If you want a deeper green color, simply add a drop of food color.

The Appletini turned up during the Martini renaissance of the 1990s. By the turn of this century, lounges offering hundreds of different “Martinis” could be found in major cities from coast to coast.

It’s questionable whether removing the vermouth, adding other ingredients to gin or vodka and serving the cocktail in a Martini glass actually results in a Martini. But the question was lost in the wave of Martinis produced for the cocktail culture revival—from chocolate and espresso to apple pie and dulce de leche.

However, we did not remonstrate when served our first Appletini, a combination of vodka, apple schnapps (liqueur) and optional ingredients including apple juice/purée, sweet and sour mix or lemon-lime soda.

Here’s a very fine Appletini recipe, courtesy of Ultimat Vodka.
  

Rounds of black sesame-covered goat
cheese. Photo courtesy McCormick.com.

Instead of presenting a loaded cheese board with its “help yourself” temptation, serve cheese in smaller bites on a plate with a salad. You can find individual cheese buttons at a cheese store, or place four cubes of your favorite semi-hard cheeses on a skewer.

A popular French approach is to serve a plate of dressed baby greens topped with one or two goat cheese rounds, cut from a log. You can roll the log in a favorite herb or spice. Black pepper, dried basil, tarragon or thyme are favorites. The cheese rounds can be baked briefly to add a warm contrast to the plate.

In this recipe (shown in the photo), the goat cheese is coated with black sesame seeds and baked. You can add other favorite salad components—here, roasted red peppers and artichoke hearts. Get the recipe.

Grandma’s job has been taken over by artisan bakers, who create everything from scratch in small batches. These cookies are more expensive than supermarket cookies, but they’re well worth it.

People in the Philadelphia area already know about MyHouse Cookies, sold at farmers’ markets, produce markets and specialty food stores. The bakery does not want large accounts (distributors and large scale resellers). These typically require preservatives to achieve a certain shelf life in warehouses and on store shelves. And baking in large batches diminishes quality.

If their cookies can not be sold and enjoyed their way, MyHouse Cookies doesn’t want to be part of it.

If you want large (3-1/2″ diameter, two ounces), chewy cookies (some flavors are a bit crisper) check out these flavors: Blackout, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chip Walnut, Ginger Spice, Oatmeal Cherry, Orange Coconut and Purely Peanut Butter.

We also demolished the Blackout chocolate cookie, using it as the base for open-face ice cream sandwiches. Ginger Spice is also nice.

To treat yourself—or someone else deserving of cookies—visit MyHouseCookies.com. One dozen cookies are $18.00.

The company does not have warehouses filled with product, just waiting to be shipped. Every cookie is baked to order. Just like Grandma’s.