Today, for this week’s Drink of the Week, I thought to do something a little different.
Below is a YouTube video featuring a drink that, although not in the present offering of Sips with Susan, could certainly find its way into a future volume.
Makes two libations, one to share and one for you.
ENJOY! 😉 Drink your “Sips” responsibly! 😂
From Sips with Susan — A Gathering Place Companion 🍸
Each week, we’ll share one recipe from Sips with Susan — A Gathering Place Companion. Some will be simple, some a little more involved, but all are meant to be shared — one to enjoy and one to pass along to a friend.
We begin where many of the drinks begin — with Ginger Jazz. Drinks in Sips with Susan feature ginger liqueur — often shown using a familiar commercial bottle. Ginger Jazz is our homemade version, crafted right here at The Gathering Place.
Ginger Jazz is a bright, spicy house liqueur that brings warmth and character to your cocktails. Once made, it quickly becomes a favorite to keep on hand.
Ingredients
2–3 oz fresh ginger root (2 oz = milder | 3 oz = hotter)
1 whole vanilla bean
1 cup orange blossom honey
1 tsp cinnamon (ground)
1 tsp cardamom (ground)
Zest from ½ orange
1⅜ cups water
1⅜ cups V.S.O.P. brandy
¼ cup neutral spirit (190 proof grain alcohol = 95% alcohol) (see note below for substitute)
Directions
Peel ginger and slice thin.
Slice vanilla bean lengthwise.
Add ginger, vanilla bean, water, and honey to a pan and simmer about 20 minutes.
Strain through fine mesh lined with a coffee filter into a bottle.
Allow to mellow 24 hours before use.
Makes approximately 2½ cups of Ginger Jazz.
⚠️ Note on Neutral Spirits
Grain alcohol (190 proof = 95% alcohol) is extremely strong and should never be consumed straight. It is used in small amounts to help extract flavors during infusion.
If neutral spirits are unavailable or not preferred, substitute:
¼ cup mixture made from:
⅛ cup water
⅛ cup brandy
Finished Ginger Jazz averages about 56 proof(28% alcohol) once diluted.
ENJOY! 😉 Use your Ginger Jazz responsibly! 🍸 From Sips with Susan — A Gathering Place Companion
Sips with Susan — Volume 1 A Gathering Place Companion
Some books begin with an outline.
Sips with Susan began with a habit.
Not a business plan. Not a publishing goal.
Just an evening… a glass… and a willingness to try something a little different.
At The Gathering Place, drinks were never just drinks. They were conversation starters. Excuses to sit longer. Reasons to laugh one more time before calling it a night.
It started with a Moscow Mule — changed just enough to make it ours.
Then another variation.
Then another.
Before long, we were doing what creative people often do without realizing it — we were keeping track.
Not because we planned a book… but because we didn’t want to forget.
Names were given. Tweaks were made. Favorites were repeated.
And somewhere along the way, the number quietly reached one hundred.
That’s when the idea finally spoke clearly:
Maybe this isn’t just a collection of drinks. Maybe it’s a collection of moments worth saving.
That thought became Sips with Susan — Volume 1.
Not as a commercial product first — but as a memory preserved.
Today, the book exists. But more importantly, the gathering continues.
If you’d like to explore the finished collection, you can find it through I-Imagine Press, where it is available in both free and paid editions.
And if you’d like to see where the drinks truly live — where new ones are still being created — visit The Gathering Place, where the stories behind the glass are still unfolding.
Because in the end, this was never just about cocktails.
It was about connection.
And connection, like a good drink, is best when shared.
Thomas Wolfe had written a novel and it was posthumously published in 1940. Many had thought it was titled by his editor. On the face of it, the fact that the novel ended up with a different name to the manuscript would imply that we have Wolfe’s editor to thank for the title, but actually it seems that the title was Wolfe’s because, according to Gail Godwin’s introduction to a 2011 reprint of ‘You Can’t Go Home Again,’ Wolfe took the title from a conversation he had with Australian-British journalist Ella Winter who remarked to Wolfe, “don’t you know you can’t go home again?” Wolfe was so taken with the expression that he asked Winter for permission to use the phrase as the title of his book.
