5:00 Fridays

Today's 5:00 Fridays post is a special creation for my friend Gina. Gina of Taste This! fame. You know, the cookbook? Yeah, I have a friend who wrote and published a real cookbook. Cool, eh? You might know Gina better as the Bowl Licker. Based on Bird and Deal's kitchen antics, especially when we bake together, I think her blog is aptly named.

So we're toasting today for Gina's birthday. Everyone wish Gina a big ole Happy Birthday, mkay?

Nevermind that I haven’t yet met this fellow foodie and cocktail maven on the left coast, though I count her among my friends. I have a hunch that when we meet we could very well gab for hours on end whilst shopping and sipping, leaving little room for breaths and pregnant pauses. Gina perks me up, makes me chuckle, and whets my appetite. I’m dying to pull up a barstool in her kitchen and nosh and toast and laugh.

I imagine Gina has a lovely kitchen. I bet she has really cute aprons too.

A little bird, known as Facebook, told me that Gina will be blowing out candles on a cake this week. Nevermind just how many candles. Since she’s the one who inspired me to start baking from scratch (I’m telling you, her blueberry muffins are sinfully delicious.), I’m pretty sure she’s indulging in a damn good cake. Let’s just say that I’m a better mixologist than a baker. I’ve concocted a little birthday cocktail for my friend Gina.

I’d whisk her away to a blue hued sea with white sand beaches and red pedicures if I could. We’d eat fresh fish, succulent pineapples, and sweet coconut juice. This must sound like a romantic rendezvous to some, but for mothers who work work work, paradise is a beach replete with libations and girlfriends where no one calls us Mommy.

So to toast Gina on her big day, here’s my little taste of paradise. Cheers!


Gina Bina Bobeena

Ingredients
1 ounce dark rum
1 ounce coconut rum
1 ounce banana liqueur
5 ounces pineapple juice
splash of grenadine
pineapple wedge and banana slice for garnish

Directions
Pour first three ingredients over ice in a high ball glass. Add pineapple juice and an ever so slight dash of grenadine. Skewer a pineapple wedge and banana slice to plop in as garnish.

Happy Birthday, Gina!

Wordless Wednesday: Utter Joy

Wordless Wednesday: Surf's Up

5:00 Fridays

First of all, did you know that North Carolina does not sell liquor in liter bottles (that's litre if you're from across the pond where you speak and spell funny English and call sweaters "jumpers" and trunks "boots" and other such nonsense)? And I thought not selling beer and wine until noon on Sundays (after church, natch) was cuhrazy. Wacky liquor rules dumbfound me. It takes me back to the ridiculous 3.2 beer sold in Minnesota grocery stores.

Well, it turns out that you can buy a liter of liquor in our fair friend to the south. I was returning home from a beachy keen vacay and popped into a liquor store 30 miles shy of the North Carolina border. Word on the street is that Firefly has a line of fantastically flavored vodkas that are only available in the palmetto state. You know I love me some Firefly.

I snatched up a bottle (LITER) of Firefly Mint Tea Vodka.

Sidebar:
I absolutely loved John, the owner of the liquor store. Turns out he's a retired funeral home director. After a heart attack at age 50-something, he turned the reins over to his sons. It is a little known fact about me that I am fascinated with the whole industry and commerce of death. I have even done some reading on the topic. John was a gracious host who offered lots of drink tips that I've tucked into the back burner of my brain. He even offered me a little personal tasting from behind the counter. It felt oh so dastardly to be nipping from an open bottle lodged between the extra register tape and sleeve of plastic mouthwash size cups. Nothing like straight vodka and rum at noon on an empty stomach. On a Sunday! Stay tuned for some goodies from John's recipe box. And by the way, he's a bastion of health now. In his words, "people are a lot more happy buying liquor than buying caskets."

Now on to my concoction.

Mint Tea w/ a Twist (I really need a better name. Suggestions welcome.)

1 1/2 cups cubed, seeded watermelon (What a great way to use what I got from Farmer Tom this week!)
2 shots of Firefly Mint Tea vodka
1/4 cup ginger ale
sprig fresh mint

Put everything but the mint in a blender and give it a quick whir. Serve over ice in a goblet or tall glass with a mint sprig garnish.

Find yourself a porch, a rocking chair, a ceiling fan, and some fireflies to carry your dreams and light up your night.