Cocktail Hour - Mae West

Born Mary Jane West she was an actress, playwright, singer and screenwriter known for her bawdy double entendres and long career in Vaudeville.  Mae was an open supporter of gay rights and was once sentenced to 10 days in prison for ‘corrupting the morals of the youth’.  A true Diva, she refused to wear the prison issue knickers and wore her own silk panties while serving time.  Mae dined with the warden and his wife and was given 2 days off her sentence for good behaviour.  Ms West thrived on giving the censors hives and a lot of her work was banned, most notably her play entitled ‘The Drag’ which dealt with homosexuality and which she called one of her comedy-drama’s of life.  Although Mae was an early supporter of the women’s liberation movement, she was not a feminist and was dubbed the ‘queen of camp’.  Unapologetically outrageous, Mae loved men and had many boyfriends in her lifetime.  Although Mae was married a couple of times she once remarked that ‘marriage is a great institution, I’m just not ready for an institution yet’.  A tiny woman at only 5ft tall she was a real spitfire who lived by her own rules and when the management of her apartment building objected to her African-American lover - boxer Gorilla Jones - visiting her, she solved the problem by buying the building.  She lived in the penthouse apartment with her last lover who was 30 years her junior and cared for her until her death at the age of 87.  

Mae had a couple of interesting effects on pop culture.  Her lips were immortalised in one of the most popular objects of the surrealist movement – The Mae West Lips Sofa created by Salvador Dali in 1938 and during World War II life vests were dubbed ‘Mae Wests’, partly as rhyming slang and partly because they resembled her torso when inflated.

Although Mae was often labelled a good time girl and a brazen hussy she was not much of a drinker and her home bar was stocked with her favourite ice cream sodas.  When she did have a drink she insisted it was Champagne – as befits any sex symbol worth her salt... I'm using my top 3 Champagne cocktails – my personal preference is either Bollinger or Veuve Clicquot but sparkling wine will do in a pinch.  Please don’t call it Champagne though, that’s sacrilege!  As with any Champagne cocktail, pour the other ingredients into the glass first then top with Champagne.  Don’t stir as it will cause a mess, besides – the bubbles do it for you.

Blushing Bride

This beautiful blush coloured cocktail is perfect for toasting a newlywed couple.  It’s also very easy to make and serve to a large party.

1 tot peach schnapps

1 tot grenadine

Pour into a flute and top up with Champagne

Mimosa

The Mimosa is a delightful and simple cocktail that is perfect for a lazy brunch.  You can vary the recipe a little by adding a splash of grenadine or a little cognac.

½ tot triple sec

1 ½ tots fresh orange juice

Pour into a flute, top with Champagne and garnish with an orange slice.

Fruity Champagne Punch

Few things are more festive than a nice Champagne punch.  It would be fine to substitute a good Cava or Prosecco in this case.  You can also be less rigid on the amounts used here and just go by your own personal taste.

1 ½ cups chilled Champagne

1 ½ cups chilled lemonade

3 tots chilled vodka

3 tots Malibu coconut liqueur

1 lime, thinly sliced

100 g frozen raspberries

½ cup fresh granadilla pulp

Combine all the ingredients in a large jug, add ice cubes and serve.

‘When I’m good I’m very good but when I’m bad, I’m better’

~ Mae West 

(August 17, 1893 - November 22, 1980)

Cheers Bitches!

GeeGee Curtained x

Cocktail Hour - Brenda Fassie

Born the youngest of 9 children in Langa, Cape Town, Ous Brenda's father died when she was 2 and she started singing for tourists to earn money and by the age of 5 she had her first band called the ‘Tiny Tots’.  At 16 she left for Soweto to seek her fortune and her break came when she was signed to fill in when one of the singers in the band ‘Joy’ went on maternity leave.  

