Your Holiday Home Bar

 Drinks are a big part of the holiday scene. There is wine to accompany a Christmas ham or turkey. Champagne to ring in the New Year/ A nice Irish coffee to finish a quiet night in. A home bar should be well stocked and ready for any kind of drink. whether alcoholic or -nonalcoholic.

What should any well stocked home bar have? Corkscrews are always a must  along with bottle openers.There will always be bottles to be uncorked and you don;t want to use a dinmer fork to do this.A couple of jiggers or small measuring cups are also handy ,expecially when you're creating mixed cocktails and even mocktails. Of course yo'll eed a good cocktail shakers for those holiday martinis along with strainers for making sure ice or pulp doesn't drop into the finished drink. Most professional bartenders use what's called a Boston shaker but you can buy a cobbler one that has a built in strainer. For the perfectly mixed drink make sure you have bar spoons which long handled spoons with small bowls. Also have mixing glasses for making multi ingrdient libaions. You can. find these at any store from Amazon to Wal-mart. You should alreay have champagne glasses and tumblers too. If you are dealing with a big crowd, then buy the plastic versions and keep the good stuff locked away.

What about the types of alcohol? A good gin such as Beefeater's is a must. It can serve as a base for many cocktails. Whiskey is another must have.  Keep in mind it and bourbon are sort of alike. Bourbon has fifty-one percent of a corn mixutre in it while whiskry has just an equal amount of mashed grains in it. Another home bar staple is rum. The best for cocktails is Flor di Cana, which has aromas, of white chocolate, and orange along with sweet almonds and vanilla. As for rumfor punches then have Bacardi Superior rum for a fun fruity punch, A good tequila rounds out the bar. Try to find a good blanco or silver one . it has a relatively mild flavor and clear color.It's the best for cocktails. Sodas play an important role in a home bar too, epsecially for mocktails. Yes, you should have cola for makeing rum and Coke along with ginger ale for non drinkers)Both drinkers and non drinkers like a good fizzy cocktail. Have various seltzers around. One of the best is Waterloo which comes in such flavors as grape , spiced apple, watermelon and peach. Also have plain sletzer for mixing as well.

Make sure your home holiday bar is well stocked for the dinners and parties ahead. This will ensure tasty cocktails and mocktails for yourself and guests. There's nothing like the perfect sip for the holidays.

A Good Old Fashioned Cobbler

 This is the season for cobbler. The fruit is ripe for it , especially peaches and it's a simpler bake than a pie or tart. It's also a great summer dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

What is cobbler exactly and how did it get that name? The recipe came over with the British colonists and it is a sub in for suet pudding. They were unable to get enough bread for a traditional one so they covered stewed fruit with a batter.A cobbler's top is usually made from a batter biscuit or, if in Britian , a dumpling top. As for th e name it was first recorded in 1859 and possibly derives from the archaic word cobeler meaning wooden bowl. Another version may stem from the fact that the topping may have the look of a cobbled stone pathway. A third explanation comes from the Oxford english Doctionary has roughly assemble or cobbled together . Earlier home bakers would use leftover scraps of  pie or scone dough to make the cobblers top over whatever filling that was readily available. Apple pan dowdy,., another great dessert is a cousin of the cobbler. This is where the dough is mixed into the fruit filling and baked.Another cousin is the Betty which is made with a bread crumb or crushed graham cracker  topping. There are also slumps too which are cobblers baked on a stove top instead of in the oven.

This is definitely the season for cobblers. Peaches are in season right now and they're perfect for a juicy , sweet cobbler. The cobbler dough is usally made with flour, sugar salt,  and butter. One egg yolk is added for color and body. You also need vanilla extra for flavor and two tablespoons of very cold water ( put a small cup of water in fridge for this). As for th e filling, if you are picking the fruit fresh, look for a perfectly golden hued peach. This kind yileds a very sweet flavorful fruity taste.As for the skin if 's up to you to leave the peel on or not. eigh peaches are used to make the filling. They should be sliced thin and pitted. Mix these with a quarter cup of white sugar, quarter cup brown sugar and quarter teaspoons each of cinnamon and nutmeg. Also add lemon juice and cornstarch  to the slices. Toss them in this so each are evenly coated. They're then baked in a 425 degree Farenheit oven for ten minutes. As they're cooking , prepare the dough. Sift the dry ingredients and then add the butter with your fingertips until it resembled a coarse meal. Add water and stir. remove the peaches from the oven and drop the  dough over the peaches. Then sprinkle an equal mix of cinnamon and sgar over the dough. Bake  in a preheated oven (arounnd 425 degrees Farenheit) for thirty minutes. Serve with a big scoop of ice cream or better yet a big blob of whipped cream.

