
Beverage director Sebastian Tollius takes us behind the scenes of the 60-minute milk punch and more.

No, my kids are certainly diverse in sexual preference and one is transgender, but I didn't have any sort of unacceptance. I grew up around drag queens and "theater people".
Maybe in the other direction, honestly - I didn't see the trans one until they literally came out by telling me, my conception of womanhood is so broad that my kid looking like a 40 year old butch lesbian did not ping any trans radar so I was surprised when they said they wanted to be a man. Not mad or anything but it took awhile to process.
Nobody else has had to "come out" or worry about the race or sex of who they are with, they can bring home whoever they are going out with and we don't blink, it's fine.
Cook red lentils with collard greens, mustard greens, or kale, seasoned how you like. Grill sourdough on one side in butter on the cast iron; pour lentil stew over the bread on the untoasted side, eat with all the utensils, knife, spoon, and fork or chopsticks. Yum yum.
Or simple cheese toast if not feeling like cooking. Toast bread, add cheese, broil till melted.
I may get a loquat, love them. My neighbor has one they trimmed like a bush, so all are in reach, I'd like to try that.
We had a longan tree at the old house but the wasps loved that tree so much we couldn't harvest.
A light sleeper needs accommodations - not for you to have to be silent. Earplugs and a sleep mask, a white noise machine, blackout curtains, whatever - manage the environment so they can sleep soundly. We live in the world and if you want to live with someone it's not going to be silent all the hours you want to sleep.
Again - I get how they can feel so hopeless about migraine, it does feel debilitating. That's on them to manage though.
This is unlikely to be the only time your schedules don't align. Y'all need a plan that works, not blame.
My spring garden is done, and summer one going in soon. So not much. But the last of the fennel just got harvested last week.
Putting in butternut squash, eggplant, jalapeno, tomato, sweet potato (Stokes Purple). Later will add okra and watermelon and basil.
It's your job to manage your life and your condition. In this example you were doing that by going to the group and doing the dishes upon your return, and by communicating when you realized you would be a little late.
Similarly, it is your partner's job to manage their life and their condition. You are not responsible for their migraines, they need to have a plan for the controlled sleep schedule they need, if that's their trigger, a plan that doesn't depend on you having the same schedule.
The argument, that is your fail I agree, but it wouldn't have happened if they'd just left you the kitchen to clean and gone to bed, and woken up to a clean kitchen. Who could be unhappy with that?
Sometimes when people say they can't do things because of the ADHD it does sound like they are just getting out of unpleasant tasks by dumping them on someone else, sure. That is NOT what you are doing here. A 20 minute delay is not a ridiculous offront.
My accommodation with the husband - I do cook supper, he cleans after. Supper is done when it's done, not at a scheduled time but in a window of "evening". If I cannot cook I communicate this in time for him to get us takeout. If he cannot clean he lets me know in time so I can do it.
Y'all need a good calm talk, not an argument. It's possible you aren't a good fit but from this post it reads like you are holding up your end of the relationship. Migraine really sucks, I get them and understand. But they cannot blame them on your 20 minute delay, that is ridiculous.
Salsa Yucateca, the natural color habanero one is delicious and not sour and muy picante.
If you ever make it to Tampa, Crazy Burrito has their very spicy dark red salsa and I am obsessed with it. It is so spicy and oh so tasty, I love it and wish they would sell me a bottle.
For chipotle, we buy a big can of San Marcos Chipotles en Adobo and just dump it in the food processor and puree. That's our regular salsa in my household.
If you can buy or grow fresh jalapenos, roast them with some onion and food processor or chop them together with some cumin seeds and a little salt, olive oil, maybe some cilantro, splash of good vinegar.
Basically, if you can't find it learn to make one you love. Toasted then rehydrated dried anchos with roast tomatillos is a fantastic base for a spicy salsa too. Just play around.
I don't mean to imply that any man needs to change to please women's "type", even more important is that the guy be in the shape HE wants, of course. Just like I am not going to get fake boobs to please some "ideal", neither should guys worry about any ideal. Best to please yourself and let things settle out around that. I just think it is interesting when there's a disconnect.
