Yes, it’s still the house cocktail. And Yes, we have to go to France for the Amer Picon from time to time.
See NPS for more.
The Cloudbreak
February 7, 2026
mixology cloudbreak, cocktail, cocktail recipe, cocktails, friday saturday sunday, mixology 1 Comment
Amer Picon
December 23, 2025
Cocktails and Retail?
October 15, 2025
fashion, mixology, who knows boston, cocktail, negroni, retail Leave a comment
Do we like shopping? Hells no. But we are beginning to like it.
Proper cocktail hour in a pretend speakeasy up high. Boston proper.
French Blonds and Stuffed Blossoms
August 1, 2025
cooking, food, mixology cocktail, french blond, stuffed squash blossoms Leave a comment
Beck at Wolf Trap with Thirty Years Worth of Gold
July 28, 2024
concert, dance, photography beck, cocktail, concert, dark and stormy, gringo gordo, live music, lonesome tears, morning, national symphony, romey, sea changes, tropicalia, we live again, where it's at, wolf trap Leave a comment
The thing is, we were too lazy to conjure up tickets on the day of release. Or maybe too busy. But anyway, there were none left for a while. Then a few popped up for too much money on the Ticketmaster resale site. And we were off to the races.
Boy are we glad we went. It was a great show. It all started with empanadas from Gringo Gordo at sunset and some properly-made dark and stormies.
We had never been on time for a wolf trap gates opening line before. Dang. Fortunately we had seats in the seventh row.
The orchestra started in, and into the sonic ocean walked Beck. Yeah, the National Symphony (who had performed maybe one run through) was very good indeed.
Lonesome Tears was the first song (track 4 on Sea Changes…from which Beck plucked many a great song to play with the National Symphony).
.
.
And then it was time for some salsa. I guess Beck was in Rio for the Chalmers wedding too, though he must have attended in disguise.
Honestly, Tropicalia was one of the weakest pieces on the program (and it wasn’t bad). The orchestra was having a hard time moving the four against the three of the bass player (and the conductor beating only a downbeat was not helping). Oh well.
In the end, Beck got the audience to clap the beat.
Tropicalia
.
We Live Again
Morning
.
Known for his romantic “dreariness” part of the time, there is also the most pit Beck.
The audience got to their feet for Where It’s At.
.
.
Oh yeah!
Then the orchestra filed out and Beck screwed around on stage for a bit. Some slide guitar was improvised.
Romey was rewarded with Devil’s Haircut.
.
By that time, we were all singing. (Sadly, we missed recording Loser.) And then it was final bows.
A magical evening.
First Music of 2023
January 10, 2023
music clark, cocktail, guitar, iulie, mandolin, music, rhine, romey, scot toddy, violin, where's aubrey Leave a comment
An important new year’s resolution for me this year is to play more music. We started things right with a session on January 2nd. Rhine came into town for a day. Clark popped by for some music. Our best audience was lulled to sleep.
Playing in the living room.
We had some Scot Toddy’s in Romey’s xmas cups and kept the bar open late.
Cooking Up a Fancy New Year 2023
January 10, 2023
cooking, mixology, party blini, burgundy mushrooms, caviar, cocktail, cooking, crème fraîche, fight club, mimosa, movie, mr skaggs, mushrooms, nine hour mushrooms, roasted chicken, romey, seelbach, skaggs, veuve clicquot Leave a comment
This year we rang in the New Year with delicious food and an intimate two person party.
Nine hour Burgundy Mushrooms are absolutely delicious! But they do really take nine hours. Six hours of simmering with a lid on and three more with the lid off. The new Mauviel christmas pot (my best present by far) was perfect for the job.
We also roasted a chicken and veggies in the new pink pot using one of Romey’s recipes. Likewise delicious.
This was “first dinner.” The coup de grace was still to come.
Mr Skaggs paid a visit while the cooking proceeded and we had a couple of Seelbach cocktails (take care of the time warp!). We’re pretty sure that’s why we accidentally fell asleep before midnight. LOL.
This was a fancy pants Seelbach iteration with veuve clicquot champagne and blanton’s bourbon. Absolutely fantastic.
And then it was time to cook up blinis for the caviar. We went to the “gold plated groceries” store for the fixins. Crème fraîche for the win. So delicious.
Incidentally, these were fried to perfection in another new pan.
This special meal called for a vintage bottle of pink veuve clicqot.
We attempted to watch Fight Club (which I had never seen) , but we fell asleep just before the end (and just before midnight). We blame the Seelbachs.
The leftover champagne and blinis made a great first breakfast of 2023.
Happy New Year to all.
Lets Make Eggnog
December 20, 2021
cooking, mixology baltimore eggnog, cocktail, cocktail recipe, cocktails, cyn, derek brown, eggnog, fresh eggs 2 Comments
Fresh eggnog is really good come solstice time. I’ve made a number of batches over the years, but this recipe is my favorite. This came from an article by Derek Brown of DC bartending fame. Apparently it is called “Baltimore Eggnog.”
Testing the eggnog before the guests arrive
Ingredients
2 dozen fresh eggs from the girls, separated
1 750-mL bottle VSOP cognac
16 ounces Mt Gay Eclipse
1.5 pounds powdered sugar
3 quarts (96 ounces) whole milk, chilled
1 quart (32 ounces) heavy cream, chilled
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks until light and lemon-colored.While continuing to beat, add the cognac, rum, sugar, milk, heavy cream and salt.
24 fresh yolks from the girls in the palace (absolutely fresh eggs from free range hens make a very big difference)
All ingredients but the whites mixed with an electric mixer
2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and nutmeg until they form stiff peaks.
3. Fold the whites into the yolk mixture.Serve in punch cups.
The final product in cyn’s punch bowl chilling in the fridge
Will keep, tightly sealed and refrigerated, for up to one month.
Take a sunset walk while the eggnog sets
Decorate the tree, and do some dancing.
