deans keep several bottles in the fridge at all times because if rose is not freezing cold, it's not worth drinking.

But the Deans are nothing if not au courant (a cursory glance will tell you that) so of course we were early adopters of the cocktail craze.  We jumped on the wagon early and have not given up our seat yet.  There are just so many to choose from.  The variety appeals to our mercurial natures.  The Deans have a new favorite every week, and we are never wrong.  Blenheim Hot Ginger Ale is made right here in Hamer, South Carolina and its spiciness is a wild ride.  This ginger ale put the storm in Dark and Stormy.  For the dark, we look no further than Bermuda's national dark rum Goslings.  Dean Manigault's marriage began and ended, coincidentally, in Bermuda: A dark and stormy whirlwind, if there ever was one!

---

DARK AND STORMY

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup of Gosling's Black Seal rum

Handful of ice

2 dashes of Angostura bitters

Blenheim Hot Ginger Ale 

1 lime wedge

1.  In a crystal glass, or better yet, a silver cup, pour rum, top with ice.

2.  Add bitters and fill to top with ginger ale. 

Old Fashioned? Yes, very much.

When it comes right down to it, there is really nothing about the Deans of The Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuits which could be called old-fashioned. Except of course, this drink and our silver -- the first of which we have perfected in a modern way with a nod to both history and Charleston, and the latter, which we couldn't help if we wanted to, frankly.

Now then.  Just as if you were standing next to the Deans at our standing room only cocktail demonstration at the Charleston Wine and Food Festival this past weekend, we share with you The Academy's Old Fashioned. The Deans bid you to enjoy it early and often.

The Charleston Academy’s Men Only Dinner guests enjoyed sitting on the porch of the Roper House sipping Old Fashioneds containing orange peels grown in the old historic district.

Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuit's

Old Fashioned Cocktail

Serves 1

1 large and uneven slice of lemon peel

1 brown sugar cube (or 1/4 oz simple syrup)

2 dashes Angostura bitters

1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters No. 6

1 oz. bottled water

2 large ice cubes

2 oz.  good bourbon

Small triangle of orange slice for garnish, and perhaps a cherry

Add the lemon peel, sugar cube, and both bitters into the bottom of an Old Fashioned glass. The Deans insist on using an Old Fashion glass for this drink. Using a wooden muddler, begin to muddle the ingredients firmly in the bottom of the glass.

Add the water, add the ice and then the bourbon. Stir with a spoon. Float the orange slice on top of the drink and serve.