A relaxing getaway is just what we all need after an exhausting week at work. We owe it to ourselves to recharge, have some fun, and spend quality time with our loved ones. I just discovered some really great and affordable places to unwind.

New York is a really cool place to live and work–and eat–in but it sure can be fun to get away every so often. It’s healthy to get away once in a while and explore new places and have new experiences that you don’t normally find in the Big Apple.

So pack and overnight bag and head on out to any of these destinations after clocking out of work on Friday.

Catskills Mountains

A 3-hour drive to the Catskills in upscale New York can be one of the most thrilling getaways you’ll find. There is so much to do in here like hiking, playing golf, and even doing some arts and crafts. It’s great to come here any time, except during spring because the place is muddy. During summer, the Catskills is filled with beautiful wildflowers. The creek is a perfect place to cool down and take a dip. The lush mountains burst with colors during the fall. Anyone who’s into photography will love to visit during this time. The most exciting time to visit, for me, is during winter because of skiing.

There’s no problem when it comes to accommodation because the Catskills offers a wide variety of choices: Emerson Place, Woodstock, Scribner Hollow Lodge, Mohonk Mountain House, Mount Tremper, River Run B&B, and Kutshers Country Club.

Pennsylvania Dutch Country

If you’re tired of the same old romantic getaway, then this is the perfect destination for you. Only four hours from New York City, Pennsylvania Dutch Country is a one-of-a-kind experience. Going to the country, even for just a couple of days, is the best thing you can do to forget the stress of city life. Here, you’ll enjoy nature and the simplicity of life. The rolling hillsides and scenic country roads will certainly rejuvenate you. Won’t you love to breathe fresh air and see sprawling fields?

One of the coolest things you can do here is travel via horse-drawn buggies. It’s something you don’t get to do every day. And the food here is awesome. Everything is made from local and organic ingredients, which is great for those watching their weight. There are decent hotels that are very clean and a lot of restaurants.

The Cottage at Acorn Lane

For those who just want to have a change of environment, staying at the Cottage at Acorn Lane is a must. This peaceful and beautiful community at the heart of Maine seems to have been taken straight out of a television show. If you’re totally spent, then make arrangements to have this awesome place all to yourself. You can have friends or the entire family because it’s big enough for 6 people.

There are lots of things to do here. There are indoor and outdoor pools as well as jacuzzi and hot tub. The house is air conditioned, has wireless internet, phone, and other luxuries you’d want in a house. There’s even a fitness room to ensure you still get some exercise. And, oh, there’s a 24-hour on call maintenance in case you need help with something.

These are just 3 of the best getaway destinations near New York. There are plenty of other choices that’ll give you the same enjoyment and relaxation to prepare you for another stressful week ahead.

Editor’s Note – Consideration was received for the editing and publishing of this post

I really enjoyed eating at Oficina Latina. The thing that I enjoyed the most was talking to the owners, Paolo and Max. These guys are passionate. They’re passionate about food, travel, and design. All three things about which I am also passionate. It’s so much fun to talk with people who share your outlook on life. I really think these guys have it down.

When you go into Oficina Latina, you notice the decor immediately. The corrugated metal sheet roofing that acts as the awning for the outdoor seating area is a perfect touch. There is no roof more ubiquitous along the Pan-American highway then the corrugated metal roof. I forgot to mention, the theme of the restaurant is a culinary tour along the Pan-American highway. This road is near and dear to my heart, as I’ve spent many hours on a motorcycle along the coastlines of these Spanish-speaking countries, and a greater number of hours in buses on the same roads. I am just a huge fan of this cuisine.

We started with some cocktails. Below is the Prickly Pear Mojito:

I think this one is the Ancho Litchi Mezcalita:

Not to be confused with the Margarita. I could be wrong about these, I’m reaching out to the guys for clarification, so you could see some edits here in the future.

Luis is the bartenders name, and he was from a town outside of Cuenca, Ecuador. One of the top cities at which Americans retire in South America. Solid cocktailer, this guy.

These are the Scottish Raw Salmon Arepas:

Fresh and light. A nice starter that takes the edge off. Then, the paella de marisco:

I was really excited for this one. A very satisfying, true to the paella you see in 40″ diameter pots down in Mexico City. Lots of seafood. Then, the fat plate of Camarones Al Ajillo:

Such big and juicy shrimp, they might scare the cat.

