Sometimes the simplest dishes are amazingly delicious. Vegetable soup can be so good, and yet when I order it out it’s usually got lots of root vegetables in it (which makes it a carb soup in my book – and definitely not my favorite in generic category of “vegetable” soups), tomatoes and has a red hue. This one is nothing at all like that – mostly green veggies with the hint of smoky bacon (optional) and a bit of milk and cream. This is a “dry” soup – not much liquid.

A year or so ago I began subscribing to a blog called Cooking in the Archives. It’s a blog from 2 very erudite women, both professors and researchers in English Lit, books in general, and rare books in particular. They must have become friends somewhere along the way and they both enjoy researching “old-tyme” recipes and updating them to today’s kitchens. I always enjoy reading their own journey as they identify a recipe (always shown in “old-tyme” language as well, then their translations) and about the permutations they make to the recipe.

A recipe that had me interested was one they posted earlier this year, called Herb Soop (no, that’s not a typo). Today I set out to make it – but then when I went to the grocery store I somehow forgot to buy some of the important ingredients that went into it. So I decided to make my own detour with what I had on hand. I’ll make that soup another day.

In February I’m hosting a luncheon here at my house (along with my friend Linda I.) for a small group of my P.E.O. sisters, as we watch a DVD on some thing yet-to-be-selected about American history, and I thought it would be fun to prepare a lunch that highlighted old-tyme food as well. The blog actually highlights recipes from 1600-1800, and not always American ones. But this soup recipe I made was just fabulous – although not necessarily an historical recipe.

Now, this soup. I started off with some very lean bacon, just because I think a bit of bacon adds SO much flavor to soups. You could leave it out if you’re a vegetarian. And you can use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth too. I rendered the bacon, then added a bit of oil (because the bacon had almost no fat in it), then half an onion chopped, and let that cook for a bit. Then I added Savoy cabbage (chopped), a poblano chile chopped up (certainly not in the original recipe) and celery and let that cook a bit. Then I added a package of frozen veggies I had on hand from Trader Joe’s (it’s a mixture of green beans, cauliflower, broccoli and peas). I didn’t really want cauliflower in this and I’ve not included it in the recipe below, but you can add it if you’d like to. Meanwhile I chopped up some fresh parsley and fresh mint and had those ready nearby. I added some chicken broth and allowed the vegetables to cook until they were nearly done, but not quite. Then I added a cup of milk to which I’d whisked in an egg (to thicken the soup just a little – this was in the Herb Soop recipe), and the herbs, plus a little sprinkling of freshly grated nutmeg (so good in creamy things – strictly my idea) and let that heat through and the veggies were cooked just perfectly. I scooped the soup into a wide bowl, garnished it with some more herbs and ate it with relish.

What’s GOOD: I threw this together in about 30 minutes of chopping and stirring. It’s a DRY soup – if you know what that means – it does not have a lot of liquid in it – so it’s mostly vegetables with a bit of a creamy base. I absolutely loved it. It was very filling, had a delicious variety of flavors and textures, enhanced by the herbs. I particularly liked the fresh mint in it – not something you see often. The poblano chile added quite a bit of heat – if you’re sensitive to hot stuff, leave it out. It will be just fine without it. You can add heat to your own taste with cayenne or some of the Slap Yo Mama Cajun seasoning. Don’t overdo it, though.

What’s NOT: Make sure you’ve GOT enough green veggies to make this – variety is the spice of life, and this soup! If you have a meat-eating family, they may not be satisfied with this. If I had to add some protein to this I’d add some shrimp, I think. Maybe some mild fish like sole.

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An absolutely lovely spinach salad. A special occasion salad, for sure – lovely for the holidays, although I’m not posting this until now, in January. With the fruit in it (and the pomegranate molasses in the dressing), it has a nice sweet tinge to it. It’s beautiful, too. The photo was Phillis’ from the class. My photo was good, but hers is better.

Last month my friend Cherrie and I attended a bonanza cooking class in San Diego. The venue where our favorite cooking teacher, Phillis Carey, taught, closed a couple of months ago. That was a sad day.

Once a year Phillis and Diane Phillips taught a double class, usually in December, that were recipes for the holidays. So Phillis and Diane found a new venue, although I think it may be the only time they teach there, so I won’t even tell you about it. Where it was held was not important anyway.

