Go team! Jumbo strawberries dress up as
footballs. Photo courtesy Godiva.

If that’s too rich for your pocket, try making your own, and buy icing in an easy-squeeze tube instead of trying to pipe from a bag.

Here’s how to make chocolate-covered strawberries.
HOW ABOUT THAT PLATE!

We found these plates/platters full of football spirit:

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.