THE AMERICAN COCKTAIL is the first book from the visionary writers of IMBIBE MAGAZINE. the staff combed the country for the most creative cocktails to include in one concise hard-covered collection in lieu of their usual monthly glossy. if you haven’t noticed as of yet, bartending is hot. in the last month alone i’ve gotten three requests to teach the skills of the trade to curious beginners. i don’t think there’s anyone who wouldn’t appreciate this book as a stocking stuffer. (CHRONICLE $20)

you know when things just come together perfectly? like your day off and perfect weather? like a yard sale and your long lost trinket? like peanut butter and jelly? like thousands of people sandwiching themselves into tiny liberty square, peacefully and gracefully? when we stand as one, we are greater than the sum of our parts, we are perfection amplified. just… like p b & j. OCCUPY: WE ARE THE 99%

is it a coinkidink that OCCUPY kicked off the same time as mothers by the thousands packed pb & j’s in their kid’s lunch boxes? or that OCCUPY started during the month of VIRGO, the sign of purity, truth and honor? or that the movement to reclaim our freedom kicked off in a square named LIBERTY? or that dogs LOVE peanut butter? who knows… but i do know that this fun cocktail is a quiet way to acknowledge what will become known as the SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION that birthed the FIRST WORLD REVOLUTION.

P B & J FREEZE

2 oz red wine
2 bar spoons grape jelly
2 bar spoons creamy peanut butter
1/4 oz agave nectar
ice

puree ingredients in blender. then add ice until the desired consistency is reached. serve in a goblet and garnish with a concord, or similarly colored, grape.

i’ve signed on as Brotherhood Winery’s Expert Mixologist! Brotherhood Winery is the oldest winery in America. Really. They were actually open during prohibition! An easy hour drive from new york city, the tours, tastings and wine selection at this winery are truly fabulous. I enjoy mixing with wine because the libations tend to be lighter and fresher than their spirit-based counterparts. There is also the added layer of the wine’s personality to work with. I prefer to keep my drinks simple, so they can be easily enjoyed by everyone. The trick is to combine only a few ingredients that work magic together. Visit BROTHERHOOD-WINERY.COM for my wine-based cocktail recipes also listed below. Please enjoy!

Hibiscus Pomegranate Sangria
(this red sangria is a best seller at Brooklyn-based mexican restaurant, COMIDA MERCADO FRESCO.

Green Tea Sangria
(my white sangria is also served at COMIDA. the green tea makes it uber refreshing.

Acai Fizz

Bubbly Pisco Sour

Marigold Lemonade Spritzer

Brother Shandy

Lychee Surprise

Gwen’s life-long interest in the occult, combined with her love for unusual libations, led her to found Intoxicated Zodiac in 2007. As a Cocktail consultant, her recipes are featured in print and online publications; and in area bars and restaurants. Using the skills she learned as a New York bartender, Gwen regularly holds parties and classes where she teaches Astrology Mixology. Live Healthy, Imbibe Wisely, Love Freely, Cheers!

Hello again dear IZ Readers! I have been away for quite a while and have missed being here in the starry, shaken and stirred world of our lovely and intrepid Gwen. For reasons that shall be clear shortly, I missed out on tippling with you in February, so this month I am giving you not only one recipe for your use and enjoyment, but two! This month I give you the medicinal and the indulgent, which spans the particular Zodiac traits we’ve encountered since I’ve visited with you last.

It seems that the transition from the thoughtful and ordered daydreaming governed by Aquarius to the highly emotional and occasionally volatile aspects of Pisces has hammered many of us between the eyes with slews of interpersonal and immediate environmental mishaps, catastrophes and other sundry difficulties. And waiting in the wings later in March is, of course, another chaotic transition into the just-as-volatile-in-a-different-way demeanor that signifies Aries. (cool appletini painting $650)

One would think that with the past month being absolutely filled with much gray, dreary, cold and inhospitable weather, the best course of action would be to curl up in bed with a good book and stay there.

Until Spring.

While I highly endorse this course of action it was neither practical nor desirable for me to do so, and while I’m sure many of you found the same to be true, I’m sure you also found that Mother Nature sometimes takes it in hand to give a bit of an assist to the notion of staying in bed. When we push too hard, do too much, cram too much activity into too little time and space, there are consequences. Sometimes these are dire, but more often they are inconvenient and just plain yucky.

