From Moonshine Martinis to Boilermakers, find out what we'll be toasty to this week.
...so we are drinking a Ragtime
...so we are drinking a Starry Night
Already 53, and a mother of four, with more than 300 million records sold worldwide, the Material Girl shows no signs of giving up the music.
And tonight Madonna returns to London, her home for several years while she was married to Guy Ritchie, to play Hyde Park as part of a 7-month world tour, entitled MDNA.
Whatever you make of Madonna's film career - and since 1985's Desperately Seeking Susan critics have been unanimously unkind to her efforts as both actor and director - she really can put on a show.
And, if you're one of the lucky folk forking out £70 or £125 for a ticket, you'll agree with the lady herself that: "I'm worth it".
We're toasting Madonna, still one of the biggest stars in music almost 30 years after Like A Virgin scandalised the world, with a Starry Night.
STARRY NIGHT
Glass: Coupette
Garnish: Star anise
Method: STIR all ingredients with ice and strain into chilled glass.
2 shot Chardonnay white wine
½ shot Poire William eau de vie
½ shot Luxardo maraschino liqueur
Origin: Created in 2008 by Jamie Boudreau at Vessel, Seattle, USA.
We say... Delicate pear and aromatic maraschino over a wine glass.
...so we are drinking a Boilermaker
The father of Gonzo journalism, sports writer, novelist, all-round caner, and scourge of politicians and hypocrites, Hunter S. Thompson, of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas fame, would have turned 75 today.
A legend in his own lunchtime, Thompson once remarked, "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."
He also observed, "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, 'Wow! What a ride!'"
At his funeral, funded by his friend Johnny Depp, Hunter's ashes were fired from a cannon at the top of a tower shaped like a fist holding a peyote button: so he really did leave this world in a cloud of smoke.
Hunter generally enjoyed his Bourbon neat, but we're sure he enjoyed a Boilermaker or ten in his lifetime too. Chin chin!
BOILERMAKER
Glass: Shot
Garnish: None
Method: POUR whiskey to brim of shot glass and then manoeuvre shot glass so it is held tight up against the inside base of an upturned Boston glass. Then quickly flip the Boston glass over so that the bourbon is trapped in the now upside-down shot glass. Now pour beer into Boston glass over the whiskey filled shot glass.
1 shot Maker's Mark bourbon
1 pint Lager
Origin: Unknown but in his book 'The Joy of Mixology' Gary Regan credits steelworkers in western Pennsylvania.
We say... When you get to the end of the beer the shot glass lifts and the whiskey is released as a chaser.
...so we are drinking an Aged Honey Daiquiri
Today bars across the US will be celebrating National Daiquiri Day, and as the Daiquiri, in all its myriad forms, is one of our very favourite cocktails, we're happy to join them.
While the combination of rum, lime and sugar is almost certainly an old one, it was Jennings Cox, a mining engineer, who invented and named the specific cocktail we call the Daiquiri.
Cox's original recipe called for the juice of a whole lemon, a cup of rum, a teaspoon of sugar, one third of a small cup of mineral water and a lot of crushed ice, shaken, but not strained, which is on the long and sour side compared to the drink that has evolved today.
So we are toasting him with our current favourite Daiquiri variation, the Aged Honey Daiquiri. Though you might, of course, prefer to give Mr Cox's original a whirl.
AGED HONEY DAIQUIRI
Glass: Martini
Garnish: Lime wedge
Method: STIR honey with rum in base of shaker until honey dissolves. Add lime juice and water, SHAKE with ice and fine strain into chilled glass.
2 shot Bacardi Superior rum
1½ spoon Runny honey
½ shot Freshly squeezed lime juice
½ shot Chilled mineral water
We say... Sweet honey replaces sugar syrup in this natural Daiquiri. Try experimenting with different honeys. I favour orange blossom honey.
...so we are drinking an Irish Coffee Martini
If you are old enough to remember the 1980s, you are old enough to remember a time when the terrorists we worried about, and the individuals who were held without trial, were Irish, not Muslim, and when trains and buses routinely stopped running for fear of bombs.
