Me Gusta Goya Malta

by Administrator, posted in Food/Drink

When I know in advance that there is a restaurant I’ll be going out to eat at, I generally look to see if they have a website with a menu. This is a good way for me to see if there is something that looks tasty that is low in calories and fat (Thank you restaurants that provide nutritional information!), or if it’s hopeless and I should just order whatever the heck I want. Well a while back, in anticipation of trying mofongo (which fell through), I was looking at an online menu for a Caribbean restaurant. Listed amongst their beverages was Goya Malta.

I’m never shy to admit to myself, or anyone else, that I certainly do not know everything about food and drink, and Goya Malta was a thing I had never encountered. Undaunted, I Googled it.

Of course there was an entry on Wikipedia all about it. It turns out that Goya is the brand name and that Malta is the beverage itself. According to the Wiki folks, “Malta is a type of soft drink. It is a carbonated malt beverage, meaning it is brewed from barley, hops, and water much like beer; corn and caramel color may also be added. However, malta is non-alcoholic. It is similar in color to stout (dark brown) but is very sweet, generally described as tasting like molasses. Unlike beer, ice is often added to malta when consumed. A popular way Latin Americans sometimes drink malta is by mixing it with condensed or evaporated milk.”

This sounded intriguing, and so when my plans to go to the Caribbean restaurant fell through, and I happened upon a six pack of Goya Matla in the horribly named “ethnic” food section of my grocery store, I decided the time to try it was now.

Never having tried it before, I took a few sips of it chilled straight out of the bottle. To be perfectly honest, it has a horrible aroma. I accidentally inhaled a nose full of it, which made my first few sips pretty weird. I then decided to pour it over ice. This time I was careful of my inhales and took a sip. Delicious! It’s a truly hard flavor to describe. It tastes like molasses, like a very strong, yet spiced root beer, and occasionally I thought it had a hint of coffee flavor about it. Soon I didn’t even notice the aroma. I could see why it’s frequently served with condensed milk, since I spent the rest of the glass thinking that Goya Malta would make an awesome beverage for an ice cream float.

So, I tried an odd soda, what’s with a whole blog post about it? Well, when trying to decide if I should share with everyone my Goya Malta adventure (Dude, I’m a boring person. Goya Malta IS an adventure for me.) I did another internet search about the beverage. What I found was a whole lot of passion for one little bottle of nonalcoholic beer.

UrbanDictionary.com proclaims Goya Malta to be “The most disgusting substance imaginable.” One angry individual felt so violated at how nasty he found Goya Malta, that he (or she) set up a website for people to share their personal stories of disgust about the drink. Then the Goya Malta fear hit a whole new level. “Can drinking warm malta goya and alka seltzer cause an abortion?” asks on_punishment_4_lyfe on Yahoo Answers. Holy cow, okay, my husband found it nasty tasting and refused to take a second sip, but abortion inducing?! And just when I thought this was an isolated incident, I find someone on WikiAnswers.com asking “Does drinking a hot Malta Goya kill the baby?” Holy cow, this definitely tops soda and pop rocks for sheer spooky bizarreness. It was then that I realized yes, I should tell the world:

I drank Goya Malta. I liked it. I suffered no ill effects (other than the increased calorie intake).

Normally I don’t show up in photos here on the website because I don’t feel I photograph well, but I feel so strongly about proving my point that I like Goya Malta and it didn’t kill me, or upset my stomach or anything, that I give you this compelling photographic evidence.













Me gusta Goya Malta.

Phoning It In

by Administrator, posted in Geek Stuff

When you’re a professional writer, such as myself (it’s sarcasm people!), you sometimes use a literary device known in the trade as “phoning it in”. This is when what the writer does sends out the message of not caring about the result or of applying a minimal effort. Sure, it may seems as if I “phoned” this one in, but what was I to do when two highly entertaining videos fall into my lap?