The expression is meant- If you try to return to a place from your past it won’t be the same as it was.
you could then…
never leave home
move back home
return to wherever you call home,
but you can’t ever go home again
Home is, where ever you hang your hat, wherever your heart is and with whoever you live with. It’s good to be home again.
Besides Food, What Else Can Be Done on Thanksgiving
The annual Macys Day Thanksgiving Parade – But of Course! Apple Toss– With baskets and red and green apples for points and scoring (make your own rules) Chop Firewood – This will warm your heart and someone’s hearth. What a great gift and exercise too Make a DIY Candle – pour some wax into some old metal piece of junk, add some wicks and there you go. Start a collection of heirloom cast iron skillets to hang on your kitchen wall
Skillet Wall
Take a Drive – Go get lost. Enjoy the adventure! (always have a map and GPS to get un-lost at the end.
Take a Walk – with your dog, a friend, family member or some kindred spirit.
Read a Book – to yourself or to children. Maybe both.
Susan inspired(my wife),Kid friendly Craft– make something turkey-delight with the kiddies
Rake leaves —Throw yourself into a pile or throw some other kids into piles
Look at Family Photos
Gather ‘Round a Firepit – roast some weenies, marshmallows and or S’mores – tell tall tales, get all smoky😂
Collect Food Donations
Be a secret Turkey Dinner Dropper-Offer – Take a whole dinner or the makings ring a doorbell then run away
Gratitude Game — (a paper plate, some glue, rope, fabric, a pushpin, ink pen and letters. Spin the fabric around on the pen until in stops revealing what is underneath. 6 possibilities. Whatever it lands on and whose ever turn it is, tell everyone what you are grateful – say the word and then elaborate a little on that word
Gratitude Game
Make your own Tic Tac Toe game — with stones, pinecones and a piece of wood and stuff.
Homemade Tic-Tac-Toe
Volunteer at a food kitchen
Make a Family Heirloom Table Runner — Take inspiration from television personality and cookbook author Nancy Fuller, whose linen table runner features the signatures of family members. To create your own version, have family members write their names with a disappearing ink pen, and then stitch over the hand-lettering.
Write Letters to Soldiers – those that cannot be home as they are serving us freedom and even those veterans that have served us freedom that may be alone this Thanksgiving
Write Letters to Santa — for yourself or help other children write and send theirs🤣
Interview Family Members – make a journal, a book or a recording
Host Your Own Turkey Trot– run walk or push baby carriages and wagons around the neighborhood. Organize your own version of a family Turkey Trot, whether it’s a one-miler, 5K, or something in between. First turkey across the finish line gets all the leftovers!
Watch a Holiday Classic Movie – Holiday Inn – Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
Good Ole Charlie Brown
Football – if you have to? 🤣
Some Open Stores on Thanksgiving(limited Hours- yay)
Whole Foods Kroger Buc-ee’s Harris Teeter Meijer Safeway Rite Aid Walgreen’s CVS Dollar General – In case you want to start your stocking stuffer stuffing early😂 Family Dollar Cabela’s Bass Pro Shops– Besides just shopping, take the whole family for fun and frivolity and maybe even a chance to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him what you want for Christmas. I did 8 years ago. 😂
Many closed on Thanksgiving, including Walmart. Good on them!
Restaurants(if you don’t want to cook)
Red Lobster – sure seafood for Thanksgiving, why not! Dunkin Donuts Golden Corral Waffle House – Yay! T.G.I. Fridays Ruby Tuesday Popeye’s Subway Ponderosa Bonanza Applebee’s Sonic I-Hop Bob Evans – “Down on the Farm!” 😂 Cracker Barrel– Even if you don’t eat, or buy a thing, it’s worth just looking around! 👍 Sizzler Denny’s – But of Course!
Others may be open and others closed as they all should be. But if they are open, just go anyway!
