It’s time for me to pick a signature cocktail of my own to help define the upcoming season.

This is a new tradition for Sup! so I want to choose something that will be just right for all the outdoor activities I have planned. This concept was the brainchild of the girls at LoveFeast Table.

You see they choose a cocktail every summer that sets the tone for the warm weather festivities. They asked me to help them this year and I was happy to oblige them by creating something just for them.

So one week ago today I presented my version of a Long Island Iced Tea. It’s called a Tickled Pink Tropical Island Iced Tea. If you remember it was a pretty girly drink– despite the crazy amount of alcohol in it. So it’s not quite the cocktail that Sup! would feel comfortable grasping in his manly hand night after night, week after week, month after month this whole summer long.

But I will let you in on a secret. It seems that my girly cocktail was a big hit. I don’t just mean with LoveFeast either. It seems you guys really drank my cocktail up in massive quantities! That post got more than twice my usual traffic the day it came out. It has taken an entire week for my numbers to taper back down to normal.

Well I’ll drink to that!

It's spring so I am bringing back one of my addictions.

Pickled Rubarb Rubies! It's the sour that makes them so addicting. You know, the kind of sour that makes your saliva glands ache a little and actually squirt just thinking about biting into something? It’s like, no you don’t want to eat that, but you can’t stop yourself... so you you decide to eat just one...and there you are 3 seconds later... not wanting to take yet another bite. But you know you will! A little shiver goes down your spine and you can’t decide if it is from pleasure or pain!

Well that’s the kind of sour I have for you today. The sour kind of sour that can only be described as hurts so goooood!

And look at these things, I have seen engagement rings with less sparkle and appeal!

So break through your barriers, put aside your fears, and let's take a journey on the sour side.

I am mostly teasing here. Because these little sour jewels won't hurt you. They are just one ingredient in a luscious salad full of opposing flavors and textures. Which is just the sort of salad I love. Sure there are plenty of sour little flavor bombs sprinkled about this salad. Just enough to really worry you (am I blushing??). But there is also tender, crisp, rich and nutty white asparagus. And as if that were not enough to hold your interest... there is soft, green bibb lettuce and creamy bits of goat cheese.

I am dressing this salad with just the barest hint of walnut oil. There is no vinaigrette I can think of that could ever hold its head up around these flavors. No, this salad needs the full fat flavor of the nutty walnut oil all by itself. Black pepper brings the final zing that makes this salad sing!