FrogPrincesse

The Cin Cyn from Babbo: 2 oz gin (Junipero), 1/2 oz sweet vermouth (recipe specifies Cinzano, I used Carpano Antica), 1/2 oz Cynar, orange bitters (I used Regan and Angostura), orange twist. Very similar to a Negroni, although sans Campari.

The Brooklyn from Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh. Still one of my favorite drinks.

I love beets and found a bunch of huge golden beets at Bristol Farms last week. So I made bruschetta with roasted beets and parmigiano (a simple recipe from Babbo). The beets were roasted for about an hour and a half in a 400F oven. They were peeled, cooed to room temperature, then diced and seasoned with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, chives, and fennel seeds (the original recipe calls for caraway). The beets are arranged on a toasted slice of rustic bread (I used country levain bread from Bread and Cie, a local bakery), then topped with shaved parmigiano (I started grating the cheese with a microplane, didn't like the look, and finished with a knife to cut thin slices of cheese - much better). A little messy to eat but absolutely delicious!

Jeff Morgenthaler from Clyde Common was kind enough to share the ratios, so here is the Nasturtium. 2 oz Dolin blanc 1 oz Canton ginger liqueur 1/2 oz Bonal gentiane-quina lemon twist A beautiful drink which makes a very nice aperitif.

Australian barramundi with winter vegetables bagna cauda and toasted breadcrumbs I used baqueta which is a type of grouper/seabass. Snapper and halibut are also suggested for this recipe. Like other fish recipes in the book, it is one of the easier/faster recipes. The fish is seasoned in advance with lemon zest, thyme, and parsley. Breadcrumbs (I used panko) are toasted in the oven with olive oil and then mixed with the parsley. The vegetables (I used green beans and Romanesco broccoli) are blanched. She makes a bagna cauda with olive oil, butter, anchivies, chilies, garlic, and thyme. The vegetables are sautéed with a portion of the bagna cauda. To plate she places the vegetables first, then the fish, a squeeze of lemon juice, the rest of the bagna cauda, and the toasted breadcrumbs with the parsley. I really enjoyed this simple preparation for fish. Full recipe here on google books.

I am also looking for good books on that topic. I am looking into several references and was wondering if there were some that were especially recommended. Ideally, I would like an identification guide for edible plants in California with lots of pictures/drawings (I am only moderately interested in mushrooms, more interested in wild greens or berries) and a few preparation ideas (not necessarily detailed recipes, but best practices on usage). Here are the ones on my list currently, but I would like to narrow it down to 2 or 3: Stalking The Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons (already mentioned) Nature's Garden by Samuel Thayer (recommended in Hank Shaw's post on foraging books) Edible and Useful Plants of California by Charlotte Bringle Clarke (also recommended by Hank Shaw) Pacific Feast by Jennifer Hahn - I am intrigued by this one since I live on the coast and it covers sea vegetables The Wild Table by Connie Green (seems interesting but about half of the book is about mushrooms based on the TOC) Hunt, Gather, Cook by Hank Shaw ScottyBoy - if you are reading this, what did you end up buying?

Very cool foodblog! That last meal was quite epic. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us.

Regarding Amer Picon drinks, the Brooklyn is a favorite and in my regular rotation. Last week I tried a cocktail which is similar to the Brooklyn but with sweet vermouth instead of the dry, no maraschino liqueur, and different ratios, from Ted Haigh's Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails: The Liberal I did not have the 100-proof Wild Turkey which is specified in the book and used Woodford bourbon instead. It was really good drink, definitely in the same league as the Brooklyn.

Tonight I made the Gilliland from Anfora for my husband. It is like a simplified version of the Bonal and Rye without the Cointreau or Angostura bitters. 2 oz Rittenhouse rye 1 oz Bonal 2 dashes orange bitters (I used Regan and Angostura orange bitters) brandied cherry It was not bad but we decided that we liked the Bonal & Rye better (a little more balanced/less intense).

Tonight I tried Little Branch's Mercy, Mercy. 2 oz gin (I used Junipero) 1/2 oz Aperol 1/2 oz Lillet (I used Cocchi Americano as I've seen several variants of this drink using Cocchi). A very nice Negroni variation. I might have to try it again with Lillet instead of Cocchi to see which version I like the best.

