This is a drink inspired by a short story I am writing. All the characters are unnamed characters that you see at the very end of the cast credits of a television show or a movie — Bartender, or Jukebox Girl, or Nosy Neighbor. (In case you ever wondered, they have pretty fascinating backstories.)

The hero — actually the heroine — of the piece is a woman with the not very promising name of Hot Girl #2. There is no Hot Girl #1. She turns out to be much more complex and formidable than whoever named her would have ever guessed.

Her cocktail should reflect some of that complexity.

There is sweetness from an Italian liqueur. There is a not-really-in-the-mood-for-your-nonsense kick from brandy. There is lemon juice because — well, reasons. And, much like Hot Girl #2 herself, a couple of surprises.

Hot Girl #2

• 2 ounces Pommeau – an apple brandy
• 1 ounce Galliano – an Italian vanilla-scented liqueur in a seriously tall, skinny bottle
• 1 ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
• ½ ounce grenadine
• 3 drops rose water

Have your digital assistant play “That Girl” by Maxi Priest and Shaggy. This is a very quick cocktail to make, and this song will set a proper mood for this particular drink.

Wiggle your fingers and get to business.

Add the apple brandy, Galliano and lemon juice to several cubes of ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake thoroughly.

Strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass.

Carefully pour the grenadine over one of the ice cubes. Because it is denser than the rest of the drink, it will sink to the bottom and create a layer of red, which will fade into orange, then to the yellow color of the base cocktail.

Using a medicine dropper, add three drops of rose water to the surface of the cocktail, where it will dissipate into the air as you drink, giving the impression that you just missed a beautiful woman disappearing into a crowd.

At its heart, this is a basic utility cocktail — a base spirit, something sweet, and some sort of citrus juice. It is not unlike a brandy sour. The lemon is the dominant flavor at first taste, but the others sneak into your awareness as you sip over the course of 20 minutes or so.

Like our protagonist, the cocktail has hidden depths.

Featured photo: Hot Girl #2. Photo by John Fladd.

A look at Hickory Nut Farm and their goats

“When I see goats out in the field,” said Donna-Lee Woods, “I just cry for those goats inside barns because they don’t have Christmas trees. Right over there,” she said, pointing to a pile of pine and fir trees that had clearly seen better days, “there’s over 300 Christmas trees. They get dropped off from Newmarket and some of the other towns around here. People keep dropping them off all winter.”

“But the point is,” Woods continued, “the goats love them; it’s their forage. That’s what makes that healthy, alkaline [goat] milk. Every day, we give them three, four, five trees and they will eat everything right down to the white core of the trees. They use [the cores] as scratching posts all summer, and then in the fall time, we have a big bonfire.”

And in the meantime, there is cheese.

Wood and her husband, both former architects, manage a small herd of dairy goats at Hickory Nut Farm in Lee and use raw goat’s milk to make cheese, yogurt and soap, which they sell at area farmers markets.

“We also make a fudge,” Wood said, “which is a 1910 recipe. There’s no high-fructose corn syrup, so it’s not as smooth as most people expect. It’s crystal-y. The raw milk yogurt is very good, and the raw milk itself. Our soap is made with edible oils, not industrialized oils, so there are no chemicals. And you can use it as shampoo, and then you can lather it up and use it as a moisturizer. They use this sort of soap on babies with eczema because it’s so pure.”

But for the Woodses, it’s mostly about the cheese.

“Our cheeses are raw,” she said, explaining that heating goat milk during the pasteurization process breaks down some important nutrients and flavor compounds. “We don’t pasteurize. But our cheeses age for a minimum of two months at a certain temperature and a certain humidity, 54 degrees temperature and 84 percent humidity.” Maintaining those conditions can be particularly tricky in the winter, she said.

Hickory Nut Farm produces three main varieties of goat cheese: Lacey White, a firm, cheddar-like cheese with a distinct nutty flavor; Terrene, a blue-veined, “goaty” cheese that is aged longer than other varieties, and Chebar, a hard, Parmesan-like salty cheese with a buttery flavor. Woods said the only goat cheese she refuses to make is a traditional soft chevre. “Everybody makes that,” she said. “You can find it anywhere, so what is the point in making more of it?”

Woods said one of the things she likes most about selling cheese at markets is being able to talk one on one to customers, who often think they don’t like the flavor of goat cheese. They don’t understand the role pH plays in flavor, she said.

