Recipe: Consoling Daiquiri

  My husband and I are big sports fans.  More specifically, we're big baseball fans, and to be even more specific we are extremely enamored of the New York Yankees baseball team.  We rarely miss a televised game, especially now that we've got a DVR and can watch them on our schedule, and we're amassing a fairly impressive collection of Yankee merchandise.  As I sit here typing this I'm wrapped in a Yankee throw, with my Yankee pajamas on, looking at a framed picture of Reggie Jackson hitting a home run for inspiration. 

The thing about baseball is, well, there are a lotof games, and no team can win them all.  Sometimes my beloved Yankees actually lose.  And sometimes they lose big.  This recipe, and the tradition that comes with it, comes from one of those unpleasant occasions.  Our buddy Terrence was over.  Terrence is a fellow expatriate New Yorker and Yankee fan, and is one of the few people in Boston with whom we can watch games.  At any rate, in a game that the Yankees should have had locked up by the second inning, they got completely blown out.  It was miserable.  It was like watching major leaguers take on a little league team.  We'd been drinking beer, but by the third inning Terrence looked at me and said, "I think we need a little something stronger." 

At the time, we had daiquiri mix in the freezer.  It was no big deal to run upstairs, throw some in the blender and whip up some frozen consolation.  Of course, as time has gone on, I no longer keep frozen daiquiri mix in the house (I think it was left over from a party we threw) and daiquiris have become a traditional beverage for when our sports team of choice is really choking.  Baseball is the most common, because it's the sport that most arouses our passions, but the other day I broke these out for college basketball.  My hometown team, the Syracuse Orange, had made it to the Sweet 16.  They didn't look like they belonged there when they played Oklahoma.  While there were a few bright spots, Oklahoma pretty well owned them from the time the ball first hit the floor.  I moaned.  I groaned.  I cursed.  And then I made daiquiris. 

These will serve anywhere from 2 - 6 people, depending on the size of your glasses.  Feel free to mess around with the fruits.  I prefer strawberries, mangoes, peaches, blackberries or raspberries, in that order, but if you really feel the need to make a kiwi-dragonfruit daiquiri to mourn the fate of your favorite team, so be it.  If none of the fruits I like are in season, I'll use frozen fruit.  I'm told that I make them strong, so be warned and adjust to your personal needs.  Fresh fruits work better.  Oh, and don't skimp on the rum and use that paint thinner that they sell on the bottom shelf in a plastic tub.  I like Bacardi for this - plain old light rum, no spices or flavorings added. 

I felt that I should post this as we prepare to (finally) enter another season of Yankee baseball.  We've got a great team put together and I'm feeling pretty confident, but anything can happen in baseball. 

Consoling Daiquiri (serves 2 - 6; cost per serving incalculable but includes dashed hopes and lost playoff dreams.)

2 pints crushed ice, divided

1 quart fresh, tasty strawberries, stemmed and quartered

2/3 cup light rum

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon lime juice

Equipment:

• Blender
• A second baseman who can't field a routine pop fly

1. Pour one pint of crushed ice into the blender.  (You can use cubes if that's all you have, but do this too often with cubes and you'll blow your motor out.)
2. Add the strawberries, rum, sugar and lime juice.
3. Pour the second pint of crushed ice on top of the first.
4. Blend until you have the consistency that best suits you.  You shouldn't be able to see many big chunks of strawberries, though.
5. Serve.  Garnish with a strawberry, if you're feeling so inclined. 

Comments

[Jeff]

I came here just to say go cubbies....Sorry midwestern boy and the cubbies will always hold a spot in my heart and well about the Yankees mom always taught me if you don't have anything nice to say then shut up and sit there :-)

The daiquiris look awesome and a couple of those can kill a bad season (trust me as a Cubs fan I spent my 20s drunk all summer long to numb the pain).

[Fearless Kitchen]

I've got a lot of respect for the Cubs, actually, although when I was in Chicago I couldn't get tickets to Wrigley. We're huge baseball fans here - not just Yankee fans - and a great historic franchise like the Cubs is always fun to watch. And now that they've got Sweet Lou... well....

Of course, we shouldn't need to make daiquiris on opening day. I know there's a lot of baseball left to play, but really...