Today marks 30 years since the IRA detonated two bombs in Hyde Park and Regent's Park, one during a military parade, the other during a military musical performance, killing eleven soldiers and seriously wounding many others.
Back in those days, Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader, was such a pariah that his voice could not be heard on national television. Today, after a long ceasefire, he sits in the Northern Irish Assembly and has offices in the Houses of Parliament.
We love Ireland, and Irish Coffees, so we are marking today with an Irish Coffee Martini and a sense of optimism that hostilities which seem unsolvable at the time can actually be mended.
IRISH COFFEE MARTINI
Glass: Martini
Garnish: Coffee beans
Method: SHAKE all ingredients with ice and fine strain into chilled glass.
1½ shot Jameson Irish whiskey
2 shot Hot espresso coffee
½ shot Monin Pure Cane sugar syrup (65°brix, 2:1 sugar/water)
1 shot Double (heavy) cream
Origin: Created in 2003 by Simon Difford.
We say... Forget sipping warm java through a cold head of cream. This Martini version of the classic Irish Coffee offers all the flavour without the moustache.
...so we are drinking a Moonshine Martini
As you know, this is the year that many believe the world will end, and we trust this message finds you well.
For out on the further fringes of the interwebz, fear is rising that today is the day that Nibiru, AKA Planet X, collides with earth.
The idea of Nibiru originates with a Wisconsin lady who was equipped with a communications device in her brain by grey extraterrestrials as a child, and last predicted this planet, four times the size of earth, approaching in 2003.
She called it Planet X, until she came across the works of another freethinking chap, who held that Babylonian astronomers had observed a giant planet on a 3600 year orbit, and called it Nibiru. Nibiru also has aliens on it, although different aliens from the greys who implanted the device in the lady's brain.
Should the collision not occur today, we anticipate it will be rescheduled, along with other doomsday scenarios, for a further five months. Until then, let's toast the thinkers behind this novel idea with a Moonshine Martini.
MOONSHINE MARTINI
Glass: Martini
Garnish: Maraschino cherry
Method: SHAKE all ingredients with ice and fine strain into chilled glass.
1½ shot Bombay London dry gin
½ shot Luxardo maraschino liqueur
1 shot Noilly Prat dry vermouth
⅛ shot La Fée Parisienne (68%) absinthe
Origin: Adapted from a recipe in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock.
We say... A wet Martini with balanced hints of maraschino and absinthe.
... so we are drinking a Key Lime Pie #1
Today is 22/7. Which, you will - of course - recall from school, means three and one-sevenths, or a close approximation to the irrational number, Pi.
Nobody has calculated the complete value of Pi, which describes the relationship of the outside measurement of a circle to its diameter - it can't be expressed either as a fraction or a decimal.
All the same, some historians believe the Ancient Egyptians used the ratio to build the Great Pyramid at Giza more than four thousand years ago. And mathematicians have been grappling with this crazy number for pushing four millennia too.
Today maths teachers and professors around the world will endeavour to engage their students in approximating Pi.
We are sticking to a more enjoyable type of Pi - a Key Lime Pie, served to our preferred formula, #1.
KEY LIME PIE
Glass: Martini
Garnish: Pie rim
Method: SHAKE first three ingredients with ice and fine strain into chilled, rimmed glass. SHAKE cream and Licor 43 without ice so as to mix and whip. FLOAT cream mix on surface of drink.
2 shot Malibu coconut rum liqueur
1 shot Cointreau triple sec
1 shot Freshly squeezed lime juice
2 shot Double (heavy) cream
½ shotcCuarenta y Tres (Licor 43) liqueur
Origin: Created by Michael Waterhouse, owner of Dylan Prime, New York City, USA.
We say... This extremely rich drink is great when served as a dessert alternative. To make the pie rim, wipe outside edge of rim with cream mix and dip into crunched up Graham Cracker or digestive biscuits.
