Mom gets flowers for Mother’s Day; perhaps Dad would prefer a bacon bouquet. It’s easy to make 12 long-stemmed bacon roses.

Here’s a video from the National Pork Board that shows how to make bacon roses.
 
RECIPE: BACON ROSES

Ingredients For 12 Bacon Roses

 
*Get 12 fabric or plastic roses on plastic stems from the craft store. You have to remove the flowers, but typically, they snap off so you can wash the stems and use them again. After you remove the flower, wash the top of the stem before adding the bacon roses.

1. UNWRAP the bacon and gently separate the slices. Roll each into a bacon rosebud.

2. INSERT two toothpicks to hold each bud in place. Place the buds on a wire rack over a pan and bake at 400°F for 25-35 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

3. MOUNT a bacon bud at the top of each stem and place the stems into a vase. Tie the ribbon around the vase. Present to the happy dad.

 
ALTERNATIVE: SEND A JERKY BOUQUET

A turnkey alternative to making bacon roses is to send a delicious beef jerky bouquet—12 long-stemmed pieces of jerky—from GaryWest.com.

Wrapped decoratively in red tissue and delivered in a traditional flower box, the steak bouquet is $42.00, with a choice of flavors: Traditional, Black Pepper Cajun and Teriyaki.

How about a gin cocktail party for Father’s Day?

You can serve your guests the five classic gin cocktails: Gimlet, Gin Fizz, Gin & Tonic, Gin Rickey and Martini.

For a mocktail, a pitcher of limeade does nicely (a few dashes of bitters makes the limeade more cocktail-like).

We love the idea of a tasting of the classics; but if you’d rather have modern gin cocktails, here are recipes for a Gin Mojito, Red Snapper (Bloody Mary) and Watermelon Martini.

You can have a bartender prepare the drinks to order, or make them in bulk in advance and serve them in pitchers (self-service).

Provide shot glasses (plastic ones are fine) for tasting all, and full-size glasses for one’s favorite cocktail.

Recipes vary widely—it’s easy to change proportions, switch lemon juice for lime juice, switch the garnish, etc.

There are several styles of gin. Most recipes use London Dry Gin, but if you have something else, use it.

If you have a favorite recipe for any of the drinks below, by all means use it!

A gimlet is a tool for drilling small holes; the name was also used figuratively to describe something as sharp or piercing. The word “gimlet” for a cocktail was first used around 1928—perhaps for its effects on the drinker.

According to Wikipedia, another theory is that the drink was named after British Royal Navy Surgeon Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Gimlette KCB (who served 1879 to 1913). Gimlette allegedly introduced the drink as a means of inducing his messmates to drink lime juice as an anti-scurvy medication.
 
Ingredients Per Cocktail

 
Preparation

Shake all ingredients with ice until ice cold. Strain into a Martini glass. Garnish with lime peel.
 
 
RECIPE #2: GIN FIZZ COCKTAIL

A fizz is a variation of a sour, a family of cocktails that uses lemon or lime juice. The fizz adds carbonated water (soda water). The first printed reference to a “fiz” appears in the 1887 edition of Jerry Thomas’ Bartender’s Guide. It became very popular starting at the turn of the 20th century.

Ingredients Per Cocktail

 
Preparation

Shake with ice and strain first 3 ingredients into a highball glass. Top off with soda water and stir lightly. Garnish with lemon wedge.

The world’s favorite gin drink was born in colonial India, when the British troops took daily doses of quinine water (tonic water) to ward off malaria. Someone suggested mixing it with gin to make it more palatable, and the Gin and Tonic became the iconic drink of the British Empire. Here’s the history of the Gin & Tonic.

Ingredients Per Cocktail

 
Preparation

Add the gin and ice to highball glass; top off with tonic water. Garnish with a lime wedge.
 
 
RECIPE #4: GIN RICKEY COCKTAIL

The rickey was created with bourbon in the 1880s, at Shoomaker’s bar in Washington, D.C. The story is that it was a collaboration between bartender George A. Williamson and a good customer, Democratic lobbyist Colonel Joe Rickey.

Colonel Rickey may have preferred bourbon, but the cocktail became a worldwide sensation a decade later when gin was substituted to create the Gin Rickey. It’s similar to a Gin Fizz, but it uses London Dry Gin and lime juice, and less (or no) sugar.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

Fill a highball glass with ice. Squeeze the lime into the glass, getting as much juice out of it as you can. Add the gin, simple syrup and the lime shell. Top off with soda water.
 
RECIPE #5: GIN MARTINI COCKTAIL

Is there a drink with as many variations as a Martini? The original may have been made in San Francisco in 1850 by bar owner Jerry Thomas. A stronger claim comes from Here’s the scoop. The first reference to a vodka Martini in the U.S. occurs in 1951 in a cocktail recipe book, Bottoms Up, by Ted Saucier. The drink took off when James Bond ordered his vodka Martini “shaken, not stirred.”

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. SHAKE the vodka and vermouth with ice. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with the olives.

In 1986, our palate was awakened when Le Bernardin restaurant opened in New York City. Its acclaimed French chef Guy Le Coze brought new insights to how seafood could be prepared.

