Pre-prandials: Salty Dog

I've decided(in a Sir Alan-esque, home-executive kinda way) that a cocktail or two on a Sunday night is a civilised way to end the weekend and start the new week in style. It helps that cocktails don't somehow become the proverbial challenge, like a bottle of wine does; why is it that a glass of wine makes you want more wine, but you can drink just one cocktail and be content? This was the situation that my girlfriends and I pondered as we drank Cosmopolitans together before going to see the Sex and the City movie during the week. We were glad of the fact that we weren't the only ones who'd dressed up to the nines in honour or Carrie and her cohorts, although to be honest I get gussied up for far less than that.

So, tonight (Matthew) I'm drinking:

Salty Dog

Frost the rim of a cocktail glass with salt. Add a shot of vodka and top up with chilled grapefruit juice. Sip, and sigh...the weekend's nearly over.

Cocktails, of course, mean canapés. Sometimes I really go to town on these, even just for myself; they're so much fun - but tonight I really can't be bothered, so I've cracked open a can of olives. Simple is as simple does.