Food

Losing weight is one of the top New Year's resolutions and one of the least successful. Cooking for yourself is an enormously helpful step toward losing weight because you have complete control over your meal.

I like to celebrate and plan to have a grand meal . . . at home, with friends who can walk home afterward. Driving around East Hampton drunk in the wee hours is just another way of saying, “I can’t wait to see my name in the police blotter of The East Hampton Star next Thursday!”

Holiday dining at the 1770 House in East Hampton this weekend will include a four-course prix fixe tasting menu at $110 per person, plus tax and gratuity. In Sag Harbor, Lulu Kitchen and Bar will host a New Year’s Eve celebration that includes an early, 5:30 p.m., seating and a later second seating at 8 that comes with a glass of champagne, party favors, and a four-course prix fixe.

For those who would rather dine out on Christmas Day, Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor will offer a traditional three-course dinner. The Highway Restaurant and Bar in East Hampton will serve an a la carte menu with holiday specials on Christmas Eve.

Homemade holiday gifts are often the best and most economical. They show that you made some effort, and it’s something your children can join in on. I mean, who doesn’t have fun melting chocolate, crushing candy canes, and licking the spatula and bowl?

The restaurant at the 1770 House named one of “100 Best" by Open Table; Art of Eating's holiday menus; new specials and discounts

When I found out that my friend Justin Spring, author of “The Gourmands’ Way,” was going on a book-signing tour through San Francisco, then to Carmel to his sister and brother-in-law’s winery and tasting room in Carmel Valley, I asked if I could tag along.

Local Food News

The "REAL Rowdy burger" goes up against a new plant-based version that promises the full beef experience, including juices, and tastes "damn good," according to our reviewer.

Although lamb chops and ribs are great in spring, winter weather calls for slow cooking and stews.

Cocktails at Baker House; impossible burgers at Rowdy Hall, Greek prix fixe at Elaia; and more this week

What is now the Springs Tavern has operated as a watering hole both famous and infamous since 1934. It was the Jungle Inn, Jungle Pete’s, Jungle Johnnie’s, Vinnie’s Place, the Boatswain, the Frigate, Harry’s Hideaway, and Wolfie’s Tavern.

In addition to food, the Springs Tavern also serves up music. Tomorrow, a special tribute to the Allman Brothers will feature Andy Aledort, Bosco Michne, Rich Rosch, and Roy DeJesus at 9 p.m. There will be no cover charge.

Some last-minute ideas for Thanksgiving dinner include the Maidstone Hotel in East Hampton, where a four-course prix fixe meal is being served up for $85, $40 for children under 12, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. In Southampton, Tutto Il Giorno will also be open on Thanksgiving with a prix fixe menu for $65 that includes a choice of baby kale Caesar salad or a baby artichoke appetizer, wild mushroom tortelli or roasted turkey pastilla as an entree, and carmelized pear crostata or pumpkin semifreddo for dessert.

Townline BBQ in Sagaponack is offering happy hour specials with its live music on Friday nights this season. Inlet Seafood in Montauk will close for the season after its lunch service on Nov. 26. It will continue to operate until then Friday through Sunday, opening at noon.

In the late 1970s and early ’80s I worked for National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. Every year around this time, our beloved “All Things Considered” host Susan Stamberg would share her mother’s recipe, Mama Stamberg’s Cranberry Relish, with her listeners. “Mama” Stamberg got credit for this wildly popular concoction until the true inventor, Craig Claiborne, gently reminded Susan that it was his recipe from a 1959 New York Times column. In 1993, Mr. Claiborne told Mrs. Stamberg: “I am simply delighted. We have gotten more mileage, you and I, out of that recipe than almost anything I’ve printed.”

Bridgehampton Inn has a constantly evolving menu, with new selections offered every two weeks based on local market ingredients. Brian Szostak, the chef, would be happy to hear from farmers and boutique growers about fresh, available items. O’Murphy’s restaurant and pub at the Tipperary Inn in Montauk has a $24.95 dinner special Sundays through Thursdays starting at 5 p.m. It includes soup or salad of the day, a selected entree, coffee, and dessert.

