My Kinda Blackberry Bramble – and a Plea for Help

Before I talk to you about this pretty drink, I’d like to talk to you about friendship. If you’ve read my recent blog entries, you know that I count myself a whole lot richer on the friend front since the Big Summer Potluck.

One of these dear, lovely, amazing, strong women that I met that day, and who happens to share a best friend with me, has had the most unimaginable thing happen to her. Erika of IvoryHut lost her home and everything she owned, including the cameras she used to take all the amazing photos we shared with you of that event, on Tuesday night. Imagine, for a moment, what it’s like to have every photograph, every favorite sweatshirt, your wedding ring, even your husband’s prosthetic leg – GONE – in a flash. Erika and Tom, and their son Tim, will spend the rest of 2010 rebuilding the life that they had built together over the last decade. It seems a monumental task, no matter who you are – I happen to know Erika’s made of the best and strongest stuff – but this could bring anyone to their knees. Erika and her family will stand taller quicker and faster if we help them.

Please, if you have even $5.00 to spare, you could make this trial easier for Erika and Tom and Tim. Click the donate button below. And then come back here and read all about that cocktail.

Thank you for donating what you can.

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When I hear the words Blackberry Bramble, I immediately think of juicy blackberries, thick on the vine, with the buzz of fat bumblebees floating nearby. And for some reason, I smell honeysuckle. Yeah.. I’m a little bit off kilter, but you love me anyway, right? Right?

This summer has been a lovely one, filled with adventures into New York City to see friends. A few weeks ago we had plans for dinner at the Chinatown Brasserie, but we arrived a good half an hour early. What can I say – when you live 45 minutes away from NYC, you tend to overestimate the traffic because 3 times out of 4, it WILL take you longer than 45 minutes to get there. We could have gone into the restaurant and had a drink there, but James and I really like to adventure when we get all the way over into Gotham. So instead we walked around the corner to a little hole in the wall bar that neither of us can recall the name of now.

James ordered a beer, straight away. (It was a long workday, apparently) I, feeling especially bold in my rockin’ new cowboy boots and skirt, took my time examining the cocktails menu.

Let me tell you something, people. Restaurants who base not only their food menu, but their drinks menu based on what’s in season? They’re the business.

I had a hard time deciding, but eventually settled on the Blackberry Bramble. Mostly it’s a gin and tonic (and who doesn’t LOVE one of those?), with the addition of fresh muddled blackberries and simple syrup.

And it is exactly what you need to do with the last of this summer’s blackberries. I’ll be on the back deck, with one of these in hand. You should totally join me.

[wpurp-searchable-recipe]My Kinda Blackberry Bramble – and a Plea for Help – – – [/wpurp-searchable-recipe]