Harlem Cocktail

I was excited for this one because I've never had an excuse to use a real cocktail glass before. I mean as children at Thanksgiving we always filled up the family champagne flutes or wine goblets with orange soda (we were only allowed soda during the holidays, ironic seeing as now I reach my daily sugar limit with one drink). I've always had this strange fascination with the glasses that seem to adorn every china cabinet regardless of the amount of alcohol consumed and so I'm thinking that this is probably a good time to go into the actually science of the cocktail glass. The cocktail glass is that fancy glass that Bond drinks his martinis, Carey Bradshaw drinks her Cosmos, and many other TV characters sip drinks like the appletini, stinger, and the sidecar. In other words you know the one I am talking about that has a long stem and a cone-shaped top designed to hold large volumes of liquor (or around 4.5 fl oz.). It's long stem was created so that the drinker wouldn't change the temperature of the drink while holding it and the large bowl was created so that the aromas would tickle your nostrils and guarantee the cocktail to make your tongue happy.

This classy cocktail seemed to go perfectly with my classy day. After working out and showering and all that jazz (how else is it humanly possible to drink 100% sugary on a daily basis?) my mom and I chose to spend lunch at the Wayside Inn. New England is famous for two kinds of people. Revolutionaries and dead guys who wrote, particularly about places here. I mean who could blame them? I spend eight months out of the year yearning to be here. The Wayside Inn was one of those inns during the Revolutionary period that housed people like George Washington and the famous poet Longfellow who wrote Tales of a Wayside Inn with those infamous words "listen my children and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere." It seemed like there were a million weddings going on which made us nervous because we didn't actually have a reservation, but fortunately we made it just in time for a table of two to vacate and after filling up on two fillets of sole stuffed with crab and shrimp and drizzled with a lobster sauce (Oh my gosh I loooove being back home) we went down the road to see a play Hedda Gabler.

So as an honors student at BYU I'm supposed to go see plays and so we went to the matinee showing of Hedda Gabler and I would not be kidding you if I was saying I was the youngest person there. For a bit I questioned why I thought it would be fun to see.

"Mom, I'm the only person here who lacks a gray hair on my head." I whispered and with all the hearing aids around I didn't have to be too careful to keep people from hearing.

"Look there's a daughter," she pointed to a thirty-something-year-old which made me feel oh-so-comforted.

While they were all adorable in their well pressed polo shirts and khaki pants there was only some many times I could take their hard of hearing.

Actor: "It is done!" (or something along those lines)

Lady 1: It is what!?

Lady 2: Done!

I almost wish I was kidding at the cliché, but clichés are probably the most real thing on the market.

And so after picking up a cocktail shaker (yay!), ice and some pineapple we were definitely ready for our sweet pick-me-up.

As you may have guessed today's mocktail is the Harlem Cocktail. The original Cocktail is

made with Gin, pineapple juice and maraschino liqeur and reported by someone on youtube to

make-able in 12 seconds (I believe it). For some reason it's really difficult to find the history of

this really old drink. It came about some time during the Harlem Renaissance

which began in the 1920s and brought about huge cultural explosions in art and music. This

time also featured speakeasies such as the Cotton Club of New York famous for operating

during Prohibition and including jazz music. It hosted dozens of famous entertainers including

Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin.

Unfortunately the place closed down for good in the 1940s and so any chance of getting some

tonic at the original joint are far out of reach. For tonight just enjoy the virgin version at home.

The Harlem Cocktail is made out of the same ingredients as the Blarney Stone (pineapple juice and grenadine) only this time the proportions are different. This one is definitely more sweet because it is more pineapple juice than grenadine and has a cherry and pineapple garnish. Plus you feel oh-so-cool joining the ranks of those fictional greats (mentioned above) who have personally gripped a cocktail glass. Maybe it's a bit pathetic to be in love with an excuse to own a cocktail glass but I think that might be something that makes it something to consider for any mocktail party.

Bottoms up!