Doorbuster Cocktail on Black Friday

I'll need one of these if I shop like a locavore; six if I have to go to Walmart.

Thanksgiving snuck up on me this year. Fortunately, I’m eating at someone else’s house so I don’t have to prepare to do anything other than eat and drink. The gift-giving season that follows, however, leaves me feeling like I should have started shopping months ago. I need a drink, a massage, and chocolate, STAT! And a wreath! And a muffin.

Leah and I lost our minds this year and decided to open Felicia’s at 10AM on BLACK FRIDAY, November 23, with morning cocktails, breakfast sandwiches, housemade cranberry nut muffins, chair massages by Rasa Spa, chocolate tasting/sales with Preliminaires Chocolat, handmade soap and hemlock/sage wreaths made by Tree Gate Farm, and raw honey and jam from Red Tail Farm. Last year, I bought Preliminaires Chocolat for every woman on my gift list; I think the pastry chef might indeed be God if one exists. This year, everyone is getting yummy scented handmade soaps (the men, too, which they can use should they choose to bathe in the coming year). We’ll also have Felicia hoodies, martini glasses, pint glasses, T-shirts, and gift certificates for sale. 

Call me lazy, but if I can buy it all in one place then my loved ones are much more likely to find something other than brown pine needles under their Xmas trees. 

And where else can you drink mimosas, holiday spiked coffee, Cranhattans, and eggnog martinis while conveniently completing your holiday shopping?

Here's my favorite drink to have before I hit the stores: The Doorbuster.

Doorbuster

1 ounce tequila

1/2 orange wheel sprinkled with cinnamon

Drink shot. Bite cinnamon-sprinkled orange wheel. Shop 'til you drop.

Southern Migration

I recently wrote about how much we love Imbibe Magazine’s new cocktail book, The American Cocktail, and that we were planning to “drink the book” during the month of January as we traveled South in our teardrop trailer, affectionately known as the Alligator Teardrop.

We are not following through with this promise, for a number of reasons:

One is because we didn’t find a corporate sponsor for the blog (didn’t even try to find one, actually), I’m accountable to no one but me, which makes me lazy.

Two is that camping itself makes one lazy. We landed in a campground near Jacksonville, Florida, and are spending a lot of time sitting around the fire drinking El Presidente beer (which is much cheaper in Florida than in New York; in fact, the money that we’re saving might fund our whole trip).

The third reason is that camping makes you avoid civilization. It’s so peaceful here in the woods, with the owls, the rats (!), and the El Presidente. Why leave?

We did sneak out to a roadside fruit stand boasting Florida Oranges! Florida Grapefruit! Pecan Syrup! Authentic Georgia Cane Syrup! Unsuspecting, we got sucked into their tourist marketing scheme.

We caught the “Pecan Syrup”, because it had a label listing that the only three ingredients were corn syrup, artificial pecan flavoring, and artificial color. The oranges, which the kid convinced us were called something exciting like “Honey Dreams,” turned out to be plain old navel oranges. And Authentic Georgia Cane Syrup? A fancy name for molasses.

But Leah says, when life gives you lemons (or an excess of some other citrus fruit), make cocktails. The Southern Migration may be best attempted in the South in winter, if only because of the abundance available citrus fruit (of suspicious origin) and the fresh “Florida” tomatoes we got at the stand that actually taste like fresh tomatoes.

Don’t expect to see this cocktail at the Lounge anytime soon. However, if you’ve got some molasses in your cupboard, imported grapefruits, and a local grocery store that carries tomatoes in winter that don’t taste like rocks, give it a whirl. It’s incredibly delicious. But beware tourist traps (like billboards advertising “87 more miles to South of the Border!”) and don’t drink too many of these or you’ll get a wicked headache and yet another reason to never leave the campsite.

Follow our traveling adventures at www.alligatorteardrop.com!

Southern Migration

1.5 ounces tequila

the juice from 1/2 grapefruit (fresh-squeezed)

1/4 ripe tomato, chopped

1/2 ounce molasses, also known as Georgia Cane Syrup

Muddle tequila, tomato, and molasses in a shaker. Shake with ice. Pour over ice in a rocks glass, adding grapefruit juice last.

