I'm making a note here, HUGE SUCCESS

[pmb]

I turned 30 yesterday, and there was a huge party, in which I fully engaged geek social fallacy #4. And it was wonderful! I think that I will declare it to be the best birthday party I have ever had! I made a cheesecake, Tracy made a lemon bundt cake, and we had lots of chips and dip and a chocolate taste-off. People played Ricochet Robots (recently reissued, now available near you! It's as good a geek game as Set!), Perudo (with my brand new Perudo dice from Erin! She individually wrapped ALL 30 DICE), and Jenga. The last cubes of ice are only now melting in the sink. We were set up to serve 4 drinks: manhattans (the them of the party was "Manhattan"), martinis, not-quite-a-sidecars, and kirs. The last two were pretty darn popular, so here is the recipe for each:

Not-quite-a-sidecar - adapted from something ouro made us
2 parts Applejack
1 part lemon juice
1 part triple sec
1 sprig rosemary

Put it all in a shaker and shake vigorously. Strain and pour and garnish one of the cups with the bruised-yet-still-vibrant sprig of rosemary.

And here is the recipe for the kir:

Kir - not quite a real kir, apparently, but everyone loved them so that's good
1.5 oz Creme de Cassis
Soda water

Put ice in a class, pour the Creme de Cassis over it, and and fill the rest of the glass with soda water. Light and refreshing!

The chocolate tasting that single-blind, but everyone wrote their favorite on a piece of paper that anyone could read. So there were confounding social factors that prevent it from being SCIENCE, and merely make it scientific-ish. I will post the results later today, because the single-blind aspect of the experiment prevents me from knowing what chocolates a, b, c, and d actually were until Tracy gets home from work with the "lab notebook".

I hope everyone had fun at the party: I know I definitely did!

Comments

[triath.livejournal.com]

I really wish I could have been there!! Happy birthday!!

[harobed.livejournal.com]

The not-quite-kir sounds great. I don't usually have wine around my house, but I can totally have cans or bottles of soda water. Yum.

Happy Birthday

[stereotype441.livejournal.com]

Anyway, the cake was great. It was so delicious and moist.

Look at me still blogging when there's breakfast to do.

[esmesquall.livejournal.com]

The Geek Social Fallacy article you linked is win.

[akatchoom.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that I didn't make it- we didn't head up heading south. (Rather, north, as an impromptu and totally unnecessary support van for Riley and Alex.)

Happy belated birthday!

[conform.livejournal.com]

Geek Social Fallacy #30_peter: Having a birthday party on Sunday in a town far away from a large group of non-driving friends is a good idea.

Happy birthday!

[quizro.livejournal.com]

That sounds like SO much fun. Your birthday fu is the best.

[esmesquall.livejournal.com]

Edit: Having a birthday party on Sunday in a town far away from a large group of non-driving friends with a week of lead time is a good idea.

[esmesquall.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah happy birthday OLDSTA

[dragonmudd.livejournal.com]

While I definitely represent GSF1, and some parts of GSF3 (used to be worse until I learned how it was detrimental to myself when I was in high school), GSF4 is something I do the opposite of. I have always had separate circles of friends and while I wouldn't actively try to keep them separate, I definitely will participate in and organize activities with one set at a time, only rarely inviting inviting two or three from one set for large gatherings of friends from other sets. In the latter example I definitely do not expect anyone to become friends... if it happens then it happens.

[istar.livejournal.com]

Thanks for a great party! You rock. :)

[drinkywinky.livejournal.com]

Why do you put rosemary into a drink? Did someone take a sip and say "Hmm, missing something, needs a bit more rosemary." Or was it the end of the night and someone thought they were olives?

Happy Birthday

~Boston Pete

[pmb.livejournal.com]

I tend to trust ouro. He has a whole blog all about drinks - http://www.boozecouncil.org/ Also, he has a tendency to put lots of strange botanicals in drinks. But there's also a long history of this sort of thing - gin, for example, is basically vodka infused with pine berries and lots of other crap, and there are lots of other drinks (chartreuse, jagermeister, and aquavit are all examples) that get all their flavor from weird herbs and spices.

Faced with this long tradition of herbs in alcohol, rosemary no longer seems like quite so fucked up a choice. Also, it grows wild in our yard in many large bushes, so it was an ingredient in search of a supporting drink.

[clipdude.livejournal.com]

It was an awesome party!

While I agree GSF#4 is a fallacy, I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to introduce people to each other.

[ouro.livejournal.com]

Anyone can have a blog. It's my liver that drives me to typing.

Apples cooked with rosemary is pretty tasty (slice potatoes and apples, pile in a bread pan, bake with cider and rosemary and salt). I was shooting for that kind of savory with this garnished Apple Cart.

[kirin]

I've come to the conclusion that you can put rosemary in almost anything and have it work. Really, sweet, savory, it's almost always tasty. This is quite handy because the rosemary bush in our yard has grown to sizable proportions (evidently like Peter's).

[pmb.livejournal.com]

We actually have 5+ rosemary bushes that grow so vigorously I have to trim with a hedge trimmer. Apparently Oregon is rosemary country.

[kirin]

That's actually kind of weird, since I was under the impression that as a Mediterranean sort of plant Rosemary liked it dry. Ours certainly did plenty well during our drought. But I guess they're pretty darn adaptable, or you've just got really good drainage.