Dart Publishing

Dart Publishing, Ltd. is the official name of the business I’ve been trying to get started with my friend for a while now. We’ve made huge leaps recently, thanks in part to having some extra time due to the Crispy Gamer implosion. I’m very nearly done with the first draft of the business plan, and will be sending it out to a few folks I know with way more business experience than I have, in order to get their feedback on it. From there, it’ll be revisions, and then probably applying for some local grants. Investor money is good, but free money is even better. Might as well look for that first, right?

Writing

Last month I finished not one, but two novels — my NaNoWriMo projects from 2007 and 2009, “The Broken God Machine” and “Morgan Skylark and the Monster Hunters,” respectively. If anyone out there wants to read the first draft of The Broken God Machine, it’s ready for criticism. Just get in touch. I still need to make some tweaks to Monster Hunters before I open it up for critique from the outside world, but that should be happening soon. I’m also making some progress on the second draft of the sequel to The Blood That Bonds, currently titled “Blood Hunt.” I expect work on that to speed up significantly once I’m no longer spending my coffee shop time filling out competitive analysis forms and burn-rate spreadsheets for Dart. Speaking of TBTB …

The Blood That Bonds

I haven’t had too many responses in my agent search, and so far the responses I’ve had haven’t been positive. I’m not particularly discouraged — people are still reading the eBook and sending very positive feedback — but I’m beginning to wonder if I should revise the first chapter a little to make it a bit more attention-grabbing right from the start. There’s a little too much opening exposition and I think it’s turning agents off. We’ll see.

Photography

Unfortunately, the broken 18-55mm lens that I fixed with superglue for a while has broken again, so we’re stuck only using a distance lens on our camera, which is a pain in the ass, so we’re not taking many pics at the moment. I need to get off my ass and either re-fix the lens using a better piece of plastic (and more superglue), or just cough up the ~$140 it costs to buy a new one. Why does everything have to be so damn expensive these days? Blargh! Rotten kids … GET OFF MY LAWN!

Cocktails

I went on a bit of a beer kick the past few months, trying lots of craft beers and really strengthening my understanding and appreciation of the different types available (turns out I am way more of an ale guy than a lager guy, with a particular fondness for brown ales, porters, and stouts). I’m coming out of that now though and getting back to crafting new cocktails. I’m still experimenting right now, but when I come up with something good, I’ll post it here.

Video Games

I went out and picked up BioShock 2 the other night at my wife’s urging (one of many reasons why I married her!) and have been playing through it. I’ll post a full review here when I’m finished, but I’m pretty far in and while I’m enjoying it, I’m kind of disappointed in how much more they’ve chosen to focus on combat. You’re constantly being swarmed with enemies, and while I’m not dying a lot, it’s just not a whole lot of fun to be in non-stop firefights. After BioShock 2, I’ll be picking up Mass Effect 2, and Assassin’s Creed 2 … apparently it’s all about the sequels right now.

Reading

Sadly, given how many activities I have going on, I haven’t done much reading since Christmas, when I burned through Bill Simmons’s Book of Basketball in a week or so. I’ve got three novels and a short story collection all waiting for my attention, not to mention a non-fiction book on real estate investing that I really should finish

French

Mon francais n’est pas superb … but it’s getting better. I do a half an hour of studying per day almost every weekday, and Charlotte and I are beginning to try to speak to each other more in French. We’ve also found some French cultural events to go to around town, and I’m about to start in on French grammar in addition to speaking/listening. It’s still a halting, frustrating process — I don’t like being bad at things — but all these little steps should hopefully add up to me being able to hold something of a coherent conversation with her friends and family back in the homeland, sometime within the next couple of years. Hopefully!

Travel

Speaking of the homeland, Charlotte and I will be making another France trip in May. Her sister is getting married in the south of France, which gives us the opportunity to fly into Barcelona in Spain, and spent the next week driving to Toulouse (actually, the nearby town of Albi), where we’ll attend the wedding, hang out for another day or two, and then I’ll fly back while she goes to Paris to take her finals for the French Lit program she’s working on. We’ve also got a trip to Florida happening in March, to visit my parents and sister, and a trip to Syracuse happening … sometime. Then as summer rolls into fall, we’ve got a wedding in New York City and a wedding in New Hampshire (I think) to attend. Yeesh!

… So that’s what’s up with me, in case anyone was wondering!

Yum!

