Cocktail of the Week -- Turkey Day Edition



Three hundred and eighty four years ago, Western immigrants and native Americans sat down to a feast to celebrate the autumn harvest. What is not known by many is that much of the food served barely resembles what we place on our tables for Thanksgiving dinner.

Historians tell us that wild turkey may have been on the menu, but no ham or chicken. Instead, there was seafood, game birds and wild game. Sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie were not possible. Corn may have been served, but it would not be the corn on the cob so many of us enjoy today. Nuts, vegetables and fruit would have been plentiful.

It's doubtful that the early celebrants partook in wine or some other alcohol. But since we are taking about conservative Puritan types, this may have taken place in secret -- much like a Baptist wedding, where men gather outside around an open car trunk.

Oh, if they only knew what we know today. They could have put some of that corn to good use! Which brings us to this installment of the BaT Cocktail of the Week: The Gobble-Gobble.

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz. Wild Turkey (of course)
1/2 oz. applejack (apple brandy)
1 tsp. Rose's sweetened lime juice (buy the bottle, regular lime juice will not mix well)
4 oz. cranberry juice

Instructions

Fill a tall glass half-full of ice, add ingredients and stir. Garnish with a lime wedge, if desired.

In the meantime, check out this page of Thanksgiving myths and impress -- or annoy -- your guests with your Turkey Day knowledge. A Happy (and possibly tipsy) Thanksgiving to you all!