“10 Minute Zombie Survival Lesson”
In school most of us had to do a public speaking project where you instruct the class on how to do something. Me? I taught my class how to make characters for the roleplaying game “Vampire: The Masquerade”. In the case of Julia Casey, she picked an even more bad ass topic; how to survive the inevitable zombie attack. Yes, this is a lesson in zombie survival, presented as part of an Instructional Skills course in Library Science at the University of British Columbia.

My favorite part is when the class breaks up into groups and the camera pans around the room showing students seriously discussing how to survive a zombie attack. I call this video a slow burn, it’s not insanely laugh out loud funny, instead the perfectly matter of fact presentation makes it more amusing the longer the lesson is given.

“Ghost Busters (1954) Trailer”
The other one is from the time my husband spends on the “Hero Boards”. Someone posted this video on there. I fell in love with it at first sight. Whoiseyevan asks, “What if Ghostbusters, the movie, was shot in 1954 instead of 1984?”

I don’t plan on making it a habit of just sharing some videos and calling it an “article”, but these two came to my attention at the same time and I just couldn’t resist sharing!

The Wiccan Rede Project: Beverly Wilkes

by Administrator, posted in Guest Authors, Religion, Wiccan Rede Project, Wiccan/Pagan

The Rede
By Beverly Wilkes

When I received the email from Rebecca about the Wiccan Rede, it gave me a wonderful moment of nostalgia. I first learned about the Wiccan faith from some new friends in college one early fall night while we were hanging out at a bonfire by the river. I had never heard of it and asked a lot of questions trying to figure it all out with my limited knowledge of Christianity as my guide to compare. When William recited the Rede it was like a priest reading from the bible. He told me of the first witches and of magic. He was my mentor in many things and the leader of my coven.

What drew me to Wicca and why I keep these traditions is a complicated thing. I guess the clearest way to explain it is that Wicca completed me. I had gone to church with my parents and learned of the bible because my parents told me to. I never felt like any of it made sense. I felt like the religion was from a book. How could a book with its finite pages teach me about how to be a good person? Wicca is different. It doesn’t tell you how to be but rather helps you be.

“An it harm none, do as ye will.” A simple phrase that says so much. To be a good person, to be a happy person, just do what you want as long as it doesn’t harm you or anyone else. Once I accepted the idea that I did not have to please everyone around me, the world became a wonderful, beautiful place again. My sister has commented that she envies my ability to not care what others think of me. Others have asked me how I can do things like not wear makeup or how I can express myself the way I do without worrying what others may think. I say simply that no one is responsible for your happiness in this life but you.

Whether you believe in The Lord and Lady, or Buddha, or God, or any of the other thousands of possible deities that this world has known through the centuries, you have to decide how to interpret what they offer and act accordingly. For me, following a solitary path, The Lord and Lady are symbols of life’s cycle. They represent the seasons and the spirituality of man in a way that none of the other religions, at least those I know of, do. They make more sense to me and fill a place that I never knew was empty until I heard the Rede.

For a long time, I had not practiced, I had basically laxed in my faith. After I left my coven to move to West Virginia I continued for a time but eventually stopped unsure of myself and my belief. Then after moving again this time to New York I did not even keep an altar. A few years ago William, my mentor passed and I even began to question whether I had made the right choice. Recently, on the night of Samhain, I decided to renew my faith and once again honor the Lord and Lady. I had been thinking about the Sabbats and what they mean in relation to my life when of all things one of my cats, Min Yen, showed me my path. She was rooting around in a bookshelf, somewhere she is not supposed to be, and when I fussed at her she jumped down, knocking down a book on the way. A book that William gave me. “Eight Sabbats of Witches” by Janet and Stewart Farrar is a wonderful book and tool for any Wicca and I found myself reading it again within moments. Adding to that a recent gift of a tarot deck I found myself preparing for the ritual of the third and final harvest of the year and remembering my cherished loved ones who had passed. My faith was restored and I find myself writing this chaotic but hopefully helpful story for Rebecca’s readers. That said, blessed be to all.

