Every year as we approach Ben Franklin’s birthday on Sunday, January 17th,  I read the Papers of Benjamin Franklin – published by Yale University Press – for what he wrote 253 years ago. 

I go back this number of years as it is the year that he was the same age as I am. I do it early in the year as January 17th is Dr. Franklin’s birthday. It’s also my 62nd birthday and the birthday of my grandmother Hazel and my step sister Janet.   

Note the capitalization in his quotes below – in the middle of sentences – was as Franklin wrote. 

Advice from 1768 – Keep Exploring

As the editor William Willcox writes in the introduction to the 1768 edition, “In his political world almost nothing happened that was to Franklin’s liking.  In his intellectual world he and his associates were enthusiastically asking questions and probing mysteries, with a gusto unfettered by wrong answer and dead ends: they were alive with the spirit of inquiry.” 

Among his interests during the year were encouraging Dr. William Watson’s application of disciplined science on Smallpox Inoculation  – exploring the Gulf Stream, revising the Lord’s Prayer and creating a phonetic alphabet.  

Advice from 1768 – Live and Enjoy THIS MOMENT

On April 16th he wrote to his wife Deborah on his age and aging.  “Amidst all the sickness and misfortunes to our friends what reason have you an I to bless God, that we at these years enjoy with our children so great a Share of health and so much happiness in other respects.  Let us be thankful of what is past and present and not presume too much on a continuance of the same felicity for the future.  

Later that year he also wrote, “I know that according to the Course of Nature that the living even of another Day is uncertain. I therefore now form no Scheme but such as are of immediate Execution. “

Advice from 1768 – Enjoy the Bracing Rejuvenation of Nudity

Franklin believed that the body was revived by a cold shock.  He felt a cold bath was too violent.  So he turned to a different approach as he wrote “I have found it much more agreeable to bathe in another element, I mean cold air. With this view I rise early almost every morning, and sit in my chamber, without any clothes whatever, hall and hour or an hour according to the season, either reading or writing.  This practice is not in the least painful, but on the contrary, agreeable. I call this a bracing or tonic bath.”   

As we travel the adventure of 2021 – Keep Exploring and Live in the Moment.  I’ll leave the cold air nudity to an option :).

Happy Birthday Ben, Hazel, Janet, Michelle Obama , Mohammad Ali, Jim Carey, Andy Kaufman, Al Capone, Betty White, James Earl Jones, Mick Taylor, Kid Rock and the many others born on January 17th .

I’m stopping my WHINING and just going to find a way or make one. 

This week I came to the realization that despite my naturally optimistic mindset – deep inside a part of me was “whining” about what I can’t do during this holiday season.   

This week – as we got a dusting of snow and brisk weather, I was transported to the high arctic where years ago I participated in the Aspiration Expedition. Our journey recreated the last 200 miles of Admiral Peary’s famous trek. Peary with his second in command, Matthew Henson, were the first to reach the North Pole in 1909.  

Admiral Peary, one dark winter during an earlier arctic exploration trip to Greenland, was hobbled with a broken leg.  He famously wrote on the wall of his snow hut in Latin, “Aut viam inveniam aut faciam” or in English “I shall either find a way or make one.”

As I remembered the adventure, I realized that my whining about the fact that I can’t host our annual company Christmas party and other traditional events is just whining.

And frankly, this “Covid inconvenience” is nothing compared to my North Pole challenges: 1) full white out, 2) the day of a dozen stretches of open water and of course 3) the day I fell into the arctic ocean at 40 degrees below.  

In each case, we “found a way or made a way.”  The photo left to right is the amazing Corky Peterson, Arctic Legend Paul Schurke, myself and the amazing Craig Kurz. 

From now forward, I’m going to do as we did in the high arctic. I’m going to Find a Way or Make One. I’m going to reinvent our holiday party and going to invent new holiday traditions.  

Onward! 

Doug

Here’s a great recipe for the holiday season: 

Maple Cider Whiskey Sour

INGREDIENTS

• 2 ounces of Paddle Wheel Bourbon
• 3 ounces of Fresh Apple Cider
• Squeeze of Fresh Lemon
• 1/2 ounce of Maple Syrup

DIRECTIONS

Shake and strain into a rocks glass with fresh ice.   

The Beach Bar Blog is about giving people hope in these challenging times.  Usually it’s with a smile, a story or an optimistic perspective. This week is different, it’s more on the real and tangible hope side….