In short, dear readers, I got sick during the cusp in February. Completely and utterly miserable with throat and sinus wars raging I was unpleasant to be near from the standpoint of noise pollution alone, not to mention feeling as though there was a cubic yard of cotton stuffed in my head, neck and chest cavity. Organic or conventional notwithstanding, Best Beloved reminded me that the surest way to get rid of my “congestion cotton” was to employ a tried and true recipe for the Hot Toddy. (photo)

I put great stock by this one. This recipe helped me heal my throat following invasive surgery (swordswallowers have bad days at work too, after all), and my swordswallowing mentor, Red Stuart swears by it as well. I have used it to great healing effect for friends, family, colleagues and neighbors on and off the road. I still have friends contact me to clarify this recipe for them every winter during flu season. It is powerful and it is effective. Use wisely.

The Cocktail Sword’s Hot Toddy

In a coffee or tea mug mix the following:

1 jigger of rum or whiskey (personal preference on this one … )

1 teaspoon of lemon juice

1 tablespoon honey

Fill with boiling water

Drink it while it is as hot as you can stand it without burning your lips. The heat and steam will work wonders for throat and sinuses, the honey and lemon will open breathing passages and the liquor will relax even the most irritated of muscles about the affected areas. For an extra effective cold-arse-kicking concoction, add a ¼ to a half a teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper to the mix. It will make you sweat whatever sickness is lingering right on out.

***gwen advises boiling chopped ginger in the water, and using that water in the toddy. if your throat’s been sore, it will be no more!

When you are recovered and strong and feeling frisky around the imminent arrival of Spring on the Vernal Equinox, some celebratory mixing is most definitely in order. Apples are a favored food of mine this time of year, with all the Eros and Eve implications that go along with them, and I found that while I was working part time behind a bar, the apple was favored among my clientele as well. Washington Apples were a favorite cocktail in the DC Area among lobbyists in particular. Others preferred a lovely spicy piece called the Indian Summer. By far the runaway hit, probably as people geared up for getting out of doors (and for yours truly, the carnival season), was the Appletini. I always did my level best to give my Appletinis a bit of tartness in addition to a bit of circusy sweetness and judging by the number of repeat customers I had who drank almost nothing else during my shifts, I seem to have hit on a wonderful flavor combination.

The Cocktail Sword’s Appletini

2.5 parts Vodka

2 part Sour Apple Pucker

1 part cranberry juice

Half part Midori

A splash Butterscotch Schnapps (optional, but good for that circusy touch)

So dear readers, a recipe to help get you back on your feet and another to sweep you off of them again, just in time for the fiery shifts that Aries brings us in preparation for some Springtime goodness. Enjoy in good health!

Cheers~Charon, The Most Dangerous Beauty Alive
theswordswallowers.com
oddangel.com

Charon Henning is one of a handful of female sword swallowers in the world today. She’s performed on carnival midways and at wine tastings, on theater stages and grassy lots.

Charon also reads tea leaves professionally, a skill she inherited from her grandmother on her mother’s side of the family. Tea-leaf reading is a wonderful and elegant form of entertainment, suitable for many time periods and venues.

Charon loves being on the road seeing new places and meeting new people. Want to catch Charon on the road for her live show? View her tour schedule here. Or, book Charon’s talent for your next event!

And so it begins, another Solar year here at IZ. Hands up, gentle readers, who among you have already stumbled on, broken, or otherwise, like yours truly, completely demolished their New Year’s Resolutions?

I’d like to think we’re in good company. Our human nature makes a perfectly fine and reasonable cause for toasting, don’t you think? Perhaps next year I’ll resolve to get over my growing sense of perfectionism (which, if you saw me typing this entry, you would understand completely. Bless you little spell checker!), but right now I truly believe it is time to let myself off the hook, and for all of you to do the same.
Every day is a good day for new beginnings. We don’t need it to be a Monday or a holiday to start a new project or change a habit. We can empower ourselves by truly stopping to consider our needs and then making desired changes according to the way we understand our minds, bodies and spirits to work. We know them best, after all.
I have had a lot of time to consider this while on the road. I spent the first part of 2010 in the desert, replete with all the silence and saguaros that I could stand, and was able to take the time to step outside of my long-held notions of self in order to find out what changes I truly wished to make, in what order and how important each truly was to my health and happiness.

It is heady stuff, and good food for thought on long hikes to the rare spots of water hidden in the mountains. Once back to the familiar and safe environs of my Silver Twinkie, though, I tend to ruminate on the lighter side of things, and perhaps have a laugh at how very human I am after all.

When I am struck by the humor of such things, and when I need to stop taking myself so very, very seriously, I have been known to put together a lovely and wonderful concoction called the Sake Martini.

