Super easy dinner with loads of flavor.

I don’t know about you, but I love sheetpan dinners. They just simplify the dinner making. I’ve done dinner for guests using a sheetpan recipe – my favorite is still the  Chicken Thighs with Bacon and Sourdough Croutons. Some recipes roast several items for the same time period – not so with this one – you do have to start the potatoes ahead of time, then add other ingredients. But they’re all still done on the one sheetpan. And if you line the sheetpan with parchment or foil, you’ll have the simplest of cleanup ever.

This recipe uses small red or white (or a combination) potatoes. You want them to BE about 1” square or cut them into something close to that.  First the potatoes are tossed in EVOO, mustard, salt and pepper. Those are put out onto the parchment-lined baking sheet and roasted for about 20 minutes. That gives the potatoes a head start. The baby green beans (haricots verts) are tossed in the remaining oil mixture and go onto the baking sheet next. Those, along with the potatoes roast for 5 minutes, then you add the halibut that’s been topped with some ready-made jarred tapenade (olives). Another 12-15 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fish) and everything should be roasted-done.

Meanwhile you will have chopped up some baby tomatoes, cut a lemon into wedges and chopped some parsley. Serve the fish with the toasty potatoes, green beans, the lemon wedge and the garnish of chopped parsley. Done. Easy-peasy. You can substitute sweet potato for the white potatoes, and you could easily add a small amount of squash or eggplant to the pan. The recipe came from a class with Susan V, although I changed it just a little bit to make it simpler.

What’s GOOD: how easy this is. Dinner on one pan. The nip of briny olives on the fish – a really tasty touch – and the crispy green beans. Also loved the addition of the fresh tomatoes at the end. Altogether delicious.

What’s NOT: nothing really.

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What makes this one different?

Last week I spent in Palm Desert, my annual one-week winter trip. The weather was just perfect (about 70 every day) and my friend Ann (from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho), flew down to spend the week with me. We stay at the home of a dear friend of mine who rarely goes there anymore, so I’m very grateful she lets us use the condo. It’s a cozy 2-bedroom overlooking a golf course with palm trees and Mallard ducks in the small lake. There’s a spouting stream of water just outside that provides lovely sound. We ate breakfast in every day, and I made a soup that fed us for two of the evenings. I take my beloved Nespresso machine out there, and in fact Ann has now become a convert to Nespresso and says she’s going to buy one for herself.

Anyway, we visit with old friends of mine (from when my DH Dave and I owned a house there), and with a mutual friend Ann and I have too. We were wined and dined by all the friends. But one of the days we ventured toward Palm Springs (about a 30 minute drive from Palm Desert) and went to a kind of boutique hotel/restaurant. It had been written up in a magazine a few months ago. What a find. I’m so glad my GPS got us there, because you’d literally drive right by the entrance and never know it was there. It’s called the Sparrows Lodge. The property, legend has it, was the site of Elizabeth Montgomery’s first marriage, back in the day. It’s now been transformed into a small inn with 8-10 luxury cabin-like rooms with a beautiful, tranquil and wide open space between, where they’ve created a casual outdoor eating space. The restaurant is called the The Barn Kitchen.

In inquiring with our waiter about the menu, he recommended the chicken sandwich. I’m sure I probably gave him a mild wrinkled nose glance, but he said oh no, this is really a good sandwich, and that people from all over the valley (the Coachella Valley) go there just to have the chicken sandwich. That was good enough for both of us.

The picture at top doesn’t really do it justice. On that cut half you see facing the camera, there is really nice rustic white bread that’s been grill-toasted ever so slightly, there’s a layer of sliced avocado peeking out at the top, lettuce, slices of tomato, then the oh-so juicy chicken below that, AND some kind of a sauce or dressing. The waiter said it was Veganaise, not mayo. At first we thought there was mustard on the sandwich, because it had heat – nose tingling, sinus-clearing type. We thought mustard with horseradish? Maybe. Or else Veganaise with Sriracha in it. We couldn’t really TASTE mustard, so it may well have been the spicy Veganaise. Or perhaps they spread a bit of plain-old horseradish on it.