Paradise Road

After her contract expired she formed ‘Brenda and the Big Dudes’ and their breakout hit single ‘Weekend Special’ became the fastest selling record at the time.  Affectionately known as Ma Brrr by her fans, the pint sized singer was known for her outrageous antics and anti-establishment attitude and kept us all highly entertained with the stories that would hit the tabloids of the drama in her personal life, most notably her drug and alcohol abuse and her bisexuality.  The unofficial voice of the townships, her songs often resonated with the sadness and despair found there.  She had a son in 1989 by a fellow Big Dudes musician and had a short lived marriage in 1989, divorcing in 1991.  Around this time she became addicted to cocaine and in 1995 she was discovered in a hotel room with the body of her lesbian lover who had overdosed.  She went to rehab and got her career back on track, with Time magazine publishing an article about her in 2001, citing her as the Madonna of the Townships.  She still had drug problems and returned to rehab about 30 times or so.  On 26 April 2004 she was rushed to hospital for what the press was told was a massive asthma attack that caused cardiac arrest and although doctors resuscitated her she slipped into a coma.  Fans held vigil outside the hospital for 2 weeks until she died on 9 May.  At her autopsy it came to light that it was a drug overdose that caused her cardiac arrest and it was believed that the crack cocaine she smoked that night was laced with rat poison.  Her son Bongani sang ‘I’m So Sorry’ on the soundtrack to the Academy Award winning movie ‘Tsotsi’ and dedicated it to his mother.  During her lifetime Brenda recorded many award winning albums and also contributed to albums released by Mandoza, Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte.

Not having a clue what her favourite tipple was I asked a friend who said I should Google something called a ‘Soweto Toilet’ so I did.  And here it is... I certainly hope it tastes more appetising than it sounds!

SOWETO TOILET

1 tot Banana Liqueur

2/3 tot Amarula

1/3 tot Crème de Cacao

Pour the banana liqueur into the bottom of a shot glass then using the back of a bar spoon, slowly pour the Amarula so that it floats on top.  Before serving, slowly drip the Crème de Cacao into the shooter so that it will create a messy streak as it sinks.  Bailey’s can also be substituted for the Amarula.

The thought of that being the only drink I post this month is a bit sad, so I've made up something called a ‘Weekend Special’ that must be from very distant memories when I was a kid and dragged to Fiesta Land (common as fuck place in the North West province) every weekend to watch whichever musician groupie mother was dating at the time perform.

WEEKEND SPECIAL

2 tots or more of the cheapest brandy you can get your hands on

Appletiser

Grandpa powders or aspirin

Mix the brandy and Appletiser in a tall glass over ice and enjoy.  The grandpa powders are for the next morning, preferably with a fry-up breakfast and some Lucozade to prevent you dying from a hangover.

Ok.  Enough fooling around.  Like Ma Brrr, few things embody the Spirit of Africa like Amarula, so here’s a juicy recipe I think she would have loved.

AMARULA COLADA

2 tots Amarula

1 tot white rum

3 tots pineapple juice

1 tot coconut cream

Blend ingredients in a cocktail shaker and pour into a tall glass over crushed ice.  Garnish with a slice of pineapple and an umbrella if you’re feeling fancy.

‘I am a shocker.  I like to create controversy, it’s my trademark.’

~ Brenda Nokuzola Fassie (3 November 1964 – 9 May 2004)

Cheers Bitches!

- GGC

Weekend Special

Cocktail Hour - Ernest Hemingway

Born on the 21st of July 1899 in Cicero, Illinois old Ernie never let life pass him by, he grabbed it by the horns and lived large – Novelist who was awarded both a Nobel and Pulitzer prize, adventurer, journalist, wartime ambulance driver, prolific drinker, de facto leader of a small group of resistance fighters outside Paris which got him into a considerable amount of trouble, he was awarded the Italian Silver Medal of Bravery at 18 and was a lover of women who married 4 times.  Of all his scars and injuries the one he was most reluctant to talk about was the prominent scar on his forehead, the result of a serious injury in Paris when he pulled a skylight down on his head thinking it was a toilet chain.

