I've been busy.

So the girlfriend and I had a son about 8 months ago. Apparently what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas. But the boy is fat and healthy and beautiful, and seems to want to be an acrobat.

This is his mother's second favorite cocktail:

Blood Orange Margarita:

(my own recipe)

2 parts tequila
1 part Cointreau (or triple sec)
juice of a whole lime
juice of one quarter blood orange

Shake over ice and pour into a glass. We don't have margarita glasses chez nous so we either serve them up in martini glasses, or with the ice in a rocks glass. The blood orange provides needed sugar to soften the tequila and a pink color.

Kamikaze Cocktail

The Kamikaze was one of the first real cocktails I was introduced to back in the 90's. I was seeing a girl in San Francisco who liked to sip these. Back in the day, they often appeared as shooters since they taste like lime-aid, but my girl had the right idea. I'm drinking one right now since there is a full bottle of vodka and a bunch of limes that are about to go bad.

The Kamikaze, like most classic cocktails, has the Holy Trinity structure: spirit, liqueur, citrus. In this case, the spirit is vodka and the citrus is lime. The liqueur is Cointreau (or triple sec). The recipe is the same for all Holy Trinity cocktails: 2 parts spirit, 1 part liqueur, 1-2 parts citrus to taste. Shake with ice and serve.

Kamikaze Cocktail:

2 part vodkda
1 part Cointreau or triple sec
juice of half a lime

Shake over ice and strain into a cocktail glass, or just dump the whole thing into a traveler cup so that no one knows what you're up to.

French 75 - The Forbidden Cocktail

Around our house, the French 75 (named after the 75mm howitzer) is the Forbidden Cocktail. The recipe calls for 2 parts gin, 1 part lemon juice, spoonful of sugar. Shake over ice. Pour into a tall glass, and top up with champagne. So really this thing is a gin cocktail plus a glass of champagne: two drinks in one.

I never start out drinking the French 75; it seems to be one of those cocktails you drink later on in the evening once the party has gotten going, and you want it to get there faster. "If you like that Sidecar, you should try the French 75..." Then you find yourself trying to dance on the bar and it all goes downhill from there. These days, I try to only drink French 75's when I'm in Vegas.

French 75:

2 parts gin
1 part lemon juice
spoonful of sugar

Shake over ice, pour into a tall glass (Collins glass or a champagne flute)
Top up with champagne.

Charge for the guns, he said...

Parkers at the Algonquin

This is for The Trad. You're welcome at the house for cocktails anytime.

The Algonquin is my favorite place to drink in Manhattan. The old Oak Bar at the Plaza could have been my favorite, but it was always too crowded. The Algonquin lobby is dark and quiet and has the hotel cat wandering around.

When I was last there in the mid-aughts, the cocktail menu was mostly classics but they did have one house cocktail, the Parker, that I had never seen before. They don't disclose the recipe and we didn't ask, but we managed to make one at home:

The Parker:

In a shaker with ice, add:

- 3 parts vodka
- 1 part Chambord
- juice of half a lemon

Shake until the shaker is so cold that you can't hold it any more (about 30 times). Strain into martini glasses. Drink while reciting pithy literary quips.

You can vary the proportion of vodka to Chambord to get the taste and purply color that you like best.

Note that the recipe is isomorphic to the Sidecar: vodka subs for cognac and Chambord subs for Cointreau.

Old Fashioned Bourbon Cocktail

My second favorite cocktail is the Old Fashioned. It would be my first favorite, except that they're kind of a pain to make. There is some speculation that the Old Fashioned is the original cocktail -- the cocktail the early colonists drank after a hard day of whatever it was they did to piss off practically everyone on college campuses today. I love cocktails that have a backstory like this; it almost makes it seem like you are communing with history; not just knocking back a shot of whisky with some sweet stuff to help it on its way.

So this is my Old Fashioned recipe. It's probably a bit pared down from the normal recipes. I like what I like, and I don't like to wait (c.f. my Manhattan recipe where you dump it all in a glass and stir it with your finger).

Cocktail Zero's Old Fashioned

• In a pretty glass, throw in a sugar cube and douse it with Angostura Bitters. Then throw in an orange slice. Throw in a maraschino cherry if you're making it for a woman; women love the cherries.


• Smash it all up with a muddler or a big spoon or something.


• Put in some ice cubes. Cover the ice cubes with bourbon.


• Stir it all up; add a little still water to taste.


• Do not add soda water; I think it makes the drink taste awful.

It's amazing how the sugar and the bitters take all the edge off the bourbon. I can drink 2 or 3 of these and it doesn't feel like you are drinking until you notice your brain feels like someone switched off the back half.

I hate New York but I love the Manhattan

Real men drink brown liquor. The Manhattan is my go-to drink because you can make one with the ingredients in most airport lounges. Airport lounges tend to sell a lot of white wine, beer, and the occasional vodka tonic; but you can't get anything complicated. Don't order a cocktail that requires fresh citrus or muddling. The bartender might be game and give it a shot, but it will be disappointing and you won't be able to hide it. So don't make yourself and the bartender unhappy; stick to what they can do.

So if it's not a serious cocktail bar, I order a Manhattan. It's so simple that a kid can make it. Put some ice in a shaker, 2-3 parts bourbon (rye if I'm in Canada), 1 part sweet vermouth, dash of bitters. Shake and pour. If I'm lazy I'll just put the ice and booze in a glass and stir it with my finger. Some days that's exactly the Manhattan you want.

Then after a hard day, you take the first sip. After that first sip, I like to say what I always say after the first sip after a hard day: That's more f*cking like it.