Margaritas for Smart People

I love a good margarita and besides a few of them, I've haven't found many that I haven't really enjoyed. Our friends C&K make a really good one, it's a lime-tequila drink with a splash of orange liquor. Recently, I've been, testing a similar recipe, I found from Mesa Grill and it's pretty yummy. What I like about it is that it has a stronger citrus base, limes, lemons and oranges.

So, while I was visiting A in Minnesota, her dad found this "Libation" in the Wall Street Journal. It was a orange-based margarita.

We made this one not with an anajo tequila, which has a smoother taste, but choose a nice mid-grade El Tesoro (the treasure). I think the, smoother higher grade anajo would have been lost in the deep orange flavor, the younger tequila had a bit more kick to it and you could taste it in this drink.

I'll get the Mayor to send me the exact recipe to post later. He found it in the August 12th issue of the WSJ.

Minnesota Mint Juleps

"Do you want to go to Minnesota?" my friend A asked, and I said, "I've never even thought about going there." I mean why would a girl from Texas ever consider going to Minnesota? Next thing I knew, I had my ticket and I was ready to head onto my next adventure.

"Oh look a duck!" I said when I got off the plane, where A exclaimed, "That's a loon. It's the state bird." You learn something new everyday, I suppose.

"Are we going to go on a canoe?" I asked one morning, "She said sure in Wisconsin, there's a great spot." How exciting, I didn't know I'd get two state visits for the price of one.

"How about a Mint Julep?" her dad asked me one evening, and that's when I finally paused and thought, "That doesn't quite go together does it. Kentucky society Mint Juleps in Minnesota." And, that's when I got my lesson on one of St. Paul's famous fathers, F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I hear that somewhere in Chapter 7, there is a Mint Julep reference. I don't know, I picked up the book this weekend, and I'm only on Chapter 3.

Now, here's part two of the Julep story. A's dad is known as the mayor of the block, he keeps up how people are doing, knows where all the kids go to college and greets the mailman at the door. A few nights a week, impromptu "townhall" meetings commence on their front steps. People walking, biking or strolling seem to just stop at the mayor's house. What they find there is good conversation and good refreshments.

It really does have that great small town feel to it. Everyone watches out for one another and they truly care about how the others are doing.

I'm glad I went.