Thistle

Pyloric stenosis. 

It's a condition that occurs within the first few months of a newborn's life that causes muscle spasms to the intestines, making a newborn projectile vomit. The constant vomiting is troublesome because the baby will starve and dehydrate all at the same time. As if babies didn't have enough to deal with. 

So why am I changing subject and bringing this up? Because my newborn developed pyloric stenosis just four weeks of being on this planet. On Memorial Day, at 7am, she went in for surgery to correct the problem. An incision is made to the muscle and when healed, the vomiting stops. 

The surgery was a success and she is back home with us. Before having her I never realized how I could love something so much. No parent wants to see their child go through something like that. But she's good and so am I. 

The surgery is yet one more thing that we have in common. We were both born two weeks late, on our parents anniversary, via emergency c-section, and both developed pyloric stenosis at four weeks of age. 

So that was our Memorial Day weekend in a nutshell. Not a lot of time for blogging, so I made another one of Babbo's drinks. They are pretty easy to assemble, no cooking or long sourcing trips required, and I could use a stiff drink after our baby scare. 

This recipe features Cynar, a liqueur from Italy made from 13 different herbs and plants, the main ingredient being artichoke. 

Yeah. I'm scared too. 

I take out my wife's drink shaker from college and add ice, orange vodka, Cointreau, Cynar, and orange juice. 

This gets mixed well and poured into a martini glass. Not being one for mixed drinks, I used a different glass as I still have not bought anything for martinis. 

The drink gets garnished with a dash of bitters and a twist of orange. 

My wife and I both had the same reaction...ugh. Orange flavored paint thinner is still paint thinner. I'm sorry Mario I'm more of a wine guy. If you like martinis you would probably dig this drink. But we didn't. 

Oh well. 

There are just two more drinks left in this book to make and I can be done with this chapter once and for all. I promise there will be more cooking very soon. I have a three-day weekend coming up and I plan to make the most of it. Until next time...