I love Fridays—best day of the week, hands down! Not just because it’s the start of the weekend, but in our house, it’s also cocktails and pizza. There are few things better than ending the week with a quiet night at home with Skip, Roux (our crazy pup), and Milo (the cat that rules the house). Now, when I say ‘quiet’, that is truly a relative term. It is much quieter than it was only 6 months ago, when we still had our sweet border collie keeping the cat safely up on the table while he circled it non-stop. These days, Milo and Roux wrestle and chase each other, or Roux keeps up a constant watch for dangerous squirrels while Milo watches birds (or eats paper bags) and believes he’ll catch the birds one day—he’s strictly an indoor cat, with no real chance of catching anything but bugs and spiders.

Our Fridays are most often filled with a cocktail or two and some homemade pizza. It’s the one night of the week that we make every effort to spend together, and friends are always welcome. With the hectic weeks we have, I savor that Friday night-in and enjoy a tasty beverage while the dough rises. Now, the cocktails of choice vary with the season and our mood. I’m more often a brown liquor girl–bourbon, rye, a not-too-peaty scotch, dark rum—but a good gin cocktail sometimes hits the spot. Throw in an egg white and, man, I’m in heaven!

Skip makes one of the best limoncello around at Letterpress and he also makes a delicious seasonal release: a blood orange liqueur (arancello rosso). Both are wonderful on their own or in a tasty cocktail. There are some great options, too, for locally made gin like Big Gin from Captive Spirits or Copperworks’ Gin. Honestly, if you haven’t explored the Seattle distilleries, you’re seriously missing out on some delicious products and pretty awesome people. Go exploring, really, go this weekend! Send me a note if you want some recommendations.

Back to the cocktail making…I discovered the recipe for the Mediterranean Pink Lady last year and decided it would be perfect to showcase our limoncello and some local gin. This time around, I replaced the Cointreau in the original recipe with the arancello rosso and modified proportions just bit. After a bit of playing around, we also dropped the limoncello once we added the arancello rosso. The arancello rosso and the limoncello seemed to overwhelm each other and the arancello rosso worked really well in this cocktail, all on its own. The addition of the Peychaud’s bitters was Skip’s thought, which ended up being perfect!

Seattle Pink Lady

• 2 oz. Gin
• ¾ oz. Letterpress Arancello Rosso
• ¼ oz. Campari
• ½ oz. Fresh lemon juice
• 1 egg white
• Couple dashes of Peychaud’s Bitters on top

Combine everything but the bitters in a cocktail shaker full of ice. Shake vigorously (25-30 shakes, about 20 seconds). Strain & discard the ice. Return the strained cocktail to the shaker and shake vigorously again for about a minute. Just get your whole body into it—you might break a sweat. And, if you need to use a dishtowel on the metal shaker, there’s no shame—I do that everytime. Also, as you’re doing all that shaking, take a moment to appreciate our awesome bartenders who do this every day, all day!

Pour into a chilled coupe & garnish with lemon zest.

And, enjoy in your pajamas! Happy Friday!

A little note for egg white-containing cocktails: if you have a whisk ball, it’s great for getting the a little more oomph in your froth, or just slip off the the whisk-looking part of the strainer!