Pucked

I caught up on a few more recipes today. One was the infamous creme de menthe one, with gin, grenadine, egg white. I don't worry much about raw eggs; I've read that most of the bad ones turn up in industrial restaurant settings; if I'm going to catch salmonella, it's going to be from eating my spinach and other vegetables.

Anyway, the verdict on this: 2 sips, and I tossed the rest out. A drink with creme de menthe really has to be good for me to like it.

Second was one in honor of the Belmont: vodka, gold rum, strawberry liqueur, lime juice, a little grenadine. It was OK; my main complaint is that none of the ingredients really stood out, they just turned into one more sweet cocktail.

Third (yup, I was busy; ain't done yet either) was a daiquiri: white rum (I used Bacardi, trying to use up my bottle), superfine sugar, lime juice, a dash of maraschino juice off some cherries in lieu of the liqueur, which I haven't been able to find. Not a bad drink, tasted like, well, a daiquiri, but not a very big one, since it called for only a cup of crushed ice.

Wolfgang Puck has been on HSN this weekend. I like watching him (hiding my AmEx card first) to get ideas for things to cook or just sit and watch and have a cooking orgasm (a new psychological term). One item of his that I didn't hide my AmEx card fast enough before I saw it was the immersion blender. I already had an immersion blender. I can probably count on two hands the times I've used it in the almost 25 years that I've owned it (actually, this is a 2nd generation, cordless model, that replaced the original corded one; long story). But, Chef Puck's has a neat little chopping bowl that you can attach the base of the blender to. The way he chopped and diced avocados and tomatoes and all types of foods in it, I thought the bowl would make the blender usable. So I ordered one a month or so ago. (Albeit not on HSN; I found a refurbished one, cheaper, on Overstock; it's already crashed once, so what's the odds it's going to do it again?)

And the point of this long boring story? I used the immersion blender and the bowl to crush the ice and mix it with the booze for my daiquiri. Worked like a charm. Easier then lugging out my blender, and just the right size for mixing a drink for one person, who usually wouldn't be drinking more than one.

But, I thought it was so neat, and it is a Sunday evening after all and I have to gird up my loins for the workweek, that I decided to make myself another one. A bigger one. Just eyeballing everything: more ice, Malibu rum this time (for some reason the author of my calendar rarely has recipes calling for that), Rose's, and strawberry liqueur. Again, it's great. I like the coconut and strawberry; it could stand a little more rum. Or I could stand a little more rum. I guess I could just pour some in, no? I've finally found something that Sundays are good for.