cocktail dispatches from Austin

Greetings from Les Petites Gourmettes’ Austin correspondent, Marissa, coming in today with a super simple gin/Kombucha/Aperol quarantine cocktail recipe. Austin has been similar to, I think, most other places as we all shelter in place and social distance. Luckily, Jeff and I can both work from home, so we work during the week and then take walks and bike rides around our neighborhood, do YouTube yoga videos, have Zoom dates with friends and family, watch movies, play games, and drink cocktails, and cook.

I have been cooking a ton while we shelter in place, and trying lots of great new recipes, but I am still too embarrassed to share my final products, which are often yummy, but usually not pretty. Maybe someday! In the meantime, we’ll focus on the bar cart…

For this cocktail, I used this recipe, but halved it.

Kombucha-Aperol Quarantine Cocktail

• 1 cup gin
• 3/4 cup Aperol
• 1/2 of a 16-ounce bottle chilled ginger kombucha
• Club soda
• 1 tangerine

Combine gin, Aperol, and kombucha in a pitcher and stir to combine.

To make the cocktail, fill a small glass with ice and then fill halfway with the gin mixture. Top off with club soda and a slice of tangerine, plus a dash of bitters, if you like (I added for round 1, but skipped for round 2).

Instead of enjoying the really nice weather, take your pretty cocktail upstairs to play video games all afternoon.

In the morning, I recommend making a big Dutch baby. Here’s a really easy recipe.