I'ts summer and that mean'sa fresh peach cobbler. It's an easy make and bake. Create one for a lovely hot weather dessert.

June's Other's Star The Blueberry

 JUne is known for its' strawberry harvests. Yet it's the blueberry that 's the real star. These little jewels are perfect in a variety of different dishes. Try them in a salad or in a dessert. They're good in savory and sweet dishes.

Blueberries are just plain good for you. They have the highest antioxidant levels of any fruit, and are good for protecting againsy certan cancers, eye problems and even urinary track infections. They also help in stopping heart disease , improve metabolism and strengthen brain functions involved in memory. As with most berries they can be used in both dinner and dessert recipes. A nice summery salad treat is a dressing made with them,balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Honey and lemon juice are added to give it sweetness and smoothness while cracked peppercorns offer heat. You could also make this with apple cider vinegar too.Keep in mind these versatile little berries can also be part of a meat sauce  too.It's combining them with balsamic vinegar brown sugar and lemon juice and reducing them to almost a  thick syrup. Its then dipping barbecued steak or chicken in it or pouring it over the meat.If you're a little more ambitious you can try your hand at blueberry ketchup. This is cooking two cups of them with ginger and shallots first , then adding red wine vinegar,  brown sugar and salt. It;s boils until it forms a thick, jammy mix. Try it for a different spin on French fries and burgers.

Of course blueberries are the perfect ingredients for any sweet treat. Many love them in scratch pancakes and waffles. Any of these are perfect for breakfast but also for a brunch.  A different spin is combining the berries with butter and confectioners sugar for topping those breakfast classics. A scoop of it is also good on French toast too. or on  blueberry muffins. Blueberry muffins are a great way of using them. Nothing beats one loaded with berries and slathered with butter. More ambitious home bakers will bake them into pies, They're also good in tarts as well for a more elegant dessert.If you want something easy then think of a blueberry crisp. These are cooked berries topped off with a buttery streusel topping created with sugar ,butter, flour and oats for that crunchy topping.You could also make a cobbler topping which is lumps of dough baked on top of the berries. Cakes and cupcakes can also benefit from a blueberry boost. Try blueberry cupcakes with  blueberry buttercream for a summer birthday party. Ice cream lovers will love home made blueberry ice cream for a fun hot weather treat.

Thi s is blueberry season. Use these bright blue jewels in a variety of savory and sweet dishes. Enjoy their flavor and benefits.

A Cup of Tea And Kindness

With everything that's going on it'snice just to offer a cup of tea and kindness. If you have a neighbor ,friend or family member who just wants to talk let them. Brew up a cup and let them express their thoughts and feelings.

This is what we need to do these days. We are a country - a world divided and we need to close up those rapidly opening seams. We need to be more understanding to the other side as well as those close to us.Food and drink brings us together. What tea works? Any one. Try a fruity one like Celestial Seasonings lemon zinger or their peach ones. Peppermint tea is also good, not just for soothing hurt or anxious feelings but for calming an upset stomach. Inviting someone over for a cup of tea is great if he or she wants to our their heart out. However a thermos of tea, especially iced works as well. Go to the beach or the park. There's something beautiful and distracting about nature whether it's waves crashing on the shore or looking up to see trees gently waving their branches.Of course coffee is always a good drink to have. Don't discount going out for a decadent cup of iced coffee. There's always Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts to supply you with a creamy , caramel or chocolate laced iced java. Even just a latte is a great boost. Sip and talk at a table or on a bench. You can also head to the park where it;s quieter and you have some privacy.

