
A few weeks ago I attended the closing gala for
San Francisco's Cocktail Week. The event was a casual happy hour spotted with lovely specialty drinks by the talented
Absinthe Bar bartenders. The party served as closure to the week, as well as a release party for
Art of the Bar, a cocktail book by the Absinthe bartenders.

We've all done it, we've bought lettuce with the perfectly good intention of turning it into salad, only instead of making a salad, we throw it in to the back of the fridge and forget about it for a while. We come back a few days later and find that the leaves look a bit sad and wilted. Well, what do you do?
Yesterday I went to this massive picnic on a cattle ranch down in Bakersfield. The weather was wonderful and the beer was flowing. The hosts provided the main course while guests (over 200 of them) were asked to bring appetizers, salads, and desserts - which were then laid out on massive correctly-labeled flatbeds.

Last week I tried to make cinnamon rolls and the recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk, unfortunately I only had 1 cup in my house. Since I was in my pajamas and the weather wasn't exactly hospitable, I decided that there was no way I was going out to the store. However, I was already halfway through the recipe (I really thought I had everything before I started) and needed a solution quick!