FrogPrincesse

You are not alone... I like potato salad as long as it's not saturated with mayonnaise. I also like the French version where the dressing is an olive oil vinaigrette with plenty of vinegar and a bunch of chives/parsley, and shallots.

The Navy Dock Daiquiri, found on cocktail virgin slut blog. Decided to post this one in the Cynar thread rather than the daiquiri thread based on the flavor profile. 1.5 oz Smith & Cross Jamaica rum 3/4 oz Cynar 1/2 oz lime juice 1/4 oz maraschino liqueur Oil and smoke in a daiquiri base, with bonus funk from the maraschino.

You got me worried for a second. The flowers are edible. It's the woody parts of the plants that are highly toxic, and the stems. Hank Shaw in Northern California blogged about making fritters and cordial with them. In Santa Cruz, Pim Te uses them in jams (paired with blueberry).

Ann_T: you are very welcome. Your photo looks beautiful!

Reminds me of this one (navy dock daiquiri) which is next on my list of cocktails to try.

Talking about sour beers, here is The Bruery's take on a Gueuze that they named Rueuze. It's a sour blonde ale aged in oak barrels. It smelled really good, acidic with apple cider notes. Not much fizz. Loved the first few sips. After a while though, I found it a little bit too sour (bile-like notes). Overall it was very promising and I enjoyed tasting a gueuze that was not overly sweet.

Looks fabulous. I look for elderflowers whenever I am on a hike, but haven't had any luck so far. I know we have them (Sambucus mexicana/blue elderberry) so I keep looking. I guess I need to hike more often in the spring. They seem quite common in Denmark?

I haven't tried this rum, but anything that is agricole-like sounds perfect for a Daiquiri.

My mint is growing out of control again. I made a Southside for World Gin Day with St. George terroir gin, lime juice, simple syrup, mint. A ton of aroma with the mint and botanicals from the gin (sage, fir, etc). It's such a good cocktail.

This was a quick dessert to satisfy a chocolate craving: a chocolat liégeois made with chocolate ice cream from Strauss Creamery, homemade chocolate sauce, whipped cream, almonds, and brandied griotte cherries. The chocolate sauce was from the Larousse of Desserts and is quite thin, similar to hot chocolate but served cold obviously. This brought me back to France where it is typical with ice cream. Very different from the super rich & thick American chocolate sauce. The good thing is that it feels light so you have a good excuse to drown your ice cream in it.

Grana Padano and Estero Gold (a raw milk cheese from Cowgirl Creamery) with a caramelized onion batard from Sadie Rose.

Michaela, I would plant plenty of citrus trees: lime, lemon, orange, grapefruit. Also other more exotic varieties of citrus such as bergamot or Seville oranges. Peach and cherry trees. Mint obviously. Borage for Pimm's Cups. A hive for honey. Ginger. Cucumbers. Chiles. Hibiscus. An olive tree. Blackberry/raspberry bushes for cobblers. I hope you have a big garden! There is a book called the Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart that seems to be right up your alley. Lots of good ideas on her website regarding herbs and plants.

Hi Steve, I go to Zurich regularly for business. I like the cru sauvage truffles at Sprüngli which are made from wild cocoa beans (I've tried all their dark chocolate truffles and these are my favorites). Sprüngli also has this delicious pastry called an amaretti which is like a little meringue topped with cherry-flavored cream and covered in dark chocolate; really lovely. (For non chocolate items, they make a killer Bircher Muesli). Läderach has a nice assortment of dark chocolate truffles and a large selection of barks. Tschirren has fabulous pastries and chocolates but they are in Bern. They have a shop inside the train station which is about an hour from Zurich. I always make sure to hit the chocolate shops at the airport before leaving - although the selection is limited, they typically have a lot of free samples!

I don't use Grand Marnier very often in cocktail but I found this interesting drink last night on the Cocktail Virgin Slut blog while researching cocktails that combine cynar and maraschino. Sous le Soleil [exactement?] Cali Gold 1.5 oz cognac 3/4 oz grand marnier 1/4 oz maraschino liqueur 1/4 oz cynar 1/4 oz mezcal dash whiskey barrel-aged bitters It tastes briny and surprisingly fresh for a cocktail that does not contain citrus.