It's not just a cup of tea that's comforting. Kindness can be inviting someone over for a barbecue or a lovely meal eaten outdoors.The person may want to eat , especially comfort foods. Make hamburgers and hot dogs. Grill some veggies. Make that ultimate  comfort food s'mores. There is nothing more soothing than that yummy mix of toasted marshmallow oozing onto melty chocolate a top a graham cracker. Make it truly indulgent by using chocolate graham crackers and good dark chocolate. You could also just toast marshmallows over a fire pit. Another  way is baking  to go with that tea. We're in the middle of fruit season and that means cobblers, and crisps. Bring over a peach cobbler or blueberry crisp. Cobblers are easy to make so even the most novice baker can create something near perfection. It's just combining milk flour and sugar and placing it over melted butter in a cast iron skillet. The fruit, usually peaches, is added to this and tossed about in the flour. It's put into the oven and baked until the batter turns brown and crusty. A crisp is similar except it has oatmeal and cinnamon in it.

These are tough times. We're at each other's throats more often than not. It's take to share a cup of tea - a cup of coffee or a meal and be there for each other.

Messing Around

 Why would anyone eat army food? It's not the greatest at times, sometimes being made with the cheapest ingredients. Yet a variation is popular again,. Many foodies and even home chefs are turning to MREs - Meals Ready To Eat. Are they that good?

That's what regular contributor to the Times , Priya Krishna wanted to know in yesterday's New York Times Food section. These took off during the pandemic. They're not fancy. Yet they're still popular as the pandemic is closing down. They're not new.They're basically for those in combat away from field kitchens. The Civil War had hardtack to sustain soldiers while WW2 had what is known as C rations namely canned meats and breads. The war in the Persian Gulf updated them to create more diverse and tasty meals. Now thanks to You Tube  reviews.

Yet are these meals tasty? According to Emmy Cho who has her own You Tube Channel, they are. She states that the meals were both nostalgic and surprising, You don't always know what you're going to get.The pepperoni pizza has a dense crust and flavorless cheese.The cherry blueberry cobbler is a sweet goo while the tortellini are rubbery. There is no aroma - only the mix of magnesium and iron inside the heater that automatically cook the pouches. A dash of water activates this. Yet some love this.

Will MREs be the new foodie trend? Possibly. They're an acquired taste. Maybe with even better ingredients and more flavors they can be.

Great Desserts, So So Peaches

This has not been a great year for peaches. The perfect one is rare thanks to a February blast that killed off burgeoning buds. Luckily the fruit can be turned into wonderful creations that focus on their sweet, mellow flavor.They are even better than just the peach itself.

Samantha Seneviratne,creator of the interesting dessert blog, Cake Love, wrote about this amazing fruit in yesterday's New York Times Food section,Even though 2016 hasn't been their year, peaches can still be turned into tasty desserts.One that Ms. Seneviratne created is an ice cream cake. This is not one of the slap dash ones that is a slab of vanilla topped by crumbs and then another slab of chocolate. This actually has cake, a real butter on,e with five tablespoons of butter in the recipe. The ice cream is a no churn one which also includes peach preserves along with fresh raspberries - which are coming into their second season right now. The fresh peach is there in macerated form as it and the preserves are folded into the whipped cream. The cake assemblage is easy. First line a 9 by 5 loaf pan with Saran wrap leaving a six inch overhang all the way around. The cake is cut into thirds, making three rectangles.There is a layer of cake, then a layer of cream followed by the drained raspberries. This is repeated again for two more times and then freeze until firm for at least eight hours. It's topped with  a fruity mix of peach slices and fresh raspberries that have been sitting in sugar for ten minutes.

Another yummy dessert is Ms. Seneviratne's take on cobbler.This summer classic has been updated with a hazelnut infused crust.. She adds tiny wild blueberries which are a nice foil to the peaches' honey flavor. These can be picked if you have access to wild blueberry bushes however they can also be bought at farmer's markets and even found in the frozen food section. These frozen ones are actually beneficial because it helps the fruit mixture from overcooking and becoming mushy as the biscuits bake all the way through. You can use the big berries found in your supermarket, but Ms. Seneviratne warns that they are watery and have a weaker flavor.The topping requires hazelnut meal which can be bought in grocery stores and even on Amazon. It gives it a nice crunchy exterior  while still having a soft, pillowy middle.The crust also has a  half a cup of butter and a third of a cup of heavy cream.. it works well with the fruit mixture, also enhanced with vanilla bean seeds and sugar.The entire cobbler is baked for forty to forty-five minutes when the fruit comes bubbling from below and a toothpick inserted in the crust comes out with moist crumbs. Most cobblers are usually served with a pour of cream on them but I can see the first recipe's peach ice cream as a nice accompaniment here.

