I bonded with Chris and Karen Thornton (who blog atThepeche.com) when I read their post about the sidecar cocktail. I became a fan when Chris suggested substitutingcherry syrupfor the Cointreau that’s traditional in the drink. Here I was with a bunch of cherries starting to go mushy in the fridge: perfect timing.

But it was when he described (or is it justified?) mixing the cocktail in a sippy cup (they do have three kids age 3 and younger) that he won me over. That, and the fact that he took a 5-day process and condensed it into 30 minutes. Which is about as long as I can wait when I want a cocktail.