Drinks all around!

I LOVE a bargain. Must be the miserly Irish in me (or is that the German side...). And Happy Hour is all about a bargain.

I used to go to Friday's, but they up-ed the price of their drinks by a BUCK and they cut the size of their appetizers in 1/2! and they only offer certain appetizers. Seriously, if you do the price calculation, if you get 5 potato skins for $4 and you 10 potato skins for $7.49...uhhhhhh....

I've tried Champs- WHAT? wHAT? i'M SORRY, IT'S TOO LOUD IN HERE!

And the best one I've found is a little place called Woody's. They have $3 appetizers that are GF!!! And their 12oz margarhita is only $3.25. And it's not watered down like other places. And it's not so noisy. And they are really open to questions about what's GF and what's not.

Take their White Nachos for example. Delicious. Totally GF. ooooooooh, roasted chicken, cheese sauce (yessss GF!) and olives, scallions (most people call them green onions but they're really scallions), and fiesta chips (those are the red, white, and blue ones...I wonder which candidate will do spots for fiesta chips...)

But what I really love about happy hour is the drinks- it's a totally GF substance...usually, right?
Rum is made from sugar- check
Tequila is made from a cactus- check
Schnapps is made from sugar and berries- check
Brandy is aged, distilled wine- check
Wine is made from grapes- check

and then we come to the problem children:
Vodka- can be made of wheat or potatoes.
Beer- can be made from wheat, barley, rye, oats, or rice (yeesssss. Check Leinenkugel's)
Whiskey- can be made from barley, wheat, corn, and "malt" (which comes mainly from barley)

Now, I really like Bailey's, too. Bailey's was invented by Bailey, an Irish biochemist (SCORE!). It has Irish whiskey in it.

Irish whiskey. It's not Scotch (Scottish whiskey). It's not Crown Royal. It's not Johnny Walker. it's Irish whiskey. Why does that matter?

It matters because Irish whiskey is distilled 3 times, generally speaking, Bushmills in particular. Distillation is where the alcohol is basically boiled off into water vapor and recondenses in a different container. It is the distillation process that purifies the alcohol. Perhaps you have done this in chemistry lab. When I did this in chemistry lab, my recondensed alcohol was 99.9% pure. I was a student. These are professionals. They do it three times.

And why does that matter?

Well, the big TO DO about grain liquors and gluten intolerance is that there MIGHT be SOME gluten contamination.

MIGHT BE

after 3 times...

per batch which is then divided into 100s of containers...

and you smelling a delicious bagel or croissant will expose you to more gluten than anything in that bottle. (And that's a different story)

So, while Irish whiskey is not certified as gluten free, feel free to drink your Bailey's on occasion (but not on the road).

ok, PSA done

Sláinte Gaelach!
The Irish Lass