Birds, Books and Bourbon

Happy All Hallow’s Eve to one and all! Halloween to me is the start of the fall season of festivities, of decorating the house and celebrating with family and friends. Our pets get into the fun too: instead of bird pics this week, I tormented my pets with playing dress-up. See what feline cuteness we came up with here with the candy cats and my scary House of the Dragon’s Meleys.

Halloween wouldn’t be the same without an adult beverage or two – in our community, they are encouraged during Treat-or-Treating for the older crowd. Fun Halloween cocktails often include purple hues, scary nomenclature and creepy garnishes. Introducing the Corpse Reviver Number 2. The Corpse Revivers are high proof cocktails historically drank ‘the morning after” as a hangover cure. According to Difford’s Guide, they were “prescribed by bartenders to revive the souls who appeared in their bar feeling worse the wear from overindulgence of the night before,” beginning in the 1800s. I have substituted Dry Vermouth for the French Lillet Blanc and did an Absinthe rinse instead of mixing with the rest of the ingredients such as with a Sazerac. I also thought it would be fun to include a gin containing butterfly pea flowers for the color changing properties. I added the lemon juice at the end to watch the color change from purple to pink.

Gather your ingredients: Gin (Conniption), Cointreau, dry vermouth, juice of one lemon, absinthe, sour or coupe glass, cocktail shaker, jigger, sticky skeleton garnish.

My spooky drink was accompanied by a cute novel from Sangu Mandanna, the Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. A coming-of-age story, of, well, witches in modern day Scotland (sounds like a Harry Potter novel, but no). So far so good with the romance between two of the adult characters just starting to bloom. I have to go get ready for Trick-or-Treaters now. Enjoy, and remember to please drink responsibly! 🙂