After a couple months of basically being a recluse and feeling rather cooped up, we finally threw a small party. My skin has mostly cleared up now, and things are looking much brighter for the future. I’m feeling very happy these days. Plus, in 4 days I’ll be in Costa Rica!

It was Allan’s birthday on Sunday so we decided to have a little get-together over at our place on Saturday night.

Allan likes beer, so we stocked the fridge full of his favourite beers for the party.

There was barely any room in the fridge for food, including the fridge door!

Allan got a new BBQ for his birthday and we finally made use of our new patio. We got the Weber Q300 barbecue and we LOVE it! It heats up really hot, really fast and evenly distributes the heat no matter how high or low. It’s also really portable, and has a good-sized cooking surface. Good value, too! (Despite us looking all over town and them being sold out EVERYWHERE we finally found it in a small independent and I haggled till the bitter end for a good price)

We provided some small appies for the party. I made up some cheese and bread spreads. Pictured here is the double cream brie and red pepper jelly, fig spread with parmigiano reggiano, smoked mozzarella and ham, and cheddar.

We cooked up some 3-night marinaded Maui-style ribs from Granville Island, along with homemade hamburgers, ribeye steak and beef filet mignons. Sides were risotto and grilled veggies.

There weren’t many leftovers!

I also found THE BEST rum EVER in the liquor store the other day. I’ve never had expensive rum before and wow, is it ever worth it. It’s called Zaya Gran Reserva, aged 12 years and handcrafted in Trinidad & Tobago. 5 times distilled. It is really, REALLY good. We made some mojitos from it, although some people preferred to just sip it.

Shelley McArthur, AWESOME Communications Director from Top Table Restaurants (some of my fave restaurants in BC) sent me this incredible mojito recipe from Keith Trusler, Bar Manager at Blue Water Cafe. Top Table has some of the best bartenders in BC so definitely check out Araxi, Blue Water Cafe, West, or Cin Cin for divine drinks. The taste is all in the careful preparation! We used the Zaya Rum, but the Havana Club rum still tastes great for this recipe:

Blue Water Cafe Mojito, by Keith Trusler

1/2 lime, divided into 8ths
10 mint leaves, bruised to release flavour (roll into a ball and clap with your hands)
1 1/2 ounces Havana Club Anejo Reserva Rum
Club Soda and Crushed Ice

In a tall glass, muddle lime and mint with the simple syrup. Top with crushed ice. Pour in rum and stir together. Top with club soda. Enjoy!

Sooo good.

After mixing drinks for a while, I decided to sit down and believe it or not the BOYS got into the kitchen and started mixing up their own drinks.

One of the best ones was the watermelon martini made with Grey Goose, Sourz and Simple Syrup. Yum!

Other not-so-good drinks the boys made was mixes of beer and gin and gatorade. Not so good.

Believe it or not, there are THREE people on this chair, haha.

Here they are mixing up more drinks.

Here we are outside, after inspecting a huge beetle that was on the porch.

It was a great night! Lots of food, drinks, and fun. It was great to have some of our friends over too, since it had been a while

What did you do this weekend?

I have a really high tolerance. But I don’t drink very often. So that often leaves me in a strange spot when it comes to social drinking.

I actually never really drank any alcohol until halfway through the first year of university. I had a bet to win and a long story short… basically my drink of choice became Canadian Club whiskey. Kinda gross, eh?

Over time, my staple drink has become tequila. At first it was Jose Cuervo, but in the past couple years it’s almost exclusively been Patron and some other nice tequilas. I’m not much of a social drinker because it’s pretty hard to sip tequila or play drinking games with tequila. (Although I’ve done it, and well, it’s not pretty)

To be honest, I prefer a fizzy drink like Pellegrino to alcohol any day and I’m perfectly happy to have fun without drinking. But don’t tell my friends that. So how does someone who doesn’t drink very often, find a good social drink?

In recent years I’ve started to enjoy the occasional sour apple martini. Most places don’t make them very good, but if you can find a good establishment that can do them right (West, Blue Water Cafe, George, etc) then they are amazing.

I’ve found a mix of good vodka like Grey Goose, some lime juice, bitters, apple juice, and sour apple mix (e.g. Sourz) usually works pretty well. I still can’t quite seem to replicate it though like West or Blue Water. I wonder what their secret recipe is?

In the past couple months I’ve become a huge fan of the Mojito. However, a lot of places usually don’t carry mint and can’t make one for you. The summer months it is definitely easier to find.

I love me a good mojito, and more and more I think it is becoming my social drink of choice. I usually make them with white rum, club soda, a touch of real ginger ale, lime, and lots of muddled mint.

So yes, tequila will always be my favourite drink… but do you have any recommendations for a good social drink? I’d like something that is not too sweet, and is refreshing?

Also, do you have any famous drink recipes to share? Especially for a sour apple martini or a mojito? I’m dying to find out a good one!

Oh P.S., just to end off this post I thought I’d share the waffles we had on Sunday. Yum!