What are you drinking?

Chinese New Year's Eve dinner with stepson and his Chinese fiancé. They are bringing the Chinese food because they don't trust us to order from a good enough place.

And for wine? Chinese flavours are often a problem with wine so I am trying a Sauternes from the cellar. With a side of hash.



And we are going to FaceTime with her parents in China to wish them a Happy New Year. Or whatever we are coached to say . . . . . .

Bon appetit! You just made me crave some wine, gonna check my bottles in the morning, pick a lucky one! Till then, is forest fruits infusion/ black tea mix.

I'm drinking Sweet Dreams blend by Bigelow strong steeped and sweetened with honey.

I chopped up a half of a cannabis caramel and threw that in the bottom of the cup for good measure.

I love your wine stashes, I've never had the willpower.

I had a great Montepulciano with dinner last week. I bought a Shiraz for the weekend.

We'll see what kind of trouble I can get into this weekend.

Cowboy coffee with sweetened condensed milk and Tullymore Dew...

The cats thought that the coffee pot was outdated and decided to break the carafe (quite messily) and I broke the last French press quite a while back (maybe they learned it by watching me) so I resorted to brewing in a quart jar cowboy style.

It's not that I couldn't drink the whiskey by itself... and I don't have any whipped cream or garnishment, but there's just something about Irish coffee that soothes my soul.

I guess I need to shop for a new pot.

mean mr.mustard said:

Cowboy coffee with sweetened condensed milk and Tullymore Dew...

The cats thought that the coffee pot was outdated and decided to break the carafe (quite messily) and I broke the last French press quite a while back (maybe they learned it by watching me) so I resorted to brewing in a quart jar cowboy style.

It's not that I couldn't drink the whiskey by itself... and I don't have any whipped cream or garnishment, but there's just something about Irish coffee that soothes my soul.

I guess I need to shop for a new pot.

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A Melita plastic drip cone and some unbleached paper cone filters fit atop any vessel you desire, breakable or not. It's my go-to at home, on the road, or in the bush, often grinding fresh beans before a trip to where ever, storing them in a freeze cooler in a quart freezer bag, and brewing into a thermos, mug, cook pot, or a jar, preferably unbreakable in all instances.

Worse I've had to do is crouch behind a tire or snowmobile in high winds if using an (unstable vessel/narrow base vessel) to 'drip' into, due to the light weight of the Melita cone.

Just grind the coffee more fine than one would for a percolator. And run with a good dark French Roast bean, if so desired. My preferred coffee.

Heavy whipping cream (40% @ 1/2 gallon) at Costco, during the height of COVID restrictions, got down to some where near $8 or $9 bucks. It's now back up to $12 or $13.

On the bright side, real vanilla extract in their decent-sized bottle, during COVID's more harsh period, was up to close to $30/bottle, and it's now down to about $12/bottle. Cool.

Currently drinking green tea, as well as French Roast coffee from freshly ground beans, and a touch of heavy whipping cream in it, with a third beverage of R/O H2O... while shopping for water/muck boots and 50-lb. test braided fishing line online. Think I scored a nearly-50%-off deal on some insulated 16" Muck Boots (name brand stuff)..

moose eater said:

A Melita plastic drip cone and some unbleached paper cone filters fit atop any vessel you desire

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We have a cheap plastic cone holder that has traveled with us for decades. It takes #2 filters or just some paper towel or a paper napkin in a pinch.

tobedetermined said:

We have a cheap plastic cone holder that has traveled with us for decades. It takes #2 filters or just some paper towel or a paper napkin in a pinch.

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They're now making the cones in silicone too, sometimes collapsible (not Melita brand, that I know of) and we use the #4, as the #6 is too big for travel in an action packer cook tote that's already typically jammed in most cases, and harder to find filters for the #6 anymore anyway, though we still have the #6 cone for home use when we can find the unbleached #6 or larger filters..

The unbleached brown-ish tan filters (Melita brand) we 'think' keep the coffee flavor cleaner, with fewer adulterants in the coffee. We can sometimes still order them online in the #6 size. Locally the #4's tend to be all that's available.

We're currently socializing my older son's elderly male pup to our most recently acquired 15-16 mos. old female German Shepherd, who tends to be a matriarchal bitch when least expected, aside from territoriality in general being an issue for her, so I ought to conclude my otherwise long-winded reply shortly, and be more prepared to intervene, should there be blood, guts, and gore occurring as a matter of stand-offishness.

