Whiskey Infusions

Last year for Valentine’s Day I got him this Whiskey Infusion Kit, but apparently, we had forgotten about it. I recently “found it” again and decided it was time to dig into it and see what it was all about.

The whiskey we chose to use for our infusions was a nice Jameson triple-distilled; it’s got a mellow flavor that wouldn’t over-power the infusions. Jameson holds a special place in his heart as he was able to actually tour the distillery during his Ireland trip a few years ago!

Since there were two empty bottles in the kit, we each claimed one to make our creations with. We each started out with half a vial of the Vanilla Chips, which are currently soaking in the whiskey. They recommend infusing that for a couple weeks before adding in any other flavors you might choose. Since we did that last week, ours should be ready for the following steps sometime next weekend.

He plans to use the Coffee Beans, Orange Peel, and Bird’s Eye Chili for his bottle, while I plan to use the Chai Mix, Cinamon Chips, and Cocoa Beans for mine.

I’ll let you know how it turns out!

 

A Much-Needed Break – for Crafting!

I got to go on a crafting retreat a few weeks ago, and it couldn’t have come at a better time in my life! So many negative things are going on right now, I really needed something positive to counter all of the yuckiness.

I joined a group of 9 other crafty ladies at the Pioneer Ridge B&B for 4-days/2-nights of paper crafting and lively chatter. We all gathered at the B&B on Thursday afternoon and set ourselves up at our chosen table. There was plenty of room for each of the crafts going on: two ladies worked on felting, several had card-making crafts, and a few had sewing or embroidery projects.

Our rooms were lovely, with comfortable beds and luxury baths. We were assigned roommates which worked out perfectly well since we were only in the room to sleep at night. All the rest of our time was out in the common area or the dining room/kitchen.

Meals were handled quite well, I thought. Breakfast was of course provided by the B&B. We were on our own for lunches, but we had all brought plenty of snacks I almost didn’t even bother eating what I had intended to eat. For the dinners, we were divided up into three groups, each group responsible for one dinner. My group cooked a lovely pasta dish, and I was tasked with providing the salad.

As an added treat to the whole weekend, they invited a masseuse to come give full-body massages, if we so desired – and I, of course, took full advantage. She was reasonably priced and was quite good. I will never understand how those people manage to do what they do – she did at least 5 massages back-to-back each day Friday & Saturday! How do her hands manage that?

I had such a good time, and really got a lot done. I am looking forward to possibly joining them again for their next retreat!