December 14, 2014 Advent with SusieJ

Glassware

My husband Jorj is an amateur photographer who prints his work using a multi-layered technique developed at the dawn of photography. The printing process is light-sensitive, so he works in the basement, next to the washer and dryer. Jorj also likes teaching, and occasionally combines the two in informal demonstrations of alternative printing techniques. These demonstrations take place in our basement, next to the washer and dryer. Like all unfinished basements, ours is an overcrowded mess of appliances, HVAC, pantry items, photography equipment, and things that won't fit elsewhere. The chaos need to be beaten back, if not cleaned up. And _that_ is how Jorj found the cocktail glasses I'd inherited from my grandmother. They'd spent the last ten years or more in an unmarked box in the basement.

I hadn't known that my grandparents owned a set of cocktail glasses. In the summer, Mom and Grandmom would split a Schiltz at lunch or dinner. It would take a year for my grandmother to drink the case she'd bought (a case was cheaper). There might be wine at dinner, but no more than a glass or two.

When my cousin Nina came for Mom's funeral, our second words to each other were "Gin tonic?" And thus started the summer of the gin cocktails, drunk from Grandmom's cocktail glasses, or her old jelly drinking glasses, made with my parents' cocktail shaker.

Beyond the standard gin and tonic (1 ¹/₂ ounces gin over 3 cubes of ice, top with tonic water and a squeeze of lime), we enjoyed some classics, like the white lady (in a shaker of ice: 1 ¹/₂ ounces gin, ¹/₂ ounce Cointreau, ¹/₂ ounce lemon juice), blue moon (in a shaker of ice: 1 ¹/₂ ounces gin, ¹/₂ ounce Creme Yvette, ¹/₂ ounce lemon juice), negronis (in a shaker of ice: 1 ounce gin, 1 ounce red vermouth, 1 ounce Campari) and my friend Gabe's stiles (in a pitcher or 1 L bottle: 300 ml gin, 150 ml St. Germain, 150 ml Lillet, 400 m water, chill).

Jorj printed this photo of Mom for the funeral.