Savvy Eats

I have apparently taken on the philosophy that I must “Infuse all the things!” In the past week, I’ve started big batches of both limoncello and a clementine spice liqueur. I’m already daydreaming about the next batches of strawberry vodka and new summer fruit infusions. It is just so easy: Put fruit in jar. Cover [...]

In upstate New York, Meyer lemons are a precious commodity.  They aren’t local (citrus, tea and chocolate are my key exceptions to the eat-local rule) and they seem to have a very short season. They appear in the produce section of Wegmans for two or three weeks of the year, and then they’re gone in [...]

This year, instead of being sad that we can’t be at Mike and Courtney’s for New Year’s, we’re hosting our first New Year’s Eve party.  It will involve a lot of games, a lot of food, and a lot of drinks. When it comes to the drinks, I want to be sure that we have [...]

Candy-making is a tricky thing to master.  Every time I attempt to make some sort of caramel or fruit jellies, something goes wrong: I stir when I’m not supposed to, or I get nervous that it is taking too long and decide my thermometer must be broken, so I pull it off the heat before [...]

I spent the weekend finalizing our Thanksgiving menu.  My long list of 30 or so dishes was slowly whittled down as I made notes, crossed items out and subbed some new ones in.  I turned to Dan for opinions, and when we got stuck, I texted Heather: “Finalizing Thanksgiving menu. Opinion: carrots or collard greens? [...]

My favorite place to spend an afternoon is a U-Pick farm, gathering fruit and vegetables and enjoying the upstate New York views. I have a spreadsheet in my head of which farms have what and when and how much they charge. For strawberries, I split my time between the tidy organization of Brookside Berry Farm [...]

This is apparently the month of margaritas.  Which is funny because I’ve never been much of a tequila drinker. But after some successful vodka-infusion experiments — peach, strawberry and blueberry — I decided to branch out and try something new at the very end of July.  I just couldn’t stop thinking about blueberry margaritas for [...]

Twenty-five pounds of strawberries have gone through my kitchen in the past two weeks.  We ate some fresh, in strawberry mint salad, in pancakes, in sorbet.  We preserved even more, slicing and freezing, macerating and jamming.  And then we drank some, via strawberry-infused vodka. Print Strawberry Vodka Yield: 1 quart Strawberry-infused vodka adds a fruity [...]