What I’m telling you is that the combination was perfection. I was trying to describe this sandwich to a friend yesterday . . . all I can say is that the chef has a deft hand at the balance of the lightly toasted bread, the layers of lettuce, the number and thickness of the tomatoes, and the sublime juicy, tender chicken, plus the sliced avocado made for a stunning sandwich. And then the elusive sinus-clearing dressing/sauce/condiment. Never thought I’d be writing up a post about a restaurant chicken sandwich, my friends.

The Barn Kitchen does take reservations. We went at 1:00 pm and enjoyed our leisurely lunch and were so stuffed we didn’t have any dinner that night. I’m back home now and my mouth is just watering thinking about that sandwich.

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Full of flavor soup, for a cold winter’s night. Or day.

Every once in awhile I am able to attend a cooking class that’s not an hour or two away, where my friend Cherrie and I usually drive (to San Diego). Once a month Susan has a class in her home, half an hour away – she used to own a cookware store and still does classes to a small group of fans. This class was all about soup.

This recipe came from Rachel Ray, actually, and although it has a long list of ingredients, this soup is entirely easy to make as long as you have all the ingredients. It’s got lots of veggies in it (cabbage, bean sprouts, scallions – and next time I’m going to add celery) and the flavor comes from peanut butter, soy sauce, red curry paste, some thick tomato paste, chicken broth, and apple juice. You could use leftover chicken, but in this case Susan used a raw chicken breast that she thinly sliced and it cooked in a flash once it hit the hot pan. Literally, the soup comes together in minutes and you’re ready to serve it. You could add different pasta if you don’t have spaghetti. Susan highly recommends Skippy’s super chunky peanut butter (I saw it at Costco the other day, 2 big jars of it, way too much for my minimal cooking needs since I don’t eat peanut butter on much of anything). Susan said that brand got high marks in a peanut butter taste-test somewhere.

What’s GOOD: loved the full-flavored chunky aspect – lots of good things to chew on. Tons of flavor – umami for sure. Easy.

What’s NOT: nothing at all  unless you don’t like Asian-inspired soups.

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Oh, is this stuff the food of the Gods? So flavorful.

Recently I went to a soup cooking class. Susan prepared four soups and a dessert. I liked three of the soups and I liked the dessert (raspberry chocolate brownies) but probably won’t post about it (couldn’t really taste the raspberry jam in the middle . . .). But this soup was the standout to me of the class.

But first I need to talk about annatto (or achiote). This may not be something in your cooking vocabulary. It’s a Latin kind of spice – seed pods, really. The Wikipedia article is very thorough if you’re interested. See them there in the photo at left. They’re a very irregular-shaped seed that come out of a pod of the achiote tree. I see annatto or achiote seeds in the Mexican area of my supermarket, the ones that hang in a cellophane bags. Or you can order them online – Whole Achiote Annato Seeds, 2 Oz. I have some in my pantry and use them so very rarely that I’m certain mine are over the hill. I’m going to be making this soup soon, so I need to buy some new ones. What you need to do is make a flavored oil out of simmering the seeds in a neutral oil (like avocado – definitely not EVOO). The oil will turn a brilliant orange color, which is why the finished soup has that bright hue to it. Annatto doesn’t have a ton of flavor – and yes,  you could leave it out, although your finished soup won’t have that color if you do. Online it says that annatto has a slight peppery taste with a hint of nutmeg. And it used to be used as body paint in tribal life. The tree grows from Mexico to Brazil.

If you make the oil, it will be enough for two batches of this soup. It would be very difficult to simmer 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan with the seeds in it – it would burn, I think. Hence, you simmer the seeds in the oil (to make a larger quantity) over a very low flame. Then you strain out the seeds and toss them. Smelling the seeds they’re similar to a chile pepper (dried), but they have no chile flavor or heat at all. They’re not a chile. They’re just a mildly flavored seed. I remember attending a class decades ago about Puerto Rican cooking where she used annatto oil just like this recipe indicates. If you’re interested here is my PDF recipe from that long-ago cooking class. The one unique thing I remember about that dish was the use of sliced green olives (the ones stuffed with pimento). In any case, annatto is common in Latin cuisine. You can also buy annatto in a paste – but don’t buy that type as it has other things added to it – you want the whole seeds only. And I wouldn’t recommend buying powdered annatto/achiote as it won’t keep long enough.

