All the Better to Hostess With

Not much of a secret if you were to look into my drawers but...I just love a good little unnecessary kitchen gadget! I have a cabinet dedicated to those tiny print instruction guides that tell how you at which exact angle to hold the one-handed apple peeler and how to shave lime rinds into three dimensional portraits. Now that I think about it, most of my non-essentials involve some type of fruit in some new position.

And, thus...of course, we come back to cocktails because no where are there more cute little doo-hickies than in the mixology world.

The relatively warm days remind me that there really can be good fruit cocktails - which always require some sort of charming cutting, shaving or peeling device. Oh, no... ewww...forgive me. Let me clarify "Fruit Cocktail." Not the canned type with the peely tops - rather, shall I say, cocktails with fruit ingredients. Now, understand... the elegant Ladies & classy Broads of LUPEC do NOT endorse, or really even understand, those sickeningly sweet, bottled-cough-syrup-and-metallic-pineapple-juice, "I am stuck on an Island back in the 80s" offerings. We do, however, welcome a refreshingly classic cocktail with a real piece of Nature's Bounty (i.e. you can see the peel, it does not contain FD&C Red No. 3 or the word "Lite" and it did not come in a can).

We will be celebrating some of these spring and summer delights at our upcoming meetings and on this blog. In the meantime, here are some great tools to stock up on before the High Season.

FIRST AND FOREMOST

Check out this fabulous video demonstration of which cocktail tools you need to stock a bar! Cocktailer, Robert Hess, demonstrates by making a limey Caipirinha: www.videoclix.tv/watch?v=maapmsky4081

Here's one with Robert on "garnishes": http://www.videoclix.tv/watch?v=09oll3nm604

COMPLETELY NECESSARY

A beautiful and effective muddler is so necessary for that yummy minted-fruit concoction. For only a few dollars, you can by-pass the cracking unfinished piece and pick up a polished, hardwood alcohol-proof muddler. This site has some elegantly carved pieces: www.mistermojito.com/muddler-hammer.php

Don't scrap your knuckles trying to cull the finest of zest from your citrus. Buy a high-quality Microplace zester instead: http://tinyurl.com/c842ha


TOTALLY FRIVOLOUS

Sip your vodka straight from the lemon itself or enjoy your brandy wrapped in a pear with the "Shot Carver": www.coolstuffexpress.com/ShotCarver.html

In case you are by the pool without electric power and you just want to froth up your cocktail a bit, carry this solar-powered Frother: www.blisstree.com/articles/solait-100-solar-milk-frother-71

Little Bit on This Month's Cocktails - The Morning Glory & White Lady

We will have two springtime featured cocktails at out April 15 meeting: the White Lady & the Morning Glory Daisy. Check out this link from cocktail blog "The Cocktail Chronicles" for a bit of history on the MGD (no - not Miller Genuine Draft - that would be the Old Boy's Club up the street): http://www.cocktailchronicles.com/2007/09/17/mxmo-xix-mornin-glory

And here's bit on the White Lady, perfected in Harry's Bar in Paris in 1928: Cocktails that Shook the World at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20050219/ai_n9769314

More to come...

Next Meeting - Wednesday, April 15 "White Lady & the Morning Glory Daisy"

Join us for our first ever meeting of the ladies of LUPEC of the Berkshires!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 @ 7:30pm
Brix Wine Bar
40 West Street, Pittsfield MA

We will "Celebrate a Century of Spring" with two fresh and intoxicating cocktails pulled straight from that dusty ol' Classic Cocktails handbook: the White Lady and the Morning Glory Daisy.

The generous folks at Brix will be making these specially for us LUPEC ladies!! (Remember - Brix is not THAT generous! Bring cash or credit cards.) Special LUPEC-only themed appetizers available too!

We will tipple as they did at the turn of the century, with daisies in our hair, in our spring whites or in other ladylike attire (however ironic). Dressing with the theme is most appreciated and non-compliance may require you purchase the creator of this FB group (me) a drink.

Since this is our first meeting, we will also take a moment to fill everyone in on all the secret rites, grandiose plans and general nonsense of LUPEC of the Berkshires.

Hooray! The Berkshires have our very own LUPEC!

Welcome - dearest Femcompatriots of the endangered cocktail!

We announce (in the most happygolightly sort of way) the formation of LUPEC (Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails) of the Berkshires. LUPEC is a national grassroots organization dedicated to preserving our feminist cultural heritage of a good cocktail paired with a most subversive conversation.

Catch us for retro themed cocktails each month at Brix Wine Bar... a fabulous little bistro at 40 West St in Pittsfield.