Maple Mudslides

Author Notes

When I was a kid, my mother and my Aunt Marie would often spend late Saturday afternoons in the kitchen with the blender, a quart of ice cream from Howard Johnson's, and a couple of shots from whatever bottle they came across first in the liquor cabinet, concocting wonderfully boozy drinks that would be later consumed by the adults at cocktail hour. If I promised to help clean up (and not tell my father and Uncle Charlie what happened to the rest of the bottle of booze), I would be rewarded with a spoonful of the day's offering. My personal favorite was the Brandy Alexander made with peach ice cream, with the Grasshopper (made with mint ice cream) a real close second. Sadly, Aunt Marie is no longer with us, and these days my mother is perfectly happy with a nice gin and tonic before dinner. But I like to think that this is something they might have enjoyed. The maple ice cream is adapted from a 2007 recipe from the New York Times, or you could use purchased maple ice cream if you can find some. —wssmom