Cocktail hour

It's early Sunday evening, so it's cocktail hour. A cocktail on a Sunday, incidentally, is an absolutely essential counter to the sickly temptations of puritanism and abstinence on the night before the school week starts. No, turn your back on the Antiques Roadshow, and say hello to the cocktail cabinet.

Now, you'll remember that we're on to C in Hans' A to Z cocktail challenge, after embracing the Bellini last week. Hans tells me that in the course of "tracking down an old friend" on the internet he came across a cocktail called a "Crusty Arnold" - a frankly unlikely sounding combination of dry vermouth, bacardi, grenadine and white wine. But, as he says sniffily, that's just a little too vulgar for JMP, and in these credit crunch times we're going to stick with the classic and simple Cointreau Caipirinha, which only requires Cointreau, four or five ice cubes, and a lime.

Crush the ice (easiest if the ice is in a plastic bag, then you can bash it with the handle of a big knife if you have nothing else to hand) and empty into a tumbler. Chop the lime into a half and two quarters. Squeeze the half over the ice, then discard it, and add the quarters to the ice. Pour over the Cointreau. Then sit back, and enjoy the contrast of the sweetness of the Cointreau against the tartness of the lime. Hans says that very contrast reminds him of one or two of his old flames. Crusty Arnold, anyone?