Fruit Salad with Sweet Basil and Lime Dressing

Tags

basil, dessert, dressing, fruit, gluten free, lime, salad, summer

I love good fruit but sometimes it gets old eating the same old apples and bananas. This fruit salad tastes fancy but is a snap to toss together. And the lime/basil combination is delicious. You could substitute the basil for mint or thyme too. Yum!

Fruit Salad with Sweet Basil and Lime Dressing

• 1 cup of 4 kinds of fruit (I used grapes, blueberries, raspberries, and kiwi)
• 1 lime, zested and juiced
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar
• 5 to 8 leaves of basil, julienned

In a bowl, combie the lime juice, zest, and sugar. Pour over the fruit. Toss lightly. Sprinkle with basil. Serves 4.

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Peach Margaritas

Tags

adult, beverage, cocktail, lime, margarita, peach, summer, tequila

Nothing says summer like fresh peaches. Their fuzzy skin and slurp inducing juiciness is so inviting you can barely stop eating them long enough to make this cocktail…. But you really should. Save just one. It’s worth it.

Peach Margaritas

• 1 peach, quartered (and peeled if you prefer)
• 2 oz peach lemonade (or regular lemonade)
• 1 1/2 oz silver tequila
• 1/2 lime, juices
• 1 to 2 tbsp agave nectar
• Ice
• Salt to rim, if desired

In a blender, add the peach quarters, lemonade, tequila, lime juice, and agave nectar. Blitz until the peaches are smooth. Rim the glass with salt, add ice, and pour in the margarita mix. Serves 1.

Mixed Berry and Coconut Popsicles

Tags

berry, coconut, dessert, frozen, gluten free, popsicle, summer

Hot summer weather requires something cool and refreshing. That something doesn’t have to be something high in calorie. These Popsicles are a snap to make and full of flavor.

Mixed Berry and Coconut Popsicle

• 2 cups mixed berries of your choice
• 2 tbsp honey (more to taste)
• 1/4 cup coconut flakes
• 1/2 cup coconut milk

In a blender, puree the berries with the honey. Gradually add the coconut milk. Puree until smooth. Stir in the coconut flakes and pour into your Popsicle molds. Freeze until solid and enjoy!

I am Back Again… (and this time with Grilled Shishito Peppers!)

Tags

gluten free, grilled, peppers, produce, shishito, summer, vegetable

I know I said a few months ago I was back to blogging and then I disappeared again. Getting the hang of this new life is harder than I thought. There is a lot of growing and changing and shifting after a major life event. This is not something that one can anticipate, even someone who is a planner to the extreme (who!? Not me!). As much as I have struggled these past few months, I have also grown tremendously and learned I have more strength and resilience than I previously believed. I have more confidence and faith in myself. I am more reflective of my self, my thoughts, my actions. I have made some wonderful new friendships and strengthened older relationships. I am happier now than I have been in a long time.

I have loved hosting dinner at my humble little apartment home. My last little dinner included spicy pork burgers with spicy cheddar and grilled shishito peppers. These little Japanese peppers are full of flavor without overwhelming spiciness. Trader Joe’s sells these now when in season. You can also find them at your local Asian market. Give these little babies a try….

Grilled Shishito Peppers

• 8 oz fresh shishito peppers
• Olive oil
• Salt and fresh ground pepper

Prepare your grill to medium heat. In a bowl, toss the peppers in enough olive oil to evenly coat. Grill for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until the peppers change color evenly (I look for the army green color to just appear). Remove from heat and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serves 2 to 3.

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Maker’s Mark

Tags

bourbon, Kentucky Bourbon Trail, Kentucky Proud, Southern, staycation, summer, tourism, travel

Maker’s Mark • Loretto

Distillery Hours – Monday – Saturday • 9:30 A.M. – 3:30 P.M. EST, Sunday (March through December) • 11:30 A.M. – 3:30 P.M. EST. General admission is $7 for adults. Summer shut down will be from August 12 to September 9, 2013 (similar times in other years; check website for more details). Full tours will still be available, but bourbon will not be in production.

What makes Marker’s Mark different from other distilleries?

• According to Guiness World Book of Records, Maker’s is the oldest operating bourbon distillery, operating since 1805.
• They hand dip every bottle with their signature red wax.
• There is no rye in the mashbill. Instead they use corn, red winter wheat, and malted barley. This is why their bourbon is sweeter than some others.
• They are a “small batch bourbon,” which they define as “a bourbon that is produced/distilled in small quantities of approximately 1,000 gallons or less (20 barrels) from a mash bill of around 200 bushels of grain.”
• Marker’s Mark is one of the few distilleries left that hand rotates the barrel positions in the rickhouse to produce the desired flavor.

