Plums are ripe and abundant on neighborhood trees. While 2020 has been a tumultuous year, it’s been fabulous for plums. Something about the weather here in California has graced the plum trees with amazing fecundity. A friend has a bumper crop of Santa Rosa plums and gifted me with a crate of ripe fruit. This…
Category: Cocktail
Corona Beans with Preserved Lemon and Rosemary
The mammoth Corona Bean is a splendid legume. Smooth, white and impressively big dried beans cook up fat and pale beige after a soak and simmer. I love these mighty beans as a cocktail nibble. Perfect with a Negroni or glass of wine. I flavored mine with two garden grown items: salt-preserved meyer lemon and…
Spiced Cocktail Cherries
Luscious red cherries are a glorious fruit to pair with whiskey in house-crafted cocktails. One of my favorites is the Manhattan, often garnished with a preserved cherry. I wondered how I could make my own fresher version of this bar back staple, and capitalize on the beautiful sweet cherries currently in season. The Bing cherry…
Bay Lime Cooler
Here’s a refreshing summer cocktail that uses my Bay Leaf Liqueur. It’s a balanced sweet/tart flavor, fabulously aromatic with bay and lime mint over a base of gin. I love growing scents in my garden — and lime mint is unique, in that it doesn’t smell minty. Instead it’s more green, limey and herbal. You…
Bay Leaf Liqueur
Many years ago I planted a tiny sweet bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) in my garden*. It has flourished, and produces an abundance of dark green leaves. I love experimenting with flavors in my cooking and cocktails, and decided to do something bold with my bay leaves. The result is Bay Leaf Liqueur — an elixor…
Rose Drop
My beautiful Gertrude Jekyll rose is about to bloom — time for a Rose Drop. This recipe was recently featured in the May 2017 Sunset magazine. Enjoy! For me, the garden is a place of deep inspiration for my cooking. I have a beautiful rose bush* — right now in full bloom with deep pink,…
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