Maker's Mark Whiskey Sour
Celebrate with an old-school bourbon cocktail!
Today is National Whiskey Sour Day. There's just something so sophisticated and refreshing about a well-made, old school cocktail like a sour.
I made a batch last night, and they were so delicious.
I started with some turbinado sugar, water, and lemons.
I added a cup of turbinado sugar to a cup of boiling water, then added the juice of three lemons. I put the lemon simple syrup in the refrigerator to chill for a couple of hours.
When cocktail hour arrived, I filled lowball glasses with crushed ice and one part of the lemon simple syrup to two parts. Maker's Mark, then garnished with an orange slice and maraschino cherries.
Five Kentucky Day Trips Worth Taking
If you think about it, there are really only two more free Saturdays between now and May 14th.
How did I arrive at that date? Simple. College football starts on Labor Day weekend, which is two weeks from tomorrow. Football and fall horse racing overlap into college basketball, then there's Keeneland's April meet, and then there's Derby. Add in holidays, and basically, you (or someone in your household) will be at sporting events, family obligations, or sitting on the couch watching sports every weekend until May.
It's a very real conundrum for Kentuckians. It also means that you've got these last two weekends to carefully plan something fun. A lot of times, work and social schedules don't allow much more than a fun few hours in another town. Last weekend, my beau and I spent a few hours following the GPS to the Maker's Mark Distillery. We were only gone for about 4 hours, but a little out-of-town jaunt left us feeling refreshed and recharged! Here are 5 Kentucky Day Trips to consider while you still have free Saturdays!
- Sweet and Sour Mash in Frankfort and Lawrenceburg . The Commonwealth's capital city has a lot of history to offer, but that's not exactly on the agenda for this trip. Instead, catch breakfast or lunch (open 8-3 Saturday; closed Sunday) at Rick's White Light Diner. Their crawfish pie is on my foodie MUST-TRY list. While you're there, check out the complimentary tours at Buffalo Trace. Then, head over to Lawrenceburg's Four Roses Distillery, which is unique among the members of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail for its distinctive Spanish-style architecture. Tour the distillery and pick up a bottle or two of their excellent small-batch bourbon. Finish up your trip at Sweet Mash Southern Goods, a charming, brand-new boutique that features amazing local and Kentucky-themed products.
- Provisions + Perusing in Lexington National Provisions is my new favorite restaurant in Lexington. I look for any chance to stop by there for a delicious meal from their bistro and a to-go box of macarons from their pâtisserie. (The New York Times has pretty nice things to say about them, too!) Stop in at nearby House by JSD for unique home furnishings, and Morton James and omar + elsie for luxurious fashions.
- Shop Local in Southeast KY Manchester's brand-new shop The Makery features handmade items, craft supplies, and one-of-a-kind products; head over to nearby London for lunch at local hotspot The Abbey.
- Get Artsy in Downtown Louisville One of my very favorite things about Downtown Louisville is that art is everywhere, not just in galleries. Don't miss Craft(s) in South Fourth, which explores the edgier side of Kentucky's traditional arts and crafts, wander through Revelry in NuLu and wind up in 21C Museum Hotel. Ready for lunch after all that? Go ahead and get the best hamburger in town at 21C's Proof on Main while you're there.
- Enjoy Paducah's hip new spin on its past.Quilts at Paducah's National Quilt Museum bear little resemblance to the ones your grandma made you; instead, they're vibrant works of art. Head over to The Coke Plant which, true to its name, once housed a soda bottling facility, but now showcases local artisans. I have it on good authority that coffee or tea from Piper's in the Coke Plant building is a must-try!
Soooo... What are y'all doing with your two remaining Saturdays?
The Real Colonel Sanders
Over on HerKentucky's Facebook page today, we've been talking about Colonel Sanders.
I feel really strongly about this. Colonel Sanders was an actual person. From recent history. Every revamp just comes...
Posted by HerKentucky on Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Well, we've been talking about KFC's latest incarnations of Colonel Sanders.
You've probably seen those KFC ads with Darrell Hammond. They were pretty awful. And, now, he's been replaced by Norm MacDonald.
