I am in college now. And it's an exciting time of drinking and partying and getting STDs.
*struggle* *BANG* *POW* *KER-BLAM*
Phew! Sorry, this is Tori now. My former roommate typed those last two sentences.
Oh, yes, it is an exciting time, but I'm doing it my way - sober. It amazes me how much personality people have when they are drunk compared to when they are sober. I think I have never laughed so hard as the time my old roommate came in, full up to her ears of cheap vodka, and shushed the people with her like so:
"SSSSSSSHHHHHHH, GUYSH. MY ROOMMATE'SH ASHLEEP."
How pathetic. I laughed it off at first, but my disdain turned into anger when I opened up our mini-fridge (that I bought myself!) and found it completely full of Bud Light. We live in a dry dorm, not that our RA really cares if we get sloshed. I still was nervous, especially since God knows who could have gotten into our room, seeing as my roomie forgot to lock the door a lot. Luckily, she got it out before I got a chance to confront her about it. Still, the inconsideration just irked me.
Any weekend that I am brave enough to stay on campus instead of going home, I have to deal with a racket clear into the wee hours of the morning, being made by people who can’t resist the temptation of cheap beer. If I walk out into the hallway, chances are that there is will a group of drunks gathered around the bathroom/kitchen doorways, making it awkward to go into them. If I go into the bathroom, chances are I feel awkward peeing because someone stumbles in drunk, yelling, and banging on the sinks or doors.
I just don’t see what is so fun about a few hours of a “buzz”, then either vomiting out your vital organs (spending the night praying to the porcelain god) or passing out cold in your bed at 3. The second isn’t so bad, until you wake up with a splitting headache and missing pants. Yeah, loads of fun.
The logic behind getting drunk just doesn’t make sense to me, and it never will. That’s why I have never touched alcohol to my lips, nor will I. And if that makes me a nerd, or a goody-goody, then so be it. At least I will wake up every morning knowing what I did the night before.
My father is the same way. He has never drank beer and he never will.
I understand where you are coming from, but alcohol can be complementing when taken in with food.
moderation is the key
See, I think Dr. Pepper can perfectly complement any meal. Or sweet tea or milk.
Even water. I was not raised in a home that has alcohol in it so I was never taught that it is a culinary experience.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/srhs-bandchic
^^^^ Take a peek ^^^^
Question: do you use vanilla flavoring in any of your recipes?
Did you know that (at least if it's real vanilla extract and not imitation) it has more alcohol in it by volume than nearly all drinks?
Yep. 70% alcohol, actually (typically).
But no, you'll never get drunk from your chocolate chip cookies. The alcohol cooks out. This, too, is why you'll see a lot of recipes call for wine.
And before you get into the whole "why not just use [insert non-alcoholic ingredient here]?" let me explain.
To keep with the cookie analogy, have you ever noticed that most cookies contain pretty much the same ingredients -- flour, sugar, baking soda, eggs, butter and vanilla. For that matter, brownies even contain pretty much the same list there. Yet they all have their own distinct taste and texture. Why is that? Because of the different ways the ingredients are combined, different amounts of each item results in slightly different reactions.
Did you know that if you melt the butter for chocolate chip cookies, you'll get a batter with a smoother texture that will result in softer cookies (same for brownies, btw)? Yep. That's because melting the butter helps the sugar dissolve, instead of leaving it crystallized.
"But chocolate chip cookies use brown sugar, as well!" You know what brown sugar is? Sugar and molasses. You know what molasses is? Liquid sugar. Well, kind of. It's sugar cane (or sugar beet) juice and is a byproduct of making....you guessed it...sugar.
How about bread? Flour, water, maybe a little oil, yeast, and a little sugar and salt will make just about any kind of white bread you can think of. Substitute the flour for whole wheat flour and you have wheat bread. Again, the amount of each ingredient and the way they are combined create the different effects (for example, I use the same ingredients for both my pizza and my stromboli doughs, yet the stromboli dough becomes thicker and cooks darker).
So, what does that have to do with using wine when cooking? A lot. Just like how the addition of brown sugar makes chocolate chip cookies have their distinct flavor, adding wine creates its own flavor. The alcohol adds a particular texture that you can't get with grape juice (which is more water-based than wine), just like how melting butter (as opposed to just softening it) will change the texture of the cookies or brownies.
And why not drink grape juice instead of wine? For one, wine isn't as sweet, or as thick. The alcohol adds a tartness that you can't really get otherwise, as well.
Another thing you have to keep in mind when it comes to having wine with dinner is that the wine isn't selected because it has alcohol in it. It's simply a drink that happens to contain alcohol as an ingredient.
That said, I agree with those that don't see a point in getting so drunk you spend the last half of the night paying homage to the porcelain god and the next day feeling like you're head is getting pounded by a jackhammer. I drink once in a great while, but mainly because I like the taste of certain drinks (I'm very picky and can't stand cheap alcohol in general, let alone things like beer), I have no interest in getting completely drunk and generally only have one, maybe two glasses/bottles (12 oz) of anything an entire night.
I am treated as evil by people who claim that they are being oppressed because they are not allowed to force me to practice what they do. ~D. Dale Gulledge
"The logic behind getting drunk just doesn’t make sense to me, and it never will. That’s why I have never touched alcohol to my lips, nor will I."
If you want to see a logic to it: the value of the experience of those few hours being drunk is so intensely joyous as to easily be worth 10 hours of feeling bad the next day.
It was enough for me to see my cousin vomit her insides out so that I would never get any sort of temptation to just take a small swig.
But for people who really do like to drink and have different beliefs, should know about moderation and their own self (how much they can take without becoming a blathering buffoon)
"A person doesn't die when he should but when he can."
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
"close your eyes, clear your heart..." A Muslim Girl's Plight
dude i am so with you on this. i would hate to lose control of my body and mind like that...and grape juice tastes twenty times better than wine--WHY NOT DRINK THE GRAPEJUICE, ya know?
Awesome post! I agree with you...it's sad to see people do stuff like that. I have some relatives that used to be alcoholics, and I just don't even want to get into it, so I completely refrain (and will continue to do so) from alcohol. I think if you're brought up in a household where alcohol is used and you drink like a sip every once in a while, I think you're less likely to go overboard when you get older, because it's not a big deal.
RESPECT LIFE
http://progressiveu.org/blog/respectlife
"It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
~Mother Teresa