So, it’s been a minute.

I moved in mid-April, and there was all the usual moving chaos: get the new internet set up, locate the coffee maker, unpack enough boxes to feel like I actually live here, et cetera.

Well, here I am two months later, finally feeling settled enough to get back to living the rest of my life. No worries, I was making food and cocktails along the way, because a girl’s gotta eat (and drink)!

Just before the move, my precious angel baby Alice (a baby of the canine variety, not human) celebrated her 2nd birthday. Isn’t she the best? (She is, in fact, the best. Everyone tells her so on our daily morning walk.)

Obviously, we had a party. All good parties involve cake, so Alice enjoyed a meat-based cake based on this recipe from Mary and Tim at 17Apart. You might note that my version (below) is waaaaaayyyy less pretty than Mary and Tim’s, because that’s the observant kind of guy/gal that you are! Well, listen. I only had one sweet potato, and I should have used two for adequate frosting coverage. Also, I was more invested in the people snacks, because Alice really didn’t give two hoots how her cake looked. She thought it was delicious, and it was gone in about 4.7 seconds.

Had Alice not enjoyed her cake so thoroughly, we could have shared it with her. It contains all human-grade, organic ingredients. Fortunately, Alice does not have any dietary restrictions, so I was free to use all of the dog-safe ingredients in this recipe. If your pooch has some special dietary needs, double-check these ingredients. For example, sweet potatoes are not appropriate for dogs on low-oxalate diets.

Since Alice didn’t leave us any of her cake, the humans in attendance devoured the ever-popular Copycat Flower Child Olive Oil Lemon Cakes. There they are, bashfully peering at you from behind the canine cake in the photo. They were gone in 15.3 seconds.

And what’s that vision in pink loveliness back there, you ask? That, my friend, is the delightfully refreshing Vodka Paloma! She is simple and elegant and and she comes together in a flash. I used this grapefruit soda. She was the perfect libation for the over-21 humans in attendance at Alice’s shindig.

Let me know if you try this version of the Paloma and what you think! The traditional base for this cocktail is tequila (yum) or sometimes mezcal. I’m trying real, real hard to appreciate mezcal’s charms, but I haven’t yet found the right vehicle to take me there. If you have a favorite mezcal cocktail, please comment so I can try your recommendation!

Vodka Paloma

A super-simple, super-refreshing cocktail

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Course Drinks

Servings 1

Ingredients

  

• 2 oz vodka
• 4-6 oz grapefruit soda cold
• ice large or small cubes, or crushed

Instructions

 

• Add vodka to a glass, ideally one pre-chilled
  2 oz vodka
• Add ice to the glass, according to your preference - one big cube, filled with many small ones, crushed ice, or whatever floats your iceboat. Give it a stir until the vodka is cold
  ice
• Top with grapefruit soda, and stir lightly to combine
  4-6 oz grapefruit soda
• Garnish if you wish: citrus wedges, rosemary, basil, or anything that strikes you as a lovely complement here is fair game
• Enjoy!

Notes

A Paloma typically involves grapefruit and sugar in some form, along with tequila. Here, I've swapped out the tequila for vodka and minimized the fuss-factor by using a good-quality grapefruit soda in lieu of grapefruit juice + simple syrup + club soda. Easy peasy and oh-so-refreshing...and a gorgeous pink hue, to boot!

Keyword cocktails, vodka