Last Call

Life inside the snow globe is pretty but it’s February and I’m tired of feeling (and looking) like a nesting doll.  It’s the final day of Carnival in Rio and I’m not there.  It’s hard to believe that there are people thinking, not about how many layers they can wear under their overcoat, but how many feathers they can get on their headdress – a headdress and little else.  I looked for coverage of the parades that have been going since Saturday but haven’t found very much.  While I hate to miss out, I love knowing that there are still events so wonderful, people don’t stop to upload.  Hoping to bring a little bit of carnival to my site, I asked a Brazilian friend for any good recipes made for the festival.  Her answer was immediate and simple – caipirinhas – the fuel behind the celebration and apparently, the unusually high November birth rate in Brazil.  As she put it, it is a country of Scorpios.

A combination of limes, sugar, and cachaça, the Brazilian liquor made from fermented sugar cane, you can also use vodka to make a caipiroskas or light rum for a caipiríssima.  I briefly considered holding my glass out the window for a caipisnowcone.  However, you mix it, it’s worth the Fat Tuesday effort lest you wake up on Ash Wednesday all repentance and no sin.

Caipirinha
I’d made some for a family brunch that were a knockout.  Literally, I knocked everyone out, though I have to say that when they came to no one held it against me.  Wanting to avoid the same mistake, I adjusted my ratio of lime to cachaça per Claudia’s instructions.  If you can find sugar cane stalks, they make great stirrers for caipirinhas or mojitos.

1 lime, cut in eight pieces
1 tablespoon sugar
2 oz. cachaça
Crushed ice

Muddle the lime and sugar in an 8-10 ounce glass.  Add crushed ice to fill and pour in cachaça.  Stir and serve.

*Click here for a slightly different take and more recipes from A Thirsty Spirit, a great beverage site from my friend Alexis.