So back to this soup. If you’re not a shrimp fan, make it with chicken, scallops, or some kind of firm white fish. The shrimp is marinated with some of the garlic, green onions, lime juice and salt – for an hour or up to 3 total. Meanwhile you puree the corn with milk until it’s a smooth puree, then you strain it to remove any of the solids. (No, you wouldn’t have to do that step – you’ll have a bit more texture in the soup if you don’t.) Then you start with a big frying pan or sauté pan, add the annatto oil and cook the rest of the garlic, the onion, bell pepper and cumin. Tomatoes go in, then the corn milk, chicken broth and more seasonings and you bring the mixture to just BELOW a boil (boiling it will curdle the milk), then you add the shrimp. Taste for salt and then serve it with the salsa you’ve made an hour or so ahead (corn, fresh tomatoes, green onions, cilantro and lime juice). That’s it.

What’s GOOD: oh, the flavorful broth for sure. You can use whole shrimp, but I’d suggest (as Susan did) to cut each shrimp in half lengthwise and as long as you didn’t use really large shrimp, the half of one of those is a bite, a mouth full, without cutting. The overall taste is just beyond delicious. I wrote “fab” on the recipe.

What’s NOT: only that you might not have any annatto seeds or achiote paste. Try to find it if you can.
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Ever make this from scratch? I never had, and am glad I did.

For me, there is something special about sitting down, tray in hand, with a lovely pot of tea and whatever accoutrements you might want – honey, sugar, milk, cream, a pretty spoon, a lovely tea cup or pot too. And a tray. That tray above I purchased in France decades ago and brought it home in my suitcase. I use it often – usually for a platter of cheese and crackers. I’ve been careful about not ever putting anything greasy right on the rattan so it wouldn’t stain. I have several trays that are the right size for tea. The pot is Ralph Lauren (and I have 4 lovely mugs to go with it – one is in the picture) I purchased for a song many years ago at Home Goods. I love this teapot. But then, I love ALL of my teapots. Mostly I’m a coffee drinker, but in the winter I really enjoy tea either mid-morning or mid-afternoon in addition to my morning latte.

Every weekend (during the traditional school year) I attend a bible study about 5-6 miles away, where about 250 other Christian women attend to study for a morning. It’s called CBS (Community Bible Study). It’s a wonderful program and I’ve been doing it for about  8-9 years now. What I like about it is that it makes you think. No offhand thoughts you might pen in 30 seconds. This study makes you refer to other bible passages, makes you read between the lines. To analyze and consider the place and culture of the time. There’s about 60-90 minutes of homework required each week. So this particular day, I made myself the pot of masala chai to sip on as I did my homework. It took a little bit of work to gather together all of the spices needed – some were close at hand, others I had to go hunting for in my pantry (like the cinnamon sticks).  I keep some of the lesser-used ones in a bin in the wine cellar.

Oh my, does that make me laugh. If Dave were here, he’d be all over me with the various stuff I now store in the wine cellar. He’d be telling me to get this stuff outta-there – various pasta, a whole drawer of teas (that’s where I had to go to find plain black tea) and lots of extra herbs and spices. I store my rabbit fur coat down there (the wine cellar is below ground, underneath the garage in my house, has its own A/C system and I keep it at 58°F), and about 3-4 dozen various types of fancy wine glasses too. They’re boxed up as I don’t use them much. That would make him sad. I keep winnowing away at the wines in the cellar. I’m taking a trip in a month or so to visit some wineries in central California. Do I need more wine? Nope. But I’ll probably buy some anyway – maybe some rose and a few whites. I don’t drink white wine, except sparkling, like Champagne or Prosecco, but I need some for guests now and then. What I don’t need is any red wine. I opened a good bottle recently and only had a glass or so out of it. I need to throw out the rest. It’s been sitting on my kitchen counter for at least 2 weeks.

