Reviving the classics

So, my last post was supposed to be about one of my new little pet projects. It didn't quite turn out that way, so this one hopefully will be what it should have been. Lately, I've been on a kick to learn how to mix some of the classic cocktails of yore.

I've become very dissatisfied with all the new fru-fru drinks that are out there these days, and I've always been fascinated by those classic flavors of true cocktails. While the 1950's and before were not at all the "good ol' days" that alot of ancient congressmen make them out to be, there is definitely one thing that can be said about it. Back in the day, those sons of bitches knew how to drink.

A real cocktail is simple, usually having no more than a couple of ingredients, and doesn't have alot of unnecessary liquid in it. If you have the proper ingredients, you can put one together in a couple of minutes, and there's not need for blenders, or fancy glasses, or alot of cleanup afterwards.

Now, this is not to say that I would turn down a good blended drink. Fireweaver makes the best frozen margaritas and pina coladas that I've ever had. And when certain friends introduced me to mixing champagne and chambord a couple of New Year's Eveses ago, I have to admit it became a guilty pleasure of mine. But for a nice simple respectable drink that will give you a nice easy buzz, allow me to recommend a few of the following classics:

The classic margarita:
2 ounces of tequila
1 1/3 ounces of triple sec
1 ounce lime juice (MUST be fresh squeezed)
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

The classic daiquiri:
2 ounces of light rum
1 ounce of lime juice (see above)
1 teaspoon of sugar
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Alton Brown did an excellent show on cocktails, and he suggested using simple syrup instead of sugar. This definitely mixes better, but what I found is that when all is said and done, you end up with a really tasty lump of sugar at the bottom of the glass, similar to the wonderful sludge you used to find at the bottom of your cereal bowl as a kid. If you like the flavor, you might also add a dash of orange juice to the mix.
On a side note, AB also mentioned that this was a favorite cocktail of Earnest Hemingway. As a writer, that sells it to me even more. heheheh.

And finally, my new favorite cocktail.
The classic Manhattan:
2 ounces of bourbon (again, I recommend Maker's Mark)
1 ounce of sweet vermouth (it actually calls for 1/2 ounce, but I like mine a little sweeter)
1 dash of bitters
Mix the ingredients in a glass with ice, stir, and then strain into a cocktail glass. Michelle hated this drink, but then she doesn't like the taste of bourbon. I thought it was great. I'll be curious to see if bartenders can actually pull it off.
At some point, I'm also going to try and make an Old Fashioned.

A really great site that I've found for cocktails and some interesting commentary about them is www.drinkboy.com.

So, I recommend these classic cocktails as a nice simple drink that gets the job done without alot of fuss. If anybody decides to try them, I'd love to hear what you think. And if you have any other favorites to recommend, I'm always looking to add to my drink mixing repertoire.

My only caveat: at 2 or 3 ounces of hard liquor a piece, these things aren't exactly forgiving. So don't over do it. Enjoy, but be safe. Cheers!

Knowing thyself

**Warning: This post may be boring to most readers. Sorry about that.**

Hello again, friends.

I must say, I had dreamed of being able to sit on my couch and blog. Now that the dream has come true, it is everything I believed it could be. It is so amazing to be part of the 21st Century. Thank you Texas Instruments. Thank you. (If this is confusing to you, just visit the Texas State History Museum some time.)

Anyway, getting back to the point of this post. I'm always looking to broaden my horizons and add a few more wrinkles to my brain. So I line up these little projects, and I do some research and try and learn a new skill. A while back, Michelle and I decided that we needed to improve our knowledge of wines. So, while we were on the Alaskan cruise, we took a little wine tasting class. It was great, and we got to taste some very expensive wines that we would ordinarily have never tried. Since then, we've done some reading, and most importantly, we've continued to try new wines to see what we like and learn more about what there is out there. So now, we are able to talk with at least a little bit of understanding about what we really like in wines, and when we go into a restaurant, we're able to order and have a good idea of what we're going to get.