I do feel happy for guys who achieve the bodybuilder physique, it's an accomplishment worth noticing. I don't think guys are doing that to be sexy, they are doing it as a project for themselves. I just personally don't find it more attractive than a baseline fitness, if that makes sense, and think I'm in the majority on that, not just of women but of people.
I like guys who are in shape, broadly defined. So anywhere from whip lean and skinny to muscular and padded (which is what I'd call that pic #1).
It's not so much about looks, as the article notes, it's about lifestyle. I want a guy who can keep up with me. Husband is fat but lifts 5 days a week at least, he is strong and healthy and muscular, just fat, overweight not obese.
I do also have hangups about being bigger than a guy, don't think I am alone in that, and I'm pretty tall, so lean towards the fit and padded category but tall and a little too skinny also good.
I do think most regular people who are in good shape aren't "shredded" because that takes an obsessive lifestyle for most people , and I don't think an obsessive lifestyle is attractive. But a level of baseline fitness is.
It's funny but that is how looks work for me in general. Look good enough, that's a yes, and looking better than good enough is not any more of a yes. Looks are a primary filter but a yes/no binary not a scale.
I often hear music in the fan noise, or voices in running water, if I'm tired enough - auditory hallucination, it's funny because it absolutely sounds like it's coming from outside my body but I know logically it's my brain. That I do sometimes "listen to" but it's always such awful music. Different styles all the time but never good.
And yeah vigilance is the enemy of sleep.
I have slept above the club and found it so relaxing - the thumping muted music. Even now I like when the neighbors have a party and when we can hear stadium concerts. Not sure why, it's not exactly white noise, but I enjoy sleeping in that "music nearby but not right here" situation. I think it just makes my brain relax because it thinks things must be ok if there is a party?
Here (Florida) the county has a $30 test and treatment program so no, it doesn't have to run through insurance, and the rule is 13 and up can go without parents. I'm sure this is what they are pushing back against.
Jungle Bird
1.5 oz rum (dark Hawaiian)
1.5 oz fresh pineapple juice (I threw a mango in when juicing it so it's pineapple mango)
0.75 oz Campari
0.5 oz fresh lime juice
0.5 oz simple syrup
I hesitated to put the simple since pineapple juice is so sweet but it's not too sweet. This is good, it's like a grown up pineapple juice. I always thought I didn't like Campari because I don't like Negroni and on its own it's most foul. But in fruity drinks it rocks.
1375? Die from malaria, I guess? Be eaten by an alligator? Or oh no, hasten the demise of the Tocobaga with my exotic biology? Either they would kill me or get me sick, or vice versa. Also, fall on my ass when my house disappeared.
I would follow the river to the bay, I guess, and see if I could find anyone, or anything I might be able to eat.
Elbow are so good!
Joshua Ray Walker "Cuz I love you", his whole cover album really. The way he makes that Cher song into a country 2 step dance song is amazing.
Bob Schneider's cover of Running on Empty is haunting.
It's not so different but God I love the 9 minute November Rain by Connor Christian and the Southern Gothic.
I didn't ever marry my ex, was irritated at how discriminatory legal marriage was back then, and we had kids so were a family anyway.
My husband now? He really wanted to be married, and "stepdad" is a different legal status than "mom's boyfriend", it smooths things when he had to do school pickup or doctor visit. So since he pushed and as I did see an upside we did.
Also you can't foster or adopt here unless you are married - unmarried man in the household is a known risk to the kids he's not related to. Statistically, it raises the risk of the kid getting hurt so single people can, or married couples but not unmarried hetero couples.
I am with you logically, I don't need it, and don't feel different and it's weird for the state to license families. I understand religious marriage but am not religious.
Ten? Anyone, if I have it on me. I don't, usually but have done that for random panhandlers, instead of spare change.
100? That's harder. Any friend or relative who hasn't asked me for money, again, if I have it and they don't.
1000? No. That is "questions asked" territory for anyone.
What the actual fuck? I feel like that can't be migraine. Tylenol makes mine worse (nausea), and has never worked for any other pain. Just makes me feel vaguely poisoned.
I don't actually take OTC painkillers much at all, maybe once a year. But the sumatriptan injection for migraine is amazing for mine - no drugged feeling, no up no down, just unwinds the headache. That stuff has worked as rescue medicine for my (once a month or fewer) migraines for 25 years now.
