I was not supposed to do food preparation during my illness, but nobody said I couldn’t make cocktails for myself. So I continued my Downton Abbey Cocktail Book odyssey.

The first cocktail was the Improved Brandy Cocktail on Sunday evening. This one has Cognac with hints of Angostura bitters, maraschino liqueur, gum syrup and absinthe with a lemon twist. This is my first experience with gum syrup. It is supposed to give a velvety richness, but I couldn’t appreciate it. But it was a perfectly good cocktail.

Then Monday I moved on to the Refreshing Drinks chapter of the book (from the Stirred and After-Dinner Drinks one). The first one was The Suffragette.  This one is in honor of Lady Sybil.  It is a variation of a Sidecar with brandy, creme de cacao and fresh lemon juice.  I usually do not like chocolate and fruit together, but I actually liked the flavor.  But then the acidity got to my stomach, and I no longer liked it.  This may be due to my illness however so I should probably try this one again.

Tuesday evening was the Raspberry Gin Fizz.  This one has gin, fresh lime juice, raspberry syrup and club soda.  You are supposed to have raspberries as a garnish, but I managed not to freeze any of our raspberries this last year so I used one of our frozen strawberries instead.  This one was good and refreshing and did not taste like cough syrup.  

Wednesday was the Ramos Gin Fizz.  I am pretty sure I have made this before.  It is gin, fresh lime and lemon juices, orange flower water, 1 egg white, an ounce of cream and club soda.  I had to shake this hard with ice for 3 minutes but it came out quite nice.  A yummy cocktail.

On Friday I made The Abbey.  This is gin, Cocchi Americano and fresh orange juice.  This was tasty.  

So those were my illness cocktails.  Hopefully they aided in my recovery.  They at least made my week a little more interesting.  Today is the first day I am symptom-free except maybe a little tired.  And now I can start cooking again too!