Diane prepared an Italian inspired menu. I’ll share 2 recipes from that one – a delish gratin, and some Brussels sprouts. Oh, and a very nice filet mignon. Later on those . . .

Phillis did a more California-ish menu – a shrimp cocktail, this salad, a buttermilk-brined pork tenderloin that was to die for, a really fantastic savory bread pudding, some unusual green beans with a tomatillo salsa, and the finale was a chocolate tres leches tiramisu. Oh my gosh, was it wonderful.

But today we’re just going to talk about this salad. Luscious salad. I think I could eat this salad at least once a week, but it takes a bit of prep, so no, I won’t be doing that. If somebody would make it for me, then absolutely, I’d be asking for it on the menu every week.

Tip: buy pomegranate molasses to make the vinaigrette if at all possible. Otherwise you can boil down pomegranate juice to make it yourself. The vinaigrette for this salad is just so good – the pomegranate molasses gives it the sweetness, but it’s tempered by balsamic vinegar and white wine vinegar. The salad itself is just spinach, jicama that’s julienned into itty-bitty pieces, a red onion that’s soaked in acidulated water (to take the sharpness and heat out of it), fresh oranges (or use mandarin oranges, canned) and a modicum of fresh pomegranate seeds that you can buy at Trader Joe’s already prepped. So easy.

Phillis prepared a candied pecan to go on this, but I’m giving you the recipe for the peppered pecans that have been a big-time favorite of mine for years. You can make those a day or so ahead of time. This is a sturdy salad (from the spinach) so you could get everything ready ahead of time and just toss it all at the last minute.

What’s GOOD: this salad is special. A real special-occasion type salad, but if you had the dressing made and the pecans already prepared, well, you could throw this together in no time. The jicama takes a bit of time to prepare – if you have a mandoline, then you could do it in a flash. Jicama is a bit unwieldy to work on, but it added a really nice crunchy texture. The jicama soaked up the red colored dressing, so it was also juice and tasty. Altogether delicious salad. A winner.

What’s NOT: well, all I can say is the time it takes to prepare. More than a normal green salad for sure. But you’ll be wowed when you eat it, so it might make all the effort worthwhile.
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Lentil Soup. Comfort food at its finest. What you see in that bowl are lentils, multi-colored carrot chunks, tomatoes, onions, a Poblano chile all cut up, celery, broth, some Indian spices (explanation below) and a dollop of Greek yogurt on top. Very easy. VERY easy. And SO GOOD!

I think “hankering” must be an old-time word. I don’t hear people use it much. That’s what I had – a hankering for lentil soup when I walked into my kitchen and decided that I’d make a batch. Lentil soup doesn’t take long to prepare since lentils cook from beginning to finished in about 20 minutes. I could have made my Dad’s recipe. I’ve written up a long post about that soup before. He’d have been so happy to see his recipe here on my blog (my Dad, who only knew how to grill, really, did make lentil soup, about the only time he stepped into the kitchen his entire married life – and never in my mom’s kitchen, only when he was away from home). When my parents came to visit, my Dad would ask if we wanted it. Of course we did. If you want to see that recipe, it’s a fairly standard, plain-Jane kind of lentil soup with bacon.

Searching my cookbooks, and searching online yielded no particular recipes that interested me. I read about the quantities of onion, carrots and celery, thyme, salt and pepper. Some of them included cumin. That’s what got my mind to buzzing. What if I made a lentil soup with Indian spices. I searched for Indian lentil soup recipes, and came up with much the same ingredients (without thyme). So, I just started making my own version. It was easy. I had a poblano chile in the refrigerator, so was determined to use that. I had those rainbow carrots, so I used purple and yellow. I had one big onion, plenty of celery, regular brown lentils. I did not want a pureed soup – I wanted a soup with texture, and that’s exactly what I got here. And the soup was ready to eat in about 45 minutes.

