If you’d like a higher quality sparkling fruit drink, pick up some Sanpellegrino Sparkling Fruit Beverages. They’re made with real juice, as opposed to natural or artificial “flavors” (also called essences or extracts—see the note below). They can be a special treat for every day…or how about Father’s Day?

All are refreshing soft drinks and cocktail mixers. The flavors are familiar yet sophisticated:

 
And now, the new kid on the shelf:

 
Aromatic and soft pink in color, delivering bold sweet flavors balanced with a hint of tartness, it is a delight. We loved it!

For now, the new flavor is an exclusive at Whole Foods Markets nationwide.
 
Sanpellegrino soft drinks have been an Italian favorite, in 1932 when the iconic Aranciata was launched in Milan, Italy by Ezio Granelli. For more information visit SanpellegrinoFruitBeverages.com.

 
A NOTE ON ESSENCES & EXTRACTS

Essences or “flavorings” are chemically-developed, artificial flavors. They are typically cheaper than extracts.

Extracts are flavors that are extracted straight from the source. For example, real vanilla extract is made by soaking vanilla beans in a neutral alcohol. The flavor leaches into the liquid, the extract.

Buy only real extracts, and don’t buy the less expensive brand. The bargain may be more diluted with a less concentrated flavor.
  

Need a special gift for your favorite carnivore? Murray’s Meat of the Month Club will send a monthly treat of the finest cooked or cured artisan meats.

Each month you or your giftee will receive Murray’s choicest selections: cooked and cured meats, whole and encased meats, salami, pâtés. Two delicious selections will arrive on the third Thursday of the month.

If you’re giving a club membership as a gift, Murray’s will email you a welcome letter that you can tuck in a card.

The Meat of the Month Club is priced beginning at $225.00 for four months of deliveries. Other options include six months ($325) and twelve months ($625). All prices finclude shipping.

Order at MurraysCheese.com.

One of our favorite salads is appealing year-round: for its green, red and white palette during holiday season, and for color, flavor and texture anytime.

With a delicious shipment from Love Beets, we’ve been enjoying it every day. It’s a mesclun salad with beets, goat cheese and nuts. You can turn it into a lunch salad by adding a protein.

You can also toast or candy the nuts. We think that toasted walnuts or pecans work best.

For extra flavor and nutrition, you can roll the goat log in seeds (chia, pepitas, sesame, sunflower) or minced herbs before slicing.

RECIPE: MIX & MATCH GOAT CHEESE & BEETS SALAD

Ingredients

Ingredients for the salad. You can send this box as a gift! Photo courtesy Taigan.com.

 
Preparation

1. SLICE the goat cheese into rounds.

2. TOSS the lettuce and tomatoes with the vinaigrette and place on plates. Arrange goat cheese rounds and beets atop lettuce (cut them in half if you like). Sprinkle with nuts.
 
GIFT PACKAGE

Want to send the ingredients as a gift? Check out this gift box from Belle Chevre (BYO fresh lettuce).

If you like beets and have attempted to cook them, you know they can be a mess: peeling the irregular surface, getting red beet juice over everything (it stains!).

Canned and jarred beets are pretty good substitutes, but Love Beets takes things a bit further, in minimal packaging and a broad choice of styles flavors.

Our favorites are the flavored baby beets in: Honey + Ginger, Mild Vinegar, Sweetfire (with chili), White Wine + Vinegar and Organic White Wine + Vinegar. The seasoning add pizzazz to salads and other recipes.

Certified kosher by OU, with organic options, the company also sells snack trays (beets, cheese and crackers, for example) and beet juice.

Find the Love Beets nearest to you with this store locator.

BEETS & BURGERS

In Australia, a true Oz-style burger must be topped with a slice or two of beets. Even McDonalds and Burger King serve it.

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.