Aviation Pickled Pears

You know the beautiful cocktail called an Aviation? If not, you should. It's delicious, with gin, lemon and creme de violet liqueur. I decided to get a little wild and experiment with pickling fruit, in preparation for summer's bounty--plus, I'm so bored with winter fruit! And as I thought of pickling the local late autumn pears that my farmer's are still bringing to the markets, I thought of the creme de violet that is sitting on my liquor shelf. I bought it with jam additive in mind, but never found the perfect jam to add it to. It was one of those things that had to wait for its perfect partner. I started to imagine the delicious mixture of pear accented with the musty and seductive violet, balanced with juniper berries (the essence of gin!), my current spice berry of choice. And lemon, of course. Voila! Aviation in a jar is born.

I'll let you know how it turns out, stay tuned....