So here it is, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.

I am not Jewish, but my husband is and our daughter proudly embraces pretty much any religion that involves gift giving and/or the eating of sweets, which makes for a busy holiday season. It begins now and basically slides on down the slippery slope through Yom Kippur into Halloween, Thanksgiving and then the holy grails of Christmas and Hanukkah. We finally get to rest our wallets (and our sweet teeth) in January.

One of the great things about being a multi-faith family is that we are able to pick and choose our favorite bits from all of the traditions we grew up with and create our own mixed green salad of celebrations. And one thing I think I may add to the pot this year is the above pictured absolutely delicious looking drink I saw on the Bon Appètit website yesterday.

It’s got apples (in the form of cider and brandy) and honey (for a sweet new year) some bourbon to add extra kick and some citrus to help ward off the early autumn colds. In short, everything you need to help start the new year off sweetly.

Here’s what you need:

INGREDIENTS
SPICED HONEY SYRUP
2 cinnamon sticks
3 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
3 whole allspice
¼ cup honey

ASSEMBLY
6 ounces fresh blood orange juice
4 ounces applejack brandy
4 ounces bourbon
8-12 ounces hard cider
Apple slices (for serving)

And here’s how to do it:

SPICED HONEY SYRUP
Bring cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, honey, and 1/2 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Let cool, then strain into an airtight container; discard solids.

ASSEMBLY
For each cocktail, combine 1 1/2 oz. blood orange juice, 1 oz. brandy, 1 oz. bourbon, and 1 Tbsp. spiced honey syrup in a cocktail shaker. Fill shaker with ice and shake until outside of shaker is frosty, about 30 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice and top off with hard cider. Garnish with an apple slice.

Or go straight to the source and see it on Bon Appètit!

I’ve had the NY Times article with this recipe open on my browser for a couple of weeks and have finally (FINALLY!) gotten around to making it. I’m not sure why, but I have always considered New England clam chowder to be something that one orders at restaurants. I am happy to report that I have now become a person-who-makes-their-own-chowder.

And I couldn’t be happier, because this soup is seriously delicious. And easy to make. Plus it’s hard to go wrong when bacon is a main ingredient.

The recipe is below, or you can go straight to the source, and admire their far superior photograph while you’re at it.

Sam Sifton’s New England style clam chowder

TOTAL TIME
1 hour

Ingredients

24 medium-size quahog clams, usually rated ‘‘top neck’’ or ‘‘cherrystone,’’ rinsed
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 pound slab bacon or salt pork, diced
2 leeks, tops removed, halved and cleaned, then sliced into half moons
3 large Yukon Gold potatoes, cubed
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
2 cups cream
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped parsley.

Preparation

1. Put the clams in a large, heavy Dutch oven, add about 4 cups water, then set over medium-high heat. Cover, and cook until clams have opened, approximately 10 to 15 minutes. (Clams that fail to open after 15 to 20 minutes should be discarded.) Strain clam broth through a sieve lined with cheesecloth or doubled-up paper towels, and set aside. Remove clams from shells, and set aside as well.

2. Rinse out the pot, and return it to the stove. Add butter, and turn heat to medium-low. Add bacon or salt pork, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the fat has rendered and the pork has started to brown, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove pork from fat, and set aside.

3. Add the leeks to the fat, and cook, stirring frequently, until they are soft but not brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in potatoes and wine, and continue cooking until wine has evaporated and the potatoes have just started to soften, approximately 5 minutes. Add enough clam broth to just cover the potatoes, approximately 3 cups, reserving the rest for another use. Add the thyme and the bay leaf.

4. Partly cover the pot, and simmer gently until potatoes are tender, approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, chop the clams into bits about the size of the bacon dice.

6. When potatoes are tender, add cream and stir in chopped clams and reserved bacon. Add black pepper to taste. Let come to a simmer, and remove from heat. (Do not let chowder come to a full boil.) Fish out the thyme and the bay leaf, and discard.

7. The chowder should be allowed to sit for a while to cure. Reheat it to a bare simmer before serving, then garnish with chopped parsley. Serve with oyster crackers.

YIELD
8 to 10 servings

Last weekend, my family went to spend the day on Shelter Island with my friend Nancy’s family. Our daughters have been friends since birth, and visits with the Ethridges always feel a bit like coming home.

That evening, we tagged along with them to a big multigenerational outdoor summer barbeque, with burgers, grilled tuna, lots of crisp veggies, a pool for the kids. and plenty of beer and wine for the adults. Nancy volunteered to supply cobblers for desert, so we spent a bit of our afternoon making what, if I do say so myself, was the most delicious summer cobbler I have ever had.

Thanks goes to Canal House, from whence the recipe comes. To Nancy, for being the chef de cuisine. To Josh, for his expert dissection of the peaches. And to me for… lots of mixing and recording, which is my usual role.

The recipe follows. You can use whatever fruit is in season… we chose peaches and blueberries, which is what looked best at the market that afternoon. Right now, the possibilities are endless. And one piece of advice… you might want to double it up and make two of these as they have a way of disappearing into thin air.

Canal House Berry Cobbler

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp cornstarch (we used Wondra as we didn’t have any cornstarch)
2 pint fresh raspberries or a combination of your favorite berries

Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

Using a wooden spoon, beat the butter and 1/2 cup of the sugar together in a medium mixing bowl until well combined. Beat in the egg yolk and 1/4 tsp of the vanilla. Add the flour mixture and stir until well combined. Refrigerate the dough while preheating the oven to 375.

Combine the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and the cornstarch in a medium bowl. Add the berries and the remaining 1 tsp of vanilla and toss gently to coat.

Put the berries into an 8 inch square (or 8 cup) baking dish. Drop the dough by heaping tablespoons over the berries, covering the fruit evenly. Bake until the berries are bubbling and the topping is a golden brown, about 45 minutes. Let cool slightly before eating.

Today, after I pick up my daughter from camp, I am planning on heading further into the farm (her camp is located at the lovely Amber Waves Farm in Amagansett, NY) to pick some tomatoes. Because there is nothing like a freshly plucked tomato, still warm from the sun. The littlest ones taste like slightly melted candy.

For the most part, we just eat them raw out of the box, but sometimes one wants to be slightly more civilized and perhaps cut them in half and add them to a salad. Perhaps this salad also contains fresh corn and basil and mozzarella and is dressed with a white balsamic vinaigrette.

Who knows?

The particulars of the salad contents notwithstanding, one needs to slice those tomatoes and do it quickly (before they all get eaten up!) Enter this brilliant hack for slicing cherry tomatoes from the wise ones at Food52.

Don’t say I never hooked you up…