Israeli salad and Israeli salad water martini from Zahav.

Israeli Salad Water Martini from Zahav.

One of the things I always lament about getting cookbooks in the fall and then later in winter during the holidays is that inevitably I’m going to find a whole host of recipes that sound amazing but I must wait to make them until better weather arrives. While flipping through Zahav back during Christmas I did exactly that not far into the book–not only did the Israeli salad featured look both fantastic and simple, but then Michael Solomonov went and did one better and add in an Israeli salad water martini that looked damn refreshing as well.

Grapefruit moonshine and rosemary sparkler, pending a better name.

Grapefruit Moonshine and Rosemary Sparkler

When you go to a local food festival and end up tasting a really delicious grapefruit-infused moonshine you obviously need to buy yourself a bottle of it to take home…but then the question remains: what to make with it? This was the conundrum I had after picking up a bottle of Belle Isle’s Ruby Red Moonshine at the Emporiyum Baltimore last month, and after poking around the interwebs for about twenty minutes scrolling through a slideshow of grapefruit-forward cocktails, I eventually stumbled on my answer.

A brief check-in as I prep for New Year’s Eve.

Not pictured: the birthday cake crumb and the empanada meat mixture chilling out in the fridge.

I was all ready to wax philosophical on you all on how I like to plan for parties…but I’m in the midst of party planning and can’t do that just yet. Above is a glimpse of what I’ve been up to in our kitchen, and I can’t wait to share the details with you in the new year because that’s probably when I’ll finally have a chance to sit down and write in earnest.

Dave Arnold’s turmeric gin sour.

Turmeric Gin Sour

Well, I have good news and I have bad news: we’re less than a month away from the first day of winter. For some, that may be great news, especially for my skiing enthusiast friends, but for most of this this is simply a harbinger of gloom, doom, and darkness. (OK, I may be a bit dramatic in saying that, but STILL.) A few weeks ago when I realized that I had exactly one more night to get in a good daylight photo after 5PM before Daylight Savings ended, I decided that I couldn’t go without taking a photo of one of my favorite autumnal cocktails, and one to consider for your celebrations over this holiday weekend: the turmeric gin sour.

Black Pearl-Jalapeno-infused tequila as inspired by Dave Arnold.

Margarita made with Black Pearl and Jalapeno-Infused Tequila Blanco

I may have sung the praises of Dave Arnold’s technique of using the iSi whip to infuse alcohol previously, but I really mean it now because I will say it this way: You absolutely need to have hot pepper-infused tequila blanco in your life and in your drinks. Those of you who follow me on Instagram may remember when I posted a photo of the black pearl hot pepper plant I’m growing, and how excited I was to finally try one of these puppies out for myself:

Celebrating the return of rosé and caftan/vermut and stripes season with the ultimate mashup: homemade rosé vermouth.

Back when winter was finally starting to draw to a close, I had decided not to add on any new silly spring and summertime aesthetic to my arsenal, because between rosés, caftans, vermouths ans stripes I felt like I had more than enough to work with as it was. Both scratch that ever-present itch for the Mediterranean that I get once the temperature heats up but in different ways, and I felt that I had barely explored the possibilities of vermouth especially. Then, back in March when I was scrolling through my Facebook feed one evening, I came across a post from Food and Wine magazine and wouldn’t you know, it was a recipe for making your own rosé vermouth. Immediately bookmarking it, I then went to see if J.Crew happened to have any striped caftans (because why wouldn’t they?) and of course they did, and so I decided that this year would truly become one giant mashup of everything.

El Quinto Pino’s vermouth cocktail with cava and Aperol.

Vermouth cocktails as inspired by El Quinto Pino

The first time we ended up at El Qunito Pino a few years ago, it was the culmination of a quasi-successful tapas crawl around Manhattan–we ended up tarrying long enough in the city to go there when it opened at 5, and we had a nice little last spread of snacks. I was able to finally try their famed uni panini (a small sandwich filled with sea urchin roe) and enjoy my first taste of pig’s ear. When we were in New York in January, our hotel was only a few blocks away from the restaurant (as over the intervening years the place had morphed from a tiny bar to a tiny bar now attached to a full-fledged dining room) so we took a chance on finding a few seats at the bar and went there for dinner on our first night.