Happy birthday to me and all my guests: Celery juleps are a good reason to buy bourbon at Costco

 I love birthdays. I know that not everyone feels that way – I have plenty of friends who have dreaded theirs, particularly milestone birthdays – but to me it always feels like an accomplishment to make it through another year. It’s like having a personal New Year’s (another favorite holiday). I pretend to be cynical but I’m really a big optimistic softie, and something about new beginnings is enormously appealing to me.

Yes, I wore this

It would be safe to say that I’ve been envisioning my 50^th birthday party for quite a while. I love a good party, and what better reason to celebrate?! 😊 It was going to have a bounce house and food trucks and a keg and music and lots of laughing and telling inappropriate stories. Somewhere around the end of March I realized that a big party wasn’t going to be a realistic thing and starting retooling; and as the virus spreads and people increasing act like they’re “over it” and behave incautiously, the party got smaller and smaller…..

Until I ended up with just the right people for a fantastic dinner party, which is good because it rained most of the day and I can’t fit that many people into my house. My favorite caterers were out of town and I didn’t want to deal with an unknown quantity so I opted to cook, after wringing out promises of help from my kids (I figured I’d at least I’d get the menu I wanted, even if I’m still – ahem – washing dishes 2 days later).

Per usual with my dinner parties, we started with an extended cocktail hour. I’m sure the food was delicious but nobody cared because we started with the CELERY JULEPS and ohmygod. Step aside, mint! This is why I buy bourbon at Costco. Nobody expected to like them but they were going to humor me because it was my birthday, and then everyone loved them and they’re going to become a staple cocktail recipe. The recipe comes, naturally, from the Lee Brothers, as did almost everything else.

And dinner was lovely, and a good time was had by all, and I felt properly feted into the next decade.

 

From The Lee Brothers Simple Fresh Southern: Knockout Dishes with Down-Home Flavor.

 

Celery Julep

10 oz celery (about 4 large ribs. Leaves are fine.)
½ cup plus 1 tbsp sugar
½ tsp celery seeds
¼ tsp kosher salt
12 oz bourbon
¼ cup plus 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons)
12 oz seltzer water or club soda

 

Chop the celery and put them in the food processor with 1 tbsp sugar, the celery seed, and the salt. Process until it’s a runny puree, then pour through a fine-mesh strainer. Press to extract as much of the liquid as possible; you should end up with about 1/3 cup liquid.

Put the celery liquid and remaining sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, warming just until the sugar dissolves.

Combine the syrup, bourbon, and lemon juice in a small pitcher. Pour into 6 glasses full of crushed ice, then top with seltzer. If you’re making these one at a time, it’s 2 oz bourbon, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and 2 – 2 ½ oz syrup per serving.