Tom & Jerry Party

The holidays always remind me of my grand-parents in Santa Fe hosting their annual Holiday Tom&Jerry Party, an affair that was much enjoyed and anticipated for many years, from 1946 onward. 

My memory of it is vivid, though I was quite young at the time of the only one I ever witnessed. In fact that might have BEEN the last one, though I'm uncertain of the year. 

It was before Camino del Monte Sol was paved. I remember that because it was my "job" that evening to greet the arriving folks in their party finery at the end of the drive-way. There, earlier in the day, my Dad and his Dad had set a pathway of pine 2x12 planks down atop the semi-frozen caliche mud upon which the guests would debark from cars. It was my job to slosh along through the frozen and freezing muck where woman in heels might have something upon which to steady herself and NOT plunge into the icy goo. 

"Gramps" (whom all knew as "Thar", short for Lothar--ironically a contraction of Lothario) passed the next year, in the Spring.

Thirty years later, while closing down the house in preparation to sell it, after "Honey"--my grandmother--went on to her reward, we discovered a stash of four gallon jugs full of already-blended rum & brandy mix. It had apparentlly been there since the last party, in 54 or 55.

It was still potent AND potable...Each of the kids got a jug..

Here's the recipe for Tom & Jerry cocktails:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/180917/tom-and-jerry-batter/

• Spoiil-sport alert:
  This recipe contains raw eggs. We recommend that pregnant women, young children, the elderly, and the infirm do not consume raw eggs. Learn more about egg safety from our article, Making Your Eggs Safe. Making Your Eggs Safe http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Making-Your-Eggs-Safe/Detail.aspx

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