If/when my older boy goes to the bush with me in late March for our annual remote ice fishing trip, he's going to have to bring his female pup on one of our gear sleds, possibly in a kennel with a fleece blanket, as she'd be out of the question re. being here, being a female and all.

Took our younger GSD close to 6 or 7 months to be routinely treating our elderly 12-13 yr. old Norwegian Elkhound female with some semblance of civility, but we're mostly there now, thanks to my wife's consistent, persistent, and dedicated training.
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And I'd also like for my son to not have to spend an inordinate amount of time tending to 2 pups when we're fishing in a place where there's commonly wolves, coyotes, lynx, and other critters present or nearby that would likely view his pups as snacks, were they to roam a bit.

But we may end up having to take both of his pups, based on the current expression of fickle nature, territoriality, and sometimes unpredictable behavior of the newest Shepherd. She's a great pup, as long as she thinks she's the center of the show, with little to no competition for affection with her primary master, my wife.

I'd hate to phone home from the bush on the satellite phone and find out someone got mauled or killed. Might mess up an otherwise memorable fishing trip, of which there may not be too many left in the futures' proverbial 'bank account.'

And now... my wife seems to be working her canine quasi-United Nations magic as a peace-keeping force.. The old 'flies with honey versus vinegar' thing, I guess. My more direct and commanding approach sometimes has its draw-backs.

Arnaud Lambert Clos Marquis Cab Franc from Loire Valley in France. Super red and black fruited, tart and just ripe fruit, earth driven, tobacco, cedar, cigar ash, cut chili pepper and a cedar tone to the finish. Gonna crush this with some peppercorn crusted pork tenderloin. Yummy

Sunshine Daydream from Fat Head's.

I could have made pancakes but I grabbed a pale ale instead.

Today is full of possibilities.

Redds Peach flavor apple cider, still. love the stuff...

Coffee, R/O water, and green tea, before a trip to town in 8 inches of fresh snow. 1" to 3", my ass!!

Matanuska Brewing Company, Palmer Alaska, 'Deep Powder Porter' 6.9% abv.

A favorite porter of mine in the past (still is), that I hadn't bought any of in the last bunch of years due to the owners backing the Major Oil Producers here during the last effort to get world market rates for our oil, a number of years ago. The non-specific time to forgive and buy a six-pack had lapsed, so I scored the first 6-pack from these folks in several years.

Though I realized after buying this that I'd recently bought a different brew from them a while ago, forgetting they were one of many culprits in that Benedict Arnold moment of betraying Alaska. Pfft.

I guess old age can make peace even when none's really been made. A cloudy mind is all it takes.

decided to grab some wine instead of beer, I like that I can have a glass and then have a little bit more vs having to commit to a set volume

I almost grabbed Our Daily Red organic blend, but then I remembered Tony Soprano saying none of that California bullshit, and grabbed Bee Organic Nero d'Avola for the same price

it's funny how people rate these wines low, it's an $11 bottle of DOC organic table wine, it's well balanced it has the tart and sweet cherry/red berry, a bit of spice, and decent flavor from the barrel

one thing I have noticed about organic wines that mostly only have naturally occurring sulfites is that they taste a lot more like fermented grapes from a barrel if that makes sense...like maybe a bit "crude" compared to other wines but I like it I feel like it's more of an authentic wine flavor

mexweed said:

it's funny how people rate these wines low, it's an $11 bottle of DOC organic table wine, it's well balanced it has the tart and sweet cherry/red berry, a bit of spice, and decent flavor from the barrel, like all in more or less equal parts/balance

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People dismiss it because it is from a hot southern country. Sicily, Greece, Turkey and even Morocco produce some very drinkable wines from what I have tasted. OK, they are not fine wines per se, but they are good quaffable food wines and usually that is what really matters.

mean mr.mustard said:

The cats thought that the coffee pot was outdated

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maybe they just don't like coffee, and are sending a message. caught mine drinking my iced tea the other day.

Zamaldelica and ginger infusion.

Earl Grey tea.

Hot.

Matanuska Brewing Company, Palmer, Alaska, 'Wee Heavy Scotch Ale', 7.4% abv.

Probably don't want to know the carbohydrate count on this, but it tastes good, and the abv. is sufficiently high to facilitate dealing with life's speed-bumps mid-day. One does it, though.

It seems I sucked in a 1/2 bottle of Montecillo, a good cheap Rioja daily wine. A bottle usually lasts a wee bit longer. But then I made dinner for 4 - Caesar salad from scratch, breaded pork schnitzel and oven potatoes. I deserve the damn wine . . . And I was smoking some Ice Cool Auto and some Ice Cool hash for a chaser.