En l'honneur de St Germain

As lasting friendships formed among the lovely ladies I have met thought blogging, so did our love of a certain artisianal french liqueur, St Germain. St Germain is an all natural product, made from fresh handpicked elderflower blossoms which are harvested annually during springtime in the Alps. The resulting taste is subtle and delicate, yet curiously complex. It suggests flavors of lemon and grapefruit, pear and passion fruit, melon and cherry, without settling on one. This hand crafted elixir pairs well with a variety spirits and in numerous cocktails. We decided to celebrate its versatility and elegance with a late summer cocktail party. Emily offered to host on her spacious Cambridge patio and a Horizon Beverages rep (who we connected with at an event last month) graciously supplied her with carafes, stirrers and other St Germain media. This generous gesture added festive touches to the already picturesque ambiance. Megan's Chocolate Lab, Gunner and Emily's Black Lab, Sadie joined the party, too!Each of us crafted a drink with the ingredient du jour in addition to providing savory and / or sweet appetizers to pair alongside. Emily's Peach Germain Spritzer with homemade peach simple syrup and seltzer was a hit, in addition to her crostini topped with Trader Joes goat cheese and blueberry spread and some delicious lemon tarts. Megan's dry white wine and fruit filled carafe of fresh blueberries, nectarines and strawberries blended to create a refreshing Sangria Flora. She baked some Parmesan crisps and served them alongside a beautiful heirloom tomato dip. And she made Elderflower, almond and lime teacakes with St Germain infused frosting. Yes, they were even better than they sound. Elizabeth's savory cucumber and ricotta filled crepes and her non-alcoholic blueberry topped ginger peach juice were equally creative and delicious. Bianca paired St Germain with Limoncello, brought some spicy Sopressata and made incredibly addictive chocolate chip cookie dough truffles! Inspired by a favorite cocktail on the menu at Bricco; I made the Left Bank which blends St Germain with Hendrick's Gin and Sauvignon Blanc. I purchased some fancy Italian cheeses and an olive antipasto at Salumeria Italiana. A classic pecorino as well as a moliterno al tartufo, which is a rich sheeps milk cheese infused with black truffles were an excellent pairing with Bianca's Sopressata. We ate and drank well into the evening, still I sampled more inventive cocktails from Meghan's zesty herbal vodka, lemon and basil concoction to Amy's St Honore 75 adorning the coveted liqueur with bubbles and lemon. Relaxing and listening to music while catching up over inventive cocktails in this plush garden patio, I can't think of a more perfect way to spend a Thursday evening. Harmoniously blending with a variety of spirits and delighting the most discerning of palates, the sophisticated, exquisitely balanced St Germain not only makes truly lust worthy libations, but proves an exciting guest of honor!Have you ever thrown a liqueur themed party? Should we make this a tradition?

Boulder Night 2 | Jax Fish House

Another night in Boulder, another beer to try. In addition to the Fat Tire bottles, Laura stocked the fridge full with cans of Upslope Pale Ale. It wouldn't be my first drink of the day and it's certainly not the last.

It's simple and goes down easy. A good transition the day-into-night drinking beer if you will. Then Craig made us all Extra-Dark-N-Stormy's. I just made up that name for these drinks. (He was inspired by none other than this post.) Ginger Root Beer was purchased - root being the key ingredient here. So it's not your typical light in color and pure ginger flavored DnS. But it makes for a delish extra-sweet extra-dark and stormy.

We had a little photo shoot on the patio. Here is the best pic of the bunch. When the drinks were finished we piled in the car and headed to the highly anticipated event of the weekend, dinner at Jax Fish House.
As you may or may not be aware - Executive Chef Hosea Rosenberg holds the title of Top Chef Season 5 which was filmed in New York City and aired on Bravo back in 2008. I was looking forward to meeting him (maybe even getting our picture together?!) - however Laura recalled reading something on his blog about how he wasn't there anymore. Oh he has a blog does he? I checked it out at Where is Hosea and sure enough learned through his profile: Since his big win he has been busy traveling, eating, cooking and enjoying life. Starting September 15th 2009 Hosea took a sabbatical from Jax Fish House to travel, relax, expand his culinary knowledge, catch up on reality, and learn from some of the best chefs in the country. Yea yea yea. I secretly wished he was still at Jax because it would have been cool to say I ate a meal prepared by him.
We were so excited to be here we practically ran from the car into the tiny packed Pearl Street establishment. This is definitely one of Boulder's Saturday night hot spots. While waiting for our table to clear out, some of us managed to snag a seat at the bar. A row of infusion jars overhead immediately caught my eye.
This town is seriously into infusions! One Cucumber Infused Vodka Martini coming right up.This takes the martini to the next level. The clean and mild cucumber taste with light hints of melon blend naturally with the sharp potent vodka. This is one of those drinks you could linger over all evening and feel refreshed after each sip.
The bar is shaped like a fish, which was tough to capture from my seat but the above is what I did get. In the distance you can see the Jax wall of fame. Pretty sure it's a wall of locals proudly displaying a fish they caught while wearing a Jax hat. We were lead past an exposed brick wall boasting modern fish artwork and sat directly underneath a fishhook at a table right in front of the kitchen. Can you imagine if Hosea was working his magic back there?! I'd have a front row seat!
Bread is key. Very key. And that martini was excellent. At our table, some of us colored on the table cover while Erin and Ash deliberated over the wine list.

