So, I was having a few friends over last weekend for drinks, and I have been planning to wow them with my growing cooking skills, but as usual, I was short on time. I knew I wanted to make this new rosemary-infused cocktail that I’d seen in a copy of Martha Stewart Living while I was waiting at the dentist’s office, but I still needed a few quick and easy but impressive cocktail nibblers. I headed over to the local Whole Foods, and as I was wandering past the olive bar, I got an idea. I grabbed three different kinds of olives, and the placards above the olive bar helpfully told me their names. I bought about a cup each of arbequina (cute little brown olives), picholine (elegant, oval-shaped green olives), and some black bella de cerignolas (big, luscious, black gems). Then, I headed over to the fresh herbs section and bought three different kinds of herbs–tarragon, chives, and thyme, plus some rosemary for my cocktail. As a last minute splurge, I bought a pound of marcona almonds–those things are just too good to pass up.
When I got home, I started mixing. I mixed the arbequina olives with a touch of olive oil, salt, and chives; I mixed picholine olives with olive oil, salt, tarragon, and fresh lemon zest; and I mixed the black bellas with olive oil, salt, thyme, and black pepper. Fabulous and very elegant!
With the olives behind me, I started in on the almonds. Already salted, I decided to snazz them up a bit with a touch of honey and some chopped, fresh rosemary.
Next came the cocktail. Martha Stewart’s recipe called for green chartreuse, which I hadn’t been able to find, but of course, a little thing like that’s not going to stop me! I looked up substitutes on the internet and quickly learned that Benedictine, another herbal liqueur which I actually had in our liquor cabinet, is just as good (and much cheaper!), but it doesn’t have that lovely and festive neon green color. But with a little green food coloring, I had that problem solved in no time. You can see Martha Stewart’s recipe for Rosemary Vodka tonics here, but don’t forget my handy tip!
