Paper Plane

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Hood and I really like doing things together. Which is normal for married people but honestly, we just enjoy making each person a part of whatever thing we are doing, no matter how silly or small. This is not to say that it always goes over well. I really am not that into woodworking and I certainly have my opinions which can be annoying and Hood hates any sort of reality TV. Which is the only kind of TV I like. But we try to make it work, even with all the bumps that come along with it.

One thing that we both really enjoy doing together is making cocktails. This was not on purpose. Neither of us really were into mixed drinks at all. I was a strict wine person, Hood drinks coffee. I know this sounds kind of dumb and cliche, but as with us, we at this point have started to max perform the cocktail, or at least our bar. We don't do cocktails all the time, but as is true with our house, and basically everything in our life, if we can do it ourselves and save money so that our money goes further, we are on board!

We are currently building cabinets... wish us luck.

At our wedding, well, wait first, our wedding was incredible. Thanks to so many people, specifically my parents, we really had a dream event. We got married in Austin, which getting married in Texas was incredible because everything is always available and possible and seems like it was a discount because it wasn't Hawaii.Like seriously, if you want to rent an elephant for the day, the question is not can but which vendor would you like to choose. We love Texas.

All we wanted was for people to have a good time. Everyone had traveled there, I think only five people, including Hood, actually lived in Texas. We had a cigar bar, I am Cuban, we had incredible food, the weather was amazing, a fire pit, dancing, an incredible cake, it was just fantastic. And me being me, I want everything food related to be perfect and we wanted everyone to have what they wanted. And Texas being the land of freedom, we had an open bar and we bought all of the alcohol ahead of time to save money.

Well, we had almost the perfect amount, we were short on Scotch but we had about one bottle left over of everything at the end which I thought was perfect. My parents let us keep it and one Craigslist ad later plus Hood bargaining, we walked away, and for $20 we had a new old entertainment center soon be bar.

Hood sanded it and stained it and we've now had this bar for over three years. We love it. He made a wine rack for the bottom and the bottles fit perfectly on the top, and inadvertently our journey into the cocktail world together began. And only occasionally do people ask, "Is that an old entertainment center?"

Well, years later, I bought some Amaro Nonino. Amaro Nonino is an Italian amaro or bitter liquor. When you really start getting into it, you soon realize that Italy makes a ton of variations on the concept of an amaro. Families have been making them for generations and some have become more and more popular making them into the mainstream liquor market.

Amaro Nonino can be a little bit pricey, but it will quickly become on of your favorite ingredients. I mean honestly, we only have Amaro Nonino on hand as I bought it for for the Parisian Cocktail, which also calls for this tasty ingredient.

When you buy a bottle of Amaro Nonino, it comes with a little recipe book. Most of the items in there take things a step further asking for ingredients that I have never heard of, but I look through it from time to time hoping to find something I missed.

So, I think I discovered the Paper Plane is in that book. I mostly tried to make it at time because it had the name plane in the title and I thought Hood would like it, and we had the ingredients, which is key, so I went for it.

Great choice on my part.

We both tried it and looked at each other like the first time we rode jet skis and said, "Whoa, that was cool."

For our third wedding anniversary, Hood really did well. I had mentioned to him several times that each anniversary has a theme: paper, wood, lace, etc. He is all about checklists so this worked really well for him,

Well, your third anniversary is leather and crystal. Easy enough, well, he took it up a notch and was quite clever and cool. Hood is very clever and very cool, I love it!

He loves to hike, I don't love it as much but I am trying to love it. More than than, it is something we can do together. Which we do like. It is outside, it is covid friendly, and overall just good for body and soul. I am on board, and if it gets me into skiing shape faster, because I just hate exercising in general, I am really on board.

So, for our third anniversary, Sean got me two presents. He got me a pair of Danner leather hiking boots, which I loved and then proceeded to not want to get dirty. And he got me a set of Waterford crystal champagne coupes. The glasses are each a different pattern, look like they are from the 1920's, and besides making me feel really fancy on a Tuesday, are the perfect size and shape for a fine little cocktail. Oh my gosh, the glass are so cute and so classy. I love them and I love him.

So, with the leather and crystal, what did we do?

Well, we went last minute to Yellowstone for our anniversary and I used my boots. Thankfully, it was late fall so there was no mud and no snow yet, just frozen ground, so they stayed looking brand new. And then we made Paper Planes in what else, but the most perfect glasses ever made for the Paper Plane, the champagne coupes.

The most special thing about the Paper Plane, besides the fun glass, is truly its color. The recipe calls for Aperol which I normally don't care for too much, I mean, I have had my share of Aperol Spritzs on an Italian afternoon because that is what you do, but it is by no means my go to beverage. It's just so bitter. You can't even really call it tart. But in this drink the aperol is transformed and gives it really good flavor and this insane fluorescent orange color. My gosh, it's beautiful.

It's the perfect balance of taste, sweet and all the aromas of bourbon that smell good and none of the ones that make it harsh. We like to use Bulleit bourbon but you can use whatever you have on had.

The only thing we are missing is a dehydrated orange, but we don't have a dehydrator so the oven will have to do for now.

Enjoy!!

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