It’s been a while since either of us stayed out a little too late on Macdougal St, overindulged in cheap beer and stumbled into Mamoun’s in the wee hours of the morning. In other words, since our daughter Parker came, we haven’t really ‘celebrated’ St. Patrick’s Day. This year, as soon as she says her final ‘night-night’ I’ll be dashing off to the kitchen to start start muddling mint of the ultimate grown-up, green cocktail. We shook up batch after batch of these over the weekend during our Couples Cooking Class- Cocktail Party. All of our students went wild for them, saying they were like a ‘sophisticated mojito.’ So if guys in tight green, popped color polos and over-sized shamrock sunglasses turn you off like they they do us, stay in for the night and release your inner bartender.

The Clover Cocktail
 makes 2 drinks


6 fresh mint leaves
1 teaspoon sugar
3 ounces gin
6 ounces white grapefruit juice
ice cubes


Place the mint leaves and sugar in a cocktail shaker. Muddle until the sugar is dissolved and mint leaves are finely ground. Pour in the gin, fill the shaker with ice, and stir well. Add the grapefruit juice and shake to chill thoroughly. Strain into martini glasses.