About the Author:
My name is Beverly Wilkes. I hail from Glens Falls, New York. I’m a thirty-something with two kids who walk on all fours, are fuzzy, and don’t talk very well. I am currently obsessed with Facebook, and can be found there under same name and I have written/may write more fan fiction for “Supernatural” on the Fanfiction.net website under the pen name Almost Heaven.

Let the Bragging Begin!

by Administrator, posted in Messages from Rebecca

I was so excited when the new season of “Penn & Teller’s Bullshit” started on Showtime. Love that show! Of course imagine my surprise, and excitement, when during their episode about video games they included some sound bites from Lawrence G. Walters! Who is he? He’s our First Amendment attorney! Well, he’s the one we interviewed last year, thus making him ours as far as I’m concerned. Important question, can I now consider myself a mere one person removed from the awesomeness that is Penn & Teller?

I also found a pleasant surprise in my inbox last week. The fall issue of “New Age Retailer” includes an interview with Raven Digitalis! Magical Buffet readers will recognize the name thanks to this and this. What I’m saying is that all the way back in 2007 I knew that Raven was a great guy to interview and that “New Age Retailer” is just catching up. Indeed, I’m truly a trendsetter.

On a side note, we got a great response to my blog about my husband making the infamous “Corndog Millionaire Muffins”. I’ve been told by many readers that they too now plan on trying these tasty freaks against muffin nature. If you try making these, or the Naughty Shirley, send us a picture and tell us your thoughts on them and we’ll gather them up to share with the rest of The Magical Buffet community!

Did you see the video of Lil’ Kim and Cyndi Lauper performing at Nelson Mandela’s birthday celebration? How about the clip of John Barrowman and David Tennant driving the ladies wild at Comic Con? Fans of The Magical Buffet on Facebook saw these and more goofy tidbits, so if you’re on Facebook, become our fan for some extra fun!

Do you belong to a paranormal investigation group? If you’re a friend of The Magical Buffet on My Space, you saw the special invitation we extended to our My Space paranormal peeps. My Space is where we really started from, so our friends there get all kinds of notes like that, so if you’re on My Space, be our friend!

As always, we can’t do this without you! So thank you for your support!

I Love the Ida Maria CD

by Administrator, posted in Music, Reviews

“Find a cure for my life.
Put a price on my soul.
Put a smile on my face.
Build a wall,
Build a fortress ‘round my heart.”
“Oh My God” by Ida Maria

The frantic pace and build up of those words in Ida Maria’s song “Oh My God” cut me to the quick. “Oh my god, oh you think I’m in control. Oh my god, oh you think it’s all for fun.” Is there anyone who hasn’t felt that way at one point or another in their life? Where you’re not in control, that everything is most definitely not fine? Well hopefully you’ll find Ida Maria’s beautiful, edgy voice rising into a scream, as therapeutic as I do.

The rest of Ida Maria’s album “Fortress ‘Round My Heart” is a wonderful mixed bag. The entire album is littered with awesome rock tunes with infectiously catchy melodies. A real stand out in that category is “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked”, a rock tune with an amazingly catchy chorus that you can’t resist singing along with that turns the table on rock clichés by taking a stab at objectifying men. (But not curing a blogger of creating run on sentences.) Maria’s voice is light and feminine but at other times it’s biting and pushing the edges of her vocal range, in a good way. There are a few smoky ballads as well, such as “Keep Me Warm” and “In the End”. But for me, Maria is at her best when she’s yelling into a microphone on tracks like “Morning Light” and “Stella” and “Oh My God” and “Queen of the World” and “Drive Away My Heart” and I really liked this album, can you tell?

Check out the song that started it all for me, “Oh My God”.

And click here to enjoy the ultra catchy “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked”.

