I became obsessed with this recipe after finding it in the LA Times last year. It comes from the bar at Hinoki & the Bird, an upscale California restaurant with a Japanese bent. First of all, it’s gorgeous. It’s a beautiful pale pink and it’s garnished with a Christmas-y sprig of burnt rosemary and a…
Cocktails
To Cure What Ails You: Homemade Chamomile Fennel Bitters
Even more than cooking, the art of cocktail making has an air of alchemy about it. Creating tinctures, shrubs, and bitters for cocktails feels a bit like making magic potions, especially since many of them have medicinal properties. When time itself is an ingredient, you can watch infusions transform before your very eyes. One of…
For Sweet-&-Sour Summer Drinks: Spiced Cherry Maple Shrub
Shrubs have been having a revival recently in bars and home kitchens, though these “drinking vinegars” date back to 17th century England and colonial America. Shrubs only have a few components, but the possible combinations are wide-ranging. To make your own shrub, simply combine a seasonal fruit, a vinegar, a sweetener, and complimentary spices. Let…
A Sunset-Colored Winter Cocktail: Blood Orange Gin & Ginger Fizz
Winter is the season for citrus, and the blood orange is a top contender for best in show. Their peels are marbled with purple, and their juice is a gorgeous blend of ruby and fuchsia. Blood oranges have notes from practically every other type of citrus; grapefruit, meyer lemon, and lime to name a few….
For Your Next Fall Get-Together: Apple Cider Punch with Ginger and Bourbon
Every Autumn when the air begins to get crisp, I get a craving for apple cider, apple fritters and apple pie. This could have something to do with the place I grew up, a New England town that celebrates Fall every year with an annual Apple Harvest Festival. This punch was easy to make and…
How to make a Harry’s Bar Bellini at Home with Only Four Ingredients
You’ve probably heard that the Bellini was invented at Harry’s Bar in Venice, Italy, a small two-story cocktail lounge and restaurant, down a tiny alley off Piazza San Marco. Guiseppe Cipriani opened Harry’s Bar in 1931 and served aperativos to expats like Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles and Ernest Hemingway. Today travelers and foodies from around…