Category: Uncategorized (Page 3 of 4)

Today the Electoral College Votes!

Today is all about America so something truly American is in order. It must be simple to prepare and able to be consumed in large quantities. Unlike Alice, we don’t want to be sick again, so no sugar in this cocktail. Actually I am not sure it rates as a cocktail since it doesn’t have three ingredients.

BOURBON STRAIGHT UP

All you need is a good bottle of Bourbon and a glass. In reality the glass is optional should you wish to pass the bottle around (not a really smart idea in this COVID-19 era).

• Bourbon pairs well with red meat.
• Straight Bourbon or Sour Mash? Straight Bourbon is my choice. Both work well in this recipe.
• Can you add water or ice? Sure, the prime goal is to celebrate!

It’s Sunday, no bad luck today. What would we be lucky to have in our glass?

Option #1:
Pappy Van Winkle 23 Years – only $3999.00 (plus shipping)

Option #2:
CAOL ILA 50 YEAR OLD “PRIVATE COLLECTION” VINTAGE 1968 SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY BY GORDON & MACPHAIL – a steal at $14,000.00

Option #3:
Remy Martin Black Pearl Louis XIII – $165,000.00 and we are only getting started

Further options:
An article on the most expensive bottles ever sold

• Ever seen any of these? Sure, online while writing this!
• Worth it? Who knows but it does provide the opportunity for more stories.

In the early 70’s I went on a sailboat race from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. It started Friday afternoon and finished sometime on Saturday. At the start it was blowing hard on the city front. We were on Starboard tack and had right of way but someone tried to cut in front of us on Port tack. We couldn’t miss him and ended up tearing the stern off of his boat. Back to the dock to sort things out and then we sailed to Santa Cruz.

Sunday morning we started home and ended up anchoring in Half Moon Bay for the night. The owner brought out a bottle of brandy that was very, very old. Bottled sometime in the late 1800’s. We all got a little taste, I don’t know how good it was but it was sure a special occasion.





Moving forward to July 12, 1998. The French win the World Cup (real football) on home soil. François-Paul is home alone and after watching the match suggested dinner, meaning we would cook. He provided a bottle of red wine and invited Mark Haley to join us. All we had to drink was the one bottle of wine. Nothing prior to dinner and after finishing the bottle, nobody asked for anything else, it was so good.

Today is Chuck Granoski’s birthday. How should we celebrate? Perhaps and adult beverage is in order, after all he is over 21. Hmmmm… something fun?

It seems you need 3 people to properly celebrate and we had to go all the way to New Zealand to get these martini shot glasses. Wait a second, these are shot glasses so we need a cocktail with 3 components, not 3 people. I must put my thinking cap on to figure this one out. I think we need two options!

Option #1
The COSMOPOLITAN
Vodka, triple sec and cranberry juice are the 3 measured ingredients but you also need lime juice.

Option #2
The NEGRONI
Gin, sweet vermouth and Campari

• Why these 2 cocktails? Check out the color.
• Which is my choice? The Negroni!
• What do they pair well with? A hangover.
• But what about something for Chuck?

Option #3
The Margarita – Chuck is a Jimmy Buffet fan so what else could we choose?

On this day in 1395:
John “Eleanor” Rykener, a male cross-dressing prostitute, is brought to court in London for “committing that detestable unmentionable and ignominious vice” in late medieval England’s only recorded case on same-sex intercourse (verdict unknown).

Too good to pass up but we must move on.

Sorry, can’t move on. On This Day for today is bizarre, a King abdicating, the first penis transplant, a Senator calling for trump to resign- the list goes on and on.

Sounds like today should be about bizarre beverages.

Option #1:
Screwball – peanut butter whiskey

Option #2:
Worm Bucket – Pour rum into bucket with ice, add pineapple juice, then grenadine. Top with Sprite. A Mardi Gras favorite.

Option #3:
Blue Sewer – I am sure it has many names but pour whatever you and your buddies have into a bowl, mix and drink.

• Screwball? Amazing what Safeway carries. Peanut butter whiskey, wrong! Note that it is 70 proof.
• What about Worm Bucket? I am a fan. On a float during a Mardi Gras parade what more could one ask for? Maybe beads to throw.
• Blue Sewers: Don’t remember any and that is probably for the best.

Nobel Prize Day today. Does anyone in this group have a relative who won a Noble Prize?

If you guessed no, you would be incorrect. Aristide Briand shared the Nobel Peace prize in 1926. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1926/briand/facts/

The only option:
Calvados– made from apples, check out the bottle. Per FP when asked what Aristide Briand drank, “As a true Norman: Calvados!”.

• Do I like Calvados? Damn right!
• Calvados pairs well with? After dinner.
• Do I have backup for this almost empty bottle? By time you read this yes, at this time no.
• How many glasses of Calvados are enough? Can’t count that high.
• Is Karen a Calvados fan? Not really, she prefers Pear William (see below).

John Lennon died on this day so we must celebrate his life.

Option #1:
Brandy Alexander – “the cocktail is known to have been John Lennon’s favorite drink. He was introduced to the drink on March 12, 1974 by Harry Nilsson, in the midst of Lennon’s so-called “lost weekend.” The pair began heckling the Smothers Brothers, and whilst being ejected Lennon allegedly assaulted a waitress. Lennon later said the drinks “tasted like milkshakes”.