OK, and Then There was Food
Even now, it is pretty likely that you already know what you are going to cook. Some don’t like turkey. Some will have ham. Some look forward to leftovers, making new dishes with those leftovers and soup. This year. I’m bringing champagne, some apple sugar spice for champagne flute rims, apples for slices and apple cider. I call these Apple Cider Mimosas. Figure it out and make your own.
Susan (my wife), is bringing batches of her world-class cranberry, orange,🍊 walnuts and white chocolate scones. My sister and I don’t care if they are frozen, served hot, warm or at room temperature. We figure we are good for about 1 every half hour. 🤣 Make your own or ask Susan for her recipe.
Now if you want turkey that everyone will like, do the following. Susan’s dad never liked turkey, but he loved this. I did not like dark meat, but I do with this. As a matter of fact, even though we grew up with turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas, looking back, I never liked any of it. It was just something we did and combined and smothered under with the good stuff like gravy, masked potatoes, dressing and cranberry, to mask the blandness of turkey— white or dark. That’s the way it was for years for me anyway until…until I came up with my Citrus Salt Rub years ago. I will give you the ingredients, but you will have to either buy my book when finished or figure out how to do it on your own.
¼ cup of coarse salt
¼ cup of virgin olive oil
1 whole lemon🍋 cut into halves
zest from the whole lemon above
5 sprigs of fresh whole rosemary
Zest the lemon and combine with 2 sprigs of finely chopped rosemary, olive oil and salt. Mix together.
Pour olive oil onto clean and dried turkey. With hands covered with culinary gloves, coat inside of turkey with the oil too. Place the two lemon haves into the turkey cavity and the remaining 3 sprigs of rosemary.
Coat the outside of turkey with the citrus salt rub. Elevate turkey in pan to contain the salt drippings as it melts. Envelop entire turkey with aluminum foil not just cover, ENVELOP! Cook 350° F until it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. Raise temp to 425°F, remove foil and allow to brown for about ½ hr. Let rest. Carve. ENJOY!
The secrets to this citrus rub.
Salt tenderizes to the point the turkey though still juicy, falls of the bone. The lemon, oil, and rosemary get the flavor into every part of the turkey, white or dark meat.
Note: be careful if using drippings for gravy or soup etc. as it is really salty
For left over ham, get a sister name Carol Lee to make some Ham Jam Sammiches’!
A Sweet Little Nutcracker Suite history and the Ballet
Plan now to check and see if a local performance of The Nutcracker Suite, by Tchaikovsky will be playing in your area. If you have never seen it, you are in for a real treat. If you have already tasted of it, re-treat yourself and see it again.
The Nutcracker Suite is a sparkly little box of jewels made up of highlights from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s fairy tale ballet The Nutcracker, which has become a Christmas, staple around the world. Conductor Simon Rattle calls it “one of the great miracles in music.” The ballet’s title comes from a story, The Nutcracker And The Mouse King, written in 1814 by the German fantasy writer ETA Hoffmann.
After the pair had worked together on The Sleeping Beauty, the choreographer Marius Petipa worked with Tchaikovsky to write the music for a new scenario he had chosen and written out, based on a version by Alexandre Dumas of Hoffmann’s story. Yes, Dumas the Frenchman, is the same author that wrote ‘The Count of Monte Crisco’ of which the sandwich is named after. There is no charge for this little extra. 🤣
But, Petipa instructed Tchaikovsky down to the last detail, including the tempo and the number of bars in each section.
Sweet Nutcracker
The Nutcracker, a fairytale ballet in two acts, is centered on a young girl’s Christmas Eve celebration and romantic awakening. She creeps downstairs to play with her favorite present, a nutcracker, which comes to life as a handsome prince who whisks her off to the Land of Sweets. The ballet was first performed on 18 December 1892 at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, Russia. The Nutcracker Suite became instantly popular and was featured in Disney’s — ‘Fantasia’.
