2025 A to Z Challenge Blog for the Letter M

April 15, 2025. Halfway through the month and the challenge. Rain’s back with the potential for snow. Old man winter might’ve been down for the count, but he wasn’t out. Oh well, I haven’t got anywhere to go anyway.

I’m slowly getting things organized. I’ve got meals ready in the freezer for my early recovery days. My husband is a great guy, but while he can make a simple cold cut sandwich, and K D, better known in the US as Kraft Macaroni and Cheese dinner (no real cheese needed) he can’t cook. So, there will be a lot of take out, delivery, and frozen meals until I’m able to resume kitchen duties.

Today’s letter is M. Last week when I mentioned my Cocktails for You series, one on my readers noted that they sounded interesting but that she didn’t drink alcohol. I’m not a heavy drinker, basically just a social one, although I do enjoy a glass of wine watching television, but in preparation for my surgery, I stopped drinking any form of alcohol a month ago. For The Last Supper, I had a Virgin Caesar, same as a regular Caesar, minus the vodka. The term given to non-alcoholic versions of cocktails is mocktails. So, this morning, M is for Mocktail.

I went online and found a few mocktails just for you. Here’s the link if you would like to find more of them than the three I’m offering you. https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/g42297893/best-mocktail-recipes/

The most common mocktail is The Shirley Temple named after a child actress.

This O.G. mocktail, dating back to the 1930s, was reportedly created for the famous child actress. One story goes that Shirley and her parents were at the Brown Derby (or Chasen’s, by some accounts) in Hollywood. Her parents were nursing cocktails, and little Shirley complained that she wanted a drink like the “grown-ups,” so the bartender created a nonalcoholic version on the spot.

Throughout the rest of Shirley Temple’s life, waiters and fans would delight in giving her the drink. Turns out, at least as an adult, she thought it was too sweet. Our not-as-sweet version of the Shirley Temple drink uses homemade pomegranate syrup and seltzer. We think adult Shirley would have approved, but to give it more kid-appeal, you can use a little more syrup

Here’s one that would work for Halloween! It’s called Black Charcoal Lemonade!

Activated charcoal powder into fresh-squeezed lemon juice makes this an extra-spooky sweet-and-sour drink. The ingredients include:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 Tbsp. activated black charcoal
• 1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice
• 4 cups cold water

Directions:

• Step 1In small saucepan, combine sugar and 3/4 cup water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer (do not stir) until sugar dissolves, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in charcoal, and let cool completely.
  1. Step 2 In large pitcher, combine lemon juice, cooled sugar syrup, and 4 cups cold water. Serve over ice.

Here’s one for the holidays: The Cranberry Basil Spritzer. This one is made to share.

Ingredients

For Basil Syrup:

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves

For Spritzer:

• 2 cups unsweetened cranberry juice
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 L chilled club soda
• 4 slices lime
• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, plus more for garnish

Directions

• 1. Step 1Make Basil Syrup: In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, bring water and sugar to a boil. Stir to dissolve sugar. Add basil leaves, remove pan from heat, and let steep for 20 minutes.Strain syrup and let cool for at least 1 hour. 
  2. Step 2Make Spritzer: In a large pitcher, combine syrup, unsweetened cranberry juice, and fresh lime juice. Fill pitcher with chilled club soda, then add lime slices, fresh cranberries, and basil leaves. To serve, pour spritzers over ice, top each with a splash more club soda, and garnish with basil.

So there you have it. Three non-alcholic drinks. In actual fact, you can order just about any cocktail on the menu. Just ask them to make it a virgin.

And of course, after that there’s only one suitable song.

Come back tomorrow for the letter N. Here’s the MASTER LIST https://tinyurl.com/tauke86z