I drink coffee all day but switch to tea, quite often fruit juice
flavoured, or herbal tisanes at night if I feel like a hot (or cold) non-alcoholic drink.
Roslind has just discovered a wonderful herbal tea maker on her
recent trips up north.
It's called Delice Boreal Tisane in French or Northern Delights
Inuit Herbal Tea in English. It is produced by the fund raising
business arm of the Avataq Cultural Institute

What kinds of projects get the proceeds?

Their tisanes are made (in part) from wild plants harvested in
Nunavik by the Nunavimmiut people.
Blend #1 with Labrador Tea
Blend #2 with Cloudberry
Blend #3 with ground Juniper
Blend #4 with Crowberry
Blend #5 Arctic Blend
They are all wonderful and I look forward to getting more in time.

Is there any similarity you can share between
these blends and mainstream commercial things?
I've sampled most of the sometimes unlikely-
sounding mixtures offered by Celestial Seasonings
and the like ... some of them have been very good;
most, one wonders why.

+

I shopped at our downtown liquor and beer store for a change instead
of the suburban one near the house and was surprised to see how
different the inventory was, even though it's run by the same owner.

Different, perhaps more sophisticated clientele.

So I am now the proud owner of a 375 ml half bottle of green
Chartreuse (they didn't have the yellow) and had my first taste of it
since I moved up here way back in 1979. Now for those of you who
are not familiar with it, it is the original, stronger (110 proof),
less sweet, very vegetal version of the two. I had a small shot it
it straight up and it was somewhat unpleasant tasting but then I
mixed a half ounce of it with an ounce of vodka and an ice cube and
it became quite pleasant.

I've never been a great fan - straight up it
tastes like medicine, and in a mix it tends to
dominate, and the anise and similar notes come
out in dilution. Yellow is less objectionable
but has less personality as well.

Most of the recipes I could dig up called for gin, sweet red
vermouth and yellow Chartreuse and I had on hand vodka, a tiny bit
of gin, dry white vermouth and the green stuff.

Most of the recipes were probably old recipes
from a time when cocktails were sweeter.

Now the gin was very juniper forward (Tanqueray) so this is what I
did: I added 3 oz of vodka to the remaining 3 oz of gin to produce 4
jiggers of not quite so junipery gin mix.

You might consider getting the more suave Ten or
the citrus-dominated Rangpur at about the same
price. I always found the regular Tanqueray a
little out of balance but very much enjoyed the
subsidiary brands.

I then combined 1 jigger each of white vermouth and cranberry
cocktail, 1 shot of Chartreuse and 3/4 oz of honey and stirred to
blend in the honey.

Are we using 1 1/2 oz jiggers and 1 oz shots?

My first cocktail was 1 1/2 oz of the gin mix with 1/2 oz of the
Chartreuse mix on the rocks. And it was good: some juniper aroma and
taste but not too much and nicely in balance with just a hint of
Chartreuse herbiness, ever so slightly sweet overall but still as
suitable for a pre-dinner aperitif as a post dinner digestif.
I came up with a winner here.

Winning by diluting the strong dominating
flavors until they are whispers and memories.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v7.07

Title: White Chocolate Whisper Cake
Categories: Desserts
Servings: 6

6 oz White chocolate
4 1/2 lg Egg whites (4 full fluid
-ounces)
1 c Milk
1 1/2 ts Vanilla
3 c (300 g) sifted cake flour
1 c + 3 tbsp sugar
1 tb + 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 ts Salt
9 tb Unsalted butter, softened

FROM: Derek Maddox (The Tally System - 912-328-6183 - (1:36)

Preheat oven to 350ÿF. Grease and flour two 9 inch by 1-1/2 inch cake
pans.

In a double boiler melt the chocolate over hot (not simmering) water,
stirring frequently. Remove from the water.

In a medium bowl lightly combine the egg whites, 1/4 cup milk, and
vanilla.

In a large mixing bowl combine the dry ingredients and mix on low speed
for
30 seconds to blend. Add the butter and remaining 3/4 cup milk. Mix on
low
speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed
(high speed if using a hand mixer) and beat for 1-1/2 minutes to aerate
and
develop the cake's structure. Scrape down the sides. Gradually add the
egg
mixture in 3 batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition to
incorporate the ingredients and strengthen the structure. Scrape down the
sides. Add the melted chocolate and beat to incorporate.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pans and smooth the surface with a
spatula. The pans will be about 1/2 full. Bake 25 to 35 minutes or until
a
tester inserted near the center comes out clean and the cake springs back
when pressed lightly in the center. The cakes should start to shrink from
the sides of the pans only after removal from the oven.

Let the cakes cool in the pans on racks for 10 minutes. Loosen the sides
with a small metal spatula and invert onto greased wire racks. To prevent
splitting, reinvert so that the tops are up and cool completely before
wrapping airtight.

** -=> this comes from the bottom of the files of Shelley Rodgers <=-

MMMMM
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Fido Since 1991 | QWK by Web | BBS.DOCSPLACE.ORG (1:123/140)