Lani Honi

Lani Honi
Originally uploaded by chipandandy

Summer has arrived and this year the sun is absolutely crushing here in South Florida. I am still convinced that the Miami area is actually higher than the rest of the US putting us closer to the sun.

Anyway, one of may favorites from Beachbum Berry's Grog Log is the Lani Honi. It is an intriguing mix of Benedictine and Rum that is very refreshing (and surpisingly potent) and goes wonderfully with a backyard and a pool as garnish.


Lani Honi
1 1/2 oz Benedictine
1 oz light Puerto Rican rum
1/2 oz lemon juice

Stir ingredients with ice in a mixing glass; strain into a wine goblet filled with crushed ice.

Go, make one. Enjoy it.

And, it is always nice to find a good cocktail that uses some of the 'dustier' bottles hiding under you bar.

Thrift Store Find

Puppies
Originally uploaded by chipandandy

Cute little puppies. Painted on a wood that makes it's own frame.

The name of the distributor.... Robotronics.

Is this some sort of giant machine that is cranking out crappy little pieces of art that is only just barley worthy of QVC?

The mind boggles.

Well, the mind wanders....

Super Size Cocktails

Niko's
Originally uploaded by chipandandy

In April of last year we took a little road trip to the west cost of Florida. Somewhere a bit north of St. Petersberg we drove by this place. A Surf-n-Turf for only nine bucks sounds like quite the deal, but I think we will wait until Thursday for the crab.

But, while we ar waiting, lets all enjoy some Super Size Cocktails.

Zombie, Beachbum Style

Zombie Lilly
Originally uploaded by chipandandy

I read somewhere recently that someone said they never garnish thier cocktails, it takes too much time away from drinking.

Well, I offer this picture to try and change your mind. I will also take a moment to remind you of 'the rules' and one of the rules is "Garnish Matters."

This is a Zombie made from the recipe in Beachbum Berry's Grog Log. I dont remember which of my juices made this drink so pink looking, but it sure tasted good. And around the glass are:

Limes, Kiwi, Bananna, Hibiscus, and the weird looking space creature is a Gloriosa Lilly. In the drink is some Pineapple Mint.

Chip and Andy at the Hukilau

Chip and Andy and FOM
Originally uploaded by chipandandy

And, here is the FOM Flag in full display at the Bahia Cabana for the 2007 Hukilau.

As soon as we hit the party I saw an American Flag hanging from the walk-over and then I spied a little bit of string hanging next to it. Well, you can see the end result.

I will have more to show and report on Hukilau later. In the meantime, click the photo and see what I have hiding in Flickr.

It's Good to be FOM

It's Good to be FOM
Originally uploaded by chipandandy

The FOM flags return to South Florida just in time for the 2007 Hukilau. Here it is being unrolled in the Molokai bar inside of the "Mighty Mai-Kai." That would be me on the left and Capt'n Skully on the right.

You want to take pictures of what....

Well, it seems that the more people you know the more trouble you can get into.....

We know this cat named Nick. Nick works at a local broadcast school teaching camera stuff. Nick and students are looking for the 'personal touch' to add to a story about South Florida's water restrictions. Well, this is not really a story but more a kind of project that is being treated like a real story.

Well, a bunch of students all came by the house to film a 'Typical Homeowner and thier reaction to the current water restrictions.' Andy and I are that typical homeowner because Nick asked if we would be willing to have a bunch of students practice being News Anchors in our back yard.

OK, on to the fame part of this post.... One of the other teachers at this school is Cary Codd, a real live reporter for our local Channel 4. He was impressed with the yard, the landscaping in general, and most impressed by our ability to speak on camera without drooling or giggling. About a week after the students did their thing in the yard, we got boosted from Phase 1 water restrictions up to Phase 2. About a week after that, the Water-Management-People started talking about Phase 3. Well, Cary was interviewing the Water Management People who are also in Hollywood and wanted to put a homeowners face to the story and remembered us. He called about 6:30 in the evening and wanted to know if we were intersted and willing to be on the 10 o'clock news and since I hadn't had a cocktail yet I said sure. The 'real' news crew showed up about 8 and started filming the yard while they had at least a bit of light to work with.

After about 45 minutes of wandering around the yard with a camera in my face, Cary says "Great! We can work from this" and started to break things down. Now, the whole time we are doing the interview bit, the Chanel 4 News truck is parked in our front yard. After a while, they raise up thier little attenea thing on the truck and start to edit the footage they just shot. Andy and I asked if they needed anything else from us and they said no. We went inside and had a light dinner and went on about our evening.

The End Result....


Now, if everyone gets 15 minutes of fame, I should have about 13 more before my flame dies.....'

The paperless office....

Why did I spend the last two years at work developing a database to keep up with workorders and all of the related materials, the goal of which was to reduce the amount of paperwork kept, only to find that I now have three times the amount of paperwork being filed?

I love working for government!

Flair Bartending

'Crap! It's everywhere......

There was an interesting debate about Flair Bartending recently on Tiki Central. To sum up the conversational results: drinkers don't like Flair as it is a distraction and drunks love Flair because it is a distraction. That is way overly simplified, but I will stand by it....

So, a bit of surfing through the Cocktail Blog-o-sphere on a another proejct turned up back to back the following two tidbits:
Cocktail : UK > Cocktail Forum > "Flybottle" flair practise bottle.
Apparently this is some new method/product to keep you at the top of your game....

And, this one is my favorite! It is somebodys signature on the Webtender.com forums:

______________________________________________
Wanna-be trick monkey in the making,then visit.. http://www.theflairschool.com

Even within the Flair community they call themselves Trick-Monkeys!'

So Much to Pour

The set up
Originally uploaded by chipandandy

So Little to Drink....

I have reached that strange between place on my bar.... That place where you can make almost anything you could want but when you go to pour yourself something for dinner the one drink you want you cant make because you just used the last of something yesterday and every other drink seems like too much work or just not quite tasty enough.

Ahh... sucks to be me. Actually, it sucks to be my pocket book because this new hobby I have taken up aint cheap....

Never argue with an idiot....

they'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.


~ Anonymous

Happy New Year!

'Welcome to 2007!

I am not doing any kind of resolutions except to give up on the resolutions. The premise is simple, if I can't bring myself to do it in June or July, then what makes January 1 so special that I am going to do something that I haven't wanted or been able to do before?

I am not trying to be negative, just realistic. I do plan on laughing more this year. I plan on drinking better this year. I plan on spending more time with my wahine. These are all things I plan on doing anyway and the New Year thing is just an excuse to pu them in list form.