The Evil that Hungry Girl has Wrought

by Administrator, posted in Food/Drink

My friend Erin got me started with Hungry Girl by getting me the first Hungry Girl cookbook, cleverly titled “Hungry Girl” by Lisa Lillien. Next thing you know I’m signed up for the email alerts and buying their latest book “200 Under 200”. Curse you Erin! For those of you unfamiliar with Hungry Girl, it’s a website with a sense of humor that talks about trying to eat a low calorie, low fat, high fiber, diet. They email out nutritional information about dishes in restaurants, offer alternative recipes to classic dishes, and let you know about new food products that are out there that taste great and aren’t a sin to indulge in. (Can anyone whose eating those Skinny Cow Truffle ice cream bars give me an amen?)

Thanks to Hungry Girl my husband and I have discovered the joy of soy (Holy crap soy crumbles taste a lot like meat and have no calories and fat when compared to hamburger!), the wonders of Laughing Cow cheese wedges (A whole wedge, the entire thing is only 35 calories?!), and thanks to their product alerts my husband finally found a hot dog he could eat that I won’t beat him up about (Hebrew National 97% Fat Free Beef Franks, only 40 calories per dog and they taste so good!). And it’s that very same hot dog that features in something so wrong, so in violation of the natural order, and yet, is quite tasty.

My husband love hot dogs. Left on his own they would most likely be his breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Before you say it, yes, I’ve seen him eat hot dogs while drinking coffee so hot dogs for breakfast aren’t out of the question. Anyway, on July 16, 2009 (a day that shall now live in infamy) I got my email from the Hungry Girl website. “Yesterday was National Hot Dog Day. Today is National Corn Fritters Day. We’re getting creative and merging the two. Happy Corndog Day, people! ” it started out. And then, the first recipe was revealed, the “Corndog Millionaire Muffins”.

Yes folks, a muffin designed to recreate the taste of eating a corndog. I said to myself, this is too funny, I should email it to my husband. Next thing you know, I’m coming home from work to a piping hot batch of corndog muffins! There they are in the tin, looking like a tasty yellow cake cupcake with hot dogs protruding out of them! “Ack!” I told my husband, “Muffins should not have a wafting aroma of hot dogs about them!”

There was a brief discussion as to what to drink with a corndog muffin (Does it pair well with a red wine perhaps?). We decided that only an equally great violation against nature could be paired with this meal. So I made myself a rum and diet caffeine free coke using rum from my $50 bottle of 15 year old Rhum Barbancourt.

It seemed like a sin to use such a good rum for a lowly rum and coke, but boy did it taste good! And the muffins, as wrong and evil as they are, tasted like corndogs. They look freakish and wrong, but they tasted just …. like …. corndogs. They tasted good and at only 160 calories a muffin their appearance is the only thing twisted and wrong.

Want to become your very own Corndog Millionaire by making these muffins? Click here! Want to visit the awesome Hungry Girl website to get great low cal recipes and tips to buying yummy guilt free food? Click here.

Standing With Stones

by Administrator, posted in Movies, Reviews

When I first saw the package for “Standing with Stones: A Journey Through Megalithic Britain” I thought, whatever, yet another thing about Stonehenge. I can’t tell you how glad I am that I still opted to pop it into my DVD player.

“Standing with Stones” dedicates possibly one full minute to Stonehenge and nothing more. So what the heck does writer/presenter Rupert Soskin talk about for a little over two hours? Everything else, and if there is one thing you take away from this film is that there is a whole lot of everything else. Soskin leads you on a picturesque tour that covers England, Wales, Ireland, Isle of Man, and Scotland, revealing the treasure trove of stone circles, cairns, standing stones, and more that exist relatively unnoticed by modern society.

Soskin makes for a charming tour guide. He displays a whimsical, mischievous nature, nearly delighting in the unsolvable puzzle that these ancient sites present. Other times he cuts through your inclination to get caught up in a perceived spirituality of the sites with insightful, practical observations.

Producer/Director/Cameraman Michael Bott captures the beauty of the land wonderfully. Sweeping shots of majestic landscapes are broken up with amusingly framed scenes of impressive stone displays being frequented by live stock.

