Omg hiiiii hope your week is off to a great start! Mine's been kinda crazy because we've just been cooking and shooting so much and twirling around, so the house is a wreck and oh also we just got back from Florida, and as we keep mentioning we're heading to California in two days, so when it came to the prospect of unpacking from Florida we were just like "fuck it" and decided to live out of the bags for our short week at home. So that's been fun. Fox is so confused and disoriented, and I'm over here like welcome to my world, pup, and get used to it. He actually doesn't care and just wants to be balled up under a blanket on the bed 24/7, which makes me realize he and I are more alike than I've ever been willing to admit before.

Just kidding, I've actually been way more into having a life in the weeks since leaving my full-time restaurant management job. To be super "Eat Pray Love" on you, it's actually insane how in control of my life I feel right now, and how casually healthy my lifestyle and eating habits have become just as a result of leaving that industry. Between all the staff shots and the strange work hours severely limiting my ability to eat balanced foods, things were getting a little out of hand. Maybe I'm just particularly susceptible to peer pressure and social-environmental factors, but there's just so much booze readily available, plus a bunch of asshole customers who always have something to complain to you about: perfect storm. Then after you've done shots with the whole staff during work and then had your end-of-night "shift drink," people still want to go to a bar afterwards. Now look, I'm available to give motivational speeches on "drinking less for non-alcoholics" at your next business convention, bar mitzvah, or bachelorette party, but I actually do not have any qualifications, just to be 100% clear. But the basic point of the speech would be that drinking is so much more enjoyable when you're not racing to your own self-destruction and can actually give yourself the time to enjoy it.

Which brings me to this cocktail, which I hope you'll find *especially* enjoyable. Beau was getting all seasonal berry wizard with his Blackberry & Sweet Corn Biscuit Cobbler and quite frankly I got jealous because blackberries are my favorite food fad this minute, so I had to think about how I could use blackberries in a cocktail, of course. I remembered this other idea I'd had for a green tea cocktail that I'd tabled, and I realized all it was waiting on was a handful of blackberries to give it a booty call and make some magic happen. Recipe below, babes!

As an added bonus, we gave a little sneak peek of this cocktail on our weekly Nomcast over at Nom.com!! So if you feel like watching Beau and I get buzzed and fuss at each other in a hopefully slightly funny and cute way, -OR- if you want some video instruction on cocktail making, check it out! And subscribe and tune in every Tuesday at 7 PM Eastern for more cute times and cocktail how-to's!

Blackberry & Green Tea Cocktail
Makes one

5-6 blackberries
1 oz. green tea simple syrup*
2 dashes orange bitters
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
1-1/2 oz. vodka

Place blackberries, green tea syrup, and orange bitters in the smaller piece of a shaking tin. Using a wooden muddler (or a fork, if you don't have one), press down on the blackberries to release the juices and incorporate into the syrup and bitters. Add lime juice and vodka. Add ice, shake, and strain into serving glass. Garnish with blackberry, mint, or orange peel.

Green Tea Simple Syrup

1 part green tea
1 part sugar

Brew 1 cup of green tea (or 2 or 3). Combine with 1 cup sugar (or 2 or 3) in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until all sugar has dissolved.