Read:

We all want to eat healthy, and we all want to eat delicious food. Which is why we all tend to have  our own, sometimes quirky, ideas about how to do just that.  Paleo, raw, vegan, vegetarian, Atkins, pescatarian–they’re all ways to help us put order to the sometimes random process of getting edible things into our pieholes. (And making sure we’re not eating too much pie!)

So here are 7 rules I agree with from Aaron Carroll of The Upshot, for your reading pleasure. I like that they’re sane, fairly unrestrictive, and very cognizant of the fact that having a cocktail and a hoagie once in awhile isn’t going to do you in. (More on that below.)

My favorite one?

7. Eat with other people, especially people you care about, as often as possible. This has benefits even outside those of nutrition. It will make you more likely to cook. It will most likely make you eat more slowly. It will also make you happy.

Good food, just like a good book, should make you feel good. Some things are that simple.

Eat:

It is one of life’s nagging mysteries: Why is a sandwich you order at a restaurant so invariably and intensely better than a sandwich you make at home?

These are the questions that keep me up at night. It’s a universally felt pain that sandwiches made by someone else are, and will always be, superior to that mash of bread and deli and refrigerator scraps you threw together last night.

Jarrett and I went to PX in Alexandria Wednesday night as a belated birthday surprise for him, and at the bar next to us were two older men. We got to talking about drinks (of course), then sandwiches, then about how both of them seem to be irreproducibly more delicious when you pay for them. We were drinking $13 cocktails, and yes, they were irreproducibly delicious. In fact, they were stupid good. And I mean that literally: I actually felt a little less intelligent after having my first sip because, wow, how could that taste so perfect, and what were those flavors?

So this week, let’s talk sandwiches and cocktails. For your sandwiching pleasure, take a drool over this interactive article, which will show you how some of the country’s best sandwiches are put together so well that we beg the makers to take our money. You’ll be able to graphically deconstruct each of these famous sammies to pinpoint exactly what makes them so, so much better than what we usually slap together for ourselves.

My secret to the perfect sandwich? It will always taste better if you can con your significant other into making it for you. Trust me.

Drink:

Now, to that cocktail I promised you. Usually I let Jarrett man this section, but he’s too humble to be able to properly describe how good this cocktail is. And the best part? It is reproducibly delicious!

But first, an apology to the country of Brazil, my homeland:

Hey Brazil, 

You are a wonderful country, full of beautiful beaches, warm people, and incredible food. I know you’re the birthplace of the caiprininha, that magical concoction of cachaça, lime, and sugar. And I love it! I really do. It’s great. Very tasty. But Jarrett just made it a million times better by adding ginger. Yeah. I know–I wish you’d thought of it first, too.
Sorry. Hope there’s no hard feelings. And if you want to license this new recipe from us, we could be convinced. (For a significant fee, of course.)

Much love,
Me

Yes, this drink is that good. I say that a lot (which is Jarrett’s fault for making delicious drinks), so I’ll just be upfront about my feelings: this is my new favorite drink. Ever. On the planet. (Sorry, Brazil!) It takes an already incredible cocktail and makes it even more elite.

I’ll say no more–just go reproduce it for yourself, and you’ll get it.

Ginger Caipirinha (Well, really, a Caipiroska.)

2-3 oz. vodka (Or cachaça, if you’d like it to be a caipirinha rather than a caipiroska.)
1 oz. ginger liqueur*
1 teaspoon cane sugar
Half a lime, sliced
Ginger ale

Add the lime slices and sugar to a shaker; muddle thoroughly. Fill shaker with ice and add vodka and ginger liqueur. Shake vigorously for 15 seconds. Strain into a Collins glass filled with ice, top with ginger ale, and mix. Garnish with a lime slice or peel.

* Ginger liqueur may seem like a hard-to-find ingredient, but these days small batch distilleries are making more and more flavored liqueurs. The one we used in this recipe  is from Northern Latitudes distillery in Michigan. But if you can’t lay your hands on any ginger spirits, it’s easy to make a substitute by simply infusing vodka with fresh ginger and using that instead of the ounce of liqueur in the recipe above. As Jarrett mentioned in a previous Roundup, infusing is really easy with this handy and affordable infuser.

Hope your weekends are full of warm weather, tasty sandwiches, and cold drinks!