Maraschino Kisses
Anne and I bicycled together on Saturday and I biked by myself today, while Anne sewed on the front porch, because the weather was so nice, sunny and warm. On Saturday, we rode over to the CWE for lunch at Gringo, a Baja themed upscale taco bar. We’ve eaten there before and I’m always surprised at how small their tacos are. I had two, a beef brisket and a lamb taco. Anne had a normal sized burrito. I also had their winter special margarita. It was infused with a blood orange, giving the drink a reddish-brown color and instead of the lip of the glass just being coated with salt, this drink had both salt and cinnamon. It was good.
On Saturday night, we attended Smokin’ Joe’s annual Christmas cookie party. In preparation for this event, Anne made Maraschino Kisses. This cookie recipe uses a whole jar of maraschino cherries and calls for Hersey’s special dark chocolate kisses, but we decided to substitute kă•kā•ō dark chocolate buttons instead. They turned out pretty [good | well] and I helped. [Anne says that pretty well is correct English, even though pretty good is a Missouri colloquialism, so could be considered correct English if written within the state’s boundaries. No one faults Mark Twain for his use of language, so why me? Anne said that her parents drilled her pretty well and good in this. I’m left to wonder if any fracking was involved.] We were the first to arrive at the cookie party, which was a little awkward. We were on time, but everyone else was stylishly late. We had a good time though!
Sunday morning, we drove over to the Loop for a little walk. The Loop doesn’t really do mornings and especially not the morning after a Saturday night. Most of the stores were closed, so we were left to window-shop. We grabbed breakfast at a new place in the Loop, the Peacock Diner. This is another Joe Edwards property and it is a beauty. It is modeled after a ‘50s diner that only a Hollywood musical could have envisioned. It is both spacious and bright. I kept expecting the help to break into a chorus line of song and dance. Maybe if I had put a quarter into the juke box that would have happened. We ate at the counter, which has ever-changing bands of lighted colored panels all around it, but where I really wanted to sit was in the Peacock Carousal of Love. Yes, it really rotates. Anne didn’t want to though. I guess that she doesn’t love me anymore. “I don’t love you any less”, she says. Anne had red velvet waffles, which looked great. I had their biscuits and gravy, which was fantastic! They’ve substituted chorizo for the sausage and add a touch of tomato to give the gravy a more appealing color than bleached white.
I’ve got to go now. Anne wants to go shopping for our Christmas tree. Its 63 ˚F out in mid-December, I think that shorts and a t-shirt is appropriate Christmas attire for today. We will of course go to Ted Drewes and of course order concretes, which we will consume on the lot, while selecting our tree. So surprise me, Le Marquis, what flavor of frozen custard will you order? “How about my usual, a small chocolate-chip concrete?”