Still just a few books a way from 100 pre-orders so if any Inkshares member followers who haven't ordered and have credits to spare...!  Just saying.  Anyway, on to cocktails, always a good subject, huh?  Recipes for cocktails, I mean. I mentioned a possible recipe section at the end of the book featuring food and drink from the story. A lot of people think it's a good idea, not that it hasn't been done (see Nora Ephron's "Heartburn", for instance, for probably the best example). But I like the idea of recipes too. In "Women Like Us", the first cocktail to appear shows up in Chapter 1, and it's a daiquiri. Let's talk daiquiris for a second. Although there's certain a place for them, I'm not talking that frozen kind that's more like a slushee laced with booze. I'm talking the original classic daiquiri, which is a simple connection of rum, simple syrup and lime juice, shaken over ice but then strained. Here's a short history of the daiquiri: by all accounts the daiquiri originated in Cuba around the turn of the twentieth century. It eventually made its way from Havana to Washington DC, and if anybody else is a bit Kennedy-obsessed like I am they'd know that John and Jacqueline Kennedy liked to have evening daiquiris before going on to dinner (which is the way we all should be living). So how do you make a classic daiquiri?  Well, here ya go:

Classic Daiquiri (recipe adapted from epicurious.com)

2 ounces light rum

1 ounce, plus one teaspoon fresh squeezed lime juice (don't even think of using that bottled stuff)

1/2 ounce simple syrup (mix equal parts sugar, water, bring to boil to dissolve sugar, let cool)

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine rum, lime juice and simple syrup. Shake vigorously. Strain into cocktail glass and serve. Makes one.

Now go make yourself a daiquiri!  Or order one then next time you're out to dinner, but often you have to tell the bartender how to make the classic so bring this recipe along with you!!

I've posted Chapter 8, which may give you a bit of deja-vu.  Faith A, who wrote the delightful "A Cup for the Dead" (first chapter on Inkshares!), had some great suggestions for cuts and rewrites to Chapter 2 -- which I did, as well as move a paragraph from there to Chapter 8.  So if you run into it, it's not a repeat.  It's a relo.

Thanks for reading.

Anne