Catching Up

I've gotten behind again on my drinking. For one thing, I went to Chicago last weekend. I took some daiquiri recipes to make for the friends I was staying with, but I bought a new bottle of cachaca, and ended up introducing them to caipirinhas instead. They liked 'em. Then, there's the fact that the recipes in my calendar have been decidedly uninspiring the last week; the ones for Halloween look awful, but I'll make them at some point just to say I did.

My evolving tastes in cocktails landed me in a funny exchange in a Greek restaurant on the far north side of Chicago. I ordered a campari and gin with lime as an aperitif. The waistress said, You want what? I said, blah blah blah. Calamari and gin? No, campari. I don't know if we have that; I'll have to check the computer. They did. I wrote it down so she'd get it right. A few minutes later she came back: The bartender wants to know if you want soda with that; it sounds weird. Nope, just as I ordered it. And I finally got it. Both my friends had never had one. One of them didn't like the bitterness. The other one made the shrewd comment that he got the bitter at first, but then the sweetness came through.

Last night here at chez dogs and cats I fixed two cocktails from my calendar: one with Southern Comfort (I haven't had enough recipes with that this year), cranberry juice (I used pom, since I had it), lemon and lime. Not a bad drink, though equal parts pom with the Comfort overwhelmed it.

The second drink was gin (I have anew bottle of Calverts; not my favorite one I've tried this year) with a little OJ, a little lemon juice, and a splash of grenadine. It was OK, not my favorite gin cocktail. And awfully pink.