A Brief History

The land on which Maker’s Mark resides has long been a distillery.  T. William “Bill” Samuels Sr. purchased what was known as “Burks’ Distillery” in 1954. The distillery was in poor repair and, with his family, Bill revamped the whole place and created a distinctive new bourbon- Maker’s Mark. They priced their distinctive red wax dipped bottles (Bill’s wife Margie’s idea) at a higher price than other bourbons and marketed it with the slogan “It tastes expensive… and is.” Though the company was sold to several different companies through the years, the Samuels family continued to oversee it’s production. Today, Bill’s grandson Rob is CEO and president.

In early spring 2013, Maker’s Mark (in response to a huge new demand for bourbon) decided to reduce the strength of it’s whiskey from it’s traditional 90 proof to 84 proof. The idea was that they would be able to increase the available stock. There was a huge negative reaction from customers. Radio stations and newspapers across the Bluegrass featured some negative reviews of the new “watered down flavor” as well as the consumer reactions. Only 12 days later, the company rescinded it’s position and now bottles only at the original 90 proof strength.

The Tour

We really enjoyed our Marker’s Mark tour. The tour group met in an old farm house, decorated in 1950s style. We then walked the grounds. Each building is painted in the distinctive red and black color scheme. All the shutters have a bourbon bottle cut out as decoration. The only building that is not red and black is the Quart House, one of the oldest liquor stores in the United States and a National Historic Landmark.

When we visited, the distillery was in shut down and repairs were being done. Despite that, we were still able to see the giant tubs for cooking mash and their 5 story continuous column still. We toured a rickhouse; it was like all the other’s we had previously seen on the Trail, complete with Angel’s Share smell. Marker’s Mark is one of the few distilleries left that hand rotates the barrel positions in the rickhouse to produce the desired flavor.

After the bourbon is aged perfectly, it is emptied from the barrels and bottled in the distinctive square bottles. Each bottle is hand dipped in red wax. We were able to watch the process from start to finish. The people on the line were very efficient. I doubt I could dip as fast as them! (If you want to try your hand at dipping, you can buy and dip your own bottle in the gift shop.)

My favorite part of the tour was the Tasting Room. The tour guide said it was new; it is very cleanly designed. Each person to tour was given a taste of four bourbons – Maker’s White, Maker’s Fully Matured, Maker’s Over Matured, and Maker’s 46 (double oaked bourbon). It was nice to taste them each and compare them to each other. Honestly, of all the bourbons I tried on the tours, I liked Maker’s Mark the best. It is sweeter, less spicy and easy to drink. For those who are trying to acquire a taste for bourbon, this is the place to start. Overall, we really enjoyed this tour. The grounds are lovely, the tour was informative, and the bourbon was tasty. It is clear that the employees of Maker’s are passionate about their product and that they recognize that quality is more important than quantity.

Other posts in the series:

Bour·bon – /ˈbərbən/

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Four Roses Distillery

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Wild Turkey Distillery

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Woodford Reserve

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Jim Beam

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Town Branch

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Heaven Hill

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Maker’s Mark

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Heaven Hill

Tags

bourbon, Kentucky Bourbon Trail, Kentucky Proud, Southern, staycation, summer, tourism, travel

Heaven Hill • Bardstown

Distillery Hours – Monday through Wednesday • 10AM to 5PM, Thursday through Saturday • 10AM to 5:30PM, Sunday (March – November only) • Noon to 4PM. General admission is $5 and free to military families.

What makes Heaven Hill Distillery different from other distilleries?

• Heaven Hill Distilleries is America’s largest independent, family-owned and operated producer and marketer of distilled spirits.
• Heaven Hill is America’s seventh-largest supplier of distilled spirits.
• Aging in its facilities is the second largest inventory of aging Kentucky whiskey in the world, with over 900,000 barrels. This accounts for nearly 17 percent of the world’s future supply of Bourbon.
• Heaven Hill has filled over six million barrels of Kentucky Bourbon since it was founded after the repeal of Prohibition. Pretty incredible!

A Brief History

Founded by the five Shapira brothers in 1934, the Heaven Hill Distilleries is still run by descendants of the Shapiras, making it the only family owned and operated bourbon distillery on the Bourbon Trail. With a brief pause during WWII to manufacture alcohol for the war effort, the distillery has continued to operate and now is the seventh largest spirits supplier in the US and the second largest holder of aging bourbon in the world with 900,000 barrels in stock (this is according to their website.) Today, Heaven Hill Distilleries is the owner of such brands as Copa De Oro Coffee Liqueur, Dubonnet Aperitif, Coronet VSQ Brandy, DuBouchett Cordials and Liqueurs, and Burnett’s Vodka. For a full list, click this link.

