Cocktail Hour: Classic Bloody Mary

I have totally abandoned cocktails lately, and now that I finally have a quieter weekend, settling in with a classic brunch cocktail seemed like a good way to spend some downtime.  I love a good Bloody Mary and often order virgin versions of them at brunch.  Why virgin you ask?  Day drinking is definitely not my strong suit, and a shot of vodka at 11AM will likely knock me out for the rest of the day.  To me, the best part of a Bloody Mary is the horseradish that is used to spice the drink up.  Horseradish is one of my favorite condiments and there are not a lot of opportunities to eat copious amounts of it - pretty much only with oysters, or if you are Jewish like me, as a condiment to the once a year gefilte fish at Passover.  The version I put together above is pretty much classic - no wackiness here with pickled beets or tomatillos - just a simple tomato juice, celery salt, and horseradish concoction. 

Meyer Lemon Tart and Death Comes to Pemberley

I guess it does not make sense to make such a cute little dish for a book with Death in the title, but as spring tries to break through my New England April, I felt compelled to make something pretty and light.  Luckily, a dainty little tart is exactly the kind of thing that would be enjoyed at the fictionally famous great house, Pemberley.  P.D. James' Death Comes to Pemberley borrows the characters from Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice and uses them in a murder mystery.  The novel is set several years after Pride and Prejudice ends, with Elizabeth (formerly) Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy happily married, with children and living at Pemberley, the Darcy family seat. On the eve of the Lady Anne's ball, an annual grand ball that the Darcy family hosts, a man is found dead in the woods on the Pemberley estate.  Of course, if there is trouble, Elizabeth's sister Lydia and her scoundrel husband Wickham are bound to be involved, and Wickham is charged with the murder of his friend Captain Denny.  I have not read any of James' 20 or so previous books - she is a well known and lauded crime writer, who also happens to be in her 90's.   Austen done by a mystery writer? You would expect the book to be clunky and a poor imitation of Austen's wit and style.  The opposite is true, James falls effortlessly into Austen's world, and writes with her wit, but with a simpler more modern writing style.  I found the book charming and engrossing, and I was so happy to have a chance to see what happened to these beloved characters after Austen's story came to a close.  I was, however, a bit stumped as to my dish.  Originally, I was going to make a regency "white soup" that is mentioned in many Austen novels and was mentioned in Death as well - it is a weird soup made with almonds, stale bread, beef stock and sometimes eggs.  I bought white bread twice for this, and never got to the soup before it went moldy.  So when I saw a picture of a cheerful lemon tart on Serious Eats, I decided that would be my dish for Death Comes to Pemberley, since it is the type of tart the Darcy's would have served at their ball or at tea.  With this much sunshine on a plate, hopefully the Boston weather will turn towards spring soon too.

The Darlings and Black and White Cookies

I zoomed through Christina Alger's The Darlings.  The book felt like the perfect combination of the New York Times coverage of the financial crisis and a "Gossip Girl" like CW drama.  The book was inspired by the Madoff scandal and is an imagining of what goes on behind the scenes when a family is brought down by secrets and lies.  The Darlings, the stars of the novel, are a long established New York family with a patriarch, Carter,  who runs a successful hedge fund - Delphic  Carter is married to a beautiful but difficult Brazilian, Ines, and they have two grown daughters.  Much of the novel is told from the perspective of Paul, who is both an insider and outsider to the family  - he is married to Carter's daughter Merrill  - and also works for the family's hedge fund in the always dangerous role of general counsel.  Alger creates both a real financial thriller (who did what, who knew what) and a classic melodrama (will Paul's marriage survive the crisis, what will happen to Carter's mistress, an SEC official charged with investigating him).  I read this on a plane, it was absolutely perfect for that purpose.  These little black and white cookies are a tribute to another main character in the book - New York, and are mentioned as a favorite of Merrill Darling, who is thrown hard by the scandal.  These little cookies are different than the black and white cookies in my neck of the woods - the Boston area.  Here they are called half moons and are bigger, more cakey and covered in a thick buttercream frosting rather than a thin glaze.  I am most definitely partial to the New England version, but these have there charms too.