Happy Friday! Here's to hoping you get to sneak out of the office a little early, kick up your heels, and enjoy a cocktail or two.
In anticipation of warm weather ahead, try whipping up a classic Daiquiri Cocktail.
1. For Men Only by Achmed Abdullah & John Kenny 2. Vintage Glass Cocktail Shaker & Ice Bucket 3. Pier 1 Short Gold Tumblers 4. Jonathan Adler Hollywood Coasters 5. Jonathan Adler Meurice Butler Tray Table
This particular recipe comes from one of my favorite purchases of recent months, snagged from the San Marco Bookstore in my hometown. This charming shop stocks rare, out-of-print, and vintage books, and on one visit several months ago, I found For Men Only: A Cook Book. Printed in 1937, this cookbook was written "for deserving bachelors who are tired of dollar dinners and for ambitious husbands who enjoy messing around in the family kitchen."
No sissies here--it's full of "good, honest masculine recipes" and "gets right down to brass tacks and 1/2 teaspoons." The back flap also assures readers that it's "free of alarming technical terms such as marinate, fold, dredge, and other mystic feminine incantations."
Not yet being a whiz in the kitchen myself, I snapped up this cookbook both for its simplified recipes and its hilarious writing. Plus, its cocktail section is full of fantastic vintage concoctions.
From the "How to Quench a Thirst" section:
"To make a perfect Daiquiri the lime must not be too light or too green. Do not measure by juice of half a lime but allow 1/2 ounce lime juice for each cocktail. Add granulated sugar to lime juice slowly in the mixing glass. The sugar will settle in the bottom of the glass. When the proportions of lime juice and sugar are equal, stir thoroughly until sugar is absorbed by lime juice. Lime juice, granulated sugar, and the stirring of the two together is really the secret of the Daiquiri. Use any good white, Cuban type rum and allow two ounces for each cocktail.
While you are mixing the cocktail chill the glasses with cracked ice or ice cubes. Fill the shaker with ice and shake hard and quickly so it will chill in the minimum time without being diluted by the melting ice. Strain and pour into chilled glasses. This is the best cocktail we know."
Cheers!
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