The Tour

The Bourbon Heritage Center is the main visitors center for the distillery. This building was built to pay homage to the bourbon trade. Limestone is used for the brickwork, copper is used in the roofing, and oak as the hardwood flooring. It was named The International Whiskey Visitor Attraction of the Year 2009 Winner by Whisky Magazine. It is quite lovely indeed.

Our tour guide was a very nice lady who was knowledgeable about the bourbon. She took us to a rick house, gave us quite a few details about the distillation process, and gave an excellent tasting. I do have a couple of reservations about the tour. We didn’t see much- just the visitors center and the rick house. For being such a large operation, I would have liked to have seen more of the actual operations. We didn’t get to see any of the actual distillation process. Instead, they set up a model in the visitors center. If this is going to be your only visit to a distillery, this is not the place to go. It was a good tour but your won’t see much of the process. I suggest some place like Woodford Reserve, Maker’s Mark or Buffalo Trace (not on the Trail.) We did get an excellent tasting, though. The tour guide made the effort of talking about the flavor profiles that we should taste in each sample. We tried each of the bourbons straight and with a bit of water. She also told us how the master distiller felt each bourbon was best savored. If he doesn’t know how it is best tasted, I doubt I will. And I appreciated the expert tip. Evan Williams was about to release a new seasonal bourbon based liquor- Apple Orchard. I asked the tour guide if it was good and she said “Do you want to taste it?” Of course, I said yes and we got an extra sample! I love that she was passionate enough about the product to try to convert me. And she did. We bought a bottle as soon as it was on the market. Overall this was a nice tour, but I wouldn’t want this to be someone’s only distillery visit.

Other posts in the series:

Bour·bon – /ˈbərbən/

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Four Roses Distillery

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Wild Turkey Distillery

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Woodford Reserve

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Jim Beam

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Town Branch

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Heaven Hill

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Maker’s Mark

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Town Branch

Tags

bourbon, Kentucky Bourbon Trail, Kentucky Proud, Southern, staycation, summer, tourism, travel

Town Branch • Lexington, KY

Distilery Tours- Monday – Saturday: 10am – 4pm; Sunday: 12pm – 4pm. All tours start on the hour and the facility is closed on major national holidays. Tickets for admission are $7. (Photo below from here.)

What makes Town Branch Distillery different from other distilleries?

• It is owned by the Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company, which makes both beer and bourbon.
• It is the youngest distillery on the Bourbon Trail, opening in 2012. Prior to that, they produced Kentucky Ale.
• It is the first distillery opened in Lexington in over 100 years.
• It gets it’s name and water from Town Branch, a limestone-bottomed creek running through Lexington.

A Brief History

This distillery was founded by Pearse Lyons, the president and founder of animal nutrition company Alltech, in 2012. Prior to that, the facility was (as still is) a beer distillery. Mr. Lyons received a doctorate in brewing from the British School of Malting and Brewing in Birmingham, UK. He is also very influential in agribusiness- founding an animal feed company Alltech, sponsoring a major equestrian event (the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games held in Lexington) with that company, and open one of the largest commercial algae production sites in the world. Though the distillery may be young, it recieves a significant amount of attention because of it’s connection to this pinnacle of business/agriculture.

The Tour

Town Branch was the last stop and fourth distillery of our first day. We were pretty tired and I was afraid that the tour itself would be boring as the facility looked so small. Boy, was I wrong! The tour met in a nice brick building where the gift shop is housed. We were shown a brief video about Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company, it’s connection to Alltech and Pearse Lyons, and it’s brief history. Our tour guide led us and another couple through the small brewery area. They brew five beers that are very popular in the area, especially the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. This beer is their basic Ale, stored for six weeks in bourbon barrels, and then bottled. The beer has a great bourbon flavor without being overwhelming. It’s a nice specialty item and is a great gift idea if you want to show someone the awesomeness of this Kentucky product married to a famous Kentucky tradition.

After the brewery tour, we walked to the distillery area. A lot of their production area was very small. They had two copper stills and two cyprus mashtubs in a gorgeously constructed stone room. It would be the perfect place to host a small, upscale party. When the bourbon production is completed, they barrel the bourbon and store it in rickhouses and bottled off site.

