How to get grenadine out of your sushi pajamas – the Clover Club

Tonight is the night of a much anticipated cocktail – The Clover Club.

This is the most complicated drink with the most exotic ingredients I’ve made so far.

Because this drink involves grenadine, I decide that more whimsical attire would be good for tonight’s cocktail hour. I donn my ‘yummy sushi pajamas’ (like the ones in Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode 70 “Goodbye Iowa” only mine are wasabi green and Buffy’s are white).

To me grenadine means party. So far, all the cocktails I’ve made have been classic, savory, and sophisticated. These are cocktails you drink after work with the boss or an old friend. You might drink these in your home library, stacked with leather-bound books, while entertaining a VIP. Grenadine laden cocktails, however, bring up images of tiki bars, colorful tafetta dresses, smoky, jazz-filled lounges where people dance wildly. To me grenadine screams “yummy sushi pajamas.”

So, I’ve got the PJ’s on. I’ve got all the ingredients in the shaker – the gin, the grenadine, the lemon juice, the raw egg white (!!!!!), the ice.

Now, my shaker is a classic silver shaker. I believe it is real silver, because as I’ve mentioned, it is tarnished in a way that only real silver can become tarnished. This means that the shaker gets very very cold. This drink in particular requires at least 30 seconds of shaking to make sure the raw egg white (!!!!!) is incorporated fully and the drink is foamy. Because the shaker gets so cold, I’ve taken to wearing bright pink, cotton lined, rubber gloves that go up to my elbows when I mix drinks. These are technically my hot-pepper chopping gloves (purchased after the poblano chile incident) but they work very well for keeping my hands from freezing when shaking drinks.

Additionally, I’d like to add that the cats really do NOT like the shaker. I’ve found it to be quite fun to chase the cats around the house while shaking drinks.

So, with all that in mind, I chase the cat into the living room while shaking the Clover Clubs. Hubby is sitting on the couch. I am wearing my wasabi green ‘yummy sushi pajamas’ and a single hot-pink rubber glove on my left hand (I am right-handed, so choosing to do the shaking with my left hand only is a strange and somewhat unfortunate choice). I race into the room, the cat dives under the cedar chest, the shaker (which is now covered with condensation) slips from my gloved left hand, the lid on the shaker flies off, the shaker arcs across my front, the grenadine and raw egg white (!!!!!) wash over me in a bright pink wave, the carpet is soggy with syrupy clover club, the yummy sushi pajamas are no longer wasabi green – they are genadine pink. I run down to the basesment, pajamas dripping, I suck on my arm – the yummy sushi pajamas are actually pretty yummy. If we ever get to drink the clover club, it’s gonna’ be tasty!

I strip off the PJs. I pour Tide Free liquid detergent right onto the grenadine stains on the PJs and leave them to soak. I put on my smoking jacket (formerly known as my fuzzy blue bathrobe) and head back upstairs to make more cocktails. The show must go on, after all! I find Hubby on his hands and knees in the living room, scrubbing the carpet. I think I see a single tear slide down his cheek and hear him mournfully whisper a lament about wasted gin.
Alas, I am out of lemons!!! We are forced to skip to the next drink, a savory, smokey, sophisticated drink, which works out ok since I am now wearing my fuzzy bathrobe.

The next evening I did make the Clover Clubs without incident. I wore both rubber gloves, used two hands to shake, and did the shaking over the kitchen sink.
Diagnosis: Delicious and pretty, although the idea of the raw egg white (!!!!!) was constantly on my mind. Next time I may try out some Fee Foam to see if it works well as a raw egg white (!!!!!) replacement.

One Response to “How to get grenadine out of your sushi pajamas – the Clover Club”

  1. Amry says:

    I once spilled a glass of red wine on a stack of student essays. I thought of telling them it was cranberry juice, but when the papers dried, they still smelled like wine. What to do? You can’t wash essays even in Tide Free Liquid Detergent. I came to class the next day and looked grim – I am good at this. I said, “I read your essays last night. I am not pleased. I can give them back and you can redo them or I can throw them away and forget the whole thing ever happened.” Any doubts what they chose to do?

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