Date Night + Cucumber Gimlet Recipe

Friday night was date night, and Ian and I headed to Beef and Bottle for a little Rat-Pack throwback action.  This popular dinner spot in Charlotte has such a cool Frank Sinatra vibe.  We both ordered steaks and shared sauteed mushrooms and creamed spinach.  The Oysters Rockerfeller appetizer is to die for, as well.

Before we left for dinner, I made us these Cucumber Gimlets.  I started with the basic recipe from Natalie at Designer Bags and Dirty Diapers and slightly tweaked it.  When we made it two weekends ago in the mountains, we both decided to slightly reduce the amount of lime juice in the cocktail.  When it comes to cocktails, I love cucumber -- so I wanted that fresh taste to stand out even more.

Here is my tweaked recipe.  These are delicious and refreshing ... perfect for the last few remaining summer days.

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Start by assembling your ingredients:

• English seedless cucumber (mine was very long and I only used 1/2 of it)
• 3 limes
• Simple syrup (I used homemade basil simple syrup - see recipe below)
• Vodka

And your materials:

• Blender (I used our small smoothie blender)
• Citrus juicer
• Shot glass

Cut your cucumber in thirds.  Remove the peel from the larger portion of cucumber.

Cut this peeled cucumber into chunks and add into the blender.

Use your citrus juicer to juice all of your lime halves.  I juiced mine straight into the blender.

Pulse peeled cucumber chunks and lime juice together until smooth and frothy.

Natalie's recipe calls for two shots of vodka per glass, but we reduced this to just one shot of vodka per glass.

Add the vodka and cucumber/lime mixture to your glass and let it sit for a bit to infuse together.  This is a great tip from Natalie!

This is another area where we tweaked the recipe a bit: I then cut the mixture with a little lime seltzer water.  It doesn't have a very strong lime flavor -- just a hint of it.

Slice your remaining 1/3 of the cucumber and add the slices into the glass and one for garnish.  Top with ice.  We love using these ice cube molds for perfectly square cubes.  Hey, it makes a difference!  :)

And there you have it!  This cocktail is so light and crisp.  I bet you'll love it as much as we do.

Basil Simple Syrup
The original simple syrup is made with equal parts sugar and water (ex.: 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar).  You just heat it on the stove in a small pot until your sugar dissolves and a simple syrup is created. 

For my basil simple syrup, all I did was throw in a few rinsed sprigs of basil from our garden during the heating process.  Then, just store in a glass jar.  It's that easy!

I've also used rosemary and lavender before.  Mint simple syrup would also be a nice one to try!