morsels & sauces

Memorial Day calls for an easy dessert after a dinner of husband-smoked pork ribs and an in-law-constructed glorious eggplant dish (from Ottolenghi’s Plenty , no less). Thus, it was the perfect time to trot out Donna Hay’s cookbook Flavours . As I have mentioned before (and before and before ), I am a fan of Australia’s Ms. Hay, as her recipes are simple and easy to execute. There is nothing fancy or flashy about her work, but it is always tasty enough to serve to guests and easy enough for a weeknight meal. Memorial Day was overcast and foggy up in Fort Bragg—the perfect kind of day for me, although others were disappointed that the fog didn’t lift and we were left eating indoors rather than out in the garden. However, the fog is the perfect vehicle for a morning spent grading and cooking and an early afternoon spent jogging by the beach while the husband grilled ribs and at one point seemed to be washing the side of the house with a long handled brush. To each his own....

I love cucumber*.  I love sitting outside on a patio sipping a cucumber drink.  And it turns out that Dona Tomas , a favorite local restaurant, has an absolutely divine cucumber drink.  They call it the Pepe Pepino, and at the restaurant they serve it with Hendricks Gin and Cointreau, which I will need to make next. However, in their cookbook , they boast a Daiquiri Pepino.  *It pleases me that while I do love the cucumber, and this is a pretty heavy cucumber drink, I forgot to take any pictures of said cucumber for this post.  Oops. What I want to talk about the most, though, is the daiquiri.  The daiquiri has gotten a bad rap.  You just don't hear of people saddling up to the bar and ordering a daiquiri.  I wonder if the daiquiri took a nosedive because of the pre-made frozen concoctions one can purchase at any large box store (I think that what is most disturbing about this link is the 96 ounce bucket of "master of mixes."...