“Standing with Stones” is a beautiful, thoughtful examination of all the ancient stone sites that Britain and its surrounding environs have to offer. This film is a must for anyone interested in Britain’s countryside because “Standing with Stones” is a beautiful travelogue. Also, anyone whose spiritual practices are linked to ancient Britain will find this a useful film to watch to get insights into what their spiritual ancestors lives may have been like, including a wonderful segment dedicated to ancient Druids.

Although not a summer movie blockbuster, no explosions or alien invaders here, I did find “Standing with Stones” and a nice glass of wine to be an enjoyable way to spend an evening.

You can purchase “Standing with Stones” at Amazon.com, Disinfo.com, and iTunes.

Fun with English!

by Administrator, posted in Books, Geek Stuff

I’ll admit it; I love it when the Merriam-Webster dictionary adds new words. In many ways it provides a snap shot of what has been happening in American culture. Merriam-Webster Inc. has added more than 100 words to the latest edition of its Collegiate Dictionary. The Associated Press offered up a small sample which shows America’s expanding multiculturalism and love affair with technology and the internet.

Thumbs up for:

Webisode, which was first documented in 1996, is an episode especially of a TV show that may or may not have been telecast but can be viewed at a Web site. Can all the Dr. Horrible fans in the house give me a yeah?

Reggaeton, which was first documented in 2003, is popular music of Puerto Rican origin that combines rap with Caribbean rhythms. If you want to shake your booty, Reggaeton works quite well at getting the job done.

Frenemy, which surprisingly was first document in 1977, is one who pretends to be a friend but is actually an enemy. I know, I know….I KNOW! It’s dumb; it’s probably used on teen oriented CW television shows I don’t watch. However, I love it. First off, everyone has known someone who pretends to be your friend but secretly they’re out to destroy you. In the past I was forced to use words that I’ve been discouraged from using on the website to describe my relationship to someone like this, but now they’re a hip frenemy! Anyway, I read Perez Hilton, Go Fug Yourself, and TMZ almost daily. You can’t read those sites without some of the lingo sticking.

Shawarma, which was first documented in 1953, is a sandwich especially of sliced lamb or chicken, vegetables, and often tahini wrapped in pita bread. How have we survived as a civilization without a definition for the yummy shawarma? I imagine some precocious youth reading the dictionary (Hey, it happens, right?) and stumbling upon shawarma and saying to themselves, I have GOT to get me some of that!

Thumbs down for:

Locavore, which was first documented in 2005, is one who eats foods grown locally whenever possible. I have no problem with the eat local food movement, but seriously, did we need a word for it? And if we did, did it need to make me think of loca, as in that girl is loca? Or worse, the song “Locomotion”, which is now stuck in my head. Thanks locavores!

Waterboarding, which was first documented in 2004, is an interrogation technique in which water is forced into a detainee’s mouth and nose as to induce the sensation of drowning. I don’t actually have a problem with the word, and I understand why it made the cut to get added into the latest edition, I’m just sad that we all learned what it was.

Staycation, which was first documented in 2005, is a vacation spent at home or nearby. Was there a more offensive trend in the media then the invention of the staycation? You know, stay home poor people; us wealthy folks will enjoy the vacation hot spots.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Holistay
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes		 Political Humor Joke of the Day

I tried to come up with a witty, thoughtful, ending for this article, but how on earth do you follow The Daily Show? So I’m not trying. End of article. Click out.

Tree Medicine, Magic, and Lore: Cedar

by Administrator, posted in Guest Authors

By Ellen Evert Hopman
Illustrated by Will Hobbs

Throughout history the names and uses of Cedar and Juniper have often been confused. The similarities of their bark, berries, and general appearance have made them substitutes for one another in mundane and magical realms. An ancient Greek word for Cedar also meant oar, rudder, rowboat, and canoe. Native Americans used the White Cedar, Arborvitae, for fence posts, boats, canoes, shingles, and to make fire by friction. In modern times Cedar is used for fencing, house wares, and shingles. Cedar chests are usually made from a species of Juniper.