Everything was exciting, but among our favorites was Chef Le Coze’s rare-baked salmon topped with mint. From then on, we never baked or grilled salmon beyond rare (the inside actually is raw). Heavenly!

And who would have thought to top salmon with mint? The lesson learned: Never scoff at trying anything!

This recipe uses peperonata instead of mint. Peperonata is a dish of stewed bell peppers, onions and tomatoes, sometimes referred to as “bell pepper stew.” It can be used as a side or a garnish on fish, meat and poultry, rice or other grains.

The recipe is courtesy Cobram Estate, which used its Light and Delicate Olive Oil to sauté the vegetables. Prep time is 15 minutes, cook time 135 minutes.

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT THE oven to 212°F.

2. HEAT 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion and stir for a few minutes. Add the thyme and the bell pepper strips and cook on low heat until the peppers are soft. Halfway through the cooking…

3. ADD the diced tomato and a little salt and pepper. When the vegetables are cooked, add the chopped anchovy fillets, olives and garlic.

4. BRUSH the salmon on both sides with the remaining olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the salmon on a tray lined with baking paper and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes.

5. PLACE the salmon on plates and drizzle with a little lemon juice. Spoon the bell pepper mixture on top and serve.
 
For sides, we chose asparagus (while they’re still in season), and placed the salmon on a bed of spinach fettuccine, tossed in a peppery Tuscan olive oil with fresh cracked pepper.
  

So when we came across this recipe for savory French Toast from Castello Cheese (which used its Aged Havarti in the recipe), we picked the following Saturday (yesterday) to give it a try.

The result: a nifty breakfast option for those who don’t particularly like syrup or other sweet toppings, and a change of pace for those who do. It evokes a breakfast grilled cheese sandwich on a soft, eggy base of pan-fried bread, rather than on crisp toasted bread.

It’s a nice change of pace. Just as you can vary the toppings on French Toast, you can use different savory toppings.

For those of you who remember Creamed Chipped Beef On Toast, you can make a French Toast version. Use leftover beef or jerky to replace the tomato and cheese in the recipe below. No beef? Check the fridge: You can adapt just about any savory leftovers.

Savory French Toast with cheese and tomatoes. Photo courtesy Castello Cheese.

Prep time is 40 minutes. For prettier color, look for heirloom cherry tomatoes or a mix of red, orange and yellow varieties.

As you can see in the photo, the Castello chef used a three-inch round cookie cutter to cut the bread in circles after it comes out of the pan. We’re not so elegant; and besides, we don’t want to give up that cut-away French toast.
 
RECIPE: SAVORY FRENCH TOAST

Ingredients For 6 Servings
 
For The Tomato Topping

 
For The French Toast

Variations

 
Preparation

1. PREPARE the tomatoes: Sauté the tomatoes in the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the oregano and vinegar and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Season the mixture with salt and pepper and set aside, keeping warm until ready to serve.

2. MAKE the French Toast: Whisk the milk, egg, Parmesan, salt and pepper in a shallow pan. Dip the bread into the milk mixture and pan fry it in a hot non-stick pan for 3 minutes per side.

3. TRANSFER the bread onto serving plates and top with the tomato mixture. Shave the cheese over the tomatoes. Serve immediately.

The dish known in America as French toast has roots at least as far back as ancient Rome, where it was a sweet dish. In fact, pain perdu (lost bread), the current French name for the dish, was once called pain à la romaine, or Roman bread.

While the story evolved that French Toast was a food of the poor, trying to scrape together a meal from stale bread, recipes from ancient and medieval times denote that it was fare for wealthy people.

 
THE MONTE CRISTO SANDWICH

More recently, French toast has evolved into a savory sandwich, the Monte Cristo. It is an evolution of the croque-monsieur, a crustless sandwich of ham and Gruyère cheese, buttered and lightly browned on both sides in a skillet or under a broiler.

The croque-monsieur was invented in Paris in 1910. A variation with a baked egg on top is called a croque-madame. Neither sandwich was battered, like French toast.

The Monte Cristo sandwich, a triple-decker sandwich, battered and pan-fried, was invented at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. According to the L.A. Times, the first recipe in print is in the Brown Derby Cookbook, published in 1949.

Here’s the recipe so you can try it for lunch—although probably not on the same day you have French Toast for breakfast.

And we get ideas. After spotting this asparagus antipasto plate, we thought of different approaches to antipasto.

Antipasto means “before the meal” in Italian—meaning before the main meal. It’s the traditional first course of multicourse Italian dinner.

Most of us have had one along the way. The contents vary greatly by region, but Italian restaurants in the U.S. often have cured meats, marinated artichoke hearts, mozzarella or provolone, olives, peperoncini and pickled vegetables (giardiniera).

Our mother’s typical antipasto consisted of artichoke hearts, fresh mozzarella, Genoa salami, giardiniera, a slice of cantaloupe in season wrapped with prosciutto, olives and our childhood favorite, BQ brand sesame breadsticks.

But back to Ethan Stowell and his team of chefs:

An asparagus-based “antipasto.” Photo courtesy Ethan Stowell Restaurants.

 
The tasty result seemed like a lot of thought and effort went into it. But really, we just went through the fridge and added a dab or this and that. Don’t hesitate to combine anything with anything else.

Different but similar: Here’s the scoop on these popular foods:.