Plantes Vertes

Well, like one of those people who turn up at your party at 4am when you're already wasted even though you didn't invite them and pretend to be your best friend and break your chair and finish off all the booze and then start telling everyone what to do, hit on your friend's sister and start an argument with him and mess up your kitchen and make you tell them to leave and then sort of shove them out of the house and stand in the street shouting until your friends are starting to have a hangover and decide to leave too, I am here only seven hours late to give you all my ideas even if you have plenty of your own and were getting on fine. Dusty Answer 2 parts strawberry and rhubarb shrub 2 parts Hendrick's 1/2 part Cardamaro 2 parts sparkling wine rosemary garnish Strawberry and rhubarb shrub Put equal parts by weight of sugar and roughly-chopped, over-ripe fruit and a couple of pink peppercorns in a bowl in the air with a towel over for two days. Then strain out the solids, add the same quantity of white balsamic vinegar and put it in a bottle. It's shelf-stable.

Stone Fence I used 1:3 Wild Turkey 101 and Henney's Dry Cider

Just call them Fleshy Drupes too. In actual real life you should call it a La Llorona. Any drink in which a poor, sorrowing cherry has taken its life deserves this name.

Ben & Jerry's has beat you to Cherry Garcia. You're obviously feeling maudlin. Please, please, do yourself a favour and call this a Fleshy Drupe.

I made: Mushroom salad with parsley and white wine vinegar Cucumber salad with mint and garlic Cannelini bean puree with lemon juice and white onion (I used my home-made bay leaves) Soda bread = Sandwich Plus fruit salad with coconut yogurt And I went mad with the camera.

Hamlin is a tart variety of orange that is also suitable for juicing, and Maltese blood oranges are also. Tangerine juice is tarter than orange juice as well, but more of a pain to get out of the fruit.

Mmmmm, plantain... *salivates* That is a better breakfast! ETA: At my local Jamaican bar they won't serve you (and might inflict some sort of violence on you) if you don't order fried plantains. I obey with good grace.

Plantes Vertes, out of curiosity, where are you located? (generally, if you would prefer not to be specific) I'm in the UK, not far from London. I converted £5 to US$. I notice that food prices vary greatly throughout the US as they surely do here too, but I believe they are generally somewhat higher on my side of the pond. Since my childhood egg-buying habits have altered quite radically in this country. Now it is very much frowned on to buy eggs from caged hens; there was a big campaign about it by animal welfare groups perhaps 12 years or so ago, and now several supermarkets and big brands have eliminated them altogether from their products. Curiously, the most hen-friendly eggs are to be had in supermarkets and high-end food shops as opposed to markets in my city, which are mostly neither organic nor local. The eggs I see are mostly like the browner ones in your set - we don't get the paler shades very often and especially not the lovely green ones you have there, although duck and goose eggs are commonly available and they are blue-ish to bone white, and about twice the size of a medium hen's egg, but don't taste much different.`I've never seen eggs from heritage breeds for sale. I heard on a recent food story on the radio that medium-sized hen's eggs usually come from younger birds, and the large ones from older, so the smaller ones are better quality. Anyone know if that's true?

Those colours are so splendid, SobaAddict; I envy you your photography talents, and your broad beans.

Today I made a chicken stew for my poor sick mother, but she scuttled it off back to her bedroom on a tray and I didn't get a picture, dammit!

Bitter and twisted when your husband is away; I'm sure he would be happy to hear this

I braised some vegetables and made a quinoa vegetable timbale.

I'm going to drop by and try this soon. I've never been keen on gigantic fruity beach holiday cocktails but now I see yours I'm willing to be persuaded Nice mate. Feel free to pop up and see me any time on the First Floor at South Place Hotel during the evenings Tuesday - Saturday. It's soon to be members and residents only, but ask for me and it won't be a problem. Be sure to introduce yourself and the first drink is on me! We have a short list of five "Tiki" drinks that we're super happy with and work on an "if we have it, you can have" basis. I spent quite a bit of time tweaking and balancing and reckon they'll all meet eGullet pallates. We'll be adding more as popularity grows but for now it's five drinks, done really well rather than half-arsed attempts at every Tiki drink created. Any suggestions on drinks to use Pimento Dram in are welcome - I'm still learning the tropical drinks, myself. Sorry to hijack this thread with spam. I'm just trying to spread the cocktail love, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blender. Consider the love spread. I'll be wearing a red rose and carrying a copy of the Times . And I'll give the eGullet handshake. And then I'll just introduce myself in words... Well here's a pimento dram number, again one I've noted down and never got around to trying: Lion’s Tail 2 oz. Bourbon ½ oz. St. Elizabeth allspice dram ½ oz. Lime juice 1 dash Angostura bitters You can adapt it by changing your bourbon for dark rum and the bitters for rock candy syrup (Jasper's Jamaican), and/or adding a few drops of absinthe.