First I rendered a couple slices of bacon (you can eliminate that step if you’d prefer to make this vegetarian), then added onion, carrots and celery. I let those simmer for awhile until they were soft (about 5-8 minutes, I’d guess), then I added in a can of tomatoes and some chicken broth (I used Penzey’s soup base and water). And lastly, I added in the poblano chile that I cut up into short slivers about 1/4 inch wide. I brought it to a simmer, covered it and let it percolate for about 20 minutes. I think it took close to 30 minutes to get the lentils to just the right consistency (the older the lentils, the dry-er they are, and hence will take longer to cook). Ground cumin was added, some turmeric, salt and pepper. Just before serving I added a spoonful of garam masala (it’s best added in just at the end). When I scooped it into the soup tureen you see in the photo, I put on a dollop of Greek yogurt. The fragrance was wonderful, let me tell you!

Oh my YES! This soup was fabulous. Such a humble meal, but long on flavor. I’ll be eating from that batch of soup for days.

What’s GOOD: Chunky. Full of texture. Easy to make. Full of flavor from the vegetables and the cumin and turmeric and garam masala. Altogether delicious and I’m sure I’ll be making it this way again. Soon. This doesn’t have any meat, as such, but you could add some. You could also not use bacon and it would be a true vegetarian meal if you used vegetable broth.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. The soup was just what I wanted – I satisfied my hankering, for sure.

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Usually, I don’t think of a steak in any other way but grilled – with a sauce maybe, or an herb rub. And I don’t think about steak with a kind of Italian tomato sauce, served on a bed of pasta. It would make a lovely dinner – even a weeknight. Since the meat is sliced thin, it will feed more people than usual. At least a normal sized steak would feed at least 2 people.

Years ago, my DH always wanted to have top sirloin as his steak of choice. He’d order one when we went out to eat too. I was never as crazy about it as he was (I think it’s too chewy) – he liked the more beefy flavor of it. Me? I prefer ribeye. Or a tenderloin. Or a porterhouse. I finally swayed him in favor of a ribeye, and that’s what’s still in my freezer – I have several pounds of them. I need to invite some friends over to help eat them since they’re over 2 years in the freezer. Not so good! I’d definitely use one of the ribeyes for this dish – it would feed 2 people without any problem since you have a bed of pasta underneath, and some mushroomy sausage sauce to serve on top. I hardly ever fix a steak for just ME!

This dish cooks in no time. I was prepared to be ho-hum about it, as Phillis Carey prepared it at a class a couple of months ago. I mean, a kind of an Italian tomato sauce cooked in about 20 minutes. Really? I’m more old-school, believing that a classic sauce like that needs much longer to develop its flavors, etc. Well, I was proven wrong. Although this sauce comes together fairly quickly, it has good flavor. Phillis did use a top sirloin steak, and my take on it was that it was very much like a top sirloin – chewy. Which is why I’d make it with a ribeye instead. Or even a flank steak, perhaps.

What I’m really saying is that this is a very delicious sauce for only simmering for a very short time, and the cooking of the steak is almost foolproof. It’s pan seared, then finished off in the oven. What’s kind of unusual about this recipe is that you must start with a steak that is exactly 1 1/4 inches thick. If you do, then the cooking method will yield a perfectly cooked steak that’s medium rare in the middle. Then you slice it across the grain into thinner slices, about 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick and put it on top of some cooked pasta, then top with the sausage and mushroom sauce. Sprinkle with a bit of Parm is you’d like to. Done.

What’s GOOD: how easy this is to make. Good enough for a company meal, yet it’s comfort food too. It’s quick, for sure. Tasty.

What’s NOT: I can’t think of anything at all – I’d just recommend that you use a ribeye, not a top sirloin as the original recipe recommended, so that makes it a more expensive meal, for sure.

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It was a few weeks ago – we had our dinner group here at my house. I selected a menu of “fall favorites,” and asked everyone to bring a part of the meal. This is about the delicious pumpkin dessert Dianne brought.

I was going through recipes online, following all the blogs I read, and ran across this one and thought, hmmm, that sounds so good. Dianne loves to make desserts . . .. maybe she’d like to try this. So I sent her the link and suggested it as a dessert for our group. As she explained that night of our dinner, she follows directions well. If I ask, she assumes I’m telling her she has to make this, so she did. She wasn’t all that enamored with it, but everyone else at the table thought it was wonderful. She said it was kind of fussy. We said oh, but it’s really tasty. She said it’s actually kind of healthy. We said, really? We couldn’t tell. It was rich and decadent. The angel food cake cubes gave it a kind of light texture. Good texture. Dianne likes bread pudding, but had never made one with angel food cake cubes, so she doomed it to failure because of it. We all thought it was really great, and if it was a bit lower in calorie than some desserts, all the better. We made up for it with the whipped cream we put on top, probably.

