Lemonade, Derbyville Style

One of the toughest things to tackle when it comes to the ghost hunting trade is, surprisingly, not the hunt itself: it's the exponential hours you spend afterwards reviewing all of the footage from every camera, every camcorder, every digital recorder you had running in the place for the duration of the trip.  One needs to adequately power up.

I convened with my friend Ben last night to begin sifting through some of the data we accumulated on this past week's visit to Waverly Hills, and as such we decided to load up on brain food (i.e. pub grub and cocktails) at Dunlay's On The Square, an excellent, family-friendly pub in the Logan Square neighborhood.  Incedentially, it's around the corner from Lula Cafe which I covered in the Brandy Milk Punch post...

In addition to offering a great burger ($5 on a Monday night, if your a bargain hunter) and a hot skillet chocolate chip cookie that is just too decadent to be legal, they offer a pretty impressive selection of cocktails in addition to to a great beer and modest wine list.

Considering our recent visit to Louisville, Ben and I both latched nearly instantly on a libation intriguingly named Kentucky Lemonade.  It sounded like the perfect drink to cool off with in this brutal heat, and to tip our hats to a helluva roadtrip- It didn't disappoint!  Slightly fizzy, a little sweet, and little tart, and a whole lot of bite, it hit the spot even more than I expected.  While I didn't get the recipe specifically used by our bartender, based on the ingredients listed on the cocktail menu (Maker's Mark was mentioned by name,) a little time spent on a google search led me to this excellent recipe over at Bullz-Eye Blog:

Kentucky Lemonade

1-1/2 oz Maker's Mark or your favorite bourbon
1/2 oz triple sec
4 oz lemonade
2 oz lemon & lime soda







Combine bourbon, triple sec, and lemonade in shaker tin. Shake and pour over crushed ice, and top with lemon & lime soda.  Garnish with a nice, fresh wedge of lemon or twist.

Please be kind to yourself and your friends and use fresh lemonade, mmmkay? It just isn't the same with anything from concentrate or with tons of high fructose corn syrup... Also, I find it's worth it to use a quality soda sweetened with natural cane sugar, like Hansen's for real crispness. Cheers!

On The Road

I was very excited this week to make my first trip to Louisville, Kentucky- I roadtripped down thataways with my friends from the Chicago Ghost Hunters Group to pay a visit to the Waverly Hills Sanitorium. Perhaps you've heard of it? It's an AMAZING place, and absolutely worth the trip if you ever find yourself with the opportunity to go inside.  Absolutely heavy with history, and the ghosts of the past, but that's a story for another day...

As as much as I wish we'd had some time to visit a few of Kentucky's many fine bourbon houses (Evan Williams, Jim Beam, and Maker's Mark are all within 100 miles of one another,) there just wasn't room in our two-and-a-half day agenda.  We arrived late Monday night, hoping to at least find a place to stop and pick up a bottle of something to sample and unwind with after the long drive. Strangely, we were unable to find an open shop to buy anything with a higher ABV than a six-pack of beer, but we were tickled to discover that good ol' Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy could be had rather easily- go figure...