Hmm. I may already count as older. But depending - maybe 4 if I am ok to continue what I have now, but need something else?
Plus vitamins, so maybe 8 in total because I plan to continue my "stack" of three supplements I've been taking for years.
Well it doesn't take over my yard because I got it all removed by a guy with a backhoe because it scared me. I like the way it looks but want some clumping bamboo not running bamboo, which had taken over the yard here when we bought our house. There's still a little in one corner I just aggressively manage it. Comes over from the neighbors so it's unavoidable.
There are bamboo forests, aren't there? I'm sure that in its natural habitat it does have competition. Like kudzu. It's just invasive here.
Jasmine, sort of
1.5 oz Esme gin
.5 oz Campari
.5oz Tangelo juice
.5oz lemon juice
Shaken, poured over ice.
I wanted something bitter, but not insanely boozy. This is it. Like the grapefruit of old, that you had to put sugar on make palatable. I like it.
Pas de Loup
The best review I read of this was "a mezcal sour with enough character to make it shine"
1 oz mezcal joven
3/4 oz Cynar
3/4 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz honey syrup 1:2
1/4 oz (I used a little more) Ancho Reyes Rojo
Shake all together with ice, serve with orange slices sprinkled with chile salt, I used Tajin, don't do that, they were so sour!
Whiskey Smash Highball
2 oz cask strength rye (Redwood Empire Emerald Giant, so good)
Juice of one lemon
Demitasse spoonful of sugar
10 leaves homegrown mojito mint
3-4 oz topo chico
Muddle mint with sugar, squeeze in lemon, muddle more. Add whiskey, shake with ice, add the sparkling mineral water, strain through mesh over fresh crushed ice, garnish with mint sprig.
This is delicious. Not much sugar at all, mostly lemon so the water does help, the mint comes through, and the whiskey does too - it's a tart fizzy mint whiskey lemonade.
What are you drinking? April edition.
So, what are you drinking this month? Cocktail or coffee, wine, water? Anything interesting?
I kicked it off today with a Paper Plane, first mixed up a Bitters and Smoke and that was a no for me. So nothing interesting yet.
I don't even know what to call it. Garibaldi's Godfather?
2 oz blended Scotch
1 oz Amaretto Adriatico (yes it has to be this one, see note)
3 oz fresh Valencia orange juice
Fresh lemon to adjust (not sure how much, it needed a little brightness)
2 oz club soda
I built this in a measuring cup then poured it over crushed ice.
Note: it took a moment for my palate to adjust to this Frankenstein's Monster mashup but it's very good, not just interesting. That Amaretto Adriatico is not very sweet and has a salty note - any other amaretto will be too sweet with the orange juice, you might be able to make it work but too much lemon would change this.
A margarita
We visited San Antonio Texas and my friend had said she got the best margarita of her life. While we enjoyed seeing the city, I think I need to make her a margarita because they were trash.
2 oz Tequila Ocho Blanco
1 oz fresh lime
1 oz orange liqueur
1/2 ounce Ancho Reyes (el rojo)
Shake shake with ice, pour over fresh ice of any variety.
Related - if anyone on here lives near there, where are these great margaritas or was she just drunk.
What are you drinking this weekend? Pi day to St. Patrick's day edition!
I am having a margarita, wish it was to wrap up the week, but alas I must work tomorrow.
Very light aperitif
Trying to get an appetite not buzzed. This was just thrown together, a highball.
1 oz Cynar
1 Tbsp Esme gin
1/2 oz lime
Bunch of club soda. A little bitter and quite good.
Punch - a cocktail tasting menu
Beverage director Sebastian Tollius takes us behind the scenes of the 60-minute milk punch and more.
I really liked this article - one of the things I do struggle with is cocktails to accompany food; everyone in my circle likes cocktails more than wine, but wine is The Food Drink. My personal#1 favorite drink for food is plain or iced water, so I tend to do an aperitif, food with water, then digestif and/or sweet cocktail and make a wine available for the food too, that works but a cocktail for dinner would be well received.
Anyway - I found this explanation of how they think through matching the drinks with the food very interesting.
Imbibe magazine most clicked cocktails of 2024
The most popular cocktail recipes searched for on our site in 2024 include classics, inspired riffs on classics, and new originals.
