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

State of Mind, State of Body

Many years ago I competed in triathlons, and one race always sticks out in my mind. Actually, it's one moment from one race. I was on the bike leg, which for me was always my strongest. As I was riding along and happily gaining ground on all the folks who were stronger swimmers, another woman came up alongside and said, "Hey, nice bike." We chatted for half a minute about the finer points of Cannondale bikes, and then she sped off. When I looked down at her calf muscle and saw the permanent pen markings that indicated her age, I read five zero, fifteen years my senior! Humbled? Yes. Impressed? Very much so. I have long been drawn to older, fit folks. If you've been a longtime reader of my blog, you might remember when I wrote about George Garside and the Auckland Cycle Touring Association . This was a group of incredibly fit 60, 70, and 80 year old men I was privileged to ride with once, and the experience definitely left its mark. These men took their fitness serio...
6 comments
Read more

A Sense of Style

Some people collect stamps, others recipes. I seem to have a penchant for shoes, but let me just say that mine is not a typical collection because it has an extreme lack of diversity. To be honest, I was a little horrified the other day to look down in my closet and realize that perhaps, just perhaps, I had gone over the edge. You decide. Now, I have my justifiable reasons -- don't we all? My feet have always had issues, just ask my sister. For years she kept track of my toenails, or lack thereof. After years of running, hiking, skiing, and spending time in large, clunky boots with low arches that don't prevent my toes from slamming into the front of those boots, I have bruised (and lost) many a toenail. Nowadays, my feet are cursed by plantar fasciitis. If you've never suffered from this ailment, may you pray to the feet gods that you never do. This tends to be one of those aging problems. Your arches sink over time, which is not a good thing if you didn't hav...
2 comments
Read more