Italian Margarita

We've had weird weather here in Indiana.  A couple of weeks ago we had snow.  Then we had tornadoes that destroyed some small towns in Indiana and throughout the Midwest shortly thereafter. Our hearts go out to those in the path of those storms.  Our friends at Huber Winery were spared.  They watched the tornado skip around the farm.  As did the good folks at Capriole Farms (makers of incredible goat cheese.)  Now, we've set a record for a high temperature.  I'm actually going to leave the office a bit early and work in the garden then finish up some work at home later. 


We have a lot to be thankful for, as do most people every day.


We actually got to watch the IU / PU basketball game. Yet another thing to be thankful for, GO HOOSIERS!  IU won and now they're in the big dance.  For those of you not in the know, there's a huge rivalry between Indiana and Purdue Universities.  Those of us from IU like to remind our Purdue friends that the view in their Mackey Arena is better than that in our Assembly Hall.  You see, we've got too many championsip banners in the way.  LOL.

Our Colts are doing spring cleaning.  Ok, maybe it's more than that.  We'll show up this fall and will know about three of the players.  Happily, one of them will be Reggie Wayne.  Good old number 87.  He's fun to watch. 


So, as is our tradition on a Sunday, it was cocktail night. Rather than a retread, Connie says, “Let's try something new”. I am scoured the saved recipes, as he delved through his books.


Computers are both a boon and a bane. You want to find something? “PLEASE WAIT.” Well, it's not as if I had a choice. The programmers might as well design a message that says, “Sit there, sucker, while we load a whole lot of crap, that even if you knew how to use it, you wouldn't want to. PPPPPPPLLLLLLLBBBBBB!”


Okay, that feels better. The old vent your spleen trick.


So I pull up the Italian Margarita. We don't have sweet and sour mix, but Connie assures me that it is pretty straight forward. Now here is something interesting, people that know us, probably know us as competitive, but not geeky. Well as it turns out, we're both pretty knowledgeable about math and science, etc... We both analyzed this problem and discussed the solution.  So, the drink took another 15 minutes to make as we debated about the precise makeup of the sweet and sour. 8 oz of lemon juice to 2 tablespoons of sugar. I, the cook, broke it down as I know, 16 tablespoons in a cup, versus 2 in the recipe. He breaks it down by measuring how many ounces are in 2 tablespoons (1) versus the 8 called for for the lemon juice. Anyway, we finally figured it out and we decided that the recipe was wrong. The first pass at the drink told us that it got the sour, but forgot the sweet. We are going to make our sweet and sour from now on with our world famous :-) simple syrup. Probably half and half. The drink finished much more nicely. Tart to start, and sweet to the finish. Just like Connie likes me! (He added that - thank you sweetie!)


Italian Margarita

for two, of course


2 oz Amaretto (we use diSaronno)
4 oz sweet and sour mix (we made our own)
1 oz gold tequila (we use Jose Cuervo)
1 oz triple sec (we use Dekuyper's)
Salt for the rim of the glassOrange or lime wedges for garnish (we used limes)


Truth be told, Connie did not add the salt. I am not that fond of it, and he just didn't bother since the drink was at least 15 minutes late to begin with. The salt could cut down on the simple syrup modification, but to each their own! What ever you do, never forget to toast the one you love and enjoy!

adapted from winedinedaily.com