The best wedding task ever!

One of the many chores of planning our wedding is selecting the appropriate "signature" his & hers cocktails. It ranks somewhere between stuffing boxes with fake grass and, um, well, it was a lot more fun than most of the wedding chores. And it continues to be...!

The process began a few months ago when Sarah exclaimed, "My drink is going to be a Watermelon Mojito! What's yours going to be?" Um, ah, hmmm, um...

Jason started his quest by picking up the January issue of San Francisco magazine, which was titled "Cocktail Heaven." (Ahh, if only...) Anyway, they reviewed a bunch of cocktails from local bars and restaurants, and he honed in on the cocktail featured on the cover, the Añejo daiquiri from Coco500 (yes, it's very manly with that little ~ above the "n," isn't it?). Although his brother balked at a "his" cocktail with the word "daiquiri" in it, he persevered.

But let's start at the beginning.

Jason is a Manhattan man. No, not the island. The drink. He likes bourbon. He once coordinated a guys weekend in Kentucky just so the boys could travel the bourbon trail - Kentucky's answer to Silverado Trail. But, would a Manhattan - all bourbon with a splash of sweet vermouth - be appropriate for an afternoon, outdoor wedding? Probably not, unless we wanted everyone sleeping by 6 PM. So he persevered.

How about a gimlet? That refreshing (nutritional?) combination of gin and lime juice. That's a good drink, but it has to be different. A plain gimlet as a "signature" cocktail isn't a signature at all. It's an "X" written in crayon. Pedantic. Pedestrian. What adds that "refreshing" quality to a drink? How about cucumber?

Jason started a science project in the kitchen to develop the best cucumber gimlet known to Pacifica, CA (OK, probably the only cucumber-based cocktail in Pacifica!).

There were three variations:

1. gin, lime, sugar, and muddled cucumber
2. gin, lime, sugar, and cucumber juice (puree cuke then strain)
   
3. gin, lime, and cucumber-infused simple syrup

As you can imagine, the differences were massive. #1 was fine, but with little cucumber flavor transfer. #3 took way too long to make, and the cucumber simple syrup had a fuzzy crust of mold on top by day two, and although some of our friends could probably use the extra penicillin, we had second thoughts. #2, however (after four or five glasses) is now firmly planted in Jason's drink repertoire for all of eternity! It was fantastic! But, was it good enough for the big day? Unsure, Jason persevered.

When it comes to cocktails, Jason is also a martini man. (Well, a vodka martini man, which, in some circles, is better know as a martini woman.) There's nothing like a crisp, clean, cold shaken (shuck?) vodka martini on a warm summer's eve. But, a suitable wedding cocktail can't just be a plain old martini, especially when paired against a watermelon mojito. It needs some punch, some pizazz. So Jason persevered.

Currently festering on our kitchen counter is both lemongrass vodka and cucumber vodka. One recipe called for 48 hours of steeping, another called for three weeks! So, after about two weeks of steeping, you'll have to check back later to see the results of that experiment.

But let's get back to the daiquiri.

At first glance, Jason was smitten. (Kind of like he was with Sarah, only more so! How fitting for our wedding cocktail!) The aged rum is reminiscent of bourbon, but lighter and less alcohol-ish. The lime juice adds that summery tang, and the sugar sweetens it all up.

Now, we should let the record show that we didn't have ground evaporated cane sugar and had to substitute powdered sugar. But we did have freshly squeezed lime juice and 12-year-old rum!

Mmmmmmmm! Fantastic! But could it be better? Well, we just had to go to Coco500 and try the real thing. Yeah, we had to sit through asparagus salad, duck liver terrine, spice-rubbed pork tenderloin, and braised beef cheeks, but we persevered.

You know, it was disappointing, - like seeing the wizard behind the curtain. Coco500's version of their own drink wasn't as good as our homemade version. Hmmm. What kind of screwed-up Pittsburgh math is that? We're not sure, but maybe it's the rum, or maybe it's the Safeway powdered sugar vs. the ground evaporated cane sugar. Jason thinks that we need to test out another rum-bottle's worth at home, just to perfect it...