So, back to chai tea. Here’s what went into the spice mix –  cinnamon, peppercorns, cardamom pods, whole cloves and fresh ginger. I used my pounder and hacked or smashed everything a little bit. All of it went into a small pot and was simmered with 2 cups of water, on my range for 10 minutes. Then the black tea was added and that steeped for 5 minutes. That’s all. Just 15 minutes total (not counting my scurrying around trying to find all the ingredients). Then it was strained and went into my piping hot tea pot (I swished a cup or so of boiling water in the pot first to warm it up) and the cup of hot milk. Onto the tray it all went. I use some kind of alternative sweetener. I’d prefer honey, but I’m trying not to eat much sugar if I can. The recipe came from a blog I read, Cooking with Amy.

I poured out a cup of the tea and enjoyed every bit of that mug-full. The rest of the tea I put in a glass in my refrigerator – I poured it over ice today.

What’s GOOD: loved the subtle-ness of this chai – the stuff I order at coffee places are way too heavily spiced and so sweet. This is not. It’s nuanced. Light. Lovely.

What’s NOT: nothing other than it does take 15-20 minutes to make. If you thought you’d want some, more often, make a mixture of the whole spices and then whack it just before making, along with the fresh ginger. Although, you want an even amount of each spice, so I’m not sure that’s a good idea, on second thought. I think you need to make up the spice mixture each time.

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One might think these aren’t mixed or baked correctly. They are, actually. They’re supposed to look like that, and act like that when these hit the hot oven.

Really, I think I was pussy-footing around about cookies – when I made and posted the chocolate log/biscotti last week. What I really wanted to make was choc chip cookies, but I was trying to convince myself not to. Since they’re not all that good for us – butter, chocolate, sugar, etc. And my problem is that if they’re available – meaning they’re IN my freezer – I want to enjoy one every day. And I shouldn’t. None of us should. But then, David Lebovitz posted a new chocolate chip recipe, and I got sucked down that vortex of I want – I want – I want. So I gave in and made these.

The recipe originated with Joanne Chang, a chef/baker of renown (her bakery, Flour, in Boston). She’s written a bunch of cookbooks. She’s slender/thin (how does she DO that and own/run a bakery and develop recipes?). Anyway, I think this recipe came from her most recently published cookbook. David Lebovitz adapted it slightly (reducing the amount of flour in it) and posted it on his website.

What’s different about these? You have to use superfine sugar (I whizzed up regular sugar in the food processor). You have to whip up the butter and sugars until they’re really light and fluffy. It gives these cookies a totally different batter-feel. And when they pop in the oven they spread a lot. So the baking sheet can only hold six to seven of them at a time. But then, this recipe only makes 25 cookies. The cookies that David Lebovitz made were even thinner than mine – and even more slumped than mine – slumped with little whorls of ridges. There’s another recipe here on my blog that has very thin, slumped chocolate chip cookies and I don’t really understand how the chemistry works that way – it can’t be just the lesser amount of flour.

But thin, chocolate chip cookies it is and I loved them. Hard to make? – no. Much the same ingredients as every other chocolate chip cookie out there with a mix of white and brown sugar, vanilla, egg, flour, in this case, baking soda not powder, and chocolate chips and little bit of water. There are nuances of that chemistry – far be it from me to understand it. For the last half of the cookies I added some very finely chopped walnuts. I know, blasphemy for some. I like them with nuts in them. This recipe has less flour in it than Joanne Chang’s original recipe, per David L.

These will be going into the freezer and I’ll hope to eat only one. A day. And savor every bite.

What’s GOOD: the thin, crispy texture, for sure. That’s what these cookies are all about. If you like soft, cakey cookies, skip by this recipe. Thin, chewy a little bit, all about the mouth-feel of the caramelization of the dark brown sugar. And then the chips. Use good chips, not Nestle’s. They recommended Guittard. I used Ghirardelli dark chocolate. In sum, though, I think I like my other iteration of these thin, slumped cookies better that did slump and have whorls. These cookies definitely have dark brown sugar caramelization going on in the cookie itself, just so you know.

