A Good, Old Fashioned Happy Ending.

Maybe because it's because I am a writer, but I am a sucker for a great story. In my opinion, there is nothing better than getting caught up in a good book, great movie, or well written TV show.

After the reality-tv epidemic of the millennium, there was a time that I worried that there would be no more epic sit-coms like Seinfeld, Friends, or Home Improvement.

Thankfully I was wrong and a few TV shows that have recently reinvented the sit-com with brilliant writing, incredible characters and film-style shooting. Modern Family, 30 Rock, and Community have been my favourite shows in the last couple of years, but a have a new fave, Happy Endings, that is pure comedy gold.

They've taken the six-good-looking-people-in-their-late-twenties formula à la Friends, but set in Chicago with more modern characters (including a gay player and an inter-racial central couple.) It is fun, and somehow managed to keep it all non-cliché (except of course if the cliché is hilarious.)

This week's episode of Happy Endings is titled Cocktails and Dreams, so I had to share it with you. Click here to watch this episode full of cocktails and sex-dreams. It's a gooder ;).

Enjoy this Old Fashioned, the cocktail featured in this episode, while watching the funniest show on tv right now. Cocktails + giggles = ♥.

A Good, Old Fashioned Happy Ending.

-2 oz whiskey
-1 sugar cube
-1 dash bitters
-1 lemon slice
-1 cherry
-1 orange slice

Combine the sugar cube, bitters, and 1 tsp. water in an old-fashioned glass. Muddle, add whiskey, and stir. Add a twist of lemon peel and ice cubes. Add slices of orange and lemon and top with the cherry. Cheers!

Frenching it up!

With a last name like Taylor, you probably wouldn't have guessed that I am actually French-Canadian from a big big French family (on my mom's side, of course.) Right now, I am staying with one of my relatives in Québec for three weeks, and it has been such a great experience that I have been inclined to share the reasons why it is so great to be a part of a French-Canadian family:

1- The Food (This goes without saying)

Staying with my aunt is like staying at a five-star all-inclusive resort with an in-house French chef. My morning coffee is accompanied with croissants or french-toast (which the french call 'golden toast') and dinner is a fabulous feast that is always followed by desert. I am convinced that it is my aunt's goal to send me home nice and fat so that her sisters in Winnipeg know just how good of a cook she is!

2- Cousins

Being part of a big French family means that I have heaps of cousins spread out across Eastern Canada. On this particular trip, I have plans to see 6 of them (of the 14 I have in total.) Today, I got to re-discover my inner teenager on a shopping spree with my 16-year-old cousin Isabelle. So. Much. Fun.

3- Frenching it up

Although I was educated in French, years of not using it has left my French skills lacking a bit. Staying with my French family gives me the chance perfect my French before I enter the French working world. They are also very polite in correcting me, whereas the Montreal bus driver simply says "honey, I'm going to speak to you in English."

4- The cheese

Yes, I know that I have already mentioned food, but this deserves it's own section. Having a choice of 5 cheeses from the fromagerie with every meal is divine. Btw, if you have never been to a fromagerie, you must in this life, it is simply heaven on earth! Garlic cheese with spaghetti, brie with my moaning croissant.... Mmmmmmmm, le paradis!

Rather than a cocktail recipe with this post, I'd like to share a musical treat!

This Québecquoise has been the soundtrack to my trip so far, she is géniale!