If I don’t have a good pizza to discuss, there’s no reason why a good drink can’t suffice.

#joespizzaandboozeblog

I took this picture a few years back during an exclusively-gin phase I went through…I’ve since moved on to darker spirits but gin still has a warm spot in my heart. Nolet’s is a tad fruity & floral on the palate, not as true-to-form heavy-on-the-juniper “ginny” as the standby London dry (Boodles, Tanqueray, Beefeater, Old Raj), more fruity & floral than Plymouth & Hendrick’s, but the bottle made for a good picture.

A good rule of thumb for G&T: go easy on the tonic…all the corn syrup in Schweppes and Canada Dry will overpower the Gin…go easy on it–just a splash or two–or get some genuinely good tonic (Q or Fever Tree). And the lime is a garnish…you’re not drinking a margarita.

Cheers.

While there is no substitute for the freshly procured brick oven baked pizza, sometimes a frozen za with some delicious accoutrements can make up the laziness difference.

This beauty was named “Spartacus” by the proprietors of the pizzeria I visited tonight. Definitely meaty, lots of toppings, yet the crust was crunchy & sturdy enough to hold the weight, holding true to its namesake. Also holding true to name, it put up a ferocious fight with my colon, and won.

You can’t eat pizza every day, so why not throw a little fried fish into the mix.

Nothing fancy…some Shore Lunch, flour, a little milk…but it’s the quality of the fish that makes the meal…and these little gems came from the frigid waters of northern Wisconsin courtesy of Big Dave. If you don’t know how to fish or don’t have access to fresh lakes, ponds, or second-hand fish at a market, know someone that does and become their best friend.

[photo cropped to exclude the array of empty beer bottles; beer is a necessary component to frying & eating fish, though I would caution everyone to ensure the deep fryer is a safely outside the range of your drunken stupor]