Among the Algonquin Cedar is so sacred that no religious ceremony is done without it. The leaves and twigs are simmered into tea or burned as incense to prepare a ritual space. It is said that Cedar harmonizes the emotions and puts one into the proper state of mind for prayer. Cedar branches are used to cover the floor of the sweat lodge, due to their antiviral and disinfectant qualities. The tea of the young branches helps fevers, rheumatism, chest colds and flu.

The Cherokee tell the story of How The Cedar Tree Became Red. In ancient times there was an evil sorcerer who was very cruel to the people. When he was finally caught they decapitated him, but the sorcerer’s head refused to die.

The head was hung on a different tree branch every night until finally, when hung on a Cedar tree, it expired. The blood of the sorcerer had turned the bark red.

From this story they learned that the Cedar tree could vanquish all evil. Its twigs were burned to repel ghosts and malevolent spirits. Its balsamic fragrance was calming to the senses. And its undecaying wood warded off damp and insects, making it too sacred to be burned as fuel.

In ancient European tradition Juniper was seen as a substitute. The smoke of a Juniper fire was said to drive off the demons of disease. The tea was said to restore lost youth – no doubt because of the berry’s effects on rheumatism, gout and weak digestion.

In Wales Juniper was held so sacred that to cut one down meant certain death to a family member within the year. Sprigs of Juniper were hung in the cowsheds of the Western Isles to protect the cattle.

about the author:

Ellen Evert Hopman is a Druid Priestess, herbalist and author of “Priestess of the Forest: A Druid Journey”, “A Druids Herbal – Of Sacred Tree Medicine”, “Walking the World in Wonder – A Children’s Herbal” and other volumes. Visit her website for more!











Bibliography
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Baker, Margaret, Discovering The Folklore Of Plants; Shire Publications Ltd., Aylesbury, Bucks, U.K. 1975

Beith, Mary, Healing Threads, Traditional Medicines of the Highlands and Islands; Polygon, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1995

Brunaux, Jean Louis, The Celtic Gauls: Gods, Rites and Sanctuaries; Seaby, London, 1988

Calder, George (translator), Book of Ballymote: Auraicept Na nEces (The Scholars Primer); Edinburgh, 1917

Carmichael, Alexander, Carmina Gadelica, Hymns and Incantations; Floris Books, Edinburgh 1992

Cunliffe, Barry, The Celtic World; St. Martin’s Press, New York, New York, 1993

Cunningham, Scott, Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs; Llewellyn Publications, St Paul, MN 1986

Ellis, Peter Berresford, Celtic Women; Wm. B. Erdman’s Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI, 1996

Erichsen-Brown, Charlotte, Medicinal and Other Uses Of North American Plants; Dover Publications Inc., New York, NY 1989

Evans-Wentz, W.Y., The Fairy Faith In Celtic Countries; Citadel Press, New York, NY 1990

Farrar, Janet and Stewart, The Witch’s Goddess; Phoenix Publishing Inc, Custer, WA 98240

Frazier, James G., The Golden Bough, The Roots of Religion And Folklore; Avenel Books, NY 1981

Friedrich, Paul, Proto-Indo-European Trees; The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL 1970

Green, Miranda J., The Celtic World; Routledge, London, 1995

Green, Miranda J., The World of the Druids, Thames and Hudson, London 1997

Grieve, M., A Modern Herbal, Dover Publications Inc., New York, NY 1971

Hoagland, Kathleen, 1,000 Years of Irish Poetry, The Gaelic and the Anglo-Irish Poets From Pagan Times To The Present; The Devin-Adair Company, Old Greenwich, CT 1981

Hopman, Ellen Evert, A Druids Herbal For The Sacred Earth Year; Inner Traditions/Destiny Books, Rochester, VT 1995

Hopman, Ellen Evert, Tree Medicine, Tree Magic; Phoenix Publishers, Custer, WA 1991

