Turk10mm
Just smokin
Well, I thought I would describe an evening in the life of myself that has been enhanced by Cigarpass in the short time I've been here. If it comes across a little blurry, its because of AVB and his plethora of spirit reviews that got me up and moving to my liquor warehouse where just about anything available can be had.
I started the evening with my girlfriend shopping for frames to hang some pictures in the manroom. (The manroom is my space, my territory. It is a sanctuary dedicated to all the things that I love in my life outside of my girl and my family. It houses my computer workstation with all my gaming hardware. I recently built my first indoor workbench from Birch so that I can work on my RC helicopters without cluttering the rest of the house. My humidor is in here, etc etc)
We got home and I started preparing a large salmon filet that I caught with my dad and grandfather on a 3 generation fishing trip in Alaska earlier this year. The filet was 14" tall and almost 28" long and about 4 inches thick in the middle. I prepared it with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, a hint of red wine vinegar, and lemon juice for 20 minutes in a marinade. You can't marinade fish for too long with garlic and lemon juice because it will begin to chemically cook. The salmon went onto a cedar plank and into the oven for cooking. i then prepared a fresh spinach and bell pepper sauce with olive oil, garlic, butter, salt pepper, and wine. Let the red pepper soften in the pan and throw the spinach in for the last 10 minutes before serving on medium high heat.. I steamed 4 artichokes and made a lemon butter garlic sauce for dipping and then warmed some bakery fresh ciabata bread. Dinner was served with a nice but not overly expensive pino.
After dinner was consumed completely, my girl and I matted and framed 3 pictures for my manroom and hung them on the wall. I have to wait for a custom matting of one other which will have to wait a couple of days..
And then the best part of the evening arrived. I went to the humidor and selected an Oliva Special S Natural Torpedo. This will be the first time that I smoke an Oliva (yup, I'm that new to smoking cigars.) I then made a small glass of A.H. Hirsch bourbon from AVB's plethora of spirit review posts.
http://www.cigarpass.com/forumsipb/index.php?showtopic=8477
The moment the first drop hit the glass I knew that this was going to be something exceptional. I put my nose in the glass and didn't want to come back to reality. I sat there for the better part of 5 minutes taking in the nose of this wonderful liquor. I was afraid to taste it. I was afraid that it wouldn't taste as wonderful as it smelled. Oh how wrong was I. When I finally decided to take a taste, I was shocked and amazed at how wonderful this could really be. The last thing I wanted to do was cover up anything for my first taste of this spirit with a cigar, so I drank this one without any accompaniment. *EDIT* I am not familiar enough with cigars to try and analyze a wonderful spirit while trying to filter out what is from the cigar, so I didn't want to tarnish one with the other until maybe one day I can decipher the differences.
So after the AH Hirsch was unfortunately gone, I decided to pour a glass of my, also newly aquired, Booker's Small Batch Bourbon. The review can be found also by AVB
http://www.cigarpass.com/forumsipb/index.php?showtopic=15647
I poured a couple of fingers of this over a cube of ice. I again put my nose in the glass and instantly realized that this aint your grand daddy's bourbon. Nope this stuff will put hair on your chest, and in your ears, and in your nose. I wanted to try a sip uncut, and it was suprisingly mellow but definitely had that burn associated with high alchohol content. The taste was exotic and fresh. But WHEW its stout. My bottle states that its 6 years and 3 months old with a 126.7 proof. So to continue drinking I put just a tiny splash of bottled water in the bourbon to cut it down to a more manageable proof.
I then took my folding Xikar cutters and Blue Rhino lighter outside with my Bookers and Oliva Special S. I made my cut then gradually lit the foot with the blue rhino (might i add that a blue rhino will light anything, but it can get a little carried away if you aren't careful. Three flames sounds cool, but it'll roast your smokes wrapper if you aren't very careful). Instantly I found that the cigar and Bookers were going to be a hit. My girlfriend and I sat on the porch and talked about the day and tomorrow. The cigar tasted like cane sugar and spice in concert with the Bookers which nosed of Christmas spices and citrus fruit (sorry if i'm wrong, its what it smells like to me even know as I nose it again. I'm no afficianado) The two were a symphony, something I'd never experienced before. The Oliva isn't anything blatantly special, and the bookers is no 300 dollar bottle of booze. But tonight, on my patio, in my back yard, with my girlfriend, it was heaven.
I smoked slowly, the cigar burning perfectly. My ash approached 3 inches before I unfortunately forced it to ash, it wasn't ready yet. The next thing I knew I smelled something funny burning. It turned out to be the band. I had lost track of space and time. I quickly pulled the band off and finished another minute or two later. All in all the smoke lasted at least 45 minutes, and my drink required a refill in that time.
I'm now on my 4th Booker's, two cubes of ice, and splash of water. I refuse to drink anymore, however, because the alchohol is muddying my taste and I don't want to waste something as great as this.
I hope that no one is upset about this post. But I just wanted to let those who chose to read, in on an evening in my life that I will probably remember well for a long time.
