Work your magic before hypothermia sets in!
I’m sure you’re sick of hearing about it but I don’t care, I need to get this off my chest: I’m cold!! Just when I think the worst of this freezing Northern California cold front is over, I wake up and have to chip ice off my windshield. Again. It’s just ridiculous. It’s insulting is what it is.
Consequently, I’ve become quite adept at building a roaring fire. But even still, it takes at least an hour for the huge wood fire stove to get the inside temperatures up from the 54 degrees it is when I get home from work to a tolerable 65 degrees or higher. I prefer higher. Much higher.
Tonight, I simply couldn’t take it any more. If I sat on top of the wood stove, fire blazing, I don’t think my backside would have defrosted. When I first sat down to write this post, my fingers were numb with cold.
And then I did something I rarely do. I made myself a cocktail, a hot one.
I did try eating spicy food first (jalapeno flavored pretzels to be exact) but that didn’t work. And it gave me heartburn. So I pulled up a recipe I read about several months ago from shutterbean.com: Orange Ginger Toddy. I knew if I could get just a little bourbon in my system it would warm me up right away. I’ve seen enough Donner Party documentaries to know just a drizzle of the “hard stuff” would save my life.
It worked! It was quick & easy, too. You can read Shutterbean’s recipe here but I’ll give you quick rundown: Using your favorite orange flavored herbal tea, make a mugful of hot tea. Next add a little ginger syrup (I like anything from The Ginger People), a splash of bourbon and a slice of orange to float on top.
I made a few adjustments for my own taste. I used a blood orange because… well, that’s what I had on hand. I squeezed a little juice in the cup and reduced the bourbon by about half. More tea, less liquor. My lips were still numb about 3 sips in.
I was also finally warm and my little fingers could type away because they were no longer stiff with cold.
But I can’t be held responsible for any typos.