Howdy, folks. It’s me, the REAL Colonel Sanders, back again, but for real this time. pic.twitter.com/Zj30LPXmXB
— KFC (@kfc) August 17, 2015I'm not going to lie, I find the whole thing VERY creepy. Harland Sanders was a real, live person. He was born in Clark County Indiana in 1890. He lied about his age to join the U.S. Army. He worked on railroads and ferry boats and even practiced law for a while, until he got into a courtroom brawl with a client. Eventually, he settled in Corbin, KY, where he ran a Shell Gas Station and perfected his fried chicken recipe.
Of course, there are a whole lot of people in Southeastern Kentucky who make really good fried chicken. The reason that Colonel Sanders' image has graced a million paper chicken buckets instead of any of our Appalachian grandmothers is that he was a master of marketing. He embraced the iconic image of a Southern gentleman --- a Kentucky Colonel -- in a white suit and a string tie. He insisted on being called Colonel. And the image remained with KFC long after Sanders sold his operations, and even after he passed.
Somehow, the stylized cartoon we've all seen a million times on KFC's logo seems okay. These salt and pepper shakers from Louisville Stoneware seem kind of adorable.
But hiring two guys -- irreverent comedians and non-Southerners at that -- to play someone who was alive during many Kentuckians' lifetime just seems disrespectful and in poor, poor taste. Colonel Sanders was a shrewd businessman, a first-class marketer, possibly a terrible lawyer, and a fine cook. But he was also an actual living person whose legacy deserves a little more than KFC is providing him.
Maker's Mark Distillery Tour
A road trip to one of Kentucky bourbon's most iconic distilleries.
Saturday, my beau and took a trip to Loretto to the Maker's Mark Distillery. It was a gorgeous day to open the sunroof and let the GPS do the thinking for us.
I'm a longtime Maker's fan, but I'd somehow never made the trip to Loretto. Every detail of the distillery tour was delightful, from the tollgate
to the journals detailing names that the Samuels family considered for their product
to quirky flower arrangements in Maker's bottles.
We actually arrived during the brief window when it's too hot to distill new product and equipment is being checked for repairs. How gorgeous is this brewing vat?
The bottling process was going strong, This conveyer belt full of freshly dipped bottles included a photo paying tribute to Margie Samuels, founder Bill Samuels' wife, who famously helped create the brand.
We then moved on to the tasting, where four samples of Maker's awaited us. The white, an un-aged whisky, which tasted very similar to weak moonshine, original Maker's Mark, Maker's 46, and the Cask Strength, which has a very up-front alcohol punch. Very few things can top original Maker's Mark in my book, although the 46 is pretty delicious, with notes of creme brûlée.
After we tasted the spirits, there were some bourbon balls to try as well. I've never turned down a bourbon ball, and these were pretty fantastic.
Finally, we took a look at the amazing blown-glass ceiling installation that commemorated the label's 60th birthday. It was so amazingly beautiful!
After a trip through the gift shop, we walked around the grounds for a bit, then headed to the Toll House Cafe for a delicious barbecue sandwich.
I love the vintage fire truck!
Patio goals.
I can't recommend the Maker's Mark tour highly enough! The grounds are stunning and the bourbon is delicious!
Henrietta's Louisville
Inspired by Emily Bingham's biography Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham, HerKentucky editor Heather C. Watson takes readers on a photographic tour of Henrietta's Louisville.
It's been a long time since a book captured my imagination the way Emily Bingham's Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham did.
There's something about a really well-crafted biography. Of course, the subject led an extraordinary life, or she wouldn't be considered for biographical treatment. But, some biographies -- and some subjects -- really inspire a reader. They carry you back to a different era, they introduce you to new ideas, they sometimes shock you, and they make you feel like you really know them. Personally, I can never get enough of stories about Kentucky's infamous madam Belle Brezing, Jazz Age darling Zelda Fitzgerald, and now Zelda's contemporary (and fellow Southern judge's daughter) Henrietta Bingham. I just couldn't resist going on a little tour of the places Henrietta knew right here in Louisville.
I wanted to start my tour where the Binghams' story began, at Henrietta's grandparents' home, the Samuel and Henrietta Long Miller House at 1236 South Fourth Street. The Miller Mansion is long gone; in its stead is The Puritan Apartments, a senior-living apartment complex.
Only a few blocks away is the original home of Louisville Collegiate School, where Henrietta matriculated and played basketball.
I then took a drive out to Peewee Valley to visit Henrietta's grandparents' summer home, where her parents lived for a while, and which has undergone significant upgrades and remodeling since Mrs. Miller sold the property in 1915.