Last night I stewed some rhubarb for breakfasts this week. I like it with muesli.

It kind of looks like you have a snail wrapped around the rim of that glass. Who's saying I didn't?

Organic free-range eggs are $7.75/ dozen in my supermarket.

You don't want to waste that kind of stuff on other people That sourdough looks great!

Today I tried a Fig Old-Fashioned. 1 ripe fig 1.5oz bourbon 0.5oz oj Then the recipe calls for 0.25oz maple syrup + 1tsp balsamic vinegar, but I used vincotto instead as I want to put it in everything that goes in my mouth. Muddle quartered fig with syrup, add everything else and ice and shake, double strain over rocks. I didn't think the fig brought a lot to this drink. I've never tasted a good fig in this country so I suppose this should have been no shock, but I buy them occasionally when I get seduced by their looks. Then I tried a far preferable cocktail of my own devising. Tauromaquia 1.5oz home-made sloe gin 0.5oz olorosso sherry tsp sherry vinegar 0.25oz lemon juice Shake on ice and serve with a dry cava float. Lousy picture - sorry.

Having good ideas go disastrously wrong and then calling that Art is already my MO. So I'll probably have to attempt your proposed Un Cafe Va Bene Va Bene. Thanks for the great ideas, and for the rye/coffee/Luxardo cocktail, which I hadn't seen before. I've actually been looking for recipes that involve cold coffee. Thampik, this might be one worth trying out with your Maraschino. Doh, that should obviously say cardamom-infused Cynar. I like having thoughts but I'm not good at it...

I'm going to drop by and try this soon. I've never been keen on gigantic fruity beach holiday cocktails but now I see yours I'm willing to be persuaded

Your lavash looks superb, patrickamory! I can't quite see from the picture what you're cooking it on; is that a big round flat skillet? Is it specially for making this bread? I've really enjoyed learning about Persian food from your posts - you'd better not get sick of it and stop posting

Petoncles = scallops, for those not in the know, and 'kig ha farz' is a Breton dish of boiled meat and a buckwheat stuffing/dressing on the side. ETA: It looks like your side dish could be the buckwheat 'farz', naguere. Was it with a bacon and shallot sauce? That is the usual accompaniment. I lived in Brittany but never tried this specialty, although I love to find out about regional food; I'd like to know what it tastes like. It looks like you had a great holiday! I have happy memories of camping in that part of the world.

Wow, a great compliment indeed in that case! Thank you liuzhou!

You know, this is the exact inverse of what I used to hear when I edited a literary magazine. At least people enjoy intentionally (or " ") bad writing more than they do bad drinks. I've discovered that Cynar and cardamom love each other. Might have to try a spiked Turkish coffee (something along the lines of Un Cafe Va Bene?), or maybe just mix the 'choke with some Ransom Old Tom. Well, if you make Un Cafe Va Bene then afterwards you'll have to come up with a drink that's like having a cigar, chocolate and Un Cafe Va Bene all together, if we take our lead from that site. A fearsome commitment. Maybe you could try coffee-infused Cynar? In a Toronto or an Old Fashioned? Or I read somewhere or other of this drink, if I remember well: 1oz rye 1oz cold pressed coffee 1/4oz Luxardo Dash Peychauds Thyme and lemon zest garnish You could perhaps try subbing in your Cynar and cardamom for the thyme and Peychauds. If it's bad, say you meant to do it and call it Art.

I made some vegetable dishes today; sauteed spinach with parsley and mint; mashed cannellini beans with olive oil and garlic, and purple sprouting broccoli (from my mother's allotment, to give credit where it's due) with lemon zest and garlic. I served it with pitta bread.