Online Brainstorming Beats In Person

I am now convinced that online brainstorming is how brainstorming should always be done – even after COVID.

I can’t believe I’m saying this because for over 40 years we ran Eureka! Inventing in person. Changing it, as the graph shows, when confidence declines, mindset is impacted.  

The new Eureka! Inventing 11.0 version delivers BROADER & DEEPER thinking by participants. And, quantitatively – over 90% of the ideas created are scoring over the “GO” test standard and 60% over the “WOW” standard. 

18 years ago, I tore out a recipe for Baked Alaska from the August 26, 2002 issue of Saveur Magazine. It’s a classic dessert where ice cream is baked in a hot oven – insulated by sponge cake and meringue.  It’s best known as the dessert that cruise ships often serve with sparklers on top on the last night at sea. 

This past week for my wife’s birthday, I finally cooked it. I hit a few “speed bumps” in making it – but in the end it worked and was INCREDIBLE. We laughed as we ate it – wondering what took me so long to cook it. Frankly I’d been scared of making it as the recipe looked challenging. I mean think about it – imagine what could happen putting 2 pints of ice cream in a 450 degree oven.

I laughed again when cleaning up my office and found various “quotes” on the importance of JUST DOING IT – Just GETTING UP AND GETTING GOING that I had never included in a blog. 

So – this week – here are the quotes – and my rewrite of the Saveur recipe – so to help you not make some of the mistakes I made. I look forward to seeing photos of how your Baked Alaska comes out :). 

“We build things quickly and ship them.  We get feedback. We iterate, we iterate, we integrate. We have these great winds around: “Done is better than perfect.”

-Sheryl Sandberg Facebook COO

“We’ve invested in building up the infrastructure, tools and culture that tells people to take risks. That gives us the ability to build stuff quicker – this will be a big advantage for us over the long term.”   

-Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO

“I think bad radio is when you don’t change it up.”

–Howard Stern Sirius Radio Host

“There is really no secret to our approach. We keep moving forward. We are always exploring and experimenting. We call it imagineering.”

-Walt Disney

“For every great song of mine that has truly connected with people there are hundreds of bad ones. For every great live show, there are hundreds of train wrecks that helped me learn what worked and what didn’t. If you don’t know what you DON’T WANT TO BE, you’ll never become the person you do what to be.”  

-Lzzy Hale – Grammy Winning Singer, Songwriter and Guitarist

Baked Alaska (Serves 8)

INGREDIENTS

For FILLING

• To pints of your favorite ice cream
• 7 inch diameter bowl
• Plastic Wrap

For CAKE

• Butter and flour or Cooking Spray for pan
• 8 inch diameter cake pan
• 1/2 cup of cake Flour
• Pinch of salt
• 3 eggs separated
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
• Parchment Paper

For the MERINGUE

• 3 Egg Whites
• 2 pinches cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup of sugar

DIRECTIONS

STEP 1: Get your Ice Cream into the proper shape

The center of your Baked Alaska is Ice Cream – whatever flavor you desire. 

1. Line a 7 inch diameter bowl with plastic wrap up and over the sides.
   • (I didn’t do it – and had a challenge getting the ice cream out)
2. Add 2 Pints of Softened Ice Cream (your choice of flavor) smooth out the top
3. Freeze till hard – 3 to 5 hours depending on how soft it was

STEP 2: Bake the Cake that will be the Base of Your Baked Alaska

1. Heat oven to 325° F. 
2. Grease an 8″ round cake pan; (with butter and flour or cooking spray)
3. Mix flour and salt together in a bowl; set aside
   • 1/2 cup of CAKE FLOUR
   • 1/4 teaspoon of SALT
4. Separate 3 EGGS into YOLKS and WHITES – in separate bowls. 
5. In bowl with YOLKS beat on medium high speed with a hand mixer for a couple minutes.
   • Slowly add 1/2 a cup of SUGAR until fluffy
   • Add 1/2 teaspoon of GRATED LEMON ZEST and 1 tablespoon LEMON JUICE
6. In the bowl with EGG WHITES beat with clean beaters till stiff peaks form. 
   • Fold egg whites into yolk mixer with rubber spatula. Fold in flour mixture in 2 batches, taking care not to deflate batter. (It’s ok to feel stressed at this moment – I was.
7. Pour batter into pan and bake 20 to 25 minutes till a toothpick comes out clean
8. Let pan cool then invert into rack – peel off and discard parchment. You can pause at this point till you are ready to serve. 

