FrogPrincesse

dcarch - Thanks! In our household the roe is the cook's treat (i.e., my husband does not care for it). I grilled the roe in the shell and ate it on a slice of baguette. It disappeared before I remembered to take a picture. With the leftover lobster meat from the knuckles I made a simple salad of "freckles" lettuce (a type of romaine with burgundy spots), dressed with a little bit of homemade green goddesss dressing and plenty of chives from the patio.

The Devil's Playground looks great. I need to pick up a bottle of Cassis.... There are lots of other options for you in the Genever thread. Recently, I've really liked the intensity of the Ice Pick (genever, maraschino liqueur, violette liqueur, orange bitters, lemon twist) and the Holland Razor Blade (genever, lemon, simple, cayenne pepper). It's also great in a John Collins.

You could probably fix that with a dash of grapefruit bitters. Of course. In these cocktails though, I think what I appreciate the most is being able to taste the delicate floral flavor of the grapefruit, rather than the strong bitterness typically associated with grapefruit.

Mjx? I believe she was in Florence recently.

One of the great classic grapefruit cocktails is of course the Hemingway Daiquiri. Substitute lemon for lime, and gin for rum, and you get The Sands, a cocktail created at Milk & Honey and currently on the menu at the Varnish in LA, a sister bar of Milk & Honey where I first heard about this cocktail. Delicious. I used an oro blanco grapefruit which is very fragrant and lacks bitterness.

Looks like an interesting book. Please tell us more!

I don't think so, at least not recently. A west coast gathering sounds like a GREAT idea. Are you volunteering to organize it? ;-)

Saffron is quite popular and the food is ok, but it's nothing remarkable. It is noticeably better when Su-Mei Yu is in the kitchen.

The Brooklynite: Jamaican rum, lime juice, honey syrup, angostura bitters. Similar to the Captain's Blood but with honey syrup instead of simple. It feels a little lighter than the Captain's Blood, with a slight fruit flavor from the honey.

Congratulations on the new job and best of luck to you!

Looking at the various suggestions in the WSJ article makes me think that a Rye Smash would be another nice summer addition for your lineup. Delicious and pretty easy to make.

Thanks Emily, I would never have thought of putting limes in the blender! I will try this recipe soon.

Celebratory mood this weekend so we grilled a couple of lobsters. The female had the most beautiful light pink flesh. I was tempted to eat it raw. Here there are before and after the grill. A little bit of butter and a squeeze of lemon, very simple. We grilled a couple of zucchini with Za'atar as an accompaniment.

By itself Cocchi Americano is quite delicious. Just one large ice cube and a blood orange zest. That was my drink tonight.

Prepkitchen (Little Italy) Although I am a big fan of Whisknladle (same team), I tried Prepkitchen in La Jolla a few times in the past and did not care for its limited menu. The food is usually well prepared, but not particularly memorable. The setting is quite basic too. A new Prepkitchen opened fairly recently in Little Italy and resembles more Whisknladle with a comfortable room and a more ambitious menu. The large windows overlook Date Street where the farmers market takes place every Saturday. We had brunch there this Saturday and had a great time. The cocktail menu has a few classics and some new creations. I have a weakness for the London Burning that I discovered at Whisknladle but decided to order the Stick and Rudder which, while not completely balanced, had an unexpected caramelized rosemary flavor. My husband opted for an Ommegang beer. We started with a flatbread. Very thin crispy crust, and a topping of heirloom tomatoes and zucchini. A great start to the meal. We continued our meal with a couple of pork items: the porchetta sandwich and the pork belly tacos. The porchetta sandwich had plenty of meat and was very savory. Not as refined as the porchetta sandwich we had at Ariccia last week maybe, but still delicious. The pork belly tacos don't look like much on the picture but they were terrific. The meat was perfectly caramelized, and the sliced radishes were a great touch.

Emily, That sounds really nice, although I would probably substitute gin or tequila for the vodka for a little more flavor. I have a friend who makes a killer Serrano cocktail "spice", so I would not even need to infuse the alcohol. How do you make your mint limeade?