Kelly, Fergus, A Guide To Early Irish Law; Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Dublin, 1991

Kondratiev, Alexei, The Apple Branch; The Collins Press, Cork, 1998

Lust, John The Herb Book; Bantam Books, New York, 1974

Markale, Jean, The Druids; Inner Traditions, Rochester, VT, 1999

Matthews, Caitlin & John, The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom; Element Books, Rockport, MA 1994

Matthews, John, The Druid Sourcebook; Blanford Press, London, 1996

McNeill, F. Marian, The Silver Bough, Vol. One; William Maclellan, Glasgow, 1977

Meyer, Kuno, Selections from Ancient Irish Poetry; Constable, London, 1959

Moerman, Daniel E., Medicinal Plants Of Native America; University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology Technical Reports, Number 19, Ann Arbor, MI 1986

Mooney, James, History, Myths and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees; Bright Mountain Books, Ashville, NC 1992

Naddair, Kaledon, Keltic Folk and Faerie Tales; Century Hutchinson Ltd., London, 1987

O’Boyle, Sean, Ogam, the Poet’s Secret; Gilbert Dalton, Dublin, 1980

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Saintine, X.B., The Myths Of The Rhine; Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, VT 1967 (Reprint of the 1875 edition)

Squire, Charles, Celtic Myth and Legend; Newcastle Publishing Co. Ltd., USA, 1975

Stone, Merlin, Ancient Mirrors Of Womanhood; Beacon Press, Boston, MA 1984

The Naughty Shirley

by Administrator, posted in Food/Drink

As you will remember from my attempts to master the flaming mojito it was decided that flaming mojitos just weren’t worth the effort or the nasty Bacardi 151 taste. Upon that decision I asked my husband, Jim, what are we going to do with the 151 that’s left? He told me that we would flame drinks again, just not mojitos. And so I foolishly asked, what the heck mixed drinks are you going to set on fire? How about non-alcoholic ones? Ha, how about a Shirley Temple?

He loved the way flaming Shirley Temple sounded. He liked a flaming Shirley Temple Black as a name even better.

I love Shirley Temples! Most of my memories of eating out with my parents as a child involve me being given a sweet Shirley Temple in a cocktail glass with a swizzle stick, just like the adults had. Even now that I’m well past 21 years-old I’ll occasionally order one when I want something that looks like a cocktail but doesn’t have any alcohol.

For those of you who don’t know, a Shirley Temple is a pretty simple drink. My childhood memories are of a glass of 7-Up with the juice from a jar of maraschino cherries with a few of the cherries dropped in. Since we weren’t positive we took a quick peak online and came up with this standard-ish recipe for a Shirley Temple.

Glass.


1oz. grenadine syrup



8oz. ginger ale and add ice



Jim handed the glass to me and I took a sip, minus the cherry to eat, it tasted like the Shirley Temples of my childhood. This is when I pointed out that if he took a shot of Captain Morgan Tattoo rum and added it gently, it would probably make a black layer on top, and then it could be called a Shirley Temple Black (Which is also a drink, with many different recipes ranging from the addition of vodka, kahlua, orange juice, and more).

We added the Tattoo, and sure enough, it made a crimson red drink with a black layer on top. Perfect in appearance for any vampire or goth or goth vampire event.

Now for anyone that hasn’t tried Captain Morgan’s Tattoo, it has an odd spiced flavor to it. Not good for shots or sipping, but I find it okay for rum and cokes. I was concerned as to how my beloved Shirley Temple would taste once we stirred the inky spiced blackness of the Tattoo into it.

The answer….awesome. In fact, you can’t even tell there is any alcohol in it. This could potentially be the most dangerous mixed drink ever because there seriously isn’t even a hint of alcohol to it.

In fact, it tasted so good that neither Jim or I could bring ourselves to light it on fire. Which is probably for the best, I’m running low on pint glasses.

Post Script: After much debate, and suggestions from Greg at What Greg Eats, Jim and I decided to call this drink, Naughty Shirley.