He always loved a good party and his 60th birthday celebrations in Andalucia, Spain lasted 2 days! His wife Mary spent months preparing for the lavish celebrations. There were cooks from all over the world, fireworks, flamenco dancers, carnival booths, a live orchestra and many other attractions including a shooting booth. The varied guests included the U.S. Embassador, the Maharajah of Jaipur and the Italian Royal family. When the fireworks sparked a fire in a palm tree the fire brigade had to be called all the way from Malaga. After quenching the fire they were invited to join the festivities and party goers were allowed to drive the fire truck. True to his old form, Hemingway was the life of the party and many said it was the last time they had seen him so happy. 

His many head injuries left him in permanent pain and Ernest even offed himself large, no teeny little gun for him – he used his preferred firearm, a BOSS double-barreled 18 gauge shotgun.

Ernest had a few favourite haunts and it’s on my bucket list to spend time soaking up the atmosphere in each and every one of them.  The top 3 are:

Sloppy Joe’s in Key West, Florida.  He helped name the place and they hold look-alike contests to this day.  The 35th annual Papa look-alike contest will be held in July this year.

Sunset Surfer:

1 shot Jagermeister, 1 shot Malibu coconut rum, pineapple juice.  Fill a tall tumbler with ice, add booze and top up with juice.

El Floridita in Havana, Cuba.  Hemingway loved Daiquiri’s and El Floridita’s motto is ‘la cura del daiquiri’ (the cradle of the daiquiri) so it’s no surprise that it was almost like a second home to him while he lived in the Hotel Ambos Mundos from 1932 – 1939.  A life size bronze statue of Papa has pride of place at the end of the bar and if you look carefully you will see there is a photo of him with Fidel Castro on the wall.

Havana Beach Daiquiri:

1 shot Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, 1 shot Grand Marnier, 1 shot orange vodka, pineapple juice.  Salt rim on cocktail glass, fill with ice, add booze, top up with juice and garnish with Thai basil or a slice of lime.

Harry’s Bar in Venice.  Apart from Hemingway, Harry’s bar was frequented by many notable patrons like Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Truman Capote and Orson Welles. 

Bellini:

100 ml (2 parts) dry sparkling wine like Prosecco, 50 ml (1 part) fresh peach puree.  If peaches are out of season peach nectar can be substituted.  Pour puree into the bottom of a champagne flute, add sparkling wine and stir gently.












Cheers bitches!
GeeGee Curtained x

‘An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools’ ~ Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 - July 2, 1961) 

Cocktail Hour - Janis Joplin

Born Janis Lyn Joplin in Port Arthur, Texas, she always felt like an outcast and her mother was once quoted as saying that Janis was never happy with the amount of attention she received at home.  Janis, who became known as Pearl among her friends in later years, was a misfit in high school who escaped into painting and music.  From a young age Janis was obsessed with blues and styled herself as a blues heroine.  In 1963 she moved to San Francisco and around this time her drug use increased to the point that she became so skeletal that in 1965 friends threw a ‘bus fare’ party for her so that she could return home.  Back in Port Arthur she changed her lifestyle dramatically, avoiding drugs and alcohol and enrolling in University to study anthropology.  The lure of music was very strong so she would travel to Austin to perform solo over weekends and in 1965 she recorded seven studio tracks which were re-issued in 1995 labelled ‘This is Janis Joplin 1965’.  In June 1966 she was recruited to join psychedelic rock band ‘Big Brother and the Holding Company’ and she moved back to San Francisco.  She stayed clean for several weeks and made the band promise that needles would not be used in their rehearsal space or her apartment.  In August 1966 while the band were recording an album in Chicago she relapsed back into drinking.  As the band made a name for themselves over the next few years they were often referred to by the media as ‘Janis Joplin and the Big Brother Holding Company’ which caused resentment within the band, eventually leading to their split in 1968.  Joplin formed a new backup group ‘The Kozmic Blues Band’ and they reached quite a bit of success with their ‘Kozmic Blues’ album going gold, although it didn’t quite match the success of ‘Cheap Thrills’ that she recorded with the Holding Company.