In this particular martini manifestation, sake is substituted for vermouth, and being a white wine as well, brings a soothing and feminine quality to a cocktail traditionally associated with drab-suited businessmen seeing just how quickly they can ingest them before returning to the office or, more tellingly, before returning home. While I admire business savvy, I am very particular about what I consider good business savvy. Speedy consumption of good spirits is bad business, IMHO, so the only traditional element I retain in my mixing of martinis is the classic main ingredient: Gin.

[If you prefer vodka martinis I won’t hold it against you, but I’ll forever and steadfastly maintain that you aren’t drinking a martini. You’re drinking vodka in a martini glass.]

Gin is a tricky alcohol in the wide and wonderful world of mixology, and I think it’s probably safe to say that most first time gin samplings end in unmitigated disaster due to it’s very potent, as well as pungent, nature. To further complicate matters, juniper, gin’s reigning ingredient, is a fiery and masculine sort of plant, ruled by the sun. Additionally, the Brothers Grimm identified it with extreme feminine angst (most often applied liberally and vengefully) in their myriad works, so the foundation plant that allows us to have gin has enjoyed a rather confusing and powerful reputation for many generations, one that lingers on our psyches to this very day.

This is why I am particularly fond of one brand of gin amongst all the marvelous offerings out in the world today. Above all others towers the Great Shining Black Pillar that contains none other than Hendrick’s, a gin touted by its makers as both “ridiculously good” and “loved by a select few”, and with good reason, dear readers.
Hendrick’s methodology with one particular ingredient not only calms the fiery rage of sun-ruled juniper, but also makes their gin the perfect foundation alcohol with which to blend an appropriate cocktail for the turning of the Solar year AND the transition in Pisces within the first month. They have added a generous amount of the cooling and calming flavors and effect of cucumber. Being ruled by the moon and having a watery disposition, as well as being best planted during the turn of Pisces in the heavens, cucumber makes the very best partner for the vivacious juniper, and with it, Hendrick’s creates a flavor absolutely unique in the world of gin.

Your choice of sake in the matter is strictly yours. I sometimes prefer unfiltered for a sweeter drink, and it creates a lovely and wonderful snow globe in the martini glass that I’ll get lost in from time to time. Filtered is my main squeeze, though, and I mix them 2 parts gin to 1 part sake in a cocktail shaker full of ice.

Shake, strain, enjoy. It’s a simple as that.

And now, gentle readers, I believe it is time for me to get down to the business of figuring out how best to salvage 2010 from my ridiculous initial batch of resolutions and plotting something more realistic and forgiving for fostering long term change. And, since it’s strictly business, a martini is most definitely in order.

Cheers~Charon, The Most Dangerous Beauty Alive
theswordswallowers.com
oddangel.com

Charon Henning is one of a handful of female sword swallowers in the world today. She’s performed on carnival midways and at wine tastings, on theater stages and grassy lots.

Charon also reads tea leaves professionally, a skill she inherited from her grandmother on her mother’s side of the family. Tea-leaf reading is a wonderful and elegant form of entertainment, suitable for many time periods and venues.

Charon loves being on the road seeing new places and meeting new people. Want to catch Charon on the road for her live show? View her tour schedule here. Or, book Charon’s talent for your next event!

This new year, write down those resolutions! Place them in a box to be opened this time next year with a shaker full of Yule Tide sweetness…

THE YULE TIDE

2 oz. Cranberry Pomegranate juice (Northland, Lakewood and Knudsen all make an excellent organic cran-pom juice blend)

1/2 oz. Orange Juice

1/2 oz. Grand Marnier

Dry champagne of your choosing

Mix first three ingredients in mixer with ice. Chill, shake & pour. Fill remaining space with champagne.

This year, for the first time, I will not have spent either of the traditional family gathering holidays with my immediate family. On Thanksgiving I was with extended family in Southern Louisiana. There was more food than our small army of folks could feasibly handle and a good deal of it left the house with us the following day, packaged securely for transport to northern Alabama, to be delivered to more extended family there. It was humbling, really, that so much abundance was in evidence at both locations. The houses were warm and full of light and family and there was always plenty of food and drink. Even the animals were slightly corpulent from seasonal overfeeding. It was impossible to feel as though one wanted for anything in such environments.

In stark contrast, Christmas will be spent on the road, most likely at a truck stop or someplace similar in the great state of Texas. Oddly, I’m very much looking forward to it because it will afford me the opportunity to reflect on the concept of family.

