There are more than just bananas in there...

Tag: aperol

Irish Old-Fashioned

There are a lot of arguments that can be made for innovation and ingenuity, after all, that is how we move forward. I am a big supporter of lifelong learning and being adaptable enough to change your opinion when the facts change. That said, a thing should be what it is. I cannot stress this enough. Maybe as I approach the half century mark I am getting bit stodgy, but the older I get the more I find myself turned off by new versions of old things that only loosely resemble the original. So, with that in mind, won’t you join me now as we stand and make the Irish Old-Fashioned.

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Naked and Famous

This is the best drink I have made in quite a while. How’s that for a spoiler? I am not only giving away the hook before it is set, but before I have even made much of a cast. If nothing else, no one can accuse me of burying the lead. I just put this one right out on front street. This drink rocks. Not only does it rock, but it brightened my day and reminded me why I embarked on this voyage of discovery in the first place. You already know that a couple of paragraphs from now, I am going to rave about the taste, but you don’t yet know how I am going to tie it to Encanto and a voyage of self discovery, so won’t you willingly suspend a little disbelief and join me now as we stand and make the Naked and Famous.

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Paper Plane

It turns out that a whole lot of life is about managing expectations. I get that. I know it, yet I fail time and again. I can’t help it. I get excited about things and truly believe they are going to be the greatest thing ever or, when I am riding the opposite side of my bipolar coin, I get down about things and truly believe they are going to be terrible, no matter what. This is not only wrong, but wrongheaded, which is worse. I have studied all the science, I understand the how’s and why’s and, intellectually, I know better. Still, when it comes to managing life, it feels like I’m riding a rollercoaster, even when the actual journey is way more merry go round. So, in the spirit of exceeding or failing to live up to expectations with little middle ground, won’t you join me now as we stand and make the Paper Plane.

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Aperol Spritz

I get excited about things. That is one way to put it. Maybe it is more accurate to say I get infatuated and obsess about things. That’s cool. It happens. I am constantly amazed at just how many of the classics I still have not tried out in the world or at least have not tried to make here in my, once again shrinking world. So much to experience, so little time, as they say. In the interest of cramming as much life in to the allotted time as possible, won’t you let me introduce you to my latest obsession as we stand and make the classic Aperol Spritz.

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Summer Negroni

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.

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