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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Dec. 14, 2007 / 5 Teves 5768

Holiday Cheer, Part II

By Greg Crosby


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Last week I left you with the perfect Martini recipe. I hope you tried it, because if you did, you will never make a Martini any other way again. Now sober up, because I have one other wonderful and magical drink for you to imbibe in this holiday season. This week, I have something a little different, a little more festive, and something that your average everyday young bartender may not be all that familiar with — the Sidecar.


The Sidecar is another classic cocktail which gained popularity around the late nineteen-twenties or early thirties. According to "The Stork Club Bar Book" by Lucius Beebe, the Sidecar was invented by Frank, the senior barkeep of the Paris Ritz Bar in the early twenties. Frank made the drink with the Ritz's own vintage 1865 cognac and it was considered a "rich man's drink," costing the customer the equivalent of five American dollars back in 1923.


A noble member of the family of "sours" the Sidecar is at once tart and bold with a slight touch of sweetness. The perfect sociable drink for a festive occasion like New Year's Eve, although it is every bit as satisfying any time friends of good cheer gather on a cold winter's night by a crackling fire.


As in every other fine cocktail, proportion is the key for whipping up a proper Sidecar. The ingredients are simple enough, cognac, Cointreau, and lemon juice — but this is a drink that is especially easy to louse up — just about any bar you go to these days will offer up a different version (usually bad) or will simply claim ignorance of it altogether. Much of the time triple sec is used instead of Cointreau because it's cheaper, and ready-made bottled sweet and sour mix is added because it's easier. But this, my friends, is definitely not a proper Sidecar.


I usually pour 3/4 oz. each of brandy and Cointreau and ½ oz. of fresh lemon juice into a cocktail shaker, add crushed ice and shake until icy cold. Pour that delicious nectar into chilled cocktail glasses which have been rimed with superfine sugar (use a lemon slice around the rim of the glass to adhere the sugar to it). Lift said drink to your lips and happy days are here again!


There is an alternate recipe for the Sidecar that calls for more brandy — four parts of cognac to one part Cointreau and one part lemon juice. This one isn't bad, but I prefer my recipe which doesn't have as strong a brandy taste. Do your own taste test and see which mixture is more to your personal liking. As a matter of fact, I think I'll try the alternative recipe myself this year, since I haven't had it in awhile. Remember, part of the fun of drinking mixed drinks is experimentation. And when you find the recipe that suits you, you feel as if you've made an earth-shattering discovery! And guess what? You have!


The great thing about mixing up these Sidecars for friends is that the cocktail is both unique and grown up. It isn't the latest trendy drink that is being served at every bar in town, like the Appletini or a Hostess Twinkie-tini or some other infantile concoction. The Sidecar is a sophisticated adult drink. Serve it with no nonsense adult hors d'oeuvres, have some adult music playing by Bing, Frank or Ella, and engage in some real adult conversation.


The Sidecar is something different that also happens to be something truly good that will warm the cockles of even Ebenezer Scrooge's heart. Have fun warming your own cockles this season with a Sidecar. Season's Greetings and cheers!

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a letter to his congressman. A freelance writer in Southern California, you may contact him by clicking here.

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© 2006, Greg Crosby

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