Grapefruit Juice

When I was in Washington, D.C., recently, I got turned around and took the wrong bus. When I got off, I realized I must be very close to Jaleo , the first restaurant of Spanish chef José Andrés (The Bazaar). It had just been redone and I wanted to check it out. All quiet on a Saturday afternoon. We took two seats at the bar and ordered a glass of Albariño and the cocktail a new friend had enthusiastically recommended: Hometown Hero. I loved the cocktail's tart sweetness, the almost smoky taste of the mezcal and the bitter herbs of Cocchi Americano vermouth with a high note of cinnamon.

Calcium channel blockers prescribed to lower blood pressure and macrolide antibiotics to treat infections can combine to sharply reduce blood pressure in the elderly, leading to an increased risk of hospitalization and other problems, Canadian researchers reported Monday. The combination of drugs probably reduces blood pressure in younger patients as well, but represents a bigger risk in the elderly, who are already at increased risk of falls, said Dr. David Juurlink of the Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto, who led the study reported in the Canadian Medical Assn.

Dear SOS: Kennedy's in Long Beach serves the best chicken salad we've tasted. We have had no luck in prying the recipe from them. Would you please try? --NATALIE Dear Natalie: Happy New Year. KENNEDY'S CASHEW-CHICKEN SALAD 1 (2 1/2- to 3-pound) chicken Salt, pepper 3/4 cup chopped celery 1/2 cup coarsely chopped salted cashews 1 cup sour cream Lettuce leaves 8 melon halves, optional Season chicken inside and outside with salt and pepper. Bake at 350 degrees 1 1/2 hours or until very tender.

Jennifer McGarigle, just back from a two-week trip to Italy, has little time to settle into her home. She snips burgundy and magenta roses and arranges them in monochromatic bunches minutes before 17 guests are scheduled to arrive for a patio dinner party. Dozens of wasps assault the outdoor centerpieces filled with poppies. The two resident pugs, Daisy and Lucy Pickles, are getting snippy with each other every time there's a knock at the front door. And now the heat lamps aren't lighting.

Methadone, a potent opiate once used almost exclusively to treat heroin addicts, is increasingly being prescribed by doctors as a pain medication and abused by drug users searching for a cheap, easy way to get high, physicians and federal drug officials say. The drug, which comes in pill or liquid form, recently has come under scrutiny in the death of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith. A doctor in Studio City prescribed methadone to Smith for pain treatment before she was found dead Feb.

The mild climate along California's coast enables its strawberry growers to dominate commercial production of this fruit; last year they accounted for some 88% of the nation's crop. For strawberry lovers, that's both a blessing, of abundance and reasonable prices, and a curse, because local growers are focused almost exclusively on varieties suited to industrial production. Compared with other states where local sales predominate, California strawberry breeders prioritize firmness and long shelf life, often at the expense of flavor.

I have a confession to make: I hate brunch buffets, those all you-can-eat affairs where, faced with a selection as long as a football field, you promptly lose your mind and pile your plate to the point you're confronting far more than you can realistically consume or appreciate. And some people don't stop there. I think the moment I swore off such extravagances was a Sunday morning at the Rainbow Room in New York. The buffet there is famous for the view, and for the fact that the buffet spread slowly revolves like a turntable.