Autumn is officially here and with the cold weather there is nothing like having a cocktail with friends and family to keep some warmth in our lives. One of the great things about fall is the availability of harvest foods and flavors. I think the cocktails we enjoy in this season should reflect the season’s offerings.

The Maple Leaf

Maple isn’t produced in the fall, but the flavor always seems so ‘autumn’ to me.

2 oz Jim Beam Black bourbon

½ oz Real maple syrup (don’t settle for high fructose corn syrup with maple flavoring, get the real stuff, it is worth the price)

½ oz lemon juice

Add the Jim Beam Black bourbon, maple syrup, and lemon juice in a shaker over ice. Shake thoroughly and pour into an old-fashioned glass filled with ice. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Pumpkin Martini

Pumpkins are closely associated autumn, there is no doubt about that.

1 oz Starbuck Cream Liqueur

1 ½ oz Stoli Vanilla vodka

½ oz pumpkin pie mix

Mix the ½ oz of pumpkin pie mix and ½ oz of the Stoli Vanilla vodka. In an ice filled shaker add the Starbuck Cream Liqueur, the rest of the Vanilla vodka and the pumpkin pie mix. Shake thoroughly and pour into a martini glass. Top with a spoonful of whipped cream and garnish with a cinnamon stick.

Back in the beginning, or at least during the Eocine epoch, when the trees were growing, sap oozing forth, trapping life with its stickiness.  The sap hardened and over the span of time turned to amber.  Dr. Raul Cano took this amber and unlocked the elements of life it had captured.  Dr. Raul Cano and Chip Lambert isolated yeast strains from samples of amber.  These strains resembled Saccharomyces cerevisiae – common brewing and baking yeast.  The original research was creating a library of ancient organisms, the yeast was a glorious side discovery.  Chip Lambert described the process of going from discovery of the yeast to the creation of beer:

Some had biochemical profiles similar to typical brewer’s yeast, so the natural question was, “I wonder what beer made from these strains would taste like?”  The answer was, “very good”, as were breads made with some of the other strains.  It has taken a while to develop the idea, but the beer is excellent and…unique.

I couldn’t help but wonder about the first taste of a beer made with a yeast that is 45 million years old.  Chip assured me, “Of course there was trepidation, but like most chefs (I think, because I hate cooking, but I watched Paul Prudhomme do it once), you can always spit it out if you don’t like it.”  Luckily that was not necessary.  Chip’s reaction after that first sip was “Wow, this is really good beer!”

There still was something about this process I found a bit disturbing.  Could this yeast burst free from the lab?  Is it a threat?  I saw Jurassic Park.  I know what could happen.  Or at least my over active imagination assumed.  Chip straightened me out and gave me some scientific reassurance.

We call our strains the “Mothers of all yeasts” we work (cook, brew or make Vegemite) with today.  Physiologically, none of the ancient isolates are so unique that their modern counterparts are not identifiable.  Just as there are many organisms currently being isolated and cultured from extreme or unique environments on Earth (and Mars?) that humans have not or rarely have contacted and they do no harm, the ancient organisms utilize the same biological processes and succumb to the same stresses as the “modern” (that maybe a misnomer) microbes.

So that is the history of the beer, what do people really think of it?  Jay R. Brooks from Celebrator Beer News sampled Tyrannosaurs-Rat beer brewed by Guerneville’s Stumptown and compared it to an identical pale ale differing only in the strain of yeast.  “T-Rat is smoother, with softer fruity flavor characteristics and just a touch of lemony sweetness that isn’t tart.”

Sounds downright tasty to me.   Sadly, this unique brew is only going to be available at certain bars and pubs around Northern California.

I’m making it a personal mission to seek out this unique taste crafted with ancient yeast.  Part of the profit of the beer gets funneled into alternative fuel research, which makes the name of the brewing company, Fossil Fuels, a delightful pun.  I’m a sucker for puns.

Buffy and Angel

Talk about star-crossed lovers, the Buffy-Angel relationship is one that has seen more than its fair share of turmoil and tragedy.

True love is never easy and requires you to make some very difficult decisions. Now it might not mean you have to decide between killing your lover and saving the world or decide between sex and being a soulless demon, but sacrifices will have to be made and even then a happy ending is not guaranteed.

Willow and Xander

These two have been friends their entire lives.  They care for each other, are able to administer dope slaps to each other, and honestly love each other.  Your best friend may seem like the perfect person to date, but in the long run, it is often more important to have a friend than a lover.

Willow and Oz

They were a perfect couple, geeky and sweet.  Oz clearly was a stand up guy able to be rational as well as communicate his feelings and emotions fairly well.

The person you fall in love with may have issues that you have to deal with, such as medical conditions like depression and lycanthropy or possibly just unique sexual desires. You can choose to accept your lover’s needs such as to be locked in a cage three nights a month (could be for lycanthropy or a unique sexual desire) or you might end up dating someone who doesn’t reveal these traits to you at all, and tries to cover them up. No one is perfect.

Xander and Anya

This is the relationship that never should have been: ex-vengeance demon with dopey guy.  Yet, for whatever reason, they seemed to work together as a couple fairly well.  Anya made Xander try to achieve more for himself.  Xander made Anya aware that she has some negative tendencies regarding social interactions.  For all his lack of charisma, Anya feel deeply in lover with Xander.

The more you love someone, the more likely you are to hurt them and the closer you are, the more intense the hurt will be. Sometimes this hurt can’t be avoided, but if you at least communicate with your lover, you can at least mitigate the pain.  Leaving someone at the altar, even if for the right reason, is the wrong thing to do.

Willow and Tara

As beautiful relationships go, the Willow-Tara relationship is one of the best.  They not only had the love part of their relationship down, they had the nuts and bolts aspect of their relationship down (notice my restraint in not making any jokes about nuts and bolts… although I guess saying this sort of ruins the classiness of my lack of a joke).  They had a great level of communication, were able to be parental to Dawn, and in general were facing life together, until Willow’s addiction to magic came along.

If you love someone and they are engaged in self-destructive behavior that is not only hurting them but others around them, the best thing you can do for them is to step away, no matter how hard it might be for you.  For Willow to reform her ways, she needed to know that she was losing Tara.

Buffy and Spike

A vampire slayer with a vampire who kills slayers seems like a really bad relationship.  Yet, it somehow worked, to a point.

There are many times you will fall in love with the wrong person for the right reasons and the right person for the wrong reasons. The best thing you can do is to be honest about what you are doing with yourself and your lover.  The other lesson here is never to confuse lust with love.

With the Fourth of July looming on the horizon, there is no doubt summer is in full swing. I’m really interested in breaking from the ‘typical’ when it comes to cooking and I was intrigued by more than a few of these simple recipes.

For example, check out this take on black beans:

Soak a tablespoon or two of black beans in sherry or wine; toss with cooked rice, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and cilantro.

Or how about this for a salad idea:

Cut day-old crusty bread into one-inch cubes. Just before leaving the house, combine it with chopped tomatoes (seeds are O.K.), chopped cucumber, chopped red onion and fresh basil. Pack dressing separately: olive oil, red wine vinegar, diced anchovies, capers, salt and pepper. Call this panzanella.

All I can say is adding one or two of these dishes to standard picnic foods of fried chicken and potato salad would really enhance the occasion.