Quaintrelle Weekender
Welcome to Quaintrelle Weekender.
This is a short list of things I am currently loving to make eating, drinking, and hosting easier and a lot more interesting.
Mea culpa.
I posted a Note last week of my mammogram. Not in flagrante delicto, that’s a special perk for premium subscribers only, but just moments before, in the waiting room. A quick snap of my hospital wrist band with my arm resting on my blue-gowned knee.
I did get a lovely comment wishing me good health and speedy recovery.
My bad.
I should have been more clear: this visit was just a routine procedure, that came back, luckily for me, with a clean bill of health. See you in two years*, boob torture machine!
The reason why I posted this at all, as some might say, a bit private don’t cha think? Is when I was arranging my schedule for the day, naturally I had to work around the appointment. I got a few responses along the lines of, “oh ya, I’m a year over due for mine. Gotta get that done, but there’s just no time.”
Ladies.
Healthcare in Ontario is free (we can debate semantics later.) In Toronto, the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre is one of the best in the world. The boob squish, while somewhere between uncomfortable and mildly painful, is maybe 10 seconds per squish, less than five minutes for the whole thing. GET IT DONE.
*Most healthy women in Ontario are supposed to get mammos every three years; however I have “dense breasts” (and, by the way, they’re real and they’re spec-tacular) so I get to go every two! TMI? Kinda personal, don’t cha think?
This is the last year of my 40’s, and, as I told my doctor during my annual physical whilst in flagrante delicto (happy birthday to me!), gimme the works. Keg size it. A complete nose-to-tail deep dive.
In retrospect, I shouldn’t have said “deep dive.” I’ve had things put in places that would make a sailor blush. Boobs squished, bums probed, even my ear canals vacuumed. But so far so good, health-wise, and I’d really like to keep it that way.
So cheers to good health. Let’s have a drink.
It’s the end of a long week, your boobs are aching, and you just want to relax with a quality cocktail, not futz around mixing and muddling and shaking and stirring.
I got you.
Today I’m offering up delicious, two-ingredient cocktails, that, as the cool kids say, are low lift but high reward. And in some cases even use up some of those weird, dusty bottles you got as gifts but never opened. (If you did open them, throw ’em out, they’re as old and stale as yesterday’s hospital gown.)
The Pink Lanai
When it comes to cocktail names I completely freeze. However, this three-ingredient concoction suits the name, because there’s nothing easier than throwing it all in an ice-filled glass and taking a seat in the sun in the outdoor living space.
This was inspired by a recipe I found on liquor.com when looking for inspo on how to use up tons of pomegranate liqueur that I had lying around after the holidays. Their recipe included a lot of other stuff, and while I’m sure it’s delish, it was a bit too exacting for my tastes. My version simplifies things a lot, without sacrificing the yum.
Makes: 1 drink
Bartender level: easy
Ingredients:
1oz pomegranate liqueur
2oz pink grapefruit soda (such as Fever Tree; you could also use grapefruit sparkling water to reduce the sugar)
Pink Prosecco, to top
How to Make It:
Into an ice-filled goblet, gently add all ingredients (ice can make fizz bubble up and overflow easily.)
Stir gently, and serve.
Sour Spritz
Years ago I had a food and drink tour company called Drink Toronto. It was a terrific business that not only showcased the best restaurants and bars the city has to offer, but each stop offered a little lesson from oyster shucking to drink-making.
One place taught the Sour Spritz, a simple blend of plain sour beer with Aperol, a riff on a the classic Aperol Spritz, but way more interesting and flavourful.
It’s tough to find unflavoured sour beers now, so if you can’t, I would double down on the orange notes by getting a citrus flavoured sour beer.
Makes: 1 drink
Bartender level: easy
Ingredients:
2oz Aperol
4-5oz sour beer, for topping
Half an orange slice, for garnish
How to Make It:
In a wide-bowl wine glass filled with ice, pour in Aperol and gently top with sour beer.
Garnish and serve.
The Country Club
My dad is an avid – make that rabid – golfer, and has been my entire life.
When I was a child, summer weekend mornings were spent in a single-parent household, my mama a golf widow, as my dad was deep in the links long before cartoons even started.
But in the afternoons, happiness returned as my family would reunite. After lunch, my mum would load my sister and me into the velvet back seat of her royal blue, LTD Crown Victoria, and Babs would get behind the wheel, fire up a Craven A menthol, and the three of us would speed off down dusty roads to my dad’s country club, blasting Bonnie Tyler the whole way.
When we arrived, my sister and I wasted no time getting in the pool (we were smart enough to put our bathing suits on under our clothes so there was no dilly-dallying with change rooms), and my ma, slathered in coconut oil, would join the other golf wives on the patio for a round of calorie-wise white wine spritzers. My dad and his pals eventually wandered in, sweaty from 18 holes in the sun. No spritzers, only beer for the boys.
This cocktail breathes new life into the 80’s classic, utilizing citrusy, herbal Lillet Blanc for a little French-inspired glam.
Makes: 1 drink (easily multiplied for big batch)
Bartender level: easy
Ingredients:
1oz Lillet Blanc
1oz soda water
4oz dry white wine, such as Pinot Grigio
Mint, lemon wheel & orange wheel
How to Make It:
Into a large wine glass filled with ice, snuggle the orange and lemon wheels between the ice and glass. Spank the mint to release the fragrance, and nestle it into the ice as well.
Pour in the Lillet Blanc, soda and white wine and gently stir to combine.
Blast the Bonnie Tyler, slather on some oil, and enjoy on a vinyl-tubed chaise lounge.
Spa Water
This G+T riff recipe takes advantage of cucumber gin, which I think is integral, but if you don’t have it you can use plain gin that’s been infused with cucumber, or vodka if you don’t like gin (but it won’t be as good!)
And yes, this does require more than just pour and stir, but, if you get organized, you can make a big batch of the cucumber mint juice and keep it in the fridge for up to three days.
Makes: 1 drink
Bartender level: easy
Ingredients:
2oz cucumber gin (such as Empress)
2 oz tonic water
1 oz cucumber-mint juice*
How to Make It:
Pour all the ingredients into an ice-filled tumbler.
Garnish with a slice of cucumber and sprig of mint and enjoy.
Cucumber-Mint Juice
Ingredients:
1 washed English cucumber, roughly cut
1 cup of water (or coconut water for extra electrolytes)
A large handful of mint
1 lime, washed well and quartered (yes, peel too)
How to Make It:
Into a high speed blender, add all ingredients and blitz for a full minute until well puréed.
Strain through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a clean jar and keep in the fridge for up to three days.
Next Week …
I’m sharing a few of my favourite bar snacks for premium subscribers on Wednesday. Think comforting like chips or fries but with a little razzle dazzle to luxe up the place. They would be perfect with the drinks above, and currently, are on the apèro rotation around here.
If you want to upgrade, it’s only $6 Cdn a month, which works out just over $4 USD, way cheaper than a bar snack would cost at an actual bar. But if premium membership is not in the cards right now, I totally get it. I’m delighted to have you here no matter how you choose to subscribe.
For everyone, by next Saturday, this bout of totally crap weather should finally have blown out of Toronto to something more climactically appropriate. Perhaps we’ll discuss a few key grab-and-go items for beach travel.
See you all next week.
xo – Erin
Now all I think of is boobs, and it’s a very rare thing that I think about boobs let me tell you!
Your mom is adorable. Every single one of these cocktails sounds like a summer dream