Key Lime Pie Martini

This "Artic Blast" a lot of us are getting pummeled by has me dreaming of Jimmy Buffet songs, flip-flops, vibrant colors, the smell of meat on the grill and lots of alcohol  cute fruitty drinks with crushed ice and those cute little paper umbrellas in them.

Those of you that have read my blog for any length of time know I enjoy a glass or two of red wine in the evenings, it helps my creativity.  Every now an then I stray to the hard stuff.

To be fair to my mother who is a martini purist, this adult beverage is very loosely a martini.  You see, when I was growing up, my dad made a pitcher of martinis every night for as long as I can remember.  He and my mother would have two before dinner.  My dad would sit in the kitchen and he and my mom would talk while she cooked dinner.  

Their martinis we pretty weak by bar tending standards.  My dad put a lot of crushed ice in the pitcher.  My parents just wanted to relax, talk about the day's event and enjoy each others company, not get trashed by mealtime.  Their choice was vodka with a splash of vermuth garnished with a stuff olive and sometimes a cocktail onion or a little curley twit of lemon peel.   I acquired a taste for martinis in my college days but I like my very, very, very dirty.  I'm not big on the vodka taste but I love the salty taste of the olive juice.

So on to today's offering.  I can't say I came up with this drink.  My girlfriends and I concocted this back in the day.  One word of warning, this is one of those drinks that's really good, goes down smooth and fast.  Only drink one or you will get sicker than a dog.  Don't say I didn't warn you!

Our cast of characters - grahma cracker crumbs, Ke-Ke Key Lime Liquor, Vanilla Stoli and heavy whipping cream.

Rim your martini glass with the graham cracker crumbs.  Put about 1 cup of crushed ice in your shaker, 1 ounce of Stoli, 2 ounces of Ke-Ke and gently shake.  Pour through the stainer into your rimmed glass.

Top off with a couple of tablespoons of heavy whipping cream and garnish with come graham cracker cumbs.  This tastes just like Key Lime Pie.

A couple of my other favorite warm weather cocktails using Ke-Ke are:

Limeade - this one is really good, especially if you've just finished doing some gardening!

2 ounces KeKe in a glass filled with crushed ice  (use a Tom Collins glass), then fill the rest of the way with Sprite or 7-UP, garnish with a lime wedge


Creamsicle - just flat out good anytime!
1 ounce KeKe in a glass filled with crushed ice, then fill the rest of the way with orange Crush.

Aren't you glad I spent some time in my 20's doing research for you, my dear readers?

Stay warm!