Joplin was the ultimate hippie chick, embracing free love in all its forms and although she had male lovers she also had a relationship with long term friend Peggy Caserta.  Always the non-conformist she had her Porsche painted in psychedelic colours which gave purists hives, not that she gave a damn.  When Joplin was invited to perform at Woodstock in 1969 she had never heard of the festival before despite the organisers advertising her as a headlining act.  The band were flown in by helicopter and had a 10 hour wait backstage where Janis shot heroin after freaking out when she saw the massive crowds outside.  She was more comfortable playing intimate venues so when she eventually went onstage she was drunk and high and kept asking the audience if they were staying stoned.  Her voice was hoarse and wheezy and she found it hard to dance and reports say that she was very unhappy with her performance that night, so unhappy that she insisted her singing was not included in the documentary or the soundtrack album.  After the band broke up at the end of 1969 Janis went to Brazil and stopped her drug use but after returning to the US many believe it was her romantic relationship with Peggy Caserta that set her back on her path of intravenous drug use.  Caserta claimed in her book that they decided to stay away from each other in an effort to stop using heroin but despite that Janis Joplin eventually overdosed on heroin in a hotel room in October 1970.  What a waste of an amazingly gifted soul.

Janis Joplin’s tipple of choice was Southern Comfort so I've chosen a couple of recipes to share with you.

LOUISIANA JAM JAR

1 tot Southern Comfort

20ml lemon juice

20ml apple juice

2 teaspoons apricot jam

8 mint leaves

15ml sugar syrup

Put the ingredients in a jam jar, muddle, half fill with crushed ice, screw the jars cap on and shake.  Top up with crushed ice and garnish with a lemon wedge.

CAJUN THUNDER

1 tot Southern Comfort

Splash of cranberry juice

Dash of Tabasco

Shake and strain into shot glass.  If like me you don’t have the patience just make a whole lot in a cocktail shaker in one go.

SCARLETT O’HARA PITCHER

1 and ¼ cups Southern Comfort

5 cups cranberry juice

330ml soda water

30ml lime cordial

Mix all the ingredients in a pitcher, add ice and garnish with lime slices.

Cheers bitches!

GeeGee Curtained x

‘People, whether they like it or not, like their blues singers miserable.  They like their blues singers to die afterwards.’ ~ Janis Joplin (19 January 1943 – 4 October 1970)

Cocktail Hour - Winston Churchill

Since it's hubby's birthday this weekend I'm inviting one of his favourite historical people to our fantasy cocktail party in the sky. The man who kicked Germany’s ass with a hip flask in his pocket - Winston Churchill. Winston Leonard Churchill-Spencer was born into the aristocratic family of the Dukes of Marlborough and his mother was an American socialite. Winston’s parents did what most aristocrats did in those days – they left the business of raising their son to a nanny he called ‘Old Woom’. Rebellious and independent by nature he was a difficult student and the first book his governess managed to get him to finish was called ‘Reading Without Tears’. He had a very poor academic record and was often punished which just goes to show how independent thinking can get one into trouble and he is the poster child for showing that a bad academic record does not necessarily mean failure later in life.

When Winston Churchill’s father died aged 45 he left Winston with the conviction that he would die young too and he’d better get on with making his mark on the world early in life. He started his career by applying to the Royal Military College in Sandhurst, failing the entrance exam 3 times even though he applied to join the cavalry rather than the infantry which was expected of him, simply because the grade expectations were lower and it did not require maths, which he disliked intensely.  The annual income, even combined with his allowance from the family trust, was far too little for a man of his extravagant tastes so he turned his attentions to becoming a war correspondent and soon he was making quite a significant amount of money on the side. Born with a speech impediment that some say was a severe stutter but in truth was only a lisp, Churchill had special dentures made to help his speech once he became a public figure. We all know who he was so I’m not going to bore anyone – or myself – writing about his political career and so on, if you really are interested in all that I have one word: Google. At age 90, 9 days after suffering a severe stroke he died on 24 January 1965, 70 years to the day after his father’s death.  He more than lived up to his own expectations of leaving his mark on the world.  Historian, Nobel Prize winner, Artist, Prime Minister, Writer, amateur bricklayer, butterfly breeder and the first person to become an Honorary Citizen of the United States, he lived life on his own terms and will forever be remembered for refusing to surrender.

