Amaro and Me

 So last month the hubs and I went to Old Major in Baltimore for a maker's market.  We'd been meaning to check them out for a while buuuuut....well, he had his car stolen a few years ago from a spot in the same neighborhood so he was a bit leery about going at night.  But this event was during the day so off we went.  After checking out the various vendors, we grabbed a spot at the bar to order food.  I had had a ROUGH night the night before so wasn't drinking, but I studied their bar anyway, as I do at any bar, looking for interesting bottles.  And I found one!  I asked what it was and they told me a chamomile amaro and I'm all "okay, you're speaking my love language now".  

I did a Google and found out the amaro in question was produced by Baltimore Spirits Company so I made a mental note to get there with a quickness.

Apparently, in my mind, a quickness is defined as "three weeks" because we ended up there after catching a screening of Hundreds of Beavers this past weekend (which, by the way, I HIGHLY recommend this film if you like ridiculous slapstick and Wile E Coyote cartoon logic).  The hubs had a cocktail (which was very good btw) and I ended up with two flights - a complete amaro tasting flight and then a second one because they are more than just amaro and I wanted to try other stuffs too.

Ended up buying a bottle of the aforementioned chamomile amaro (although I enjoyed all of them, and their barreled gin was also fantastic as was the Rye and Fig liquor).  It occupies the same bitterness space as Campari but instead of orange notes this was more floral.  Obvs my first thought for it was a Negroni riff so that is what I did.  Used Bombay Sapphire for the gin and Cocchi Americano for the vermouth.  Skipped the orange squeeze because I didn't want a distraction.  

I think I do prefer a standard Negroni but this was also quite good.  I need something to bring out the floral notes though.  Might try with some Hendricks variation, Midsummer I think is the one I have.

But also, I have an Earl Grey infused gin I made for Earl Gray MarTEAnis but it's way too tannic.  I've been meaning to try rice washing it to see if that helps and if it does, I might try it in a Negroni with the chamomile.  We'll see......

Amaro and Me

Not Mad about It

 Friday night I decided to make us Creole Gimlets, partly because I had four lime wedges that we hadn't used during dinner.  In complete defiance of one of the so called golden rules of mixing cocktails, I poured the gin first, five ounces of it to be exact.  Then the falernum.  Then I went looking for the Rose's lime cordial which I own ONLY for making gimlets.  Except I couldn't find it.  

So I pivoted.  I didn't want to use fresh lime juice because that's not the same thing, but I wasn't sure what to do instead.  I wasn't about to just dump five ounces of perfectly fine gin (Bombay Sapphire ftr).  So I added some simple syrup, a tad less than the amount of cordial that had been called for in the original specs.  And then threw the limes wedges into the shaker.  Added a few dashes Peychauds and shakey shakey.  (In retrospect, I could have muddled the lime wedges first).

The resulting drink was most definitely not a gimlet by any stretch of the imagination.  The husband didn't care for it at all.  But you know, I kinda liked it.  Happy little accident that I would actually make again.

Not Mad about It

Here's what's Going to Happen

 I have rediscovered a love for reading, THANK GOODNESS.  I have been trying to get back into reading since...well, since mobile games were invented, really.  That's probably a bit of an exaggeration but I have definitely read less over the years and for a while, if it weren't for audiobooks, I wouldn't have been reading at all.

But the day after Thanksgiving I kinda just said eff this and haven't fallen into a phone game since.  I'll play a single game of that fruit drop watermelon merge thing every now and then when I have a spare moment or two but not enough spare moments to string together into a reading sesh.  But yeah, mostly I've been reading.

I have a physical book at home, an audiobook for my car, and an ebook for other times.  It's been working out well.  These are the books I've completed just since Thanksgiving:

(with the exception of King Sorrow but I just copy/pasted my list from the Excel spreadsheet I've been using for tracking, which kinda brings me to my point BUT NOT YET)

So in addition to reading, I have also continued on my mixology journey.  I try to mix a cocktail most nights we're home, playing with flavors and techniques, but I realized the other night that it might be helpful to apply some kind of focus to my madness.  So I decided to start theming my weeks around various elements (bottles, juices, syrups, bitters, whatev) and make a least three cocktails a week using the featured ingredient.  

And of course, me being me, I want to track both my cocktail experiments and my reading journey.  I have been wracking my brain trying to find a way to do that using journaling, maybe going back to Happy Planner, maybe using a bullet journal, but I couldn't come up with anything that felt satisfying to me.

SO!  I'm going to give this yet another shot.  I hope to be writing at least three times a week although ideally daily.  Starting in 2026 although I reserve the right to write before that also as well too.

Here's what's Going to Happen

One Day I'll Get Regular

 Okay, here is a bulleted list of what I have been up to for the past two and a half months:

• Went to Disney World for the first time ever.  That was all kinds of awesome.
• Got my father out of our house and back into his own apartment
• Reclaimed my home bar and expanded it.
• Started to learn Canva
• Started working on removing 10+ years of junk and clutter accumulation
• Other duties as assigned.

Yeah.  That's about it.  

Of course, I've done more than that.  A bulleted list can not hope to encompass EVERYTHING.  Isn't that the point of a bulleted list, to summarize?

But still. I spent time with friends, with family, with the hubs, I worked, I cooked, I cleaned, I lived a life.  I am continuing to live a life.  It gets hard sometimes.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I love my life.  It's a good one.  But the world is on fire and that colors every moment of this life. 

Is it okay to be happy now?  I honestly don't know.  It feels....almost dishonest to allow moments of happiness.  I don't know how to exist right now.  Everything and everyone I love is under attack, or so it seems.  

Also?  I'm fifty-six.  For as long as I can remember, I've had my own expiration date in my head set at seventy.  Do not ask me where I came up with that; it's always been there.

I met the hubs twelve years ago.   

I'll be seventy in 14 years.

By my own mental calculations I'm almost halfway through my time with him.

But I'm not done with him.  I kinda dig him, y'know?

Kinda freaking out tbh.

(ETA:  I wrote this back in April but never published because it felt too raw.  Imma bury it here and see if anyone notices.....later)

One Day I'll Get Regular