We had spring breakup on Yellowknife Bay a few days ago

Is that early for breakup?

Yeah. By about 3 weeks. We also had our first frost last year Oct 3

Thought so.

when Sept 1- 10 is typical and last frost this spring in early May
(I forget which day) when May 30-June 4 is typical. Roslind planted
our herbs in planters on May 12 and 19 expecting to have to bring
them in several times at night but never had to. (The pussy willows
came out May 12 so that's what gave her the courage to plant early.)
That's variable weather but it's been like that for a decade now...
and that's climate change.

Smoking gun there.

Last week I switched away from the rum tiki drinks to Ungava gin. It
has very prominent juniper and the northern botanicals that make
it's formula unique are rather subtle and perhaps overpowered. It
is so smooth that despite being 86 proof it is lovely sipped
straight up and so my martinis are drier and my G&Ts shorter than
usual.

And you were on the floor more frequently?
Yesterday I had a hard time getting Lilli
back half a mile to the hotel from the
Bonnsch brewery - though the beer was
normal, there must have been something
peculiarly strong about the house wine.

This week I had used some canned peaches for something and
reserved the syrup for drink mixing, so I'm back on the rum tiki
drinks again.

I'm doubtful of syrup from canned fruit,
because it's thickened enough to become
a negative flavorant. Unless yours was
real peach juice.

A lot of cocktail recipes call for rum with peach schnapps and
either orange juice or pineapple juice but not both together. I
started fooling around with mashups of the Absolut Stress,
Missionary's Downfall, Calypso Cooler, and Down Under Snowball and
came up with:
4 oz peach syrup
1 oz lemon juice
3 oz orange juice
3 oz pineapple juice
4 oz rum
1 oz Fireball
4 ds bitters

Pineapple-orange is a heard of combination,
but not so well known as pineapple-grapefruit,
which was popular in the '50s-'60s (as an
orange substitute, not that I know of as a
cocktail ingredient).

The peach syrup is so sweet that one needs both bitters and lots of
lemon juice for balance and 1 oz of Fireball whisky in 16 ounces of
drink overall is the perfect amount. Anything more than that is
just nasty.

To me the sweetness of the syrup is muted on
the tongue; it might come out on dilution,
because the gum or starch thickener might be
defeated.

With this base mix I tried shaking 2 oz with ice and straining into
a martini glass, on the rocks, with vermouth, with tonic water and
ended up liking this the best:
2 oz base mix
1 oz coconut milk
2 oz tonic
I'm keeping notes on my experiments so I don't forget the ones that
work and am trying to come up with a good name for them, just in
case I decide to open up a tiki bar after I retire from real estate.

The Fireball, might that become cloying
after a while?

"Secret effective hangover cure? Though it takes time to work, I
have always found suffering to be a sure remedy." - some barfly in
Denver.

We have had two freebies given to us by
friendly bartenders lately - one an oversweet
but interesting Asian-influenced punch,
with cider vinegar, citrus-infused gin, and
some other things that I didn't recognize;
the other gin, egg white, cilantro, and
lime juice, which the guy was submitting
to a competition this week.

+

And some of us suspect that the one-in-a-thousand
will start happening several times in a lifetime.

Just ask the insurance industry... they know.

They should get out of the business and just
cash in. The premiums for that kind of insurance
are going to become prohibitively high.

Daal and Chawal
categories: Indian, main
yield: 1 batch

1 c red lentils
salt
turmeric
coriander
red chile pepper
assorted vegetables to taste
2 cloves garlic
cooked rice

This recipe is for the bachelors who are too shy to
ask for a Daal & Chawal recipe. So here goes.

Take masoor ke daal and add water. Swirl daeekchi
and than strain out the water to get the muck out.
Do this at least a couple of times. Now add water
to drown the daal, cover the daeekchi with a lid
and put it on high. Add salt and lal mirch and
whatever else comes to mind. Like haldi, dhanya,
mushrooms, broccoli etc. Make sure the water doesn't
evaporate. After a while the daal will become pish,
pish ..... this means that the daal is ready. Next
cut lassan (two pieces), fry them in a frying pan
with oil. Immediately after frying the lassan add
them to the daal and recover the daeekchi with a
lid. Chawal. Buy a rice steamer.

Daal and chawal are usually pretty insipid, so
buy a bottle of chackni or pickles from the local
desi store.

Sahibzada Rafay Khan, ragistan.com
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