sunday swill

If your Sunday afternoon has been spent embracing domesticity, might I suggest you take 5 minutes to prepare yourself a tasty beverage to help you through the remainder of the evening. This will work especially well if you have the house to yourself, with lamb shanks slow cooking in your oven, and an entire weekend's worth of dishes sitting on your bench, looming on the horizon like a dark cloud. Ideally you've already done loads of washing, changed your sheets, and extensively vacuumed the whole house's living area. Grab a glass, put Lady Gaga's new single on full volume, and enjoy! (Note: if you're like I was until very recently, and cannot forgive Gaga's lack of pants-wearing, try this song by Arcade Fire instead. I've been cranking them all weekend; they are awesome).

The Vodka Plum Citrus Tart

Fill a glass with ice. Pour in a shot of vodka (if you're lucky, the vodka was left by a friend of your flatmate's the last time they had pre-concert drinks, and it's Ruby Red Absolut). 

Add 3 tablespoons of plum syrup or plum juice (ideally, this was leftover from the tin of black doris plums you were going to make a plum cake or plum meringues with, but you instead just ate, slowly but surely over the weekend). 

Squeeze in the juice of half a large mandarin (if mandarins happen to be the only current fruit in your fruit bowl. If you're blessed with oranges, feel free to go ahead and use them instead). 

Top with soda water. Enjoy, safe in the knowledge that one: you are a domestic goddess two: your lamb shanks are nearly ready and three: your flatmates will love you for cleaning. Happy Sunday!