Getting "Ginny" With It!

Ah, booze. Many of us have fond and not so fond memories of booze. Well, this month I created a new event series with my group called, "TGIF", Thank God It's Friday. With my TGIF events, I highlight a specific liquor or spirit that we learn about, mix drinks with and well, celebrate the start of the weekend.

I hosted my first TGIF event tonight and the booze du jour was Gin. I wasn't exactly sure how I was to structure this event, because really, I just wanted to hang loose. Some of my events are very structured where there is a definite education aspect but tonight I winged it.... and I'm go glad I did. Rather than boring folks with the history and details about gin or providing demos of how to make certain drinks using gin, I opened it up for folks to experiment.

I provided 3 types of gin & a vermouth, carbonated beverages, fruit nectars & juices and ice. It was a chance for folks to get hands on and concoct their own drinks and play with ingredients they may not have had the chance to try on their own.

To start everyone off with a drink, I made this drink on the fly, which I'll call Joelen's Gin Refresher:

1 part Tanqueray Rampur
2 parts mango nectar
highball filled with ice
ginger ale

Fill highball with ice. Combine gin & nectar; stir.
Pour mixture over ice and top with ginger ale.

For dinner, we had a hodge podge of eats that folks brought in and some of which I prepared:

Crab Canapes from Yumi:

Dip/Spread Trio of Goat Cheese Olive Tapenade,
Cilantro Cream and Blue Cheese Spread
from Louis (aka Joelen):

Pumpernickel Cucumber Squares from Curtis:

Fresh Pita & Hummus from Ruby & Joe
and Baba Ganhoush from Teresa:

Dubliner Irish Cheese Platter from Ann:

Sauteed Veggies w/Truffle Salt from Joelen:

Garden Salad from Joelen:

Broccoli Quiche from Charity & Garrett:

Vietnamese Shrimp Salad from Linda:

Cheese Tortellini w/Vegetable Ragu from Joelen:

Chicken Alfredo Bake from Joelen:

Baklava Platter from Ruby & Joe:

Cherry Tartletts from Joelen:

Chocolate Ganache Tart from Harv:

Strawberry Angelfood Cake Salad from Nancy:

After dinner we played a round of Foodie Fight and awarded the prize of the night...

And we rocked out the end of the night with some Guitar Hero on the Wii!