The recipe came from pastrychefonline – a Jenni Field recipe. And I’d definitely make this – it satisfied my hankering for pumpkin, and I liked the fluffy texture. You mix up a pumpkin and egg mixture (a custard) and then toss it with toasted angel food cake cubes, then bake in a water bath. The recipe suggested serving it warm, but we had it at room temp and thought it was just fine. Loved the candied pecans on top – use your own simple recipe, just add a bit of pumpkin pie spice to the mixture if you can – it gives the pecans a totally different taste and a good match with this dessert. Thanks, Dianne, for making this, even if you weren’t all that crazy about it – we thought it was great!

What’s GOOD: the pumpkin flavor, of course – it’s nice to have it in something other than pumpkin pie; the texture – we all liked the lightness of it – it’s nothing like the texture of a pie – more like a light pudding, and nothing like a bread pudding either (which is heavy and dense). This was light and almost fluffy, but not quite. The crunch of the candied pecans added a nice touch. And then, well, whipped cream. That cut the richness of it.

What’s NOT: Dianne thought the recipe was more work than she liked – you do have to toast the angel food cake cubes, and using a water bath isn’t exactly every cook’s idea of  fun. But the pumpkin custard part is easy to mix up. Then you do want to make some toasted pecans – that’s another step. So, yes, I guess there are several steps to this and perhaps a big pile of dirty dishes too. But worth it.

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When I got home from my trip to Africa, this was the first thing I made. A recipe from one of the safari camps in Botswana. The ginger adds just a slight kick and the lime juice gives a hint of citrus and tart. Wonderful soup.

Nearly every night on the 2 weeks of safari trips, we were served hot soup as a first course at dinnertime. It seemed kind of incongruous to me – I almost never make or eat hot soup in hot weather. But we all enjoyed it and savored the varieties we were served. This one was the standout – so much so that I asked for the recipe, as did many others who went on the trip with me. It tasted just as good as it did in Botswana.

First of all, DO start with good carrots. Don’t use a bunch that’s been sitting in your crisper for a week or so. You want flavorful carrots, otherwise this soup will be ho-hum. I generally buy organic carrots, and these were fresh carrots I’d purchased a day before I made this. If you have more carrots than you need, taste them and see if they’re good and use the best ones. Use the others for snacking or something else. You want flavor here.

You sweat some veggies, add the raw, chunked carrots and cook them through in vegetable or chicken stock. It’s pureed in the blender until it’s super-smooth. It’s like silk it’s so smooth. Half a cup of cream is added, some fresh ginger and serve it with a paper-thin slice of lime floating on top. Done. Easy. The recipe said it could be served hot or cold. I’d choose hot.

What’s GOOD: silky, smooth texture, lovely bright carrot flavor, enhanced by the lime juice and the ginger. Altogether delicious soup. A keeper.

What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of.

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Yes, it IS a different kind of chocolate chip cookie – maybe you wouldn’t know the difference if you’re not a collector of variations of the chocolate chip cookie theme. I was standing in front of the light, so that’s why some look different in the photo.

Last month I made a quick trip up to Northern California to visit my daughter and her family who live there. While staying there I did do some cooking, rather than go out to eat for most meals. Dana made a spaghetti dinner one night, and I made those lemony chicken thighs I posted about a week or so ago. My daughter doesn’t cook much, and she never eats breakfast. Period. While there, I got the following message from my best friend Cherrie:

Okay you need to hurry home, read about this chocolate chip cookie and make them immediately.  I figure we could have some with coffee by Wednesday if you don’t get distracted.

I laughed when I read it – Cherrie almost never says something like that – but you see, she’s not much of a baker. She does bake Christmas cookies, and as I write this (in late November) we have a date scheduled for last week, actually, just before this recipe will post, when we’ll get together in my kitchen and bake up a whole bunch of cookies and divide them between 3 of us, Cherrie, Jackie and me. But Cherrie knows I’m a sucker when it comes to chocolate chip cookies. They are, hands down, my favorite cookie. Period.

