Make a Strawberry Martini

For a refreshing summertime cocktail with a kick, follow the instructions below. You won't be sorry...or sober! Recipe makes 2 delightful drinks.

Ingredients

chill martini glasses in the freezer
crush ~1 cup of large strawberries, washed with stem and leaves removed, in a bowl and drain juice into a shaker (a mortar and pestle is handy for this step), leaving 2 strawberries for garnish
add crushed ice to shaker
pour 5 ounces of vodka into shaker (vanilla vodka can be used for a sweeter flavor)
add 3 tsp. of sugar or Splenda
shake vigorously
pour enough sugar onto a small plate to cover surface
remove martini glasses from freezer
slice ends of 2 remaining strawberries vertically so that there is a slit in the lower half of each
place berries on rim of glass and slide completely around rim so that surface is moistened with juice
remove strawberry and place glass, rim down, on plate with sugar so that each glass has a sugar rim
pour contents of shaker evenly between 2 sugared glasses and then garnish with strawberry on rim
drink, enjoy, repeat
Finished.

if you do not have a mortar and pestle, an easy way to crush the strawberries is to place the berries in a large ziploc bag a few at a time and crush with hands (on outside of bag, of course), cut corner off bag after crushing completely, and allow juice to pour into shaker
don't worry if some of the pulp gets in the shaker, it will strain when you pour
for sweeter martinis, simply add more sugar/splenda