The Liver is Evil and Must Be Punished

I'm not a bartender and I don't play one on TV, but I do love to make cocktails! Wait, I take that back. That's not me. I love to drink cocktails, but really I like someone else to make them for me.

It's hot out and a girls gotta have some cool refreshments if she's gonna knock out a killer dinner every night, right?  And summer is all about cool cocktails so I've spent a fair part of it trying to make a great Key Lime Martini. 

Oliver's Bar and Grill, here in Podunk makes the best one ev-ver, so I asked nicely and the bartender supposedly gave me the recipe but I think either a.) he must be one of those if he told me he'd have to kill me types or b.) he takes his craft very seriously and has already killed a large number of his own brain cells and can't remember the recipe off the top of his head, because mine does not taste anything like his and I've gone through a lot of vanilla vodka trying to replicate it. Douche bag!

      I finally said screw it and began experimenting with my own concoctions, meaning I bought an obscene amount of flavored vodkas, like Key Lime, Wedding Cake, Madagascar Vanilla Bean, Whipped, and on and on, and have been mixing up my liquors like I'm an old lady with dementia and a whole lot of prescriptions. 

I also have a ton a mint in my herb garden so my Wednesday night drinking buddy and I and have been knocking back the mojitos.  My favorite Lodo restaurant, Zengo, makes a killer cucumber mojito, so I got all creative and made a cucumber simple syrup, thinking that had to be the secret. It's not, I know this now because I have since found Zengos recipe, so we will be back on the Mojito train!

And why not take advantage of all the great summer fruits and veggies? The possibilities are endless! The picture above is of a watermelon mojito that Blondie and I recently had at Olivers, and I will say this about it: Do try it at home!

And what about Sangria, you ask?  I'm all about Sangria in summer, and the very best I've ever had is at Firefly on Paradise, in Las Vegas.  They do a red, a white and a sparkling and they are ALL worthy of a teensy case of  cirrhosis.

More later...I just heard the buzzer on my dryer go off and my liver is in there so I better go get it out in case I need it later.

If you are going to punish your liver, may as well do it with Zengos Cuzco Mojita. Check it out under the "Misc. Recipes" tab.


Note: Key Lime Martini and Watermelon Mojito pix are my own amazing photos; Mojito and Sangrias are not. I got them off the net.