Pitch 'Til You Win

On Friday night, the Tiki Gal and I went to Dale and Carol's for cards and drinks. The evening was even more festive than usual because we were celebrating Dale's move to a new job within his company. Although we are all disappointed that his job title will no longer be "Analyst", we know he will do well in his new job.

The girls wanted the new banana drink I wrote about recently but didn't name. Luckily, later in the evening, Carol came up with the perfect name for this drink, and assuming I don't get hit with a lawsuit, I really like it.

Curious George

Color: Yellow.

Ingredients: 2 oz. orange juice, 2 oz. pineapple juice, 2 oz. coconut rum, 1 oz. creme de banana, 1 oz. amaretto

Taste: The drink is sweet with a definite banana taste but not cloying. It tastes like a banana popsicle.

Comments: Carol said it might be her new favorite drink.

After the Curious George, the Tiki Gal wanted Margaritas. She obviously had a tough week at work. In case you missed it previously, here's the Margarita recipe.

Margarita

Ingredients: 4 oz. Sweet and Sour Mix, 2 oz. tequila, 1 oz. Cointreau, 1 oz. brandy

Instructions: Put all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake well. Pour into a salt rimmed Margarita glass over ice and serve. For a frozen Margarita, pour all contents into a blender with 1 cup ice and blend well. 

Comments: Use a good tequila like Sauza Conmemorativo. See the Mostly Margaritas entry for more details.

During the night's conversation, we decided we needed to concoct a drink that uses raspberry rum so I'll be working on that over the next few weeks. Also, the Tiki Gal has picked up a new favorite phrase: "Holy Crow!", so we decided to invent a drink with Holy Crow as the name. I have some ideas that I think will work so we'll see how that goes. Speaking of new favorite phrases, Carol broke out a few that I'd never heard and can't repeat here in case my kids ever read this (like they care what I have to say, who am I kidding.) Since she was drinking Margaritas at the time she uttered these new phrases, I think Carol may be allergic to tequila because she has had some interesting reactions to it over the years. That will have to be a complete blog entry at some point to do it justice.

Dale and I had a solid mix of beers as well.

G. Schneider & Sohn Aventinus

Color: Amber and a little cloudy.

Skunkiness: 0 skunks. Smelled sweet.

Taste: A distinct wheat flavor with a slight sharpness.

Comments: The bottle stated that Aventinus is "Germany's original wheat doppelbock." We tend to enjoy double bocks and this one was average.

Carol Rating: 1 on a scale of 1 or 5. She said it "tasted rotten."

Rating: 3.5 pints out of 5.

Chimay Grande Reserve

Color: Dark caramel.

Skunkiness: 0 skunks.

Taste: A complex balance of hops and malt combine to form a great beer. (Wow. That almost sounds like we know what we are doing.)

Comments: We enjoy each of the Chimay beers. You can't really go wrong with any of them.

Carol Rating: 5

Rating: 4.5 pints.

Saint Arnold Lawnmower

Color: Light golden.

Skunkiness: 0 skunks.

Taste: Light and crisp with a hint of citrus.

Comments: We picked this beer up in Texas on our way back from a Jimmy Buffett concert. If you're ever in Gainesville, stop at Rumpy's on I-35. It has a great selection of beer considering it is basically a convenience store.

Carol Rating: 5. She said it was a girl beer.

Rating: 3.5 pints

Samuel Adams Black Lager

Color: Dark chocolate.

Skunkiness: No skunks.

Taste: Malty and smoky. Almost a peat-like taste. The girls wanted to know how we knew what peat tasted like. If they had ever been 10 year-old boys, they wouldn't ask such silly questions.

Comments: We're still a little gun shy of the Sam Adams beers after our intense hop experience. This one is not bad, however.

Carol Rating: 5 although she was tasting through a Margarita filter at this point.

Rating: 3.5 pints.

After a back-and-forth game of Cutthroat, Dale won in the end.  Early in the game, the Tiki Gal bid in spades. She then proceeded to play a bunch of clubs. When we all looked at her with confused expressions, she finally realized that she had meant to bid in clubs, not spades. She couldn't even blame it on the Margaritas since we had just started playing. I'm making her some flash cards with the suits on them so she can practice before we play again.

In an embarrassing display, the girls decided we would continue playing Pitch until they won. It turned out that the girls actually wanted to play until they won or until they had lost three games in a row. I don't like to rub it in so that's all I'll say about that.

Under the heavy influence of Margaritas, Carol won Oh Hell when the game was finally called on count of exhaustion. Overall, not a good night for the girls in the card department.