Option #2:
Put the lime in the coconut, you drank ’em bot’ up

• Option 1 makes sense but option 2? Have to listen to Nilsson, that’s all I have to say.
• Lennon or Nilsson? Listening to them by themselves I would favor Nilsson but the Beatles trounce him every day.
• Beatles or Stones? Stones!

For more on the Smothers Brothers. I don’t remember all that went on nor did we watch them. In 1969 I was in boarding school and TV was not something we had access to. If you read this summers Ride Around Washington report you know that the Vietnam War was something that did touch my school. If you need to catch up.

My first thought for today was 007 but it really is an important day in our history and we need to pay homage to the men and women who sacrificed during the war.

American Option:
TORPEDO JUICE– (from Wikipedia) American slang for an alcoholic beverage first mixed in World War II, made from pineapple juice and the 180 proof grain alcohol fuel used in US torpedo motors. For our recipe just use Everclear.

Japanese Option:
SAKE

• Ever tired Torpedo Juice? Don’t remember.
• Favorite Sake? Right now I like the cold, unfiltered offerings.
• What pairs well with Torpedo Juice? I imagine nothing.
• What pairs well with Sake? Fish

Option #3:
VODKA MARTINI, SHAKEN NOT STIRRED– best served with your favorite Bond movie!

Raise your glass for Sean Connery.

On this day in 1933 the ban on James Joyce’s Ulysses was lifted in the United States.

“Irish novelist and poet James Augustine Aloysius Joyce is regarded as one of the most influential writers of the modernist avant-garde. Joyce was a notorious binge drinker, who was adamant that he could not write as well without the aid of alcohol. During his time living in Paris Joyce was a drinking buddy of Ernest Hemingway. The slightly-built Joyce was said to often start bar fights and then hide behind the much bigger Hemingway.”

Option #1:
Jameson Irish Whiskey

Option #2:
White wine

• Which option would I choose: #1 of course, I am not much of a white wine drinker.
• Binge drinking? If forced to read Ulysses it would make sense to go on a life threatening bender lasting until the book was banned once again.
• Bar fights? There was a time when I experienced the opposite of the Hemingway/Joyce technique. While in New Orleans for Madri Gras, Ed Hoff who was much taller than I would stand behind me and start an argument. Speed was an asset in exiting the bar to safety.
• But what about Hemingway? See option #3 below
• Thoughts about Option 3? This is something I used to drink years ago. It’s about time to bring it out of retirement. Also time to re-read Islands in the Stream.

Option #3:
From a Hemingway novel, “Islands in the Stream” an interesting variation on the classic Tom Collins. In the Hemingway variant, gin is mixed with coconut water and lime juice over ice and then topped with Angostura bitters.

Joe and Helen Dowsett’s anniversary. Joe and Helen were my father and mother in law. At various times in her life, Helen was known to have a drink or two, Joe- always.

Joe’s Option #1:
Crown Royal– not often seen in his later years having shifted to Bourbon.

Joe’s Option #2:
Everclear– actually this is the only thing I have know that he would leave untouched in the liquor drawer.

Helen’s Option:
“Wine” and I use that term loosely. Helen liked to make wine although it was quite high proof.

• What have I heard about Joe and Helen’s drinking? Eating raw oysters and then “killing” them with a shot of whiskey. To make this worse the adventure was filmed and it was shown both forwards (with the oyster going down) and backwards (coming back up).
• What would Joe say when handed a drink? “Beautiful”
• Joe and crabs? One summer we were on the family sailboat, Orion, in Sucia harbor. Joe and Karen had gone diving and procured some crabs. A good looking gal with her kids was on the beach and they were interested in the crabs. Joe, watching the gal, picked one out of the bucket and the crab promptly locked on to one thumb. Seconds later Joe’s second thumb was captured. Crab was beaten into submission and I had to perform surgery to deal with the blood blisters. I don’t have a memory of what happened after but I am sure many adult beverages were consumed.

Karen’s choice today and she isn’t choosing wine. Something old school is in order for Friday.

Option #1:
Sidecar – invented around the end of World War I supposedly by the Ritz Hotel in Paris.

Option #2:
Ti’punch – François-Paul suggests 3 parts dark rum, 1 part fresh lime juice, 1 part simple syrup, lightly crushed mint leaves. Shake well over ice and pour over ice in a tumbler. Add more mint leaves for decoration (and munching). Drink through a short straw.

• Ever had a Sidecar? No
• How about a Ti’punch? Once
• Has Karen chosen French offerings? Sure seems that way!

Karen’s history with the Ti-punch. If you haven’t figured out from the recipe, this is one stiff cocktail. Twice in my memory Karen has ordered one and come away with a story to tell. But first we need to review the Briand family tree.

François-Paul is our age and was our next door neighbor in Tacoma. His father, François-Luc lived in Paris and we had the chance to meet on several occasions. François-Charles is the youngest of the trio and unlike his father doesn’t seem to have the desire to be a barman.

Story #1
We are in Dinard, France with the Briand clan including François-Luc. It’s cocktail time and Karen orders a Ti’punch. François-Luc’s eyes get large with admiration, a woman ordering such a cocktail and even more one constructed by his son!

Story #2
We are in Nantes, France with Leslie and George Patton looking for dinner and end up in a small restaurant where the chef is from Washington State. Karen orders a Ti’punch and is asked, are you sure? Of course! Seems this cocktail is seldom ordered by Americans.

Karen was not alone in her liking of the Ti’punch. François-Paul’s wife, Delphine, was also a fan. It would be fitting if everyone raised their cocktail tonight in Delphine’s memory.