A Cocktail from 1923, and a Surprise from Deetrane

I try not to drink booze because I want to devote my alcohol calories to wine. But the problem is, I love booze. I used to keep lots of quality booze in the house, but then I rediscovered wine and let go of booze because it became too easy to drink all the time, and that can't be good. But ever since JonnyBongos gave us the bar a few weeks back, I've been slowly re-introducing good booze to our house.

My new favorite cocktail is the Sidecar. The Sidecar, according to Colin Peter Field, former 'best bartender in the world' and maestro of the the Bar Hemingway at the Ritz Paris, is the following simple concoction:

5/10 cognac
3/10 cointreau

2/10 lemon juice

This is a bright and lemony, but rich and full flavored drink. Great before dinner, but I could have one after dinner with a cigar too. Jeez - my problem is, I could have one with brunch and be psyched.

Anyway, tonight I put together the osso bucco that I began yesterday when I braised some beef shanks. Tonight I cooked some white beans with butternut squash and garlic and black peppercorns, and made my first gremolata - finely minced garlic, flat leaf parsley, and lemon zest that is traditionally scattered atop braised meat if you're Eurpoean.

See sidecar at top right, with bowl of beans and osso buco, center.

I heated up a baguette, tossed a salad, and poured 5 1/2 months pregnant BrooklynLady a bowl of sparkling apple juice, and mixed myself a sidecar.

The refreshing brightness of the drink went well with Deetrane's wonderful news - his wife gave birth to a baby boy last night!!! 7 pounds 13 ounces of little baby boy. Delivered abruptly in the corridor of a Brooklyn hospital, but that's another story.

That calls for another sidecar. These things go down like icewater on a hot day in August.

Congrats to Deetrane and his wife Pristine, and goodnight. And welcome to the world, new little boy. In 21 years (18 if you're Canadian, 16 if you're French) we will have a sidecar together, if my stomach can still take it, and we will toast your parents.