STEP 3: When Ready to Make & Serve – Make Meringue

1. Heat oven to 450° F. 
2. In a mixing bowl add the following:
   • 4 EGG WHITES
   • 2 pinches of CREAM OF TARTAR
3. Beat with Mixer on medium speed till Soft Peaks Form
4. Turn Mixer to HIGH – slowly add sugar
   • 1/2 cup of SUGAR
5. Beating till thick, shiny and stiff peaks form

STEP 4: Here we go – 

1. Put cake onto parchment lined baking sheet
2. Invert Ice Cream onto cake and peel off plastic
3. Cover Ice Cream and Cake with Meringue
   • BE SURE TO GET bottoms edges or you’ll have a “leak”
4. Bake until meringue begins to brown – about 4 to 6 minutes
5. Carefully transfer to a cake plate using two metal spatulas
6. Serve immediately and ENJOY

Enjoy,

Doug

What I’m thinking about this week is the need to release from “woulda, coulda, shoulda.” 

The past is past.  

It’s time to focus on the meaningfulness of THIS MOMENT.  

It’s time to focus on creating the TODAY and TOMORROW that is our calling. 

With the world filled with covid, it’s easy to embrace the blame game. It’s easy to hold onto what is wrong. It’s easy to become focused on what CAN’T WE DO – as opposed to what is possible. 

Challenging times, challenge thinkers to create great things. Major wars inspired innovators to invent Canned Food, Plastic Surgery, Microwave Ovens, Digital Photography, The Internet, Blood Banks and even Stainless Steel. 

To escape the mental distraction of politics, I’ve put my head down and am focusing on creating my future. I’m creating, testing, reinventing, testing, reinventing and shipping new ideas in both my personal and professional life. Some ideas work, most don’t, but success is not the point. Each win or loss makes me smarter as I create my future.

So what are you waiting for? Get Up! Get Out! Get Going! 

Cocktail Recipe – Vermont Maple Whiskey Sour

Sue and Tim Hogan gave me a bottle of pure and delicious Vermont Maple Syrup. Maple syrup is a great way to transform a summer whiskey sour into fall deliciousness:

• 1.5 ounces of Bourbon (Paddle Wheel being my favorite)
• 1 ounce of Fresh Lemon Juice (if too much try 1/2 ounce)
• 1 teaspoon to 3 teaspoons of Maple Syrup (or 1 tablespoon to 1/2 ounce)
• Pinch of cinnamon

Shake or stir all ingredients and strain into a glass with fresh ice. 

Cheers,

Doug 

I am captivated when I get see the sun rising in the morning. I am equally captivated when I get to see the moon rising in the evening.

Nearly every morning here on Prince Edward Island when I come down the stairs and see the  sun rising, I can’t stop looking at it. I watch the sunrise from the front porch and from the window in my office. I’m not sure why I love both of these experiences. 

For some reason, even through the sunset looks like a sunrise, it just doesn’t excite me as much. It might be because both offer a sense of hope and new beginning. 

They both bring light and energy to the darkness. They both make you look up from the here and now to a world of opportunities. Then again, they both go with beverages we make: sunrise with Brain Brew Coffee and moonrise with Brain Brew Whiskey 🙂

The photos were taken this past week within 10 hours of each other. They are shot looking east towards New London Bay from the front of our PEI Canada farmhouse. 

First Recipe This Week: Magical Lobster Butter 

Being in the land of great seafood, we have had fresh lobster this week thanks to our neighbors (Kent and Vera) who each got us lobster during our quarantine.

Based on some unscientific testing here’s my choice for the best lobster butter. 

Combine the following:

• Melted Butter
• A Big Squeeze of a Fresh Lemon for acidity
• A Splash of Absinthe or Pernod 

Next up, I’m going to try it on fish. 

Second Recipe This Week: Best Cocktail with Lobster 

My favorite drink to sip with lobster was what Dr. Deming used to have every Saturday night during is weekly lobster dinner. Being from Wyoming it was known by some as the Cowboy Martini or as the Deming Martini: 

The Deming Martini 

• Fill an old fashioned glass with ice
• Add 3 fingers of Gin (my current favorite with lobster is Hendricks Gin)
• Enjoy

As you may or may not know, Gin like Rum always has some sugar added.  Sometimes with London Dry Gin it’s very, very low sugar. With others, it can be quite a bit of sugar.