Mushroom Dance from Disney Fantasia — 1940
The Nutcracker Suite is a sparkly little box of jewels made up of highlights from Tchaikovsky’s fairy tale ballet The Nutcracker, which has become a Christmas staple around the world: conductor Simon Rattle calls it “one of the great miracles in music.” The ballet’s title comes from a story, The Nutcracker And The Mouse King, written in 1814 by the German fantasy writer ETA Hoffmann. Oh, but there is so much more.
Little Nutcrackers and some of their history
As children we had small nutcrackers. These brightly painted, carved, nut-cracking decorative toys with functional mouths were quality pieces mostly found and made in Germany. But who knew there would one day be a man and his little fledgling company, making them here in the United States? Enter Glenn Crider.
Making Nutcrackers in the USA and Little Ginger Cottages
Crider was a small-town born and raised in Virginia. Who knew that after 30 years in the IT sector of building software for a food service, he would be laid off. At age 54 his prospects were dim so, he plunged headlong into doing his own custom woodworking. He installed tools in his backyard shed and started making wooden circus toys: trains full of animals with bobbing heads and unicycle riders that danced through the air on a wire. TRC (Three Ring Circus), the name of his company, was born. “Then one day at a show I had this little toy soldier, maybe an inch tall,” says Crider. “A customer was looking at that, and she said to me, ‘Can you make a miniature nutcracker for my dollhouse?’ “That’s when the light bulb came on.”💡
So he started to make nutcrackers — designing, constructing them and even making the mechanical jaws, to crack nuts. He made them in all kinds of sizes. But he was still basically a starving artist.
Official U.S. Postage – Photographs of Glenn Crider’s work
It’s OK if you have not heard of Glenn Crider and TRC, but the United States Post Office and the Smithsonian Institute came calling anyway. Stamps were made from designs he made and shipped to them that they photographed and turned into stamps. The Smithsonian Institute houses some of his original designs. Larger versions were commissioned and made for the Nutcracker Suite ballet, for Richmond, VA and other cities.
Birth of ‘Ginger Cottages’
“Among Crider’s nutcrackers is a baker holding a tray of treats including a tiny gingerbread cottage. In 2009, a customer unable to afford the doll asked whether she could just buy the gingerbread house. Using a laser engraver he had purchased to inscribe the company’s name on wooden nutcracker boxes, he began cutting out plywood roofs, floors, and walls and assembling tiny structures that looked like real estate from Santa’s Village. The Ginger Cottage line was born.”
Sweet Nutcracker baker that became the inspiration for ‘Ginger Cottages’
To this day, each ‘Ginger Cottage’ has several surprises including a little gingerbread cookie man hiding somewhere. I wonder if the little girl (now grown up), could ever imagine what was going to happen when she just wanted to buy a little gingerbread house for her dolls? So how did a guy with mechanical skills (woodcarving), use his former training in computer software that laid him off? The game changed in 2010 when Crider discovered he could design his products on a computer then send them to a laser engraver for production. The development grew the business exponentially, Crider said.
‘Santa’s Workshop’ – Ginger Cottage (actual size compared to human hands)
About 15 percent of TRC’s business is custom work, and it grew dramatically. Cracker Barrel came calling and at one point, they were responsible for selling 30% of TRC’s designs. They even commissioned him to make a miniature cottage for ‘Cracker Barrel. I have one of those in my little collection of ‘Ginger Cottages’ that I put on display every Christmas season.
My Little Village with some ‘Ginger Cottages’ and original piano music (look closely and you will see my Cracker Barrel cottage)
Among clients that have ordered site-specific Ginger Cottages or ornaments for their gift shops: Busch Gardens – ‘Santa’s Workshop’ in the amusement park’s German section; Mount Rushmore for the studio where Gutzon Borglum designed the monument; and Colonial Williamsburg (six historical buildings at the living-history museum). “It turns out they have 400 buildings they want done,” says Crider about his Colonial Williamsburg work. “I don’t think I’m going to live long enough.”
