weather radar: Firewater Friday - The Elixir Of Quietude

The classic martini is simple, sophisticated & sexy . . . as far as cocktails go. As far as I’m concerned, a martini is simply gin and dry white vermouth. I guess I’m a martini purist. It is served chilled . . . either shaken or stirred depending on how James Bond you’re feeling . . . and as far as that goes I’m a Bond girl all the way . . .

Anyhoo . . . it is served chilled, strained into a cocktail glass and garnished with either an olive or a twist of lemon peel. For me, the ideal embellishment is a blue cheese stuffed olive, but any kind of olive will do. Some martini’s are garnished with a cocktail onion . . . this drink is properly known as a gibson.

A "gin salad" is made like the ordinary martini but with three olives and two cocktail onions as garnish. But a "Gin salad" is also sometimes used to describe a martini with excessive olives in it. I’ll take two please! No more than that or I'll be totally slammered!

I could suffer through vodka martini, which is prepared in exactly the same way as a standard martini, with vodka being substituted for gin. It’s not the same but close enough in a pinch.

Dirty martinis, sweet martinis, sake martinis, akvavit martinis are all a stretch but . . . meh . . . they are deviants . . . yummy but substandard.

Popping up all over the place are variations of “martinis” . . . basically, if it’s a cocktail served in a martini glass it’s considered a martini. Not for this Bond girl! Appletini . . . Espresso Martini . . . Blue Martini . . . these are not the real deal . . . they’re pretenders to the classic.

As Forrest Gump would say . . . That’s all I have to say about THAT!

In this post I made a wonderful Tiramisu. Tiramisu was created in Italy . . . big shocker . . . and literally means 'pick me up'. Well . . . with something that good, why wouldn't you??

Here is an awesome drink recipe that tastes remarkably like the sinfully good dessert. Enjoy!