I'm setting aside the brown liquors of winter for a while.

What, you having a heat wave or something

We are indeed.

minus twenty, perhaps?

Currently plus 4C! Today was the first day above zero since some
time last October. And as we are near the equinox, quite bright and
sunny as well.

Woo hoo, so Obla-Da, life goes on, and the
sun will come out tomorrow!

The last word
3/4 oz maraschino liqueur

JW > I planned on getting some maraschino liqueur as well but

didn't see any.

Earlier this week Roslind got the next best thing: a half liter
bottle of 100% pure, no sugar or water added, sour cherry juice.
It's from a small, family owned Nova Scotia cranberry farm based
company that also harvests blueberries and cherries called Terra
Beata. I can see both some tasty cocktails and some flavoured teas
coming up soon.

I wouldn't say second best. Bruckner wrote a
symphony that was discovered after his death, so
they called it "die Nullte" (the Zeroth). I'd put
pure juice in zeroth place among the cherry liquids.

what kind of gin are you using
this time? Gordon's London dry as usual?

Yeah, I like Gordon's for mixing, reserving Bombay Sapphire for
martinis and the premium priced Ungava chilled and straight up.
Ungava's botanicals are gathered by Nunavimmiut (Inuit) in Nunavik
(arctic northern Quebec). As well as the usual Juniper the formula
includes Cloudberry, Crowberry, Bog Labrador Tea, Northern Labrador
Tea and Wild Rose Hips.

Someday I'll taste that. I like Sapphire as well;
the various Tanquerays are nice - Annie turned me
on to Rangpur a number of years ago.

my Hung liu spice mix

That's a fancy word for 5-spice, I presume.

It's a very similar Vietnamese blend.

Figured, but that actually looks like a Chinese
sort of name.

Roslind's nail lady and eyelash lady are both Vietnamese and both
have moms who make springs rolls and things for sale (no licence,
all cash, no sales tax). One of them (I get them confused) recently
gifted us (hoping we'd get addicted and start buying them regularly)
some precooked giant hanh bao. We were instructed to nuke them for
one minute each. They were very good and I guess we're going to have
to start buying them now.

Ah, so the free sample strategy works sometimes.

Title: Lithuanian Bread Kvass

I've had Latvian bread kvass, which likely
is pretty much the same thing. Not my thing,
but it was quenching enough.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v7.07

Title: Five Spice Powder
Categories: Chinese, Condiment
Servings: 1

5 ts Ground anise (aniseed)
5 ts Star anise
1 Cinnamon stick (5") in
-cassia bark
2 tb Whole cloves
7 ts Fennel seeds

Using a blender, process all ingredients until finely ground. Store in an
airtight jar up to 3 months.

Source unknown

MMMMM
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Fido Since 1991 | QWK by Web | BBS.FIDOSYSOP.ORG (1:123/140)

Quoting Michael Loo to Jim Weller <=-

minus twenty, perhaps?

Currently plus 4C!

Woo hoo, so Obla-Da, life goes on

Actually this premature warm weather is a bad thing. We have had
temps as high as +8 for a week, which is May weather not March's and
20 degrees above average. All the ice roads that normally operate
until late April had to shut down and a lot of remote villages don't
have all their annual re-supply of gasoline, home heating oil,
diesel for the electric power generators, construction materials,
other heavy freight and non perishable groceries. With air freight
at a buck a pound their already nasty cost of living will become
unbearable. And our diamond mines who employ 1500 people directly
and support another 1500 jobs indirectly are short 500 B-trains of
fuel and other bulky supplies including several tons of ammonium
nitrate explosives. If they don't get it in they may have to shut
down and lay off everyone for several weeks this year.

It was weird driving through the industrial park and seeing dozens
of tractor trailers with loads of ammonium nitrate parked for a week
along side of dozens of tankers carrying diesel fuel and no drivers
or security guards in sight).

Luckily the warm spell (it's the same weather pattern causing
massive flooding in the American mid-west) finally broke on Friday and
its down to the -1 to -17 range with fairly cold weather predicted
for at least 5 more days. The ice roads opened up again Friday at
midnight. with nighttime traffic only and half loads.

Ungava [gin]

Someday I'll taste that.

You might not have to come to Canada to taste it. I believe that
they do export to the US now.

Hung liu spice mix [...] a very similar Vietnamese blend.

Figured, but that actually looks like a Chinese sort of name.

I played around with Google Translate and with different accents and inflections it means a lot of different things in both languages,
from "sweet basil" to "flood" to "sloppy".

Since you dislike zucchini, here's a different kind of ratatouille:

MMMMM-----Meal-Master - formatted by MMCONV 2.10

Title: Ratatouille - Ratjetoe
Categories: Dutch, Groundmeat, Beef, Cheese
Servings: 4

300 g lean hamburger
nutmeg, salt and pepper
30 g margarine
2 chopped onions
2 cloves garlic
150 ml sour cream
150 ml stock or bouillon
750 g new (small) potatoes
300 g grated cheese

In a skillet heat the butter and fry the beef, adding salt, pepper
and nutmeg, the chopped onion and the pressed garlic clove, and
separate with a fork. Grease a baking dish. Mix the sour cream and
bouillon. Put a layer of potatoes in the dish, add a layer of meat,
a layer of cheese and keep adding layers, finishing with a layer of
potatoes. Pour the sour cream and bouillon mix over it and bake in a
preheated over at 200C/390F for about 20-25 minutes.

Ratatouille originally comes from the Provence region of France;
"touiller" is the regional verb for "stir." The local stew often
contained vegetables only, such as eggplant, courgette, tomatoes,
onions and bell peppers. In Dutch parlance, the word was
bastardized to "ratjetoe", often used to describe a hodgepodge, or
worse: a mess. Of course, Dutch children did not like hearing that
they would have "ratjetoe for supper", as they could think it was
to be a small rat as desert.

From: Www.Godutch.Com

MMMMM-------------------------------------------------

Cheers

Jim


... Stuff like that is why the Aliens fly right past us.

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
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