Hannah focuses on vegan cooking and baking, but everyone will find her recipes to be simply delicious.

They’re a boon for people who are kosher, lactose-intolerant or simply cutting back on cholesterol. The recipe below can be made as conventional or vegan fare.

Considering how to use a new brand of cream cheese*, Hannah decided to add “a bit more of a savory spin to things.”

Her individual-size, gourmet cream cheese balls look almost too pretty to eat.

She serves them at parties, with toast or crackers. We served them with bagels, elevating the familiar to the sophisticated.

You can serve more than one “flavor” of cream cheese balls—perhaps a spicy option if your guests like heat, or a cutting edge blend if they like nouvelle flavors.
 
Convenience alert: You can make the cream cheese balls in advance and freeze them. You can also make one large ball for the center of a party tray.

Ingredients

 
Don’t hold back on garnish ingredients; check around to see what you have at hand:

 
Preparation

1. MINCE and combine the garnishes.

2. ROLL the cream cheese balls into 1- or 1-1/2 inch diameter (what looks right to you). You can use wood butter paddles or your hands (you can use plastic kitchen gloves). If the cream cheese warms and starts to lose its shape, stick it in the fridge or freezer until it hardens enough to be smoothed into a round ball.

3. ROLL the cream cheese balls in the mix to coat.

4. SERVE on a bright colored plate or on a bed of greens, as in the photo.
 
 
Check out Hannah’s Bittersweet Blog and sign up for the feed. You’ll enjoy every morsel.
 
_______________

*Hannah used Galaxy Food’s vegan cream cheese.

†Hannah used pine nuts. Use your favorite: almonds, pecans, pistachios, walnuts, etc.

‡Tip: We find it easier to use a scissors rather than a knife to cut small dried fruits.
  

For some chocolate fun, try the “Here’s the Scoop” collection from Choclatique, a Los Angeles-based artisan chocolatier.

The chocolate makers turned their favorite ice cream flavors into chocolate truffles. Take a bite of Amaretto-Mocha Fudge, Buttery-Toasty Pecan, Dark Chocolate Boysenberry Swirl, Happy Birthday Cake, It’s Been A Rocky Road, Sea-Salted Creamy Caramel and Snowy Vanilla-Peach, among others.

Of course, the handmade and hand-decorated chocolates aren’t cold like ice cream, but they’re creamy and refreshing. And they don’t melt—at least, not at room temperature.

Assortments range from 8 pieces to 30 pieces, $20 to $65.

The company also makes a Designer Donut collection—donut-shaped chocolates in There’s warm glazed doughnuts— Cherry, Cinnamon Twist, Cruller, Frosted Vanilla, Glazed, Maple, and Sprinkles.

Check out the fun at Choclatique.com.
 
FIND MORE OF OUR FAVORITE CHOCOLATES.

How many people do you know who have even had a Daiquiri, Old Fashioned, or Tom Collins?

A retro cocktail party may be just the thing to introduce them to tippling in the good old days.

So banish the Cosmopolitans for an evening, and turn back the clock with a menu of five classic cocktails. These famous oldies date to the 1800s.

> Also below, retro hors d’oeuvre to serve with the cocktails.

> Plus, the history of cocktails.
 
 
THE TOP RETRO COCKTAILS

1. Daiquiri: Ernest Hemingway’s favorite cocktail combines rum, lime juice, and simple syrup, shaken and served neat (photo #1). Here’s the history of the Daiquiri.

2. Dry Martini: This combination of gin and dry vermouth is garnished with an olive or lemon twist garnish. The less vermouth, the drier the Martini. People who wanted to drink straight gin could ask for just a splash of it. It’s the only cocktail in this group that isn’t sweet. From early times, people used sugar to mitigate the hard edge of the alcohol (photo #2). Here’s the history of the Martini.