If you read Food52, you may have already read about this cookie and tried it. If not, then you may want to read about it here. There are several major differences with this cookie – (1) there is no egg in the dough; (2) it uses vegetable oil instead of butter; (3) you absolutely MUST let the dough rest overnight in the refrigerator; (4) it’s vegan, in case you are interested in that aspect. With that in mind, I bought the ingredients while I was up in Placerville, and made them there, leaving most of them for Dana’s family to enjoy. I brought home 3, ate 2 and froze one for Cherrie. She got it last week, and I have forgotten to ask her what she thought of it. It wasn’t by Wednesday – it may have been 10 days later that I saw her, it was near dinnertime, and she surely would not have wanted to eat it then.

The cookies look and feel different – because they chill overnight, the dough is kind of hard to work with (I thought) and the cookies stood up – they weren’t flat at all like the cookies shown on Food52’s website. I used dark chocolate chips (which are specified in the recipe), but you could use anything you prefer – use the regular ones, which might be easier to manipulate in the chilled dough since they’re smaller than Ghiradelli’s. The baking part was about the same. The texture of the cookie was not quite as tender as regular ones (using butter and egg). And I thought the dough was less interesting – less flavorful because of the oil. Part of the joy of chocolate chip cookies, to me, is the cookie part, not just the chocolate chips.

What’s GOOD: well, they’re different. They’d probably keep longer since they have no egg in them. Most people at Food52 just raved about them. I’m not quite so enamored with them, but perhaps I should give them another try in my own kitchen. And I’d use regular chocolate chips next time. Will these become my go-to recipe? Nope, probably not. You’ll find my favorites listed on my Carolyn’s Favs with three chocolate chip cookies recipes listed as favorites.

What’s NOT: only that you must let the dough rest in the refrigerator overnight. For a die-hard chocolate chip cookie lover, that was hard to do! I did taste the dough (which you’d have no health problem doing in this recipe since you won’t be ingesting any raw egg), which seemed about the same as usual. Dough was a bit harder to work with when cold. A cookie scoop would help with that – my daughter didn’t have one, so I used an ice cream scoop instead.

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One of my readers, Donna, left a comment for me about the new grading system for maple syrup.

If you haven’t shopped for maple syrup lately, you might not have been aware that sure enough, the powers that be have come up with a new set of names for the same set of maple syrup types. I never did particularly like the way they graded maple syrup because it seems to me that Grade B implied a lesser quality than Grade A – when, in fact, Grade B was actually a stronger flavor. I guess some other people must have thought the same thing. So now, all maple syrup is Grade A, but they just have gradations of color and descriptors.

The photo above came from epicurious and most of the information contained here comes from an article on epicurious about the new grading system.

In a nutshell, here’s what’s new – just look for the descriptive name and you’ll figure it out:

GRADE A: Golden Color & Delicate Taste – The far left one, that used to be called Grade A, is still Grade A, but it’s the mildest form, more like honey. It’s the early season syrup.

GRADE A: Amber Color & Rich Flavor – The second from the left is also still Grade A, but it’s like the old Grade B, both “Medium Amber” and “Dark Amber.” This one is more mid-season syrup.

GRADE A: Dark Color & Robust Flavor – the 3rd from the left is a Dark Amber also, but has the deeper flavor and is harvested later in the season.

GRADE A: Very Dark & Strong Flavor – the far right one and has the most maple flavor. It was a type that wasn’t sold commercially, but sold to factories and candy producers and can be substituted for molasses. I’m guessing it’s not something we’d ever see in a store. And obviously, this one is the last of the maple syrup to be harvested.

Thanks, Donna, for informing me about this change – I’ll know now, and so will you as you shop for maple syrup.

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We still have some fairly nice tomatoes at our farmer’s markets, and even in the grocery stores. Do make this if you still have some with bright, fresh available produce.

Last month one of my book clubs chose to read Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage , the memoir written by Molly Wizenberg, of Orangette fame (her blog that I’ve been reading for years). It’s a very cute book – about Molly’s journey from single woman, to meeting the man of her dreams and then the rocky road of opening a pizza restaurant in Seattle. The rocky road was about pouring all their hard earned savings into it, even when Molly wasn’t so sure it was a good idea, but she wanted to support her hubby in fulfilling HIS dream of making pizza like he remembered from a Brooklyn restaurant that makes, to this day, some amazing pizza (so we read in the book, anyway). Delancey was almost an overnight success (fortunately) but it was almost Molly’s undoing. She tells it all, sharing her innermost fears almost from day one.

