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!

What's your Jones?

I got my first glimpse into the exciting world of advertising when I was just a young & naive high school student in miss Jones' grade 12 transactional English class. In groups, we created a campaign for Jones soda and produced ads for print and TV that we pitched to miss Jones, who then picked a winner.

Our campaign's "big idea" was What's Your Jones? I came up with the slogan and acted as creative director for the group. I loved every minute of creating and pitching the campaign and I remember thinking, "is this even schoolwork? Because I am having way too much fun!"

The What's Your Jones campaign won the pitch and the prize of 20 bonus marks. It even beat out the class keeners who made Jones Soda t-shirts for their pitch.

I knew that I had discovered what I wanted to do with my life... Ten years later, here I am, finally doing it. Still loving it.

I spent this past weekend at school working on my campaign for World's Finest Chocolate. I stopped at 7eleven on the way to pick up some study provisions, and the Jones Soda in the fridge caught my eye. I figured I'd take a walk down memory lane to my first campaign for some nostalgic inspiration and bought the fancy soda.

One of Jones Soda's unique selling feature that we mentioned in the What's Your Jones campaign is the fortune that you find under the bottle cap. The fortune under my bottle cap read:

"Your hard work will soon show results."

Being in the midst of the working harder than I ever had and being closer to my goal than I have been, I find it quite fitting. :)

What's Your Jones?

•2oz orange-flavoured vodka

•1 bottle Jones Cream Soda

•1 scoop vanilla ice cream

-Pour vodka and cream soda into a tall glass with just a few ice cubes. Add ice cream on top. Stir. Celebrate finding your Jones!

Man, those lights sure are bright...

Chelsea handler is my idol: she's a brilliant writer; she's beautiful; and she says anything she damn well wants to! Read one of Handler's four New York Times Best selling books get some insight to this hilarious woman with a quick wit and a dirty mouth.

The only woman in a man's world with her own a late night TV show, Chelsea Lately, she also has my dream job.

When I started my Comedy Writing class in September, I knew going in that she was the type of comedian I wanted to be. Last night at Rumours Comedy Club, I had that opportunity. On stage, in front of 200 of my classmates and their closest family and friends, I preformed a 2 and a half minute routine in which I made anyone sitting next to a parent or teacher feel slightly uncomfortable.

Between the "Official Jets' STI," Beiber being a baby daddy (allegedly, of course) and men's facial expression at the point of orgasm, I got loads of laughs!

Comments from my classmates: "Haha, soooo funny! &"Whoa. you've got balls, girl!"

Yep. I think I'd make my idol proud!

Enjoy this clip from Chelsea in the beginning of her stand up career.

Another thing I love about Chelsea is how open she is about her love affair with vodka, she even called her second book Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea.

So of course this weeks' cocktail will be made with miss Handler in mind.

Lately on the Rocks
-3oz Belvedere Vodka (the primary sponsor of Chelsea's latest book tour)
-3 lemon wedges

In a glass full of ice, pour vodka and squeeze in the juice from lemon wedges. Let chill for a minute before enjoying! Here's to good times and bad decisions! ;)

First Date Fun!

I've always thought the best first date to be mini-golfing: it's a great time and a great way to get to know someone. That is of course until a guy took me skeet-shooting for our first date...

Yep, skeet shooting. I'm not even kidding, even though at first, I thought he was.

He definitely got some points for originality and I was looking for any excuse to put off doing my homework, so I accepted his offer to take me to the firing range. After a quick stop to pick up coffee, donuts and ammunition, we were off to the country to enjoy a chilly autumn Sunday.

After a few misfires and some a few pointers from the firing range staff, who encouraged me to join the women's summer rifle club, I actually hit a target (are they called 'skeets'? I don't know!)

Turns out I'm pretty much the next Annie Oakley :).

Watch out, mini golf. I may just have a new favourite!

Jerry's Ammo

•2oz Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rhum

•2 oz Coke

•2 0z Gingerale

•Lime wedge

-Mix all ingredients into a glass filled with ice.

-Boom!

Getting older, not wiser.

How is it that the reminder of getting older somehow makes me act more childish? I party like I'm 21, eat like I'm 13, and have grandiose notions about the whole event like a 16 year old teenager brainwashed by romantic comedies.

Surely this behavior is followed by: debilitating hangovers, tummy aches and disappointment. Will I ever learn my lesson?

Here's a delicious creamy martini that tastes just like birthday cake! Yummmmm!!

Piece of Cake

•1.5 oz Vanilla Vodka (Stoli if you can)

•.5 oz Amaretto

•1 oz 2% milk (half & half cream if you're feeling skinny)

•Lemon zest

-Shake all ingredients together in a shaker full of ice, strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a birthday candle and some great friends!!

Here's to getting older but never growing up!

Case of the Mondays...

It may be the gloomy, chilly wheather, the full moon, or the heaps of homework stealing any remaining back to school novelty, but I have got a serious case of the Mondays....

How quickly the excitement of back to school can turn into reality: late nights at school; neverending 'to-do' lists; no sleep, money, time or social life.

Oh well, at least I get to wear my favorite scarves and boots again. Hardly seems like any consolation.
Temperatures are dropping, so heat things up with a spicy Caesar! Anything that doubles as a cocktail and a meal works for all us starving students out there

This fantastic Canadian cocktail can be made with various spices and garnishes, but my this recipe is the best I've tried thanks to the secret ingredient:

•Use Montreal steak spice instead of celery salt to rim the glass!

G's Ceasar

1 tbsp olive juice

1 tbsp pickle juice

2 oz vodka

2 squirts worcheshire

2 squirts tobasco

Clamato juice

-Mix all ingredients in a Montreal steak spice rimmed glass full of ice. Stir. Garnish with a mini pickle and mini olive.