This recipe is courtesy of Taylor Brittenham, maker of Bitter Tears handcrafted bitters and co-proprietor of Ms. and His, a pop-up bar and cocktail catering service. You can get your hands on Bitter Tears Hina (hibiscus-rose) at Bar Keeper in Silverlake, Calif., or online.

HINA VESPER
Makes 1 cocktail

3 ounces gin
1 ounce vodka
1/2 ounce Lillet Blanc
Three drops Hina bitters

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, add ice, and shake. Strain into a chilled martini glass.

Taylor Brittenham is the “Ms.” behind Ms. and His, cooking up handcrafted, small-batch cocktail bitters in Highland Park, California. Her line, Bitter Tears, features an impressive array of flavor profiles, for those ready to update their Old Fashioned with a hint of blood orange and ginger, or up the Tropicalia of their Mojito with hibiscus.

The bitters market used to be cornered by Angostura and Peychaud’s, but artistanal bitters have hit the scene in a big way, with flavors ranging from celery to rhubarb. And our collective cocktails are that much better for it.

Q: What exactly are bitters? Read on… »

Meatpaper is a San Francisco-based magazine that covers “news and views from the fleischgeist.” The current issue features everything from the story behind Lady Gaga’s meat dress to meaty cameos in art, cinema, and poetry.

For an upcoming issue focusing on “Meat Epiphanies,” they have issued a call for essays. “Is there a particular moment you can pinpoint in which your worldview was changed based on a realization about meat? Did a dish of meat ever change a long-held position?”

Essays must be 300 words or less and submitted by April 5, 2011.

As any thrifty shopper knows, miniature food always costs more. Those tiny packs of chips or yogurt or mini candy bars are invariably a bad deal, and  ”lower calorie” versions of packaged foods cost more than their straight-up kin. I could never understand that one, but thanks to a must-read article in today’s New York Times I now have an explanation: We are being hoodwinked.

The article reveals that however savvy a shopper you may be, those food companies are always one step ahead. Those “lower calorie” snack packs are just regular snacks in smaller packages (so, yes, technically “lower calorie” than, uh, more food)—but they can charge the same or more due per ounce to the “healthier” claims and cute new design. Similarly, those “greener” packages (which I admit to occasionally falling prey to) use “less energy and packaging” because there is simply less.

We are facing a global rise in food prices, and companies want to cover their (low calorie! greener! snack-size!) nut by tricking us into pay more for less. All I can hope is that this helps to get people off the packaged goods and back to “perimeter” shopping. After all, a pound of potatoes can’t lie.