Berry in Paradise

2.5 oz white rum
1 oz coconut rum
1 oz raspberry liqueur
half a small lime
heavy dash bitters

Cut the lime half into wedges and muddle in bottom of a shaker with the bitters and raspberry liqueur. Add the two types of rum and shake vigorously over ice. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with a brandied cherry and a twist of lime.

The coconut rum really backs up the lime, which is the star of the dish, while the raspberry liqueur adds enough sweetness to counterbalance the acidity, and the white rum gives it the kick that any good cocktail deserves. I actually add more than a half a lime to mine … but I’m addicted to citrus and don’t recommend that for most people!

Thanks to PhilipRobbins for the picture!

14oz light rum
6oz coconut rum
4oz blue curacao
16oz pineapple juice
16oz orange juice
4oz lemon juice
24 oz lemon-lime soda (regular or diet)
.1oz bitters

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Stir well and serve over ice. Garnish with maraschino cherries, pineapple wedges, and little umbrellas. Turn on some beach tunes and watch the sun set!

Thanks to ring2 for the picture!

I wanted to produce something which was bold but not overpowering, not too sweet, and could be made by the glass or by the pitcher. I decided on a whiskey-based concoction which used Cherry Heering for sweetness, lemon juice for a bit of tang, and dry vermouth to smooth things out. Here’s the recipe:

The Bossman

2 parts Canadian Whiskey (I used Seagrams VO)
2 parts OJ (glass) or 3 parts OJ (pitcher)
.75 parts Dry Vermouth
.75 parts Cherry Heering
.5 parts Lemon Juice
Generous dash of Angostura Bitters

Shake or stir with ice, and serve over ice in a rocks glass. Goes very well with birthday cake!

Hope you enjoy the drink. Incidentally, this is the 100th post to this blog (since I redesigned and switched over to wordpress). Hooray!

by Jocelyn | McAuliflower

Since I met my wife, I’ve drank more sparkling wine than I had in all the years running up to that point. Hey, she’s French, so no surprise, right? I’ve become quite fond of it, but haven’t incorporated it too often into my cocktails for fear of spoiling its delicate nature.

Still, I’ve seen a few cocktail recipes that call for champagne (including the most basic – the champagne cocktail – which is just champagne poured atop a bitters-soaked sugar cube), so I decided to give it a whirl. What I came up with, as it turns out, is very similar to the Ritz Cocktail, just with minor tweaks and substitutions, so I’ve named it The Bloody Ritz.

I hope you’ll enjoy it. My wife and I certainly did!

The Bloody Ritz

1 oz Cognac or Brandy
1.5 oz Fresh Blood Orange Juice (approx half an orange)
Dash Angostura Bitters
Champagne or Sparkling Wine

Combine the cognac, juice, and bitters in a chilled champagne saucer or large martini glass, then top with the champagne to taste — usually about 2.5oz. Give it a quick stir, Garnish with a twist of orange or blood orange peel, and enjoy!

This drink uses Applejack, which I’d never had before trying the Applejack Cocktail. It’s rather similar to calvados, the French apple liqueur, which I suppose is not particularly surprising. Still, it’s got more of a whiskey kick to it — there’s something less refined happening there, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Combine it with some dry vermouth, some orange juice, and some lime … and you get my latest cocktail:

Spring Break Jack

2 oz Applejack
1 oz Orange Juice
3/4 oz Dry Vermouth
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/4 oz Simple Syrup
Dash of Bitters

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, and shake briskly with ice for a long ten count. Strain into a chilled cocktail/martini glass, and garnish with a twist of orange and a brandied cherry.

I know that “Jack” is typically used to refer to Jack Daniels, but I think it works in this case. After all, Florida is home to many an orange, and to many a spring break party destination!

Anyway, give the drink a shot, let me know what you think. I’ll be back with more, soon.

Things have been quiet on the cocktail front of late, not because I’ve stopped enjoying them, but rather because I received a terrific book for Christmas: The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale Degroff. I highly recommend it. The first half is interesting and informative, tracing the evolution of the cocktail over the years and giving advice and information on specific liquors, mixers, ingredients, and techniques. The second half is a list of 500 cocktails, and I’ve been taking the opportunity recently to stop experimenting and instead try my hand at replicating some of those recipes. The results have been largely successful, but I can’t entirely stifle my creative side, and in the past few weeks I’ve come up with two cocktails that I’m really happy with. One of them is based on a cocktail from the book, and the other is a creation that was born after my lovely wife picked up a bottle of cranberry juice concentrate, which makes an interesting mixer, though you have to be careful to keep it from overwhelming things. Anyway, check these out, and if you’re into mixing cocktails like I am, pick up a copy of that book. You won’t regret it.