Our book club doesn’t usually read food related books, or restaurant memoirs, so I was surprised when Peggy suggested it. Not that I didn’t want to read the book – I did – but wasn’t sure the other gals in the group, who aren’t all foodies necessarily, would. But yet, the book isn’t all about food – it’s about Molly’s journey. And interspersed in the book are recipes. This one you won’t find on her blog, Orangette. That’s kind of a cardinal rule in blogging – if you’re one of the fortunates, who has become a published author, you don’t write up the book recipes on the blog – why would people buy the book then?

Peggy & her husband Gary came to one of our gourmet group dinners recently, and she brought the salad – the one we’d read about in the book. And gosh, was it ever good. It’s a sterling recipe for showcasing good tomatoes. Don’t even think about making this if you can’t find good tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. These days we seem to be able to get corn on the cob year ‘round, so that’s not a problem. And basil is ever present too. It’s just the tomatoes you’ll have to be careful about.

The shallot vinaigrette is shaken in a glass jar – nothing difficult about it, and any left overs will keep for a few days. I was delighted to use the dressing on a salad a few days later. And actually the tomatoes themselves, the ones left over from the dinner, were still glorious 2 days later since they’d marinated in the dressing. Peggy said she added a little more salt and sugar to the dressing, so I’ve included that change in the recipe below. Taste the dressing to make sure it meets your approval – and add more sugar if it tastes too tart. Molly suggested having fresh bread to mop up the good juices – we didn’t do that, and I wished we’d had some, but we had a full meal without having any bread. This might make a lovely lunch salad with some bread.

What’s GOOD: it’s an easy recipe to make – it’s all about the tomatoes. But yet, the corn adds a very nice texture to the salad. There isn’t all that much of the corn, but it’s a lovely addition. And then, the shallot vinaigrette is really, really good. Nothing all that unusual about it, but I thought it was perfect for the tomatoes. It will keep a day or so, although I wouldn’t serve it to guests after the first time probably. Definitely a keeper.

What’s NOT: only if you can’t get good tomatoes – don’t even try making this if that’s the case.

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Truly, I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, but I don’t frequent bars, liquor stores, big box liquor stores, and rarely even go down the aisle of wine and liquor at Costco – except to stock up on some Bailey’s now and then.

Then my friend Cherrie mentioned that one night when they were camping with a group of friends somebody brought out the Fireball. Having never heard of it and having heard her rave about it I bought a bottle. I thought it was something you mixed with something – – something – surely you don’t drink it straight? But yes she does. Over ice.

WHAT IS IT? It’s a Canadian whiskey somehow imbued with cinnamon and sugar, I suppose. It is very smooth. It’s also “hot.” It’s like drinking red hots with whiskey. Does that give you a clue? And it’s VERY smooth. It would have to be, otherwise I couldn’t drink it. Trust me on that! I’ve now discovered Fireball. So far I haven’t tried it with anything else – not with Rumchata, or 7-up, coffee, or Coca-Cola. There are websites about what to do with Fireball – other wild cocktails. I just can’t get past drinking it straight over ice.

Over Thanksgiving I casually mentioned it to my son-in-law, John, and to Sara, my daughter, who doesn’t drink hardly anything without falling asleep, and she sounded mildly intrigued. So John made a stop at a store one night I was there and must have asked where it was in the store . . . and said to the clerk “oh yea, I’ve gotta buy my mother-in-law some whiskey.” Anyone who knows me would know that’s so ludicrous because I drink almost nothing. But this Fireball. Well, I won’t say I’m hooked. I have one drink (an ounce) over ice and I’m done. And I definitely don’t have it every night. If I did that I suspect I’d get bored with it. So far, having one every 3-4 days, it’s still a treat and a taste sensation with the first sip.

John didn’t like it, and Sara didn’t like it either. We introduced it to Sara’s in-laws and no, they didn’t care for it. So now I have my own bottle plus the one John bought. In case you’ve not tried it – and in case you don’t like the taste of straight shots. This is more like a liqueur since it has a sweet tinge to it. It’s golden and is smooth. Now I have a drink I can order out. The drink has been around for a long time, but other than hearing the name of it, I’d certainly not tried it. It’s lovely . . . just so you know.

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