real ladies drink whiskey

i decided to have a whiskey festival this fall.  why?  i wanted to celebrate, the beginning of fall with things i love including good friends, whiskey and pie, and that is exactly what i did along with my friend elise who offered to have the event at her house.  to start things off about a month ago i created 10 different specialty infused whiskies.  the list included:  almond rose, vanilla blueberry, mint, rosemary, spiced cider, pumpkin pie, apple crumb, chocolate mint, lime and pepper, and finally cherry lemonade.  my goal was when someone sampled the whiskey i didn’t want them to feel like they were tasting whiskey i wanted it to feel like they were drinking pumpkin pie or lemonade.  there was lots of testing and smelling and a little tweaking but the patience paid off. the verdict……apple crumb was the #1 whiskey flavor, followed by rosemary and shockingly lime and pepper.  coming in close though was the almond rose and chocolate mint, although i really ended up enjoying the vanilla blueberry, the berries even turned the whiskey purple.

there was whiskey………..

and

more whiskey

we also had a variety of whiskies from tennesee and kentucky varying in proofs 80, 90, and classic moonshine of 100 proof, along with some nice sweet tennesee honey whiskey.

this is the stuff you could run your car on

the next step was the baking.  elsie and i both baked like mad the day before, creating what we called a “homemade pie buffet.”  the buffet had honey pie, apple pie, pumpkin-pecan pie, chocolate-peanut butter pie, sugar cookie pie and pumpkin mouse pie along with my famous whiskey jug chocolate sugar cookies.

pie my favorite food

you can’t eat just one

the night was filled with whiskey, board games, friends, pie and ended around the fire pit in hopes of seeing the meteor shower.  i’ve already started creating  the list for next years infusions and have decided to add a little competition for the 2nd whiskey festival, an infusion competition.  so ya’ll got one whole year to tweak your whiskey creations and compete at next year’s queen city fall whiskey festival!