Don't despair if the year yielded up a lousy peach harvest. These recipes can show off their mellow sweetness and lush flesh. They are even more delicious in an ice cream cake or hazelnut infused cobbler.

Buckles & Crisps & Cobblers Oh My

Summer baking isn't always an easy thing.Who wants to create a complicated torte when it's ninety degrees outside?However there are some tasty baked treats that require almost no work, They are the fruit filled buckles, crisps and cobblers. They are  baking at it's simplest but also at its' most delicious.

For starters, buckles, crisps and cobblers are somewhat alike but there are some differences. Buckles are more buttery and cakelike. Fruit of the season is mixed with a rich batter and sometimes topped with a streusel topping. It's one of America's oldest dessert recipe, having been made in colonial New England kitchens. Originally it was made with blueberries but now home bakers can use peaches and nectarines as well as raspberries and blackberries. It does have to be made with wet fruit hence the buckling effect so unfortunately apples and pears won't work with it.Melissa Clark offered a recipe in her A Good Appetite column in Wednesday's New York Times Food column. Hers is made with mixed berries such as blueberries  and blackberries along with black raspberries. She also gives it a light sprinkle of cinnamon too and tops the finished buckle with iced cream. Whipped cream or even crème fraiche also goes well with it too.

Crisps are somewhat easier to make and a good starting off point for novice home bakers.They're simply a mix of sugar butter and flour poured over fruit. They can be made with everything from rhubarb and strawberries  to apples and peaches. Apple crisps sometimes have oats added to them as well but it's up to the baker. They're a snap to make , and a fun back to school treat to make with the kids serve with mounds of cool Whip or iced cream.Cobbler is another simple dessert that can be made with frozen biscuits. Bisquick can also be used to create a tasty topping as can yellow cake mix. Your best bet is a scratch  one using flour and baking powder for a light fluffy one. Some home bakers add oatmeal and cinnamon but save that for the crisps. French style has one or two eggs in it for a much more cakier topping.A good cobbler is an equal blend of biscuit that's not too sweet and that will sop up the fruits' juices and fruits that will bake up soft and pulpy. Cobblers can also be made with cherries and blackberries but the peach kind is the best. Again you can serve it with vanilla ice cream , crème fraiche or good old whipped cream.

The weather is sweltering yet you can still bake. Try the super easy buckles  crisps or cobblers with the fruit of the season. They are a snap to make and oh so delicious to eat.

An Indiana Barbecue

The heartland has given us some amazing and rib sticking dishes. It comes as no surprise that one Midwestern state, Indiana, has created some hearty ones that combine the state's farm bounty married to the different indigenous and immigrant recipes.It is a tasty and varied cuisine.


The state is known for its' endless cornfields so it's no wonder that barbecues  feature platters of roasted ears with plenty of melted butter on the side. Hoosiers also like a bowl of grits or corn mush, a simple to make dish using only corn  meal and water. Honey and cream can be added for a breakfast or cheese can mixed in for a side  - or even an easy Sunday supper.Southern Indianians are influenced by Kentucky it's no wonder that they enjoy burgoo and barbecue. Burgoo, is a tasty stew . a take on Brunswick stew and it's loaded with chicken, beef, pork, and at times, squirrel(!)Lamb and/or veal is also  thrown in for extra flavor .It is also a mélange of veggies and beans with tomatoes, okra and carrots along with lima beans mixed in.Sometimes Worcester or steak sauce is used in the recipe for dash. Barbecue is also another Kentucky import, and there are several famed barbecue joints in the state's southernmost city , Evansville where there is even a barbecue festival in September. Many German immigrants settled through out the state in the 1800s and many  have grown up with spaetzles, sauerkrauts and various wursts and beers


The state is also known for its' relatively substantial Amish population. They contribute the dessert cream pie which is somewhat similar to the Kentuckian chess pie. These are rich  yet simple pies, that are made with whole cream, brown sugar and butterscotch. It's kind of a butterscotch  pudding kind of pie that has made its' way to a holiday and picnic tables alike. Indiana farm country is full of fruit trees such as the peach and it also figures prominently in desserts. Cobblers are big throughout the Hoosier State, and again they are simple and delicious.It's just a deep dish pie with a rich scratch  biscuit crust The peaches have to be fresh and just picked  for a more intensive flavor and fresh whipped cream has to be served with it. Farms also produce strawberries and rhubarb and there is also and always fresh strawberry pies and jams along with rhubarb pie too. Persimmon pie is another famed dessert, a blend of the exotic with the familiar. It's basically a cream pie with the addition of a cup of persimmon pulp added for color and zing.

