1. Today was a big day for Luna and Copper. They took it in stride -- in fact, I'm not sure they noticed! Today, I completely replaced the litter in their Vizio room litter pan, a task which also included washing out the pan. I was very happy to provide Luna and Copper with a freshened up place to use to do their business, but they were blithely indifferent to my efforts. Ha!
2. Over the weekend (I think), the solution to the Wordle puzzle was "cacao". Christy, Carol, and I discuss the Wordle puzzle on Facebook Messenger every day after we solve (or fail to solve) it. In discussing "cacao", we decided it would be fun for me to purchase Creme de Cacao and a bottle of brandy and some whipping cream. I would then mix up Brandy Alexanders for our family dinner dessert.
And that's exactly what I did today. I bought the ingredients and we loved our after dinner cocktail.
For our pre-dinner cocktail, I extended a tip of the hat to Dave Veldhuizen and Val Sanford. Dave introduced Val to the cocktail Bourbon Renewal and, about two years ago, Val sent me a care package with the ingredients: a bottle of Buffalo Trace Bourbon, a bottle of Creme de Cassis, and a bottle of Peach Bitters.
Today, I purchased a fifth of Bulleit Bourbon. The bottle of Creme de Cassis Val sent is not empty, nor are the Peach Bitters. I bought lemons. I had simple syrup on hand. So, I combined the bourbon, Creme de Cassis, fresh lemon juice, and simple syrup in an ice-filled shaker, shook it until the drink was was really cold and poured it over ice cubes in a cocktail glass.
It's a great drink and you can find a recipe for it right here: https://jeffreymorgenthaler.com/bourbon-renewal/
3. For dinner, Christy prepared out appetizer. It was a layered shrimp dip to put on crackers. A few years ago, when Debbie and I lived in Maryland, the family had a shrimp themed bake off and this appetizer was Everett's entry. Our dinner today fell very close to the one year anniversary of Everett's Celebration of Life and the appetizer was a way we could deliciously memorialize that sad and celebratory day in our family's life.
Debbie took charge of the main course. She expertly roasted a whole chicken and made a pan of no recipe scalloped potatoes. She intended for this to be comforting dinner and it worked. Carol contributed a fresh green salad and made a superb vinaigrette for a dressing.
We were in drinking mood tonight! Before we ate, some of us drank a second cocktail. During dinner, we drained both bottles of wine Paul and Molly brought and we not only enjoyed our post-dinner Brandy Alexanders, but continued to draw from the bourbon and brandy bottle after we finished those.
As a result, we talked longer than usual - I think until about 10:00. Much of our conversation centered around Woolum family history and that time Christy and Carol both had surgeries at the Paulsen Building in Spokane. And much more. I hadn't thought about and relived stories Christy and Carol told for a long time and some very good memories of how good our parents were to us resurfaced and I enjoyed that a lot.
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