These Foolish Things

As I had a very dear friend coming over last night, I thought it would be nice to welcome her with a cocktail - and I had just the thing: "Imbibe A Pop Of Spring Colour", an ad in the Guardian said, and the accompanying picture (above)  looked very tempting indeed.

But as nothing ever goes my way, and minor catastrophes and disasters will be thrown onto the path of  good intentions - my supermarket's strawberries had been reduced in price, hence sold out; I couldn't find where on earth (or rather: where in this obsessive-compulsive hoarding house) I had hidden the cocktail glasses; and upon plan B ('find 3 matching, suitable glasses'), I smashed one in the process of cleaning the dust off.  I also discovered that the bottle of Freixenet Rosada I had deemed to be in the cellar, must have been imbibed on an  earlier some such occasion. So, while I will record the recipe, as created by Shaken and Stirred (Oxford) for Freixenet, that is not what we actually had last night...

I had to use raspberries instead of strawberries, and a bottle of pink sparkling perry, instead of the real thing, and then my friend declared alcohol  a no-no, because she was driving...

Mind you, her raspberry puree with apple, raspberry and cranberry juice looked the better cocktail, as I served hers in a (single, lonely) Margarita glass!

But without further ado, here's the recipe, which is probably even better than the one we had, and that was GREAT!

Freixenet These Foolish Things

2 fresh strawberries chopped or 25ml strawberry puree
15 ml maple syrup
25 ml golden rum
2 squeezes fresh lime
Topped with Freixenet Cordon Rosado

Method
Combine the strawberry and maple syrup
Add golden rum and lime
Shake over ice and strain
Top up with Freixenet Rosado
Garnish Strawberry fan

Glass: Martini



I found the photo on Madhousefamilyreviews, where Cheryl reviewed several spring time recipes using Freixenet.

And if you want to learn more about Freixenet, you can here and here - on spittoon, a blog by AndrewBarrow who actually knows about wine!

According to my cut-out from the Guardian, Freixenet are sponsoring this year's Hay Festival (of Literature and the Arts), so I'll add that link, too. - Just in case... (Every year, I intend to go, and then LIFE happens, as usual...)  

31/5 - 10/6

PS: In case anyone is wondering how the diet is going -- not so well, as I can't keep away from the alcohol! But the men are very keen on Gino's recipes - apart from one, they've all been a great success. More about that some other time. Have to get myself organised, The Cherry Orchard starts on Friday, so I'm doing Box Office tonight, and at the weekend, I'll attend the Little Theatre Guild's annual conference. After that, I'm off to the Fatherland, where - austerity measures or not - dieting and/or staying away from the alcohol is usually quite impossible.