The Bitter Stork

Based on the Stork Club Cocktail, first created by Nathaniel Cook of the Stork Club, and brought to my attention by the aformentioned Dale Degroff. I didn’t have all of the ingredients for the traditional Stork Club Cocktail, so I improvised with what I had, and turned out a cocktail that ranks among my wife’s favorites, of those I’ve created. I’m pretty fond of it too! Just the right level of bitter, sweet, and tart.

1.5 oz Gin
.5 oz Triple Sec
.5 oz Lime Juice
1 oz Grapefruit Juice
.25 oz Simple Syrup
Dash of Angostura Bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a brandied cherry, and a lime twist.

Tart in Tennessee

I wanted to create a long drink that took advantage of the cranberry concentrate that my wife bought me, so I played around and found something that I think works very nicely. Not too strong, not too tart, and the Tennessee Whiskey plays very well with the cranberry, bringing some vanilla notes to it.

2 oz Tennessee Whiskey
.5 oz Cranberry Concentrate
.5 oz Simple Syrup
4 oz Club Soda
Dash of Angostura Bitters

Combine all ingredients in a collins glass with ice, and stir gently until combined. Garnish with drunken cranberries, if you can get them (it helps if you married someone who makes them!).

Also, here is a picture from the other night’s beer tasting!

While I will always love cocktails, and the art of making them, more than any other type of alcohol, my enjoyment of things drinkable by no means begins and ends there. I like wine in all of its varieties, and I enjoy beer from time to time. Though I am not yet at a point where I could tell an ale from a pilsner by taste alone, I’ve at least reached a level where I’m beginning to identify specific flavors and types of beer that I enjoy.

On Saturday night a friend of mine decided to host a beer tasting. He’s a lot more versed in beer than I am, and has been collecting bottles from a Top 100 list. Several people (myself included) brought some bottles that we’d never had before, to complement the ones he’d been storing up, and we all had tastings. A typical tasting in this case was one or two shots worth of the beer, depending on the size of the bottle.We had snacks and water available as palate cleansers, and the entire evening  took quite some time, so nobody got crazy intoxicated or anything. It was just a fun, low-key, educational evening.

In case you’re curious, here’s what the list looked like, in the order we drank them (which starts with the stuff others had brought, then at #6 switches to my friend’s bottles, which were ordered by ABV%, lowest to highest).

1. Some Crazy Russian Beer
2. Some Other Crazy Russian Beer
3. Stone Vertical Epic 8
4. Harpoon Dark Munich
5. Harpoon Chocolate Stout
6. Harviestoun Old Engine Oil
7. Bear Republic Racer 5
8. Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye
9. Meantime Scotch Ale
10. Private Weissbierbrauerei G. Schneider Aventinus
11. Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout
12. Hair of the Dog Adam
13. Great Divide Old Ruffian
14. Brouwerij St. Bernadus Abt 12
15. Southern Tier Choklat Imperial Stout
16. Schmaltz (He’Brew) Jewbelation 12

We also had one other, but I can’t remember the name of it. You’ll have to forgive me! We left a bottle of Dogfish Head 120-minute IPA unopened, because several of us have already tried it, and we didn’t want to end the evening by whaling down a 20% ABV beer. Just seemed a bad idea!

All of those that we tasted were high-quality beer, and there wasn’t a single one I didn’t like, but some struck me more than others. My favorite of the night was the Aventinus, but I have a note  – yes, I took notes – that it could definitely get overwhelming in large quantities. It’s a spicy beer that’s almost reminiscent of spiced rum, but with the malt taste of beer and a hoppy finish. Very good, but … probably not the kind of thing you want more than one bottle of in an evening.

I gave high scores – yes, I scored them – to the Racer 5 (VERY hoppy), the Adam (dark, strong and chocolaty), and the St Bernadus (also spicy, with lots of brown sugar and apple flavors). Oh, and of all the chocolate stouts I’ve ever had, and I’ve had several, the one from Southern Tier was by FAR the most chocolaty, so much so that it caused me to shout “holy shit!” after my first sip. Charlotte and the others at the tasting agreed that it was pretty amazing. So if you’re into chocolate stouts … it’s highly recommended.

Coming tomorrow: a tale of woe and sorrow that will surely make you appreciate your own life more.