Welcoming summer with mezcal and nectarines: Nectarine Campfire

Sweet, juicy nectarines combine with smoky mezcal, basil, lime juice and simple syrup to create a cocktail that tastes like its name—Nectarine Campfire. Recipe below.

Mezcal Nectarine Cocktail

ONE OF THE PRIMAL PLEASURES OF SUMMER IS STONE FRUITS. Biting into a ripe plum and having its juice run down your chin. Slicing a fresh peach into a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Turning apricots, rosemary and sugar into an effortless, classically French dessert. Or maybe inventing a smoky, fruity summer cocktail with mezcal and nectarines. Continue reading “Welcoming summer with mezcal and nectarines: Nectarine Campfire” →

Not just for breakfast: a half dozen recipes made with (or made better with) eggs

Salade Frisée aux Lardons

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]E[/su_dropcap]ggs—quick-cooking, affordable, versatile sources of protein—show they can go beyond the breakfast table in these six recipes. Continue reading “Not just for breakfast: a half dozen recipes made with (or made better with) eggs” →

Celebrate Earth Day on April 22 by drinking green (and red and white)

Fetzer Vineyards has won its share of awards over the past 50 years. Many of them are for sustainability.

Fetzer Wines

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]W[/su_dropcap]hen I think of green, sustainable wineries, I tend to imagine small boutique vineyards, producing maybe a few hundred to a couple thousand cases of wine a year and charging 40 or 50 bucks or more a bottle, if you can find any. I do not think of a winemaker producing 2.75 million cases of modestly priced wines. Continue reading “Celebrate Earth Day on April 22 by drinking green (and red and white)” →

Review: An innovative red and a good read

The Prisoner Wine Company produces super premium wines by carefully sourcing their grapes. And in The Mamma Mia! Diet, an Italian biochemistry professor and a pharmacist, researcher and food writer explain why the Mediterranean diet is so good for us and how to eat it.

Not all wineries grow their own grapes. In fact, many makers of modestly priced wines work with multiple growers, combining the same varieties of grapes from many sources to produce their wines—with an eye on price and availability as well as the final product. Napa Valley-based The Prisoner Wine Company takes a different approach. Continue reading “Review: An innovative red and a good read” →

A classic gin cocktail gets a mezcal makeover: The Penultimate Word

Inspired by the gin-based Last Word cocktail, mezcal gives a nice smokiness to this citrusy drink featuring lime juice, maraschino liqueur and simple syrup. Recipe below.

RANDOM FINDS ALWAYS SEEM LUCKY FOR US. On our road trip to DC and the Virginias last fall, our first overnight stop was in Pittsburgh. We ate dinner that night at Bar Marco, in the city’s Strip District, a cool little neighborhood on the edge of downtown—converted warehouses filled with old and new food and retail shops, restaurants and bars, and sidewalks clogged with street vendors. We went there because, randomly, just before our trip, while Marion was getting a haircut, I flipped through an issue of GQ. It had an article on where to eat and drink in Pittsburgh that included the phrase “inventive yet unpretentious cocktails at Bar Marco.” Continue reading “A classic gin cocktail gets a mezcal makeover: The Penultimate Word” →

Sipping autumn: Apple Cider Old Fashioned

A seasonal spin on the classic old fashioned, made with bourbon, apple cider, maple syrup and rosemary. Recipe below.

Our recent road trip had a definite autumnal feel, everywhere we traveled. Crisp, chilly mornings followed by warm, sunny afternoons with deep blue fall skies. Followed later by rainy, misty gray weather the last two days on the road. Continue reading “Sipping autumn: Apple Cider Old Fashioned” →

A light, herbal farewell to summer: Gin, Elderflower and Campari

Gin, elderflower liqueur, Campari, lemon juice and club soda make an easy-drinking, end-of-summer cocktail (that you just might drink year-round). Recipe below.

Gin plays a big role in our summer cocktail rotation. So does Campari and soda for Marion. And we always seem to have St-Germain elderflower liqueur around. So when I came across a cocktail recipe combining all of those, I knew we had to try our own version. Continue reading “A light, herbal farewell to summer: Gin, Elderflower and Campari” →

Celebrating yardwork: Summer Garden Gin Sage Cocktail

Five ingredients—gin, fresh sage, simple syrup, and grapefruit and lemon juices—create an herbaceous, summery cocktail. Recipe below.

We’ve lived in our new old house for a little more than a year now. The biggest transformation since we’ve moved in has been the garden. During the gut rehab of the house, the backyard was buried under demolition rubble three separate times. Even though our contractor’s team ostensibly cleaned up after the project, the first step of creating a garden involved removing a stunning amount of glass shards, broken bricks, nails, gravel and other debris—at least partly done by digging away the top several inches of the yard and throwing it out. Continue reading “Celebrating yardwork: Summer Garden Gin Sage Cocktail” →

Garnet and Smoke: a mezcal hibiscus cocktail

Smoky mezcal and tea brewed from dried hibiscus blossoms star in this refreshing, herbaceous cocktail, which also features cilantro, lime juice, simple syrup and club soda. Recipe below.

IN OUR ONGOING, VARIED ADVENTURES IN COCKTAIL-LAND, we sometimes play bartender challenge. In the right bar, on a slow night, we’ll specify a particular spirit, describe a flavor profile—citrusy, summery, fresh, for instance—and ask the bartender to create something. Almost always, he or she rises happily to the occasion and we end up with something wonderful, full of layers and subtleties. Continue reading “Garnet and Smoke: a mezcal hibiscus cocktail” →

Put an egg on it: old school Whiskey Sour with Egg White

The classic whiskey sour cocktail has many variations. This one includes an egg white for a frothy head and a velvety mouthfeel. Recipe below.

FOR A COUPLE OF WINE LOVERS, Marion and I have been totally smitten by the craft cocktail scene that, happily, just doesn’t seem to quit. In countless bars and restaurants, we’ve puzzled over cryptic descriptions of inventively named drinks with housemade bitters, small batch spirits and surprising botanicals; challenged willing bartenders to create something using a particular liquor and hitting vaguely described flavor notes; and enjoyed the theatrics of the process—at Curio in Columbus, Ohio, a bartender flexed an orange peel and ignited the oil spraying from the skin. But old school drinks persist for a reason: sometimes you just want a drink. Not a shot and a beer, but something classic without being overthought—something a good bartender makes from muscle memory. Continue reading “Put an egg on it: old school Whiskey Sour with Egg White” →