Mixed Business

By Dianne Boate and Robert Meyer

Very good looking chicken pot pies caught our eye through the window of a small store in The Rocks section of Sydney, Australia. Irresistible Force met Immovable Object: We went in the store. Surprise, surprise! Once inside, we found it to be part newsstand, part hardware, part deli, part toys and games, and some clothes, too. Back out on the street, clutching our hot steaming pot pies, we looked at the name of the place: "MIXED BUSINESS." Perfect. In planning a variety of topics to talk about for January, we thought it would be appropriate for our title, too.

Well, this month of January, of course. The new month of the new year. We come into it with new ideas, new resolves, new goals… (some of us might even have new faces.) New is the key. New offers possibilities and opportunities–the secret of a rewarding life that is productive, prosperous, and happy, Yes, you can. January seems to be a diving board primed to help us plunge into our lives to make changes–to go on diets, clean house, make fresh beginnings in many aspects of our lives.

Now you know this column is about good things to drink. We have talked about the moderation issue several times. With the idea of some new plans for the new year, we thought this is a good time to cut down on drinking alcoholic beverages, and we have a few suggestions on how to go about it. You don’t have to do it forever.

l Don’t drink on Mondays

l Drink non-alcoholic beer only for a week or two. (Dianne likes Clausthaler.)

l Allow yourself what you want EVERY OTHER DAY. No cheating! Make a plan!

l Start exercising more. You will eat and drink less.

l Follow each drink with a tall glass of water. Hetch Hetchy is fine.

l Whatever amount you are drinking, cut it in half.

What we think, what we eat, what we drink, are all things that we can only do for ourselves. We decide. Finding the best balance that can create a better life is a worthy goal. It just takes some thought followed by effort. It is great fun to feel you really deserve that glass of great wine when it comes along later. Before we leave the "new" subject, "What’s new?" is really a pretty horrible question. You are put in a position of being forced to instantly edit your whole range of activity and personality to give a short, clear, interesting answer. It is tiresome. Please, Mother, make them stop it.

Ms. Boate loves margaritas, martinis (gin or vodka), chardonnay from wherever, sweet and dry vermouth (favorite, VYA), Spanish brandy, Guatamalan rum, Bloody Marys, champagne, dacquiris, non- alcoholic beer, to name a few. But! Her problem is not the alcohol, but the appetite it creates for more food! She alternates with Ideas 4, 5, and 6; Idea 2 is also a favorite.

He likes the taste of everything, some things more than others; Jameson Irish Whiskey, Single Malt Scotch, Alaskan Amber Beer, Cognac, Bordeaux wines, Burgundy wines, Grappa, Eau De Vie (especially Poire William), Alsatian Gewurztraminer, Oregon Pinot Noir, South African Pinotage. Some people think he was born with a glass in his hand!

He cuts down by skipping the cocktail hours\, one glass of wine with dinner. Remember two great sayings….. "If you can, don’t not," from Malcolm Forges, and "If it was easy, everybody would be doing it," from Anonymous.

There are food and wine adventures around every corner. A lot of them happen right at home, sometimes on purpose. So here goes:

The tickets to a Cal-Stanford game in Berkeley carried coupons for a Quarter Pounder, so after the game, we bought the burgers and drove down to the Emeryville Flats to eat them in the car, watching the setting sun, with a $40 bottle of cabernet handily fished out from the trunk of the car.

After looking wistfully at the Krone Hotel on the Rhine River on several occasions, on one trip we finally stayed there. Dinner service was well under way by the time we arrived in the dining room. One could see in a flash–full blown first class. On the way to the table with several servers waiting, we already knew what we wanted, having spotted it on the way through: boiled potatoes with cream sauce, white asparagus with lemon butter, hearty rye-whole wheat berry bread, dry medium quality Riesling. O Heavens, thy name is good choices.

On a wet winter visit, we were very late, but fortunate to secure a small cabin at Yosemite Lodge. Dining room closed? No problem. A can of Sterno, a small pan, a can of very good beef stew was assembled; French bread unwrapped and cut, an avocado sliced for the top and grated cheese at the ready. The finishing touches–a candle lit and a bottle of peppery Amador Country Zinfandel were just right. As we ate and drank our feast, listening to the rain on the roof, a question Dianne’s father was famous for asking came immediately to mind: "Hmmmm, wonder what the rich folks are eating?"

This impromptu meal was so good we repeated it at least twice. We were in a small cottage with a kitchen, on the edge of a vineyard and an orchard. From the local small store, we purchased potatoes, fresh ground beef for patties, green peppercorn mustard powder ,and local squash for the meal; the wine was Porcupine Ridge Cabernet-Merlot that sold for the equivalent of $5 a bottle. We ate outside, always; in January, it is summer in South Africa.

We will end with the best advice from our favorite friend, Anonymous:

"Whatever you are, be a good one."