I surprised myself with the dishes I chose to order this evening. I started with oysters from the raw bar.
Adam's comment when I got home and showed him my pics; "You ordered oysters in Colorado?" It wasn't an 'I'm proud of your choice' comment, it was more like an 'I'm appalled at your choice' statement. Well, Jax just-so-happens to be famous for their raw bar which offers numerous types of oysters flown in daily. So many types so that I can't even remember what I chose. All I know is I was real excited about them, despite the fact that they were the smallest oysters I had ever laid eyes on. I ordered them with the purple sweet potato vinegar mignonette, which believe it or not came on a separate un-pictured plate. Once the waiter explained the salad special, I knew I had to get it. All I could picture was the fresh handpicked leafy greens he went on about. I wanted them.

Miners Lettuce ($7) Sherry Vin, Macadamia nuts, Haystack Chevre, apples, dried cherriesThis was a really amazing combination of long leafy greens, sweet dried fruit, fresh tart fruit, crumbled cheese and my favorite type of nuts. Erin ordered a salad as well. Holy Iceberg Wedge ($8) which consisted of Crispy onions, five onion ranch, crispy bacon, and maytag bleu cheese Photo shoot in between courses!
For my entree I ordered off the appetizer menu. I went with my gut and my gut told me 'more oysters'.

Oysters Rockefeller ($14) bacon, pine nuts, spinach, pernod, asiago, breadcrumbs

They were so much fun to photograph, and even more fun to eat. I loved them all briny and smooth coated in crispy breadcrumbs among other loud flavors of sharp asiago, salty bacon and delicate pine nuts. For her entree, Ashley ordered the Grilled Pork Chop ($23) hand mashed potato, greens, apple, bourbon barrel maple syrup. See those little cubes of pork belly on the outskirts of her dish? I ate them all. I was thrilled to learn she didn't want / like them. I probably told her to hold that up. It's the crawfish from her Jax Chicken and Crawfish Gumbo ($8) consisting of spicy andouille sausage, red and green peppers and white rice. My second drink at dinner was a St. Germain Bubbly ($9)
I just love St Germain, here they mixed it with Grey Goose la Poire and bubbles. We had such a blast tonight. The lively scene and upbeat vibe was an ideal dinner venue for our Saturday night out.
Hosea or no Hosea, it's still an awesome spot.  Jax Fish House rocks.

We didn't have a late night of drinking out on the town planned (plus we got our fill earlier today) because the next mornings wake-up call was at 6:30am. What on earth could be so important that we are waking up at 6:30 on a Sunday morning for? You'll find out tomorrow. But that doesn't mean our night ended! First stop was the multi-floored mecca that is the Urban Outfitters on Pearl Street.
I know you all were dying to see what the inside of the Boulder Urban looked like.

Just chillin on Pearl Street once again.

Love it here. Love them.

Second stop was the liquor store to pick up a few more fun 6 packs for tomorrow.

We didn't purchase Budweiser or Guinness but I thought they had some intense displays worth a photo. The third and final destination was home base, where it was time for dessert! We dug into a pre-ordered box of Perfect Serendipity cupcakes.
A coworker of Laura's named Jenny Dumala owns and operates this adorable online Cupcakery and Sweet Shop. Jenny's childhood love of sweets turned into a passion for baking and what eventually became Perfect Serendipity's modern cupcake creations. We ordered the Sweetie Pie and Barbie, which not only look incredible, but taste amazing too. Vanilla bean specked and hot neon pink (respectively) frosting is piled high a top rich fluffy cake with girly toppings too boot. I am regretting the fact that I only ate the Sweetie Pie. Those pink Barbie heels look delectable. While indulging in these treats we watched SNL - Justin Beiber hosted! Oh the jokes were a flowing. We laughed till we passed out. Alarms were set for the crack of dawn,  day two adventures are up next!