margarita

I went to Las Vegas a few months after my son was born for a conference, and at the recommendation of my cousin Virginia, ended up at Mesa Grill for supper with my friend Sara and some of her friends. We ate and ate and ate, and then did a little drinking and only a teeny bit of gambling on the black jack tables. The food was truly deeeelish, and the gambling was fun, but it was the cocktail that Sara had me order that I most remember. It was pink, and fizzy, and just right for the hottest of hot desert night… The Paloma.

I’ve been making and ordering them pretty much constantly since then since it’s made from one of my favorite spirits, tequila (See my ode to the margarita here) and is pretty much PERFECT for summer weather down here in the deepest south. Grapefruit soda, Tequila, lime… could it be any more delicious?

…

Oh folks, can you stand it? It’s. Almost. Margarita. Weather.

Margarita weather ALSO means that it’s linen and white clothes weather, drippy fish tacos on the back porch weather, read your favorite book (To Kill a Mockingbird, obvi) while sitting outside covered in sunscreen and also mosquita spray weather, and, my personal favorite, black cherry-slash-green apple snocone weather.

I didn’t even know that I liked tequila until I tried silver tequila, and then I literally wanted to drink the whole bottle right then and there.

Some of y’all are thinking, oh, oh tequila. no nonononononononooooooo. (because there was that one night when you turned 22 and you went out dancing with your friends at that blues bar and met Morgan Freeman and then took so many shots that you ended up dancing on top of a car while it was driving through downtown at 2.3 mph.. oh wait…)

But before you say “nooooooo” let me FIRST tell you that this has NO sour mix involved AND is a truly refined cocktail for grownups and not at all like the tequila you may or may not have thrown up for two days straight that night in college.