What’s NOT: nothing at all. These are really delicious.

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Chocolate cookies. Yes. But not exactly. Hard to describe. Maybe Biscotti is a better name.

Laughing at myself. I’ve finally gone off this restrictive diet and after having a couple of old dinner favorites (already posted here) I settled back into a fairly low-carb regime with an occasional sweet or treat. I was craving a cookie, and after going through my huge to-try file, I settled on these things. It’s a recipe that’s been in the file for years, I believe. These cookies – not exactly biscotti, because they’re not double baked liked biscotti, or cookies either, because they’re sliced on the diagonal (kind of like biscotti would be) are different. Kind of hard to describe, as I said above. You could call them chocolate rocks. Or biscotti. Or chocolate sliced cookies. Any name would work.

The dough contains no butter or traditional fat – the only fat comes from the nearly one pound of chocolate in the batter. That’s enough, although I’ll tell you, the dough is not very easy to man-handle. It’s a very dry dough (eggs, espresso, cocoa, vanilla, leavening, flour, sugar, fresh orange zest, and a hefty amount of cinnamon and ground cloves). At the end you add in some nuts (hazelnuts and/or almonds). I ended up removing half the dough and just mixing half at a time. Overworking the dough would make for a very tough cookie. The dough – almost the consistency of firm bread dough  – is sectioned into 4 pieces, then rolled into short logs. Because of the chocolate pieces in it and the nuts, it makes for some difficult handling, I’ll tell you. The rolls don’t want to roll very well. Or as you roll one, a drier spot appears (more nuts, for instance) and then the roll falls apart. I ended up adding a bit more espresso to the mixture to help hold it all together. The original recipe, from Susan Herrmann Loomis is called Almond Cocoa Cookies. Maybe they came from one of her cookbooks as I don’t find the recipe on her website.

You can see from the above picture – the rolled  up log at the top and then the cut (raw) cookie dough below. Onto a cookie sheet they went (mine are ridged, so nothing sticks) although the recipe suggested parchment be used.

They’re baked at 375°F for somewhere between 15-20 minutes. Susan indicated at 15 minutes they’re still quite soft and cakey, and with 5 more minutes baking they’re then firm. I baked mine for 17 minutes and they were firm enough, although my oven runs a bit hot so that may be why. They cooled easily enough and Susan says they keep for a couple of weeks at room temp. I’ll be freezing mine, just because I always do. But as firm as they are, I may truly want to defrost them before eating. Don’t want to break a tooth.

MY CHANGES: I reduced the amount of ground cloves and that was a good thing. Clove flavor goes a loooong way, in my book. She used a full tablespoon. I also didn’t get as many cookies as Susan did. I may have added a little bit more espresso to the mixture just to get it to hold together. I also used half sugar and half Swerve, and used 1 3/4 cups total, not 2 cups. It made for a slightly less-sweet cookie. I also didn’t have vanilla sugar – I just added in a slightly large quantity of liquid vanilla. The original recipe called for 8 ounces of almonds AND 8 ounces of hazelnuts. There is simply no way the dough could absorb that much nuts. I didn’t have hazelnuts on hand so just added almonds and only about 5 ounces.

What’s GOOD: well, they’re different. Different texture (firm to the tooth) and flavor (lots of ground clove flavor comes through). Yes, chocolate too. Although there is all that bar chocolate in it, these don’t taste decadent. I think, overall, I prefer the easy chocolate biscotti recipe I have here on my blog already, but then it’s truly a biscotti (easy one, though). Later note: I enjoyed one of these with my morning coffee and have decided they really are more like biscotti. They’re not hard crunchy (break your tooth kind of crunchy), but more like a firm but dry cookie. The coffee flavor came through and the ground clove flavor has tamed down a bit. Do note the low calorie and fat – even with a pound of chocolate, I’m pleased at the statistics.

What’s NOT: only the difficulty rolling the logs. The dry parts of the cookies (the nuts, chopped chocolate and the dry ingredients in general) make it hard to combine. Cutting them into their log shapes was okay – if you have any larger pieces of chocolate in them, it may make for difficult slicing. Other than that, nothing is hard to do. They’d be good dunked in coffee which is probably what I’ll do tomorrow morning.

