One of my favorite bloggers, Laurel Ann of Austenprose and Jane Austen Today, posted the other day about the Sex and the City movie, and in that post she casually mentioned a drink called an Austentini.
An Austentini!? As an Austen devotee with a taste for vodka (no wonder my protagonist sought refuge from her romantic woes in an Austen-and-Absolut-induced haze), I had to have the recipe.
And so here, with Laurel Ann's compliments, is something you might like to imbibe (in moderate doses, of course) to cool off in the midsummer heat. As Laurel Ann says, the Austentini is "sweet and sour like our Jane!"
The Austentini:
2 ounces of Vodka
2 ounces of sweet and sour mix or margarita mix
splash of framboise
lemon twist
Pour into a chilled martini glass, open volume one of Pride and Prejudice. Or Persuasion or Emma or Sense and Sensibility or Northanger Abbey or Mansfield Park. Sip. Turn pages. Smile.
If you do not drink alcohol, here is a suggestion for an alcohol-free Austentini:
2 ounces Pellegrino or your favorite sparkling water
2 ounces sweet and sour mix or margarita mix
a few crushed raspberries or a splash of raspberry juice
lemon twist
Warning: Falling asleep after reading Jane Austen and drinking too many Austentinis in bed may result in your waking up, as my heroine did, in Regency England. Not to mention raspberry stains on your sheets.
