29 January 2023

Another upside to writing to pen pals

I had talked about how, ever since I started having pen pals again, I am able to regularly write letters every weekend . Yet another upside is sitting down with the letters from the week over a cup of coffee and read them intently. First, there is always some very interesting aspects of stationery, ink, pen, decorations and the like. Second, the different people have so many different life stories, interests and insights!!

Just observing how different people in different parts of the world number their pages is an intriguing study!

This was from a couple friend in Australia and another from a lady in Lithuania!

22 January 2023

From the bartender’s corner – Baja Gold

This is one more drink from the book of cocktails and trivia that Natasha gifted me. This is Tequila, mango juice, Agave nectar and lime. The original recipe called for pineapple juice but I am not a big fan of pineapple juice. Somehow, that particular acid does not sit very well in my mouth.

The trivia mentioned for this drink is interesting.

“In 1669, The German Alchemist Hennig Brand, after noting that gold and urine were similar in color, developed the belief that he could distill the precious metal from it. So, he started collecting urine, mostly from his wife and her friends.

After boiling over 1,500 gallons of it, he found no gold. Instead, he discovered phosphorous!”

21 January 2023

From the bartender’s corner – Satan’s Whiskers

Made this from a cocktail book that Natasha had given me as a Christmas present. This is a fairly old gin cocktail. And I replaced orange juice with mango juice to make it a little sweeter.

One of the interesting things about the book is that it gives some trivia with every drink recipe. For this it had – “Did you know that a cat’s whiskers go out for the same length as the width of the cat’s body? This allows them to judge if they can fit in thru a hole!”

Back to the drink – this is gin, dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, orange juice and orange bitters.