The Pimm's Cup

Vicki had the mom's group over for a one year survival party. Knowing my place, Vicki asked me to plan and man the beverage station. I needed a drink that wasn't overly potent, that was somewhat suited toward a nice sunny day, and that could be made for a number of people at once.

The Pimm's Cup fit the bill. I had never made them before, but had a few at various parties.

There is some variance in how the Pimm's Cup is made, naturally. I took the original recipe, as cited by Wikipedia . However, as Drinkboy says in his video about the Pimm's Cup, lemonade in Britian does not mean the same thing as it does across the pond in the States. Lemonade is apparently lemon-lime soda (Sprint, 7-Up). Drinkboy prefers ginger ale to soda, but I don't.

Given that Pimm's is pretty low in alcohol content, and also given that there were going to be many children in the house, I felt the need to give the drink a little more potency. Not a lot, but more than the normal recipe. To offest that extra punch, I needed something to balance kick. I chose fresh squeezed lemon juice and lime juice.

Here's my recipe for a small pitcher:
8 oz Pimm's No. 1
4 oz Gin
2 oz lemon juice
2 oz lime juice

Fill Highball glass three-quarters full with ice. Fill glass a little more than hald way the with Pimm's mix above. Top with 7-Up. Garnish with cucumber slice.

The cucumber does really impart a fresh flavor to the drink. It is great a great and easy recipe for a sunny afternoon.

An Observation On Our House

Of the five beings that inhabit our house, the poop of the majority exits the dwelling in plastic bags through the front door.

File this under stuff you wouldn't have thought until you had a child.

Saturday Mornings

My first job out of college was pretty much straight-forward sales. Oh, they dressed it up as "Financial Planning," but it was sales. As fate would have it, I wasn't selling much.

To get me back on track, my bosses (all three of them) determined that I, along with the other under-performing rookies, would have to come in on Saturday mornings to make calls. Sleep was, and still is, precious to me. Saturday sleep even moreso. I was not happy. And I was snarky. By this point in time, I knew I was not long for this particular career.

"What time?"

"Let's say 8:00 am," said Brian, who was boss number 3 of 3.

"You think people will be awake at 8 am and will be happy to hear from me?"

"Oh, if people have kids they will be up by then, for sure."

Brian had kids, so I assumed he knew what he was talking about. I was 22 years old and childless, so I had to take his word for it. But this was one of those items that stuck with me over time because it scared me. Up earlier than 8? Because of kids? No thanks.

So, last Saturday, as I was pulling George out of the crib at 6:15, I thought of Brian.

When 8:00 am rolled around, I thought, yep, parents are awake at 8:00 am, but if some sales guy had the stones to call me at that hour, I would reach through the phone line and strangle him.

One More Summer Baby Photo

I will post more later, but here's another gratuitous baby photo.

The Margarita

It came at me from multiple angles; the Tres Agaves margarita recipe.

My buddy Burkey IM'd me at noon on a workday, saying he had tipped back a couple of them at a company BBQ. "Just three ingredients," he typed away. I imagine the typing was slurred. He reported it was lime juice, Tequila and agave nectar.

"What's agave nectar?", I asked.

I soon found out. That weekend I went to a party where they served the same recipe of margarita, and tried it. It was damn good.

There's some debate as to whether this recipe is mistakenly called a Margarita. Some would call it a Tequila gimlet, but call it whatever you want, I call it delicious.

About to depart for a beach-front vacation, I quickly went about trying to source agave nectar. Trader Joe's had a house-brand of it. There are other brands, and I think you can find it at Whole Paycheck, and other natural food places.

Here's the recipe I used:
2 parts Tequila
1 part lime juice
1 part Agave nectar

Pretty simple list. I squeezed out the limes, added the juice and the nectar to a shaker, added the Tequila to the shaker, shake, and pour over ice. For this recipe, I would avoid the blender. Some purists say the Margarita should never be blended. I say, on a hot day and you feel like an alcoholic icee, a blended margarita is fine. For this recipe, I would use higher-shelf Tequila, and with better Tequila, I don't blend.

The Beesnatch on the Plane

When we booked the flights, for the return flight we were unable to get contiguous seats. All the aisle seats were sold out, so we had two window seats, and one middle seat next to one of the window seats.

I figured we'd switch seats on the plane, with the aisle person in the row where we already had two of the three seats. We'd play the "traveling with an infant" card. Who wants to sit next to a baby on a plane? So, we boarded early, when they called for with the children and elderly.

When the passenger who was the aisle seat stood arrived, she told me I was in her seat. I asked if she wouldn't mind, could she....

"NO." She declared before I could even finish the question. "I got an aisle seat because they're better. I paid for an aisle seat and I will have an aisle seat."

Fortunately, there was a family of 6 traveling, and they had an aisle seat across the aisle, and they offered to give their aisle seat, and take the middle seat, sending the middle seat passenger to our window seat.

Beesnatch reluctantly agreed to this arrangement, though she made it clear she wasn't happy about it.

As Earl will tell you, Karma is for real. The family of 6? All the kids were under 7 years old, and all were loud. Very nice family, but very loud. And they climbed over the seats. And this woman had to sit next to them.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer person.

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted...

...well, maybe not ALL I wanted, but the trip to my place of origin was a good time for the most part.

The weather was super. Not too hot, nor too humid, which was unusual for the mid-west in August.

Did a little swimmin', a lot of visiting. George met a lot of people for the first time.

Oh so, traveling with an infant is interesting and challenging. Despite having to haul a boat-load of stuff, the flight there was a piece of cake. He entertained the surrouding passengers for a while then conked out for 2 and a half hours. Waking up in time to land.

The next post is about the way back..