It appears I can't escape food talk even when yanking out pernicious wild radish and avoiding tramping on (and killing) native plants at Land's End. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, because if we hadn't started talking about food, I wouldn't be able to present you with a new summer cocktail. Fellow volunteer, Al the Aussie, gave me leave to publish his invention: The Ginlati. (Al concedes that it could be "Ginlato," but he likes the sound of "Ginlati," and since it's his recipe, I'm not arguing if you drink multiples.)

The weather hasn't really been warm enough to make us yen for this sort of sousing, although on Thursday Al looked up at the blue sky and lack of fog and mused, "Weather like this would call for it." I looked around at all of us in fleece vests and sweatshirts and think it could stand to get hotted up a bit more.

But enough bitching -- on to the drinking!

Put a scoop of lemon gelato in a glass. ("High grade," Al says. "What kind?" I ask. "Well, it's Australian," he says. Use your favorite, I advise.) Follow the gelato with a nice slosh of gin, about 2-3 ounces. Top off with icy tonic water. (You all remember my favorite tonic water, right?) Finally, throw in a sprig of mint if you're feeling it, take the shades off all the lightbulbs, pull on a few sweaters, and frost yourself.

Oh, and think about making it the way you would a root beer float -- the gelato goes in first and rides up with the liquid, making a nice creamy head. It's damn tasty and pretty much as refreshing as you get. I put my own spin on Al's original recipe by adding a squirt of homemade limoncello, which gets you two drinks for one post, so how happy are you?

Oh, cheer up! The sun will come out...well, maybe not tomorrow but soon and hot.

(And now you have that song in your head, don't you?)

Al's Ginlati

1-2 scoops lemon gelato
2-3 ounces gin
Tonic water
Spring of fresh mint

Stephanie's Land's End

1-2 scoops lemon gelato
3 ounces limoncello
1 ounce gin
Tonic water
Spring of fresh mint

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