So I grew up in the South, and my parents recently built their retirement home on a lake in South Carolina. I visit them every summer to go kayaking and laze about and use their massive and amazing kitchen. This time my best friends Kat and Charlie joined me, and it was extra awesome, especially since my mother, who is a genius, bought a snow cone machine. Clearly, there was no other option but to make alcoholic snow cones! I had the super sweet syrupy ones with vodka at a Penthouse party once, and figured I could do way better.

So Kat and I took a trip to the store planning on getting some strawberries to make syrup, because my mother had been talking about not being able to find rhubarb anywhere, but when we got there we found a glorious pile of it. WOOHOO! So when we got back to the house we immediately starting chopping it for syrup…well, Kat did, i was busy making potato salad….recipe to come. Anyways, Here is whatcha do…

Serves – A shit ton. But make 24 hours in advance.

Nutrition – Not on vacation.

Ingredients –

3 cups chopped rhubarb
1 cup chopped strawberries
1 cup pitted and chopped cherries
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/4 cups sugar in the raw

1 spring basil for garnish
1 bottle vodka. Preferably Tito’s handmade.

Step 1 -Chop up all of your delicious fruit and have ready in a bowl.

Step 2 – Meanwhile, make a simple syrup by dissolving your sugar into water at a slight boil. Then add the fruit

Step 3 – Reduce to a simmer for approx 20 minutes or until all of your fruit is soft and smushy and looks like so….

Step 4 -Syrups are simple until it comes to straining them. I dont know what it is, but putting fruit syrup through a sieve annoys the crap out of me. I think its because I hate picking the little berry seeds out of the mesh. Strain through a sieve into a clean tupperware, i usually pour about a 1/5th of the mixture in, and then use a wooden spoon to move everything around and push the liquid through, and repeat, reserving the leftover fruit solids in a separate bowl.*

Step 5 – Seal up your syrup and put in the fridge for 24 hours-ish

Step 6 – When you’re ready for snowcones, get out yo machine! Or your blender, as I would be doing at my house. In this case, I shaved ice into the snow cone cups and then put it in my glass, I tried using the little cone ones but they annoy me and make me feel like i’m at the dentist.

Step 7 – Pour a finger or 2 of vodka into a glass and then cover in shaved ice. Pour rhubarb syrup on top and then add another layer of shaved ice and pour more syrup on top (in this case, i mixed it in the snow cone cup and flipped it on top of my drink)

Step 8 – Garnish with basil.

Step 9 – Get drunk.

*Leftover solids can be used as an ice cream topping or be made into jam, we decided to use them in my rhubarb yogurt muffins recipe and made them into French toast with rhubarb syrup served with the leftover syrup. Three cheers for multitasking!