Wow, I have not updated in a while. Here are some updates.

I got my project horse Genie (Pon-pon) out of the field on Saturday and reviewed her work to date. I think I was last on her on 2019 but y'know. Time slips away. Anyway, she was fine. So I took her on a leisurely trail ride on Sunday, where she was a complete trooper.



Pon-Pon is the bay in front of the ears being ridden by the camera-holder. She's small. I am big. I already know this. I'm glad you disapprove, oh keyboard warrior. Good on ya.

Thing is, there is absolutely nobody else to put rides on this pony. She can either stand in the field being useless and eating her head off and not getting any skills to keep her from slaughter while her ACTUAL OWNER (not me) is over 70 with a heart condition or she can walk along with me aboard, learning to be a riding horse.

The "doesn't ride" 7 or 8 year old pony mare is not worth nearly as much as the "trail rides politely in groups, traffic safe, crosses water, trailers beautifully, easy to catch and tack up, stands patiently and without fussing, walks, trots, and canters, has a decent whoa" pony mare. I can get her from here to there, but it takes time. We need to do a lot more rides which I am hoping to do this winter and spring. On the plus side, she hasn't put a foot wrong yet.

I also have Snap, who is the tiny bay that Trys was going to work on but Trys has another project, due in late December, that has precluded work on Snap. I got her out of the field and beat on her on Sunday morning, which was productive and resulted in an acceptable level of agreement by the time we were done. Bubba wants Snap for Chuck (okay, long-time readers are aware that "Bubba" refers to a 5 foot nothing blond sprite named Cassity and Chuck is the aforementioned sprite's wee daughter "Charleigh". But if you didn't know that, now you know.) and so there needs to be a fair amount of work done on the Snap. She's already sensible, but she needs to pony politely and have a LOT of handle because she's going to belong to a five year old who cannot physically yank her head up from the grass. I have added her to my project horse list because if I can make Snap into Chuck's pony, then she goes out the field to go live with Chuck and Bubba.

More Drinks Exploration...

We (my partner in crime Lala and I) have tried the Mai Tai.

A Mai Tai is made with lime juice, orgeat syrup, orange curacao (or, if you are like me too cheap to buy another bottle of orange-flavored thing, cointreau) and rum. Shake with ice and serve open pour into a glass. All my glassware is pint glasses. I am not pretending to be fancy here.

1 1/2 ounces white rum (We used Plantation 5 year because it was the only rum I had on hand.)
3/4 ounce orange curaçao
3/4 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 ounce orgeat (making this is fiddly. I bought it from Latitude 29.)
1/2 ounce dark rum (We used the Plantation 5 year. I'm on a budget over here.)
Garnish: lime wheel and mint sprig

These are good about halfway down the glass, after the ice has melted into it a bit. I should try it again with some more crushed ice at the front end so that it'd be drinkable right away.

Bloody Mary. This is not a tiki drink but Lala loves them and I can tolerate them. I have heretofore never had a Bloody Mary at a fancy bar but I've had them at home and at friend's parties and stuff. They've always been OK but not awesome. But Lala loves them. So I researched a scratch Bloody Mary for Drinks Night.

1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
4 oz tomato juice (see note)
2 oz mid-range vodka
2 dashes worcestershire sauce
2 dashes cholula hot sauce (Lala hates tabasco and I am not a fan of Texas Pete. We both kinda like Cholula.)
salt and pepper
Garnishes: big fat olive, a pickled jalapeno, a baby dill pickle, a celery with leaves

In shaker, combine ingredients (but not garnishes) with like four ice cubes. Shake until cold. Open pour into your glassware. Spear everything but the celery on cocktail spear (I have reusable metal ones). If drink is for Lala, take pimiento out of olive, she does not like pimiento. Balance spear of garnishes across rim of glass. Plunk in celery spear, leaves up. Enjoy.

NOTE: The reason I did not see the appeal of the Bloody Mary prior to this was that I don't like the metallic, processed flavor of commercial tomato juice. I also don't like the mixes, though some are better than others. Instead of bought tomato juice or a mix, I used a quart jar of home-canned beefsteak tomatoes that I ran through a ricer to remove the seeds and skins. They were early September in a jar, rich and sweet and the right amount of thick and also fucking outstanding. (That's also why I went for half an ounce of lemon juice, they could stand up to it. Less-sweet tomatoes would have made the drink too sour.)

How was it? Oh my god. Salad in a glass. It went down SO EASY. Delightful. Wonderful. I could drink like three. I would regret it, for sure, but it might actually be worth it. I imagine a fantasy land wherein we work off the old canned tomatoes (the ones I used were from 2010) as "Bloody Mary Ingredients" on summer weekends before real tomatoes ripen.

If you actually kind of like Bloody Mary cocktails and you have never made one at home with the best canned (or fresh) tomatoes you can source... you might give that a whirl.

I am starting to have some faith in this "fresh ingredients make a better cocktail" thing.