Heather Rolland

Check out Heather's Tumblelog for a peek inside The Blue Eft: http://haliagrace.tumblr.com/

Cocktail Olives,

Blue Eft style:

Buy sicilian green olives - the big, green ones.  If you get the ones that are stuffed with pimientos, then hire a teenager to remove all the pimientos.  Or, buy empty ones - Adams in Kingston, Poughkeepsie and Newburgh, NY offers good quality bulk sicilian olives ready for stuffing.

Select some citrus: I strongly urge using organic for this application, since you are stuffing the olives with the peel.  I've used clementines, blood oranges, and mineolas.  I liked the mineolas best.  2-3 juicy-looking specimens will do.

Using a  sharp knife, peel one orange.  Set the peel aside. 

Make the marinade: juice the orange. Add 2-3 cloves of garlic, sliced in half. Add 2-3 dried HOT chilies, or dried red pepper flakes.  Add salt and a dash of black pepper, and either oregano and thyme (fresh from your own garden, of course).  Add a tablespoon or so of Trader Joe's Champagne Citrus vinegar, or if not accessible, a tablespoon of honey (omit if your citrus juice is plenty sweet).  Whisk in 1/4 cup olive oil. 

Cut the orange peel into strips and stuff the strips into the olives.  

Put the olives in a bowl and cover with the marinade. Refrigerate and enjoy hours, days, or weeks (if they last that long) later.

Experiment with the spices -- cinnamon sticks might be an interesting addition, and/or whole cloves.  Sweet, garlicky and hot is the general idea.  HAVE FUN!

What's an eft?  An eft is a terrestrial form of an aquatic newt.  Yup - they live on land for a while before they head back into the water.  Kind of an amphibious teenage thing - born in water, swim around for a while, then climb out and spend a few years on land, and then, once they're all done sewing their eftian oats - back to the pond.

So what's that got to do with anything? Admittedly, not much.   

The Blue Eft is an imaginary pub, where characters from Finders, Seekers, Losers, Keepers and Honey Melon Fudge hang out, listen to jazz and blues, and share their lives.

Check back for frequently updated menus, recipes, drink ideas, and links to local [real!] places that might have Blue Eft tendencies.