Winston always liked to take a drink and legend has it that he suggested to his Colonel that he should see more of the war and asked to be sent to the front lines in World War 1 because battalion headquarters was dry and he didn’t have much taste for the tea and condensmilk they drank, but alcohol was permitted in the trenches.  That never changed – toward the end of his life he was once asked by an MP at a formal event if he would like a cup of tea, to which he infamously replied, ‘Don’t be a bloody fool, I want a large glass of whiskey.’  Guess it’s pretty obvious what his tipple of choice was.  He always preferred it neat but I looked for a few refreshing cocktails that could be delish in this hot weather we’re having.

LADY SHIRLEY

The grown up version of a Shirley Temple this makes me thirsty just looking at the ingredients.

1 ½ tots good bourbon

1 tot grenadine

1 ½ tots lemon juice

Soda Water

Lemon peel for garnish

Combine bourbon, lemon juice and grenadine in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously (work those arms ladies).  Pour into tall glass over ice, top with soda water and garnish with a curl of lemon peel.

ROYAL BALMORAL PUNCH

Since Winston had expensive taste and also seeing as my Gentledyke likes to have ‘tea parties’ with fancy cups filled with Jack Daniels and Coke I thought this recipe was quite fitting.

3 tots Glenfiddich 21 year old Single Malt Scotch Whiskey

1 tot tea syrup*

2 tots fresh Granny Smith apple juice

Champagne

Lemonade

Add the scotch, tea syrup and apple juice to a fancy teacup and add an ice cube.  Top with equal amounts of champagne and lemonade and garnish with a slice of lemon.  This recipe can be multiplied in a punch bowl for a crowd.

*Tea syrup

I cup of hot strong brewed English Breakfast tea

I cup sugar

Stir the sugar into the tea until it has melted and refrigerate.

SATAN’S CIRCUS

Gentledyke said this was one of her favourite whiskey cocktails so I got the recipe from her and am most definitely going to give it a try. I know from personal experience that she makes a mean cocktail!

2 tots whiskey

1 tot cherry liqueur

½ tot Tabasco sauce

½ tot lemon juice

Shake the ingredients together and serve over crushed ice.

Cheers bitches!

GeeGee x

‘You have enemies? Good. That means you have stood up for something, sometime in your life’ ~ Winston Leonard Churchill-Spencer 

(30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965)

Cocktail Hour - Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed

Because it’s Halloween I decided to have Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed (also known as the Blood Countess and Countess Dracula) as our guest for our fantasy cocktail party this month. Born in Hungary on the 7^th of August 1560, her childhood was anything but normal. She was instructed in Witchcraft and Satanism by her nursemaid who reportedly sacrificed children for their blood and bones, her aunt introduced her to sadomasochism and her cousin was Prince Stephen of Transylvania who was well known for his savagery and is just one example scholars have used as evidence of the derangement in the Báthory family’s lineage. Reputed to be a lesbian, a witch and one of the first true vampires she is reviled as the worst serial killer and the cruelest monster in history - said to have murdered more than 650 young girls.

After she was impregnated by a local peasant boy she was married to Count Nadady at the age of 15 and they settled into Csejthe Castle where the Count reportedly built a torture chamber to please his wife, perhaps because of her legendary beauty. She would spend hours each day admiring herself in the mirror and demanded constant praise. Her vanity and narcissism were only overshadowed by her cruelty and pettiness - if a maidservant made made the slightest mistake she would be sent to the dungeons where Elizabeth would take great sexual pleasure in tying girls up and torturing them; jamming pins under their fingernails, whipping them, cutting them, burning them and smearing their naked bodies with honey so that bees and ants would attack them. One young girl had her hands and breasts chopped off for stealing a pear! 