Production of the bourbon is small and is not the main source of revenue for Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company. Nevertheless, it is a nice stop on the trail. The tour guide was very informative, was interested in all of their products and their practice use in your daily life. She talked about how she used them at her dinner parties and, since she used to work for Southern Living in food photography, I bet they are awesome affairs. I recommend Town Branch being the last stop on a day of touring the Bourbon Trail, that way you can enjoy one of the great restaurants in the Lex food scene. There are some pretty tasty places on both ends of the financial spectrum. Overall, Town Branch was classy and inviting, a nice addition to the Trail.

Other posts in the series:

Bour·bon – /ˈbərbən/

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Four Roses Distillery

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Wild Turkey Distillery

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Woodford Reserve

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Jim Beam

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Town Branch

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Heaven Hill

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Maker’s Mark

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Jim Beam

Tags

bourbon, Kentucky Bourbon Trail, Kentucky Proud, Southern, staycation, summer, tourism, travel

Jim Beam • Clermont, KY

Distillery Tours – Monday-Saturday • 9:30am –3:30pm, Sunday • 12:30pm –3:30pm. Closed on New Year’s Day, Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Sundays in January and February. General admission tickets are $10.

What makes Jim Beam Distillery different from other distilleries?

• They have a large museum of special limited-edition decanters, first introduced in the 1950s. It’s a pretty neat look back at advertising in the past.
• They sell the most bourbon of all the distilleries on the Trail.

A Brief History

The legendary forefather’s of bourbon, the Beams, came to the US from Germany, bringing with them their whisky brewing know-how. Jacob Beam was the first member of the Beam family to sell bourbon. In the early 1800s, it was later more widely distributed David Beam. With each subsequent generation (and there have been 7), Jim Beam bourbon distillery has expanded. Today it is so large it has it’s own New York Stock exchange tag: BEAM. They have expanded from bourbon to BBQ sauce, snacks, hams, jellies and glazes, clothing, and even charcoal.

The Tour

This was my least favorite tour of the Bourbon Trail. This analogy explains it all- Woodford Reserve is to Jim Beam, as a locally owned general store is to a Kroger Marketplace. So it is huge!

As we drove toward the grounds, we passed a nice white barn painted with the Jim Beam label. Kind of cool. The road up the hill was well paved with newly planted landscaping; it wound through several rickhouses and past a country church. The road ends on top of the hill among a small city of buildings. The main building you see is their “American Stillhouse.” It is where you purchase your tour tickets and then wander around their extensive collection of gift shop merchandise.

Our tour guide was a 20 something year old guy who was clearly not passionate about bourbon. Not that he wasn’t informative. He was. His tour was so obviously a memorized spiel, like if you swapped things up he would lose his place and the tour might fall apart.  Honestly, I am not sure why I expected something else. The distillery itself turns out hundreds of thousands of cases of bourbons and whiskies each week. Unreal! If the production is so commercialized, I should have expected that the tour would be as well.

OK, so enough of my gripes. It was really cool to see the huge machines and vats they use to distill their bourbon. Their column still is FIVE stories tall!!! All that bourbon needs to be bottled and quickly. They have a several lines for the bottling, run 8 hours a day. The line was saw has bottled as many as 1800 cases a day! Blows my mind! I have always had a fascination with mechanized things so I really enjoyed seeing this part of the tour.

Part of the bottling line.

Part of the bottling line.

Look how fast that gushes out! 24 hours a day!

At the end of the tour, we walked to a tasting area where we were given swipe cards with “tokens” on them for two free tastes per person. You swipe the card, push the button for your desired bourbon, and a pre-set amount of that bourbon is dispensed into your cup. There were about 12 total choices. We enjoyed the multiple choices but it was less personal than the previous tastings. There was no human interaction. No “I really like this one because…” from a knowledgeable, bourbon-loving employee. (Photo below from here.)

Overall, I liked seeing this end of the two extremes of bourbon production. If this is your only bourbon distillery to visit, I am concerned that you won’t get a true good view of what bourbon and the Bourbon Trail is.

Other posts in the series:

Bour·bon – /ˈbərbən/

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Four Roses Distillery

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Wild Turkey Distillery

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Woodford Reserve

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Jim Beam

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Town Branch

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Heaven Hill

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Maker’s Mark

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Woodford Reserve

Tags

bourbon, Kentucky Bourbon Trail, Kentucky Proud, Southern, staycation, summer, tourism, travel

Woodford Reserve • Versailles, KY

Distillery Tours- Monday – Saturday • 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, on the hour
Sunday (March through December) • 12:00 pm – 4:30 pm. Closed on major national holidays. General admission tickets are $7. Those with military ID get free admission and a 10% off discount in the gift shop.