I had to look that one up. Thanks, I guess, for enriching my British vocabulary... Last night was La Fin Du Monde (Unibroue), a Belgian-style tripel ale brewed in Quebec. Yeasty with a lot of coriander. Very nice with roasted chicken and vegetables.

I've had it but it felt too rough for me. It is bizarre that there is such a variation with the Sagatiba. It used to be everywhere and then disappeared from the shelves (at least in San Diego). I was excited to have finally found a bottle and while it's not awful, it's nothing special.

Tried the Stone Vertical Epic 12.12.12 again with pizza last night. More than 6 months later it tasted quite sweet with chocolate and spice notes, followed by a bitter finish. It would have been excellent with dessert but was not so great with pizza. As a side note this had not been properly cellared; it's been at room temperature since December. For those who enjoy reading the notes (although they are a little hard to read...).

A couple of classics recently. 3:1 Martini with Plymouth gin and Noilly Prat dry vermouth. Last night we had Caipirinhas. I don't know if it's because this new bottle is not as good as the ones I've had in the past, or if my taste buds are getting more picky, but I didn't enjoy the cachaça (Sagatiba Pura) as much as I did in the past. It did not have the grassy/coconut notes that I remembered.

You are very welcome, Chris. It's good to see you here!

Thanks for all the info Patrick. I just read that hyssop was one of the "essential" components in Chartreuse and Benedictine so now I am really intrigued. I will plant some if I can find seeds.

Lovely. What does hyssop taste like, and do you know the difference between malloreddus and cavatelli (not a trick question, just thought that they looked alike)?

Stone Cali-Belgique IPA was perfect with a yellowtail & lemon dish. Crisp and slightly acidic, with a lot of flavor/spice/funk. Hoppy but reasonably so considering it's made by Stone. Slightly bitter finish. It has a very attractive light orange color.

Morkai - Lovely lamb indeed. Yellowtail with fingerlings, fava beans, lemon, and savory crème fraîche - based on Suzanne Goin's recipe which I now make regularly. The original recipe calls for halibut, other than that I stayed true to the recipe. I could never find savory in the store so I ended up growing it in my small garden just for this recipe...

Beautiful copper trainer, Stephen. We tried Kyle Davidson's Goodbye Marie last week. It's a relative of the Manhattan with apricot liqueur and a lot of bitters. It's funny how precise the recipe is. It took me a while to count all these drops... I used Punt e Mes and R&W apricot liqueur. Goodbye Marie by Kyle Davidson, The Violet Hour, Chicago 2 oz Bourbon, Bulleit 1/2 oz Apricot liqueur, Rothman & Winter (Skinny half ounce, add dash demerara to R&W, or use Marie Brizzard) 1/2 oz Sweet vermouth, Carpano Antica Formula (Skinny, use Punt e Mes if no Carpano) 13 dr Bitters, Fee Brothers 15 dr Bitters, Angostura 1 rinse Bitters, Regans' orange bitters (Into rocks glass filled with crushed ice, sazerac style, about 5 dashes) 1 twst Orange peel (Expressed and discarded, a la sazerac) Fill rocks glass with crushed ice, and coat inside with about 5 dashes Gary Regan's Orange bitters. Build cocktail in a mixing glass, if using apry, skinny half ounce, if using R & W (preferred) make a skinny half ounce out of an eighth ounce demerara and the rest R & W apricot. Stir. Dump out crushed ice and bitters from rocks glass, Strain chilled drink into it. Garnish with orange peel expressed and discarded. I liked it but my husband thought it was too bitter. So I made him an Old Fashioned. Both cocktails were made with Buffalo Trace barrel #19 from Hi Times.

Matt - For mixing, other than Rittenhouse BIB which is my favorite, I've been very happy with Bulleit and Sazerac 6.