Dark green spinach leaves, yellow tomatoes
and red radicchio turn a sandwich from blah
to wow. Photo courtesy Royal Rose Radicchio.

“Top Chef” judges regularly comment on a bland presentation, telling cheftestants that the dish needs color.

It’s up to you, the home chef, to decide what kind of colorful vegetable or fruit complements your dish.

Take a quick scan of the produce aisle: The fruits and vegetables that catch your eye are one way to start.

Easy choices:

• Red, Orange & Yellow: bell pepper, carrot (use curls for garnish), chile, grape, kumquat, pattypan squash and other miniature vegetables, radicchio, tomato (conventonal, cherry, grape, sundried)
• Green: Many choices in lighter and darker hues, from vegetables to fresh herbs

No time to acquire colored fruits, vegetables or fresh herbs? Look at your spices and dust the plate with a pinch of basil, curry, paprika, turmeric or other colorful favorite.

February 22nd is National Margarita Day, which ties with the Martini for the most popular cocktail in the U.S.

We get lots of story pitches from public relations firms. Their job is to get coverage for their clients’ products.

Brands of spirits are always at the ready with cocktails for every celebration: New Year’s, Super Bowl Sunday, Valentine’s Day, Academy Awards and National Margarita Day—and that’s just in January and February.

One of the things that surprised us about this year’s National Margarita Day pitches was how many tequila companies called their recipes a Margarita.

The only kinship most recipes had to a Margarita was tequila.
 
 
NOT EVERY TEQUILA DRINK IS A MARGARITA!

This may sound logical. But one would really have to question the logic of the people who proposed these “Margarita” recipes that have no orange liqueur or relevant substitute, and a slice of lime.

We’ll protect the guilty; but our least favorite pitch was for an Apple Margarita made with tequila, apple schnapps and cinnamon sticks.

No orange liqueur, no lime juice. One might get thrown out of Mexico for insisting it’s a Margarita.

No doubt, we’ll be sent the same recipe in October called something like a Harvest Margarita, and again in November as a Pilgrim’s Margarita.

Or hold them for National Tequila Day, July 24th.

Simply adding tequila does not a Margarita make (see the history of the Margarita and the original recipe.)

Margarita ingredients include silver tequila, Cointreau or other orange liqueur, and lime juice, with a salted rim.

 
Enjoy creative mixology; but don’t call something by a name it’s not, just to get the sale. That’s huckstering.

To show that we’re down with variations, here’s a Guavarita recipe (photo #3), courtesy of Chef Ingrid Hoffmann for the recipe.

It keeps the structure of the Margarita (tequila, fresh lime juice and fruit liqueur), substituting raspberry liqueur for orange and flavoring the rim.

If you need more inspiration, here are 26 Margarita recipe variations.

 
RECIPE: GUAVARITA, A GUAVA & JALAPEÑO MARGARITA

Ingredients For 4 Drinks

[1] The Margarita: keeping it real (photo © Eugene Bochkarev | Bigstock Photo).

[2] A salt rim is optional on a Margarita. This classic Margarita is rimmed with smoked salt. For something special, you can also use hibiscus salt, pink Himalayan salt (photo © Casa Noble Tequila).

[3] A Guavarita: Margarita ingredients plus guava juice and jalapeno (photo © Chef Ingrid Hoffman).

1. PLACE 2 whole jalapeños and the tequila in a small bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1 day.

2. POUR the infused tequila into a pitcher or large punch bowl and add the lime juice, Cointreau, and guava juice. Stir to combine and chill in the refrigerator.

3. SALT the rims of the glasses. Place the salt on a flat plate. Rub a lime wedge around the rim of each glass, turn it upside down onto the salt, and then twist the glass in the salt to coat the rim.

4. THINLY SLICE the remaining jalapeño. Serve the Margarita straight up in a Martini glass with some jalapeño slices floating in the glass. Or, slit one side of the jalapeño ring and hang on the side of the glass.

Consider today National Guavarita Day.

Have some espresso cookies with your
espresso. Photo by River Soma |
THE NIBBLE.

And then there are those who love all things coffee.

Java Bites cookies, made with espresso roasted beans, will appeal to all three groups.

The all-natural cookies, handmade at the foothills of the Rockies, sound like a coffee bar menu: Almond Mocha, Chocolate Chip Espresso, Cinnamon Cappuccino, White Chocolate Mocha Latte and White Chocolate Vanilla Latte. Each variety is delicious.

