Muddle is just one of those perfect words. It’s almost onomatopoeic– like smooch, or mushy. In fact, I think that I abuse this little double syllable. Phrases like “muddle through it” seem to so aptly describe my life at times, when I’m just at a loss, when every little thing seems completely insurmountable. Yes, it is times like those that I just seem to muddle through, and then I muddle right home, and make myself a cocktail– a wine cocktail.
Now, I’m not much of a boozer. I guess you would call me a lightweight. One martini and I’m a bit woozy. But give me a wine cocktail, a warm evening with the sun casting a pink light on the horizon, and I am a happy girl! I know, I know, a wine cocktail? You might be saying, “Who am I reading [...]

I’m having a sweet, delicious, and greasy doughnut makin’ party this weekend, and I have been racking my brain about the beverage situation. What is the ideal beverage to serve along aside doughnuts? The answer of course is coffee. But how do you make coffee alcoholic, thus making it appropriate for a soiree? Kahlua of course. And what about making your own coffee liqueur? Well, it can be done in a matter of moments, will make your house smell scrumptious, and get your tastebuds appropriately percolating.
When making flavored alcohol at home, the cheaper the better. No Grey Goose, or even Smirnoff vodka here, just VODKA, the kind that comes in a plastic jug and is hidden at the bottom of the shelf at the liquor store. You want the liquor to be absolutely flavorless; that way it will take on the flavors with which you are infusing it.
Mixed with [...]

What to do with a perfect bag of Key Limes? Make a Key Lime-Strawberry Refresher. I was at the market this week and noticed individually packaged, mesh sacks of ping pong ball sized key limes. Being a sucker for both mesh sacks, and any diminutive type produce, I quickly scooped up the sack and went home.
Now I’m not wild for citrus pies; lemon meringue, or key lime for that matter, never have done much for me. But a limeade, with some beautiful strawberries thrown in for good measure I could do. So I got to work, slicing and juicing some 40-odd limes, and let me tell you dear reader, it was a pain in the arse. Not a giant pain, like being stuck in traffic on a hot summer’s day with the air-conditioner on the fritz; but a moderate, waiting-15 minutes-for-a-perpetually-late-friend one. Key limes are tiny. They also have [...]

We all know that the best part of a rootbeer float is that sweet, milky, goodness, that amalgamation of soda and ice cream, the liquid that forms from making the float. This nectar of the gods can be gulped down by chiseling away at the ice cream, tediously mixing by hand, waiting for a chemical reaction to occur with the soda, and sipping gently. Then waiting, and stirring…and waiting, and stirring…and waiting, and stirring some more. Or you don’t have to waste time with the entire process, you can break out the blender and have a FloatShake.

This occurred to me weeks ago, just in time for summer, the beads of perspiration forming at my lips, and my sweet tooth hankering. I longed for something cool and refreshing, but a shake was too thick and filling, while a float was too laborious, but it was then that I had [...]

When you have breakfasted both well and amply, if you swallow a generous cup of good chocolate at the end of the meal, you will have digested the whole perfectly in comfort…Out of zeal for science, and by sheer force of eloquence, I have persuaded not a few ladies to make this experiment, although they thought to die of it; in every case they were delighted with the result…Those who habitually drink chocolate are conspicuous for unfailing health and immunity from the host of little ills which mar the enjoyment of life; their weight is also less inclined to vary; and these are two advantages which anyone may verify in society and among people whose diet can be ascertained. –Brillat-Savarin
Whether or not what Brillat-Savarin claims is true, is not of importance; it’s the fact that he wrote it at all. For years we have waged the war with health [...]

Maneschewitz wine, the Boone’s Strawberry Wine of sacrament beverages. It is syrupy sweet, fortified, mustache-staining purple, concord grape. What more can be said than, it’s a twist-off top? I love the stuff, it’s the Passover beverage of my youth. I didn’t come from one of those up-tight American families where drinking before the age of 21 was frowned upon, but generally the youths in my family were not boozing it up. But there was an exception. At the Jewish holidays, a little glass of ice-cold Manischewitz wine (we were simply following the “refrigerate after opening” instructions) was set before me. All of the adults had the real stuff, but the kids were allowed a modicum of Manischewitz.

To this day, I still hold a place in my heart for this beverage. In fact now that I am in my 20’s, and am allowed to consume any alcoholic beverage of my choosing, [...]