Back a few years ago I shared an office with six other guys in Kalispell, way up in the Flathead Valley in northwest Montana. We provided an array of what some might call ‘professional services’ and served an astoundingly diverse group of clients in our office.
We entertained hoards of very hard working and largely underpaid everyday Montanans as well as the more occasional globe-trotting socialites summering in Whitefish, denizens of business (Kodak royalty, Microsoft and HP giants), Hollywood stars and wannabes, trustifarians, politicians, drug-runners and other ne’er-do-wells.
Now and again an enterprising individual would offer to barter something in lieu of payment, something several of us found intriguing. Personally I’ve always enjoyed the process of haggling / negotiating, at least to some degree, so much so that I end up doing it just about every day now.
Over the years I bartered a side of beef and a nice hog among other things, though never much of anything you’d call really interesting.
On the other hand, one of my colleagues managed to stumble across a family who combined a prodigious and repetitive need for his services with a staunch insistence in paying with what some might call moonshine.
They offered an array of different adult beverages changing with the seasons and while I never had the pleasure, he once reported that he had occasion to see their, ah, production facility and found it to be surprisingly sophisticated. And yes, occasionally my associate would break out one of these treasures to share with the team.
(Mind you I’m not supporting or advocating in anyway the illegal production of distilled spirits. Not even close, even if it’s come up in conversation on more long, cold winter nights than I can count on your and my fingers put together and we did it on occasion in my high school chemistry class.)
I’d be remiss to not say that a couple of us were so intrigued that we actually explored in some detail what it would take to set up a distillery in the area, though it never came to pass.
A couple of weeks ago friend Libby fired over an email with this little gem of a recipe for a home-made Irish Creme that she’d run across and produced in mass volume at the request of a family she catered a wedding for.
We immediately rounded up the necessary (legal) ingredients and gave it a try; it’s not as fun as a still in the backyard (just guessing) though Libby was right – it’s damned good.
2 cups 18% cream
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
2 cups of your favorite Irish whisky
1/2 cup coconut rum
2 tbsp. chocolate syrup
2 tsp. vanilla extract (use the good stuff)
Whisk the cream and sweetened condensed milk together until well combined.
Stir in the whisky, coconut rum, chocolate syrup and vanilla extract, mix well.
Pour into a clean glass bottle with tight lid, hide well in the fridge. Good for two months though I can’t imagine it lasting that long.
Enjoy.
