Spoil Mom This Mother’s Day

Spoil Mom This Mother's Day
photo and recipe from busy-mommy.com

 

Mother’s Day is this Sunday! Do you have something special planned for Mom? Everybody celebrates differently; breakfast in bed, a spa day, brunch at Mom’s favorite restaurant, a day of yard work (mostly) free of complaints, you get the idea. I grew up treating my mom to breakfast in bed. My dad did the cooking, though I can remember begging to crack an egg or two, while my brother and I wrote out cards and anxiously waited to jump on our parents’ bed to wake Mom up. It’s funny because my mom is a pretty early riser so looking back now I realize that she stayed in bed longer on Mother’s Day to give us time to get everything ready even though she was already awake long before we got there. Even on her day she always takes care of us.

Since I’ve grown and moved out, I haven’t gotten to spend Mother’s Day with my mom every year the way that I’d like to. In fact, this year I won’t get to see her at all aside from a FaceTime call L. But, if I were home, I’d take some of my new cooking skills to make her something great. So for all of you reading this, if you are looking for a great recipe to spoil your mom this Sunday, you’ve come to the right place.Continue Reading

The Difference Between Mezcal and Tequila

The difference between mezcal and tequilaLast January, the general manager of McKinney and Doyle, and a very close personal friend of mine, Andrew Sarubbi traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico to learn how to make Mezcal. Mezcal is a distilled alcoholic beverage, smoky in flavor, made from the agave plant. Recently, the food, specifically the bar, industry has seen a surge in new agave distillates entering the market. It can be tricky to understand the subtle nuances among them so I thought that with Cinco de Mayo right around the corner, today would be a great day to talk a little about them, specifically between tequila and mezcal. A lot of people describe mezcal as a type of tequila, but it’s actually the other way around. Mezcal is a much broader category that encompasses tequila. Let’s dive a little deeper, shall we?Continue Reading

A Beloved Kitchen Utensil

This week’s post was written by Shannon McKinney (Dad), professional chef and baker and owner of McKinney A Beloved Kitchen Utensiland Doyle Fine Foods Café and Corner Bakery.

Every professional chef and/or accomplished home cook has a full complement of tools and equipment that make their labor of love a little easier. It may be a certain bowl, cook pot or spatula that just becomes their “go to” item every time they work in the kitchen. My wife has an aluminum pot that her grandmother gave her to cook rice in and as a professional, I can’t tell you why the rice always comes out perfect from that pot but it really does.Continue Reading

Things to Do This Weekend: April 16-19

Things to Do This Weekend April 16 to 18One of the best things about living in a small town is the sense of community and support that exists among the local businesses. If one store needs change on a Sunday when the bank is closed, take a short walk next door. When the farm down the street has an overabundance of tomatoes, you host a tomato themed dinner (We’ve done this with tomatoes, corn, and pumpkins and it’s always been a huge success). And when you start a blog and events are planned in your hometown, you write about them. With the weather warming up we’ll notice more and more local escapades available for enjoyment. Let’s start with this weekend. Better yet, let’s start with today and cover the entire weekend in the Pawling area. Continue Reading