As I said in my last two posts, Ryan and I host an annual Oscar party where we make dishes named for the best picture nominees.  Since there were 10 (!) nominees this year, we thought we’d do at least one drink and also some sweets in addition to the savory dishes.  This lime punch was our “dish” for the film “District 9.”

I always have the intention of making fun drinks for parties or dinner guests, but once the food part is taken care of the drink ideas seem to fall by the way-side.  We do the same old thing – beer, wine and Italian non-alcoholic sodas, which I thank my friend, Karen, for turning me onto.  I love me a good Italian soda!  Those all work just fine, but there’s nothing really exciting or new there.  It’s amazing what a difference having a home-made drink can make, and the effort is actually pretty minimal.

For our “District Lime” drinks, Ryan found this recipe, and it couldn’t have been easier to make.  We ended up using different amounts of ginger ale and soda water (only because that’s what the store had), and it still turned out great, so don’t get hung up on finding the exact amounts indicated in the recipe.  We made this in two batches, which also worked well.

The great thing about this drink is that it was really refreshing and satisfying on its own, but you could also add vodka or another type of alcohol if you wanted to.  It feels more festive to make something special, and this drink was so simple and so tasty that we’ll definitely make it again.  It inspired me to take the extra time in the future to pair some fun drinks with whatever food we serve.  It was really easy, and really worth it!

The end of Vegan MoFo just happened to coincide with a vacation that Ryan and I had been planning for a few months.  We went down to Venice, Florida, where my parents have a house in which they spend a good part of the winter.  (If you’ve ever been through a Chicago winter, you understand why!)  They were there along with my sister’s family, so we got to spend some much needed time with everyone, including our two adorable nephews.

As a result of being away, I’m now trying to catch up with work – including blogging.  I’m excited to start posting Thanksgiving recipes this month, so keep your eye out for those.  In the meantime, I thought I’d post this photo that Ryan took at Sharky’s On The Pier - one of our favorite places to have cocktails in Venice.  He posted a series of photos from the trip on his blog, and just looking at all of them makes me wish we were back on vacation!