there is no cross dressing scandal here

I wish I could be like John Travolta and have some elaborate cross-dressing backstory that could explain my nearly month-long absence from the blogosphere, but alas.  My absence is not nearly as scandalous or disturbing or gross* as that (*gross, because it’s John Travolta.  I don’t have anything against cross-dressing in principle.  I mean, I don’t do it, but if you do, and you’re not John Travolta, I am totally cool with that).

We should probably move on now.

Sadly, my absence can be explained by the fact that I recently joined a book club (ok, like back in March) and then reactivated my library card.  And then somehow, I got sucked into the abyss that is the Ottawa Public Library website and started putting holds on any random book or movie that popped into my mind, compulsively checking my library account every day and monitoring my checked out books, so as to avoid overdue fines.  The rest of the time, I was trying to stay on top of my required book club reading so as to be prepared to participate in a meaningful way at meetings (beyond drinking my fair share of beer or eating my fair share of nachos).

And then, last week I stumbled upon the Bloggess’ new book Let’s Pretend this Never Happened like, right there on the express shelf (!) at the library (that means you only get it for one week, with ONE one-week renewal, and overdue fines are like $1 Million per day) and I had some serious reading to do if I was to finish it in time.

I wish I could be this goal-oriented in other aspects of my life.

Like blogging regularly (especially after NaBloPoMo went so well.)

Fortunately for me, (and maybe unfortunately for those of you who forgot that this blog was even in your reader), I think the whole library novelty is starting to wear off.  This means that I can get back to some semblance of normal cocktail drinking (er,  I mean cocktail blogging) and reclaim my slacker/slightly disorganized/mad scientist image.

What this means for you is that you are going to have to endure a couple of belated posts about some totally cool stuff I did or drank over the past few weeks.  I thought I’d start with my current favourite warm-weather/al-fresco cocktail that you can find on the Imbibe website:

Strawberry-Basil-Gin Lemonade  (Source)

• 2 oz. lemonade
• 1 oz. gin
• 1 large, ripe strawberry, quartered
• 3 basil leaves
• Ice cubes

Gently muddle the basil and strawberry in a shaker. Add remaining ingredients and shake with ice. Strain into an ice-filled highball glass and garnish.  Garnish: slice of fresh strawberry.

Before you get all enthusiastic with the muddle, please bear in mind that muddling does not mean beat the fruit.  We’re going to do a whole post over here on martinis for breakfast on the do’s and don’ts of muddling (watch for it).  Also, someone* (who is not me and) who asked to remain anonymous, suggested that you could totally add more than the one ounce of gin the recipe calls for.  If you love gin, think about using 1.5 oz to start!

*It was not John Travolta.

And here is a picture (yes, the muddled strawberries turn it into pink lemonade!):