Dedicated to Congress - The Blarney

Now that Congress has to get home
we all can fly the friendly skies again...

It's been a few weeks since the last post.  Coincidentally, since then, The Partner and I had the pleasure to travel via our nation's airways.  On the outbound trip our original flight was cancelled.  Then our new flight was delayed 6 hours before we finally pulled the ripcord and decided to try the next available flight to our destination -- 36 hours later.  Granted, those delays were due to all the rains and flooding hitting Chicagoland.  On the way back, we just barely missed the first wave of delays brought on by sequester-induced furloughs at the FAA.

As the week wore on, people were getting fed up.  Pilots were directly telling passengers that if they're upset they should call Congress.  Then this morning, in the face of outraged business travelers and the airlines' CEO's, and their own recess & need to travel themselves, lo' and behold, Congress was able, somehow, to pass a law allowing the FAA to use hundreds of millions of dollars to pay air traffic controllers, end the furloughs and keep America flying.  And in a bill that was barely four pages long.

So today's cocktail is the Blarney - a cocktail from the old H & M bible and dedicated to Congress and all its bullshit.  Delightfully smooth, peaty, smokey, it's amazing what a few ingredients can do...rather like Congress when they put their collective minds to serving their own self-interests.  A good sipper for back room politicking, boardroom wheeling & dealing, or  Red Carpet or Admirals Club fuming as you wait or reschedule your flight home.  

The Blarney
2 oz. Irish whiskey
1 oz. sweet vermouth

Shake over ice and serve in a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a maraschino.

NRA Shooter

As if it were possible to have anyone crazier than Moses as the face of the NRA, meet Wayne LaPierre.  In the wake of the Newtown tragedy, he's gone unabashedly nuts.  From "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." to the call for putting an armed cop in every school, the man and the lobby have no sense of propriety or respect for what we all lost that day.  His lap dog, Asa Hutchinson is hardly better, pushing the school program in Congress at a price tag of $2 billion.  (Can you imagine what that would do going to the schools for programs and teacher training?)

So today's original bev is the NRA Shooter.  This was a challenge to craft since as a shot it needs to be sweet enough to go down easy.  But we don't like cloying shots (sorry Intoxicator!).  So I wanted it to have some kind of sour or bitter effect too.  Just like the NRA!  The Partner describes it: "It starts off without much effect, then goes to sour, then finishes like a mouthful of Smarties."

Without putting too fine a point on it, no matter what, it was going to be a red shot.  Get it? 

NRA Shooter

2 oz. gin

1 oz. strawberry cachaca

1/2 oz. grenadine

3 deep-cut strips of lemon zest

grapefruit bitters

Muddle the lemon zest in a bar glass with the bitters and a dash of gin.  When the zest is fragrant, add the  rest of the ingredients and shake over ice.  Pour into shot glasses. 

Makes 4 shots.