Finally, the Grapefruit Ceviche:

A little daring with the grapefruit, but they pulled it off. There are so many ways to make ceviche, I have had arguments about it.

The guys are designers by trade, and it shows in the great ambiance here. If you’re dining out or having drinks, you always want to go to a place where you would think the cool people are going to be. When you walk into Oficina Latina, you know you’re there.

My favorite was the Paella, I ate the whole thing. Even so, you could probably live off the cocktails here – they’re the standouts. Come for the cocktails, stay for the cocktails. Have some Paella and some of those humongous shrimp if you get hungry before you get too drunk.

Oficina Latina
24 Prince St
New York, NY 10012
(646) 381-2555

As I am trying to do more food related stuff in New York City, I accepted a press invite to Jeanne & Gaston. I never heard of this place. It’s on 14th. 14th is a weird place to have a high-class, smaller restaurant. You wouldn’t think it would be a weird place to have a restaurant, but it is. I’ve been to two of these in the past year or so, and it’s only weird because of the traffic. Once you get inside, it’s all the same.

The one interesting physical thing about this restaurant is that their garden is quite secluded. The garden wasn’t open when I was there, but it looks like a great place to have a quiet dinner or brunch. The buildings around the garden go about four stories up on each side with no windows. It just looks like an interesting little secret place. I’m curious to see how it looks in the spring.

Onto the food:

My favorite thing was the chicken liver mousse. Reminded me of BLT Prime.

The Quiche was made with phyllo dough – very light.

And there were these little croutons that came with it. I wanted more croutons!

We were having a conversation at the table that all desserts should come like this. You always want to save room for dessert but never have any, and when you get there you still pick one but you can only pick one! Tapas dessert bars, the new thing in New York coming to a fine restaurant near you.

Thanks, Claude!

Note: The meal was provided for me, and as such, no recommendation is conferred

Jeanne & Gaston
212 W 14th St
New York, NY
(212) 675-3773

I recently went to a lunch profiling gastrotourism in Australia. It was hosted by Tourism Australia, and I talked mostly to the person representing the Northern Territories. Her name was Kylie (quite Australian), and I could tell she was really proud of the food culture. The event was held at the Sunburnt Calf, but I don’t think any of this stuff is available there on a regular day. I think it might be available at some of the Sunburnt Calf’s sister restaurants, but I’m not sure. If you can find the lamb, the oysters, and the desserts somewhere in the city, though, you need to tell me about it. That stuff was flat-out amazing.

It’s funny, I have recently been invited to a lot more of these. I’ve started accepting the invitations more often as well, and I’m enjoying meeting some of my old “friends.” Mostly people I’ve only met once or twice, and some of them don’t even really like me. It’s weird being a male food blogger. Seriously, it was me and David Leite there today.

David and Jeanette doing blog stuffs

It’s nice to make new friends, and we’ll see where my food inclinations in New York City lie after this year. I am having fun doing this kind of stuff, and I’d like to do more. It would give me a reason to stay here longer this time.

Gina resting her iPhone before the tempest

On to the food:

Stuffed mushrooms with wild mushroom moose, olive tapenade, and Manchego

A nice start to the meal; pop it in your mouth and you’re no longer super hungry (I like to come to these things super hungry for obvious reasons). It was accompanied by a shrimp cocktail with a creamy/spicy cocktail sauce, but none of my pictures of the shrimp were that great.

Oysters Kilpatrick – Tempura fried oysters, pickled shallots, and Worcestershire-bacon butter

You had me at “tempura-fried oysters,” you had my first born at “Worcestershire bacon butter.”

Grilled Australian rack of lamb with roasted winter vegetables and minted yogurt

The entrée star. Gina and I agreed that it was hard to pass up lamb when served at a restaurant. I never like to order the same thing as a dining companion, and Gina was keen to try the fish as well, so I ordered…

Barbecued Barramundi Filet with pan seared sea scallops,
friseé salad, new potatoes, and anchovy aioli

You’ll always get me with seafood on seafood. I wish they did more meat on meat – you know, different cuts of the cow prepared different ways in the same dish. I had a brisket/filet mignon last year that was mind-altering.

Pavlova and Peach Melba

Yeah buddy; Rollin’ like a big shot. I love it when things taste expensive. This was right up there.

