Cocktail of the Week: Tom Collins


Tom Collins

Our friend Joe seems to have had a particularly difficult month of June and requested that I do weekly cocktails for a while.  If people dig this, I’ll keep it up; anyone who knows me knows that I’ll use any excuse to try a new cocktail.  =)

The first time I heard of a Tom Collins was when my mother told me the story of how she and my dad met.  They were in a bar (where I believe a lot of good couples meet) in San Jose, California and she said, “he wanted to buy me a drink and I remember he came to ask me what it was I would have.  I was drinking Tom Collins back then.”  I liked that she talked of a period of her life when she had a drink that she drank exclusively; I think it lends a strange romance to the story and somehow captures time — even crystallizes it.  My mom has little or no idea of how good a story teller she is, and I often wonder if she learned the art from my dad, who was exceptional at regaling an audience with hilarious vignettes.  The major difference between their styles, I would say, is that my mom includes little details that, on the surface, seem of little importance, but that add a richness to scenes that play out from her words.

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Extraordinary Restaurants: Arrows


Dinner Dress (Summer)

The Bun and I have been in the habit of choosing to indulge in a really good restaurant experience every couple of months.  After we decided to spend a night at the end of our latest trip to Maine in the little town of Ogunquit, I suggested that we try Arrows, which we knew about from our days living in Boston.  According to Phantom Gourmet, a show we used to watch almost every weekend, it is the best restaurant they have ever reviewed in New England.  I called to make a reservation weeks in advance for a Sunday evening and my choices were 6:00 PM or 8:45 PM; we opted for the earlier time slot and anticipated an amazing meal.

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Strawberry Pie


Strawberry Pie

Strawberry Pie

The Bun’s birthday was this past Saturday and, per tradition, he gets a strawberry pie every year.  I know that I could probably hunt down a store-bought version somewhere, but I don’t really ever trust them to be what I want.  I also think that they are extremely perishable, so it is easier just to make my own instead of taking a chance on getting a bad one.

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