February 8, 2011

A REALLY NICE COUPLE OF DAYS in an ONGOING ROMANCE

here was a time after my divorce when I was sure I would never fall in love again….

 

o here we go, off on the ferry; taking a mini-break up to Boston to celebrate our 24th Anniversary! We made reservations at the first hotel we ever stayed in together; we asked for the same corner room with a fireplace and a view. We planned to do the same things we did that long-ago weekend, eat, drink, be merry; enjoy our two favorite things: valet parking and room service; and walk around the cold, snowy city at night, hand in hand, and look at the twinkle lights.

fter our walk, we went to the hotel bar for cocktails. I had what they called a “Kentucky Flu,” which was so yummy and pretty, I decided it seriously deserved a new name…so I just changed it — now it’s “Love in the Afternoon.” (If you live in Kentucky, then maybe, to be fair, it should be “Love in the Afternoon in Kentucky.”) Much better! This drink is inspiring a full-on dinner party now; we think our friends need to taste these!
The hotel surprised us by paying for our drinks — to help us celebrate —- so sweeeeeeeeeet.

 

f course I had to ask for the recipe! And the bartender gave it to me! So here you go…for one drink:
LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON (in Kentucky)
1 3/4 oz. Maker’s Mark Bourbon
1/2 oz. Licor 43
1 oz. orange juice
A splash of each: Lemon and Pineapple juice.
Rim a martini glass with a bit of lemon juice, dip edge in white or colored sugar. Put ingred. into shaker, shake and chill with ice and strain into glass (also good over crushed ice). Garnish with a slice of orange (blood orange if you can find it, but don’t let blood orange availability stop you, regular orange would be just as pretty) over the rim of the glass.

e walked over to Abe and Louie’s Restaurant on Boyleston Street; it reminded us of the old Cafe des Artistes in New York which closed in 2009. (That was such a romantic “old New York” restaurant with so much history; it opened in 1917; in the 1930’s, the walls were painted in murals by Howard Chandler Christy; his Gibson-girl-like art, amid apple blossoms and water lilies, made the whole place glow like candlelight. Joe took me there the first time we went to New York).

 

e loved our cozy booth at Abe and Louie’s; the food was delicious; Joe had a juicy rib-eye steak, served with a giant serious steak knife. We started with the crab cake (all crab meat!), and wanted to lick the plate because of the tartar sauce they served — we were not on a diet. Best of all, we loved the art atmosphere.

art of the celebration was to turn in my cell phone relic for a brand new iPhone. On the way back to the boat, we stopped at the liquor store, got our bottle of Licor 43, so we’re ready to make those cocktails… and, then it was home sweet home. On the boat we sent my first Twitter via iphone! Took me about an hour (OK, it felt like an hour!) to pick out the letters with my fat fingers! You iphone people know what I mean! We got home last night with just enough time to moosh into the sofa and watch part two, disk one of The Forsyte Saga — really good mini-series (from Netflix of course!).

And that’s the end . . . of this edition of an ongoing romance, because, after all, the unexpected did happen, I got lucky, which was proof to me, that life was going to be a surprise and you just never know what might happen…..

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