ZIRBENZ PINE LIQUEUR and BERGER COOKIES!

Tonight was WEDNESDAY! And, you know what that means! Megan and I did some cooking tonight, and we were joined by her awesome soon-to-be-roommate, Carin. We do this every Wednesday, but when Top Chef is on, we seem to get a little more excited, knowing that our cooking frenzy will end with an episode of TC. I have already given my heart to Fabio this season, and seeing an Italian on there - well it makes me even happier!

We all had a blast. I am going to just tell you about the cocktail that we made tonight, which was DELICIOUS! A few weeks ago, I read about a pine scented liqueur that is made in Austria, the Zirbenz Pine Liqueur in Imbibe Magazine. I'm also sending this recipe to Siri of Siri's Corner for Weekend Herb Blogging #159 which is now managed by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything.

This liqueur is made in small batches at a family distillery in Austria. It is made from the fruit of the Arolla Stone Pine, found high up in the Alps. It has a lovely reddish-amber hue, and smells heavenly. It is not overly sweet, and has a nice, refreshing taste that goes so well with winter-season spices. My friends and I absolutely adored its sophisticated and deep flavor - and I think you should definitely try it!

We made a really delicious martini with this that was wintery, festive and delicious! So, here we go:

Ingredients

(makes 3 martinis with a little left in the shaker)

1/2 c cranberry spice syrup*

3 shots of Zirbenz Liqueur

1/4 c rum

6 ice cubes
pomegranate seeds for garnish

put first four ingredients in martini shaker and shake

strain into martini glass

garnish with pomegranate seeds

*Cranberry Spice Syrup

1 1/2 c cranberry juice

8 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

1/3 c sugar

1/4 c brown sugar

8 cardamom pods (whole)

combine all ingredients in a pot, simmer until reduced by 1/2

strain out spices

chill

We also made a bunch of different side dishes to experiment for Thanksgiving, including honey glazed sweet potato wedges with a honey-avocado dip, pureed parsnips with cardamom and herbs de provence, cranberry pomegranate ginger chutney, and wild rice with roasted grapes and walnuts. I'll be telling you about them in the coming days, they were all delicious!

And on another note...

my Berger Cookie Give Away Has Closed! Thanks to all who participated! I decided to give away 3 boxes just because I'm all about convincing more people to love Berger Cookies!! So, here are my random numbers, generated by Random.Org:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:11 5 8
Timestamp: 2008-11-20 00:02:35 UTCd

By my count, the winners are:

Jeni of I Found Happy
Diana from Diana Takes a Bite
and
Susan from Food Blogga

So, contact me at Heather DOT Rascona AT Gmail DOT Com with your mailing address, and I'll send a box to ya :) Yay!!

And if you want to order a box, just click here.