Of course, no tour of Henrietta's Louisville is complete without a trip to the famous Pendennis Club, where she scandalized Louisville society by kissing a girl. (The same thing also happened at the Louisville Country Club, but I didn't want to sneak onto private club property to snap photos. For the same reason, I didn't head out to Harmony Landing Country Club, the site of Henrietta's former horse farm.)
Then, I traveled out Louisville's picturesque River Road to visit the homes of Henrietta's father, Judge Robert Worth Bingham. River Road is such an enchanting area; downtown Louisville seems so far away, and yet clearly visible. Indiana's shores are just across the Ohio. It's peaceful and lovely; no wonder it became a fashionable address for estates like the Binghams'.
Of course, Judge Bingham didn't live just anywhere. The private drives and secluded settings of Melcombe Bingham and Lincliff, served as a great reminder of how very sheltered and privileged Henrietta's Louisville life was. (Lincliff, where Judge Bingham made his home with second wife Mary Lily Flagler, is currently home to novelist Sue Grafton.)
Finally, I paid a visit to Cave Hill Cemetery to visit the Bingham family plots. After spending a couple of weeks under Henrietta's spell, I wanted to pay my respects. She truly led a fascinating life, and it only seemed right to take a moment to reflect on the ways in which she captured my imagination.
Joining a charity club is soooo not for me.
Today's charity clubs aren't your mother's league.
Oh, you know, I'm not one of those women. Joining a charity club is soooo not for me.
Yeah, I've heard that a lot. And yet, I never really know what it means.
I'm sorry. I didn't know you were busier than this Phoenix Junior League member.
Does it mean that you think you're too serious and important to waste your time with silly little women's clubs?
Well, Julia Child and Sandra Day O'Connor were both Junior League members; if your work is more important than "First Celebrity Chef" or "First Female Supreme Court Justice", I'd really like to see your résumé.
Does it mean that you don't want to help others in your community?
This year alone, the Charity League of Paducah presented a check totaling $25,600 to Easter Seals West Kentucky. The Younger Woman's Club of Louisville awarded over $40,000 in grants to 17 deserving 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations in the Louisville area. The Junior League of Lexington awarded $30,000 to five deserving Lexington agencies. The Junior League of Louisville raised over $50,000 for area agencies. That's close to $150,000 raised in one year solely by female volunteers from four charity organizations in three key Kentucky cities, granted to some of the Commonwealth's most deserving non-profits. A safe estimate is that these organizations' rosters combined total a membership of less than 600 women. That's around $250 raised per Kentucky woman per year to make a difference in the lives of their fellow Kentuckians. Obviously, you wouldn't want to be a part of that, right?
Does it mean that you don't want to strengthen your professional network?
I've been a member of several different women's charity organizations over the years, and I can safely tell you that most of them have been run with a higher degree of precision and accountability than most Fortune 500 companies. That's because a lot of the members of these clubs were, in actuality, qualified to run Fortune 500 companies. Modern women's clubs count physicians, attorneys, educators, financial analysts, entrepreneurs, and work-at-home mothers among their ranks. When charity club women congregate, you're more likely to hear legal and financial advice, medical referrals or analysis of your child's IEP than gossip or tips on upcoming boutique sales.
Does it mean that you're afraid you won't see "women like you" there?
I promise you, attending a charity club meeting isn't going to look like a scene from The Help. You're going to find a diverse mix of women of various backgrounds and ethnicities -- accomplished, well-educated, professional women. Some of us are work-at-home mothers, others are entrepreneurs, law partners, and surgeons. Here in Louisville, you're also likely to find an impressive group of bourbon professionals. But, you probably won't find any beehive hairdos.
Your grandma's Junior League
Today's Junior League of Louisville.
My dear friends Emily Ho and Nanci House are proud volunteers of the Lexington League.
Does it mean that you don't want to see your favorite Kentucky bloggers?
HerKentucky contributors Emily Ho (Lexington Junior League) and Sarah Holland (Charity League of Paducah) are charity club members. I am a past member of the Lexington and Louisville Junior Leagues, and currently sit on the Board of the Younger Woman's Club. We all firmly believe that the training and networking opportunities afforded by these clubs have played a crucial role in our professional success.
Have I changed your mind?
- Younger Woman's Club of Louisville is accepting applications through this Friday, August 14th. A Meet and Greet Happy Hour will be held this Thursday, August 13th, at 5:30 p.m. at Tony Boombozz in St Matthews, where you can learn more about the YWC.
