Eating From the Ground Up

MENUMENU
  • About
  • Recipes
    • By Category

      • Bites
      • Breads and Crackers
      • breakfast
      • drinks
      • Home Dairy
      • Mains
      • On the Side
      • Pickles and Preservation
      • salads
      • Sauces, Dressings and Spreads
      • snacks
      • soups
      • Sweets
    • By Ingredient

      • apples
      • asparagus
      • Beans
      • Beef
      • beets
      • Berries
      • Broccoli and Broccoli Raab
      • brussels sprouts
      • cabbage
      • carrots
      • cauliflower
      • celeriac
      • Cheese
      • Chick Peas
      • Chicken
      • chocolate
      • corn
      • eggs
      • Fish
      • garlic
      • Grains
      • Herbs and Flowers
      • kale
      • leeks
      • lentils
      • pasta
      • pears
      • peppers
      • Pork
      • potatoes
      • Quince
      • radishes
      • rhubarb
      • stone fruit
      • summer squash
      • Tomatoes and Tomatillos
      • winter squash
      • yogurt
  • Not Recipes
    • Family
    • Politics and Activism
    • The Writing Process
    • travels
    • Kids in the Kitchen
    • My Berkshires
    • 1st of the Month
    • The Garden
  • Classes & Events
    • Classes

      Join me and Courtney Maum for an empowering writers' retreat this fall! Head here to apply to RISK MORE, WRITE BETTER.

    • Book-Tour Events

      No book events scheduled at this time. How about a class?

  • My Books

    • Signed copies from my local bookstore
      From Amazon
      From B&N


    • From Amazon
      From B&N
      From Powell's

    • Front cover The Homemade Pantry
      From Amazon
      From Barnes and Noble
      From Indie Bound

  • Yogurt
  • contact
  • Blog

a march drink, and the bar it came from

Thursday, March 24, 2016 by alana

IMG_6186
I’ve been thinking about this little corner of the Spruceton Inn.
I was there just about this time last year, so maybe it’s the air that’s making me think about it. The owners of the inn gift six artist residencies a year, and and it was in one of their rooms during one of those residencies that I ended up reorganizing The Homemade Kitchen, laying the proofs out over the entire floor like a giant puzzle. I’d gone there to write fiction, but my day job ended up mostly winning out.

The Spruceton Inn is in West Kill, New York, three miles down a dirt road that keeps going until it hits a mountain. At one point it was the Schwarzenegger summer compound, and it still has the feel of a Catskill Dirty Dancing type getaway. Casey Scieszka is the innkeeper, and she and her husband Steven Weinberg moved in a few years ago and made it their own. The whole place is simple and handmade and beautiful and oddly just its unique comfortable self. There’s no tv or internet, and hardly any cell service unless you want to do an elaborate dance through the field with your phone over your head.
There are nine rooms at the inn, all in a row, motel-style. Eight of them have guests (or occasionally lucky artists like me), and the ninth is this little corner of the aforementioned thought, the bar. It’s also where people check in and come for coffee in the morning and borrow books and games or talk to Casey. In the day it’s full of sun, but at night the twinkle lights are on and it is, for lack of a more accurate description, the marriage between a bar and a womb.
I work well when I’m alone and away, and I had good discipline when I was there. (Also, of course, amazing how no internet helps the creativity situation.) But every night at about 7 I’d step outside of my safe little room and I’d walk along the building to the door of that first room, the bar. That walk, and the hour after it, was always my reward. The bar smelled like wood and bourbon and was always dark, like the walls were not quite solid. Most nights there were a few guests there, and I’d sit and talk with them, or just sit in the banquette in the corner and listen to get a dose of human interaction. Casey was usually the one tending bar, and she’s just one of those bright star kind of people–warm and beautiful and smart and thoughtful. In my memory she’s always wearing red lipstick and totally pulling it off. And in that little treat of a time after so much work that day, she’d pour me a drink, and I’d sit with my glass and just be in that room. My drink of choice was something I ended up bringing home and incorporating into my very limited cocktail repertoire here. I can’t remember what Casey called it, but in deference to the fact that I know she has already named it, we just call it the drink. One of these days I’ll get back to the Spruceton Inn and I’ll find out what it’s really called.
This is a March drink for sure because at least around here we’re full swing into maple season. It’s warm and cool at the same time, just like the strange transitions of the moment. And of course maple is our first local food of the year, and it’s an easy one to love.
Here’s how I make it: I put a few ice cubes in a pint-sized mason jar. Then I add 2 shots of bourbon, the juice of half a lemon, and a serious glug of maple. Put the lid on the jar, and shake it like you mean it. Then pour the contents between two glasses, including the ice cubes.
A note on the bourbon: I really like the sweetness to come from the maple here, and not the bourbon. So I wouldn’t use something sweet like Knob Creek or Jim Beam. Casey used a really delicious bourbon I haven’t been able to find called Medley Brothers, and but I tend to use Buffalo Trace, which is the bourbon I like to have around.