TRC Designs eventually had tour busses stopping by to tour the only Nutcracker making company in America at the time. They were the only one that made them with the functional nut-cracking jaws, for a very long time. They had 58 sales representatives in 40 states and worked diligently to pick up the other ten states. They did. Initially, states like Alaska, Texas, Hawaii and South Carolina did not have TRC Designs representatives. But they still shipped to stores and individuals, and collectors everywhere in the USA and all over the world.
In 2019, ‘Old World Old World Christmas’ of Spokane, Washington bought TRC Designs Inc. and its Ginger Cottages collection of wood ornaments. Glenn Crider, the founder and designer of the clever ornaments and figurines, joined the Old World Christmas team and continues to design all Ginger Cottage products.
Glenn Crider ‘Ginger Cottages’ for Old World Christmas
Back to the Sweet Nutcracker Suite
A Tradition in Rochester, NY – Where I first experienced the Nutcracker Suite Ballet just a very short few years ago.
Please note: I am neither sure of the local dates or ticket prices for Rochester, NY, but wherever you may be, find a venue, purchase some seats and go experience for yourself, a Sweet Nutcracker Suite for the holidays. Maybe get started on your own miniature Nutcrackers and ‘Ginger Cottage collections too!
Do yourself a favor, go see a live concert of the Trans Siberia Orchestra. You should award yourself with doing this at least once in your lifetime. If you really like Rock N’ Roll’ or reminded that you do, you will especially appreciate TSO (Trans Siberian Orchestra), as it is known by its three letters.
I am writing this now because it is still possible to grab a couple of seats for a show near you. Just click on the following link and look for “all dates.” – https://www.trans-siberian.com/
What is the Trans Siberian Orchestra. The same website above will answer all these questions and more, but I will give you some perspective as one that has seen a live TSO show.
What really sets them apart is their combination of classical Christmas music and songs with Rock N. Roll quite possibly. Inspiration was no doubt from the first album ever titled a ‘Rock Opera’ from the Band, ‘The Who’ – ‘Tommy’ in 1969. ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ was a commercial and ‘Broadway’ success in 1970. David Bowie’s – ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’ in 1972, was another ‘Rock Opera.’ ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ in 1973 was another ‘Rock Opera from Broadway to motion pictures, can likely be found running in some cities somewhere at any time. Each Rock Opera have several things in common as full orchestras, multiple guitars, drums, keyboards, singers and large productions. They each have their own unique calling and attraction to participants. Trans Siberian Orchestra has its own unique brand too. For starters, they use incredible light and sound techniques, fire and lasers along with spellbinding storytelling virtuosity. There is not a bad seat in any auditorium where you may experience a TSO show. Cranes and other elaborate props and sets will bring the musicians to you or at least close.
The other thing I find unique about TSO is they will employ local musicians and singers in every show. It gives a real homey touch especially if there is someone you actually know in your community, in the production.
I just cannot put into words what it is like, witnessing a TSO in person. You will just have to see at least one and experience it yourself. But I will say these few final things. Be prepared to meet people from all walks of life, ages, skin color, intellect economic background, whole families and even some that have been to many, many of these TSO shows for years. The programs are beautiful and the gift store filled with treasures enough for there to be, something for everyone. Finally, have you ever heard the term –
“close enough to feel the heat?” My wife Susan and I set in the balcony of a TSO show several years ago and with blazing flames of fire from the stage, everything they would burst into flames, moments later, we could feel the heat! If you think about $120 bucks for 2 seats is expensive, let me just encourage that a perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime event as a TSO show has so much interest, value and will produce so many memories, $120 is nothing. Besides, if you couples want to do something together, let this be the gif you give each other for Christmas.
How on earth did they come up with the name – ‘Trans Siberian Orchestra’? The original founder of TSO, was Paul O’Neill in 1996. O’Neill said it was inspired by his trip to Russia in the 1980s. He was particularly moved by the Russian province of Siberia, known for its freezing cold climate. One of its most distinctive features is the Trans-Siberian Railway, which is the longest railroad in the world that connects western Russia to the eastern part of Russia which touches Northeast Asia.
