It is Memorial Day weekend, the beginning of summer. It is 45 degrees with gale like winds here in upstate New York. It is way too windy for a bike ride, besides we’re all wearing winter coats.

My husband is about to build a fire, waiting for me to open the flue (my job as he somehow messes up the closure when he does it.) And oh no, we haven’t screwed up the environment?!? And why do we call Memorial Day a holiday? Okay, so it is a day off from work but really, we should all keep in mind what this day is about and remember all of those lost or maimed in the name of defending our country for freedom for all of us.

This week has been so hectic with the test kitchen tours and then the champagne breakfast on Friday, not to mention we had a dinner party Friday night (more on that later) and then came upstate yesterday, having dinner with our dear friends Margaret and Wayne. Margaret made a wonderful eggplant starter with spinach, pine nuts and cheddar cheese and a fantastic shrimp and chorizo paella. They had a fire too! Lovely evening!! The Friday morning champagne brunch was a wonderful place to meet all kinds of people in the food business, not just bloggers, hosted by XO – they own The Knot, The Nest and The Bump. I got to have further conversation with Anna Curran from Cookbook Create (they create custom cookbooks!) and learned more about The Daily Meal, who are the wonderful folks giving away the Kitchen Aid mixer! Meanwhile Kitchen Aid is really pumping up the design aspect of all their products. I just saw this ad today in the May issue of Elle Décor. (I am always dreaming of refurnishing my house.) That mixer would sure look great sitting on my countertop here in the country!

So I wanted to share with you some tidbits I learned on our kitchen tours. Did you know that there are 25,000 food bloggers in the United States alone? So we all have to support one another! Did you know that Bon Appetit tests their recipes 4 to 6 — and sometimes even 12 — times before publishing them? They really want to ensure success for the home cook.

Even for cooks with access to just basic ingredients, they want to know if that recipe will turn out for them in a good way. So nice of them! They prepared for us a wonderful ginger lime drink. You make a simple syrup with fresh ginger. Let it cool, add fresh limes and some lime juice along with seltzer or club soda and you have the most refreshing drink – for when summer does get here!

And then lastly, here’s me with Amanda Hesser from Food 52. It is her New York Times cookbook that my sons gave me, and Zach wrote in, that became the inspiration for starting this blog. It’s in the About section. She is looking at my LOVE card as I just told her the story of this blog. Photo courtesy of claywilliamsphoto.com