A Bite and a Cocktail

So. Yeah, after that article, I'm trying to up the amount of alcohol I drink to moderate. Well, not exactly. It's a Blog Party! Wheee! I'm participating in Blog Party #30 over at Dispensing Happiness. The rules are simple. I have to prepare one cocktail and one appetizer. There's one teensy little catch. It has to be vegetarian. Dairy is ok though.

Piece of cake. Well not really a piece of cake. The Brain's favorite cocktail is a Maker's Mark on the rocks. That is also what all the brother-in-laws drink, and what my mom and Grandma drink. And I usually pass on the cocktail. So today I got all fancy and girly. I was at the local grocery (not the big chain store that's closing) and they had some beautiful pink grapefruits. Unable to remember exactly how to make the martini I used to indulge in, that I raked up a $114 bar bill at the Knickerbocker hotel in Chicago drinking, I decided to improvise.

For my cocktail, first I mixed 1 tsp grapefruit zest to 2 tsp sugar and dipped the rim of my glass in grapefruit juice and then in the sugar/zest mixture. Then I pureed the pulp and juice of the grapefruit to make a grapefruit puree. And what the heck, I gave it a cute cute name.

Little Mary Sunshine

1 oz. vodka

2 oz. grapefruit puree

sparkling mineral water (San Pellagrino)

First pour the vodka into the bottom of the sugar rimmed glass. Then add the grapefruit puree. Stir. Pour sparkling mineral water to fill the glass.

Now on to my appetizer...

This was really good. Really. I even had a good time roasting the peppers and I didn't catch the oven on fire. I did however manage to melt my tongs a teeny bit.

This is again out of my Vegetables Every Day cookbook by Jack Bishop. There's very good instructions on how to roast red peppers and that's what I did, but I'm sure you could go out and get a jar of roasted red peppers and it would work just as good. And I'm sure leftovers would be great on sandwiches. If you have leftovers.

Roasted Pepper Spread with Goat Cheese and Herbs
from Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop

3 medium colored bell peppers (I used a red, an orange, and a yellow) roasted, steamed, peeled, cored and seeded

3 oz. goat cheese

3 small garlic cloves

6 large basil leaves

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

Puree the peppers and their juices along with the cheese, garlic, and basil in a food processor until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. This spread can be refrigerated in an airtight container for several days.