What makes Woodford Reserve Distillery different from other distilleries?

• They use limestone rickhouses- others use wooden or clay tiled.
• It’s the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby.
• They use a triple distillation process to handcraft their bourbon.
• They use temperature controlled warehouses instead of rotation of the barrels.
• The mash bill is 72% corn, 10% malted barley, 18% rye.

A Brief History

According to the Bourbon Trail website, Woodford Reserve is the oldest and smallest distillery in Kentucky. It traces its origins to 1797 when Elijah Pepper began distilling in Woodford County. The company was sold to Leopold Labrot and James Graham in 1878, who owned and operated it (except during Prohibition) until 1941 when it was sold to the Brown-Forman Corporation. The distillery continued to operate until 1968, when it was shut down and sold again. Brown-Forman later repurchased and then refurbished the facilities in 1993. The brand was then placed back on the market in 1996. It has been a popular seller since then.

The Tour

The grounds of Woodford Reserve are gorgeous! Nestled in the horse farms and stone fences, this distillery is one of the most beautiful on the Bourbon Trail. It reminded me of other classic Southern architecture like that found at Mt. Vernon. Our tour guide was an elderly gentleman who clearly had a passion for the bourbon and for the distillery. He gave an informative tour and didn’t rush through things.

Cyprus Vat

Copper Still

Barrel Cooperage

The distillery itself is not too large, though it is one of the most visited distilleries on the tour. Perhaps this is because it is a National Historic Landmark. Like other distilleries, Woodford uses grains and limestone filtered water. They are one of the few distilleries to still use a copper pot still and the only to use the triple distillation process. Woodford Reserve is a small operation so they focus more of flavor than the quantity that they produce.

Overall, we really enjoyed this tour. It was informative and fun. The grounds were gorgeous as was the area surrounding. The horses and the stone fences really set off the atmosphere. At the end of the tour, you get a sample of Woodford Reserve and a bourbon ball. If you can only visit one distillery, this is the one to visit.

Other posts in the series:

Bour·bon – /ˈbərbən/

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Four Roses Distillery

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Wild Turkey Distillery

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Woodford Reserve

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Jim Beam

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Town Branch

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Heaven Hill

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Maker’s Mark

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Wild Turkey Distillery

Tags

bourbon, Kentucky Bourbon Trail, Kentucky Proud, Southern, staycation, summer, tourism, travel

Wild Turkey Distillery • Tyrone, KY 

Distillery Tours- Monday – Saturday • 9:00 am – 3:00 pm, on the hour and
Sunday (March through November) • 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm, on the hour. General admission tickets are $5. There is no charge for military personnel with ID.

What makes Wild Turkey Distillery different from other distilleries?

• Their master distiller has been there since 1954. That’s 59 years!
• They use one of the heaviest chars on their bourbon barrels – #4.
• The bourbon is barreled at a lower proof so that they add less water at time of bottling. They say this helps retain the flavor.

A Brief History

In 1869, the Ripy brothers opened their distillery on the banks of the Kentucky River. They ran the distillery until they were bought out by the Gould Brothers in 1952 (with a brief pause for Prohibition). There were a couple of other buyouts. In 2009, the Campari Group bought the distillery. Today they make Wild Turkey in addition to bottling other brands such as SKYY vodka and Cabo Wabo tequila.

The Tour

From the beginning of the tour, it is obvious that Wild Turkey is a larger operation than Four Roses. We took a small bus from the gift shop to the newly opened distillery. There we watched a video about the distillery, it’s history, and the process. Then we walked through the cookers and fermentation room. They were in full swing there. Next we went to the warehouses, where we learned about their barreling and storage processes. We also learned about a warehouse fire in 2000, where thousands of gallons of bourbon spilled into the Kentucky River, killing lots of fish and resulting shut down of water to Lawrenceburg. We enjoyed the tour but I felt like there was some missing intimacy. Maybe it was lost in the industrialized process.

At the end of the tour, you get to try three bourbons of your choice (you get to select from 6 varieties). Honestly, I am not a huge fan of Wild Turkey bourbon. It is too spicy for me. I prefer smoother, sweeter bourbons. But my husband drinks it, sometimes straight out of the bottle. He says it makes him want to fight… no fights have actually occurred 🙂

Other posts in the series:

Bour·bon – /ˈbərbən/

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Four Roses Distillery

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Wild Turkey Distillery

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Woodford Reserve

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Jim Beam

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Town Branch

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Heaven Hill

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Maker’s Mark