I love Bloody Marys but seldom drink them. They seem to be kind of a meal in a glass, thick and spicy with bits and bobs of horseradish, a celery stick, perhaps an olive on a toothpick, like watered down cocktail sauce with booze in it.

The Springs Tavern will offer half-priced bottles of wine with the purchase of a dinner entree on Wednesdays from 4 to 9:30 p.m. Babette’s in East Hampton is open daily except for Wednesdays, serving breakfast and lunch until 4 p.m., as well as dinner on Friday and Saturday nights.

Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, is a celebration that originated with the Aztecs of central Mexico thousands of years ago. These are not days of mourning the passing of friends and family, they are celebrations of their lives, and the rituals that accompany these holidays are to welcome them back for a day.

La Fondita in Amagansett will celebrate Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead, with traditional food specials Wednesday through Friday, Nov. 3. Reasons to visit Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton this fall: three prix fixe specials to choose from, wood-oven pizzas, and “social hour” at the bar.

In summertime you can get away with slicing up a watermelon, dropping some berries in a bowl, or stopping at a farm stand for a fruit pie, and voila, dessert is done. But this time of year don’t you want to make a little more effort with a homemade dessert?

Tonight’s the night for a dinner at Almond in Bridgehampton featuring spirits from Widow Jane, a Brooklyn distillery, and pork from a pig raised at Root ’n’ Roost Farm in Livingston Manor, N.Y. Stefanie Sacks, a “culinary nutritionist,” will present a series of workshops with instructions for “meatless Mondays” beginning next week at a private residence in Bridgehampton. The 5:30 to 8 p.m. sessions, suitable for adults as well as children ages 10 and up, will begin with a brief discussion followed by hands-on cooking instruction.

The weather may still be disconcertingly balmy, but the farm stands and supermarkets and nurseries are all letting us know it’s fall! Hank’s Pumpkintown is up and running and busy as ever. The folks at John’s Drive-In in Montauk are cranking out their delicious pumpkin ice cream. There are pumpkin lattes, pumpkin doughnuts, pumpkin ales.

Coast Kitchen restaurant at the Montauk Yacht Club has a $29.95 (plus tax and tip) three-course prix fixe special for fall, served daily from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Getting through the first workdays of the week might become easier with a Tuesday night visit to Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett, which is hosting Taco Tuesdays. Diners can choose among three different tacos, served with chips and salsa to start, topped with radish, cilantro, and queso fresco, and accompanied by rice and beans.

A dinner with a theme of “chef, farmer, and winemaker” will be served later this month at the James Beard House by Michael Rozzi, the chef at 1770 House in East Hampton, along with Michael Cohen, the restaurant’s wine director. The theme pays homage to the teamwork behind the success of the restaurant, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary.

So you’re in Southampton for the Hamptons International Film Festival, going from the Southampton Cinema to the Southampton Arts Center, and you’re really hungry and want to grab a bit to eat between films. Where to go? Luckily, there are quite a few options, from the simplicity of a healthy smoothie or salad from the Village Gourmet Cheese Shop to the quiet opulence of Sant Ambroeus.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the Hamptons International Film Festival, which runs from next Thursday through Oct. 9. Congratulations, HIFF!

Luis D’Loera, the owner and chef at Michael’s restaurant in Springs, is set to open a new restaurant next month, The Blend at Three Mile Harbor, in the space on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton formerly occupied by the Harbor Grill. The restaurant will feature local ingredients, made in-house and influenced by the dishes of northern Italy, southern France, and the Mediterranean. This week’s Oktoberfest offering at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, available today through Sunday, is sauerbraten with braised red cabbage and turnip-potato puree, along with Black Forest ice cream bombe for dessert.

Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton will restart its Artists and Writers Night series on Tuesday at 7 p.m. with Allie Wist as the presenting artist. Ms. Wist, the associate art director at Saveur magazine and a recent graduate of New York University’s food studies master’s program, is an artist, art director, and photographer whose work is anchored in food culture and food systems. Sunday brunch is back at Nick and Toni’s. The weekly menu, served from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., will be a la carte, and will include specialty brunch cocktails.