Heartland cooking is always the best.It is rib sticking and hearty, tasty, full of the harvests from local family run farms. This is Indiana cuisine at its' best.

Summer Harvest Fun

One of the best times to get creative in the kitchen is the summer.There is so much produce to experiment with along with different cooking and prepping techniques.Go to your local farm ,farmer's market or even your garden to get the ingredients of a fun meal. Tomatoes are in abundance right now.Many farms and gardens are yielding big juicy beefsteaks along with smaller varieties of plums and cherry kinds.These give home chefs the opportunity of creating a tomato only salad or a truly tasty Neopolitan bread salad.This last is a mix of any kind of tomato sliced up and marinated with chunks of stale Italian bread marinated in a garlicky vinaigrette.If you're a tad more adventurous then try a stab at ho,e made ketchup. You do need a lot of them, about three pounds, however most farmer s mArkets do sell tomatoes by the bushel.Another fun tomato dish is salsa.Nothing beats a bowl of freshly made tomato salsa ,especially at a barbecue or pool party.Corn is also in abundance .Try barbecue roasted corn ,not just with butter but with a tangy olive oil spread ,heightened with garlic and oregano.If you're still a butterphile then make flavored butters such Lemon and garlic but also think about honey, maple or chile butter spread.Peppers and onions are also in harvest right now.You can try stuffed peppers with grilled steak bits and tomato sauce or used as part of shish kabobs.Onions are also good in a tangy salad or minced as a burger topping. Summer fruit is all over the place right now too.Strawberries are still being picked as are blueberries. You can cook both up with a simple sugar syrup to use over wafflers or vanilla ice cream.Use these along with other fresh fruits in different andinteresting homemade ice cream flavors.Try a blueberry basil combo or a peach and prosecco sorbet.Crisps are one of the easiest and fun desserts to try, especially for novice home chefs.It's an easy cooked fruit stew with a.crunchy buttery topping.Cobblers are another fun summer treat,easily made with Bisquick.They're just a simple batter with any kind of fruit, even blackberry.Fruit can also be used in savory dishes too.Think peach and strawberry pureed in a chicken marinade.Blackberry and even blue berries work well in a steak marinade or even as a chutney alongside a grilled flank or skirt steak.Salads are definitely more zinger with the addition of fresh fruit.Just don't add a mélange of it ,that it overpowers the other ingredients.A better idea is using pureed fruit in a homemade dressing instead.Also juicing fresh fruits and adding the juice to ice tea is another fun and easy way to enjoy the produce of the season. A full summer harvest is like an artist's palette.They're so many different ones to use in creating a fun culinary masterpiece.Pick up or just pick your supplies now for some inventive and tasty cooking.

Sonker Pie's Southern Cousin

Nothing beats Appalachian cooking especially in the summer.It is an agrarian type of food , relying on ingredients from the trees and wild fields .The dessert, sonker, is one of these traditional dishes that comes from the orchards and berry fields that dot this wild mountain region.It is a tasty easy dish, perfect after a meal of fried chicken and barbecued ribs. This cousin of that other American classic ,the cobbler was one of the pies featured in the New York Times Dining sectionIt solely featured all sorts of pies.The piece ,written by Dining regular,Kim Severson, tells about this simple sweet ,found expressly in West Virginia.It's sort of like a pie but not really.Think of it as a hot soupy concoctions first made with fresh cooked fruit and any left over bread.It may be a cousin to the British slump which is stove top steam fruit covered with dumplings.It makes sense because the area was founded by British settlers in the 1700's and ,like other foods in the region more or less retained it's roots. Sonker is a little different than the average cobbler which has somewhat chewier texture.It has something called dip in it which is an amalgam of milk, sugar and a thickener such as cornstarch or flour.A drop or two of vanilla is added for flavor.Fruit and butter are added with the liquid from the fruit reserved. A pancake like batter is poured over it. it's baked for a little over half an hour.Sweet potato is used too, mostly by the region's African American population. In fact they only refer to the sweet potato kind as sonkers while they reserve the name cobbler for the fruit varieties. Sonkers are a great summer dessert.They are easy to make and a great way to end a family picnic.Try one aaa a nice way to greet a lazy sumer evening.

