In the Land of Cocktails, Recipes and Adventures From The Cocktail Chicks - Ti Adelaide Martin and Lally Brennan.

If there is such a thing as American Restaurant Royalty, then surely first cousins Ti Adelaide Martin and Lally Brennan, are the crown princesses. Growing up in the fun-loving Brennan family of restaurateurs, their stories are plentiful, hilarious, and deftly told in their new cocktail book, "In the Land of Cocktails, Recipes and Adventures From The Cocktail Chicks."

When I last saw Ti and Lally in the summer of 2007, we were all sipping cocktails at Café Adelaide, at breakfast no less this being New Orleans, and they told me that they had written a cocktail book entitled, "In the Land of Cocktails, Recipes and Adventures From The Cocktail Chicks." Naturally, with as catchy a title as that, I could not wait to read it. So, my question to them was " When will it be out?" Soon was all I heard; and then the prolonged anguish began of having to wait months until the book was actually published. Although many of us have felt at times that we were living "in the land cocktails" or perhaps had just stumbled in or out of that special land, Ti Adelaide Martin and Lally Brennan, truly live there as the proprietors of the celebrated restaurant Commander's Palace in New Orleans, Café Adelaide and the Swizzle Stick Bar in the Loews New Orleans Hotel, Brennan's of Houston, and their latest endeavor, Commander's Palace in Destin, Florida, which opens in July 2008.

When it comes to cocktails and sophistication, growing up in a family of restaurateurs, Ti and Lally not only had a head start on most of us in their cocktail education, these two ladies are smart, real smart, and they listened and paid close attention to their elders as they told their stories. We, fortunate readers, are the lucky recipients of their acquired cocktail, as well as life knowledge.

Speaking with Ti and Lally recently, they told me that they had wanted to create a cocktail book that would not only have great recipes, but would also be interesting and let their spirits shine through, as many cocktail books come across as encyclopedic. They wanted to have a little fun and tell a few stories to inspire the reader to create a cocktail. The inspiration for the book was easy, as when Ti had written the Commander's Palace cookbook a few years ago, the editor would not let her do a cocktails chapter in the book, and she thought, hey, this is New Orleans, people enjoy a cocktail before, sometimes during, and after dinner, so the new book was a natural progression. Traveling as Ti and Lally do around the world, they also found that it was hard to get a good cocktail in many places, which was another reason for the book.

Their favorite cocktails? For Lally, it is the classic Sidecar because she loves the taste, the pretty glass, the sugar rimming half of the glass, and that it tastes like a cocktail. For Ti, it depends on the hour of the day, but she is a Daiquiri girl, and prefers a Daiquiri, which has to be perfect and pristine; at the end of the evening, she prefers the classic New Orleans cocktail, the Sazerac, which also has to be perfect.

Well, let me tell you that I had been eagerly anticipating the release of this book ever since they first whetted my cocktail appetite. After many months of waiting, I finally had the opportunity to read this juicy little page turner that combines a bit of cocktail history, wonderful recipes with short introductions as to who created it or how it happened, and also includes a few naughty little secrets that will have you laughing out loud, no matter if you are sitting all by yourself while reading the book.

Rest assured, "In the Land of Cocktails, Recipes and Adventures From The Cocktail Chicks," duly hits its mark, dead-on, right smack in the middle of the bulls-eye. Beginning with the foreward from their friend and fellow cocktailian Ted Haigh aka "Dr. Cocktail," the book takes you on an exciting adventure with easy to follow recipes, wild and wacky stories, and illustrations by Tim Trapolin that are pure genius.

Whether you know how to make cocktails blindfolded or have no clue as to where to begin, "In the Land of Cocktails, Recipes and Adventures From The Cocktail Chicks" will have you stirring and shaking with ease, that is if you can refrain from laughing that long! I cannot wait until their next adventure!

"In the Land of Cocktails, Recipes and Adventures From The Cocktail Chicks" is published by William Morrow, an  Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. The book is available in bookstores, ISBN: 978-0-06-111986-6, at Commander's Palace, www.CommandersPalace.com, and online at HarperCollins Publishing, www.HarperCollins.com, Amazon, www.Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble.

Commander's Palace
1403 Washington Avenue
at the corner of Coliseum in the Garden District
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
United States
Telephone:    +1-504-899-8221 
Website:       www.CommandersPalace.com 

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