So back to the tourism part. People from each state in Australia talked about the different geographic food regions of the country. They were really well-informed. I had a question that I asked about aboriginal food, and they new it was of interest to us and said it was an emerging scene. I am curious to know what that tastes like.

What I was most interested in it was Tasmania.

Tasmanian guy talking about Tasmania

Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world and some of the cleanest water as well. I thought someplace like the South Pole would have take this title, but then maybe the South Pole attracts some pollution. Or maybe they don’t care about these kinds of records down there and they don’t even bother with them. Regardless, the guy from the Tasmanian tourist board talked about the produce down there and how visiting chefs raved about it. Now I was curious.

One of the things that the representatives mentioned a lot was the concept of “farm to table.” In America, our farm to table is a very difficult concept to actually achieve. A lot of times, the relationships between small farms and slaughterhouses are confusing and expensive. Of course, this is all done with the protection of American citizens in mind, but it really just adds to cost with unnecessary bureaucracy. When you think about a landmass twice the size of California with only 200,000 people, trying to enforce some kind of distributor relationship with slaughterhouses is just silly. Farm to table isn’t a novelty in Australia, it’s just the way food gets to the table.

I’ve never been to Australia, but one of the quotes that struck me at the lunch was something to the effect of, “Before people come to Australia, they don’t have a high opinion of the food culture there. After they leave, when they are asked again, they rank it number one in food culture.” I’m sure this has something to do with the people administering the study and possibly the participants’ politeness, but it’s something to think about.

Like I said before, I’m curious.

Editor’s Note: This post was sponsored by Tourism Australia and BlogHer

I haven’t had a good steak in a while, so when S Prime contacted me to sample some of the stuff here, I jumped at the chance to participate. As a new restaurant in NYC, it’s difficult to get press around restaurant launches when you’re not one of the twenty chefs that Eater and Grubstreet cover on a weekly basis. I’m actually fleshing out a concept to help restaurants get more press with bloggers and get better photography taken of their food. Details to come in a future blog post!

So S Prime, residing in Astoria, they’re outside the Manhattan high-end restaurant scene. Most of the people that follow the larger blogs been programmed to look at Queens for two things: cheap and ethnic. Of course, it’s not just cheap and ethnic – theres some fine dining as well. A few of my favorite NYC dining experiences have happened in Queens. The Space:

They have a huge space. There’s private dining for 70+ people upstairs. The kitchen just got built out for prep work (more on this in a moment). There’s a really cool wine cellar setup in the back that I never got a great picture of even though I probably shot 70 photos of it. The Menu:

I just shot a part of it, but this is the important part. It’s why you come to a steakhouse. Joel Reiss (executive chef) and I walked through the kitchen for some photos and he showed me the dry aging locker.

When Joel worked with David Burke, they sent their steaks to a laboratory in Canada to have the profiles analyzed for taste. The tests came back showing that there were traces of everything that was in the storage locker – the cardboard, the plastic shelving, the smell of the temperature-control unit – and they wanted to fix that. Joel makes sure they remove all of these variables and also adds to the flavor – one wall of the locker is made entirely of Himalayan Rock Salt. I was impressed at the care he took in the aging of the meat.

We start the meal with a Tuna Tartare:

I ate the entire thing (and by this time, the entire spread was practically laid out for me). It’s on a bed of avocado and served with SRIRACHA MAYONNAISE. I mean, come on. It’s like he read my foodie profile. I always have Sriracha mayo on hand at home (goes great on eggs for breakfast). The crunchy things on the left are fried wonton chips. This was the perfect ratio of chips to tuna. Usually, you need either more chips or more tuna. It turns out this worked for me.

The second course was the Chopped Salad:

When you come to a steakhouse, you get the chopped salad. This one had heirloom cherry tomatoes (but it’s seasonal, so your experience may vary), giant chunks of bacon, and what Joel called a “warmed goat cheese crouton.” I was all over it and probably ate half this salad. It was the bartender’s favorite. Like I said about the bacon, it was sincerely huge. I asked him if he was going to do bacon like Peter Luger’s.

“No,” he said, “If I do something, I’m going to do it my way. I’m not going to copy someone else’s style to match some other menu.”

This is well evidenced in the side of Lap Cheong Fried Rice that graces the appetizer menu:

Lap Cheong is a Chinese sausage. It’s not just pork fried rice. This one had more of a crispy consistency than the fried rice you’re likely used to. There were two other sides served, but this one was the standout (Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Creamed Corn just don’t photograph like a nice mound of fried rice).

