© photo by Maura McEvoy
watermelon coolers

Several people wrote in wondering what the other two drinks that we had on Today were—the ones sitting up front that we ran out of time before we could get to. Both are terrific. One's a simple watermelon cooler (recipe here) created by Susan Mason, a caterer in Savannah, GA. The other is a bit more complicated, but a very cool drink—the Thai Boxer (recipe here), from Scott Beatty at Cyrus in Healdsburg, CA.

I was on Today this morning, mixing up some Labor Day cocktails with Hoda Kotbe and Kathie Lee Gifford. It was, as is usual for the fourth hour of the show, a rather, um, freewheeling segment. We didn't exactly make it through both drinks, though I did get kissed on the lips by KLG, much to my surprise (this was cut from the video on the Today site, but a number of friends emailed right after it happened with comments like "OMG!", so evidently it did air). ANYWAY.

The cocktails we actually demo'd were a very pretty one from our 2008 Food & Wine Cocktails book (buy it here) called the Belle de Jour, which was invented at Eastern Standard in Boston. It's a Champagne cocktail—a touch of Benedictine (I subbed B&B at home last night practicing it, to no ill effect), Cognac, grenadine and lemon juice, then top with Champagne. Then we did a white wine and sparkling cider sangria from Steven Raichlen, which is great for parties; it's floating around in our summer drink slideshow. Both are tasty, and if you increase the proportions on the Belle de Jour, you can actually whip out quite a few of them quickly, a key requirement for Labor Day cookouts and whatnot.