I recognize that this week isn’t exactly one that just flew by for most people (see The Onion), but cocktail week does seem to be clipping along at a rather rapid pace. We’ve been drinking together for the past three days. We’ve had forays into Rye, dipped our toes in Rum, toasted with Gin. For three days straight, we’ve had the foresight to chill a cocktail glass a full fifteen minutes before we actually intended to imbibe. We’ve juiced enough citrus to cure a boat of sailors of scurvy.

But it’s Thursday, and good lord, I’m tired! Enough with the cocktail glasses! Enough with the fancy liquors in the fancy bottles! I want a real drink – stiff, no frills. Tomorrow it will be Friday, and they’ll be time to let those glasses chill while we groove to Pandora’s Soul playlist. But tonight, it’s still Thursday. There’s still one more workday in this week (this goddamn week!).

But don’t worry. We’re having Old Fashioneds tonight, and in a matter of minutes you’ll have your pick between the penultimate episode of Project Runway (#TeamMichelle) and a double feature of Parks & Rec (#TeamApril). The week’s almost over. I promise.

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Thursday: The Old Fashioned

Ingredients

1 sugar cube

1 lemon

2 maraschino cherries

Bushmills Whiskey

Angostura Bitters

Seltzer

1. Place your sugar cube in an old fashioned glass. Glug (on Thursdays, we glug) three splashes of Angostura bitters over the sugar cube, and muddle.

2. Peel a long strip of lemon peel. Add 1 cherry and the lemon peel to the bitters/sugar mixture and muddle some more.

3. Fill the glass with a bunch of ice cubes, pour 2.5 ounces of whiskey over it, and stir. Add in a splash of seltzer. Put in the extra cherry, and enjoy!

Somewhere in Brooklyn, there’s a bartender named Kevin who can shake it like no other.

Despite having spent the first eighteen years of my life in New York, I know very little of what it means to be an adult in that city. Even though most Saturday nights find me and Dan at home, slippers on, curling up for an evening with the Doctor, we do go out enough to have a few favorite bars. Want an incredible cocktail experience, catered to your taste? Go to the Columbia Room. Want to get a feel for Georgetown? You clearly have to spend an evening at the Tombs. Tabbard Inn has the city’s coziest fireplace, Churchkey has the best beer selection, and nothing can beat the Passenger’s old fashioneds and kimchi hotdogs.

But ask me for New York picks, and I draw a blank. I’ve enjoyed evenings at both the Clover Club and Pegu Club, but what can you really learn from one visit? Dan and I are both longing to pay a visit to the Dead Rabbit, because who doesn’t want a communal punch bowl, but everything we’ve learned about it so far is pure hearsay.

So if you’re thinking of taking the plunge and moving to the city, or are just flying up for a weekend of theater and food, I can offer only a few solid recommendations: go to Franny’s, drink their wine, eat their pizza; spend a pre-theater evening at Joe Allen’s, because all the greats have; and go to James. Sit at the bar, peruse their cocktail menu. Order the herb fries – insist on mayonnaise as an accompanying condiment. If you’re in the mood for a drink that tastes like pure spring, grassy and sweet, order the Saint Anne’s.

If you’re very lucky, Kevin will be there to shake it for you.

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Wednesday: The Saint Anne’s*

Ingredients (Makes 1)

 1 lemon

1 sugar cube

1 stem of marjoram

2 ou Gin (I am such a fan of Barr Hill, but use your favorite here. It’s worth mixing the nice one)

1 ou St Germain

Ice

1. Place a cocktail glass in the freezer to chill at least fifteen minutes before you want your beverage.

2. Juice your lemon – you want about an ounce of lemon juice.

3. Place the sugar cube in a cocktail shaker and pour the lemon juice over it. Add the leaves from the stem of marjoram and muddle.

4. Pour in the gin and St Germain. Add 4-6 ice cubes. Shake it with everything you’ve got.

5. Strain into the chilled cocktail glass and enjoy.

* Adapted from the Saint Anne’s at James’ in Brooklyn

Writing about the virtues of the Daiquiri didn’t seem appropriate yesterday, so I’m resuming cocktail week a day late (on the plus side, this means cocktail week will run for an extra day!). As a sometime-resident of both New York and DC, I know something about how it feels when the city you love is attacked, and my heart goes out to the city of Boston.

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As much as I’m reveling in the delights of Spring, I’m already looking ahead to Summer. The only thing I enjoy more than experiencing something delightful is planning to experience something delightful. I am fairly successful, I think, at living in the moment. Being flooded with wonder at the joy of being. But, boy, ask me to plan an itinerary and I’m on cloud nine. Planning combines my surefooted belief in the virtues of efficiency with the delightful blank slate that is the future. Sitting here in April, it is entirely possible that I could be floating on a dolphin-surrounded boat come July. Or staying in an Ice Hotel in Iceland. Or riding a sleeper train through the Rockies. And planning any one of those trips would be delicious.

July will mark the fifth anniversary of my and Dan’s first date. So we’re planning a trip. In true Lucy and Dan fashion, food is a top priority. Our first vacation together, days before I left for Ghana, we canoed down the Connecticut river. We camped out at night, drinking brandy out of an old seltzer bottle and eating canned tuna. For out next trip, we took the train up to Portland, Maine, and gorged ourselves on lobsters and Maine-brewed beer. This summer, we’re planning to fly down to Key West. There’s nothing I like to look at more than the ocean and nothing Dan likes to drink more than rum, so we’ve got our sights set on staying in a hotel with an ocean view balcony, drinking daiquiris as the sun sets.

In the meantime, while I’m settling the details, join us in a cocktail?

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Tuesday: The Daiquiri*

Ingredients (Makes 1)

Simple syrup

Light rum (but if you only have dark, I won’t tell)

1 lime

1. Place a cocktail glass in your freezer at least 15 minutes before you want your cocktail.

2. Make the simple syrup: heat 1 part sugar with 1 part water (you only need ½ an ounce of the syrup for this recipe, but it’s nice to have extra on hand, so a cup of each wouldn’t be unreasonable). Bring the sugar and water to a boil, then reduce the heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool.

3. Cut the lime in half to juice, width wise. Before juicing, cut a round of the lime off for garnish. Juice the lime – you should have about 1 ounce of lime juice.

4. Combine ½ an ounce of the cooled simple syrup with 1 ounce of lime juice and 2 ounces of rum with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously, pour into the chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with the lime slice.

*Adapted from the divine Ultimate Bar Book