24. Perfection

If I accomplish nothing else during this time in my life, I will have at least mastered what is undoubtably the perfect cocktail: The Ivy Gimlet. Let me first say that I was skeptical when friends described The Ivy Gimlet (yes, it deserves capitalizations) as the perfect cocktail. And then I had one (fine, four, but who's counting). And they're right. It's perfection. After my first visit to The Ivy, during a girls movie afternoon, we tried to recreate the cocktail. They were good, but not Ivy good. So the other day, I'm making food for the hummingbird feeder (don't laugh, it's hot out here and they're thirsty and even though I don't like birds, I like hummingbirds) and I'm thinking of The Ivy Gimlet (yes, sometimes I think about drinks, doesn't mean I have a problem, just that I think about things, random things) because you need a simple syrup. So I make the simple syrup and clean the mint and attempt to whip up an Ivy Gimlet - mint muddled with the syrup, add vodka and fresh lime juice, muddle some more, add crushed ice and there you have it, perfection. Needless to say, I've been buzzy ever since.



Oh and the little knitted piece under the glass is a flower washcloth I knit a million years ago and gave to my mother. It's knit with a varigated mercerized cotton and was kind of fun. Each petal was knit seperately, the stitches kept active on a long circular needle and then joined with decreases to close it up. My mom left it here - a place she visits only twice a year. She's normally so appreciative...