My friend Mrs. Williams came to stay with us last night after a hard day at the Foreign Office in London. I'd had a bad day too, so even though we never drink on Monday nights, we opened the only cold thing in the fridge, a sparkling rose. (How did it get there? We didn't buy it. Someone must have brought it over, and we completely forgot about its existence.) Mel can't stand rose so I put some Creme de Cassis in it, and we christened our new drink Kir Roses.
After a glass or two, Mrs. Williams and I felt much better about life.
Letters to the Editor
I looked at the Times letter page yesterday. One was about an alcoholic chef who died at 65. He apparently spent a lot of his time drunk and many columnists lauded this approach to life -- the 'do what you want, enjoy life while you can, to hell with what other people think' approach.
A letter writer disagreed:
"Those who saw him in a recent documentary will also have witnessed the cringe-making dinner scene that anyone who has endured a relationship with an alcoholic will recognize. Surrounded by 'enablers' who dared not tell him to stop, he drank and dribbled, rambled and swore, using offensive language to everyone in his speechless audience, including his long-lost daughter. There is nothing 'heroic' about that. There is a world of difference between a couple of glasses in front of the telly or dancing over-enthusiastically to Queen at a dinner party to letting alcohol poison your life to the extent that you are prepared to wound and alienate family and friends for ever."
Eliz again: This is so true. I have sat at many a scene like this with my father and a neighbor I had once. I never knew what to do when they got drunk so just endured it. But now I am sorry that I didn't just get up and walk out. Live and learn, I suppose.
13 comments:
E, Some of the most sought after Champagnes are pink, no shame in sparkling rose!
I assume this piece is about Keith Floyd? I used to love his cookery programs, he more or less invented the celebrity chef here in the UK; such a shame he was unable to control his boozing, it was like watching a car crash in slow motion, strangely compelling but sad at the same time.
Yes, Steve, it's about Keith Floyd. I missed him in his heydey. I only became aware of him in the '90s -- past his prime then I think.
I know what you drank.
It's the £3 stuff from Tesco I bought and never drank (for obvious reasons) and I watched you find it in my stuff and put it in the fridge.
Hope you got all £3 worth out of it. What an interesting contrast, to match it with Parisian bought creme de cassis.
The Lasting Tribute website has updated its memorial pages to include Keith Floyd.
http://www.lastingtribute.co.uk/tribute/floyd/3149562
It's a respectful memorial to him and somewhere to pay tribute to his life and work, entertaining people and cooking good food.
EVERY comment is monitored so that nothing offensive or inappropriate is published.
E, I just watched the documentary on 4OD - toe curling wasn't it; I really dislike Keith Allen; he tries to be like Oliver Reed far too hard and just hasn't got the intellect to pull it off, he just comes across as a yob.
Katie, how could you let me drink a £3 sparkling rose? You know I don't know any better! it's all alike to me -- horse wee, Mouton Cadet -- it's sad.
When my wife was stationed in Germany she sent me several bottles of wine that she said was made from grapes that had frozen on the vines. She sent several different kinds, it came in small bottles and was like drinking nectar. Do any of you have any idea who makes this kind of wine and if I can find it in the US?
Marty, it's called "ice wine"---sometimes without a space between the words---and if you Google it you can find sources.
I love the drink name "Kir Roses!" Take away the acute mark on rose', and it rhymes with "cirrhosis"!!!:):)
At a recent bridal brunch for a friend's son, we had the bartenders pouring mimosas, Bloody Marys, and screwdrivers. As the festivities got jollier, the bartenders kind of got sloppy and began topping off the mimosas with screwdrivers, as they are all the same color. The resulting drink actually wasn't too bad---and we christened them "Screwmosas."
On another occasion, after an evening out, we had a few people over for a spontaneous nightcap but (oh trgedy) ran out of wine. Somebody rooted in our cabinet and found some nice vodka, and looked in the fridge and found pomegranate juice. He mixed them happily, splahing in a dose of seltzer, and voila---the "Vomegranate."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiswein
Thanks Mel and Brenda. My wife did call it ice wine, but neither of us being drinkers I thought she just made that up. The best one she sent, though all of them were good, was golden in color.
In your wiki link Mel it says this kind of wine is high in acid. It didn't seem that way to me, usually my stomach rebels against anything acidic.
Elizabeth may not know this, but there is a winery in Natchez. They don't use grapes though, they use muscadines. It's called the Old South Winery and if ya'll come next summer you should check it out if you like wine. The muscadine wine doesn't leave you feeling foggy headed- Carien and I drank a couple of bottles of it one night with no ill effect.
Another thing, Elizabeth may have forgotten how oppressive the heat and humidity are here in the summer. You should think about planning your vacation in early or mid spring, unless you are the masochistic type of tourist who likes to suffer.
I know what Mississippi is like in the summer.
I come to visit Elizabeth before we were married. It was August...I remember walking out of her house around noon, seeing there was still dew on the grass. And it was around 100 degrees!
Not an experience I care to repeat. We'll be coming in March and I'll try to bring you a bottle of eiswein.
Mel, you would have enjoyed our recent summer---astoundingly, it was not too terrlbly hot, we had good rains, and even a few coolish mornings. Who knows what March will bring---but as that's my daughter's wedding month,I'm hoping for an early spring...
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