Not location specific, No rules: Welcome to ILX heaven

Cheers darraghmac.

Oh well - I will get molasses then! I am actually a bit concerned that I might be ruining my golden syrup, I am keeping it in the fridge wrapped on an old recipe print out because the jar is all sticky and I didn't want it sitting out on the shelves getting everything else sticky! Sheesh just like, wipe the jar, idiot...

I have a massive entire booze cabinet in the dining room. In it, from memory:

Sherry cask finish Glenmorangie whisky (opened, maybe about half drunk)
Highland Park whisky (opened, maybe about 2/3 drunk)
Bunnahabhain whisky (opened, probably nearly gone)
Blanton's Special Reserve bourbon (opened, about half gone)
Rowan's Creek bourbon (opened, nearly empty)
Southern Comfort Special Reserve (opened, for cooking, about half gone)
Single Plantation Venezualan rum (opened, 1/3 gone)
Mount Gay rum (opened, for cooking, half gone)
Sri Lankan arak (opened, nearly all gone)
Lebanese araq (unopened)
Tanqueray gin (opened, barely touched)
Bombay Sapphire gin (unopened)
Blackwood's Shetland gin (opened, nearly finished)
Plymouth Sloe gin (opened, half gone)
Stolichnoya vodka (unopened)
that one you get in the blue square bottle in Ikea vodka (opened, mostly gone, in the freezer)
some brand of Aqavit I got in Germany (opened, mostly gone, in the freezer)
La Fee absinthe (opened, barely touched)
some really expensive and nice absinthe I got bought (unopened)
some tequila or other, gold (opened, mainly for cooking, about half gone)
cheap ouzo (unopened)
anise and coffee liqueur from Greece(opened, about 1/3 gone)
really stupidly thick advocaat from Greece (unopened)
small bottles of things like chambourd and kirch, for cooking
some beers that are 'maturing' - there's a Harvey's Imperial stout, an Edwin Tucker one and some really strong American one that just frightens me.

Tequila = DEATH JUICE.

Wusses.

Sarah, you should not keep the golden syrup in the fridge. It says so on the label. I just bought my first jar ever this weekend and even I know that. jeez.

Holy shit (xpissed)

Well, you know, you're never sure what you're going to fancy. ;-)

I've definitely missed a couple off but I can't think what they are.

You are all drunks!

as long as you have a healthy respect for alcohol then i guess it's HOLY CHRIST IT'S A TOWER OF LIQUID JOY

;)

I just drink beer for the most part. Your joy sounds much less fattening.

i think shorts are full of calories though?

shorts? You are making me think of Bart Simpson here.

when you are drinkind hard alcohol in bars and other boring places and have to be polite about it- shorts.

when you are drinking at a party or at home- mistakes.

Hmmm, this is all new to me.

Do you mean like shots? Just the liquor in a small glass with no mixer? yes that way madness lies.

yep shots/shorts interchangeable. and regrettable.

I avoid hard liquor. Too much bar work = the needlehard stuff and the damage done.

Mount Gay Rum is really nice! I wouldn't consider it cooking rum at all! You must have sophis tastes huh Aldo :) Or maybe I have an unrefined palate? Nah surely not.

Oh i totally know golden syrup doesn't belong in the fridge, it was just that it got all sticky and it seemed the safest place for it!

Am wondering how I could involve creme de cassis in a cake. Research and/or SCIENCE beckons.

Oh I forgot, I have aquavit in my freezer. I do like that of an occasion.

It is really nice, I agree, but my single plantation (which may be from a different country now I think about it, I think I had Venezualan the previous time) is so much better it relegates the Mount Gay.

Cheesecake would be good with creme de cassis swirled through, like raspberry ripple.

Sarah type xpost

have a bottle of jack, a bottle of johnnie walker and a half bottle of jameson in a press somewhere. lots of wine left over from christmas.

plain cheesecake with a swirl of baileys.

or just a bailey's cheesecake, lovely.

I feel like some kind of alkie now. ;_;

yep shots/shorts interchangeable. and regrettable.

Def. regrettable. That's why I've given them up except for the occasional lone tequila shot. Which is oh so lovely and warm.

I do have a bottle of some caramel-flavored cream liquor in the fridge. I got it to make trifle with but then made the tart instead. Have had a bit on ice cream and it was okay. When it gets colder might be nice in coffee.

I used to drink baileys as a shot when working in a bar (for about 2 weeks. The horrible stickiness :( ). Can't touch the stuff anymore. Right. No more talk of bars!