I’m one of those who has traditionally taken in “orphans” during the holidays, those friends who have no family (either nearby or existing at all) with whom to spend a time which rejoices in such connections. This season, at Christmas, I and my partner and our kitty will be orphans ourselves. We duly signed up for it, planning our time on the road as we did, but we never really stopped to consider the import of spending Christmas on the road. We’ll be certain to see and spend time with other orphans, as we’ll likely go into whatever truck stop we’ve decided to camp in, for tea, warmth, and hoping, I’m sure, with many others for some sort of silent fellowship.

Having family close at hand has been a practical consideration throughout human history, most especially during the winter months when help was needed to make sure food supplies were at the desired levels and the very young and very old were cared for with the extra attention that cold and damp conditions generally make necessary. The idea of several generations of a family sharing living space and resources has become rare in this day and age but we are seeing it spring up anew as we travel these days. Parents asking their college aged children to stay under their roof as long as they would wish, young parents asking their own parents to move in and assist with child rearing, and similar family dynamics that mirror those of days gone by are happening right before our eyes. There are financial considerations at work here, but more importantly, and more easily missed, are the bonds of love and friendship that encourage such decision making.

On the approach of the Winter Solstice, when the nights are at their longest, I can think of no better place to be than with family, be they blood or a family of one’s choosing. It is no mere coincidence that the sun sign being transitioned into is all about family, practical choices, reliability and a firm grounding in all that is necessary for not only surviving, but thriving. This is a time of gathering with those closest to you and deciding what is to be left behind in the Darkness since it either no longer serves you or is acting as negative ballast to keep you from reaching other goals. It is also a time for setting those goals anew, so that they might be nurtured by you as well as your immediate family, growing in strength as the days lengthen and coming to fruition even as the light returns to our lives.

As the sun moves from inventive and spontaneous Sagittarius into the more stable and dependable Capricorn, I and many others, will turn attention to practical matters of family, finance and health. New Year’s Eve is not the only reason we are resolution-minded this time of year. Capricorn’s resoluteness and desire to finish what has been begun also lurks in the sub-currents of our psyche around the Solstice when it begins its ascent in the Zodiac.

Rather that reflect on what we haven’t got or failed to achieve in the previous year, Capricorn urges us to look ahead at what opportunities still exist before us, and what we can do about them. We are encouraged to recall all of the sweetness that this year has afforded us and hold gratitude for each and every bit of it. We are reminded that what is important right now, in this moment, is always right in front of us, and that if we are not diligent in paying attention, we will miss it entirely.

With this in mind, I offer you a dose of the previous year’s sweetness in a wonderful little sparkly concoction I like to call The Yule Tide. Share it with someone close to you or sip it in solitary reflection. Mull over what your definition of family is, for there is no wrong answer. Family is generally where we find it, where we are moved to make an effort to connect with our fellow human beings and other living creatures. And it is mostly about the love that you have for all that you hold dear and your willingness to share it with your particular corner of the world.

May your holidays be filled with warmth and joy and the family of your choosing…

Cheers~Charon, The Most Dangerous Beauty Alive
theswordswallowers.com
oddangel.com

Charon Henning is one of a handful of female sword swallowers in the world today. She’s performed on carnival midways and at wine tastings, on theater stages and grassy lots.

Charon also reads tea leaves professionally, a skill she inherited from her grandmother on her mother’s side of the family. Tea-leaf reading is a wonderful and elegant form of entertainment, suitable for many time periods and venues.

Charon loves being on the road seeing new places and meeting new people. Want to catch Charon on the road for her live show? View her tour schedule here. Or, book Charon’s talent for your next event!

Not a single reader here at IZ needs to be reminded that the Season of the Consumer is on the horizon. Even during the recession of last season the message was loud and clear, pushing us to buy, buy, buy even if (ESPECIALLY if) we were broke, broke, broke. The urge to tipple practically became a bona fide need in Maslow Hierarchy for many of us, but we still managed to do it creatively, especially those of us born around this time of year ruled Scorpio and Sagittarius.

This year, in abject celebration of the very first Season I spend as the antithesis of consumerism, in my trailer, on the road (read: trailer trash), I will raise my glass high on one very particular calendar day, and with an appropriately snarky toast, recognize Black Friday.