Cherry Margarita

"Where's the Grand Marnier?" I asked Leah.

"What Grand Marnier?" she said.

"The Grand Marnier you brought home last week."

Mid-margarita-fixing, I shuffled the bottles in our cramped home bar, a shelf packed with liquors, shakers and glassware, squeezed in the corner above the vacuum cleaner closet. The ice waited impatiently in the glasses on the kitchen counter, as did the tequila and lime juice. I just needed some orange liqueur.

"That was two weeks ago," Leah said.

"You drank the whole thing in a week?" I said.

"Two weeks," said Leah, as if it were less criminal than one.

Maybe ten days, I thought.

Stranded and craving a margarita, I stared at the boggle of bottles and realized we only had one liqueur in the house: Finger Lakes Distilling's Cherry Liqueur.

"Try the cherry," Leah called from the other room as I pondered the bottle in my hand.

If you've ever tasted Finger Lakes Distilling's Cherry Liqueur, you know it's not like any other cherry-flavored spirit. The flavor is incredible, like crushed, fresh-picked sour cherries, with sugar added, because that's exactly how it's made. Think fresh cherry pie.

I had my doubts, though. Cherry in a margarita? Really?

Really. One sip and I was sold. I brought the recipe into the Lounge the next day and it became an immediate patron favorite, a contender for The Drink of The Year, if such an award exists.

Accidental cocktails are the best kind, an "I-never-would-have-tried-that-combination-and-I-see-Jesus'-face-in-the-ice" miracle kind of cocktail. Cherry in a margarita? Yes, please. And I won't be mad at Leah for drinking all the Grand Marnier.

Ch-ch-ch-cherry Margarita

1.5 ounces tequila

3/4 ounce sweetened lime juice (don't be lame and use Rose's or we will insult your intelligence and make fun of you publicly to such a degree that your friends will become embarrassed to be associated with someone so lame and they will abandon you forever and you'll be lonely and drown yourself in substandard margaritas. Our fresh sweetened lime juice recipe can be found here.)

3/4 ounce Finger Lakes Distilling Cherry Liqueur

Fill a rocks glass with ice and add all ingredients. Shake. Salt rim if desired.

Bar Incident: The Chipotle "Accident"

An Open Letter to the Guy Who Steals Drinks:

We have seen you chug other people's cocktails - even strangers' drinks - when they are not looking. Last week, did you think that full-to-the-brim martini was sitting abandoned on the bar by accident? Tempting you to sneak the whole thing? Inviting you to slug it down? We made it just for you, with our chipotle-infused tequila. The look on your face as your mouth burst into flames was simply classic. We notice that you aren't stealing drinks anymore...

Fondly,
Felicia

Felicia's Holiday Shopping Tips

Here are Felicia’s Last Minute Holiday Shopping Tips! Before you start your shopping list, make yourself a martini to keep your stress to a minimum. First, nothing says I love you quite like a bottle of booze. Stick a big bow on that baby and your friend will remember you as the one who gave her the best gift this Christmas. A Felicia gift certificate is better for lazy people who want someone else to make their drinks for them. No cookies or fruit cake, please. Felicia doesn’t want you to be responsible for ruining someone’s girlish figure. Options for buying locally in Ithaca? There are a number of splendid State Street shops on Felicia’s block who offer gift certificates including Taste of Thai Express, Tuff Soul Clothing, Indigo Massage and Gimme Coffee. What a hot block! Remember, as you make your way around town, stop in for a shot (or two) of tequila to take the edge off of your shopping angst. Seriously. Tequila fixes everything. Felicia’s favorite websites for holiday gifts this year include: www.leevalley.com/gifts for the thank-god-you-have-a-handy person in your life; www.cafepress.com and type “martini” in the search box for fun items or www.cafepress.com/bandofparents for heartfelt gifts whose profits go toward childhood cancer research. For the hip people in your life, stick with a Felicia hoody, tshirt, hat or set of pint glasses and they will love you forever and think you are totally cool. Happy shopping!