Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The birthday bourbon


Today is Howard's birthday! Last night I gave him an early birthday present. It is traditional for Howard and me to present each other, on our birthdays, with yummy bourbons which we sip slowly over the course of the next year. So I gave Howard a bottle of Elijah Craig.

I love that name, Elijah Craig! I love those hoary old 18th century names out of Kentucky.

And I liked the unusual bottle with its wide cork. When we are finished with this bottle I can use it for salad dressing or something.

But the most important thing was, this Elijah Craig whiskey, which I had never heard of, got tremendously high ratings. The reviewers all said it had a wonderful butterscotch taste, it lingered, it was smooth and honeyed and delicious.

And it was!

While we sipped it we read the little tag that came with the bottle.

The little tag tells of the Rev. Elijah Craig who was "the father of bourbon." Imagine having that title. And this is funny: Yesterday two "the father of" situations figured in my day. Just a couple of hours before giving Howard a bottle of bourbon bearing the name of the father of bourbon, I was making a pot of Sen. Barry Goldwater's Arizona Chili out of this cookbook I have. Barry Goldwater was the father of modern conservatism! That is what Howard told me.

Working on my book I should declare Leonard Pennario the father of something. I will have to think on how to word that just right.

Speaking of fathers, you have to wonder if the Rev. Elijah Craig, despite his frontiersman name, was a Catholic priest. I mean, would a Bible belt pastor be making whiskey?

I will have to scour the fine print to see if besides making whiskey he held Bingo games.


2 comments:

sally said...

Well Mary, if you can believe Wikipedia, the good Rev was a Baptist preacher! He invented bourbon!

Mary Kunz Goldman said...

Aha! Thank you Sally! A Baptist preacher inventing bourbon, who woulda thunk it?