From Russia With Love

This was Tuesday evening, post-call. Today I made an Apple Blossom. Both looked very nice but didn't taste like much. "From Russia With Love" is basically cold vodka, with garnishes. Mint and basil muddled with sugar syrup and topped with strawberry vodka, then strained - so mint / basil / strawberry-flavored cold vodka, I guess. Herbal vodka. Why?

I'm drinking red wine instead. For supper, I'm making Mom's stew in the crockpot. We used to eat this lots when we were kids, but I haven't had it for years and years. It's nearly done, and the hot comfortable smell of beef and tomatoes is the smell of a home one would want to cozy up in, eat supper around the big table with one's family, read a novel by the fire. There's not much to this stew, and it will be nothing like Julia Child's "boeuf borgeuron" (??sp), I'm sure, but it smells of the happier days of my childhood, so I love it.

Jule is begging for a turn on the computer. Caleb's begging to skip karate tonight to watch "Malcolm in the Middle". Patrick made chocolate cupcakes for Jule's Valentine's Day party at school tomorrow, and we have to ice them and apply cinnamon hearts. So, I'm off!