FrogPrincesse

Heidi - That sounds very similar to an LLB, lemon lime & bitters, a delicious soda made by Angostura and available in the Caribbean, which is easily reproduced at home.

Have you tried it? Our friends bought a bottle and we sampled it with them. It tasted like a very rough eau-de-vie with anise and fig undertones. We did not care for it - not refined enough for sipping and it did not seem very versatile for cocktails.

Indeed it's a beautiful straw!

Stone Pale Ale. Robust but quite subdued on the hop front for a beer from Stone. I get mostly citrus and malt. Interesting to think that this was their very first beer, in 1996. A lot has changed since then in the beer world. Really nice with a couple of carnitas tacos.

Tzatziki, There was a discussion of Hemingway daiquiri ratios here. It looks like you are using the PDT ratios. I prefer to up the grapefruit and reduce the lime. I use a little more total citrus and maraschino than the PDT version but it's easy enough to reduce the maraschino if you think it's too sweet. I've also seen recipes that only use a teaspoon each of maraschino and grapefruit juice (like the one rumdood published here). Just try several versions and pick the one you like best (or come up with our own)!

This drink was created by a bartender for bartenders at the end of shift. It tastes very different after you have straw tasted 150 citrus drinks and 100 brown and stirred. You have serious palate fatigue, thus the name, and you need something with HUGE flavors. Trust me this is really tasty at 2:30am on a Friday night.Unlike Chris, I really liked the Fatigue. A deliciously bitter banana-cinnamon smoothie.

Thanks for the picture. That looks really good!

Hi LT, I recommend both books. The Drunken Botanist is a well-researched and well-written book that is very pleasant to read. Buy it if you are interested about botany and the history of plants used to make alcoholic beverages. If you are mostly interested in cocktail recipes, the book only contains a few. The Cocktail Lab has a lot of recipes, some that are easily achievable at home, and some that require equipment that most people don't have access to (centrifuge, rotavap, etc). But unlike most cocktail books which are a collection of recipes, this one describes the ideas behind these drinks and the creative process, and that makes it a fascinating (and inspiring) read.

One full ounce of grenadine? Wow. I find this quite terrifying :-)

Dan - I just knew this one would be coming up! I don't have any Tanqueray so Beefeater will have to do. Hopefully my homemade syrup will be worthy of this drink.

Okanagancook, I haven't tried April Bloomfield's version, but I love marinated red peppers. Plantes Vertes made another version recently (here). [nice cookbook collection by the way! ].

Heidi - I was in a restaurant in Santa Barbara recently and they had just picked a few wild fennel flowers (the smallest flowers) and sprinkled them on a cucumber soup I believe. I thought that was a great idea. It was pretty and delicious.

haresfur - I have been St. Germain-free for a few years now. But I imagine that it should be roughly the same flavor profile if my syrup was successful. So yes, I could use it in cocktails that call for St Germain. Are there any interesting ones that I should try?

Twyst, Regarding "poêler", I am not sure what you mean by "traditional meaning of the word". I was just pointing out that the first definition for "poêler" in the French dictionary is to cook something in a frying pan. So this is what French people like me who did not go to culinary school will think of when you use that term. It’s also what I have seen in French restaurants to describe menu items that are cooked in a pan – “foie gras poêlé” is a typical example. Regarding “cuisson poêler” from the Guide Culinaire, it seems to be very specific and corresponds to the technique you describe in your post. Because the term is confusing, I’ve seen some people prefer the terms “cuisson à l'étuvée” or “cuisson à l'étouffée”. Ce qu’on se poêle….

Sounds easy enough!

Thanks Plantes Vertes. I am missing the mulberry (or blackberry) jam but I've bookmarked the recipe. I may try the spritz next time my husband is out of town (he abhors spritzes and all things bitters), which reminds me that I have to teach myself to open champagne bottles to be fully self-sufficient (I have already conquered the grill...).

Schot in Het Donker (Shot in the Dark), a saison-style beer brewed with cherries. El Segundo and Tender Greens collaboration. It's dry and very aromatic.

I love this. I follow the same steps but have not tried it with garlic (or black olives), just olive oil with a small amount of red pepper flakes and a squeeze of lemon juice. Leftovers are great in sandwiches.

The summer succotash is very photogenic but I thought that it was a little too heavy with the heavy cream. I prefer a lighter version.

Poêler is cooking in a pan = to fry. It seems that arroser is correct in the cooking context to designate the action of basting with butter or melted fat, although for general use it just means "to water".

Thanks Adam, that sounds like something I would be interested in trying.

iainpb - thanks for the photo report. I am intrigued by the combination of beets with plums. Would you mind describing the dish? Thanks!

Thanks tanstaafl2. Based on the fact that I don't care much for Bombay Sapphire, I haven't bothered to try the East gin. What is it like? The original recipe for the Far Eastern Gimlet calls for vodka (!) but Maks Pazuniak had this variation on eGullet with Hendrick's so I started there.

Far Eastern Gimlet with gin, lemon juice, homemade elderflower cordial, angostura bitters. It does have the typical gimlet profile but it was kind of a "meh" for me. Looking for more interesting things to do with my elderflower cordial. The elderflower taste is on the subtle side.

It's summer so I am sure everyone is making plenty of interesting salads. I would like to see recent examples of what everyone is doing with the summer bounty. Here is one that I made last night with what I received in my CSA. Mixed greens, white peaches, roasted beets, crumbled fresh goat cheese, Arbequina olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing.