{"id":2103,"date":"2014-04-15T06:30:31","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T10:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/?p=2103"},"modified":"2014-04-14T07:37:58","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T11:37:58","slug":"is-spring-finally-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/15\/is-spring-finally-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Spring Finally Here ??"},"content":{"rendered":"

So this really felt like the winter that would NEVER end. It was just so bitter cold on too many occasions. I had several 3-to-4 day stretches where I camped out at our beach shack with our wood stove going full bore 24×7 to keep the pipes from freezing. That little house was NOT built to withstand single-digit to near-zero temperatures, nor do the heat pumps work very well at those temps. Here’s how much wood I would burn over one of those sessions:<\/p>\n

\"SAMSUNG\"<\/a> \"SAMSUNG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So as you can imagine, we are RELIEVED that winter is over!<\/p>\n

So on this recent G L O R I O U S L Y warm weekend, my thoughts turned to warm-weather cocktails. Inspired by a clementinee-ginger “smash” I had on one of our rare nights out, I set out to develop one at home. I really loved the bite of the ginger, so that was staying. But the clementine peel bits weren’t really appetizing as I consumed the cocktail, so I decided to swap that out for blueberry. Besides, blueberries and ginger LOVE to hang out, like in these muffins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Blueberry-Ginger Smash<\/strong>
\nServes 1<\/p>\n

\"SAMSUNG\"<\/a>1 tablespoon blueberries
\nFinely grated ginger, to taste [*]
\n2 teaspoons granulated sugar
\nSplash of lime juice
\n1 1\/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) vodka
\n1\/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) ginger liqueur
\nIce
\nSeltzer water<\/p>\n

Place the berries, ginger, sugar, and lime juice in the bottom of a wide-mouth tumbler (“Old Fashioned” glass). Muddle these together, making sure to smash the blueberries well. Add the vodka and ginger liqueur and stir well, ensuring the sugar is dissolved. Add 3 or 4 cubes of ice then top off with seltzer. Stir gently to combine. Drop in 3 or 4 whole berries to garnish. Serve immediately.<\/p>\n

\"SAMSUNG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[*] Start with a small amount, perhaps 1\/8 teaspoon? (I don’t have a measuring spoon that small!) For ginger lovers, go heavy. The ginger bits and berry carcasses are meant to be eaten!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So this really felt like the winter that would NEVER end. It was just so bitter cold on too many occasions. I had several 3-to-4 day stretches where I camped out at our beach shack with our wood stove going full bore 24×7 to keep the pipes from freezing. That little house was NOT built […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-beverages"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/2014-04-13-18.05.19.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ImYM-xV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2103"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2125,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103\/revisions\/2125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}