We have been in beautiful Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for the last couple of months. Life is vastly different here than what we are used to. Wonderful, but different. Grocery shopping doesn’t mean a trip by car to Walmart or Kroger but rather a walk to a local market where all manner of fresh produce, crusty bread (in paper bags, homemade by some enterprising expat), and colorful spices in huge, glass jars are all on display, vying for your attention. One thing that is quite rare around here is a yellow lemon. If you ask for one at the grocery store, they look at you like you have two heads and point you to the ‘limons’…limes, in English…quite green, not yellow and abundantly available in either regular or small size (Key limes). Now don’t get me wrong, limes are great. I use them a lot for a lot of different things. But, and here comes a confession, I enjoy a Lemon Drop martini on occasion at cocktail hour and I’m afraid you just can’t make a Lemon Drop without a yellow lemon. Well, you can imagine my delight recently at the market when what did my wondering eyes behold but a bin full of…yes, you guessed it…yellow lemons! They didn’t look so great…actually they looked a little puny. But beggars can’t be choosers…I selected 3 of the less puny looking ones and happily went on my way, visions of a proper Lemon Drop dancing in my head. Well, to make a long story short, I did have my Lemon Drop for happy hour that day and in true celebratory fashion, I pulled out a lovely, blue rimmed, hand blown, Mexican martini glass to enjoy it in. Now I don’t know if that Lemon Drop would have been less enjoyable in a crude water glass, and I don’t know if it tasted any better because it was in that pretty martini glass…but I do know that I enjoyed the glass. I enjoyed looking at the pretty glass and my cocktail hour seemed a bit more civilized having invited the pretty glassware. We need that in our lives now days, I think. What with the stress, and the ugliness that we see and hear every day, home should bring us some beauty. Moral? Break out the good stuff. Don’t keep the pretty glasses for that once a year or once every 10 years dinner party that you keep meaning to throw. Use the pretty glasses. Enjoy them. Here’s to using the good stuff…salud!

http://myfavoritebeachhouse.com/Kitchen/Beach-Barware/Octopus-Pewter-Stem-Cocktail-Glass-Set-of-2
http://myfavoritebeachhouse.com/Kitchen