It's Noon Somewhere….The Grasshopper

Readers may be surprised to learn that La Femme wasn't always a cocktail maven. In fact, I didn't have my first drink until I was completely legal, on my 21st birthday in Victoria, Canada (I got wasted on two margaritas and almost got a tattoo,  luckily K talked me out of a tramp stamp).  But that wasn't my first time making a cocktail, oh no.  My one act of high school rebellion involved me making a White Russian for a classmate (who, obviously, influenced by the impeccable taste of The Dude wanted to try his favorite drink).  And while, I am not making a White Russian for you today, The Grashopper, its sweeter and richer cousin always makes me think of that day.  Don't worry Mom and Dad, I may have made the drink but my lips didn't touch it.

A Grasshopper is a drink I had heard of but never tried until one night K and I went to my favorite Seattle speakeasy Knee High Stocking Co.  I heard the bartender describe it as a Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream in drink form and I thought "I'm Interested!".  Anyone who knows La Femme knows that Mint Choclate Chip Ice Cream is my jam!  I would rather have it than almost any other dessert known to man.  And so, I tasted the forbidden fruit and loved it!  What I didn't love was the absolutely sinful amount of calories that I knew I was ingesting... even a cocktail aficionado has to watch her figure!

So, The Grasshopper became a special occasion kind of drink for me and Christmas is the perfect time to bust out that mint green treat.  No liquor has lasted me longer than the Creme de Menthe and White Creme de Cacao needed for this sweet concoction.  And the drink couldn't be easier to make with equal parts of those liquors and some heavy cream (it's Christmas, Indulge! We'll worry about fitting into our pants in January).  

The Grasshopper

1 oz White Creme de Cacao

1 oz Creme de Menthe

1 oz Heavy Cream

Mix all three ingredients in a cocktail shaker with lots of ice.  The Grasshopper must be served ice cold! Serve in a chilled martini glass.

If you ask me, this is an ideal Christmas Eve cocktail or Christmas Day dessert.  Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

Julie

La Femme Recommends...Pitch Perfect

I know, I know,  another movie with musical numbers. I'm so sorry.  I can't help it.  In fact, I never planned on writing about Pitch Perfect, Jason Moore's 2012 debut, about a misfit group of a cappella singers competing in a college singing competition.  I never thought I'd write about it because I figured I'd eventually convince K to watch it and he would probably hate it and I'd probably love it because it was so bad, yet so much fun.  That isn't exactly how it happened.  K didn't hate it and it wasn't that bad at all, it was actually funny, engaging and charming!   So here it is, my completely expected recommendation of Pitch Perfect.

Pitch Perfect is fun, Pitch Perfect is silly, Pitch Perfect will make you laugh and dance in your seat.  It will remind you how great a song "No Diggity" really is. And in order to experience Pitch Perfect the way God intended it to be seen, you need to watch it with your preferred adult beverage in your hand for the entire 112 minute running time. Anna Kendrick is Becca, a college freshman (a la Beverly Hills 90210, every person in this films seems at least 25)  who is has a fantastic voice but has absolutely no interest in joining The Barden Bellas, the schools all female a cappella group. All she wants is to drop out of college and move to L.A. to become a D.J. but her professor dad makes her a deal; if she gives it her all her freshman year he will support her in L.A. the next year.  That leads her to reluctantly join the recently shamed and woefully out of touch Bellas.  They can't compete with the all male a cappella group, the Treble Makers, who are worshipped by everyone (in the a cappella community!).  Becca starts a tentative romance with one of the Trebles,  Jesse (Skylar Astin, who Girls fans will recognize and immediately say," OMG that is the guy who THAT to Shosh! " This is a family blog, Google it.) and learns to love and eventually lead the Barden Bellas . Sounds a little silly, obvious and cliche, right?

The surprise for me (and K, I have totally caught him watching Pitch Perfect on cable) was how cleverly Pitch Perfect took every expectation I had for the movie, and subverted it in in a silly, knowing but not too ironic way.  The movie is clever, cutting and even a little dirty at times.  Pitch Perfect manages to have the (pitch) perfect tone: irreverent but sincere.  Of course, I can't complete this review without mentioning the entire reason I watched the movie to begin with: the singing, duh.  And the musical numbers completely deliver, but as I was re- watching this movie to write this up, I was surprised at how caught up I got in the story and the other parts of the movie.  That isn't to say that the a cappella performances aren't the highlight of the film, they are.  They are a riot and executed with just the right amounts of grace and sass.

Anna Kendrick is generally not one of my favorite performers but she dialed her chipperness back just enough and the slightly cynical character tempered some of her cloying sweetness.  Skyler Astin was adorable, dorky and suave in the same moments (once I stopped picturing him with his face in Zosia Mamet's crotch) and I liked how his organic chemistry with Kendrick. The scene of them watching a movie together was surprisingly sexy and I loved the little moment at the end that echoes both The Breakfast Club (explicitly) and Singin' in the Rain (implicitly).  I'll admit it, Pitch Perfect kind of made me cry in that moment. Finally, Rebel Wilson as Fat Amy is my everything.

I will end with K's thoughts. As I was rewatching the movie for this post K was heading to law school and he said: "I better go or I'm going to start watching this and skip class".  That's quite an endorsement coming from a bitter, cynical, man.

Julie

P.S Pitch Perfect would be a great stocking stuffer K!