Hey guys, Jolie’s husband here. Last Friday night, after skimming through a bartender’s guide Jolie got from a friend as a gift a while back, Jolie and I were sitting around and I felt inspired. I looked at her and said, “Let’s get drunk tonight.” She smiled and said, “Ok…” At that point, I suggested that we head over to the liquor store and stock up on some booze.
We don’t drink very often, with the exception of the occasional beer and wine. We never go out to clubs or bars, and I thought we could enjoy some nice liquor concoctions with the amazing dishes that Jolie likes to prepare.
So, off to the liquor store we went. I decided we needed some basic liquors to build a liquor cabinet. At this point, I had an epiphany… Where do we physically put our liquor? The answer hit me like a ton of bricks. Of course, we could store them in the bookshelf cabinets in the dining room! So we picked up several liquors: Disaronno Amaretto, Bacardi Superior White Rum, TripleSec, CaboWabo Tequila, Smirnoff Vodka, and Bombay Gin. We had been sitting on several other liquors, some for months, others for a few years! We already had Bushmill’s Irish Whiskey (which was a gift from a good Army buddy of mine from a few years back), Peppermint Schnapps (from a friend of Jolie’s a year or two ago), a few shots of Malibu Rum, and a few shots of Captain Morgan Silver Spiced Rum (delicious with Cherry Coke).
That evening, I searched for a Long Island Iced Tea recipe online, through allrecipes.com. I found a really good recipe named Mrs. Baxton’s iced tea.
Ingredients:
- 1 fluid ounce vodka
- 1 fluid ounce gold tequila
- 1 fluid ounce rum
- 1 fluid ounce gin
- 1 fluid ounce Cointreau or triple sec
- 5 fluid ounces sweet and sour mix
- 2 fluid ounces cola
- 1 lime wedge
Directions: Fill a cocktail shaker with ice; pour in vodka, tequila, rum, gin, Cointreau, and sweet and sour mix. Cover and shake until the outside of the shaker is frosty. Place a few cubes of ice into a highball glass, and strain in the iced tea. Top with the cola, and garnish with a wedge of lime.
Fortunately for me, Jolie had inherited a nice aluminum cocktail shaker with strainer and a jigger. So after looking over the list of ingredients, I figured I’d substitute the gold tequila for white and get to work. I made the drink as directed, and it was really good, although a bit much on the sour mix, but we really enjoyed the drinks.
After waking up Saturday, I checked the Android app market on my phone for bartender’s guides and found a fantastic app called, “Mixology.” Let me tell you, this app is phenomenal. The app has so many recipes, and you can even build your own liquor cabinet with different liquors and mixers that you can use to find drinks from your ingredients. It is super user friendly and I was really excited to find it.
After playing with the app for a bit, I realized there wasn’t a huge drink selection with the liquors we had so I decided we should hit the Class Six (liquor store on a military installation) while we were at Fort Meade Saturday, waiting for the tailor to finish my uniforms. We picked up a bottle of Malibu Rum, Bailey’s Irish Cream, and Kahlua. I wanted to get a bottle of Southern Comfort but they were sold out.
On Sunday, Jolie decided to invite one of her coworkers over for drinks, and she figured she could make dinner while we were at it. She had a few ideas in mind, so I helped her decide on her yummy baked pasta/cream cheese/Italian sausage dish (damn, it was good!) After playing with my app more on Sunday, I realized we really needed to get some more mixers, so we went back by the liquor store and I got a bottle of Frangelico and Southern Comfort. After that, we swung by the grocery store for mixers. We picked up pineapple juice, cranberry juice, soda water, club soda, grape juice, cherry juice, and Seven-Up.
Once we got home, it was crunch time, at least for Jolie. I was trying to run recipes by her for suggestions on what drinks to make, but she was in her zone in the kitchen, so I knew it would be up to me. Jolie had mentioned several times over the past few months that she really wanted a Cosmo, so I found a really good recipe on my app and decided that’s where we would start.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 oz vodka
- 1/4 oz Triple Sec
- 1/4 oz Lime Juice
- 1/4 oz Cranberry Juice
Directions: Shake with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass Garnish with lime wedge.
I followed the directions pretty closely but I added an extra oz of cranberry juice to them so the drinks didn’t taste like pure vodka. They came out very pale, not dark red like cranberry juice and the ladies really liked them. Unfortunately, we don’t have martini glasses so I had to use our margarita glasses instead. After making the drinks I let them know that we were out of lime juice and the next round would have to be something different.
Once everyone finished their Cosmo, I flipped back through my app and found a recipe for “California Liquid Cocaine.” It sounds pretty intimidating but it really wasn’t that bad.
Ingredients:
- 1 part Amaretto
- 1 part Southern Comfort
- 1/2 oz Malibu Rum
- Pineapple Juice
Directions: Pour equal parts of Southern Comfort and Amaretto in a large tumbler filled with ice. (Glass should be 3/4 full). Add the Malibu Rum and top of with pineapple juice. Stir. Beautiful colour layers are created.
I wasn’t very sure how much to use as a “part,” but being as the drink was to be served in a highball glass, I figured we’d probably want two oz of each. The drink did layer a little bit but not what I would have expected based on “Beautiful colour layers are created.” Nevertheless, the ladies absolutely loved the drink. I intended to have some red wine with dinner but we were all still working on these instead.
After dinner, I asked if anyone wanted some delicious coffee to accompany Jolie’s Apple Crisp dessert. They both said yes, so I set the coffee to brew. Once it was finished, I poured out 3/4 coffee, added a spoonful of organic sugar, two tablespoons of whole cream, and a shot of Frangelico. The girls loved the coffee. Jolie’s coworker went on to tell me about how this topped the best coffee she could remember having. I do remember thinking, after the first sip, that the Frangelico really brought out the flavor of the coffee. It was really delicious.
I hope you enjoyed my introductory post. I apologize that my writing isn’t as flawless and perfectly formatted as my darling wife’s. She has quite a bit of formal education on me 
I will be sure to post back with other liquid libations as we test them out in the future!
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