I jumped off the linear nature of this blog post to segue from Joel’s thoughts on menu items to an example thereof, but we’re back on track here with the Half-Roasted Bone Marrow:

You know you guys nut over some bone marrow. That appetizer is $14. That’s a solid deal if you ask me. Look at all that marrow? On this one, you’re gonna need more bread. I was half finished with one bone of marrow and done with two toast points already. Don’t worry, they’ll bring you more if you ask.

Now for the big guns – The 28 Ounce 28 Day Ribeye:

and the money shot:

You gotta click that shot open for me, please. Please just do that. It’s glorious on my 27′ Mac’s screen. I want to eat it all over again.

Joel had the kitchen do me up a second round of the main course from their ‘Surf’ Section, the Yellowtail Tuna:

As pretty as the steak is to photograph, Tuna is prettier. I love the contrast between the white, seared edges of the steak and the raw, pink insides. The sea salt was a nice touch as well. The Tuna was on a bed of ratatouille and pesto and I only got through a few bites before I was COMPLETELY full.

Or was I? The Creme Brulée Trio came out…

Joel is going to switch these up seasonally, but right now, they’re Vanilla, Earl Grey Tea (worked really nicely with that mint sprig), and Chocolate. They’re all available individually, but I suggest having them all.

I had a small bite of each and we invited the hostess to try some.

“I don’t know if I can eat that – I might be allergic.” she said.

I can’t imagine going through life thinking that! I guess I am just lucky as far as not being allergic to a lot of things. Warning: this blog post contains peanuts.

Thanks again to Joel and his staff for the wonderful time I had in Astoria. If you’re around, make sure to stop by for a few beers at Studio Square and cap the night off with a giant ribeye at S Prime.

Hagan Blount was not compensated for this post but was provided the food at no charge

S Prime Steakhouse
3515 36th St
Astoria, NY 11106
(718) 707-0660

This update spans two separate stints in Lima – one pre-Machu with the family and one post-Machu with food poisoning. I even have the picture of the place that gave me the food poisoning. It was fried chicken livers and a salad, but it couldn’t have been the chicken livers. You know they always tell you to make sure your food is cooked down here… that is a rule I have not abided by thus far. Even after the issues, I just like salad too much to stop eating it.

To the right is somewhere in downtown Lima. We had a half day tour of Lima that brought us through some expensive parts of the city, drove by some unimpressive ruins (the size of a few football fields right in the middle of a residential area), the Plaza de Armas, and two churches. All of the squares down here are a lot prettier at night – they really highlight the architecture with lighting well. Do I have a picture of that in this blog post?  Uhh, no.

These guys are ready for la revolucion. My tour guide told me I shouls ask to take their picture, and I am guessing they get this request a lot. They were all over the Plaza De Armas – the capital area of Lima. Dissimilar to the equipment carried around by Americans in D.C. only by technological function.

I used to have a dream that I could get a unimog camper and go off road and make some kind of web series about it.  If I could get my hands on one of these cheap, I think retrofitting it would be half the fun.

The updraft coming off the Pacific up the cliffs in Miraflores makes it so these  guys can fly all day if they want.

Then we took a nap at the hotel and got some food (the food post is coming up) and then we went out and sang some Karaoke.  I think my dad did My Way.

My brother did Careless Whispers, I was going to do Faith, but was waffling a little bit on it, and when my brother took this classic, I had to do something different.  I completely forget what I sang, but I didn’t have the range for it.   Tim is awesome at karaoke – he completely rocked it.

I didn’t do so well on the song, but I think I won them over with the dancing.

And then here we are a week later, getting food poisoning.  The girls were really surprised to see me eat the chicken livers.  I doubt many gringos come here – about five blocks in the wrong direction from the bus station in Lima.  God, I was happy to be off that bus.  Little did I know that I was going to be doing a lot more sitting over the next few days.

Before I felt the effects of the insalata, I was pretty pumped about my accommodations.  The walk to bathroom was approximately half a kilometer, and I had to do a few times an hour.  Looking at my watch, I was pumped when 40 minutes had passed before my last trip.  It snuck up on me once overnight, and I ran to the window and inadvertently puked on a dog.  I had no strength to laugh at this.  I’m now laughing with a pouty face thinking of the moment; guilty but still aware of the comedic value.