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Different? Yes. Good? Yes, indeed.

Over the holidays I was invited to a fun-filled afternoon/evening with part of my extended family. They know I love Indian food, and every so often they invite me to join them at their (and my) favorite Indian restaurant in our part of the world, the Royal Khyber. As it turned out, the restaurant was closed that evening for a private party, so they ordered all the food at noontime, picked it up and reheated it at their home for a late afternoon dinner. Janice and I conferred and I was to bring a salad.

So, hmmm. What kind of green salad and dressing goes with Indian food, I ask you? I had no idea. Since I knew curry would be on the menu, I googled some curry dressings and finally settled on one at the Cheeky Chickpea (is THAT not a cute name for a blog?). After making the dressing, and tasting it with a leaf of lettuce in hand, I thought it needed oil. The original recipe went onto a Thai noodle salad and the dressing, as is, no doubt works well with that, but on a green salad I was afraid the dressing would wilt the greens, and wouldn’t have enough heft to hold up to sturdy greens I used (Romaine and arugula). So I added oil. Tasted it again, then decided to try a trick I’ve read in many other recipe, some mayo was needed. Not much, but just enough to emulsify the dressing. I made it in a glass jar and shook it like crazy and it held together well for several hours.

The salad – as I said – was Romaine and arugula, but then to add some interest I included some sliced cabbage and a little bit of grated carrot for color. Then I added sliced almonds, fresh mango, and chopped dates plus a bunch of green onions. You could also use peanuts instead of almonds. I forgot to take a picture of it when I served it – so all you get to see is the dressing.

What’s GOOD: it was perfect with an Indian meal – the mango and almonds added nice crunch. It was not overwhelmingly curried.

What’s NOT: only that it might not be great with a meal that didn’t complement curry/Indian/Thai food.

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You’re probably wondering, what? What does that mean? I toyed with “the curvy road becomes straight,” and “food enlightenment.” But they were out there. All the title means is that I’ve stopped eating the Plant Paradox diet. It’s possible I mentioned awhile back that I was getting very frustrated with the plan and my cravings for bread and an occasional dessert were vexing me a lot. It’s been 2 years. Once in awhile I did have dessert, but very little. And a couple of times in the 2 years I had something containing wheat flour. Well anyway, I was doing some research online and found a blog post by someone who was confounded by the whole notion of lectins in our bloodstream and the Plant Paradox plan. I began looking at more contrarian websites or posts here and there. What I discovered is that the eminent Dr. Gundry doesn’t always do his homework, OR he is vague about his sources. One learned scientist chastised him about being obtuse in his footnotes (you’re supposed to put chapter and page numbers when you use other studies as the basis for a thesis or medical theory, and he doesn’t do that at all). Apparently many of his footnote sites (of studies done by medical schools, etc.) don’t seem to exist. The final one I read that set me back on a more normal food track was a site that said Gundry drew a conclusion about human intestinal biology from reading a study of worms. Now worms are biologic, I know, but how can you say that if something happens to the gut of a worm and then conclude that the same thing happens in humans without having done the research on humans. And Gundry never disclosed that the study was of worms. I think that’s dirty pool. Maybe I was just “looking” for a reason to quit this diet. I haven’t vetted Dr. Gundry’s footnotes and don’t intend to. So I’m choosing to believe the contrarians. I could be wrong . . .

The truth is that I never did have intestinal difficulty as many people do who go on this diet. People with IBS or similar conditions, well, that’s another story. Maybe they should be following his diet. I didn’t and don’t, so I’ve gone back to drinking regular cow’s milk. I’m eating cheddar (yea!) and BREAD. I went right off the deep end a few days ago and had a delicious tuna sandwich on still-warm sourdough bread. With Best Foods mayo. Oh my, died and went to heaven. And I can have beans/legumes. And there’s squash in my refrigerator (zucchini). Next will be green beans. Gosh, did I miss green beans. Who’d have thought . . .

