I am Returned

Dropped off the radar for a bit. My apologies. I haven't been sick or injured or thrown in the towel on writing here; there's a more mundane explanation. For months, I've been meeting a series of deadlines that left little time for seeing friends or, frankly, writing for fun — which the Whiskey Forge definitely is. There've been talks, domestic and international travel, articles, book chapters, editing, press, and a new book in the works (yeah, it's about booze; no, I'm not quite ready to talk about it).

Just off Brick Lane on Hanbury Street in London's East End,
Alexis Dias's mural depicts an elephant/octopus hybrid I like to call
Cthulhu Never Forgets

Monday night I returned from two weeks traveling to the UK and Germany. London is fantastic and Berlin incomparable — I visit both as often as feasible — but San Diego is glorious. My first morning here, I walked outside, turned my face to the sun, closed my eyes, and just luxuriated in the warmth and the sound of palm trees swaying in those gentle California breezes. In my first day back, I soaked up more sun than during a fortnight abroad. Miss the seasons? Eh. I do like Autumn, primarily for the chance to prepare cold-weather food and drink, and the near-eternal Spring of San Diego, but you can keep Summer and Winter. I'm hunkering down here for the next few months until this whole rain/ice/snow thing blows over.

Well, except I'll be in Jalisco next month. I've heard there's a distillery or two there. Something about tequila...

Goes well with:

• Cthul-who? Cthulhu, the dread cosmic entity from the fiction of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Seems to be enjoying unprecedented popularity over the last several years. Our nickname for the Buddha hand citron around here is the Cthulhu head citron. Regardless of what you call it, the stuff makes great candied peel for baking and the resulting syrup is good in cocktails. Here are directions for making a batch from the freaky-looking fruit.
• Want a Cthulhu tiki mug? Jonathan "Atari" Chaffin launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of one. He is your man.