Today's post is about what sustains me during the winter, dranks and candles.
My favorite signature drink to serve at parties and small gatherings, is three equal parts vodka, cranberry and soda with cranberries and lime, as a garnish. Look at how I dressed it up. I am getting so good at merchandising my blog.
My favorite drink when I go out is Woodford Bourbon and ginger ale with a lime. It is also good with cherries. I usually take a little hiatus from bourbon each Kentucky Derby, because I tend to overindulge and just the sight of a Woodford bottle makes me want to hurl.
I have overcome my weakness, though, and I am back in the saddle. I have actually TOURED the Woodford distillery in Lexington. That is how much I love it. When we were there, the guide said that it should never be mixed with anything but water, and even THAT is considered TABOO in the small batch bourbon industry.
But, like I am prone to do, I am going against the grain, defying the masses, and I enjoy my bourbon with ginger ale and a lime.
When I was recently home in Louisville, they have all these great kiosks in the mall near our home. Well, Maker's Mark had this booth and they had these gel candles that looked and smelled EXACTLY like my drink and I was going to buy one, but my kids were right there and it seemed a little excessive.
Then, Hallie turned to me and goes, "So what are you going to do, drink your drink and light your candle that looks like your drink, and just sit there?"
To which I replied, "No, of course not, I am going to light it during the day, when I cannot HAVE my favorite drink."
Again, Hallie, the voice of reason, who possesses more clarity than anyone else in the house says, "OOOOOHHHH, so then you can smell what you want, when you can't have it," which made me feel totally weird inside, so I abruptly turned on my heels and left.
I have to tell you, though, I have since thought about that candle, a lot. I just kept coming back to that episode of Family Ties, when Tom Hanks, the Uncle, comes to visit, and he is up in the middle of the night drinking vanilla in the pantry or whatever because he is a recovering alcoholic and there was no liquor in the house (see video below).
I mean, can you imagine? No, not an alcoholic Uncle drinking your condiments, Silly. (Been there. Done that.) Having no liquor in the house? That is why the alcoholic gel candle scares me so much. I don't trust myself. I guess I am afraid of the possibility that if I run out of bourbon some Friday or Saturday night (or Sunday thru Thursday, for that matter) that I might eat my gel candle. I am just not sure where I stand on the issue of alcoholic candles. It is a slippery slope, my friends - a slippery slope, indeed.
Moving on. My favorite wine group right now is of the Malbec Variety. For me, it is part of the food pyramid. This is a red wine blend that comes primarily from Argentina. My favorite label is Colores del Sol, for the money, that is. You can find it at Huffman's for around $11.00. I have seen it as high a $15.00, though. While researching Malbecs, I found one called Juana del Sol, which roughly translates to "Johnna of the Sun" - yes, I am bilingual, too. (That is, if watching Dora the Explorer for a decade, qualifies you as such.) I must try that one. It has a 90 rating from Wine Spectator and was around $11.00, too. Let me know if any of you have tried it. Or if my two readers from Argentina, happen to be the manufacturers of Johnna of the Sun, I would be interested in doing a free infomercial.
Now, I shot two videos, both of which were complete disasters. The first one demonstrates the creativity a fully dressed liquor bottle can spark, with poor video quality; and the second one is a clearer video, that showcases the beauty of each actual outfit. Luckily, BOTH videos are clearly representative of my youngest, Eva's, easy demeanor. I am including them both, as I do not have a third one, because the neighbor kid deemed the entire exercise "inappropriate." Little spoil sport.
No worries, though. I contacted her legal guardian, who is a "cool Mom," like me, and she was totally down with me videoing her foster paycheck, I mean daughter, for my blog.
My favorite beer has been, and always will be Amstel Light. My friend, Alissa, in our twenties, proclaimed that for some reason "you can drink as many Amstel Lights as you want and you will never be hungover." I think that goes against Science, but for the most part if you stick to Amstel, you eat, you drink a glass of water in between each beer, and you take a handful of Aleve before you go to bed, you do not, in fact, have a hangover. Fine print: side effects include bloating, fatty liver, damaged kidneys, blood in the stool, and cotton mouth.
So, just to wrap this all up, the other day, like ten days after Christmas, Brad hands me this "gift" wrapped in a plastic bag. (We are BIG on pomp and circumstance in our house!)
He hands it to me and says, "Here is another Christmas present. I left it at your parents' house."
Mills squeals and runs over to me and proudly proclaims that "IIIIIII picked it out, Mom. Dad bought it, but KNOW that IIIII picked it out, OKAY?"
I carefully unwrap the meticulous CVS plastic bag wrapping to reveal my beloved alcoholic bourbon gel candle with gel ice cubes protruding from the top and tiny bubbles within, that looked as if they were actually bubbling up to the surface! It was BEE-U-TI-FUL. I took a big whiff. I wanted to lick it but my entire family had now gathered around.
"OOOOHHHHH, the Mommy drink candle! I LUUUUVVVVV ITTTTT," I cooed. I grabbed the nearest lighter and lit the wick. I, then, looked up to find my family gathered all around me, smiling with their faces newly illuminated.
I drew in a deep breath through my nose and looked upward toward my cracked ceilings. "Gawd bless us, Everyone!"
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