the 06/13/2008

NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 10 June 2008

 function tea All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those notedpreviously or below.  JAXA/Japan to IMMT: " Arigato Gozaimasu! This flight was 100% successful for the Kibo elements. Thank you toeveryone involved for the excellent support in preparation andexecution of this mission!" ISS crew work cycle (now including Greg Chamitoff) shifted another30 min. to the left: wake-up 4:32am EDT; sleep 7:32pm (Shuttle crew30 min later: 8:02pm, now including Garrett Reisman). Crew activities aboard the ISS stack addressed five major areas:(1) Waste water dump from the Orbiter, (2) installation of JEM RMSBackup drive system, (3) PAO event, (4) Crew Sayonara, (5) hatchesclosing & ODS leak check. For the biomed experiment INTEGRATED IMMUNE (Validating Proceduresfor Monitoring Crew member Immune Function), FE-2-17 Chamitoff drewhis first venous blood sample, assisted by FE-2 Reisman, for returnto Earth. [IMMUNE protocol requires the collection to occur first thingpost-sleep, before eating, drinking and brushing teeth, and allsamples are stored at ambient temperature. Along with NUTRITION(Nutritional Status Assessment), INTEGRATED IMMUNE samples &analyzes participant's blood, urine, and saliva before, during andafter flight for changes related to functions like bone metabolism,oxidative damage and immune function to develop and validate animmune monitoring strategy consistent with operational flightrequirements and constraints. 

         

8 A lighter way to mix it up

 Powder Drink Name aside, I wholeheartedly support experimentation with wine incocktails. Much as I enjoy 101-proof rye whiskey or 110-proof greenChartreuse, sometimes even a spirits writer doesn't want to consumethat much alcohol. Plus, I love wine. I must warn, however, that using wine in cocktails is a surefireway to scandalize the serious wine aficionados in your life. Whichis always fun. The other day, for instance, I prepared my favorite wine-baseddrink at a little get-together. I opened a decent bottle of Rioja,poured some into a highball glass filled with ice, then topped itwith an equal measure of Coca-Cola. In fact, that drink is called a Calimocho (or a Rioja Libre) and isthe tipple of choice of wayward Spanish youths, a poor man'ssangria. It is also extremely delicious and refreshing on a hotday. "It's a dirty secret, but Coke with a big, fat red wine is great," says Duggan McDonnell,owner of Cantina Bebidas in San Francisco, where Sauternes, malbecsand muscats mingle with harder spirits on the cocktail menu. Wine-based cocktails allow places without hard-liquor licenses toserve mixed drinks. And the move to wine as a drink ingredientseems to speak to many Americans' jitters about drinking hardliquor. "It has to do with lighter palates, people wantingsomething a little lighter," McDonnell says. "I'm all forlowered alcohol, and it's often a nicer overall experience. I don'talways want to taste heat on the palate. I want balance." Fortified wines such as port and sherry have been old-schoolstandards since the early days of cocktailmaking. The classicsangaree, for instance, mixes ruby port with a teaspoon of sugar onice; it's topped with grated nutmeg. Sherry cocktails such as theAdonis, Bamboo and Duke of Marlborough (all slight variations ofsherry, vermouth and bitters) are included in nearly allearly-20th-century cocktail guides. Winemakers R.H. Phillips and Ecco Domani recently jumped on thebandwagon, hiring high-profile cocktail consultants to create drinkrecipes for their brands. The results yielded a few winners,including the Star Gazer, using R.H. Phillips's Night HarvestChardonnay, dark rum, vanilla simple syrup and pineapple juice. TheEcco Sidro, made with a teaspoon of muddled ginger, 1 1/2 ounces ofapple cider, a pinch of chai tea powder and two ounces of EccoDomani Chianti, is popular at the Buddha Bar in New York. McDonnell experiments boldly with wine at Cantina Bebidas. He'llmix vin santo with mescal and Benedictine, garnishing it with aflaming orange peel, to create the complex and sultry Duende. Orhe'll add cabernet and muddled blackberries to a traditionalcaipirinha. "You add wine to the mix -- that residualsweetness, that acidity, that terroir -- you're bringing somethinginto a cocktail that a margarita or a Sazerac or mojito will neverhave," he says. Bartenders in the Washington area have been at the forefront of thetrend. Todd Thrasher, sommelier at Restaurant Eve and cocktailmaster at PX, both in Old Town Alexandria , has many wine-based cocktails in his repertoire, including achampagne cocktail with house-made cherry bitters, a black currantfizz in which the currants are soaked in Gewuerztraminer, a drinkcalled a Mona Lisa involving gooseberries that have been steeped inNew Zealand sauvignon blanc, and a wine cooler made from plum wine,plums, lemon bitters and prosecco. He also plans to serve his ownversion of the Calimocho this summer, but with a homemade colarather than Coke. Thrasher says wine provides a complexity often missing from othercocktail ingredients. "You couldn't just add a few drops ofthat and a few drops of this to a drink and still get the sameeffect as adding wine to a cocktail," he says. Gina Chersevani of Tallula Restaurant and EatBar in Arlington isalso known for wine creations. "I have 40 wines by the glasshere at the bar," she says. "I play with wine all thetime." She makes a syrup from shiraz, balsamic vinegar andstrawberries and adds it to bourbon for a unique Manhattanvariation. But perhaps the most interesting experiment is herSangria Cubes, which she adds to white wine, red wine or, myfavorite, a little gin and champagne for a variation on a French75. One of my go-to warm-weather drinks is the Port Tonic, a blend ofwhite port and tonic on the rocks. At Komi in Dupont Circle , Derek Brown has given the Port Tonic a new twist. His Formosasubstitutes sparkling sake for the tonic, adding a sweet, yeastytaste and aroma that nicely complement the port. No discussion of wine cocktails can be complete without mention ofsangria, that oft-maligned party drink of cheap wine and soggyfruit. "My interest is in refining balance in sangrias,"McDonnell says. He believes that anything can be a sangria as longas it's two parts wine to one part liquor and features an interplayof spice and sweetness. On Page F8 I include his popular TuscanSangria, which combines a sangiovese wine with Tuaca, Punt e Mesand limoncello.