Hi Aunt Rose! Happy 90th birthday to you, from all of us! We are sending warmest wishes to you, and hoping that you have a wonderful day (week…month…year!) filled with well-wishes and greetings from far and wide!
I’ve been thinking back to when I was a little girl, and remembering how, in my eyes, you were always the wonderfully exotic and fancy great aunt…coming to visit all the way from Ontario gave you some kind of celebrity status in my eyes, like you were closer to all that was special and cutting-edge, and oh-so-very cool. You were always beautifully put together, with gorgeous clothes, immaculate hair and makeup (making you seem like even more of a celebrity in my mind!), and you smelled wonderful, with a gentle perfume that was distinctly yours. I don’t even know what your perfume of choice was back then, but I know that anytime I happened to catch the scent of it in a department store, I immediately thought of you. I loved (and still love) your incredible laugh, and how, when you’re telling stories, the whole world seems to light up with your enthusiasm and spark. And there was always the hint of excitement and anticipation that, during one of your particularly exciting or dramatic stories, you might use a word that we didn’t typically hear around the dinner table… 🙂 You had a way of making me feel as though I was incredibly special, which was so wonderful as a young girl, and continues to be so today!
You’ve always shown kindness and generosity to my family, and you’ve been so lovely with Cian and Aine. You are warm, kind, happy, thoughtful, we’re blessed to have you, and we love you! Happy birthday Aunt Rose!
My rose-inspired recipe: (because another thing that made you SO cool in my eyes was that you loved having a drink in the evenings)
Rose Martini
2 ounces gin
1 ounce dry vermouth
1 teaspoon rose-infused simple syrup
2-3 dashes grapefruit bitters
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice cubes, and add the gin, vermouth and rose syrup. Shake well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add a few dashes of grapefruit bitters, and garnish with a rose petal.