Although the Count participated in her deviant activities and taught her how to freeze the girls to death in the winter by pouring water over their bodies until they hardened and froze to the ground as well as teaching her the art of beating them until they were on the brink of death, many believe he restrained her too because after his death in the early 1600's she became far worse. She would rape the girls with sharp objects, shove oiled paper between their legs and set it on fire, force them into performing deviant sexual acts with her, sew their mouths shut, cut off their fingers, stretch their mouths so wide that the skin would split all along their jaws, bite chunks out of the girls and make them watch her eat their flesh and sometimes even force them to strip their own flesh and make them eat it. One of her favourite activities was draining their blood to drink and bathe in it because she believed it kept her young. She was not alone in her activities, one of her cohorts was a nobleman with long dark hair and very pale skin and many believed that he was Count Dracula himself.

At first her victims were all peasant girls and despite reports of all the missing girls in the area authorities were turning a blind eye because she was of royal blood; that is until girls from noble families started disappearing and eventually during the Christmas season of 1610 King Matthias ll of Hungary sent a party of men to investigate. The men were very careful and took a priest along with them as they had been told that she was a witch and could put spells on them but what they discovered was horrifying. Upon entering the castle the first thing that hit them was the smell of decomposition and in every room they ventured through they found bodies of young girls drained of blood. Some girls were barely alive, and chained to posts showing signs of intense torture, some missing limbs and eyes. They had all been tortured and ‘bled’. While half the men helped lead the captives out the rest went higher up into the castle and found an enormous orgy room where the Countess was caught right in the middle of her foul activities. Her cohorts were put on trial and their punishments included being beheaded, burned at the stake and being buried alive. Because she was a royal she was never put on trial but locked up in a tower of her own castle that only had slits for air and food and she was found dead there 4 years later. Or so they say…

Obviously the thought of drinking blood is rather gag-worthy so I’m using cocktails that look a bit on the gory side this month…

BLEEDING HEART MARTINI

60 ml dry vermouth

250 ml premium gin

Ice cubes

4 pickled baby beets, each placed on a cocktail skewer

Chill 4 martini glasses in the freezer or fill with ice water and let sit until frosty, about 5 minutes (pour out water). Add the vermouth, dividing evenly; swirl to coat the glasses, and then pour out. Add gin to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously until chilled; divide among chilled glasses. Garnish each with a skewered pickled baby beet, and serve immediately.

RED SANGRIA

1 cup brandy

1 orange (ends cut off), thinly sliced

1 red apple, halved and thinly sliced

2 bottles well-chilled dry red wine, such as Rioja or red Zinfandel

1 cup soda water

3/4 cup fresh orange juice

In a large pitcher, stir together brandy, orange and apple slices. Let stand 15 minutes. Add wine, club soda, and orange juice. Serve over ice.

SLIME RICKEYS

2 cups seedless green grapes

2 cups sugar

1 cup fresh lime juice (from about 10 limes)

8 cups soda WATER

1 cup gin

Freeze grapes until firm, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, stir together sugar and lime juice; bring to a boil. Simmer until sugar has dissolved and liquid is syrupy, for about 2 minutes. Let cool completely, about 30 minutes. In a punch bowl or pitcher, stir together lime syrup, club soda, frozen grapes, and gin. Serve immediately.

PINA GHOULADA

FOR THE "BLOOD"

3 tablespoons corn syrup

1/4 teaspoons red food coloring

FOR THE DRINK

600 ml pineapple juice

1 can cream of coconut

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 cup orange juice

100 ml good-quality rum

Pour the corn syrup in a shallow bowl. Dip a toothpick into the food coloring, and stir a very small amount into the syrup to combine. Hold a glass by the stem, dip rim into the syrup mixture, and turn glass, coating entire rim. Turn the glass upright, allowing mixture to drip down sides. Dip the remaining glasses. Set aside.

Whisk together drink ingredients. Place 2 1/2 cups ice in a blender, and add 1 cup drink mixture. Blend until smooth; add more pineapple juice if mixture is too thick. Repeat with remaining ice and mixture. Carefully pour into prepared glasses; serve.

Cheers Bitches!!

GeeGee Curtained xx

‘Time has no respect for beauty’ ~ Elizabeth Báthory

7 August 1560 – 21 August 1614