Aunt Vere’s Slush

Hot young starlets like Britney and Lindsay have nothing, nothing on the hardy, salt-of-the-earth folks who populate Minnesota. Sure these girls party. But their partying lacks subtlety and subversiveness.

It would never occur to them to create a cocktail as insidious as Aunt Vere’s Slush.

Lynne had described to me the delicious lemony adult drink before. She’d gotten the recipe from her neighbor, our mutual friend Colleen. Colleen explained that she had gotten the recipe herself from her Aunt Vere, a quiet, gentle and proper lady from Owatonna, Minnesota (seen pictured above with her husband Harvey).

Today I had my first taste of Aunt Vere’s Slush at a 7-year-old’s birthday party. Lynn dished it out to three of us moms, as our kids ran amok around us. Several of them, attracted by the scoops of light tangerine color slushy in glass tumblers asked if they could have a taste. “This is for mommies,” we told them gently.

And how. Delicious. Refreshing. Sweet with a ping of tangy-ness. And a gratifying, very sneaky buzz.

I haven’t included cocktail recipes on Bad Home Cooking before this, either. But it was that good. Or rather, it was that bad. In the very good sense of the word.

Here’s what you do: Pay attention.

boil and cool:
8 cups water
1 cup sugar

In a large bowl or Tupperware container, add:
one 12 oz can frozen orange juice
one 12 oz can frozen lemonade
one 46 oz can of pineapple juice
two and 1/2 cups vodka

Freeze this concoction overnight. The vodka will keep it from freezing solid. The next morning (or whenever you need your first mood-enhancing beverage) scoop out the resulting “slush” with an ice-cream scooper and add it to a glass until it’s 3/4 fill. Add 7-up to fill.

Aunt Vere, wherever you are, we, the Moms of Southern California hoist a glass and salute you. Long-live prairie-woman ingenuity!

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