Homemade Gran Marnier

(He-he-he! You are a little devil, aren't you?)

Okay...buy a big bottle (quart?) of cheap brandy.

Pour it into a bigger glass container.

Add two cups of sugar, and,

One largish orange - pierced all over with a sharp fork, but NOT cut.

Let sit for at least two or three weeks (which is just about the right lenth of time). Stir, and cover lightly, if you wish.

Pour back into the original bottle, although you will have plenty left over for samplng.

Discard the orange WITHOUT tasting it! It tastes awful!

Sip from tiny cordial glasses. Yummy and smooth! Gets better, I think, after a year or so. Would be great with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and maybe peaches...like a Benedictine parfait, only softer.

...........

In some ways you are right, Kebod, it is 'buyer beware' in that we need to know so much more than advertising tells us.

We can become thoroughly stressed, confused, and disillusioned if we feel we must suspect and investigate everything/everyone.

I find it so much easier to accept that most have ulterior motives in their marketing practices. I don't blame them...they see this as a dog-eat-dog world, and feel they 'have to' take every advantage they can get.

I just smile because I've seen it all before, and can imagine the rest. But I smile also because we are all the same, people trying to do what we think we are 'supposed to'.

Having spent decades worrying about who is doing what to who, and trying to duck, I've found that I can trust myself to notice what is sincere and true, the best available, and what is for me and mine, now.

For want of a better explanation, it is 'instinct', I think.

Sometimes I am able to get fairer treatment, just by projecting warmth to someone who hasn't shown fairness before. I 'ask'/'tell' them, silently, smiling inside. We are all inheritors of the peace and beauty of the universe...no matter that we have made mistakes in the past.

Makes me seem like a Pollyanna, often, but I don't mind. I know who I am. ...At last.

My best,

Fledgling