A drink, darling?

For this first series of photos, taken at Le Colonial in San Francisco, I decided to try my hand at majorly adjusting photos.  The adjusted photo is first, with the original, smaller photo following.  I hate using a flash indoors in public (especially when taking a bunch of pics) and the result is that these photos didn't come out.  So, I took iPhoto's generic photoshop to town.  I'm always curious about photos before and after and I never usually edit my pictures except to crop them.  What do you think?

 

Next on the agenda is a ginger lemonade with some fresh mint leaves thrown in for good measure.  I am enthralled with The Essential New York Times Cookbook and have yet to be disappointed with any recipe therein:

You start by boiling fresh ginger:

I added some mint:

I Squeezed some lemons from the tree outside.  While most lemonade calls for you to make a simple syrup with sugar and water, This recipe calls for you to dissolve the sugar directly in the lemon juice.  So, SO much easier:

Some blending, and voilà :

Next, from the Cookbook, a Mint Julep.  I've been curious about them but we didn't have any bourbon so I substituted rum.  I probably won't go down this road again.  You may recognize the red peppermint from THIS POST.  Or not:

 And there you are, some of my latest whims.  What do you think?  

What is your favorite summer drink?