Woof!

I was pleased to find Newcastle Werewolf on the shelves again. That's their limited edition beer that's on sale from August until October. I had to get it, to try it. Good stuff.

I love Newcastle, and this brew of theirs was mighty tasty. Still amazed that fall is nearly here, can't believe that September starts tomorrow. WTF? The boys will be in school this time next week.

Drink: Hey, There

Cocktail recipe...

Hey, There

2 jiggers Coconut Rum
3 dashes Bitters
V8 Fusion (Strawberry-Banana)
Ice
1 spear of mango

Fill Collins glass with crushed ice. Then add Rum and bitters. Then pour V8 Fusion. Stir. Garnish with a spear of mango.

Drink: Thank You Kindly

Another one from the back of my brain. I can't vouch for it fully, as it's been years. I may need to conduct retesting of these, for mixological rigor...

Thank You Kindly

1 shot Cointreau
1 shot Campari
1 shot Amaretto
2 dashes of Bitters
1 slice of lemon

Pour into a Collins glass and serve over ice and stir a bit and garnish with a slice of lemon.

Drink: Stinking Vicar

The Stinking Vicar was a drink recipe I made from around 2005, maybe 2006, in my first bloggy-blog, one of a half-dozen or more recipes I had there. Sadly, the original formulas are lost to time and space, since I immolated that blog in '06, but here is my rough memory of this one -- keep in mind that I'm drawing from memory, here...

Stinking Vicar

1 shot Cointreau
1 shot Triple Sec
1 bottle Chinotto
3 dashes Bitters
1 maraschino cherry

Pour Cointreau and Triple Sec in a Collins glass over ice. Then pour a bottle of Chinotto over it, and add Bitters. Gently stir. Garnish with a red maraschino cherry.

Drink: Fair & Balanced

I had a dream last night where I invented a cocktail called a "Fair & Balanced" -- in mockery of Fox News and company. In the dream, I was talking with some mainstream journalists, and we were mocking how crappy Fox News was, and I came up with the Fair & Balanced as a cocktail in mockery of them, which the journalists began guzzling. While I'm pleased that my twisted brain comes up with drink recipes in its sleep, unfortunately, I can't remember the whole recipe!

Fair & Balanced

Purple Kool-Aid
Seven-Up
1 shot of vodka
1 shot of Chambord
3 dashes of bitters

Served in a Collins glass, over plenty of ice.

The whole point of it was that it was an unfair and unbalanced cocktail, but I can't remember what made it so.

Cackle

Having drunk my share of absinthe over the years, I can honestly say that it really does make me cackle like they do in this little clip...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqa62iiUwUI

I don't know of any other spirit that makes me cackle/carry on quite like absinthe, although no visual hallucinations, alas. But the cackling, most definitely. The very first time I tried it, I blogged about it (sorry, a long-extinct blog), and I was sitting there at the keyboard, cackling, trying to type. Oh, what a sight!

Still Up

I'm such a caffeine wuss; I had some dark chocolate M&Ms earlier this evening, and they are keeping me up! I know dark chocolate has probably like a thimbleful of caffeine in it, a super-tiny dose, but it still affects me strongly. Anything even remotely caffeinated after about 6 p.m. and I'm up!

So, I'm still trying to match the perfection of the Gemini Bistro's Old Fashioneds. They were so good. I've tried them at any number of places throughout Chicago, and the Gemini's were simply the best.

I made a couple today, came pretty close to it, but not 100%. I'm minding the boys for the next several days, so I'll not be able to do any field research at the Gemini, but I do plan to again. I want to get it right. Right now, I'm tentatively confident that it's

1 shot Maker's Mark
1 shot Cointreau
Several dashes Bitters
A dash of maraschino cherry juice

But I'm not completely sure about it. Maybe more Cointreau? The next time I order one, I'm going to watch the bartender make it (and hope it was the same one who made it back in November), and see if they add anything else. Hey, I take my Epicureanism seriously, dammit. It was the perfect Old-Fashioned, and I want to be able to replicate it!

So, tomorrow I'm going to take the boys to Adler Planetarium -- I told B1 we'd do that, and he was thrilled. I try to get the boys there twice a year, usually summer and winter, just because it's fun for them, a good "little kid" museum (e.g., just enough stuff there to entertain them, not soooo much stuff that they get all worn out). Adler's a trifle pricey for what you get, but twice a year, it's doable.

I guess that's all for the moment. I finally yawned, so maybe the mega-caffeine from the M&Ms (joking) is finally wearing off.