Layers of Flavor

Puff paastry is a versatile base for both sweet and savory treats. It;s perfect for making Spring party foods that go well in for any venue , from showers to graduation parties.It can be th e base of fun appetizer pockets to the more elegant vol au vents and  mini. beef Wellingtons Puff pastry is also a for creating a variety of delicious and unique desserts

Puff pastry can be made at home or bought. If you're making it at home it is time consuming and labor intensive. However the end result is rewarding with a buttery , light pastry perfect foe any savory or sweet filling.It requires  sixteen tablespoons of unsalted butter along with ice water or seltzer and ice cubes. The dough must be chilled and never room temperature for best results.It is then folded and rolled into an oblong, being constantly folded over to create layers.The oven temp is quite high, between 4oo and 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Of course you could buy the dough already made. Pepperidge Farm is known for theirs and it does cut down on prep time if you have an elaborate filling.

Vol au vents are one of the most popular puff pastry recipes.A good savory one is chicken with a creamy gravy. This is like an elegant pot pie, with the same ingredients, such as the meat along with carrots and peas. Another idea for puff pastry is sausage, onions and spinach or one that's like an inside out pizza. This last is  made with goat cheese, tomatoes and basil.Of course puff pastry is excellent for desserts. Make sweet vol au vents by using puddings or even creamed and topped with a hot fudge or caramel sauce.You can try a cobbler style one with layers of peaches , strawberries and rhubarb and a creme caramel base.

Puff pastry is one of the most versatile staples for any kitchen. Make it from scratch or buy it, fill it with savory or sweet. It's can be turned into anything from an elegant vol au vent to a homey turnover or puff . It;s your choice and a fun one too.

Down Home Cooking

Sometimes the best food comes from regional areas. This is known as down home cooking and it has many different forms. It could be recipes that sprang from backwoods cooking or 300 year old recipes that haven't changed. These are the foods that have been on the American palate from the country's earliest days. Sometimes it mixes indigenous foods with early English cooking techniques. Yet no matter what the era or the century , it' still tasty and filling.

One of the best known recipes is burgoo. This is a stew that had everything in it from squirrel (a major component in this type of cuisine) to mutton. Mostly it is now made with the last meat along with pork and chicken. Red pepper is added to it for seasoning and it is slow cooked like chili and served in a bowl much like it. Burgoo's name could come from two sources - a shortening of the phrase "bird stew" or barbecue. No one is really sure. It is mostly eaten in northern Kentucky and southern Indiana and is a staple of some restaurants.To be honest it's easy to make and you can make it in the morning for dinner that night.

Another down home dish is barbecue. No, not the meats and veggies you toss on the grill but actual spicy sweet barbecue. It's sometimes called pulled pork. This is an amazing dish , usually served best on hamburger roll ( this is known as a "soak")Barbecue starts off with a slow cooked pork butt or shoulder, usually mixed with onions. It is cooked to the point where the meat is so tender you can easily shred it with your fingers. The barbecue is then liberally doused with vinegar its' own juices and any favorite commercial barbecue sauce. It is then put on a hamburger roll or any soft bread. Usually it can be served with fresh, crunchy cole slaw.A better side is extra salty potato chips because they bring out the sweetness of the barbecue and the meat.

What's a perfect ending to this? Why, cobbler , of course. You could also make brown Betty, grunt or buckle. These are all fruit desserts from the Colonial era that came with the colonists. They had to substitute English pears and apples with native American fruits and came up with these yummy desserts (although cobbler was eaten throughout the day). They are easy to make with the fruits of the season such as blackberry or blueberry. A cobbler always tastes best when it has fresh cream or vanilla ice cream on the side.

This is the food that fed America from the 1600's to today/ . Nothing fancy but filling and flavorful. They have survived through the Colonial era getting enjoyed by modern Americans.