The Search for Miss Direction: An Inspired Martini

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

An Inspired Martini

I struggle with ways to come up for the kids to share in the celebrations on days that are for alcoholic drinks as opposed to some kind of food. Case in point, today is National Dry Martini Day. And while Grant might be very excited to partake today, something that is 5 parts gin to 1 part dry vermouth isn't very kid friendly. And Lord knows I try! On a whim, even knowing the 'recipe' for a dry martini I googled "virgin martini" the other day. A picture of a cocktail glass with a green olive in it came up. Okay, made me giggle and I got the point.

So just as I was about to throw the towel in on the kids celebrating today (we almost celebrated papayas today, as it is one of the 'monthly' food celebrations) I stumbled across a recipe for green olive martini chicken. Like the name suggests, it contained the components of a martini - gin, vermouth and green olives. Plus I knew the majority of the alcohol would burn off and the kids could partake too. Excellent!

I have to admit that I was surprised with the outcome of the dish. I figured that even if the could partake the flavors may be a little too sophisticated even for my kid foodies palates. But as usual when I worry, my two surprised me. While Kayla did eat it all without any complaints, Noah raved yet again about how much he liked the chicken. (It got incredibly high marks on his ranking scale which I have yet to figure out. I think he said 98 but I'm not sure 98 out of what...) Grant, who did get to have an actual martini with dinner as well, also said this was a definite 'make again' meal. So my 'problem' turned out to be a hit - excellent!

The highlight of our day, though (which also contained a grocery shopping trip where Noah insisted that Mikayla is too big to ride in the 'baby' seat which led to both of them walking, which led to both of them getting wiped out by the cart at different points of the excursion...) was the concert at the Pavilion tonight. The family friendly group Gemini provided a stellar multi-cultural concert that all of us had a blast at. Free kid size beach balls for Noah and Kayla - bonus. Noah and Kayla running into one of their friends from the library - Double Bonus. Gemini playing and Kayla and I singing to "Sinknamarink" - Triple Bonus. City of Farmington Hills and the library who was in charge of the co-ordination of the vent, once again, hats off.

Bummed the Tigers lost (not even going to comment on Valverde here I am so over it) but you can't win them all I suppose. Grant is waiting anxiously for 9pm as it's Mythbusters followed by the premiere of the final season of Futurama. Dude has been waiting all week for this :-p I'm off to work on a couple of projects around here. Pavillion story time and Vanilla milkshakes tomorrow! Until then...

Green Olive Martini Chicken

Dry Martini

Yes, I realize this is a margarita glass and not a martini glass, but I swear I had a martini glass and couldn't find it. I'm sure it still tasted the same...