Well, lately, I've been trying to do the same thing with the good ol' fashioned booze. One of the things I've always wanted to be able to do is drink scotch. Don't ask me why, I guess it's just one of those things that I got into my head as on of those manly things that I should be able to do. So I did some exploring, and some tasting and came to a surprising conclusion: I don't really like scotch.

Now, this bothered me for a while, until I did some more experimenting and found out another surprising thing: I like bourbon. Lemme splain.

Having spent alot of money on single-malt scotch, twelve-year-old Glenfidditch to be exact, I decided to just go cheap with my next whiskey purchase. So I fell back on that good old Tennessee sippin' whiskey, Jack Daniels. And surprisingly, I found I had a taste for it. I find that it doesn't have the bite that alot of scotch's have, and I didn't feel bad about mixing it with a little bit of diet coke.

This led me to find out more about American whiskey, and inevitably, led me to look into Kentucky bourbons. After doing a little research, I found good recommendations for Maker's Mark, one of the first bourbon's to be distilled in the States after the repeal of prohibition. And I'll be damned if it isn't tasty tasty stuff. And potent, too. But I find that it's easy to drink with a little bit of water, but it also mixes well with other simple ingredients to make some really nice cocktails.

Which leads me to my next post.

Hmm... Well, this post didn't exactly turn out the way I planned it. I didn't mean for it to turn into a long exposition about my tastes in booze. Oh well. If you made it this far, I guess you can forgive my tendency towards lecturing.

Anyway, in summation: my red wine of choice - Cabernet Sauvignon; my white wine of choice - Pino Grigio; and my hard liquor of choice - Maker's Mark Kentucky Bourbon.

Now you know just a little more about me.

Breathing room

As in, I finally got some.

It's been a little crazy around here for the last few weeks. And my blogging has suffered for it, of course. I can't say that my writing has suffered for it, however, because other writing is part of what has taken me away from blogging.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine put me onto a job posting. Bioware Austin is looking for writers for their new MMO. Now, I'm not sure whether it's the new Mass Effect MMO, or the new Knights of the Old Republic (Star Wars, that is, how awesome would that be??). Anyway, I finally decided to get off my lazy but and take a shot. So, I've spent quite a bit of time over the last few weeks working on my submission for the job. This required buying a copy of Neverwinter Nights, one of the most popular RPGs ever, and then learning how to use their editing toolset to create my own playable module. It didn't have to be complicated. In fact, what they were primarily interested in was the dialog. So, I had to write 3000 words of interactive dialog. That means not just writing a conversation that someone reads, but writing it in such a way that the player has options that they can choose from to guide the conversation, while still imparting important information that drives the game.

It was a big challenge, but it was really fun. I finally managed to submit it, along with my resume and a short cover letter. The big problem is that I have zero real creative writing experience. I don't have any portfolio of which to speak. And I was too embarrassed to link them to The Red Dragoon, or to the writing I've done for the UDI wiki. But, I have cast my dice. We'll see where they fall.

Of course, the other big thing that took up all of our time was the very unfortunate and sad situation with Michelle's grandmother. Thank you all again for kind words and support. It was a long and painful experience for Michelle and her family, especially her mother. Harder, I think, than what my family had to go through a few years ago when we lost my grandmother on my father's side. That's another story though.

So, we finally got back to work this week, caught up on all of the missed emails, the missed visits, and the overdue manual projects. And we finally got some breathing room.

So it was nice. Friday I came home and drank way too much Maker's Mark (that's good Kentucky bourbon, by the way) and then went out to see Beowulf in 3-D with George and Lynn. Michelle was going to go, but she crashed and burned and I couldn't budge her. Then yesterday, as a means to get over my hangover, I finally went out and bought us a laptop. Which is really cool, because now I can sit her on my comfy couch and watch TV AND BLOG!! YAY!!

Today, we got massive amounts of Xmas shopping done, I finally got around to putting up the lights on the house, both inside and out, and I even tried my hand at making eggnog, using a recipe from Emeril. As we speak, it's chilling in the fridge, and now that my lovely wife has just come home and exclaimed in excitement about the lights being up (it was a surprise), I am going to have a cup and take a deep breath.