5:00 Fridays

I have been craving some bubbly lately. Expensive champagne is not in the budget, and I don't dare crouch to the low shelf. Andre is so senior year of high school New Year's Eve in a friend's barn with horny boys who were so not getting any despite their best efforts. Not that I have firsthand knowledge of such revelry.

Prosecco is a lovely, low alcohol content bubbly white wine that tastes like summer sunshine, freshly mowed grass, a field of ripe canteloupe, and the spray of the ocean from a slow sailing wooden boat in one sip. A bottle goes down easily (I did say it's low alcohol content after all.) so stock up. I always have a few bottles on hand, especially when my dear friends Kat and Sammy pop in.

Today I am jazzing up my Prosecco with a few of my favorite things.


Maria's Prosecco

Sugar cube
1/2 ounce simple syrup
Fresh lime
Handful chopped mint
4 ounces Prosecco
Vanilla bean pod for garnish


Drop a sugar cube into a champagne flute. Add the juice of half a lime, half an ounce of simple syrup, and a handful of fresh mint roughly chopped (Luckily I have oodles of it in my garden.). Top off with Prosecco. Garnish with a fresh vanilla bean pod cut in half lengthwise.

I'm pretty sure this would have solved a problem like Maria.