You are welcome. The Reed avocado is a common variety here in San Diego (that actually originated in Carlsbad). The variety you were describing seems very similar. I agree with you that this type of avocado does not do as well in the fridge, compared to Haas avocados for example. Once ripe, they need to be eaten fairly quickly! I handle avocados the same way other people have described upthread: I let them ripen at room temperature, in a paper bag if I want to speed up the process. Once ripe, we eat them right away or store them for a few days in the frige.

In Panama, our trees were two different varieties: Haas, and one that the Panamanians called "butter avocados." I don't know the generic name of those, but they were larger, and when you cut into them, you had no doubt where they got the name. They were indeed as smooth and rich and buttery as could be imagined and the flesh even had a slightly golden hue. They were considered to be the primo avocados, though, and since we had no fence around our back yard, and it backed right up to the jungle, that tree often had a Panamanian or two up in it collecting avocados. Those avocados did hold well in the fridge, but probably not so well as the Haas, which seemed to last forever. That sounds like a Reed avocado. Very large and buttery.

Le Comptoir du Relais should be within walking distance for you. But you should definitely contact them to make sure that they can accommodate your wife's diet.

A deconstructed salade parisienne! How fun, and much more appetizing than the orginal. I think I am going to steal this roasted grapes and pancetta idea. I have a slab of homemade pancetta that I need to use! Tonight, we started with an appetizer shamelessly "borrowed" from Nancy Silverton (Mozza): slow-roasted tomatoes with burrata, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, with country levain bread. Then we had pot-au-feu, leftovers from a giant batch (7 lb of meat including oxtail, flank steak, veal shank, and short ribs!) that I made this weekend.

I made a couple of Batavia Arrack-based cocktails tonight. For me, it was Dan Chadwick's Arrack Attack. I found it refreshing with grapefruit flavors, and some really cool herbal notes from the Cynar at the end. This drink really seems to highlight the flavor range of the arrack. He is not a big fan of Cynar or ginger, so I made him the Alicante. On paper it's an intriguing mix of Grand Marnier as the base with Batavia Arrack, dry vermouth, orange and mole bitters, expressed orange peel, and a pinch of salt. It is a great drink, full of interesting flavors. He could not guess what was in it- he initially thought that the base liquor was a white rhum agricole.

You really need one... It's great stuff!

For me, a Martinez with Hayman's old tom gin, Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, Luxardo maraschino, and Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Boker's bitters. For him, a Black Walnut Manhattan with Rittenhouse rye (2oz), Averna (1/4 oz), Charbay black walnut liqueur (1/2 oz), and Bittermens mole bitters. For the black walnut Manhattan, I was trying to recreate a drink that we had years ago at Modus supper club, a now-defunct San Diego restaurant. It worked quite well.

Lovely salad. I riffed on a similar theme last night, with grapefruit, oranges, avocado, and thinly sliced fennel. The dressing was champagne vinegar and a little lemon juice, and blood orange-infused olive oil. Citrus-based salads are just wonderful. That blood-orange infused olive oil sounds great as well. I had spinach and English peas in my CSA, so the Baby Spinach, Fresh Pea and Feta Cheese Salad from The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver immediately came to mind. I blanched the peas very briefly. The dressing is simply olive oil (I used a very aromatic arbequina oil) and lemon juice. I think that this was the first cooking book I bought after moving to the US and discovering his show more than 10 years ago, and I still make some of the recipes.

With persian cucumbers, and sorrel that I am growing on the patio, I made this Cucumber Gazpacho from Russ Parsons' How to Pick a Peach. There is no cooking involved; the cucumbers and sorrel are blended with yoghurt, garlic and bread for thickening. Not exactly a winter dish, but we had a beautiful day in San Diego today!

Local halibut with preserved lemons, green garlic and fennel fronds from my CSA.

Local halibut with preserved lemons, green garlic and fennel fronds from my CSA.

Local halibut with preserved lemons, green garlic and fennel fronds from my CSA.

The Search for Delicious It's interesting how the salt changes the taste of the Cynar. I like it a lot.

On the Cynar thread, Kerry Beal mentioned the Little Italy and I don't remember ever having one. So I decided to try it tonight. What a beautiful cocktail. Smooth like a great Manhattan, with some wonderful herbal/bitter flavors from the Cynar at the end. A new favorite for sure!

Chris, The rogue/beta cocktail book has quite a few Cynar drinks so you may want to look into that. The Art of Choke (already mentioned in this thread), The Bitter Giuseppe, Eeyor's Requiem, The Italian Heirloom, The Search for Delicious, Teenage Riot, Transatlantic Giant, The Last Mechanical Art, The Warning Label, etc.