A quick look of what’s available shows artisan American and European distillationns: Badcock from Oregon, Blackwood’s from Scotland, Crop from New York (organic) Effen from Holland, Pearl from Canada, Prairie from Minnesota (organic), Rain Organics (cucumber lime), Skinnygirl from Illinois and perhaps the original, Square One from California (organic), a NIBBLE favorite.

You can also infuse your own cucumber vodka with the easy recipe below.

Whether you’re buying cucumber vodka or plain vodka to infuse your own, don’t go for the cheapest vodka on the shelf—unless it’s Russian Standard or Wódka, both quality vodkas at bargain prices.

Photo courtesy Windsor Restaurants | New York City.

THE 411 ON VODKA

Some people in the spirits business are amused by the lengths to which consumers fall for the marketing of “premium” vodka. Premium, super-premium and ultra-premium are marketing terms, not industry standards.

There isn’t much quality difference between high-priced and lesser-priced vodkas. While both use distillation and carbon filtering to remove impurities, it is largely a question of quality control.

Some producers brag that their vodka is distilled to remove impurities 20, 50, even 100 times. Don’t buy that story. According to an industry professional, vodka is typically distilled with a reflux column still, which produces the equivalent of 3-5 distillations in one pass. The number of distillations isn’t as critical as how carefully the distillation is controlled.

The better vodkas use only the “heart” of the distillation, removing the “head” and “tail,” which contain more impurities. Then, it’s carbon filtered; the carbon removes impurities that cause off flavors and hangovers.

If you can find them, seedless Persian cucumbers or other seedless cucumbers are the best choice here. You’ll save the time and mess of seeding conventional cucumbers.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PEEL, seed, and roughly chop the cucumber. Place into jar.

2. POUR vodka over the cucumber. Seal tightly. Reserve the empty vodka bottle and cap.

3. PLACE in a dark spot for three days up to no longer than two weeks. Strain mixture into reserved vodka bottle and label the bottle to avoid a mix-up.

4. TASTE the cucumber. If you like it, keep it for salads or snacking. Otherwise, discard.

EASY CUCUMBER COCKTAIL RECIPE

You can make this cocktail with cucumber vodka or regular vodka plus pressed cucumber juice, which is how they do it at The Windsor in New York City. They call the cocktail the Half Windsor.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE ingredients in a cocktail shaker.

2. SHAKE and strain into a rocks glass. Garnish and serve.
 
Find more of our favorite cocktail recipes.
  

Pretzel rolls are a trend, delivered nationwide by Wendy’s Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger, Dunkin’ Donuts’ Pretzel Roll Roast Beef Sandwich and Sonic’s pretzel hot dog.

We’ve been making sandwiches on the pretzel rolls from Trader Joe’s since we discovered them a year ago.

Or check your local market. Pretzilla, has a line of pretzel rolls that include burger buns, sausage/hot dog buns, mini buns (for sliders) and pretzel bites, with which you can for anything from dipping into fondue or making pretzel nachos. The products are sold nationwide (here’s the store locator).

If you can’t find pretzel rolls, lobby your grocery store manager to bring them in.

A new classic: hot dog or brat on a pretzel roll. Photo courtesy Pretzilla.

Or, make your own with this recipe, which we found on the blog Jessie-Ordinary Days. Here’s another recipe from The Dutch Baker’s Daughter.

PRETZEL ROLLS RECIPE

Ingredients

For The Dough

 
For The Bath

 
Plus

1. MIX dough ingredients together in a stand mixer with paddle attachment until it forms a ball; then mix with dough hook. Says Jessie: “I found that I had to add flour until my dough came together, was no longer sticky and quite stiff. I added maybe another 3/8 of a cup gradually, until the dough looked right.” Let dough rise in mixer bowl, covered with plastic wrap, for 1 hour in a warm place.

2. PUNCH down dough after the first rising and shape into balls. Place rolls onto well greased cookie sheet and let rise 15 minutes.

3. PREHEAT oven to 400°F. While rolls are rising, mix the bath ingredients together and bring to a rolling boil. Once the 15 minute rise is over, poach 3 rolls at a time for 1 minute. Flip after 30 seconds. Place poached rolls on greased cookie sheet.

4. MAKE two slashes with a serrated knife and sprinkle with sea salt. BAKE until a deep dark brown, approximately 20 minutes depending on your oven. Keep an eye on the rolls so they don’t burn.

Freeze any extras. They thaw quickly.

We love them for light meals, snacking or dessert. Now, we hope that the flavors will resonate with Americans, so retailers will keep them on the shelves.

Chobani Bite. How about about Chocolate Mint or Honey With Ginger, the new flavors of Chobani Bite, the 3.5-ounce, 100-calorie cups sold in four-packs. We’re crazy about both, so delightful that we can happily trade in those less-healthful snack options.

