French 75s are named after a gun, which seems odd when you consider the bubbly, light, dainty qualities of the drink. Especially if you actually look at the gun, which is in fact a small cannon. But the french 75 is powerful; the combination of gin and champagne delivers a powerful kick, apparently evocative of the feeling of being shelled with a mid-sized cannon. I have thankfully never experienced the cannon shelling, but the kick of the cocktail is quite nice.
Read moregateway bugs: tiptoeing into entomophagy
I got something exciting in the mail recently!
Read moregrilled garlic scapes in tapenade
It is easy to love the fleeting foods: blood oranges, fiddleheads, ramps, garlic scapes. Anything rare or temporally restricted becomes more precious, but these foods also share a quality of particular and bizarre beauty. The tight, snaily coils of fiddleheads, the deep and surprising colour of blood oranges, the attractive, Seussian quality of scapes. They are alien vegetables, whirligigs that wouldn't look out of place next to the lorax.
Read morefrangipane and raspberry tart
I had a pretty big childhood hatred of marzipan. I always thought it looked so pretty; those colourful little marzipan fruits were alluring until I bit into them. I became suspicious of sweets and baked goods that might be hiding marzipan, it seemed to always hiding inside otherwise innocent croissants or cakes. This marzipan phobia became a generalized fear of almondy things.
Read moretoasted almond macarons with blood orange caramel
I first made these lovely blood orange and almond caramels from Matt Bites a few years ago and they were really good: juicy and salty and toasty. I would think about making them again every time I saw blood oranges in the spring.
Read moreannouncement: the verdigris has moved!
I would like to apologize for the sparseness of posts over the past month or so. I have moved into a new apartment, I have gone on a holiday and I have been neglectful of the blog. Another factor leading to my neglect is that I have been working on redesigning my site; I am very pleased to announce that the blog has moved! I would like to thank my friend Colleen for creating my beautiful new logo; she is fantastically talented and charming. I'm working away on the redesign, so please excuse me while I tidy a few things up.
If you are following my blog in your RSS feed, you can relink with the URL http://www.theverdigris.ca/ to keep getting updates.