Southern Fashioned

It's Wednesday! We're half way through, what is possibly the longest week of my life, so I think it's a fair time to talk about the cocktail that I mentioned on Sunday. When working in the kitchen with alcohol, I find myself considering the ways in which I can use similar flavor profiles in drinks. I'm a closet cocktail fiend, y'all--I'm admitting it now. I'm not a mixologist, but I'd like to play one on TV in real life.

I'm particularly fond of the Old Fashioned (blame Don Draper), and have been for sometime. My guy friends know that I have special place in my heart from Jameson on the rocks (something I never seem to drink when out with girls? Does anyone else have these weird distinctions? No, just me? Okay), but for a cocktail I prefer Bulleit, which, luckily, I needed last week for Baked Sunday Mornings!

This cocktail is exactly what I want a cocktail to be in late summer. Delicious, local peaches, some bitters (LOVE), and bourbon. It's simple, not overly floral or feminine, and perfectly calming after a day of kitchen calamities.

Southern Fashioned Cocktail 

Ingredients 
   1/2 of one (juicy) peach, cubed
   1 teaspoon sugar or 1 small sugar cube
   1 or 2 dashes of Angostura bitters
   1 teaspoon water
   2 ounces rye or bourbon whiskey

Directions

1. Muddle the peach cubes along with the sugar, bitters, and water in a chilled Old Fashioned glass. Add the whiskey and ice; stir. Garnish with a peach slice.