Have Yourself a Boozy Little Christmas
(Dec. 8, 2011) Several years ago, at a family Christmas gathering in Sacramento, my brother-in-law served the pie and asked if anybody would like a drink to go with it. There was a pot of decaf going in the kitchen, so I asked him for a coffee with Bailey’s. He gave me an odd look. “Are you sure?”
Was I sure? Well, it wasn’t my house, and maybe I was being a bit presumptuous. I’d scanned the liquor supply earlier and decided this was the best postprandial option on offer. “Um-yeah,” I said. “Is that okay?”
He shrugged and nodded and disappeared into the kitchen. He came back a few minutes later and presented me with a cup of coffee spiked with one dried leaf.
“What is this?” I said, pulling the dead organic matter from my mug.
“Didn’t you want a coffee with bay leaf?”
Ah, the merriment that ensued!
Every family gathering needs a charming anecdote to get us through the evening. The offending leaf was tossed, my coffee was topped off with Bailey’s, and since then, every year, my brother-in-law has presented me with a bottle of Bailey’s and a jar of bay leaves at Christmas.
And I love it.
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ONE Comments
Comment / By Tony Platt / Dec. 12, 9:43 a.m.
A martini with lemon peel? A boozy Christmas without egg nog? How low have fallen the standards of the NCL. Fire columnist Amy Stewart immediately. Hire me.