3. Manhattan: This classic whiskey cocktail, dating to the 1870s, is made with bourbon or rye and sweet vermouth, served in a rocks glass and originally garnished with a maraschino cherry, although today orange peel is often substituted (photo #1). A gin-based version is the Martinez, another oldie made with sweet vermouth, bitters and the cherry. That recipe was first published in 1887, attributed to a bar in Martinez, California (photo #3). Here’s the history of the Manhattan cocktail.

4. Old Fashioned: Bourbon based and served in a rocks glass, sugar, bitters, and an orange slice are muddled in the glass; ice and bourbon are then added. The term originated with late 19th-century bar patrons, to distinguish cocktails made the “old-fashioned” way from newer, more complex cocktails (photo #4). Here’s the history of the Old Fashioned cocktail.

5. Tom Collins: A tall drink of dry gin, lemon juice, sugar syrup, and soda water, garnished with a maraschino cherry and a lemon slice (photo #5). The recipe was first published in 1876. There was no particular Tom Collins for whom it was named; rather, “Tom Collins” was an everyman name referenced in conversation, along the lines of John Smith and John Doe. Here’s the history of the Tom Collins.

Bonus option:

6. Mint Julep: Not just for Kentucky Derby parties, this tall glass of muddled mint and sugar syrup, crushed ice and bourbon deserves attention year-round (photo #6). It originated in the South in the 1800s. A julep is generally defined “as a sweet drink, particularly one used as a vehicle for medicine.”* Here’s the history of the Mint Julep. Here’s the history of the Mint Julep.
 
 
> Check out the Top 10 cocktails in the world.
 
_____________

*Source: Wikipedia. It should be noted that before it became a leisure drink, spirits were developed for, and used as, medicine.

[1] The rum-based Daiquiri (photo © Tempered Spirits).

[2] What makes a martini “dry” is little or no vermouth (photo © Cotton Bro | Pexels).

[3] The Manhattan was created in the 1870s by a New York bartender whose name is lost to history (photo © Ruth’s Chris Steak House).

[4] An Old Fashioned is made with Bourbon (photo © Adam Jaime | Unsplash).

[2] A Tom Collins (photo © Bombay Sapphire Gin).

[6] A Mint Julep, made with rum, is traditionally served in a silver or pewter cup (photo © Ruths Chris Steak House).

 
 
COCKTAIL HISTORY

The mixture of ingredients that became known as a cocktail predates the use of the word. In the 18th century, drinks combining a spirit, sweetener, water, and bitters were mixed, and bitters were often sipped for medicinal purposes.

Plus, the concept of punch as a sweetened mixed drink made in a quantity to serve several people originated in India.

European sailors and traders encountered it there in the 17th century. The British East India Company is credited with bringing punch recipes back to England.

Although in India punch was not alcoholic, it became so in Europe. Spirits (usually rum) were added to the Indian recipe of tea, water, sugar, citrus, and spices.

Thus, the individually mixed drink called the cocktail was a simple evolution.

Individual cocktails as we know them today have existed since the early 1800s. The first known mention of the word “cocktail” was used to describe a mixed drink in 1803, appearing in a newspaper called The Farmer’s Cabinet in Amherst, New Hampshire [source].

A few years later, a reader wrote to The Balance and Columbian Repository, a newspaper in Hudson, New York, asking “What is a cocktail?” The reply, published in the May 13, 1806: “Cock-tail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters—it is vulgarly called bittered sling….”

The term gradually came to reference any kind of alcoholic mixed drink, specifying, for example “gin cocktail.”

It took several decades for the first published bartenders’ guide with cocktail recipes. How to Mix Drinks; or, The Bon Vivant’s Companion, by “Professor” Jerry Thomas, appeared in 1862 and is still in print! In addition to recipes for “cocktails,” there cobblers, flips, punches, shrubs, slings, and toddies. Bitters was the key ingredient that differentiated cocktail recipes.

The leading claim to the first cocktail party goes to Mrs. Julius S. Walsh Jr. of St. Louis, Missouri. In May 1917, she invited 50 guests to her home at noon on a Sunday. The cocktail reception lasted an hour, and lunch was served at 1 p.m.

