Tequila in lieu of Mouthwash

Party Idea:

We have an annual Kentucky Derby Party.
(look for my Mint Julep & Bourbon Mint Sweet Tea recipes coming in a couple of months)

In preparation for our party last year, I talked with my sister's friends from Kentucky who used to throw Derby parties when they still lived back in Louisville.  I got the idea of putting a bottle of Tequila in the bathroom from them.  I was delighted, as this worked perfectly for our Derby de Mayo theme.  Last year the Derby landed on Cinco de Mayo.  I came up with the idea for this tray thinking about bathroom offerings at Country Clubs.  Although, who really needs hairspray or mouthwash? 

As you might image, The Tequila-shot tray insured that the line to the bathroom was consistently congested throughout the afternoon.

You could do so many variations on this idea... Have fun with it, it will indeed be a hit at your next party!

(Thanks Harold & Mary for the Tequila idea) 

Cheers!

Saving Your Wine Labels

Admittedly, I am unusually preoccupied with documenting my life in every way imaginable.  So, naturally,  I save my wine labels, and have since my mid 20's.  Luckily, I didn't start earlier or I would be stuck with the painful reminder of my Peach Reunite days.  Yikes.  I do find great enjoyment looking back at the labels, which I put in a wine dossier along with tasting notes, who I was with, the occasion and the meal.  The photo above is this morning, me finally getting around to putting label removers on the bottles from the holidays.

I used to soak labels off in hot soapy water, but I can only assume that the wine industry, as a whole, has discovered some new SUPER STICKY glue that they all now use to affix their labels.  It is almost impossible to soak them off.  I have used wine label removers in the past, but I recently ran out and could not find them locally.

Tips & Ideas:
Wine Label Lifters: I found these at Sur le Table online. $9.99 for 10.  Try Amazon as well.  Increasingly, I only save special occasion labels or ones from really memorable wines.  My wine dossier was given to me as a gift years ago and it is full. I found that Amazon carries this very one, which I like because of the large pages.  There are several types and you could certainly even make your own.

I have also taken photos of the wine on the table with the meal and included that with the label on the page. I find that I enjoy this the most when looking back. I have also sometimes included a photo of me and my husband with a wine on our anniversary in the dossier, for example.  It is a great family treasure to leave to your children, as a archive, letting them know just how much you had to drink to get through raising them.

However you choose to archive your labels, they are truly special mementos from your liquid past.  You can photograph them with your phone and include them in your digital books, you can make a digital collage of wine you drank that year or even save the labels over several years and make wallpaper for a tasting room.  I am sure a decoupage project for the less craft-challenged could render a darling wine-label covered piece. Lastly, once you remove the labels there are many things to do with the bottles.  Pottery Barn sells wine-bottle chandeliers--which I am plotting as I write to coerce my husband to re-create. I have seen wine bottle chimes, white lights stuffed down inside wine bottles making tables glow, etc. You can also save the bottles for homemade gifts such as flavored vinegars or infused spirits (recipes to follow on future posts) with homemade labels and raffia tied tops.

Or you can go green, enjoy your wine and promptly throw that bottle and its label in the recycle bin!


Cheers!

Dirty Vodka Martini

Dirty Vodka Martini     

    (Shaken, Not stirred) 
this is my favorite drink before a steak dinner

Kettle One Vodka
olive juice
crushed ice
stainless shaker

fill shaker with crushed ice
pour a few table spoons of olive juice in shaker
add vodka
 Shake like hell 
(the crushed ice against the stainless shaker creates beautiful little ice shavings)
garnish with olives & drink immediately

(My father-in-law, who is a master gardener,  actually picked these olives at his friend's house and processed them in his bathtub, which appeals to my Southern-sensibility, in a charming, red-neck sort of way) Next step is bathtub moonshine, XXX! Many experiment with jalapeno-stuffed, blue-cheese stuffed and other gourmet olives. Knock yourself out, I prefer old-school pimento stuffed olives because I am a salt-fiend.

Two years ago I met David, a producer form Manchester, England while I was photographing an event in Hawaii (what a bragger I sound like). He and I instantly bonded over our love of irreverent literature, pink Himalayan salt and off-beat liquor.  By the end of the trip we were convinced that we were separated at birth and decided we were in fact brother and sister.  There was, however, an unexpected hiccup in our new-found familial same-same-ness.  He offhandedly asked--as if to confirm my non-philistine standing--: "Do you like your martinis shaken or stirred?" Never suspecting this was a trap, I gladly offered that I not only preferred them shaken, but shaken to death. He was crestfallen at what he obviously deemed as a sad departure in my otherwise good taste. However, I stand proudly firm with Bond, James Bond, and like them shaken like hell.  Some say shaking can "bruise" the spirit. I think vodka isn't quite that delicate, come on.  Call me pedestrian but I think vodka with ice shavings diaphanously floating about, does not lack imagination, but celebrates this drink's strong, icy, salty simplicity.  Granted, while I am making this drink, the scene of my vigorous shaking  is what can only be described as an arm-flab extravaganza.

The Back Story.......I moved to Philadelphia in the late 90's, and was shortly thereafter introduced to this drink: Kettle One, extra dry, extra dirty, extra olives, by my boyfriend. I was hooked.  Before you judge my version of the vodka martini, you should know that I have read all the damning evidence. I know there are those, with their laudably cultured pallets, who will claim that those of us who drink them "extra-dry"  have sadly fallen prey to the "Machismo" movement of the 50's. Ahhh the 50's, when the drink-martinis-at-lunch corporate set "ruined" the drink of yore by equating their masculinity with the dryness of their martini.  Yes, perhaps these people were advertising their shrewd business persona by leaving off the elegant addition of vermouth.  Not to worry, I am neither masculine, nor a shrewd business woman.  AND, I have since discovered the beauty of vermouth in other cocktails, even straight. But, as for my martinis, I am sticking to my guns, my flabby, martini-shaking guns.

CHEERS!

Pinterest

 




Welcome to my Cocktail, Wine, Beer, Hard alcohol, Mead, etc.... Blog ~

I actually had a photo of me at the BEGINNING of a party, which is key--and rare. I DID NOT look like that at the end of said party, but I chose this photo because, and anyone who knows me will tell you, it is no shock to find a photo of me imbibing, drink in hand, rosy cheeked. (also my hair never looks this good so that is clearly the main reason).

It seems I am always thinking of my liquid companion to my equally thought-invading preoccupation with food. (I come from a family that plans lunch over breakfast and dinner all afternoon).  I am always making drinks,  photographing my drinks,  having people over for drinks, researching the origins of cocktail ingredients, reading books about Rum or Bourbon or Italian wine, putting drink menus in my purse--much to my husband's horror--- at restaurants and trying to recreate them at home, looking for the perfect new summer cocktail, the perfect wine to drink with some meal, the perfect beer for what we grill---you get the picture!

I decided it was time to share this with my friends and family in an effort to make my obsession--or love affair with drinking, as I like to call it-- somehow seem "useful."

They say do what you love.  So here it is, my libation blog is born on this rainy day in February.
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Cheers,
Lynnie
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Tip: take Milk Thistle, allegedly it keeps your liver in good shape and if you follow me, you are going to need it!