You’ve stumbled upon Bar\Heart, a newsletter and podcast about belonging and the places we call home. I’m so glad you’re here. This is the Friday afternoon Cocktail Hour, featuring a drink recipe, book suggestions and a curio cabinet of everything I find interesting each week.
Enjoy a sober Negroni, a Rye on Fire, a Brooklynite and so much more. Subscribe and I’ll mainline my brain straight into your box! Cheers.🍸
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Hi, y’all! We made it to Cocktail Hour!
Just a quick heads up: There won't be an Instagram LIVE this week. We're having some storms and the Internet has been unstable. So I'm going to take this excuse to curl up and read.
But if you missed last week's interview with author Kelsey Ronan, now's a good time to catch up!
Ok. Let's get to it.
The adventure started with an idea and a simple group text to Lovey, my friend Shana and The Consort.
Within an hour, I was getting these photos back from Shana and The Consort. All for science, of course.
And as my friend Kevin commented: The Peeps must die so we can live.
Many of you, however, were horrified by our Peep-murdering ways when I posted the pictures on my Facebook page. Y’all have some feels about this Easter candy! There was even a #savethepeeps hashtag created. 🤣
Me? I’m more of a Cadbury Egg girl. I used to buy them in bulk so I could dole them out to myself over the year. The problem? I never doled; I just gorged.
Anyway, what we learned is that you can, in fact, make simple syrup out of Peeps. And by we, I mean Shana and The Consort. I merely set the f*ckery in motion and then watched our group text chat explode. They did the work.
Peeps Simple Syrup
Formula: 1 peep to 3 tsp of water.
So if you want to cook down a full 12-pack of Peeps, you’ll need ¾ c. of water. Be forewarned: The color doesn’t dissolve, so choose your Peep variety wisely.
Use the Peeps Simple Syrup in your favorite cocktail recipe that calls for simple syrup.
Shana and The Consort mixed it in an Old Fashioned and it tasted like … an Old Fashioned. Though, them being them, they also used fancy El Guapo barrel aged vanilla bitters. (They have my favorite home bar.)
They report that other than maybe a slight chemical flavor, Peeps tastes like your basic sugar and water mix. So the only reason to do this is for the fun of saying your drink is made with the bodies of dead Peeps.
And, of course, to brulee one on a steak knife as garnish.
Now that’s delicious.
Next year, I wonder if we can make Cadbury Egg simple syrup. The plotting begins…
If you’d like some more traditional cocktails with an Easter or Passover twist, try this Difford’s Guide.
This collection of short stories is set in Alaska, and while everything about that place looms large and informs the novel and the characters, it’s not really about that. This is a book that is set in the interiors. The interiors of homes. The interiors of the women protagonists. Yes, the outside world comes at them, but this is really about their lives managing family and relationships in this place. I’m about halfway through so far, and am hoping to bring Leigh to our Friday Instagram Live talks. So be on the lookout for that.
This week’s feels come from a member of our of Bar\Heart community who responded to my writing prompt about what it means to “belong.” Let’s listen in:
Want to share what belonging – or not – means to you? Email me at amy@barheart.us. I share these stories anonymously so that you can feel free to write your truth from the heart rather than worry about performing for social media.
Apparently, this is the “f*ckery with Shana and The Consort” issue. Because I have to tell you what I learned at their house this week: Fire is hot.
You see, Lovey and I went to dinner with them on Saturday night. (We had tacos at Frame. If you live in the Detroit area, you should totally go!)
For dessert, Shana promised us a bonfire and cupcakes from the new Dolly Parton collab with Duncan Hines. But on the night in question, it was cold. And we were unprepared. But like good Midwesterners, we did it anyway!
As we were sitting around the fire eating our cupcakes (delicious! That Dolly can do no wrong!), we started to smell something. Sort of like cooking tar. And that, my friends, is when we realized that my New Balances were melting.
So for those you who need to know this: If you perch your shoes on top of the metal fire pit, it will get hot. And melt your shoes.
1. “A Flock of Beautiful Birds in a City is a Miracle, a Disaster and a Conundrum” by Margaret Renkl in the New York Times
2. “Do Yourself a Favor and Go Find a Third Place” by Allie Conti in The Atlantic
Yes, this is from the author of the book I’m reading right now. So I wanted to share her essay about growing up in Alaska.
I freely admit this: I’m not usually one for live music. Too many clubs with terrible sound systems in my 20s. So when Lovey and I walked into our local, PJs Lager House, last week, I audibly groaned when I saw a performer on stage. I thought for sure we were too early for a show.
Twenty minutes later, I was sending Lovey to the stage for merch. A CD. A T-shirt. Any one would do.
June Star, a trio fronted by Andrew Grimm, has an Americana sound that is very much in the Jason Isbell vein by way of Baltimore. The band has put out 17 albums since they formed in 1998, so I picked Pull Awake to start with because it matched the T-shirt Lovey bought.
We’ve since been listening to it while we make dinner, working, driving. It’s become the background to our life and we’re loving more on each spin. Hopefully you might, too.
Unfortunately, there isn't a good YouTube channel or anything
Many of the albums are self-released and the band doesn’t seem to have ever hit it big – he was playing the 7 p.m. show at a dive bar in Detroit, so I’m completely fascinated in what keeps Grimm making music. Maybe an interview is in our future.
Do y’all have music/tv/podcast recommendations? I’d love to hear them. Leave a comment and maybe we can start to share the good things.
Lambing season should be finished by next week. So here’s your final cute lamb installation, courtesy of my mom and dad. Sound on!
Ok. That's it for this week.
For everyone celebrating Easter, Passover or Ramadan this weekend, I send you blessings and joy through the holidays and all the year.
See you next Friday for Cocktail Hour!
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❣️ Other newsletters I love: Men Yell At Me + Open Court + This Stuff
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What is Bar\Heart? It is Amy Haimerl’s weekly newsletter and podcast about belonging in America and the places we call home. Plus cocktails! You can read more about it here. The midweek edition includes intimate conversations from the heart; the Friday Cocktail Hour is a round up drink recipes, book recommendations and other detritus I pick up on the Internet and in life.
If you enjoy these shenanigans, please consider subscribing. And please tell a friend! I’d love to mainline my brain straight into their inbox, too.
