Cooling Cocktail

As you may imagine, after all the insanity and stress from earlier this week, as A. and I finally headed home on Wednesday evening, I was sorely in need of a nice glass of white wine or a cocktail. I'm not a big drinker, but sometimes, you really just need a little something to unwind with. It was also about 95 degrees outside. Perfect Mojito weather.

A. was only too happy to oblige, and we stopped off for some white rum on the way. We were practically on our doorstep before I realized we didn't have any mint--kind of a problem if you're making a classic Mojito. Neither of us wanted to stop again, so we decided to experiment with what we had. There was a lime and a few lemons in the fridge, and I'd just snatched up a huge bunch of basil from the organic farm. Well, lemon and basil go together...

I left the mixology to A. (who is very good at it) while I raided the fridge for leftovers to scrape together for dinner. He did an excellent job, all things considered. If there's ever a Top Mixologist show on Bravo, he should check it out. I think this is one we'll definitely keep tweaking (I would have liked the basil flavor to come through just a bit more). What do you think? Any suggestions for improvement or favorite drinks of your own?

Lemon-Basil Mojito

4 large basil leaves

2 tsp sugar

1 1/4-2 oz white rum (A. "eyeballed" the rum--probably why I started feeling the drink so quickly, so I'm just going with the classic proportions here)

1 1/2 lemons, cut into quarters

ice cubes

club soda

Cut the pulp from the peel of the 1/2 lemon. Discard peel.

Place basil leaves, sugar, lemon pulp, and lemon quarters in a tall glass. Muddle until the pulp is fairly well squashed

Add rum and ice cubes. Top with club soda.