Failure to Launch Guava Smasher for #FoodnFlix

This month's Food n Flix is hosted by my friend, Amy of Amy's Cooking Adventures.  Amy chose the romantic comedy Failure to Launch as the Flix for this month and sent out an announcement post 
inviting us to join her.

All you have to do is watch the movie before the end of the month.  Create a dish or drink or snack that was inspired by the movie.  Blog about it and share it with the rest of us by emailing Amy who will be creating a submission post linking to the blogs of those who participated.

I had never seen nor heard of the movie Failure to Launch.  I kind of live under a rock I guess.  It came out in 2006.  That was 10 years ago!  I'm not sure what I was doing 10 years ago but I guess I wasn't keeping up with the current movies.  You would think it would have gotten my attention.  It has a great cast, Matthew McCounoughey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Bates, Zooey Deschanel, Terry Bradshaw and Bradley Cooper to name a few.

Sarah Jessica Parker is hired by Matthew McCounaughy's parents, Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw, to get him to move out of their house.  Sarah Jessica Parker's character calls this phenomenon of adult son's refusing to leave the nest as "Failure to Launch".  

The movie is predictable but it had me laughing out loud quite often and has great side stories that are also very predictable but no less fun for that.  The supporting cast is fantastic and I ended up really enjoying this movie.

It is not a foodie movie but there was plenty of food.  Starting with Matthew McCounaughy stepping onto a bag of tortilla chips before going down to a full breakfast cooked by his Mom of pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon.  There is cereal, melon, bananas and apples.  Their is wine and margaritas served with tacos. guacamole and black beans.  There were BBQ scenes, restaurant scenes and a lunch scene on a sailboat that went awry with the lovely baguette and green beans being thrown into the sea. 

They enjoy sushi, crabs, and peanut butter and jelly on white bread.  There are hot dogs and peanuts enjoyed at the ball game. There is a lovely roast beef dinner, prepared by McCounaughy and served to his parents and Sarah Jessica Parker during which he confronts them with the fact that they were all scheming against him.

Now, for those of you who know me, it will come as no surprise that my inspiration came from the BBQ scene at the very beginning of the movie where a group of friends are all gathered and lamenting the fact that they are NOT suffering empty nest syndrome.  The hostess comes out with Guava Smashers and passes them out before announcing that they were able to get their son to move out after introducing him to the "right girl".  This gave Bates and Bradshaw the inspiration to hire Parker and gave me the inspiration to research Guava Smashers.

It appears that the drink is actually a Whiskey Smasher, and any seasonal or favorite fruit can be used when making it.  I chose to use Guava in staying with the theme of the movie but also because I have never had Guava before.  I told you I live under a rock!!

A Whiskey Smash is kind of like a Mint Julep wherein you muddle mint and sugar together, but with the Whiskey Smash you use lemon instead of lime and you can add in fruit of your choice if you wish.

As I was saying, I had never had guava before so I asked Frank to stop on his way home from work one day to pick some up for me.  He brought home 2 for which he paid $8. No wonder I have never had them before LOL.  They were creamy white inside instead of pink as is shown in the picture I found on google that I posted above but further research showed that they are more frequently creamy white.  

I don't know what guavas are supposed to be like so I wasn't sure if they were ripe.  They were hard and when I tried to juice them using a juicer nothing happened.  So I peeled them, threw them in the food processor and hit puree.  Now I had thick pulp but still no juice.  I added some water, pureed some more and then forced the mixture through a fine sieve into a glass.  It was tart but Whiskey Smashers call for sugar with the lemon and mint so I figured that might be okay.  They also said cranberries were a popular fruit to use and they are tart so I figured tart is okay.

We put the sugar, mint and lemon into a glass, muddled it, added ice, added 2 oz. each of whiskey and guava and stirred it up.  I took a drink.  Frank took a drink.  We frowned at each other and took another drink.  The second drink was better.  By the time I finished this drink I had decided that it was a new favorite.  I am normally a vodka/tonic drinker but I really liked the brightness and flavor of this Guava Smasher.  Frank thought they were okay but that he would stick to his Crown on the Rocks.

Frank is on a mission now to find prepared guava juice so we can try them with the packaged stuff to see how they compare.  I'll let you know.

Guava Smashers

4 oz. guava juice (read above to see how I juiced the guava)

4-6 sprigs of mint

2 quarters of a half a lemon

2 t. sugar

4 oz. whiskey

Muddle 2 or 3 sprigs of mint, 1 chunk of lemon and 1 t. sugar into the bottom of 2 cocktail glasses. Add 2 oz of whiskey and 2 oz. of guava juice to each glass.  Stir to combine.  Garnish with lemon twist or a slice of guava if desired.  Print Recipe