Mango Margaritas

May 18, 2022May 8, 2022 — Food — 3 min read

I had always preferred the traditional lime margarita, but that changed when we spent time in Mexico last fall. My wife had a mango margarita at the suggestion of a waiter. It took a couple of more visits to restaurants before she convinced me to try one. It was okay but nothing to write home about.

Then she started to make them herself. She kept after me to try them and slowly but surely she was winning me over to them. The problem was there was something about her recipe that just wasn’t right for my taste. I’ve always been willing to experiment, and experiment I did. She was making her margaritas by first making a concentrate, then adding ice and water before drinking.

My first task was to come up with what I felt was the correct concentrate. Mango juice, triple sec and tequila were the ingredients. Since Jumex Mango Nectar is readily available I settled in on it. (Other brands are okay but we like Jumex the best.) Since the overwhelming flavor was the mango a few tests and we concluded it made very little difference to our taste buds which brand of tequila or triple sec we used. (By the third margarita it makes absolutely no difference.)

As you can see we make our margarita concentrate in a one quart jar. We weigh out the ingredients precisely each time we make the concentrate. The ingredients are: 16 fluid ounces of mango nectar, 3 fluid ounces of triple sec and 6 fluid ounces of tequila. We keep all the ingredients and the premade margarita concentrate in the refrigerator. It is the ratio of ingredients that is important, 16:3:6 in our case. You can make yours at any ratio you prefer, just keep it consistent once you determine what you like best.

When the time for enjoying a mango margarita arrives, we add 6 fluid ounces of our premade margarita concentrate, 2.5 fluid ounces of ice and 2.5 fluid ounces of water to the glass, stir, and enjoy. Again it is the ratio that is important, not the actual amounts. This gives us both the taste we like which is actually very unusual since our tastes in foods and beverages usually differ with me preferring strong and spicy, with my wife being the opposite. The key to all this is for everyone to experiment to find what they like best, then make it the same way every time. And in case you might be wondering, no margaritas were consumed during the writing of this post.

Wine: Secondary Fermentation

May 17, 2022May 8, 2022 — Food — 1 min read

The wines are now doing their thing in the glass carboys. I plan to wait until after we return home from our summer RV travels to bottle them. Then it will be two or three years before they are at their best to drink.

Adding a Solar Switch to Sophie

May 16, 2022May 8, 2022 — Travel — 2 min read

The four solar panels on Sophie’s roof mean that any time the sun is shining power is being sent to the new lithium house batteries. There was a detailed post on the LTV RV Enthusiasts Facebook group about how to install a solar cutoff switch. It sounded like a good idea, so after ordering and receiving a few parts from Amazon, it was time to do the install.

Before installing the switch it was necessary to make sure the all power was off. Step one was to cover the solar panels so they wouldn’t generate any power, which was followed by disconnecting the negative cable on the lithium house batteries.

The installation required drilling a hole in the a thin panel with a step bit, something I had never used before and I could just see myself drilling too big of a hole with it. In my workshop I found a similar piece of paneling and drilled a test hole. It was far easier than I thought it would be to drill the correct size hole.

The back side of the panel with the switch installed. Next is was a simple matter of wiring in the switch. (Unfortunately I was so caught up in how easy the whole installation was I forgot to take a photo of it.)

The panel with the new switch reinstalled. The hardest part of the whole install was reaching back into this little compartment to take out and later replace the six small screws that held the panel in place.

Katydid

May 15, 2022May 7, 2022 — Nature — 1 min read

Amazing how insects can cling to a glass door

A Wee Bit of Wee Beastie

May 14, 2022May 7, 2022 — Food — 1 min read

I can hear it now. How can you drink 5 year old Scotch? If it is Wee Beastie, “With Great Satisfaction” I answer. One person’s Nectar of the Gods is another’s hog slop, and so be it. To me boiled turnips aren’t fit for man or beast, yet my significant other absolutely loves them. If we like something it is good, if we don’t maybe some else will like it. Their are legions of Scotch drinkers who wouldn’t be caught dead drinking a 5 year old Scotch. Thank goodness for them, it means it is more than likely there will be a few bottles of Wee Beastie on the store shelf for me.

To quote from the Ardbeg Wee Beastie webpage: “[T}he rawest, smokiest Ardbeg ever . . . sappy pine resin and a sharp tang of smoke . . . explosive mouthfeel bursts forth with . . . creosote and tar.” That’s my kind of Scotch. Your preference may differ.