Friday is named for Freya, a decidedly assertive goddess in the Teutonic pantheon who handled matters of love among many other responsibilities, and Friday is indeed a most beloved day for many working a traditional 9 to 5 work week. I know many couples who have a traditional date night each Friday. It is a time of rest and for unwinding from the previous week. Black Friday, however, is the opposite of the above sentiments, particularly for those in the 9 to 5 world. It should be noted that the word black is not used here to connote darkness or anything dismal, though as most retail salespeople would tell you it probably should be. In this context, black is used to refer to the fact that this day, above all others in the fiscal calendar, is the day mostly likely to put a business back in the black. In this sense, Black Friday takes its place at the very pinnacle of days devoted to Excessive Consumerism. It is the inception of the Yuletide Shopping Season. (photo: mary claire miraldi)

It is also the time of year where I take great pains to avoid going out into public amongst the holiday shoppers. All of you out there who share Ebeneezer Scrooge’s literary Sagittarian sign (What? NOT a Capricorn?!) are probably with me on this one. Not only are malls horrifying places to enter from this day forward until well past Twelfth Night the following January, but the parents toting weeping children to visit Santa are nearly unbearable to be around. No wild primate would ever groom another with the fierceness these parents visit upon their very bewildered kids. And never was there a time of year when parking lots are more likely to spawn Vince McMahon’s next big find.

The solution for me, the one that allows me to sleep at night and lend a helping hand to my own community, has always been to support local and small businesses by making thoughtful purchases that help pass on some good elsewhere. Since I live on the road, this takes the form of ordering handmade items from web collectives such as etsy.com or directly from creators such as our very own Gwen here at IZ. I also frequent antique malls, flea markets, and the often greatly underestimated church bazaars. By doing so, not only are you opting out of the mass market mentality, you’re refusing to participate in the care and feeding of corporate greed. What’s more, you can make the conscious choice to buy from purveyors and artists who will in turn give something back to the world we all live in together. Pay special attention to promotions from artisans that pledge a certain amount to a charity you support or other sorts of sustainable goodness. Being a consumer doesn’t mean you have to exclusively consume. You have a choice in the matter and can agree to participate in a transaction only if it meets all of your criteria.

Extra work? Yes. Worth it? Totally.

Especially since you can reward yourself with a wonderful little gem I like to call the Black Friday Antidote! As a Scorpio I am terribly vulnerable to clever advertising, which makes not having a television on the road a bright blessing indeed. The Black Friday Antidote is a wonderful sweet diversion that still allows me to feel pampered and materialistic as I troll the Internet to find and order handmade items direct from their creators. And since material comfort is all about the illusion of security, I don’t mind creating an illusion of that illusion with this particular drink. It makes it that much more delicious, this bit of Sagittarian inventiveness mixed with classic Scorpio pouty stubbornness.

BLACK FRIDAY ANTIDOTE

2 oz. chocolate vodka

1 1/2 oz. Irish cream

1 1/2 oz. chocolate liqueur (Godiva is fabulous but there are others available)

½ oz. pepper vodka (more or less, depending on taste)

Mix ingredients in a shaker and strain into an elegant glass. Garnish with a fine chocolate at the bottom of the glass. Whole Foods (or Wild Oats in some areas) has an astonishing chocolate counter these days. Lots of different flavors, shapes and sizes to choose from, for all of your excessive garnish needs!

For those who simply cannot stand the combination of spicy and sweet (and I know plenty of Scorpios who are extreme purists when it comes to flavors) try substituting ½ oz. of orange vodka for the pepper vodka.

Remember kids! Chocolate + Scorpio + Sagittarius = Intensely Tasty Experimentation! Preferably with a Loved One!

After Black Friday any sort of peppermint cordial becomes a more than acceptable substitute as well. I say “after” due to my own purist Scorpio tendencies because for me, the Yuletide season simply doesn’t begin until the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and my holiday cocktails will not be shaken until after the decorating is completed and available for viewing. Just sayin. Your mileage may vary.
More on Yuletide tippling next month, when Capricorn raises a goaty eyebrow at us on the Longest Night of The Year.

Cheers~Charon, The Most Dangerous Beauty Alive
theswordswallowers.com
oddangel.com

Charon Henning is one of a handful of female sword swallowers in the world today. She’s performed on carnival midways and at wine tastings, on theater stages and grassy lots.

Charon also reads tea leaves professionally, a skill she inherited from her grandmother on her mother’s side of the family. Tea-leaf reading is a wonderful and elegant form of entertainment, suitable for many time periods and venues.

Charon loves being on the road seeing new places and meeting new people. Want to catch Charon on the road for her live show? View her tour schedule here. Or, book Charon’s talent for your next event!