Cosmopolitan Recipe

Anyone who has watched "Sex In the City" has to have wanted to try a cosmopolitan. I first had one a few months ago and if that in itself didn't just knock me on my ass. Holy shit! Tasty, but powerful and EXPENSIVE!

I had another one in the Cities and wow - even more expensive (although it didn't taste much different).

And then on Monday night I was hanging out with Jessi and she was house-sitting for some friends of hers and they have nothing but the best in the liqour cabinet for them. So, we helped ourselves and made a couple of cosmopolitans, using Cointreau. Here is the recipe they have:
1 oz. Cointreau®
2 oz. vodka
Juice of 1/2 lime
Splash of cranberry juice
So - 3 shots. I went to buy this stuff last night and the price of it about knocked me on the floor. I like to have nice drinks, but I am not sure I really want to spend about $40 for a bottle.

So, I asked for a substitute and they suggested Triple Sec (@ $10/bottle). Of course there is nothing in between those prices. So, I bought it along with my cranberry juice and sweetened lime juice. I decided I would like to try it with Absolut Vanilla instead of regular 'ole vodka. And I made it by the recipe I made the other night and then decided to look up a recipe for it online and here is what I found:
1 oz Vodka
1/2 oz Triple Sec
1/2 oz Rose's Lime Juice
1/2 oz Cranberry Juice
Basically here it is just 1.5 shots and a lot of juice. I haven't tried it that way, but I do like the Absolut Vanilla in there.

Also, last night Kate & I went out to the Muni (our city-owned municipal bar and only bar in our little town) to have a few drinks and Absolut was $2. Yup! That's it, just $2 for Absolut with anytype of mix-in. At the Muni they use the Skyy Cosmopolitan mix. It's pretty tasty, although very sweet and more like a drink than a martini. For anyone that does not like martinis, they should get the mix. The ones made with the mix don't kick your ass like the real thing, but why should they - they probably only have 1-1.5 shots in them.

I just got a martini set (2 glasses, a tray, a martini pitcher & stirrer), so I will be trying some new recipes. Anyone have a favorite martini recipe they suggest?