Cocktail Hour, Issue No. 16: Corpse Reviver #2 🍸

Happy Friday, y’all!

We’ve got a lot of new readers here this week, so I just want to say: Welcome! I’m glad you’re here.

Let me introduce myself. I’m Amy Haimerl and I write Bar\Heart. I grew up in rural Colorado and now call Detroit home, but I’ve lived in a lot of places in between (like Mississippi and New York City). I’m a journalist who covers small business, mostly for the New York Times, an author, and a journalism professor at Michigan State. Bar\Heart is where I write about the things that interest me, like cocktails and what it means to belong in America.

I've also started a daily walking ritual, committing to getting out every day for the next 365 days. I'm on day 5! You can follow along in my Instagram stories if you're interested.

Ok. Let's get to the good stuff.

I’m beginning to lay in supplies for Thanksgiving, and the ingredients for Corpse Reviver #2s are essential. The Bestie™ will be in town, and it is our tradition to start the holiday by reviving our corpses.

According to Difford’s Guide, the holy book of the cocktail world, Corpse Revivers are actually a category of drink that bartenders once prescribed as a hair of the dog for those unfortunate hungover souls. But, Harry Craddock, the inventor of the Corpse Reviver #1 and #2, warns in the 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book: “Four of these in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again.”

Noted.

Here’s what you need to make yours:

1 oz. London Dry Gin
1 oz. Cointreau
1 oz. Lillet Blanc
1 oz. Lemon juice
Absinthe, to coat glass

Instructions:

Chill cocktail glass
Add all ingredients, except Absinthe, into a shaker with ice.
Shake until cold, ~ 30 seconds
Add a dash of absinthe to chilled cocktail glass; swirl so the absinthe coats the glass; discard any remains
Strain cocktail into glass

Popular variation: Replace the gin with mezcal.

In Tuesday’s newsletter, I featured 9 novels and 3 memoirs I want to read this fall. There are a ton of good books coming out this season, but these are the ones I’m most excited about because, like Bar\Heart, they address belonging and places that define us. Read the full list, and reviews, here.

Who’s a happy dog? Me! I paid off my student loans this week — 24 years and 11 months after graduating from college. I wrote a Twitter thread about it. I’ll probably write more about it here in Bar\Heart, too, when I’m done processing all the feels.

I love to flip through food magazines even though I rarely cook from them. I dream of a “dinner club” where we get together and cook the month's cover. But then I think about the grocery list and the dishes and, well … some things are better left to fantasy. But this month, I did find two tips that are useful in real life:

Proportions for perfect mashed potatoes, via Bon Appetit:

1 tsp salt + ½ c. dairy + ½ stick butter per 1 lb of potatoes
Also, they say to never mash with a mixer; it makes the potatoes glue-y.

Add ½ cup of water to the bottom of your roasting pan.

That will keep the goodies from sticking and burning. I can’t find where I read this now, but I remember thinking, Oh! That’s what I’ve been doing wrong when I roast veggies under my chicken.

1. Today is a bones day! What that means, explained.

2. What happens to the KitchenAid in a divorce?

3. Who gets to blend in, who gets to break the rules? And how do we talk about our outfits without talking sh*t about our bodies.

Bonus: The Authoritarians on the Left

🚨 Season 4 of Yellowstone starts this Sunday! 🚨

I’m so excited for the two-hour debut that Lovey and I have been preparing. We're rewatching the the first three seasons. Yes, it’s a soapy story about rich people problems. And lots of critics hate it for being a mess. But I love it so. Partially because the series is set in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, where my family lives. My dad has been stopped on the street and asked for his autograph by people who assume he must be on Yellowstone.

Left: Dad; Right: Kevin Costner. Same mountains; different season.

The other part is my love for Beth, the Dutton sister played by Kelly Reilly. She really does seem to be acting in a completely different show. And I would totally watch that one, too! My friend Shana says “no woman has ever been so violent in a prairie dress.” Beth is complex and rejects the caregiver role — something female characters rarely get to be or do. Here’s EW describing Beth:

And here’s Vulture on "TV's Most (Anxious, White, Male) American Show:

One of my favorite Christmas traditions growing up was the advent calendar. I loved opening the little cardboard door each evening, having anticipated that treat all day.

Christmas wasn’t an extravagant affair in our house, but my parents made it seem abundant through effective use of anticipation. That nightly ritual helped build excitement for Christmas morning regardless of how much would be under the tree. And often, there wasn’t a lot. My parents traded socks; maybe a new pair of moccasins or slippers. New shirts. All practical things. One particularly hard year my dad and I whittled a wishing well out of log for my mother. That year I got a library card and the promise that I could go each Saturday to choose new books.

We could make a small stack of packages last all morning. We went around in a circle, opening a package one at a time. My father amping up the wait and anticipation by inspecting every angle of his gift before we could move on. And we couldn't wait for the end: That year's scavenger hunt. The very last present would be an envelope in the tree holding the first of his very-hard clues for one lucky person. The family would traipse through the house, outdoors in the snow, into the field and beyond. Sometimes what was at the end was a token; sometimes it was something magical, like my first pair of cowboy boots. And somehow, despite all that anticipation, it was never a let down.

I’ve struggled to find my own holiday traditions as an adult. And I certainly didn’t want the waxy chocolate in a kids advent calendar. (Believe me, I tried, thinking I could recreate the magic.) Last year we discovered Aldi’s cheese advent calendar. Each night Lovey and I would open the little cardboard door and split the morsel of cheese. I didn’t anticipate the amount of joy that little ritual would bring.

The cheese calendars — along with chocolate! And wine! And beer! versions — went on sale this week. If you live near an Aldi grocery store, get over there ASAP as they sell out quick!

Even if you didn’t have an advent calendar in your childhood, you can have one as a grownup. Use it to countdown to the near year or anything you want. No Jesus or man in a red suit necessary.