See the recipe below, straight from San Francisco mag. Click here for the full article, and 11 other Frisco cocktails (all worthy of experimentation, we're sure).

And we continue to persevere! Don't forget that we have some vodka infusions going strong. And, we had one basil gimlet that we felt was too close to a mojito, but which our buddy, Frank, highly recommended that we revisit. And there's always IC Light!

Ah, the lengths to which we go to make sure our wedding guest are happy... ;-)

Añejo daiquiri at Coco500

Bartender: Scott Baird

Inventor: Jennings Cox, Daiquiri, Cuba, 1896. Cox ran out of gin while hosting a group of prominent Americans, so he mixed rum with lime juice and sugar, creating the first daiquiri. Over the years, lighter rums have unquestionably been the rums of choice for the drink. Baird, in a smart leap of faith, altered over a cen­tury of tradition when he made his with aged rum.

1¾ ounces Pampero Aniversario rum
¾ ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
4½ teaspoons ground organic evaporated cane sugar

To make ground sugar:grind organic raw sugar (avoid turbinado and other dark varieties) in a standard coffee grinder until it turns into a fine, soft powder.

Add sugar and lime to a mixing glass and stir with a bar spoon for approximately 20 revolutions. Add ice and rum and shake hard for 10 full seconds. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lime wheel.

Tip: “When I say shake hard, I mean it,” says Baird. “Don’t throw your back out, but use two hands and give the cocktail a healthy mix.”

Who Needs Whales? I've got Sea Otter!

After waaaay too many weekends filled with wedding planning, Jason and I skipped town for a quick overnight trip to Morro Bay. But before we got on the road, Jason had to hit the dirt first... don't we all like to start our Saturday mornings by getting up at the crack of dawn, driving 20 miles to Marin, and racing hundreds of other people on a 6-mile, narrow, hilly dirt trail? No? Well, your name must not be Jason!

Actually, despite my sarcasm (I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm not a morning person, so I won't belabor that, really...) - I'm quite proud of my man. For someone who for the most part, despises running, he really pushes himself and keeps entering these races. Being a good (but did I mention groggy?) girlfriend, I trodded along ahead of him and had my camera to capture all of the special moments... like all the people who missed the turnaround point and I had to yell after them "hey, comeback, you missed the halfway mark!" That part was actually kinda fun, heh.

So, after Jay was done replenishing his electrolites, we loaded up the car for the drive South. The sun was shining and Jason didn't even complain about my driving - a perfect day! We camped for the night under incredibly clear skies - the kind where you can see all the stars AND the satellites (Jason loves that part). The day was complete with a campfire, S'mores and some wine (hey, this is California afterall).

On Sunday morning - man, were the winds blowing - we were a little worried about our paddling power but decided to give it a go anyway. We launched our boats and had a spectacular day on the water - in Jason's words "it's like a zoo at the beach." We saw a little bit of everything (except for whales and condors of course, which continue to elude us) - white pelican, sandpipers, white and blue heron, seals, deer (totally serious) and several sea otter! On the way home we found some great tide pools along a deserted stretch of beach - and we had three or four seals following us as we traveled the beach, here's one checking us out!

Whale Watching? Um, no, just looking...

This past Saturday, we embarked, with Mike and Christina, on a whale watching trip. We climbed aboard the Salty Lady {that's what I said when I climbed on your mom last night! (sorry Christina)}...um, anyway... We climbed aboard the Salty Lady and headed out on an

unseasonably warm and clear Half Moon Bay February morning. (It was 8F in Pittsburgh, making the 60+ weather that much more enjoyable! Hee hee!)

The sea was angry that day, my friends, as we headed out over the crashing waves. Like an old man trying to send back soup at a deli. (OK, "gently rolling swell" may be a better description.)

