Reminder - Imbolc

I saw a recipe in The Restaurant Magazine for a cocktail created for the Imbolc festival in Marsden, which takes place in the early part of the year. Here it is, so that I can remember it for next year when I hope to go:

Shake the following ingredients with ice:

Whiskey
Triple Sec
Grenadine
Lemon Juice

This Space Has Been Left Unintentionally Blank

Well, it's been a while since my last update.
A few weeks ago, before it got cold, I made my very first bagels. Here they are all piled together like a bunch of multi-racial supermodels all posing nude for some top designer:

They are crusted with dried onion, poppy seeds, sesame seeds and salt crystals.
A pleasure to make, if a labour-intensive one. Talking of bread, Dan got me a rye sourdough culture after mine failed so badly and became very sour and too smelly. I hope to use it soon.

Two weeks ago, I was most pleased to find recently that the rosehip syrup I made  3 years ago fermented into something drinkable. And alcoholic!

I have been overdoing it a bit lately, and subsequently fell foul to a spot of depression. It's been very calming to slowly chop and cook vegetables to make some soup. It's a very symbolic slowing-down gesture. And a warm and tasty one too.

Bloody Heaven

Why make a spicy tomato juice cocktail using vodka when you could make one with tequila (Bloody Maria) instead? Or better still, gin! (A Bloody Margaret) That one was our favourite. I suppose a vodka Bloody Mary would be good if you could get good vodka. Actually, vodka infused with black peppercorns works very well.

I love the seasoning ingredients for these Bloody cocktails: pepper, Worcester sauce, wasabi, chilli sauce lemon juice, lime juice and plenty of salt of course. Celery salt if it's available. Then again, I love tomato juice and tomato juice drinks, whether they have booze in them or not.