- The Junior League of Louisville is accepting applications for their August provisional class. A Recruitment Open House will be held this Thursday, August 13th, at the Junior League Office (982 Eastern Parkway)
- The Junior League of Lexington will accept applications for 2015 membership from October 1st to October 31st.
- The Charity League of Paducah is currently accepting applications for membership. Email them at charityleagueofpaducah@gmail.com for more information.
- The Junior League of Cincinnati will accept new applications in the spring. Email them at membership@jlcincinnati.org for more information.
- The Junior League of Owensboro will accept new applications in the spring. Contact them at info@jlowensboro.org for more information.
A Conversation with Irrepressible Author Emily Bingham
HerKentucky editor Heather C. Watson interviews Louisville native author and historian Emily Bingham.
was at the top of HerKentucky's list of the summer's must-read books. The story of a charismatic Jazz Age debutante who scandalized Louisville society by kissing girls at the city's most exclusive clubs while charming London's elite Bloomsbury intellectual set , Irrepressible reads like a tightly constructed novel, deftly weaving through continents and eras to tell a lovely and ultimately tragic story.
The second child and only daughter of Louisville politician, judge, and publishing magnate Robert Worth Bingham, Henrietta was born in 1901 into a Kentucky of thoroughbreds, cotillions, and country clubs. Her Louisville was a world most of us have only experienced in myth -- her grandmother Henrietta Long Miller owned an imposing mansion in Old Louisville and an equally impressive summer home in Peewee Valley -- but which was often too rigid for her tastes. Upon graduation from Louisville Collegiate School, Henrietta sought refuge first at Smith College (where she began an affair with magnetic young composition professor and heiress Mina Kirstein, whose family co-founded Filene's Department Stores), then abroad, where her gracious disposition and violet eyes captivated the free-spirited intellectuals of the Bloomsbury group. Among her confidantes and lovers were Wimbledon champion Helen Hull Jacobs and actor John Houseman; her complex and co-dependent relationship with her larger-than-life father cast a decidedly Southern Gothic shadow over her life of privilege.
Henrietta Bingham (image via The Daily Beast)
Ultimately, the societal norms of Henrietta's era -- it's heartbreaking to remember that, less than a century ago, gay Americans were forced into the closet by the imminent threat of criminal charges and physical violence -- along with a lifelong history of mental health and substance abuse issues ultimately dulled Henrietta's flame. The outré flapper and muse became known as a sad and embarrassing branch of the Bingham family tree. When Henrietta's great-niece, the writer and historian Emily Bingham, announced her plans to name her daughter for this relative whom she'd never known, the story goes, her family blanched. Henrietta's name was considered an unwelcome burden to saddle upon a new generation of Binghams, so Emily started reconstructing her great-aunt's story. In a twist so fortuitous that it seems torn from the pages of a Hollywood script, Emily Bingham found two perfectly preserved trunks in the attic of her family's estate. Henrietta's story unfolded through the trunks' contents -- a glamorous story of love, heartbreak, and adventure. Emily graciously answered some questions about Irrepressible for HerKentucky readers.
Henrietta's partner, Helen Hull Jacobs
HK: What was going through your mind when you discovered Henrietta’s trunk of memories?
EB: That day in 2009 was probably one of the greatest experiences I'll ever have as a historian. I went to that attic in my childhood home very reluctantly. I had peeked into the trunk some time before and seen a lot of very old shoes, hats, that sort of thing, and it was pure duty to spend hours on a frigid January day in the uninsulated space full of soot and lit by a single dangling bulb. The house itself was empty and did not contain my happiest childhood memories (though I did love exploring the vast attic where servants had once lived and where my father and his siblings had a lot of toys and books and old saddles stored).
The first amazing find was a massive silver flask with Henrietta's initials. It holds about two fifths of bourbon. Nothing like the discreet flapper flasks you might imagine.
Then I came across the tennis outfit that turned out to have belonged to Helen Hull Jacobs, the 1930s lesbian tennis champion. Her monogrammed shirt suggested a more intimate relationship than I knew had existed between her and my great aunt, and the clothes, which I sent to the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, RI led me to her diaries and scrapbooks and the "joyous and satisfying life" she shared with Henrietta in the 30s and 40s.
