You had me at Rye and Cognac

This is a drink I have grown quite fond of. I had it first at the wonderful Whiskey Cake, an establishment in Plano that manufactures pure, unadulterated awesome in the form of food and beverages. If you haven't experienced their culinary artistry and alchemical marvels, I suggest you stop reading this blog (assuming you started) and go there immediately.

As fond as I am of the Vieux Carré, I am even more fond of the ability to imbibe one without actually having to put pants on, leave my house, and give somebody money in exchange for it (Yes, I support the Oxford comma- you should too). So I sojourned to my local libation station and picked up the following:

• Rittenhouse 100 Proof Rye Whiskey
• Courvoisier VSOP Cognac
• Benedictine D.O.M.
  
  

All photos courtesy of Brynne

 The recipe is as follows:

• 1oz Rye
• 1oz VSOP Cognac
• 1oz Sweet Vermouth
• 2 Dashes of Angostura Bitters
• 2 Dashes of Peychaud's Bitters
• 1 barspoon of Benedictine D.O.M.
• Lemon twist for garnish

Combine your fluids, add ice, Stir until cold, and strain into an old fashioned Champagne glass.

Look at those curves

The Vieux Carré is the French Quarter in New Orleans, literally meaning "Old Square"- which is exactly what you are if you don't drink this immediately. Unless you're pregnant, in which case you should make one for someone else and try not to be too awkward as you sniff the sweet aromas from their glass.

Enjoy!

Coming soon: "Fantasy and Fallacy" (I'm re-reading "The Name of the Wind"), and a review of Tesseract's highly anticipated "Altered States"- the followup to their debut album "One".

Current Events

So as it turns out, I'm not the most active blogger on the planet. I have this on good authority.

"Your blog is really thriving, bro. Average posts per day = .0167. By Summer of 2014 you'll hit 10 posts. Drinks on me then." - Jesse from Welcome Center.

@Jesse- You're welcome for the free publicity. Given the staggering number of page views that I average per day, you should consider investing in more bandwidth.

In exchange for the promotion of your new EP, I'm going to hold you to your word. I WILL write 10 posts, and you WILL buy me drinks.

But enough of that. That's not why you're all here. You're wondering where I've been, and why I haven't been responding to the phone calls and invitations to cool get-togethers that you haven't been sending my way. Well, I am here to provide you with a cornucopia of excuses as to why I've been lazy about blogging! (This should also get anyone who's interested up to date on my life. Reasons why you should care will be posted later once I think of them).

1. For those of you that don't know, I'm back in school. I've been at Collin College in Plano preparing to work my way towards an M.M. in Jazz Guitar performance at UT Arlington.
2. I bought a house in Grand Prairie, but I'm still living with my folks in Plano. I'm here on weekdays for school, and at the house on the weekends. This means lots of driving back and forth, moving things, renovating the new place, and lots of practicing for...
3. My audition at UTA (I got in). I started practicing for this audition right after the blog started, so this is probably the primary reason for my inactivity, which is of course why it is number 3 on my list.
4. After my audition I had to get caught up in preparing a dozen or so songs for the Expressions Combo (Rhythm section for Collin's Jazz/Pop Vocal Ensemble). The concert was fun, but painful- If you're thinking about gigging for three hours with a Gibson ES-335, don't do it. I have officially decided that this guitar is too heavy, and it is now for sale/trade.
5. Finals, etc.
6. Skyrim. 'Nuff said.

So that should get you up to speed.

Coming soon- Music you should listen to, and some beer reviews.

Help me name this cocktail

I've been making this for the past few nights. According to Google, it doesn't have a name...yet.

It goes like this:

• 2oz Rittenhouse Rye Whiskey
• 1/4 Small Lemon, juiced
• 2 dashes of Peychaud's Bitters
• 1 dash of Angostura Orange Bitters
• (Optional) Small splash of simple syrup.

Combine all ingredients in a shaker and fill with ice. Shake, strain, garnish with a lemon peel.

Serve in a commemorative millennial champagne glass with the number "2000" composing the stem of the glass. (This part is optional- but I'm temporarily living with my parents, and these are the only champagne glasses they have)

Oh... I think I just named it. Right here and now while typing this. You're witnessing history, folk(s).

Sidebar: The whole singularity/plurality of the 2nd person pronoun isn't quite as handy when paired with a noun of address. I really thought that would be a useful tool in my blogkit, but it's proven more time consuming than I thought. I even had to google the correct term for a noun that is used when addressing someone. Noun of Address is too obvious. I would've picked a cooler name. Oh! That's right. Cool names! I think I named my cocktail. /endsidebar

I shall call it...Rye2K.

I highly recommend that you prepare for Rye2K by stocking up on the following:

• Rye Whiskey
• Lemons
• A variety of bitters (I've also used Angostura instead of Peychaud's)
• Simple Syrup
• Batteries (you always need batteries)
• The Little Prince...it's a good read that will take your mind off of the impending apocalypse.

 I encourage you to make this drink immediately and let me know if you like it (or if you can think of a better name). It's earthy/spicy character is balanced very well by the citrus. I prefer not to use simple, but if you do, just a few drops. A little goes a long way.

It's 2013 and I've finally figured out how these blog things work

For some time now I've wanted to leave the facebook. But I must admit that it has a lot of utilitarian value. So I've decided to keep facebook around for two reasons:

1) Finding/communicating with people
2) Providing links to this here blog

No more pithy status updates- sorry friends list, you'll have to look elsewhere for your daily dose of witticism. From now on, my infallible opinions on things will be available in paragraph format for the reading pleasure of the 2-3 people that might actually read this. Three is rather optimistic, considering that I count my wife and myself as the first two.

Anyhow, I'll probably write primarily about the things in which I find pleasure and interest.

• The Kingdom of God
• Musics
• Beer/Whiskey
• Biographical Updates (Both pleasing and interesting, I assure you)
• Gaming/Technology

The way I see it- if something is interesting enough to post about on facebook, then I might as well provide a full fleshed-out version of it here (in paragraph format) rather than a snippet or link, with an ongoing discussion in the comments section. And if you don't value what I have to say enough to read more than a sentence or two, then we're probably not very close friends. And if you are a close friend, and you would like to actually keep up with my goings on, then you'll find that here (in paragraph format). I think this will save everyone a lot of time and energy.

The great thing is, if only my wife reads this, I can still use the pronoun "you". It can be either singular or plural in the King's English- so I don't have to waste time deciding whether or not to address someone personally in lieu of addressing a wider readership. It's a load off of my mind. Again, I'm all about saving time and energy.

Ok, I think I'm done now.

Coming up: More Posts.