Courtesy of Mom, I finally have a decent and easy-to-follow mojito recipe. She found it in Sunset Magazine. What’s a great recipe like that doing in an old fuddy-duddy magazine like Sunset?

2 c light rum
1 c water
1 1/4 c fresh mint leaves
1/2 c sugar

1 c lime juice
Ice cubes
More fresh mint leaves (optional)

Mint syrup: in a 1-2 quart pan, combine mint leaves, sugar, and water. Stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved and mixture is simmering. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand 30 minutes. Pour mint syrup through strainer to remove mint leaves.

Combine rum, mint syrup, and lime juice. Serve with ice cubes and, optionally, crushed mint leaves. Taa-daa!

I can personally attest that this is a pretty darn good mojito. As a variation, you might want to consider adding some club soda… however, keep in mind that this dilutes the drink significantly. And let’s face it, when you’re facing the ravenous hordes on Warcraft 3 with your old friend Eric from kindergarten at your side, you need all the liquid courage you can get. Either that, or you can get the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack and play “The Anvil of Crom” on infinite loop. That works too.

Note: I’d like to point out that Eric and I are currently undefeated as a team — 3 and 0. Our battle prowess is not exactly all that, though. For one thing, we haven’t played anyone yet who has figured out how to build an expansion base. Even worse, we haven’t figured out how to taunt the other team effectively. “Yo ‘huntresses are so fat…” is the best I can do. And Eric’s taunts consist of saying nasty things about our opponents that are meant for my ears only, but that he accidentally sends to the global channel. It’s obvious that this aspect of our game needs some work.