I forget what this church is, but here’s the library inside in which they don’t allow pictures.

Two days later and I am back outdoors.  I learned that hotel I was staying at was hourly.  In the room sleeping and waiting for my next trip to the bathroom, it sounded like this:

Door closes
Flirty voices and laughing
Silence
Belt falling on the floor
Utter silence for 20 minutes
More flirty laughing
Shower turns on (flirty laughing continues in the shower)
Door opens

It happened three times that day.

More architecture.

And aside from food, that was my Lima experience.  Next post, Food in Lima, Peru.

That’s my dad to the right.  He’s 60.  He dyed his hair for the trip.  I think it looks great.  He doesn’t look 60, does he?  Ladies, you know guys have the mom rule – I don’t know if you have the dad rule, but if you do… Eh?  Eh?  My mom is quite attractive as well.  I have good genes.

We got an overnight flight from JFK to Lima and got our day started at about 7:45.  Lima is closed on Friday morning at 7:45.  The McDonald’s in Lima doesn’t open until 7Am.  Don’t worry, fans residing in Lima, McDonald’s breakfast in Peru absolutely sucks. I think there would be some kind of Arab-Spring-like uprising if the general populous knew how much better our McDonald’s breakfasts are in America.  Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

I like this colorful bus, and so does the driver.  They’re all much more colorful than this one down here – this was just my second photo.  I just saw a public bus today with a “No Fear” sticker on it today. My favorite bus sticker was one that advertised the fact that the bus had a bathroom with the word “BAÑOS” over one of those

I wonder if this is legal – having a casino named “Atlantic City.”  You would think that since things like Champagne have their copyright, AC would have theirs.  I was tempted to put this in my South American Copyright Infringement post, but this is certainly a grey area.

Gato.  John Kennedy square in Miraflores (he’s never been here, but yes, it’s that John Kennedy) is filled with cats.  There’s one gated area next to a church that has about 10 cats lazing about at any given time.  It has a statue of a lady who is the patron saint of sleeping 18 hours a day.

It’s overcast today in the Love Park in Miraflores.  Most of the days started overcast and then cleared off a bit near the end.  This lighthouse is only for decoration.

The cactus is trying to say something.

Mosaics in the Love Park.  It’s called the Love Park because of a statue of two people making out right in the middle of the park.  I’m guessing it’s also a good place to make out at night.

Back in JFK square, I missed this before, but there are Dinosaurs.  They got big ol’ dinosaur brains.

This is a VW armored truck.  The guys manning the armored trucks look way more badass here than they do in the states.  They have helmets and shotguns and it just looks like they are much more prepared for when shit goes down.

Architecture.  No idea where this was.

Oh, it was on a street in Barranco going toward this old church.  My dad says these are Vultures but they could be Cormorants. They were vultures.  Not a lot of birds around here, even aquatic birds, and this place is right on the ocean.

Kids playing with a very friendly cat.

This is the place in Barranco where they try to sell you some touristy shit.  Not buying.  I have purchased two bracelets, sunglasses, a sweater, and an Inca Cola T-shirt so far.  The sweater and the T-shirt both have holes in the armpits, but the sweater has gum on it.  I don’t know where the sweater is anymore.

This looked like the place to hang out at if we were going to be relaxing in Barranco (we eventually did).

Coke?  Weed?  What do you want, we got it.  In most of the cities here, I am propositioned for drugs.  Those people have the drugs.

Another shot of the Miraflores skyline.

Dad and a highway.

I tried Google translate on that one, but it doesn’t understand “PUNZOCORTANTES.”  I’m guessing something like PCBs.

Kids, perhaps planning to ignore the sign.

Skyline with the fisherman of Chorillos in the forefront.

Architecture in Chorillos.  For price to value, Chorillos is probably one of the better places to live in Lima.  There are some pretty terrible places in Chorillos, and you probably wouldn’t want to be out alone at night in most of it… On second thought, if you can afford Miraflores, go ahead and afford it.

On our way up to the Jesus.

Don’t know who this guy is, but he’s got a statue. I want a statue.

Dad.

The houses in Lima are mostly half-finished.  There’s always iron rods erupting from the concrete on the roofs of the homes, and there’s all sorts of trash on top.  Trash, people probably just throw up there, our tour guide says the iron rods are up there because the next generation living there is going to finish the home someday.

