Turkey Farmer, or Fancy Farmer

Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you your first turkey-themed drink of the season. On this blog. For today anyway. With two variations, the Turkey Farmer is not a beverage for the faint of heart.

If you like your kisses sweet and your drinks tart, this one'll win your heart.

Also, if you are pregnant or of impaired immune response don't try this at home. It features fresh cranberry puree, and most importantly an egg white for body and balance. The recipe is as follows:

When I say "parts" I say that because I have NO idea how many ounces my measuring jigger actually holds. Plus, I feel proportion is more important here than ounce by ounce accuracy.

The secret to mixing a cocktail with an egg white is to first "dry shake", meaning shake all ingredients in your shakey shaker without ice to ensure even mixing and promote frothing. Then and only then, add your ice and re-shake.

Instructions:

• Fill martini glasses with ice and cold water
• In shaker with no ice add all ingredients, shake foreverrrr until egg has frothed
• Add ice and re-shake until you can hear the ice breaking into chunks & chips
• Empty glasses and pour in drink, garnish with lemon peel

Ingredient Notes:

• To make cranberry puree, pour bag of fresh cranberries into small saucepan and bring to a boil, then reduce to medium-low heat. Blend with immersion blender in saucepan and store up to a week in the fridge.
• Sweetness: I use Xylitol (thanks, sis!), but feel free to make simple syrup with brown, white, or raw sugar. For Fancy Farmer  make syrup tossing in herbs such as lavendar, rosemary, or sage
• Also, don't use a Turkey egg white, because, gross?

Melon-tinis

Much like Scrubs' J.D. I prefer a good fruit-tini to beer most of the time.

I. Hate. Artificial. Fruit. Flavor.

So I learned to make my own home made fruit-tinis. The one seen above is made with cantelope, using vodka and the one seen below is mango with special delicious Don Julio 70.

Ingredients:

• Fruit of choice (fresh or frozen works here, but what ever is in season is always most delicious)
• Sweetner of choice (sugar, brown sugar, Xylitol, honey, Splenda, etc)
• Lemon juice -- try to use fresh for the love of God
• Fresh mint 
• Vodka, Tequila, or Rum of choice (personally I don't like Rum so let's not choose that--too sweet, blargh!)

Equipment:

• Cutting board & knife if using fresh fruit
• Medium saucepan
• Immersion blender (for easy clean-up) or regular blender
• Martini shaker
• Chilled martini glasses
• Shot glass or jigger for measuring

Now, let's get fancy.

1. Chop fruit and place in sauce pan with sweetner of choice on medium heat (If using frozen fruit, this give it time to come back to life)
2. Add lemon juice, and a bit--maybe 1/4 of a cup--of water and use immersion blender to reduce chunks into a fruity soup (if using blender dump into vessel once they look like they're all warmed up then blend and return to pan)
3. Let it thicken in pan on medium-low heat until syrupy consistency is achieved
4. While it cools, fill your martini glasses with ice and cold water and set aside to chill
5. Fill martini shaker half-way with ice and add two shots of cooled puree and and two shots of alcohol per person (max of two in shot glass).
6. Shake your heart out.
7. Empty your now-chilled martini glasses and rub a fresh mint leaf all the way around the rim, repeat with lemon wedge.
8. Pour your delicious fancy drinks and enjoy!