I had a head of cauliflower in my CSA a couple of weeks ago so I decided to make a gratin (usually I just roast it in the oven with some herbes de Provence and olive oil). Since the weather is warm, instead of a heavy cream-based gratin, the Gratinéed Cauliflower with Butter and Parmesan Cheese from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cuisine caught my eye. The cauliflower was boiled until tender, then roasted in the oven with salt, butter, and plenty of grated parmesan. The next day, I made a cauliflower soup with the leftovers. On eatyourbooks.com I spotted Rockpool's recipe for a Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Parmesan. Since my cauliflower was already cooked, all I had to do was sauté some onion and garlic. Then I added the cauliflower and some water (I didn't have any stock). I simmered it for a while and blended using a stick blender. Then I added the cream and Dijon mustard. It would probably be best to mix the mustard with a small amount of soup before adding it in, because it did not incorporate fully. I did not add any parmesan as there was already plenty from the gratin. It was a delicious soup.

You have quite an impressive list already. The Rattlesnake is a little involved to prepare but it's really an amazing drink (maybe more wintery though?). In your list I also really like the Manhattan (who doesn't), the Brooklyn, the Final Ward, the Red Hook, and Remember the Maine. To go with your American theme I would offer an American trilogy. It's a wonderful twist on the old-fashioned. You may want to add a few lighter/fizzy options into the mix, which would be welcome with the warm weather. Rye and ginger (with a good quality or homemade ginger beer) Ross Collins (rye, lemon, orange, angostura bitters) A punch would be also a good option. The Chatham Artillery Punch comes to mind but you said you were trying to avoid using champagne. In David Wondrich's Punch book there are a few other rye-based punch recipes that look good. Otherwise there are a ton of excellent Manhattan and Brooklyn variations. Here are a few that I really like and were not in your list. Bensonhurst: rye, dry vermouth, maraschino, cynar Bushwick: rye, sweet vermouth, amer picon, maraschino Cobble Hill: rye, dry vermouth, amaro montenegro, slices cucumber Little Italy: rye, sweet vermouth, cynar The Slope: rye, punt e mes, apricot liqueur, angostura bitters Sunset Park cocktail: rye, dry vermouth, apricot liqueur, angostura bitters

I have some catching up to do. Here are a few recent week-night meals, much less fancy than mm84321's version of non-fancy I am afraid (that pigeon looks amazing by the way). Fattoush-inspired salad, Polish and Bourbon sausages. Green goddess salad with lettuce, cucumber, avocado, and roasted torpedo onions. Black gill rockcod with Moroccan spice marinade (chermoula), cucumber feta salad. Delmonico steak, zucchini fritters. Lemon roasted black pepper linguine with Babbo's basic tomato sauce and homemade whole milk ricotta.

I finished the bottle of Champagne with an Old Cuban (Audrey Saunders). Instead of muddling the mint I just shook the cocktail vigorously. What an elegant drink. I guess it's considered a Mojito variant, but I feel it's much more interesting with the use of bitters and the mint playing a more subtle role.

A couple of drinks with Cocchi Americano last night. Zephyr (Benjamin Schwartz, via Bartender's Choice app): gin, cocchi americano, and green chartreuse. Intensely aromatic, in the same vein as the Ice Pick I tried a few days ago (different ingredients though). For him I made an old-fashioned variation created by Candelaria, a Parisian bar, with bourbon, bonal, cocchi americano, and orange bitters. They wonder in the article why it's called a Mountain Man. I suspect that it has to do with the use of Bonal gentiane-quina. Gentian is considered a mountain plant, at least in France.

blue_dolphin - that looks amazing! I need to smoke some trout again soon. Smoked trout rillettes are great too. A local restaurant serves them with roasted golden beets and it's one of my favorite appetizers.

Fig, ricotta, saba Heaven.

The Ice Pick (Daniel Eun, The Vanish): 2 oz genever, 1/4 oz maraschino, 1/4 oz violette, 2 dashes orange bitters, lemon twist. Reminiscent of the Aviation because of the ingredient list (no lemon juice though). Intense flavor, almost minty. Very crisp and aromatic.

Beautiful rye bread, Chris. I made these little brioches à tête (aka brioches parisiennes) for my daughter. They remind me of Paris - I used to live near a briocherie that had the most amazing deep-brown brioches in all sizes. They are a little more time-consuming to make than a brioche loaf, and cleaning the fluted-edge pans is somewhat of a hassle, so I don't make then very often. They are really pretty though and have a more interesting texture than the loaf. The best part of course is biting off the little head.