Drink and a nosh: Ninotchka and roasted garlic saffron toasts

It's not just a great Greta Garbo movie, it's a cocktail. We put it in the Netflix queue after the recent death of Robert Osborne, notable to many as the urbane TCM host.

I'd read a retrospective by Michael Phillips, who covers movies and such for the Chicago Tribune, and knew Osborne. Phillips found in going through e-mails from Osborne one that closed like this: "Here’s hoping that life for you is like a Lubitsch film.” 

 I need that in my holiday cards, at least for those who would get the reference. Ernst Lubitsch was a highly productive movie maker, including such bits of froth as "Shop Around the Corner," "Lady Windemere's Fan" and "Ninotchka."

So here's a toast with a Ninotchka to the man who introduced many of us to some great old movies. And here's a wish that life for you is like a Lubitsch film.

Ninotchka

From scienceofdrink.com

Ingredients

1½ ounce vodka

½ ounce crème de cacao

½ ounce fresh lemon juice

Method

Pour ingredients into a shaker over ice. Shake vigorously. Strain into a cocktail glass.

Rating: Surprisingly good. I confess I made this just as a gimmick to match the movie title, but didn't have high hopes. Lemon juice and cacao notes seemed like they'd be an odd combo, but bizarrely they make a quite nice little cocktail that bears repeating.

Note: You may now see creme de cacao labeled as creme de cocoa. This rebranding baffles me, unless they think people are too dense to associate cacao with chocolate flavors? At any rate, it is indeed the same substance.

Roasted garlic saffron toasts
Adapted from "Movie Menus" by Francine Segan

Ingredients
1 baguette
4 heads of garlic, roasted

½ cup heavy cream

Pinch of saffron

4 ounces goat cheese, softened

Generous pinch ground nutmeg

2 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

Method

Slice baguette into 3/8-inch slices. Toast at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Set aside.

Simmer cream and saffron in a small saucepan until reduced by half. It will sort of collapse and become almost custardy. Cool slightly.

In a food processor, combined cream mixture, roasted garlic, goat cheese and nutmeg. Pulse until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Spread over baguette slices. Top with crumbled bacon.

Rating: That cream sauce is lovely, even before bacon(!). There's a nice lightness to the spread and great flavor. I'd call this one a keeper.

Play along: To keep in the "Ninotchka" mood, I'd put on the soundtrack to "Midnight in Paris," or "Chansons de Paris, Vol. 12."