The new Edible Austin magazine came out this past weekend. My column is titled "Garden to Glass," and discusses the bibulous bounty of the spring garden. (Photographs by Jenna Noel)

This issue features some of my favorite cocktails that we've done but due to an editing oddity, there are a couple of omissions (noted with an asterisk*) in the recipes that I would like to correct here. Small but important details that will affect the taste of the cocktails.

The Silk Road is one of my very favorite cocktails that we have created. It is a true crowd-pleaser. The flavors play well enough together that most people can't name what's in it, except for the raspberries.

Silk Road
1½ oz. Pisco
¾ oz. Canton ginger liqueur
½ oz. simple syrup
1/2 oz lime juice*
Sprig cilantro
Sprig mint
5 raspberries
Muddle fruit and herbs in the bottom of a mixing glass. Shake with ice and fine-strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist and a whole raspberry.

I have been called a one trick pony for always garnishing drinks with a lemon twist. (Maybe even a no-trick pony). I have taken the position that it is okay to have only one trick, as long as it is a good one (for the ultimate example, see Dale DeGroff, flamed orange peel). Now I have really upped the ante--not just a lemon twist, but on a basil boat!

Blue Ribbon Cocktail
1½ oz. Hendrick’s gin
½ oz. Maraschino liqueur
½ oz. lime juice
1/4 oz simple syrup*
Dash lemon bitters
¼ c. blueberries
2 basil leaves
4 mint leaves
Muddle fruit and herbs in the bottom of a mixing glass. Shake and fine-strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist on a basil “boat.”

We created this cocktail last summer for LovExotic, a charity event that benefitted a group that helps same-sex partners adopt children. The event became known affectionately as 'cocktails for gay babies', and the drinks were poured by Tipsy and our friend and colleague Bill Norris, who generously told me where I could shove my fine-strained cocktail after he made a couple hundred of them in one night. I got a taste of this medicine last night after working the Republic tequila launch party, working a bar where all of the drinks involved muddling and straining out bits of strawberry or watermelon.

Q-Cumber Cocktail
1½ oz. gin
½ oz. simple syrup
2–3 chunks of fresh cucumber
¾ oz. fresh lemon juice
2 oz. Q Tonic, or other all-natural
tonic water
4 drops rose water
Muddle the cucumber with the simple syrup. Add the lemon juice and gin. Shake and fine-strain into a rocks glass over ice. Top with the Q Tonic and rose water. Garnish with a strip of cucumber peel.

NOTE: Fine-straining refers to straining the cocktail with both the Hawthorne strainer (attached to the mixing glass) and a mesh or tea strainer held by your non-pouring hand between the shaker and the glass. This technique will catch all of the herb or fruit particles and make for a perfectly clean cocktail.

Tonight we are busting out an entirely new menu at the Art of the Cocktail, our weekly cocktail hour at Z'Tejas on Sixth St. We will be featuring the Silk Road cocktail from our spring Edible Austin photo shoot, as well as a handful of classics: the Whiskey Daisy, the Aviation, and the Southside. We are also resurrecting a blast from the past (the past being the Spring 2008 Edible Austin), the Blackberry Jam, with its beguiling muddle of blackberry and ripe tomato, spiked with Z Pepe plata tequila.

Live music, live cocktails and half-price appetizers make this a great cheap date, so please come out and support the Art of the Cocktail tonight.

Tonight I am in the Big Bend area of West Texas. If you have not ever had the pleasure of visiting I highly recommend it. I have been out here many times and the scenery never ceases to amaze me, like an alien landscape just a few (okay, 7) hours west of Austin. I am at the Gage Hotel in Marathon. I have stayed here several times and had my heart set on staying here tonight, though it was a bit silly since I left Austin so late this afternoon. I was on my way to Marfa for a photo shoot that will take place tomorrow at the Cibolo Creek Ranch. Marfa is of course the playground for well-to-do NY types, and well-to-do Austin types. And aspiring well-to-do types. And schmucks like me.

Have Gin, Will Travel--an in-room cocktail prepared by yours truly

Rebecca Rather, the Pastry Queen of Fredericksburg's Rather Sweet Bakery fame, is
the one hosting the photo shoot, for her new book Pastry Queen Parties. Tipsy and I have had the honor of creating many of the cocktails for the book.

The sun started setting as I pulled on to the highway outside of Junction. I had the fortune of finding a driver with a speed comfort zone in the high 90's. While my car is more than capable of handling such velocity, my pocketbook is not welcoming to the fine that would accommodate such a pulling-over by a member of the law enforcement community. My usual tactic is to wait for a faster driver who has a radar detector (or doesn't give a f%ck), and follow that person. Today was my lucky day. I/We made it to Ft. Stockton in good time. If you are not familiar with the scale of this part of Texas, it is staggering. You can be inside Big Bend National Park and see signs pointing to other parts of the park that are 100+ miles away. If you are in Lajitas, the nearest supermarket is in Alpine, which is 2 1/2 hours away.

Throughout this drive I had my mind on a cocktail at the White Buffalo, the Gage's bar. The Gage was built in the 1920's, though it has as much of an 'old west' feel as any place I've been (except that I guess it is new-old west, since there are bottles of spring water in the rooms and a fitness facility across the way). Regardless, I love this place. The White Buffalo features the taxidermied bust of a white buffalo and touts the "finest margaritas in Texas." Except tonight I rolled in to town just as the bar was shutting down, and so I didn't get to have one of those fabulous margaritas. Instead, I took matters into my own hands. Since I was on the way to a cocktail photo shoot, I was more prepared than the average west Texas traveler. After checking into my room, I requisitioned the necessary supplies from the back of the Volkswagen, and proceeded to make the first of several martinis.

To be continued