Filed Under: drinks, The Writing Process Tagged With: Food and Memory, The Homemade Kitchen

« march 11
THE apron (a giveaway) »

Comments

  1. Emily says

    Saturday, March 26, 2016 at 1:29 am

    Just made this as a reward for starting to mend from an illness. Used orange bc no lemon, added a dash of bitters. Didn’t expect too much, but WOW! What a drinkable lovely drink. Thanks for sharing it!

    • alanac says

      Sunday, March 27, 2016 at 4:23 pm

      Good, good- I’m so glad you liked it! I feel that way too- it’s way more drinkable than most bourbon cocktails.

  2. Elaine says

    Saturday, March 26, 2016 at 12:40 pm

    When I got to the end where you mentioned which bourbon you like, I was taking my first sips of coffee laced with Buffalo Trace Bourbon Cream. Such a small world!

    • alanac says

      Sunday, March 27, 2016 at 4:22 pm

      Yes! Love Buffalo Trace. Look for that Medley Brothers too- it’s so good!


Welcome!

I’m Alana, and I write about food, family and the wonderful chaos that ensues when the two combine. If you’re new to the site, here are a few good places to start, or learn more about me on my about page.

Follow me on Instagram.

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
Become a Sponsor

One_Alana_Ad 2016

alanachernila

The Homemade Pantry, The Homemade Kitchen, Eating From The Ground Up 🍳

Instagram post 2337331591407595410_13442450 Sending off my taxes today with intention and prayer that they will be used to support programs for the most vulnerable, and that my little contribution will join with others to help move us towards the country I know we can be. #taxmagic ✨
Instagram post 2335726864949371764_13442450 Goodies en route to @north_plain_farm today for pickup! Word about town is that LOTS of moolah was raised for BRIDGE in this little #bakersagainstracism bake sale. Thanks to North Plain Farm and @raisinporpoise for the organizing, to everyone who bought and bid, and most of all to BRIDGE for the essential work they do. (Want to learn more about BRIDGE? Head to the link in my profile.)
Instagram post 2332756427273440195_13442450 So technically you’re not supposed to send food when trying to find an agent, but I did it it. 10 years ago, my granola helped seal that deal, and he insisted I send it to publishers when we were selling The Homemade Pantry (another general publishing no no) That Landed-a woman-with-no-platform-a-book deal Granola is up for grabs in this amazing bake sale, as well as goodies by some of my very favorite bakers (@madeinghent , @raisinporpoise , and @thedooryard to name a few). Oh and maybe my favorite item in there are the magical @susanspungen ginger chocolate cookies I mentioned a few weeks back, made by Sadie herself. All of this is to support the work of @multiculturalbridge , and the order form is up in my bio. Get to it! #bakersagainstracism
Instagram post 2330317921708403058_13442450 My friend @afgoldfarb has been part of a team of people working on this vital project. The link to learn more and help out is in my profile.
Instagram post 2330131706816229761_13442450 I’ll be baking up a storm for this! Local bakers- there’s still room for more! Let @north_plain_farm know that you want IN.
Instagram post 2324845496300301430_13442450 To those who ask here? In Great Barrington? YES. In Great Barrington.
Instagram post 2324091364266290851_13442450 I know there are so many resources out there right now, but I want to share one that’s been really helpful for me in the last several months. There are many seasons of this podcast, but I recommend Season 2 on Whiteness as well is Season 4 on Democracy. #sceneonradio
Instagram post 2322615811734696638_13442450 Black lives matter.
Instagram post 2319329508599466327_13442450 I did not bake these cookies, as I am no longer the cookie baker in this house. But this is the second time that  Sadie has made @susanspungen ‘s Triple-Ginger Chocolate Chunk Cookies (and also the second time I’ve talked about a recipe Sadie has made from the #openkitchencookbook), and I think these might actually be the best cookies I have ever had. I’m often looking for the perfect ginger cookie and this is it, and I’d also choose it over a chocolate chip cookie (or let’s be honest-any other kind of cookie) any day.