Yeh the internet says cheesecake first, but I would be making this for a party and transporting cheesecake across London is just silly. I am going to experiment. But FIRST I am going to see if we are going for an effing pint tonight or WHAT!

xposts

Baileys = milky wrong. Do they still make those Baileys shots things? EVEN WRONGER! I got some to take to another party once, I was already drunk by then obv, and started in on them on the bus - sooooooo disgusting, I think I gave the rest away to some kids on the top deck...

Sorry. . .

When I lived in Dallas I got in the bad habit of doing Tuaca shots when out. Men would often buy them for me and I would stupidly drink them and become black out drunk. This is not a drink to puke.

That whole period of my life was stupid. blehh.

KIDS??? (xpost)

Cake ideas:

Soak cherries in it, make cherry sponge
Add to thickened sugar syrup, use as jam in victoria sponge
Whip into buttercream, use as chocolate sponge filling

I assume most people have heard of the classic French apéritifs, the Kir and the Kir Royal, named after Félix Kir a mayor of Dijon, but I discovered another cocktail with crème de cassis in it last march, called a Parisienne. It's essentially a wet martini with a twist but instead of vermouth, you use the crème de cassis. It's quite delicious.

I would drink cocktails if Michael was making them.

I really like tequila neat, these days.

So last night I was having a drink at my local den of iniquity and the bartender was telling me about a 'classic' 21st birthday (legal drinking age in California) shot that is often given to the celebrant by the kind of 'friends' who like to make sure that s/he vomits copiously, called a cement mixer. Apparently, you take a shot of Bailey's in your mouth without swallowing it, then a shot of lime juice, then vigorously shake your head from side to side. Baileys is scary enough stuff to begin with, but it certainly doesn't mix with lime, especially since it causes the Baileys to curdle!

yuck.

Tequila is meant to be sipped. But you need high quality for this.

A friend sent over this tequila from the states. Long story short including cost of customs and couriering etc. it came to about 130 euro. I don't much like tequila and thought I'd give it to someone who liked it. Another 'friend' opens it JUST TO HAVE A SMELL!!!

I, too, would drink cocktails made by Micheal White. I imagine he would also do good bar nibbles.

Tequila is meant to be sipped.

Except for summer margaritas, this is the only way I have it, and if it's not good enough to be sipped, I'll have something else.

It's funny that y'all think I'd make good cocktails. I hardly ever have anything but wine in the house and I only drink about four or five kinds of mixed drinks on average, though I will splurge on a 'fancy' cocktail at a nice restaurant if it sounds appealing. I mostly drink gin & tonics, gibsons, an occasional shaker mary at brunch or a screwdriver as mixed drinks but I more often than not drink cider or wine.

That's a far broader range than I drink.

Also, margaritas have no season.

Teenagers, kv!! Not like, 8yr olds, although given that we were in Bermondsey...

Baileys curdle. Oh horror. Oh BIG horror. No thanks at all for that image MW.

Aldo all those ideas are good! I will totally experiment. I AM going for a drink tonight thank goodness so I will see if I do DRUNKEN BAKING when I get home! A Kir Royale is pretty darn lovely I've got to say.

Am looking forward to a friends forthcoming party - there will be gin. There will be champagne. Where there is gin and there is champagne, there is a French 75 whup whup.

this thread on great form today I shd say.

ilx in general very pleasant today, compared to the last week or so.

Michael, I am disappointed. I could imagine you in this get up mixing drinks and coming out with choice bon mots:

http://www.gentlemansemporium.com/store/media/000941_full.jpg

I dunno, always had you pegged as a classy guy... Today has really been a day of disappointment...

Sarah, glad to hear you're not corrupting teh youf.

The waistcoat should be lighter in colour, I think. Twin with a tilted back boater.

Also lose the cowboy tie.

I think I am going mad from stress :(

I think the tie is alright - I mean - it couldn't be a BOW tie...

No, he's not in vaudeville... because that's dead ya see?

I am less and less inclined to mix good liquors. I even feel a bit bad about Kirs; if the champagne is really good, why adulterate it and if it's not, why am I drinking it? I've found a lot of tasty crémants and vins mousseux of late that are cheap and which I don't mind mixing.

Ah let's get over this insistence that champagne by itself is somehow amazing. Champage is ALRIGHT. It is better with other stuff! Seriously!

like cocaine.

i've heard, i've heard..

Tequila is meant to be sipped.

Slamming it with ginger ale wasn't a wise start to my 18th birthday breakfast then?

I have heard horrible Bailey's curdle thing before. Someone told me if you swill it around long enough it goes solid.

baileys with milk or ice, or never. that curdle thing is just nnnggrr!

Slamming it with ginger ale wasn't a wise start to my 18th birthday breakfast then?

That sounds completely disgusting. It's fantastic on it's, as an unslammed shot. You shouldn't mess up the taste with anything but triple sec and lime juice.

Chocolate maybe?