Another guy with a statue.

How many different scenic views do we need here?

Cops.

One of the streets where someone told me I would get my camera stolen.

I didn’t.  This is the Metropolitano – an electric bus that traverses the city.  It’s fast and useful and the dedicated bus lanes are actually dedicated bus lanes.

Dad and I figured it out – we walked 20 kilometers today.  I’m not usually a fan of walking tours because you don’t get to explore.  We might not have seen everything or found out about all the interesting stuff we walked by, but we sure learned a lot about the city.

So, what’d you miss?

Plain Tea

Some pretty full-bodied mustard.

Buffalo Tongue with Horseradish cream and braised onions.

Buffalo Burger.

Lotsa sausages.

Fresh greens.

Pork Belly slider.

Pulled pork slider with kimchi

Grilled cheese

Brown pork banh mi

I didn’t eat this one – was too full at the time. Traditional kielbasa

Roasted pork belly.

Buffalo Tartare

Shaved Ice with Fruity Pebbles

Kimchi and Slaw Dogs

Jimmy and I

Jimmy and the Mama O family.

I was approached by the guys at Kitchen Play to be the cocktail maker for the June dinner! Here’s how Kitchen Play works:

Each month Kitchen Play hosts a unique Progressive Party with six talented food bloggers assigned one of the following courses: cocktail, amuse bouche, salad, appetizer/soup, entrée (main course) and dessert. All six bloggers are challenged to incorporate the same product or kitchen tool into six wildly different courses.

Trust me, mine is wildly different. I’m absolutely positive that my recipe took longer to make than any of the other June recipes. How can I be so sure? Well, my recipe took more than a month to make; I made Kiwi Mead. I want to say it was kiwi beer, because I fermented it, and I also run a popular beer blog called I Taste Your Beer, so I was looking for a tie in. It’s not wine because the grapes ferment themselves, and it’s not beer because it has no malt or hops, so the closest thing that it’s kin to is mead (also known as honey wine).

So, here’s how I fermented the kiwis:

1) Peel and mash up the Kiwis
2) Thoroughly clean a 2 liter soda bottle with soap and hot water. It’s very important that the bottle is completely sanitized

3) Put the mashed up kiwis into the soda bottle

4) Add yeast and cap the bottle, refrigerate
5) Check on the bottle every two days to release the pressure in the bottle
6) If the pressure decreases or doesn’t reach the same pressure over the course of the two days, add a small amount of simple syrup to help reactivate the yeast.
7) After thirty days, remove from the bottle and strain with cheesecloth (I used a men’s shirt)

8) Bottle condition the kiwi mead for another week to let the rest of the yeast settle
9) Pour into a separate container and cap for safekeeping

It wasn’t that hard to do, but it did take up a lot of space. If you use any more kiwis for this in a smaller bottle, you’re going to have to check the pressure every few hours to make sure the bottle doesn’t explode in your fridge. There are valves that you can buy that automatically regulate the pressure of the fermenter, but I didn’t have one of those.

Really, I thought that fermenting stuff was going to be a lot easier than it was. There are a few things I would have done differently:

1) I have NO idea what the alcohol content of my kiwi mead was. I would run some calculations to determine this next time.
2) I’m sure the alcohol content couldn’t have been above 12%, because the yeast I used wasn’t professional brewer’s yeast. Brewer’s yeasts typically have a higher tolerance to thriving in alcohol. I would stay away from the bread yeast and use a Belgian yeast that you could get at your local brewshop.
3) I would get a self regulating valve to release the pressure automatically
4) I wouldn’t ferment in a 2 liter bottle

Without further ado, here’s the recipe (that I used):

To ferment the yeast:

6 Zespri Kiwis
1/2 packet of Fleischmann’s Yeast
Simple Syrup as needed.

Follow the steps above to ferment properly.

For the recipe

2 oz. Kiwi Mead
1 oz. St. Germain
6 oz. Sparkling water
Thai Basil and Lime to garnish

Pour all ingredients over ice into a tall glass. Stir. Garnish.

Enjoy!

Each month Kitchen Play also features a contest to involve as many additional bloggers as possible. Visit the Contest page at Kitchen PLAY for more details on how you could win $100 for trying this recipe and posting about it.