Star-Spangled treat

It's not too early to start stockpiling the Bacardi pina colada and strawberry daquiri frozen mixers. If you wait until the week of the 4th to do so, you will be like me last year, who had to go to 6 different stores to get 2 cans of pina colada and 1 can of daquiri mix.

I spied this recipe last year in the Lincoln Journal Star, and while I can't find the copy I clipped, I found the same recipe at allrecipes.com, which is a pretty good site that welcomes user reviews, ratings and photos. (besides the really extreme user comments, I like getting an honest opinion on a recipe from someone, maybe a helpful tip on what they'd do differently the next time so I can do it that way the first time.) Here's the direct link, or you can view the recipe below as well:http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Star-Spangled-Mixers/Detail.aspx

Our photo from last year's rendition. Corrie flipped the order of colors in the big one-every bomb pop I've ever had has the white in the middle. I think a couple of the user comments mentioned that it's hard to make a batch at home and not have it melt, but Corrie just made each batch (start with the white, then do the blue, then wash your blender, then make the red) and froze them in their own containers. Then we had bomb pop frozen drinks for the next week!

Star-Spangled Mixers

Submitted by: BACARDI® Mixers Rated: 4 out of 5 by 4 members

Yields: 15 servings

"Show your patriotic spirit at your next party with these stunning red, white and blue layered blended ice drinks."

INGREDIENTS:

2 (10 fluid ounce) cans BACARDI® Mixers Pina Colada frozen mix 1 (10 fluid ounce) can BACARDI® Mixers Strawberry Daiquiri frozen mix

1 1/2 cups BACARDI® Rum Blue Curacao or blue food coloring 15 cups ice Strawberries, for garnish

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Blend together 2 cups or 1 can of BACARDI® Mixers Pina Colada mix, 1/2 cup of BACARDI® Rum and 5 cups of ice for 45 to 60 seconds or until uniform. Add 7-10 drops of blue food coloring or Blue Curacao to taste. Blend and fill each cocktail glass 1/3 of the way full.
2.	Repeat step 1 using BACARDI® Mixers Pina Colada. (Without food coloring.)
3.	Repeat step 2 using BACARDI® Mixers Strawberry Daiquiri.
4.	Garnish with strawberries and serve immediately or freeze and serve for a tasty treat.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2008 Allrecipes.com

Printed from Allrecipes.com 6/23/2008

Eagle Three-peat

The final game is in the books-Central won their third straight Class A basketball championship last night. It was a tight game against Bellevue East with some questionable calls thrown in for added tension, but the final score was 59-58. I tried taking a few videos with my camera during the game, but they didn't turn out very good. Here's a clip I took just as Creighton recruit Josh Jones made a slam dunk. (the basket is made in the first second of video. Watch carefully or you'll miss it.)

I realize it may not make a lot of sense to still be so intense about Central High sports fifteen years after I graduated, but I think high school sports offer more of what I love about college sports. (and what makes me ambivalent about most professional sports) It's about school and team pride and playing for your teammates and classmates. It's not about salaries, bonuses, and endorsements. It could also be that we didn't have a ton of athletic success when I was in school, except for a soccer championship in 1992-I happened to attend I-Back High right between when Calvin Jones graduated and Ahman Green transferred to Central. There were no trips to Lincoln for State playoffs while I was there.

After the basketball excitement, I caught up with Corrie and a couple of other guys out on the O Street bar scene. I won't discuss some of the odd things that occurred in a short span of time, but we did find Hopkin green frog at Iguana's.


I didn't mis-type that-I was indeed in Iguana's. I'm 33 years old and I did some kind of shot named frog sperm. I admit I had a good time, even though this didn't fit in with my preferred bar scene, which is either hanging out for the duration of the evening at Duffy's or sipping cocktails at the Starlite Lounge. I'm getting too old and too lazy for the bar hopping the kids do these days.