Crikey!! You lot start early!! Still.. I'm glad you started the thread as I'm sick of drinking alone....
No booze with dinner. Neither of us were much interested until I decided to do a couple of Chicken Breasts.... each sliced into about 4 thin pieces and pan fried with a couple of mushrooms. I chucked in a chicken stock pot thing and a large sprig of Rosemary from the garden. plus water..and let it simmer for a bit. Canned sweetcorn in a pan and a few oven chips. Proper gourmet stuff....
. Finally thickened the 'sauce' a bit with cornflour and added a little gravy browning as it was a bit too pale and translucent for my taste. It was now perfect and we both went rom being a bit jaded in the appetite dept. to thoroughly enjoying it... I completed my repast with a Salted Caramel Magnum. Class...
Then I dozed in front of the telly for a while..
I opened a bottle of 16 Little Black Pigs about 20 minutes ago. An Aussie Shiraz Cabernet which is about the best of an average mixed crate from Virgin. These days, a full bottle of wine leaves me wanting just a little more... maybe a little Brandy, which then leaves me more than sensibly hung over in the morning. So.. I'll limit it to half of the bottle and maybe a couple of doubles. I do use the same measure for all spirits. It's some sort of plastic measuring cup but I'd guess it's a 'generous' double.
I either drink good Brandy.. which for me is anything from Courvoisier up, with water.. Definitely NO ICE.. or cheap stuff in milk. The cheap stuff is hugely variable. There's one called Christian Dupre which was all I could get a couple of days back. Christ!! it was foul. It was even worse than Three Barrels.. and Domestos is better than Three Barrels...
My current fave cheap Brandy is called Jules Clairon. which is quite a leap considering it is bottled in Liverpool, presumably by the tanker load. But.. whilst it lacks the intensity and glow of a 'proper' brandy.. it is a smooth and very pleasant drink.
After necking almost a full bottle of Whiskey sometime in the 70s and having the Mother of all hangovers.. I laid off the stuff for ages until my daughter bought me a bottle of Teeling's Irish at about 46%. Wow! Lovely stuff and as smooth as a smooth thing. I may be cured.
Just preparing my brain for a virtual pub quiz with the aid of Cheddar Ales Potholer.
'Potholer'? Bloody cheek. No potholes in the Mendips. Caves with sumps and no pitches more than about 20 feet. Potholes are in Yorks.. and a few baby ones in Derbys.
Ok, what was everyone's introduction to ethanol?
My parents almsot never drank - just a very little around Christmas - dad was Guiness and mum liked advocaat.
We were given Port and Lemon.. or 'Snowballs' from a very early age. At about 13 I brewed up an Ellisdons Home Brew kit which made a gallon or so of stout from dry ingredients. It worked surprisingly well...
Cheers!!