The cookie box is reminiscent of Cosmo Kramer’s coffee table book on coffee tables. For those who haven’t seen every episode of “Seinfeld,” the coffee table book had fold-down legs that enabled it to stand: an attempt at emulating a coffee table.

Here, a handle pulls out of the cardboard box, emulating a coffee cup.

• Read the full review.
• Love coffee cookies? Check out Biscoffee coffee-flavored shortbread, another NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.

Polenta—the Italian word for cornmeal and a cooked dish made from it—has become popular in America through Italian and Continental restaurants. The introduction of polenta to American diets brought it back into the American kitchen, from which many decades ago it was replaced by refined wheat flour.

But polenta is also refined: It is degerminated cornmeal, with the germ and endosperm removed. As with all refined grains, the protein, iron and vitamins are left on the factory floor.

So what can you do if you love polenta?

Cornmeal is a whole grain, unlike refined
polenta. Photo courtesy AnsonMills.com.

Be sure to read the package label, though: Some stone ground cornmeal is degerminated to extend its shelf life and is no longer a whole grain. (Store whole grains in the freezer if you don’t use them up.)

You can find whole grain cornmeal from one of our favorite brands, Bob’s Red Mill, at natural food stores nationwide (including Whole Foods Markets). Substitute it for polenta in any recipe: to make cookies and cakes (nifty texture!), cornbread and corn muffins, hushpuppies and spoonbread. Old-fashioned cornmeal mush sounds great on this cold day, as we contemplate breakfast options.

If you’re not near a store that sells cornmeal, check out the beautiful heirloom grain products at AnsonMills.com. If you love to cook and eat, be warned: You’ll probably want to order everything.

• More about whole grains, and why they’re so important for good health.

George Washington’s favorite drink. Photo
courtesy Mars Inc.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin enjoyed chocolate on a regular basis, according to Mars, the Historic Division of which produces American Heritage Hot Chocolate. The company says that chocolate was Washington’s favorite drink, served during mealtimes.

For most of the history of chocolate, it was drunk as a beverage. Solid chocolate wasn’t invented until 1847.

According to Mars, makers of the American Heritage brand of chocolate products, chocolate figures prominently in Early American history. With a rebellion against tea and everything British, our forefathers chose hot chocolate and coffee as symbols of freedom.

• Washington: While residing in Mt. Vernon, George and Martha Washington were well-documented lovers of chocolate. They served chocolate in their white and gold imported porcelain service, in special cups and saucers that were known as chocolate cups (a smaller size than the standard coffee and tea cup). In a letter to his agent, Washington wrote, “She will…thank you to get 20lbs of the shells of Cocoa nuts [cacao beans], if they can be had of the Chocolate makers.”
• Jefferson: In 1785, Thomas Jefferson wrote that chocolate would prevail over coffee and tea in terms of American preferences, as it already had in Spain. His vision didn’t take; and over time, the wealthy Spanish reverted to coffee service. (Chocolate was expensive, and not a drink of the common man.)
• Franklin: In 1794, Benjamin Franklin wrote that chocolate should be a part of any provision when going into sea. During the French and Indian War, he also managed to secure six pounds of chocolate for every officer.

Compare these recipes:

HISTORIC CHOCOLATE RECIPE
Take a Quart of Milk, Chocolate without Sugar four ounces, fine Sugar as much fine Flour, or Starch, half a quarter of an Ounce, a little Salt: mix them, dissolve them, and boil them as before.

If this seems confusing, watch a video demonstration.

MODERN HOT CHOCOLATE
Ingredients per serving: 4 ounces whole milk, 1 ounce finely grated chocolate (or drinking chocolate). Combine both ingredients in a straight-sided one quart sauce pan and bring them to a boil. When the chocolate is melted and well combined, take the pan off the heat. Using a handheld immersion blender, agitate the hot liquid to achieve a foamy top. As an alternative, froth the liquid in a countertop blender. Press a dry towel down over the cover of a standing blender during mixing to prevent burns from escaping hot liquid. Serve immediately.

Celebrate President’s Day with George Washington’s favorite drink.

• The chocolate history timeline
• The detailed history of chocolate
• 25 variations on a hot chocolate recipe
• The difference between cocoa and hot chocolate