Today, you get a twofer. Several years ago, my friend Stephanie and I went to Key West. (Yes, THAT Stephanie; the one with whom I just went to Point Reyes.) While there, we ate at the restaurant Hot Tin Roof. Hot Tin Roof has a specialty drink called the Hot Tin Tini. I ordered the Hot Tin Tini. I drank the Hot Tin Tini. I loved the Hot Tin Tini. I was told by the waiter that the Hot Tin Tini was nothing more than pineapple-infused vodka. And that's it. I believe he said something like, "They take a bunch of pineapple and soak it FOREVER in vodka and then pour it in a glass."

Last month, these amazingly HUGE pineapples were in my grocery store and suddenly I had a craving for pineapple. But these babies were GIGANTIC. I remember thinking to myself, "I want pineapple but I don't want to be eating it for the next nine years. I wonder what I can do with some of that Bad Boy, Big-Ass Pineapple?" And that is when I remembered the Hot Tin Tini.

I first started infusing booze last year (cucumber vodka, rosemary gin) and have come to learn that 1) it is easy to do and 2) it tastes a billion times better than flavored booze you buy from manufacturers. The most "technical" component of infusing vodka is learning HOW LONG you should infuse for. For cucumber vodka, it's three days. For rosemary gin, it's four days. For pineapple vodka, the magic number is 10. Ten days. So that's what I did. Then I took the pineapple that had been soaking in the vodka, puréed it, and stuck it in the freezer, making a sort of pineapple slushy.

This is how Emmett makes me a Hot Tin Tini: he fills a shaker with ice, pours in 3 oz. of pineapple-infused vodka, adds a generous teaspoon of pineapple ~~mush~~ purée, shakes the contents "vigorously," and then pours it into a chilled martini glass.

But don't take my word for it, see him in action below.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lre2yVjK6k&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3]

If you were paying attention to the video, you may have noticed the sliced radishes on the cutting board. This is where your second simple snippet for the day comes in.

I've been harvesting radishes from my veganic garden for about a week now. They are a variety called French Breakfast and rather than being little round globes, these radishes are long and narrow. They are mild and earthy with a hint of sweet. And they are damn good. My favorite way to eat them is plain, right from the garden, after shaking off the dirt. But a few have managed to make their way onto our spinach salads. On Sunday, as I was considering quick happy hour snacks to accompany the Hot Tin Tini, I remembered a little recipe idea I saw a while back on a vegan blog: mash up an avocado, mix in a little lemon juice, put it on top of a radish slice, and top it all of with a little smoked salt.

Oh yes I did. And it was fantastic.

Nothing makes me happier than being able to go from "Happy Hour, The Idea" to "Happy Hour In Action" in under 30 seconds. The Hot Tin Tini and the canapé-like radish-avo-smoked salt combo are just the ticket.

Cheers!