A (Lemon) Twist on the NCAA Tournament

Yes, I realize I am a few days and a couple rounds late to the Big Dance.  In all honesty, I've been watching, and reading, and listening about the brackets, the missed calls and crazy upsets. And all the while, I've been wondering -- what kind of drink should I make to watch these games?  Maybe it was the mention of "rounds" so many times, but, inevitably the NCAA tournament makes me thirsty.

 

So would my drink choice be ranked above someone else's choice?  And then I thought some more... brackets!

 

What would the Final Four of Cocktails be?
Well, on first thought, it's easy to break them down into mixed drink, wine, beer and spirit.  Or maybe we could pit vodka, gin, rum and tequila against each other and see which is the last one is standing.  And, I probably need to recruit some opinion givers.  Yeah, that should be hard...

 

Who knows- maybe an underdog like Florida State would win out (to me, the equivalent would be a Tequila Sunset - not one that surfaces much, but when it does, to a very specific fan frenzy) over the usually popular choice (like the Margarita? Am I saying Texas A&M’s drink of choice is a margarita? Hmm. I wonder how they would react to that). 

 

Or maybe a last-minute surge of votes would push a drink to claim the title (just like when Morehead State’s Demonte Harper buried a 3-pointer with 6 seconds left for an upset win over 4^th seeded Louisville).

 

We'll see.  The mechanics are yet to be worked out.  Kind of like Kansas in the first half against Boston University in the first round.  Yet, to my dismay (alma mater), they picked it up and handily won against the Terriers.  But just because that 16th seed couldn't unseat a number-1, doesn't mean that a Cinderella Cocktail can't win out over a Past Champion.

 

Next up: the brackets  and the rules of this Tournament of Tastes. Be sure to check back once the rankings are up, and start your voting.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of www.schneiderdowns.com

Soooo.....The Results Are in!

Experiment successful!! In my last entry, I talked about the idea of cheating along a not-s0-great vodka into tasting like a nice one. Could I actually do it? Well, here's how I left the solution for about 2 1/2 hours:

Crappy vodka cooking with orange peels for less than 3 hours worked just great.And then, with a few Liquor Chick-approved splashes (light cranberry juice, fresh squeezed pineapple jucie), we made this:


With a few additives, gutter shelf vodka tastes like top shelf. And boy did we enjoy it. We must have - we made 3 more (two each, total). The vodka did impart some orange flavor in that short period of time - especially since we only took about 8 shots of vodka for the quick infusion. Sooo, that lesson in budgetnomics and creativity is:

If you don't want to splurge on the expensive, you can fool your taste buds (and head - no hangover today! Must have been the juices) into thinking you're drinking the best with a little bit of time and planning.

Drink Well!!

Less-Than-Fancy Vodka Experiment Yields Fastest Infusion Ever

Today, Wednesday, is the 6th of 7 days in my budget week. We try to stick to a certain cash figure each week, and try as I might - I always seem to spend to the last penny. I always think it’s due brilliant planning and money management on my part. He, well, he thinks it is more of the hole-burning phenomenon. Either, way with two full days left until cash flow Friday, things get a little tight on Wednesday.

Which is problematic. Because we all know that Wednesday is also Wines-day. And unlike many of my friends who amazingly always have stocked fridges and liquor cabinets, we subscribe more to the Toyota way of doing things - JUST IN TIME. We don't stock for the "just in case" situations. No, we run out, after inviting half the neighborhood over, and realizing they actually accepted, to the package store and amazingly buy "just enough" to get through the party of the moment. Kind of like my budget money, hmmmm.

So when in the mood for adult libations on Wednesday, and even worse on Thursday, we need to get creative. Yes, our first choices are generally of the Belvedere, Chopin and Ciroc varieties (Oh, sorry - we were in the mood for vodka drinks. Could we have settled for kegerator beer - sure. But since last night saw a restless night of vomit-interrupted sleep, thanks to a sick 8-year old, and today gave way to no free time at all thanks to the same named 8-year old, we felt we deserved a true "drink" drink tonight.).

So off I went to the corner store, with my very specific number of dollars in mind, and in my wallet. And what do you know; I found a bottle that was priced at the exact same figure that I was carrying. Well, two dollars fewer - since I promised said 8-year-old a Gatorade to help with his...issues.

Transaction made, I skipped home, happy to not have had to dip into credit on this second-to-last day before the budget week ends. The last day is a little easier to justify -- and perhaps if it were for an inhaler, or a humidifier, or antibiotics-- that would have been less offensive also.

Then, home again; showing my prize like a proud Momma Bear, I actually saw my purchase in the full light of the day. It looked, well, like it should have cost what it did – no bragging of triple filtering or spring fresh waters on the label. No Wine Spectator medals adorning it. But that's ok - I am Liquor Chick, and I infuse vodkas to taste better. Granted, I start with at least middle shelf vodkas, but I am pretty handy, and have been known to squeeze money from stone, after all. So why not try and infuse it?

And infuse it, I did. 90 minutes ago with the strongest, most concentrated orange peels and piths I could muster. Hey, I would trade medicinal for bitter in a heartbeat, if it at least tasted a little citrusy instead of isopropy-ish. Tick tock. Oh, and I only poured 1/3 of the bottle (roughly the exact amount that I predict we will have drunk tonight at the end of our Wednesday, which will cause me to think again about how we are like Toyota. And hey - if the vodka gets recalled, we get our measly dollars back, right?? Ya know, for things like inhalers and antibiotics....)

Check back for the results, and recipes of the less-than-fancy vodka experiment.