Pasta Estatale

Today was a beautiful day out here in Montana. We drove over to Bozeman to run some errands and visit my uncle's office at MSU. When we returned home, my mother and I walked over to the log cabin down the road where the swimming hole is. We sat watching the water flow for a short while before being wrangled back for cocktail hour. I had promised everyone a Bramble that night, and my uncle and dad were already quite "thirsty" by 6:30 pm. Luckily we had bought perfectly ripe blackberries the day before in Livingston.

My aunt then put out a gorgeous Summer vegetable pasta for dinner with a salad of mixed greens and sliced pear. For dessert we had more blackberries with cassis (and ice cream). My uncle made a comment about the symmetry of our meal. We had started with blackberries and were ending with blackberries. It reminded him of how my grandparents started their meals with a mixed drink and ended their meals with a mixed drink. This led to us discussing what a "stinger" is (whiskey and creme de menthe). Which led to my uncle pulling out the best cocktail book I had ever seen (soon to be disclosed). I spent the rest of the night reading the book, as it is quite entertaining. One of the recipes I found was for a Ramos Fizz, which apparently was my grandfather's specialty. I had no idea about this, and I don't think I would have unless we had started tonight's meal with blackberries and ended it the same way.