Anyway, we headed out on our whale watching trip, excited to catch a glimpse of the humpback and gray whales that were spotted the weekend prior. Luckily, Jay brought along his GPS to chronicle the longitude and latitude of each and every sighting.

As you can see on the map, we took a heading of SSW at about 12 mph (or about 10.4 knots, for the sailors out there) and basically never touched the wheel. We went straight and never made even a slight bank left or right. As the passengers searched for life, we finally (after and hour and a half of our three hour trip) slowed to check out the seagulls, murres, and comorants.) Gee, that's fantastic. Weren't those the same birds we saw at the dock?

Anyway, the "guide" mentioned something about "abundant sea life" and "schools of sardines below us," but because those sardines weren't Wonder Twins and didn't form "the shape of a breaching whale," we didn't see nothing.

So, the Salty Lady turned around, and full-steamed it back to the dock. Yeah, we made a nice figure-eight on the way back. But, basically, it was 90 minutes straight out at SSW, and 90 minutes straight back at NNE.

What did we see? A few birds. A few chunks of seaweed. A lot of water.

Our whale watching trip was not to be. Our whale looking-for trip was, unfortunately.

Check out the photos, below, but please don't look for whales. They must have been off that day. :-(

Alas, there were no whales to be watched...

Super Bowl or Super BOAT?

Two events happened today: one big, one HUGE.

Obviously, today was the Super Bowl, and, although the Steelers weren't involved, apparently it was a big deal. We're not sure why, but we don't question tradition.

The other event was the arrival of the Queen Mary 2 in San Francisco - a "maritime marvel!". This may sound ho-hum to most of you, but listen to this: The Queen Mary 2 is the largest ship to EVER pass through the Golden Gate! Now that's worthy of missing a few quarters of football, don't you think?

Well, we did. So, with an expected "under the bridge" time of 3:00 PM Pacific Time (27 minutes before kickoff), we figured that we'd hurry down to Crissy Field and snap a few pictures. But, we were totally unprepared for the thousands - yes, thousands - of spectators waiting around the bay.

Here in Frisco, "Fleet Week" is usually the biggest spectator event, followed by the Independence Day fireworks. But, this rivaled both of those, for sure. We were in traffic from 2:30 through 3:00 (and we started 2 miles from Crissy Field!), but luckily the QM2 was about one hour late (um, 33 minutes after kickoff). So, we were well-positioned to watch as it sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge with only 30 feet to spare! That's amazing! These photos don't do it justice, however. Although it looked big as it went under the bridge, our vantage point was a bit askew. As it passed us, however, its ominous size was apparent. It dwarfed the sailboats, fire boats, and Coast Guard ships that escorted it into the bay. It was a sight to behold, for sure.

For more details, and to read about it's 'round-the-globe trip (last stop was Alcapulco, next stop is Honolulu), check out this story and this story and accompanying photos at The Chronicle.

(Kinda makes our kayaks seem itty bitty...)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Wow! It's been quite a while since we've updated this blog! And, a lot has happened since Pierce entered the world. Let's review...

In early November, Sarah treated Jason to a delightful four-day weekend in NYC to celebrate Jason's birthday! We ate at some fantastic restaurants (including Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill, at which Jason exclaimed, "Goddamn, this is good food!), had a cupcake expedition, shopped like movie stars, and caught the Broadway version of "Wicked!" We also caught up with Sutt, who took us to the finer speakeasys and "underground" bars of the Greenwich/SoHo area, where drinking vodka out of tea cups is the latest craze. Sutt said that it has something to do with Prohibition, but we're not sure if we're buying that.

Next on our list was Thanksgiving in Southern California. Well, actually the days following Thanksgiving were in Southern CA. Thanksgiving day was spent in a hotel in Oxnard, eating microwave mac-n-cheese and chips and salsa from the 7-11, but that's another story...

The weekend was spent with Amy, Alan, Kaia, and Caleb at their soon-to-be house in Dana Point. We watched the sunsets...