“If anyone has ever seen Siberia, it is incredibly beautiful but incredibly harsh and unforgiving as well. The one thing that everyone who lives there has in common that runs across it . . . is the Trans-Siberian Railway,” O’Neill allegedly told Citizen’s Voice in 2011, using the railway as a metaphor for how music connects people across the world. “Life, too, can be incredibly beautiful but also incredibly harsh and unforgiving, and the one thing that we all have in common that runs across it . . . is music. It was a little bit overly philosophical, but it sounded different, and I like the initials, TSO.”
In closing, I will share three videos. Two you have liekly seen before, thesey are all of the Internet, YouTube and etc.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Christmas Eve / Sarajevo (Timeless Version) (Official Music Video) [HD]
Wizards of Winter by TSO – Background music for this home with an incredible light show for the holidays
Once upon time and only once a year Mysterious; quite strange, it will appear Buildings and skyscrapers will move and give space As if by magic, but to most, an invisible place But some unseen force, draws them and they come and came And an old gaslight lantern, illuminates the name
‘Old Fezziwig’s Christmas Spirits & Cheer’ Festive to the restless, in the dark and the drear
Old Fezziwig’s
No ghosts of future, present or past to one’s birth Just The Wise Guy that serves the mirth Lively libations and custom made cheer For what ails yah’ and what casts out every fear
And they came and come, the lost and alone in profusion The tossed whose drinks were sore woes and confusion Some, with shorts too tight that pinches The grumpys’ the scrooges and grinches
Music and dancing Clinking and prancing Observations And conversations Libations and custom-made cheer And all are welcome here
Up to the bar they sit sat and wait and waited With dim slims of hope, to be sated
Old Fezziwig
No demands or judgement, just a voice Just the asking each, to make a choice Frozen hearts like glaciers and icebergs calve “How may I serve you, what will you have?”
And often the reply is just a request, “My dear sir, what would you suggest?” “What would you recommend, most affective?” And he said, “That all depends on your perspective!”
“I could fill your glass half empty or I could fill it half full Only you can decide, the push or the pull I can pour all that glows and glitters I just don’t and won’t pour the bitters
I can fizzle and I can dazzle I can drizzle, but never frazzle No down memory lane or ‘Auld Lang Syne’ Just spirits and drinks of cheer and life’s “fruit of the vine”
“I can pour you something that would make you want to be warm and in the pink I can make your want to smile, but I just can’t make you think”
“But to tell you the truth, all these suggestions are, to try and get you to think Because I only, only, just make one, special drink”
“It’s ‘The Golden Heart’, neither solid nor broken
‘Gold Heart’
Just edges, no center and just a token You decide and with one swig or swallow Your heart will be open or it will be hollow”
And drink they all up and down the hatch And in an instant, like striking a match The scene is quickly gone to—disappear And all to wonder, were they really here?
This was no dream, but a lesson of life An open heart is fraught, full and rife A solid heart can be dented, damaged, frozen and broken apart But flowing out and flowing in that’s…
…an open heart
Note: “Old Fezziwig” was a fictional character ‘in ‘A Christmas Carol’, by Charles Dickens
From the collection: The Uncollected Collection’ by the same author
Old Fezziwig’s Gold Heart
Fezz
(‘Old Fezziwig’s Gold heart’)
Note: four letter name change (Fezz), suggested by sister Carol Lee
Libatious’ #130
bonus drinks beyond 100
By Dahnini or Dahnitini Spirits Alchemist Bon Devant
Rim martini glasses 🍸🍸 with lemon 🍋 and use a paint brush and brush on a little little edible gold dust
4 jiggers vodka 2 jiggers of orange liqueur 🍊 juice of 1 fresh lemon 🍋 ½ jigger of honey 🍯 and finely chopped crystallized ginger pieces 2 egg whites
Combine all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and dry-shake (no ice). Add ice 🧊 and shake again in Hand Shaker until well chilled
“Shaken not stirred!” -007, Bond, James Bond- 😀
Strain into chilled martini 🍸 🍸 glasses Shake edible gold dust into the center of your ‘Fez’
Makes two lovely libations. One to share and one for you. 😀
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