Mixology Monday - The RoCoCo

I love creating new cocktails, or putting my own twist on a classic.

A while back, there were these billboards on my way to work advertising Malibu Rum Sparkler, a rum based sparkling beverage that comes in a champagne bottle.

At first I thought it sounded silly, way too sweet, and low in alcohol content, something along the lines of a wine cooler. But I really love coconut, so I kept thinking I should maybe try it.

Then, one day, my friend posted a picture of a half-drunk bottle on facebook, and when I queried her opinion, she told me that it was NOT that sweet, and it was waaaaaay stronger than she expected.

Not too sweet? Coconutty? Bubbly? Strong? This was sounding more and more up my alley.

So finally I broke down and got myself a bottle.

I chilled it, and tasted it, and it's delightful. A nice, light, refreshing drink, much more along the lines of a sparkling wine than I was expecting.

I, however, could not leave it alone. It seemed like it would be great for mixing, but all of the initial ideas were falling flat for me. Pineapple juice, the natural complement, was out because I don't like it. Using any other mixers made me feel like I would be diluting it too much.

So then I started pondering what other booze I could mix it with. More coconut rum seemed like it would be overkill. Then I struck upon the idea of doing a riff on a classic champagne cocktail.

Most champagne cocktails use a sugar cube that is soaked in bitters, cognac or brandy, and sparkling wine. For my drink, I thought the bitters would compete with the coconut too much, but I did want something to ground the drink and take it in a richer direction. After some playing around, I settled on some vanilla extract as the perfect substitute. It gives the drink a creamy edge that makes you just want to settle down inside it.

I have made the drink with both brandy and with gold rum, and I really prefer the complexity that brandy offers. However, if you have none in the house, or just prefer a lighter tasting drink, rum works quite well.

----The RoCoCo ----
(Please excuse the cell phone photos. These are from my dear friend Amanda's birthday where I made these drinks to go in the new glasses I got her.)

1 sugar cube
5 drops vanilla extract
1 oz brandy (or gold rum)
4 oz Malibu Rum Sparkler

Place one sugar cube in the bottom of a champagne flute or coupe.

Drip 5 drops of vanilla onto the cube, allowing the vanilla to soak in.

Pour one ounce of brandy over the sugar cube.

Fill the glass with Malibu Rum Sparkler.

Selfie Update #2

It's been a couple of weeks since my last selfie update! I keep taking them, even when I don't want to, and it's been really eye opening. Last week I decided to chop my hair, and got about 6 inches taken off. It's been really freeing and fun, and reinvigorated my selfies, for sure!

You'll see there are some pics of me working out thrown in here. It's a new thing for me, this exercising regularly, and even though I feel like I look terrible in some of these shots, I want to document the journey. 

Books and Reading

I find myself constantly on the hunt for new things to read, but often disappointed by my choices. They are too long, or too cheesy. They make me feel stupid because I don't get them, or appalled that so many people like what I can only see as tasteless drivel.

Occasionally, I find something that is good, and satisfying, that I will willingly recommend to others.

Even rarer than that are the books that seem to have been written just for me. I can rarely tell you why I selected that particular book, what one thing in all of my browsing made it stand out, but they find their way to me, thankfully. 

Usually these titles are a bit off the beaten path, a bit quirky, and no one I know has heard of them, much less read them. As a result, I am often hesitant to recommend them to other readers. I worry that they won't like it for one reason or another, and by rejecting a book I cherish, it feels like they are rejecting a part of me.

I've come to realize though, that in all of the books that my friends have recommended over the years, very few have ever struck home. One friend's choices often leave me bewildered, feeling like somewhere along the way I missed a key something in my education or life experience that would unlock this book's mysteries. Another friend can always excuse bad writing if there is a good plot, but when I read their choices I want to throw the book against a wall. However, this doesn't diminish my thoughts and feelings about my friends in any way. Because one loves literature and one loves pulp doesn't affect the friends that they are to me.

To paraphrase High Fidelity, it's not what you like, but what you are like that counts.

So, as part of this journey to a renewed, braver, me, I am going to start reviewing the things I read on this blog, including my newest find, which spoke so directly to me, I felt like the author was making inside jokes with me as if we were old friends.

Stay tuned!!

Selfies - Week 1

Well, a week into the selfies, and what have I discovered?

Apparently, I really like to take them in the car.

Most of the lighting in my house sucks.

I need to be less lazy with my hair.

I wear a lot of pink.

Big News

Big news!

HUGE news!

Well, only kinda sorta.

I updated my facebook cover photo today!

I know, I know, you are wondering why this is such a huge deal.

Usually my cover photos are of a pretty view, usually from my travels (which means 95% of the time they are Disney related).

Today's was different.

It's a picture of me, with my husband, standing on the deck on the cruise ship (ok, so still Disney related, but baby steps, right?).

Now I'm sure you are all thinking, again, "Why is this such a huge deal?"

This is why:

1) Neither one of us looks "picture perfect" in this photo. It was windy, my hair is a mess, I'm squinting because I don't have my sunglasses, our clothes are clinging in all the wrong places. NOTHING about this photo is flattering.

2) Both of us are in swimwear. Almost every picture I post of us is from some sort of "event" where we are dressed up and looking our "best". Rarely casual clothes, NEVER something as revealing as what's up there right now (and I am wearing my swim coverup!).

3) My thigh is showing. One of my most reviled body parts.(I'm trying to get over it, really I am).

4) I almost didn't even let this photo get taken because I was all worried about the above. If it weren't for my fabulous new friends insisting, I wouldn't have this record of what was a wonderful moment. 

4) With all those reasons, I posted it anyway. Because we are so damn HAPPY in that photo. We don't just look happy, we ARE happy, and I want to broadcast that to everyone. And remind myself of it when I see it. That happiness makes everything else invalid, and that is of which I need to be reminded regularly. I can choose to be happy, and when I do, the rest of the petty stuff just flies away.