There were some little tiny folded papers containing white powder. I thought I'd come across some illicit drug but on closer inspection they proved to be "dog powders" for Henrietta's beloved border terriers and Pekingese!
And then, as I was about to leave for the day to relieve my babysitter, I saw that another trunk was hidden in the shadows in a corner of the garret room. At the very bottom is where I found the carefully tied up and almost perfectly-preserved collection of love letters from the sculptor Stephen Tomlin and the actor/producer John Houseman. Seeing Henrietta through their besotted eyes was one of the utter thrills of my experience with this book.
Young Henrietta. Image via The Daily Beast.
HK: Was there ever a time when you thought of turning back and keeping Henrietta’s story in the past?
EB: Absolutely. My editor didn't think the book was even possible given that I had no diaries and almost no letters from Henrietta herself. So it was almost DOA. But I pushed past that with some of the discoveries in the attic and elsewhere. There was a point when her depression and addiction melded with a sad and confusing time in my life and I wondered if the project might not make me ill.
Henrietta Bingham (image via Courier-Journal)
HK: I’m a Jazz Age buff, and a Kentucky native, so as I read, I was thinking both of the timeline of some of my favorite authors and historical figures (thinking, e.g., “OK, Scott and Zelda would have been here, or Gerald and Sara Murphy would have been here”) and of a very local timeline (saying things like “the Miller house was a block down from the Woman’s Club” or “of course they all thought Henrietta was a gracious hostess; she was a Louisville girl!”) It almost felt like Henrietta lived two completely separate lives –freedom in London and duty in Louisville. When you were working on the book, how did you feel that place played into Henrietta’s story?
EB: Henrietta felt very connected to her Kentucky and southern roots. There is a remarkable passage in the pages John Houseman cut from his memoir: see page 180-181. He was drawn in by the romance of Kentucky but later he came to see things in a more nuanced way. Here's a bit more of it: "I discovered that Louisville was, in reality, a typical middle-Western American city, indistinguishable from Indianapolis or Cincinnati, and that its main claim to national fame -- Churchill Downs, scene of the Kentucky Derby -- was ringed with factories and power plants that made it, without question, one of the most squalid hippodromes in the United States. Yet, for close to a century, from Foster to Fitzgerald, the legend of Louisville's romantic fascination had persisted--and not without reason. For in its own mysterious way the spell worked -- not only on public occasions such as the long Derby weekend, when the entire population, swollen by streams of visitors, lived in a state of collective alcoholic hallucination, but also, in a more intimate way, each time the natives came together and succeeded, through sheer emotional energy, in generating and sustaining an atmosphere of glamour and gaity that was no less magical for being achieved almost entirely with Bourbon and mirrors."
Henrietta loved her Miller grandmother. She also loved having a mansion to throw parties in. She dared to make passes at girls at the Louisville Country Club and kiss her lover in the elevator at the Pendennis. She went sledding in Cherokee Park and was pushed in a stroller in Central Park in Old Louisville. I was stunned when I figured out that for at least a year she and her father and elder brother occupied an apartment 5 doors away from me on Cherokee Road! London and Manhattan were much freer places for her, for sure, but I think she always wanted to come back and her thoroughbred breeding farm at Harmony Landing was the way she hoped to find her way in -- brave as a woman, a lesbian, and someone without direct experience in bloodstock (though her great uncle Dennis Long had two Derby winners in her childhood and that may have set her ambitions early).
Emily Bingham. Image via author's website.
HK: You do an amazing job of, as you say in the preface, not presuming to speak for Henrietta. Yet, you’re very fair with your assessments of her mental health and her likely dyslexia. Was this a hard line to walk?
It's always hard to walk the line between empathizing with your subject and wanting to protect them and being frank about their weaknesses and shortcomings. I believe that readers don't just want "models" and can appreciate lives that are as complicated and imperfect as their own.
HK: If you had the chance to talk to Henrietta, what would you say to her?
EB: Sing for me. Play the sax. Tell me the stories of the musicians you loved and who, doubtless, found you pretty interesting, too. What was your favorite bar, show, concert, player? Where did you feel most free? Who did you really love? Finally, "You are in the world again and people still find you lovable and irresistible and are so glad not to have lost you altogether."
Thanks so much to Emily for the amazing interview, and for writing the summer's best book. Check back later this week as HerKentucky takes you on a photo tour of Henrietta's Louisville.