Standard Cups. Low-fat Apricot, Coconut, Key Lime and Orange Vanilla and non-fat Blackberry are the newbies in six-ounce cups. If you like coconut, it’s the winner. We wanted “seconds” immediately! The Orange Vanilla was a bit of a disappointment, because we were expecting “Creamsicle.” The flavors are a lot less pronounced. But we’d gladly have more of the others.

Chobani Flip. With dry ingredients that flip over into the yogurt, flavors include Blueberry Power–with chia seeds, hemp seeds and walnuts; Nutty for Nana with honey roasted salted almonds and dark chocolate in banana yogurt; Peachy Pistachio with pistachio and dark chocolate; and Tropical Escape, pineapple coconut yogurt with toasted coconut, hazelnut and granola.

Chobani Champions. For kids, there’s Flyin’ Dragon Fruit Greek Yogurt. This exotic fruit from the cactus family tastes like a blend of kiwi, mango, pear and watermelon. If you’ve never seen one, here’s a photo.

There are other flavors—14 in total—and most retailers have space to carry only a selection of them. But take a look in your store and “spoon in,” as they say at Chobani.

FOOD TRIVIA

 
NOTE: As we write this, there’s a recall of some Chobani products due to mold that causes swelling container tops and bad taste. A couple of the products we received from Chobani had this problem; the majority were just fine. While Chobani looks into its production issues, don’t deprive yourself of its yogurts. The suspect yogurts, with code 16-012, are hopefully off the shelves.

Certain recipes—angel food cake, egg white omelets, macaroons, marshmallows, meringues/pavlovas, seven-minute frosting, white cake and some soufflés—use only the egg whites. Here’s what to do with the extra yolks:

SAUCES WITH EGG YOLKS

 
DESSERTS WITH EGG YOLKS

MORE IDEAS FOR EGG YOLKS

 
HOW TO STORE EGG YOLKS

Egg yolks tend to dry out after a few days in the fridge, and especially in the freezer. The gelatin in the yolk causes it to thicken when frozen. Store yolks in the fridge in an airtight container with a few tablespoons of water. Plan to use them quickly.

If you have too many to use, you can beat and freeze the egg yolks. Follow these instructions from the American Egg Board, which offers detailed information on storing eggs in every form.
HOW TO STORE EGG WHITES

Egg whites can be stored, covered, in the fridge for a few days; but if you’re not going to use them immediately, freeze them. Place each egg white into an individual compartment of an ice cube tray. Freeze and transfer to a freezer bag. Then, just defrost what you need at room temperature.

Yes, we’ll be publishing an article on what to do with those leftover whites!

 
HOW MANY TYPES OF EGGS CAN YOU NAME?

Check out the different types of eggs in our Egg Glossary. You’ll be surprised!

Well, it’s about time! Considering the proliferation of non-dairy milks populating grocery stores, it seems unthinkable that cashews have been entirely missing in action. Until now.

Who better to unleash the world’s first commercial cashew milk than So Delicious, having proven their mastery of both frozen and refrigerated dairy-free delights? Before I even realized my own unfulfilled nut milk desires, this turned out to be the creamy drink I had been waiting for all along.

Almond milk is my typical go-to milk alternative, the prime candidate for drinking, baking, cooking, and yes, ice cream-ing.

New cashew milk from So Delicious. Photo © Hannah Kaminsky | BittersweetBlog.com.

Currently offered in Unsweetened and Unsweetened Vanilla, my only hope would be that the line takes off and expands to include a chocolate option.

A very subtle nutty flavor defines thee background flavor, distinctly cashew in essence, and easily minimized when mixed into other recipes. Bearing a clean flavor with no sugar to speak of, they can seamlessly work in any application, a testament to their versatility.

In short, if you don’t give these cashew milks a try, you’re seriously missing out! They may very well replace my almond standby, at least once they gain wider distribution in more mainstream grocery stores.

So Delicious products are certified Kosher (parve) by Kehilla Kosher.

—Hannah Kaminsky

Surprise: Cashew “nuts” are not true nuts but seeds that adhere to the bottom of the cashew apple, the fruit of the cashew tree.

Another surprise: Cashews are always sold shelled, because the inside lining of the shells contains an inedible, caustic resin. This “cashew balm” is used to make varnishes and insecticides!

But the bounty inside the shell is a most delicious, nutritious nut/seed, with one-quarter cup providing copper (37.5% DV), magnesium (25% DV), manganese (28.4% DV), phosphorus (20.3% DV) and tryptophan (DV 28.1%), as well as iron, selenium and zinc.

Cashews’ high antioxidant components also help to lower risk of cardiovascular and coronary heart diseases.

Cashews have a lower fat content than most other nuts, and most of it comprises heart-healthy monounsaturated fats (the same fats found in olive oil).

So dig in—or drink up!