Built a fire at the beach...










And even built a fire at Amy and Alan's future house (although, that just consisted of turning the gas "on" and throwing in a match).








Finally, we spent our first Christmas in our house in Pacifica. We've actually lived here for about 18 months, but this is the first time we actually spent Christmas Day in the Bay Area. Although we missed the cold (rain) snow that we grew up with on the East Coast, it was nice to have a warm Christmas!

After opening gifts, we took a stroll on the beach and watched the surfers! It's quite a change from a Chesapeake/Johnstown Christmas, but we think that we're going to stick it out here for at least a while longer! ;-)

We hope that everyone had a great holiday, and that all of your New Year wishes come true!

XOXO

Boy Power!

I am happy to report that Jason and I are the proud Aunt and Uncle of Pierce Schiflet, born Oct. 16 to my ecstatic brother Craig and his wife Lorye. Our family is officially trending "boy" with Pierce being the third, and incredibly adorable, grandson!

Lorye spent a full day in the hospital before Pierce was ready to meet the world... and apparently even then he wasn't ready to announce his arrival as Craig had to poke him a bunch to even get him to make any noise! In true-boy fashion, Pierce is proving to be laid-back and easy-going... much like his Dad.

Lorye & Craig are adjusting nicely, and benefitting from doting grandparents and family in these first weeks as new parents. Jason & I will meet Pierce in person this Christmas, while my sister and Alli will see him in November. Ty and Jake will meet their new cousin this winter, and I can only wonder about all the things they'll tell him about being member of this family! Enjoy the pics, more to come (as soon as Craig has time!).

By Land, Sea AND Air!

What a busy weekend! I don't want to mis-lead you, we didn't actually fly anywhere, but we did watch the Blue Angels and to me, that counts (and it also made for a catchy title!).

On Saturday, Jason and I took our kayaks out on the Bay and paddled around in the rip currents by the North side of the GG Bridge. OK, I'm being a little dramatic, but by the time we got out of the water the waves were huge and the current was super-strong! We had to do a lot of back-paddling to stay in one place, but we managed to hang out for an hour or so, catching the airshow in town for San Francisco's Fleet Week. We took these pics from our boats, but if you're really interested in this stuff, check out the SF Chronicle's photos - they are very cool - http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2006/10/08/FLEETWEEK.TMP&o=0

We had a really good time just hanging out on the water and dodging a few hundred boats (all bigger than us, of course!) but we also had a great view! Mind you, the Blue Angels kept flying overhead and around in circles, making me sea-sick after a while b/c I was following their movements while bouncing up and down in my boat!

Today, Jason completed his first-ever organized sporting event - I mean, unless you consider bowling a sport?! Jason ran in the San Jose Rock and Roll half marathon and crossed the finish line right on target, and still smiling too.

Despite sore shins, Jason persevered through 13 miles of pavement - all before 11 in the morning! Why wasn't I running, you ask? Well, someone had to document the event with pictures so I stayed behind, very selfless of me, I know - ha ha!

Luckily Jason had a few friends from work that also ran, and he and Tiffany ran the entire race together, crossing the finish line like pros!

Congratulations Jason, I am so proud of you!

Engaged!

Mark and Michelle (and Maggie & Sarah) hosted a fabulous engagement party for us a few weeks ago... we got really lucky with "summer-like" weather and thanks to Jason's early-morning scouting, we ended up with a primo picnic spot!

Except for a few hiccups before the party started (how's the bumper, Mark?), I think everyone had a great time enjoying the sun and scenery, while eating homemade cioppino (with clams, mussells, fish, shrimp - the works!), scallops wrapped in prosciutto, fresh sourdough bread and salads, and last - but absolutely not least - a scrumptious carrot cake to top it all off.

