Ginger Mojitos

It's Mothers' Day, and I've been gifted the opportunity to snuggle up with a pitcher of homemade Ginger Mojitos and a hammock. This is the only item on my to-do list today.

For some reason, Mojitos, Mothers' Day and this weather remind me of John Steinbeck's short, The Chrysanthemums. I doubt Steinbeck ever sipped a Mojito, ginger or no, but there it is.

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for ginger. Like fresh nutmeg, it's a product I keep in my arsenal (both will keep for ages) to grate into dishes for a little je nes sais quoi. It seemed like an apt addition to the pitcher of mommy juice I cooked up today.

Ingredients:

Six limes, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, one packet of fresh mint, one liter of club soda, rum (not spiced), three ounces of cointreau, one inch of fresh ginger root.

In a small sauce pan, I dissolved the brown sugar in a cup of water into which I grated the ginger root. I set it to boiling/dissolving. Meanwhile, I sliced the limes in half and squeezed them with my old-school juicer, putting the juice into a big pitcher. I muddled the whole packet of mint and tossed that into the juice, adding the hot sugar water as soon as the sugar dissolved to allow the mint to sort of steep in it. I added the Cointreau and all of the club soda.

I like to serve mine over ice and add my rum as I go. It looks like last week's Boston tap water, but the brown sugar (which muddies the color) and ginger give it a fantastic depth of flavor.