The Dream Maker

I suffering through what one might describe as a cold of monumental proportions. It has knocked me for six over the last couple of nights and I am in dire straits the following tok place late last night while fighting the evils of being wide awake with a head cold…enjoy.

It is late at night and I’m wide awake. Staring blankly at the ceiling waiting for sleep to come - but it is no use – I’m so awake, I’m wired for sound.

What to do to cure this dreaded insomnia? Tossing and turning does me no good. With each roll in the blankets my wife shifts a bit and wakes just a little more. Time to get up and come up with a plan to get back to sleep.

Getting something to eat would work. But I’m not hungry.

A warm glass of milk? Uh uh. Not my thing either. I want a good solid way to relax and get the sleep needed. It’s time to pull out the big guns - it’s time for the hot toddy.

The origin of the hot toddy comes from Scotland. It referred to a “mixed drink served hot”.

Of the many variants there is always an alcohol component (whiskey, brandy or rum), a hot liquid (generally tea), a sweetener (honey or sugar) and a citrus (lemon or orange).

I have been told that if consumed – um, vigorously, it is guaranteed to put you flat on your back. So off I go to score the perfect Insomniac’s TKO, and my commentary on how it all went down.

Hot Toddy

1 teabag of black tea ( I chose decaffeinated to help me sleep)

2 oz whiskey - use what you have. I had a single malt on hand but a blend is just as good.

1 1 /2 tsp brown sugar

1 round slice of lemon.

Boil the kettle. Fill the cup3 /4 of the way over the tea, lemon and sugar and steep for a couple of minutes.

Remove the teabag and add the whiskey.

This is how it worked:

The first sip - ow! Super hot. I think I burned myself. Nope. The lemon and the whiskey are working in harmony. I can feel the relaxing properties of the whiskey. Bless the Scots for this invention!

Second sip –. It slithers down my throat and it is very warming. I can feel it as it makes its way down into my stomach. It is a funny sensation.

Third sip - no pain here. Shoulders are relaxing and I am getting a little sleepy. This is working.

Fourth Sip - not much left. Lots of sugar. Should have stirred it a bit more. The sugar is not helping things here at all.

The warmth is like a blanket. Everything is a little fuzzy but not dangerously so. I think this is going to work. When it was all over I slept – like a log.

The verdict is that for me, a hot toddy works - really well. A bit of a warning though. It dries you out the next day and it has the potential to become a hangover of immense proportions. My advice is to have a lot of water on standby when you wake up after your toddy induced sleep. It is not something to use every night to put you to sleep – but in a pinch, a hot toddy will work wonders. When you can’t sleep the hot toddy can become the stuff of which dreams are made.

A.A Gill is brillaint…again

I think I have said it before but A.A Gill is a brilliant writer.  His recent review of Le Cafe Anglais, in London is one of the funnier ones he as written in some time. In fact, some of the funniest bits comes at the end -  the comments are funny too.

If only I could write like that…

Organic Turkeys

Illustrated Life, a blog my darling wife frequents, has a great post on her organically reared turkeys and why they are the bees knees when it comes to flavour and quality of product.

I love people with passion like this. It makes eating, cooking and living just a bit better for all of us.

I’ve not been posting as I have been writing so much – I plum forget to post. Now the holidys are approaching, I’ll get around to by backlog of back-blogs – complete with recipies for New Years and quick tasty tips for entertaining.

Cheers.

Hell in a handbasket – Bourdain style

Sometimes food and life get horribly intermingled. In this piece, on Salon.com, Anthony Bourdain writes from Beirut.

Here is a cook, and writer trying to write about the food culture which was in the beginning of a renaissance now he has to wait it out as the city gets bombed.

Beirut is a long way away from his kitchen in New York – I just hope that he’s fine.

—–end

Copyright 2006. Unlawful dissemination of this or any other work will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

The Gill and Clarkson show

Here is a great example of food writing, humour and a biting review of food. The Times of London has two things I never miss – Jeremy Clarkson in the motoring section and A.A. Gill in Food and Drink – both writers are sarcastic, and brilliant as well as being the funniest writers to be found in any newspaper. These two need their own show. Read ‘em and weep.