AVB, thanks for the wonderful tips on some very fine spirits. They made my evening a masterpiece.
I started the evening with my girlfriend shopping for frames to hang some pictures in the manroom. (The manroom is my space, my territory. It is a sanctuary dedicated to all the things that I love in my life outside of my girl and my family. It houses my computer workstation with all my gaming hardware. I recently built my first indoor workbench from Birch so that I can work on my RC helicopters without cluttering the rest of the house. My humidor is in here, etc etc)
We got home and I started preparing a large salmon filet that I caught with my dad and grandfather on a 3 generation fishing trip in Alaska earlier this year. The filet was 14" tall and almost 28" long and about 4 inches thick in the middle. I prepared it with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, a hint of red wine vinegar, and lemon juice for 20 minutes in a marinade. You can't marinade fish for too long with garlic and lemon juice because it will begin to chemically cook. The salmon went onto a cedar plank and into the oven for cooking. i then prepared a fresh spinach and bell pepper sauce with olive oil, garlic, butter, salt pepper, and wine. Let the red pepper soften in the pan and throw the spinach in for the last 10 minutes before serving on medium high heat.. I steamed 4 artichokes and made a lemon butter garlic sauce for dipping and then warmed some bakery fresh ciabata bread. Dinner was served with a nice but not overly expensive pino.
After dinner was consumed completely, my girl and I matted and framed 3 pictures for my manroom and hung them on the wall. I have to wait for a custom matting of one other which will have to wait a couple of days..
And then the best part of the evening arrived. I went to the humidor and selected an Oliva Special S Natural Torpedo. This will be the first time that I smoke an Oliva (yup, I'm that new to smoking cigars.) I then made a small glass of A.H. Hirsch bourbon from AVB's plethora of spirit review posts.
http://www.cigarpass.com/forumsipb/index.php?showtopic=8477
The moment the first drop hit the glass I knew that this was going to be something exceptional. I put my nose in the glass and didn't want to come back to reality. I sat there for the better part of 5 minutes taking in the nose of this wonderful liquor. I was afraid to taste it. I was afraid that it wouldn't taste as wonderful as it smelled. Oh how wrong was I. When I finally decided to take a taste, I was shocked and amazed at how wonderful this could really be. The last thing I wanted to do was cover up anything for my first taste of this spirit with a cigar, so I drank this one without any accompaniment. *EDIT* I am not familiar enough with cigars to try and analyze a wonderful spirit while trying to filter out what is from the cigar, so I didn't want to tarnish one with the other until maybe one day I can decipher the differences.
So after the AH Hirsch was unfortunately gone, I decided to pour a glass of my, also newly aquired, Booker's Small Batch Bourbon. The review can be found also by AVB
http://www.cigarpass.com/forumsipb/index.php?showtopic=15647
I poured a couple of fingers of this over a cube of ice. I again put my nose in the glass and instantly realized that this aint your grand daddy's bourbon. Nope this stuff will put hair on your chest, and in your ears, and in your nose. I wanted to try a sip uncut, and it was suprisingly mellow but definitely had that burn associated with high alchohol content. The taste was exotic and fresh. But WHEW its stout. My bottle states that its 6 years and 3 months old with a 126.7 proof. So to continue drinking I put just a tiny splash of bottled water in the bourbon to cut it down to a more manageable proof.
I then took my folding Xikar cutters and Blue Rhino lighter outside with my Bookers and Oliva Special S. I made my cut then gradually lit the foot with the blue rhino (might i add that a blue rhino will light anything, but it can get a little carried away if you aren't careful. Three flames sounds cool, but it'll roast your smokes wrapper if you aren't very careful). Instantly I found that the cigar and Bookers were going to be a hit. My girlfriend and I sat on the porch and talked about the day and tomorrow. The cigar tasted like cane sugar and spice in concert with the Bookers which nosed of Christmas spices and citrus fruit (sorry if i'm wrong, its what it smells like to me even know as I nose it again. I'm no afficianado) The two were a symphony, something I'd never experienced before. The Oliva isn't anything blatantly special, and the bookers is no 300 dollar bottle of booze. But tonight, on my patio, in my back yard, with my girlfriend, it was heaven.
I smoked slowly, the cigar burning perfectly. My ash approached 3 inches before I unfortunately forced it to ash, it wasn't ready yet. The next thing I knew I smelled something funny burning. It turned out to be the band. I had lost track of space and time. I quickly pulled the band off and finished another minute or two later. All in all the smoke lasted at least 45 minutes, and my drink required a refill in that time.
I'm now on my 4th Booker's, two cubes of ice, and splash of water. I refuse to drink anymore, however, because the alchohol is muddying my taste and I don't want to waste something as great as this.
I hope that no one is upset about this post. But I just wanted to let those who chose to read, in on an evening in my life that I will probably remember well for a long time.
AVB, thanks for the wonderful tips on some very fine spirits. They made my evening a masterpiece.
.
