“On June 20, 1937, standing on the banks of the Thames in London, Daisy Alexander carefully rolled a tiny slip with a short message and placed it in an empty whiskey bottle, replaced the cork, and tossed it into the slow-moving water”
The message in a bottle could have gotten trapped under a dock or scooped up by a curious fisherman, but it didn’t. It was swept out into the North Sea and currents carried it north past the Netherlands and the rugged coast of Norway into the Barents Sea. Season after season, the little vessel froze and thawed and floated and froze and thawed and floated east along the Artic Circle passing far north of the Soviet Union.
The message finally slipped into warmer waters through the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska. Drifting south through the North Pacific and ultimately along the California coast, the twelve-year, 12,000-mile journey ended in the San Francisco Bay.
On March 16, 1949, Jack Wurm was wandering a deserted San Francisco beach and happened upon an interesting, half-buried bottle in the sand. He noticed something inside the cloudy glass. He busted it open on a rock and discovered a message scribed more than a decade earlier.
This was the Last Will and Testament of Daisy Alexander, heiress to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. Daisy passed from natural causes at the age of 80 in 1939.
“To avoid all confusion, I leave my entire estate to the lucky person who finds this bottle and to my attorney, Barry Cohen, share and share alike.”
– Daisy Alexander, June 20, 1937
A couple of things come to mind upon learning about this fantastic story:
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Take a look at your beneficiary designations and legacy planning.
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Be a little nicer to your crazy, whiskey-drinking aunt Daisy this Thanksgiving!
This Thanksgiving, I am deeply thankful for you, my clients and friends, for the trust you place in me, and for the opportunity to be a part of your journey. I am grateful not just for the food on our tables but for the people who enrich our lives, the stories that make us laugh, and the community that supports us in all seasons.
May your holiday be filled with warmth, laughter, and gratitude for all the little things that bring comfort to our days.
Aunt Daisy’s Special Dish
Bourbon Sweet Potato Casserole with Sweet ‘n’ Savory Bacon Pecans
Casserole Ingredients
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4 medium sweet potatoes
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3/4 cup brown sugar
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2 teaspoons vanilla extract
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1 teaspoon cinnamon
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1/4 cup whole milk
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4 tablespoons salted butter, melted
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2 large eggs, beaten
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2 tablespoons bourbon
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kosher salt
Sweet ‘n’ Savory Bacon Pecan Ingredients
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4 slices thick-cut bacon, chopped
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3/4 cup brown sugar
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1/3 cup all-purpose flour
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1 1/2 cups raw pecans, chopped
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6 tablespoons salted butter melted
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1/2-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
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2 tablespoons freshly chopped sage
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1-2 teaspoons fresh chopped rosemary
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Poke a few holes in the sweet potatoes and bake for 1 hour or until soft and tender. When the sweet potatoes are cooked, slice them in half and allow them to cool.
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Meanwhile, make the bacon pecans. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan and drain onto a paper towel. In a medium bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, pecans, butter, cayenne, sage, and rosemary. Stir in the bacon.
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Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Peel the skins away from the flesh of the sweet potato. Add the sweet potatoes to a mixing bowl. Mash well. Mix in the brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, milk, butter, eggs, and bourbon until combined. Season with salt.
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Spoon the sweet potato mixture into a 9×13 baking dish. Place pecans evenly over top
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Transfer to the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the pecans are golden. Serve warm topped with flaky sea salt.
