Saturday, October 20, 2018

Perfect Brandy Manhattan Recipe

Previously known only to those from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, this cocktail  was brought to El Paso, Texas in the late 1950s by the late, Stanley E. Drapes, Major Ret USA  especially for his wife Lucille (Jurgella) and her sister Isabel. The recipe is said to habe originated at either the old Sky Club or Antlers supper clubs in Stevens Point, and could have been adopted by the two Jurgella sisters.  

Happily, the tradition to serve this cocktail on festive occasions has been exported to Hawaii by Stanley and Lucille's son, Vincent, and continues to be served in El Paso by his son Michael, and in Wisconsin and Minnesota to this day. 
Na zdrowie!


For one serving:
1/2 oz dry vermouth
1/2 oz sweet vermouth
1 oz brandy

For a cocktail party, consider making the liter and half recipe (1.5 L). Mix a week in advance so that the ingredients can "marry" and age together. 
Store in the refrigerator, and the mix will taste smoother when allowed to age longer.

Combine: 
500 milliliters of dry vermouth 
500 milliliter of sweet vermouth 
1 liter brandy 
Serve in old fashioned glasses over ice with marichino cherries on swizzlesticks. 

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Favorite political ads: Richard Linklater












Sunday, October 07, 2018

Snacks for a little deer ๐ŸฆŒ

This afternoon a juvenile deer walked through our backyard from the arroyo and went next door for a snack. Usually, we have about six adults and this summer saw two babies in the arroyo with their mothers. He’s evidently been by this particular yard before as he had no trouble munching there for at least five minutes.


Thanks to MJ for alerting me to the little deer. He spied him walking theough out backyard. Then he saw him munching in the front yard.


Video shot with an #iphone8plus edited with #imovie and later squared for Instagram using #nocropapp.




Sometimes you need to get away from it all.

And sometimes, it's time to return and be part of the larger world.  Between the first of 2023 and February 14, I painted many watercolo...