Saturday, May 4, 2013

Pinspiration, Mint Juleps, and a summery Saturday

You may or may not know that today was Kentucky Derby Day, the 139th in fact...making it the oldest sporting event in the USA. While I don't really follow horse racing, I do try to watch the Triple Crown (Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and The Belmont Stakes) every year.
The drink of the Kentucky Derby is a Mint Julep, and I had never had one before so thought it would be good fun to try it this year.


Mint Julep

4 mint leaves plus a sprig for garnish
2 tsps of very fine sugar (I used powered)
1 tsp of water
2 and a half ounces of bourbon
lots of shaved ice


I used Jim Beam as my bourbon of choice.


Fresh mint...ours isn't quite ready to pick yet.


Start with mint leaves, sugar and water and muddle them in the bottom of the glass.


Next comes the shaved ice, and I wasn't quite sure how to get that. Then I figured out I could take regular ice, put it in a bag and smash it with the side of a mallet...it worked a treat!


Fill the glasses with ice.


Pour the bourbon over top.


Ad a sprig of fresh mint as a garnish.


Make sure and drink through a straw so you get the real mint flavour (I don't have it pictured here).


The kiddies needed a drink too so they had ginger ale with mint sprigs.




Need a straw!


These are very strong drinks and very cold thanks to the ice which frosted the glass!

It was a really hot one today, got to 30+! The icy drink was perfect.



Revolutionary and Orb were co favourites to win the Derby but in the end it was Orb who took home the honours and by quite a bit too. The track was a muddy mess and so were the horses and riders when they were done but they ran hard.



Photo of Orb found here.


My Pinspiration Friday posts haven't been happening for the last couple of weeks but I did end up doing a fun Pinterest inspired recipe today so it just gets to be a Pinspiration Saturday instead.

I tried making Depression Cake and it turned out really good. This cake requires no eggs, milk, butter or bowls....easy peasy. Here's the recipe:

Depression Cake

1 and a half cups of flour
3 Tbsps of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup of white sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp of pure vanilla extract
5 Tbsps of vegetable oil
1 cup of water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the first five ingredients together in a greased 8 inch square baking dish.


Make three wells in the dry ingredients (two small and one large). Add the vanilla, and vinegar in each small well and the oil in the large well.


Pour the cup of water over everything.


Mix it all together....


Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. That's it, super easy and mess free.


You can frost it, sprinkle powdered sugar over top or do what I did and eat it with whipped cream. It's very moist, delicious and chocolatey. Try it and let me know what you think.


I found the original recipe here.


While we waited for the cake to finish baking we decided to roast some marshmallows...the perfect way to end a beautiful hot summery Saturday.








Chasing bubbles is fun too. ;)


Love him.



Hope you had a great Saturday as well. :)

1 comment:

  1. RE: CAKE
    Instead of using one cup of water you can use one cup cold coffee.

    ReplyDelete