Skip to main content

About Bittersweettoast



Welcome to my blog. I'm Jo Rayl, writer and photographer behind these posts. Bittersweettoast was an idea that was hatched five years ago and literally stemmed from a joke I made to a friend about sharing 50 drinks between the four months that separated our 50th birthdays. It was only in the retelling of this joke that another idea hatched: writing a blog investigating the life of a quinquagenarian and the world of cocktails and food. Interesting combination, I agree, and I will always be thankful to the friends who gently nudged me to start writing. My initial goal was to write about 50 drinks in my 50th year, and as I near 55 I realize there was a lot of ambition in that goal. The journey, however, continues to be a fun one and so I march on.

Who am I? Wife, mother, teacher, cook, skier, reader, cyclist, friend, and baker of a mean chocolate chip cookie. Like most of us, I have experienced both the bitter and the sweet in life and can't always explain the twists and turns that life presents. Taking the time to remember and reflect is an unexpected bonus of writing this blog. I also love to learn new things, and the world of mixology and food is giving my taste buds an opportunity to experience their own twists and turns, their own bitter and sweet. So thank you for stopping by. I hope you come away with a thought to ponder and a new taste to try. A votre sante!

















Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 6, 2017 at 6:08 AM

    Jo,if you are so inclined please send me your chocolate chip cookie recipe. You guys are always welcome at our home in Jackson hole if you want logo ski or bike😃 Chicago is one of our favorite cities and happy that your daughter is thriving.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownOctober 6, 2017 at 3:51 PM

      I would be happy to send you my 3 favorite recipes! I'll get your email from Leigh. Thank you for the invite -- I have always wanted to ski at Jackson Hole. What a wonderful place to call home!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cheaper by the Dozen

Beautiful, aren't they? There's something about farm fresh eggs that almost makes me want to quit my day job and become a lady farmer. Almost. For now I will settle for my son's occasional post as head keeper of a friend's menagerie, which happens to include ten chickens. Fortunately for me, these chickens are prolific producers, so when our friends go on vacation, we are the happy recipients of many  beautiful eggs. At first we revel in the most scrumptious omelets and scrambled concoctions. By day four or five, however, I admit to often having egg overload. Not this time. As soon as these eggs started appearing, I began thinking about Ramos Gin Fizzes because when made the old fashioned way, they contain an egg white. If you're like me, this news would normally bring a halt to my experimentation. But my new stock of farm fresh eggs gave me reason to carry on because they came from chickens that I have watched cluck and roost, and that makes all the differen...
Post a Comment
Read more

It's A Small, Small World

The solstice nears. I know this mostly due to my sleepless state, which is caused by our 16-hour long days. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but it would be nice to sleep in past 5:15 each morning. Unfortunately, our local flock of birds makes that extremely difficult, and so I persist through my mind's foggy state. Nevertheless, I love summer. As a teacher, my battery is drained and in need of recharging. As a Northwesterner, my body seeks to replenish its store of vitamin D. And as a working parent whose life is just a little too busy, I relish the slower pace of life that summer brings. It's difficult for me to welcome summer and not think about Aloha Hive, the camp in Vermont where I spent two summers as a young girl. This was a camp that my mom went to for eight summers and my sister for two. I knew I was destined to follow in their footsteps, but the timing came a little sooner than expected. When I was just 7 years old, my mom needed to have a triple b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Getting To the Root of the Matter

Curcuma longa is the botanical name for a plant whose rhizome harnesses incredible healing power. We know it as turmeric, the bright orange spice that is produced from the plant's root, and it has been used for over 4,500 years as an important part of Ayurveda, one of the world's oldest forms of medicine. Like snow to the native people of Alaska, turmeric has over a hundred different terms in the Ayurvedic world. Jayanti , one victorious over diseases, relates to the lengthy list of health maladies this powerful spice has been used to fight: inflammation, cholesterol, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, digestion, gallstones, cuts and burns, colds and sore throats, and (my favorite) leech bites. Matrimanika , beautiful as moonlight, is another name for the versatile spice and refers to its historical use in Indian wedding ceremonies where the bride and groom rub a paste with turmeric all over their bodies, providing them each with a special glow and promise of matrimonial pr...
2 comments
Read more