While the record is mum on the subject, the cocktail event may have followed the Sunday church service.† Now there’s an idea ready for revival: church followed by cocktails with friends.
 
 
The Origin Of The Word “Cocktail”

The origin of the word “cocktail” remains a mystery. It appears to have originated at the beginning of the 1800s. Here are the leading theories:

 
Perhaps someday, someone will uncover an article from the early 19th century that sheds light on the word’s true origin.

_____________

†Since 1924, the Walsh mansion has been the residence of the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis.

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

According to super chef Wylie Dufresne of WD-50 in New York City, the magic comes from cream cheese. Here’s his recipe:

RECIPE: BEST SCRAMBLED EGGS FROM
CHEF WYLIE DUFRESNE

Ingredients Per Serving

 
Optional Additions

A new look at scrambled eggs: on an open
face sandwich with chunky avocado. Photo
courtesy Avocados From Mexico.

1. SEASON eggs with salt and pepper; whisk to scramble.

2. HEAT small pan; when hot, add butter, letting it foam.

3. ADD eggs, wait 30 seconds and remove pan from heat.

4. ADD cream cheese and scramble.

You can serve your scrambled eggs on a plate, with a side of toast, or try one of these variations:

 
Other suggestions? Send ‘em in!

The Italian word pesto means paste; the verb pestare means to pound or bruise.

Classic pesto sauce, which originated in the basil-rich Italian province of Liguria, consists of basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts, Parmesan and Pecorino cheeses plus a touch of salt for seasoning.

It’s traditionally made by pounding the ingredients with a mortar and pestle, which releases more of the flavorful oils in the basil than those made by the blades of a food processor or in commercial production.

But, switch out the basil for other greens (arugula, spinach), ditch the greens entirely (kalamata olives; orange, red or yellow bell pepper; sundried tomato), switch the nuts (pistachio, walnut), change the seasonings (try sundried tomato pesto with chipotle).

You can even add fresh tomato, ricotta, yogurt or crème fraîche. Pink pesto, an American invention, is a mix of fresh tomatoes, a bit of pesto, some onions and a hint of cream. Garlic lovers should try roasted garlic pesto, a rich, golden paste flecked with herbs and small walnut chunks.

Don’t be hesitant: Try anything. The pestobilities are endless!

> National Pesto Day is July 2nd.

> 18+ annual holidays that celebrate sauces, dips, and dressings.

> The history of pesto.

> Easy homemade pesto recipe.
 
 
Pesto At Breakfast

 
Pesto At Lunch & Dinner

 
In Liguria, popular pesto-and-pasta dishes include trenette and triofe alla Genovese. Trenette, flat ribbon pasta almost identical to linguine with a surface the sauce can cling to. Triofe are dumpling-like, rolled, worm-shaped pasta with crevices for pesto to fill.

You can substitute gnocchi; and if you’re a penne or rigatoni person, go for it. You can use any substantial pasta that can take a heavy dressing (i.e., not angel hair); and by all means, use pesto instead of red sauce in your lasagna.

Here’s how to match pasta shape to type of sauce.
 
 
Pesto With Appetizers & Snacks

 
 
MAKE YOUR OWN PESTO

Here’s a delicious and easy pesto recipe.

Whether it’s your own or store-bought, here’s how to store pesto.

> Check out our favorite store-bought pesto brands.
 
 
 
________________

*To make pesto croutons: Combine 4 cups bread cubes, 3 tablespoons pesto and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Spread on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 350°F.

[1] A traditional use of pesto: as a sauce or garnish for fish, meat or poultry (photos #1, #3, #4, and #5 © DeLallo).

[2] A colorful, tasty topping for fish, chicken, and other “beige” foods (photo © Good Eggs). s

[3] Chicken pesto pizza or flatbread.

[4] Pesto is delicious mixed in to rice, other grains, even mashed potatoes!

[5] Perhaps the most familiar use of pesto is as pasta sauce, here on orecchietti (“little ears”).

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.