Tag: gin (Page 2 of 9)

Mull Again

November 23, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

I said I was gone for the holidays, but clearly, I lied. It happens. I don’t mean to but I get things wrong from time to time. I mean it may not even be a lie, maybe I was just mistaken? I figured I’d be super busy today and not have time to do anything before we headed over the river and through the woods to visit the in-laws for Thanksgiving, but then time to kill happened. Which is how we find ourselves here again, gathered virtually for a drink and the requisite words. So, in the spirit of unexpected moments of leisure and the occasional need for a do over, won’t you join me now as we stand and make the excellent Mull Again.

Bitter Heart

October 28, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

Some things stick with you, inexplicably. I have always been curious about that. How I can clearly remember staring at the clouds through the branches of a tree on my great aunt’s farm when I was 6 or 7, but I can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. Or how I can remember the smell of the Shogun Warriors mask I wore for Halloween in 1978, but I forget my blood type. I don’t know why some things stick and others fade away. I do know why this drink made my spooky drinks list, when it is not scary in any way. It starts with a poem, an epigraph in a book that kept me awake all night many moons ago. Terrified, I kept turning the pages, pushing through the story, hoping that knowing the end would let me sleep. So, with a nod toward night terrors and carrying on because you can’t go back, won’t you join me now as we stand and make the Bitter Heart.

Breakfast Martini

September 11, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 1 Comment

A perfectly blue, clear sky. That’s what I remember and what I found today when I woke. Funny how so many things have changed over the last two decades, but that perfectly blue sky is the same. Today, I walked outside to look up at those clear skies, blissfully unaware, in those early morning moments, of the date. Twenty years ago, it was a phone call letting me know about a terrible accident that started my day. Seventeen minutes later it was clear that the truth was much more terrifying as our world was changed forever. A sea change that would alter the course of lives around the world, with repercussions we still feel ringing down through the years. I was about to walk back inside, when a plane flew over far above. That’s not unusual, but seeing those contrails in stark contrast, I remembered that day, when there were no airplanes in the sky and I remembered how we felt; then I went inside to make breakfast. So, with a look back, before going on with your day, won’t you join me now as we stand and make the Breakfast Martini.

Corpse Reviver #2

August 19, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 2 Comments

Old habits die hard. They just keep coming back, no matter how hard you try to leave them in the past. It’s not like I don’t know better. I have been there before, done that, got the t-shirt and other scars to prove it. I know the score, but like Pacino says, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” To be fair, I am at least partly to blame. I was feeling tired, kinda down, so when I piled up on the sofa and hit Netflix, I was already in a less than ideal state. I guess that is why , when I saw the “new episodes” tag, I clicked on it and, in spite of knowing better, and began watching the most recent season of The Walking Dead. So, with a nod to giving in to guilty pleasures, even when you know better, won’t you join me now as we stand and make the Corpse Reviver #2.

Summer Negroni

August 13, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 1 Comment

I stepped out on the porch this sultry morning to a cacophonous chorus of cicadas announcing their much vaunted, but overdue, arrival this Summer. Their grating cries were welcome in their own way, since I had casually planned on mowing the lawn this afternoon. It has been exceptionally humid this week, but the moisture has stayed in the air so the ground is dry and the grass doesn’t really need the trim I had planned. No matter, our lately molted insect white noise generators tend to make mowing impractical if not impossible. They home in on any competing monotonous drone with a ferocity and fearlessness seldom seen in these parts. Yard work, postponed, I will have to find something else to pass the time in the oppressive heat. So, with a nod toward avoiding work on a lazy afternoon won’t you join me as we stand and make, something cool and refreshing the Summer Negroni.

The Flying Nutsman

June 30, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

I’ve made a ton of bad decisions in my life, that’s how you get experience, which they say leads to wisdom, but I’m not sure that is guaranteed. I’d love to believe it, but I know too many folks who messed up at nearly every step and never learned a damned thing along the way. I guess that’s the way it goes sometimes. It’s hard to learn from a mistake if you don’t own it and that’s a shame. I figure the only half decent reason for there to be pain in the world is to help us learn to not inflict any more of it than we can help, but what do I know? So, in the spirit of learning from our mistakes, won’t you join me now as we stand and make The Flying Nutsman.

Leche de Pantera

June 14, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

Over the weekend, we passed a pleasant afternoon with friends reminiscing about great days of travel. It was a blast reliving moments on the road and hearing their stories of those amazing little bars or restaurants they stumbled across, the things they saw and, most importantly, the people they met. It seems like every adventure shared a common theme, whenever things got off track, when they left the prescribed schedule or plan, that is when the best stories occur. That has certainly been our experience. Every trip has its own special memories and the more we talked, the more nearly forgotten details came back to us. It was in the middle of an entirely different story that we remembered sampling a staple of the Barcelona drinking scene, a drink so ubiquitous that you don’t even have to find a bar to enjoy it. So, won’t you please join me now as we stand and make Leche de Pantera, the historic, Panther’s Milk.

Earl Grey Sour

June 10, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

You never know how things are going to turn out. That’s just the truth. No matter how much you learn and analyze, there is just no accounting for that element of chance. That’s why we play the game, as they say. Last night, my son’s baseball team went from worst to first as they beat the number one seed in the first round of the championship. No one saw that coming, well, no one except a group of boys who believed in themselves. Tonight, they advance in the winner’s bracket, two games from winning it all. Maybe they will win, maybe they will lose, maybe it will rain. It doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, but it was nice to see the world turned upside down as the sun shined on them for a moment. I like that. I’m a big fan of unexpected wins. So, tonight we honor those who take a chance, and go against the odds as we stand and make the Earl Grey Sour.

The Sawyer

June 2, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

I bought some new tins and I am still trying to decide if I really like them or not, so I’ve got the feeling we are in for some shaken drinks over the next few days. Which is lucky, because I prefer to shaking to stirring or building or, heaven forbid, blending. There is just something about it. The sound of those tins crashing together as the ice sloshes back and forth mixing up the flavors and textures we all love. The feel of the ice forming on the outside. The heft of them in your hands and the new ones have definitely got heft. So in the spirit of getting to play with new toys, won’t you join me now as we make the bitter, but lovely, Sawyer.

Blue Lady

May 4, 2021 / Monkeybrad / 0 Comments

It is customary that on the morning immediately following the birthdays of my weird uncle figure, my figurative Wonder Twin and my actual brother, we celebrate Star Wars Day with the traditional “May the 4th be with you” greeting. Best I can tell, that is all that is required to honor this completely made up holiday. I suppose we could watch a movie marathon or just queue up some sort of supercut of great moments from that galaxy that is both long ago and far, far away. Some folks honor the day with a tall glass of Blue Milk, but I feel like we are a little fancier than that, so won’t you join me now as we stand and make the Blue Lady.