entertaining: rickeys on the patio

Ben and Mandy, college pals who live in D.C. now, came over Friday evening for cocktails on the patio as a belated birthday celebration for Ben. I was expecting we'd have to move the party indoors because several things were working against us: (1) the heat (2) the rain and (3) the mosquitos. Turns out, the temperature dropped to the 70s, the rain left as quickly as it arrived, and we successfully repelled the mosquitos.

Ben's a gin guy, so we had a bottle of Tanqueray on hand and mixed up some gin rickeys, which were the perfect citrus-y drink for a summer evening. As I was reading about gin rickeys last week, I learned they're actually a take on the less-well-known Joe Rickey, a bourbon drink that seems to have been created here in Washington. And since Mandy is a bourbon girl, we had rickeys all around. 

Gin Rickey / Joe Rickey

• 2 ounces gin for a gin rickey OR 2 ournces of bourbon for a Joe Rickey
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• Club soda (or tonic water) 
• Ice

Fill glass with ice. Add gin and lime. Fill with club soda or tonic to taste. Garnish with a lime.

<3

We drank our cocktails out of these fun striped glasses, which I picked up earlier this month at a flea market. The colors made it easy to keep track of whose drink was whose. 

To snack on, I put out a plate of veggies with hummus and ranch dip on a cool lunchtray I bought at a sweet little vintage shop in Phoenix earlier this year.

And anyone who lives in D.C. knows that mosquitos can ruin a night on the patio. They love this city's humid climate, and this is supposed to be particularly bad year for mosquitos. The good news is that I came inside Friday night with exactly two bites. Not perfect, but it wasn't the bloodbath I'd expected.

I took several repellant techniques, throwing everything I had at the buggers and seeing what stuck. I'm not sure whether my success can be attributed to one particular technique or some combination of them. I set out a citronella candle, of course, and I also put seven votive candle holders around the table, hoping the extra smoke may be unattractive to the mosquitos. And apparently the little guys hate the smell of several plants. I have garlic and rosemary growing in our backyard, and I also put a marigold on the table and surrounded ourselves with four big basil plants. On a whim, I also crushed up some basil leaves and rubbed them on my arms and Tony's arms. I'm not sure if that was the action of a crazy woman or whether it's a legitimate mosquito-repelling technique, but, hey, I'm going to try anything.

Despite the two bites, I'm counting Friday as a win for me.

Jessi: 1. Mosquitoes: 0.