Lots of recipes here. The top image is so pretty too. I use their site enough that I subscribed to the print magazine, but didn't make any of these this year for me.
Passion Fruit Cosmo
Phone camera absolutely refused to focus on this drink, but it's pretty good tasting. I'm out of orange liqueur, had a little vodka and half a lemon wanted something lighter for Sunday.
2 oz Deep Eddy vodka unflavored
1 oz Chinola
1/2 oz lemon
1 1/2 oz cranberry juice cocktail
Shaken & double strained.
It's more passion fruit than cranberry but that's not a bad thing. Would make a great backbone for a summer punch or pitcher drink, it's sweet and ever so fruity but has some complexity. I feel like the Cosmo is so good for playing with; changing the citrus or liqueur changes it but as long as you keep it fruity it works.
Paper Plane Crash
2 oz bourbon
1 oz Aperol
1 oz Amaro Nonino
1oz lemon juice
1/4 oz Campari
2 oz Crodino soda
Shake first 5 ingredients together, add the soda and pour back and forth between the shaker cups. Strain over fresh ice. I did one big cube but crushed would be good too.
Paper Plane is always just a little too sweet for me. This is a bitter version, still sweet but it's quite good! I didn't like the Crodino soda by itself but it is a nice ingredient.
Half Naked Almost Famous
1.5oz tequila
0.5oz Chartreuse
0.5oz St Germain
0.5oz mezcal (the good one)
0.5oz lime
Shake all together
Oddly tart for so little lime, if doing again I might do a sugar rim. But cohesive flavor for sure, it's good.
What are you drinking this weekend?
If you are reading this, you survived Valentine's Day!
I am having a Paloma De Jarritos y Tequila Ocho, with the juice of half a lime, since the soda is so very sweet.
Yes there is still a skeleton on the porch, he is a pirate now, for our local holiday, Gasparilla.
Juicy whiskey sour
Wrapping up the weekend with a whiskey sour, a variation that came through my news feed, with orange juice (I have Tangelos, fantastic tangy juice) and absinthe (used Lucid)
I made this with scotch, as I have no rye, and it definitely needed 2x the lemon. Feeling more indulgent about the egg white than the Scotch! I think this would work with Angel's Envy bourbon very well, better than the Scotch and maybe better than rye but alas, as I have already mentioned I am waiting to buy anything.
Full Disclosure
I haven't had time or funds to go to the liquor store, out of the staples, so am left with a very odd assortment of ingredients. This recipe made very good use of some things I had on hand. The cinnamon doesn't add much flavor, it's more of a sensation - very nice!
1 1/2 oz Mezcal Joven
1/2 oz rhubarb liqueur
2/3 oz grapefruit juice
1/3 oz cinnamon bark syrup
3/4 oz lime juice
1 dash aromatic bitters
1 twist grapefruit peel
Shake together first 6 ingredients, strain into chilled coupe, express grapefruit peel over drink.
Sundowner
January is over, Wednesday is here and I am having a cocktail before supper.
A Sundowner.
2 parts cognac
1 part Galliano
1 part orange liqueur
1 part lemon juice
Shake and dirty pour into rocks glass.
Delicious as you would expect. This is a little less lemon than the standard recipe (making avgolemolo and needed most of the juice for that) and is a little too sweet, it does need the extra tartness; and honestly I might also sub fresh OJ for the liqueur and try that, but I do love Galliano in orange juice.
I think you could mix this into a very, very good crowdpleaser punch for a party with half this and 1/4 Sprite and 1/4 soda water.
Comics not related just going to read them this weekend
What are you drinking this weekend, Lemmy?
I'm having a whiskey sour. Delicious.
What are you drinking, be it cocktail, wine, coffee, whatever! Anything interesting?
Into the Forest
4 cherries
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp instant coffee
2oz bourbon
Scant oz Cherry Heering
Scant oz lemon juice
1/2 oz Amaretto Adriatico
Tsp juice from amaretto cherries
Muddle the cherries with the sugar and coffee, add the liquids and stir to make sure the sugar and coffee are dissolved. Shake with ice.
I think it would work very well up in a coupe, it's a looker, but I wanted the big clear ice today.
Been reading the Transformers 2 seasons, such a good story. Not related to the drink just a good backdrop.