“I tell people, ‘You take a cube of the cheese, just a little cube, and eat half of it. You may not like the flavor, but swallow it, wait a few seconds, then eat the next half. You’re probably going to like it.’ Because what’s happened is the cheese has changed the pH of their palate. Our palates tend to be very acidic because of the types of food we eat.” The high pH of goat cheese neutralizes some of that acidity, Wood said. “That’s the true flavor of the cheese the second time around.”

“When people tell me they don’t like goat cheese,” Wood said, “I say, ‘Do you drink red wine?’ A lot of times they don’t because it tastes bitter to them. I tell them, ‘You probably have a tannin sensitivity because there’s a lot of tannin in red wine, just as there is in goat milk, because of what the goats eat.”

Like Christmas trees.

Cheese!
Hickory Nut Farm products are available at the farm (22 York Lane, Lee) and at the Saturday Concord Winter Farmers Market (7 Eagle Square, Concord,downtownconcordwinterfarmersmarket.com). During farmers market season, Hickory Nut Farm products will be available at several area and Boston markets.

• Easter bake sale: The Assumption Greek Orthodox Church Ladies Philoptochos Society will hold an Easter bake sale on Saturday, April 4, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Assumption church hall (111 Island Pond Road, Manchester, 623-2045, assumptionnh.org). Spinach peta, cheese peta, Greek cookies, Greek pastry, and Easter bread will be available for sale. Quantities are limited. For information call the church office at 623-2045.

• Easter eats: LaBelle Winery (345 Route 101, Amherst; 14 Route 111, Derry; 672-9898, labellewinery.com) will host special Easter Sunday dining at its Amherst and Derry locations Sunday, April 5, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Bistro and Americus Restaurant will both serve the same three-course Easter menu at a set price. Dining takes place in LaBelle’s dining rooms and event spaces, accommodating all group sizes, from intimate gatherings to large celebrations. The cost for adults is $80, and an a la carte children’s menu will be available, with items ranging from $8 to $15. Advance reservations through the LaBelle website are highly recommended.

• April’s martini-cupcake pairing: The theme of the Copper Door’s (15 Leavy Drive, Bedford, 488-2677, or 41 S. Broadway, Salem, 458-2033, copperdoor.com) martini and cupcake pairing for April is Strawberry Shortcake. This month’s featured martini is made from Smirnoff Whipped Cream Vodka, strawberry cream liqueur, white creme de cacao, strawberry syrup, cream and fresh strawberries with a shortcake rim for $14.75. April’s cupcake features a lemon cupcake, with a strawberry preserve filling, cream cheese frosting, fresh whipped cream, a fresh strawberry and a topping of strawberry crumble, for $11.

• Wild game dinner: Join the 603 Brewery (42 Main St., Londonderry, 404-6123, 603brewery.com) to kick off New Hampshire’s Craft Beer Week with a five-course pairing dinner featuring 603 Brewery beers and a collection of game dishes. Your ticket includes a Daydreaming/603 Brewery collaboration welcoming beer poured from the cask engine, a five-course dinner and a take-home NH Pint Days 2026 collectors’ pint glass. Dishes are served as is, with no substitutions. The dinner will take place Wednesday, April 8, beginning at 6 p.m., at Cask & Vine (1 E. Broadway, Derry, 965-3454, cask.life/cask-and-vine). Tickets are $99 per person, or $79 without alcohol. To register, search “603 Brewery Wild Game Night.”

• National Deep Dish Day cooking class: UNO Pizzeria & Grill (15 Fort Eddy Road, Concord, 226-8667) will host a Deep Dish Pizza cooking class and lunch Saturday, April 4, at noon. Ticket includes pizza demonstration and pizza with a salad, a beverage and a dessert. Tickets are $64.80 through unos.com/cookingclasses.

• Maple madness: Averill House Vineyard (21 Averill Road, Brookline, 244-3165, averillhousevineyard.com) will continue to offer its popular Wine Tasting, Maple Wine Cream and Tour, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, April 3 through 5. Each tour will include a tasting of two maple-infused wines, a cup of maple-infused WineCream ice cream, a full wine cellar, winery and 1830s Tasting Room Tour, and an Averill the Elephant Embossed Souvenir wine glassm, according to the event’s eventbrite.com page where you can purchase tickets for weekends throughout April.

• BBQ Easter: KC’s Rib Shack (837 Second St, Manchester, 627-7427, ribshack.net) will host its All-You-Can-Eat Easter Buffet, Sunday, April 5, from 12 to 5 p.m. Expect smoked ham, brisket, pulled pork, ribs and more with side dishes. The cost for adults is $32, and $15 for children 5 to 10. Reserve online through facebook.com/kcsribshack.