Instagram post 2316311882260313364_13442450 No matter how many rulers and pizza cutters and other magical tools I use, it seems that the straight line will always elude me.
Instagram post 2314127252740427104_13442450 Living it up. 💥
Instagram post 2312088043104000827_13442450 Every day my neighbor’s yard gets prettier.
Instagram post 2311325683330503572_13442450 @paulaperlis sent us @susanspungen ‘s new book and of course the first recipe Sadie picked is marked with the *project* heading. She’s been cooking all afternoon and the house smells like ✨✨✨ (With gorgeous images by @gentlandhyers ❤️)
Instagram post 2311141543964321092_13442450 When I took on a day job a few years ago, I found that the first thing to go was all the homemade stuff I’d been making and writing about over the years. I’m still going out to work most days, but I’m finding now with a full and captive house and more downtime in general that those things I love to make are back. For me, it’s granola, yogurt, bread. Hello, old friends!
Instagram post 2308503311808232748_13442450 All the things in the house pasta: roasted cauliflower, a few sad leaves of kale, one jar of fancy tuna saved for a special occasion (how about Wednesday?), Rosemary, homemade breadcrumbs from the freezer fried in butter, crispy sage leaves, pasta water, salt, so much pepper. Success!
Instagram post 2307412630968777107_13442450 @artbywoodgy made this beautiful thing for me for Mother’s Day. All the veggies are on Velcro so I can plan to my hearts delight.
Instagram post 2306345003953662730_13442450 Happy Mother’s Day to my brave and beautiful mom, who birthed two different humans in such different times in her life. With me she was so young, and she figured it all out just as she was learning how to be an adult. This picture was taken nineteen years later, when she was pregnant again and I was almost an adult myself. Thanks for keeping at it, Mom, and for always showing up with love. ❤️
Instagram post 2304888771283579843_13442450 What we do for cake.
Instagram post 2302665269449083186_13442450 It’s a magnolia year for sure.
Instagram post 2295808104927071821_13442450 A long time ago, Joey talked about his crush on this particular alien-like flower with a good friend of ours. Months later, little bulbs arrived in the mail. We put them in the ground last fall, and now they are everywhere. If that isn’t some kind of magic, I don’t know what is. ✨ (🙏🏻 to @wildflowers1 for the cool vase, too.)
Follow on Instagram
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: API requests are being delayed. New posts will not be retrieved.

There may be an issue with the Instagram access token that you are using. Your server might also be unable to connect to Instagram at this time.

Error: API requests are being delayed for this account. New posts will not be retrieved.

There may be an issue with the Instagram access token that you are using. Your server might also be unable to connect to Instagram at this time.

My books!

Signed copies from my local bookstore/Amazon/Barnes & Noble

Front cover The Homemade Kitchen

Amazon /B&N /Powell's


Front cover The Homemade PantryAmazon
B&N
Powell's


Tense moments

failed cornbreadPan shattered in the oven? Jelly didn’t set? Trying to find a solution for a problem in the kitchen? Let’s get through the tense moments together, starting here.

Classes and workshops

Occasionally I teach workshops, and I have one coming up this fall. Join me and stellar novelist Courtney Maum for RISK MORE, WRITE BETTER, an empowering weekend in a gorgeous old B&B that will jumpstart that project you've been wanting to work on. Space is limited, so apply here!

My latest book!

Learn more about my latest book, Eating from the Ground Up. It's perfect for all you vegetable lovers out there.

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

COPYRIGHT © 2023 EATING FROM THE GROUND UP.