Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The end of August always means summer is over, even though it isn't. But there is a different vibe to September, for sure.

However, not a different vibe to my breakfast. I wasn't hungry, but I knew I would be out all morning and part of the afternoon, so I had -- ta da! - a toasted corn tortilla and a spoonful of egg salad, but instead of the commercial pepper relish on it, I put some of my ancient home-made relish on it.

And I've found a new pretty plate and a new place to take a picture. Although this picture was taken early this morning, you can see the sun coming through the trees. It turned into a very hot day; it must have hit 90°.

I didn't get home until after 2 PM and knew I'd have an early dinner, so I should have eaten almost nothing, but I had bought some new salsa at the supermarket and wanted to try it.

Lunch: a toasted corn tortilla and two slices of ham, plus a big spoonful of this "Fiesta Salsa," which has mango, pineapple, red onion, red pepper, and dried cranberries. It was really good! A nice change for one of my typical lunches.









And before I knew it, it was time to think about dinner. I had bought a beautiful flank steak at Stop 'n' Shop, and a bunch of beets, so I cooked the steak on the grill without benefit of marinade, and cooked the beets in the microwave, which takes over 20 minutes. What a mess that made! I should have taken a picture of the inside of the microwave to go with the photo of dinner. But that extra time inspired me to make a cocktail, this one from the Intoxicologist's blog in honor of National Whiskey Sour day last week.

This beautiful concoction (although out of focus since my camera chose to focus on the ferns rather than the drink) is called a Big Fellow Apricot Sour and called for Scotch as its whiskey. The recipe is:
1 1/2 oz. scotch (called for single malt, so I used Glenfiddich)
3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
3/4 oz. honey syrup (honey diluted 1:1 with water)
1/2 oz. fresh orange juice
3 dashes of Angostura bitter
1 egg white.

The drink pictured above was made for Morrow since I don't like scotch, and I made the same drink for myself, substituting bourbon for the scotch. It looked beautiful too, but as I carried it outside to take its picture, I bumped my arm on a book on the kitchen counter, and the entire drink went on the floor! I had no more lemon juice or honey syrup, so I got about two sips of mine that didn't spill. It was good!!

Dinner was finally ready, after the beets boiled over ALL over the inside of the microwave. The steak was PERFECT!! Didn't miss the marinade at all -- just sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

MMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm.

Rush to get to SONE rehearsal. Awfully hot to sing!

I always come home full of energy to stay up late, and I often do, but tomorrow I'm heading down to Port Chester to help Andrew give his house a spiffing up, so I need not to stay up all night

But I wanted a treat after a hot rehearsal, so I had a small glass of Ramazzotti Amaro on the rocks (that's a slightly sweet bitters or aperitif wine), and one square of 72% cocoa chocolate.

The bed beckons now!