This was really the first chance we've had to hang out with all our friends since we got engaged, and it was really so much fun to just relax with everyone and catch up. As Jason usually does when a party is over, he asked as the sun finished setting: "where'd everyone go?"... as if seven hours for a picnic or a party is not nearly long enough! But I think it is just a testament to the fact that we have such great friends - we hate it when they do actually have to be on their way. Everyone is so busy these days (including us), and it seems like a really special event when we can all take an afternoon and just hang out for a few hours. Oh, and did I mention the multiple cases of wine and beer? That really helps with the "relax" part!! :-)

Career #24: Winemaker

Some of you may have heard me talk about CrushPad, the San Fran outfit that helps you make your own wine. You choose the grapes, you pick the wood for the barrel - basically, you work with their winemaker to determine everything throughout the whole process. Check them out at www.crushpadwine.com.

Well, I just signed up to make a barrel (25 cases!) of pinot noir with some guys from work. The plan (i.e. the only way to get Sarah to support this expense) was that this was going to be the wine for our wedding. Ahhh - how romantic!

Well, our first meeting with the winemaker was this past Saturday. We sat with him for a few hours to discuss things like brix, acidity, crush level, saignee, and cap management. All things that, previously, the people at winery tasting rooms said as I guzzled their latest bottling, not paying attention.

We chose our aging vessel (a 50% new French oak zebra), our target alcohol (14.4 - for a good buzz), our target free SO2 (25-30 ppm, give or take a few ppm), and our aging (9-11 months), and about 50 other things. At that point, something clicked. I'm no math major (in Engineering school, we quickly lost numbers and went to all letters, derivatives, functions, and LaGrangians...), but I was able to use my fingers to see that from September 9th to June 23rd was a bit less than required by the winemaking process. And, the grapes have yet to be harvested!

Uh oh.

I guess we won't be having my handmade pinot at our wedding... :-(

My proposal - and give me your feedback on this - is to instead roll some of this experience into our wedding day in other ways. What about vows that say, "Sarah, I promise to love you in sickness and in heath, in low pH and in high, through malolactic fermentation and extended maceration..." (I have yet to pass that by Sarah.)

Anyway, these are pictures of our grapes - pinot noir from the Amber Ridge vineyard in Sonoma - still hanging on the vine, taunting me and saying, "I got you in trouble!"

Just think, only 9-11 months + harvesting time + fermentation time + bottling time + whatever else time until we can drink it! Happy New Year 2008!

Kayaking the City (i.e. Geek meets Outdoors meets City)

Since Sarah jetted out of town to London for the week, I figured that it would be a perfect opportunity to take on a manly kayak trip. Not a 20 minute "let's just get out on the water" trip that we normally take, but a real, long kayak paddle.

OK, that's not the real story. The real story is that Sarah makes fun of me every time I pull out my GPS. So, with her safely 6,000 miles away, I was able to GPS to my heart's content.

So, I set out from AT&T Park (PacBell, SBC, whatever), and headed towards Ferry Plaza.

Here's a nice picture of me off the coast of The Gap headquarters. Now there's a site you don't normally see when kayaking! (I apologize for the poor photo quality, but my Razr phone only does so well...)

After about an hour of paddling into some stiff headwinds, I finally made it up to Ghiradelli Square. Here's another nice picture of me (OK, the tip of my kayak) looking at Ghiradelli Square from the water.

Finally, the best part of the trip happened long after I was off of the water: downloading my waypoints from the GPS into the mapping software! Sweet, eh? The yellow line with the black dots is my route, in case you were wondering.



In case you need some stats, check out the table to the left. Oh yeah, that was well over 9 miles. 9.07, to be exact!

Max speed? Yeah, that was 5.6 mph.

GPS? Worth every penny!






Of course, I do miss Sarah. Well, maybe...

;-)

 

Ferrari Central

For Men Only!

A few weeks ago, I dragged Sarah to Infineon Raceway up in Napa to check out the Ferrari Challenge. Basically, it was rich dudes who raced their own Ferraris, and car geeks like myself drooling in the stands. Below are some highlights.