I woke up this morning to another Tequila sunrise, visions of margaritas swirling in my mind, Scout mewling at the bedside demanding breakfast. For her, it’s a package of Tuna and Turkey Tickles Cat-Tastic Recipe in Gravy, for me another bowl of Quaker Oats.
After breakfast, the fun begins—lining up the Tequila Cabeza and the cocktail shaker, and whipping up a few batches of freshly squeezed juice for my personal mixologist, Steph, who will be featuring two house margaritas for the evening.
One: Employees Only Besos Calientes (mentioned in my blog earlier this week).
Steph will do her best to emulate Dev Johnson’s work with Tequila Cabeza, homemade Grapefruit Cordial, Fresh Lime Juice and dashes of Habañero Bitters.
Two: A cocktail from our perennial favorite chef, Pati Jinich, the coco lime margarita. Then turn on Create TV and catch Pati's infectious enthusiasm for the delicious food and flavors of her Mexican heritage.
Appropriate cocktail music will be queued beginning with Tequila!, a B-side “jam” by the Flores Trio that shot to #1 on the Billboard Chart after being played by a Cleveland DJ in 1958. It’s the soundtrack song played in the Audrey Hepburn- hosted soiree in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and was co-opted in a 1988 “Mexican Velveeta” commercial featuring dancing jalapeño peppers.
Tonight we drink Tequila, but tomorrow Steph gets whatever’s left in the bottle for a science project. I’m asking her to make me diamonds. TRUTH! physicists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico have successfully created diamonds with with 80-proof Tequila!
Happy Cinco de Mayo. Here's a toast to General Ignacio Zaragoza and the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla, and to the brilliant scientists who make diamonds from Tequila. I should have been paying more attention in high school physics class!