At the beginning of the diet I did lose 25 pounds. In the last month I’ve gained 3 pounds, so am not sure if it’s the bread, or what. I made tapioca pudding the other day, although I did use artificial sweetener in it. I’m still eating low carb, and will just need to be judicious about what carbs I do eat. And originally I thought the diet would be forever, because of wanting to improve my heart health. I don’t have a problem, but I have heart disease in my family. So, perhaps I’m shortening my life, per Dr. Gundry’s theories. We’ll see what my next blood work looks like. In the meantime I’m paying no attention whatsoever to lectins.

I made one of my old standby favorites, Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls. Used beef and pork, and made it in the Instant Pot. Used artificial brown sugar. Hmm. It was not very good. Maybe artificial sugar breaks down under pressure. Next I’m craving some chili (with a few red kidney beans in it). Tonight I’m going out to eat with a friend and we’re going to have Mexican food. I haven’t had any for 2 years. I think I’m ordering a chile relleno and a cheese enchilada. At least that’s the plan.

And, in March I’ll be giving up my job as President of my PEO chapter after two years. I’m very ready to step down and turn it over to someone else. So hopefully I’ll have more time. To cook. And blog.

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An Aviator – the insanely delicious cocktail.

Oops, I typed in Aviator – wrong – it’s an Aviation.  When daughter Sara and I were on the cross-country trip, in August, taking grandson John to Virginia, after we’d dropped him off at his new college, we drove to Asheville, NC. On the way there, on a rainy mid-day, we stopped at a scenic overlook. We parked and walked 100 yards to the overlook and while there a woman joined us as we eyed the view and the stormy thunder clouds overhead. We got to talking – where she was going – where we were going – since she knew the area we asked about restaurants in Asheville. She promptly called her friend who lives there, and we were told where we had to go for dinner. I cannot recall the name of the restaurant – tried to look it up. Nothing rings a bell. Anyway, we went early and the waiter/waitress (we couldn’t tell the gender) was very friendly and suggested a drink, a house specialty. An Aviation. See this Wikipedia link to read about the history of the Aviation.

After our dinner there, we hung around near the bar to take a look at the liqueur used – see below. It’s imported from Austria. Hard to find. Sara had to order it online and have it shipped. We live in a hub of shopping, and some other brands are available, but those other brands are discouraged – this one, the Rothman and Winter is the only one to buy.

Now, the picture up above, showing the drink in that Irish coffee glass (wrong glass, obviously!) doesn’t even look appetizing. It’s a variant of a martini, so should be served in a martini glass, of course. I’m pretty sure Sara doesn’t own any of those. Sara liked more of the Creme de Violette in hers, so it’s much darker in color than any I’ve seen on the ‘net or the one we had in Asheville. The liqueur is a beautiful deep purple/lavender color. It’s shaken with ice to cool it, but it’s not served with ice. Sara bought the bottle of Rothman & Winter Creme de Violette for me for Christmas and we enjoyed a repeat of that fun drink.

Luxardo, Gourmet Cocktail Maraschino Cherries – I’d never heard of them until I’d had it in my drink in Asheville. Then I began reading about them in various places. These cherries are “dear,” meaning $$$. Each jar contains about 50 cherries. So a bit under 30-40 cents apiece. Yes, dear.

What’s in an Aviation Cocktail:

• 1 1/2 ounces gin (we used Bombay Sapphire)
• 1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 to 3/4 ounce maraschino juice (Luxardo brand for cherries and the juice, imported from Italy – divine)
• 1/4 ounce Crème de Violette (recommend Rothman & Winter)
• a Luxardo maraschino cherry, for garnish (it sinks to the bottom, of course)

Combine in a shaker with ice (without the cherry) and strain into a martini glass and serve with the cherry. Some folks add a twist of lemon to the glass.

What’s GOOD: oh my – if you like cocktails, yes. If you like a bit of a sweeter cocktail, yes. If you’re a purist when it comes to martinis, then this wouldn’t be for you. Festive. Fun. Delicious. Especially the cherry at the bottom.

What’s NOT: finding the Rothman & Winter Crème de Violette.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 15/16 file (click link to open recipe)

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