Market-Fresh Mixology: Cocktails for Every Season

by Bridget Albert with Mary Barranco
Surrey Books, 120 pp., $17.95

Are you a Slow Food advocate, habitué of farmers’ markets, or organic-food devotee? If so, this is your cocktail book. Bridget Albert’s cocktails blend seasonal ingredients with a love of the classic American cocktail. She presumes her readers love the journey as much as the destination and are happy to take some time out of their lives to make a special cocktail and that the reader will have access to great groceries. Beyond that, her systematic guide is straightforward and easy to use. The recipes vary from simple drinks such as a caviar martini (just gin, vermouth, and caviar) to the made-from-scratch, double-strained fresh tomato Bloody Mary. My only criticism is the low cocktail-per-dollar quotient, but the chapter on making seasonal infusions forgives all. For those who pay attention to the art, note the name Tim Turner, whose dazzling cocktail photos will leave you salivating.

Saturday, 3:30-4:30pm, Cooking Tent

This article appears in John McCain.

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Wes Marshall is the author of What's a Wine Lover To Do? (Artisan) and The Wine Roads of Texas (Maverick), as well as the Executive Producer of the PBS television series of the same name. Wes has written for The Austin Chronicle since 1999, covering wine, cocktails, food, and travel.