QUARANTINI TIME #1! Movie Star Virtual Reality Cocktail Party this Friday at 6pm

Hello chums! Get your cocktail shakers out and join me on Instagram Live this Friday for a MOVIE STAR COCKTAIL!

I was planning to make a little edited video showing this cocktail under construction but I didn’t get around to it. A special prize to anyone who can work out what was on the kitchen DVD player while I was filming this!

I’ll be making and imbibing a Mary Astor Painless Anaesthetic – see below for the recipe. Do join in even if you fancy a can of beer or a glass of tap water instead. I realise not everyone can pop out to the shops for a bottle of gin at the moment… You’ll get to nosey around the Silver Screen Suppers Towers kitchen if you join in!

I’ll be all gussied up but I won’t see what you are wearing so feel free to join in your pyjamas, onesies, shell suit or whatever you are relaxing in at home.  I’ve never done an Instagram Live so who knows how it will go.  I have been inspired by the divine Battenburgbelle at Kitchen Confidence who has been hosting regular Lockdown Lunchbox cooking demos on her Instagram – check those out too – she’s battenburgbelle on the Insta.

This quantity makes two small cocktails or one pretty hefty one.  I totally give you permission to have a hefty one to yourself. I will be having a whole cocktail shaker-full to myself on Friday for sure.

Next up will be a Charlie Chaplin Cocktail if I can get hold of some apricot brandy (other ingredients are sloe gin and lime juice) or if not, a Vincent Price pink gin (vodka or gin, tonic water, ice, a twist of lime, and Angostura bitters). See you at 6pm Friday on Instagram Live I hope chums, it’ll be fun I am sure.

Blog reader and chum Mark Brisenden said that he thought Mary Astor Painless Anaesthetics should be available on the NHS at the moment and I agree. I will be raising my glass on Friday to all the frontline folks such as doctors, nurses, all healthcare workers, supermarket staff, transport workers, delivery drivers and postmen. It’s easy to forget that while many of us are working from home, many people are still out there working like the blazes to help keep the world going. CHEERS to them all.

Orange bitters aren’t easy to get hold of but this cocktail is still delicious without them.

Mary Astor’s Astor Painless Anaesthetic – from the Stork Club Bar Book (1946)

3 oz gin

1 oz French vermouth

1 oz Italian vermouth

1 oz cognac

Dash of orange bitters

Ice, sugar and a twist of lemon peel

Shake gin, vermouths and cognac well with ice cubes and a dash of orange bitters, garnish with a twist of lemon peel and just a touch of sugar.