Food

    Spring is springing, and now might be a good time to shake off the winter doldrums and go out to eat.

    At Michaels’ restaurant at Maidstone, a March to Spring food and wine dinner is being offered nightly all month. The special is $45 per person, which includes wine paired with an appetizer, entree, and dessert, or $30 per person for the meal only.

   So I went to the doctor a month ago and got the bad news. All of a sudden I have high blood pressure. My entire life I have had low blood pressure. The blood pressure of a lizard sunning herself on a mesa in New Mexico — chill, baby, chill! The doctor recommended the DASH diet. DASH is a silly acronym I keep forgetting. It’s something like “diet to abolish stupid hypertension.” No, seriously, it’s “dieting approaches to stop hypertension.”

   Sunset Beach Farm memberships are available for the 2012 season of community-supported agriculture. The crops are grown using planting methods based on earth and moon patterns, without pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers.

    The farm has an acre of its own in Sag Harbor and has leased two in Amagansett. Farmers will harvest spinach, chard, kale, and peas in the spring, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, and peppers in the summer, and carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, turnips, and cabbage in the fall.

New Muse

    Muse in the Harbor will open today on Sag Harbor’s Main Street. Matthew Guiffrida, the chef and owner, who opened Muse Restaurant and Aquatic Lounge in Water Mill in 2007, has closed that location and will turn his attention to the new eatery, which is in the building that formerly housed the JLX Bistro.

    The space has been redone, with driftwood floors and light blue and silver-gray colors, and includes a Muse “signature design element”: a lighted, 8-foot-by-4-foot fish tank filled with tropical fish.

   The space at 199 Pantigo Road, previously occupied by Pumpernickel’s Deli, has an eye-catching sign in front of it now, heralding the opening of Fish 27, a new seafood store with a familiar face or two.

    The shop is a mom-and-pop venture. Actually, it’s pop-and-son, owned by Jay Gold, a former Clio-winning commercial editor and director, and his son, Derek Miller, who has been in the seafood business on the East End for 15 years.

little/red

76C Job’s Lane

Southampton

283-3309

Lunch Wednesday through Sunday

Dinner Tuesday through Sunday

   Chances are, the last time you bit into a sweet, buttery ear of corn was five or six months ago. Wasn’t it delicious? Your last fully ripe, deeply red tomato salad scattered with herbs followed by a perfect local peach? Seems like such a long time ago.

    Perhaps you have been perusing seed catalogs, dreaming about next summer’s garden. When you go grocery shopping this time of year, do you look at the produce section and go . . . “Meh”?

   At 8 p.m. tonight, Montauk, and a notable number of the hamlet’s standouts, including the surfcaster Gary (Toad) Stephens, Capt. Amanda Switzer, the Miss Montauk party boat, Jenny Meadows, chef at the Fishbar, Todd Mitgang of South Edison restaurant, and last but not least, Paul Melnyk, king of “skishing,” will be featured in the premiere of Ben Sargent’s “Hook, Line, and Dinner,” a Cooking Channel presentation.

   On Friday, Feb. 24, the Living Room restaurant in East Hampton will have a Taste, Wine, and Dine event. Seatings will be at 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. For $98 per person, plus tax and gratuity, diners will get a four-course dinner and a tasting of six wines chosen by Chris Miller, the restaurant’s sommelier. On the menu will be duck leg cassoulet, and veal cheek braised in red wine with truffle potato purée and sweetbread-stuffed cabbage rolls.

Annual Oscar Contest

   It’s fairly common knowledge by now that, as the band Queen sings, “fat-bottomed girls, they make the rockin’ world go ’round,” but can the same be said for confectionery?

    According to Donna McCue, whose East Hampton business, Fat Ass Fudge, has been on a steady spread for the past four years, the answer is yes.

Valentine’s Day is coming and perhaps you have been planning a special meal for that certain someone. We tend to think of Valentine’s meals as an indulgence, perhaps an elaborate recipe, some expensive and rich ingredients, all topped off with a gooey, chocolaty dessert. Ca­vi­ar, champagne, steak with béarnaise sauce, oof!

   As Valentine’s Day is a holiday that gets even the most stalwart homebodies out for a meal, here is the scoop on some places where diners can celebrate.

    In Montauk, Manucci’s, which specializes in seafood as well as Italian cuisine, will offer a special Valentine’s Day menu. Items from the regular menu will also be available. Dinner is served nightly at Manucci’s beginning at 5 p.m. Reservations have been suggested.

Oyster Prelude

“If this combination doesn’t fire up the love engine, I don’t know what will.” Woo hoo! Just let it cool down first.

   I am going to just say it, even though I may be labeled un-American: Super Bowl Sunday is as much about the food as it is the football.

    One of the great pleasures of working in the restaurant industry and writing about food is getting to know our local chefs. And when you get to know the chefs, sometimes you can get recipes from them. If you’re really lucky, you may get some of their signature recipes or favorite dishes to cook at home.

A “Barefoot Contessa” episode that aired on the Food Network on Monday featured cheeses selected by Ina Garten at the Lucy’s Whey cheese shop here in East Hampton. Ms. Garten was putting together an “all-American cheese plate.”

    The shop will be closed for a winter break during February and March. Tomorrow through Sunday, all jams, chutneys, honeys, and crackers will be 15 percent off. During the East Hampton store’s hiatus, items can be ordered from Lucy’s Whey online, or purchased at the shop’s New York City location at the Chelsea Market.

Cooking Demo

   My editor, Jennifer, recently turned me on to an awesome Web site called HauteLiving.com. The reason being they featured a little article called “Top 5 Power Lunches in the Hamptons.” Power lunches in the Hamptons? In January? Who does that?

    This is the time of year when soups are on my mind. And my stove. On a recent trip to High Falls, N.Y., to visit our friend Nancy at her bed-and-breakfast, she prepared a ribollita. It was so delicious we had it two days in a row and I begged her for the recipe. I have made it twice since then.

    The Fair Foods market continues on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Sag Harbor through May, at the Bay Burger building on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike.

    Among the vendors that gather there are Anke’s Fit Bakery, Goodale Farms, Greek Sweets, A Taste of the North Fork, Harbor Small Batch, the Mecox Bay Dairy, Regina’s Farm Stand, and Wolffer Estate Winery.

East End Chefs Program

    Hilary Herrick Woodward will demonstrate vegan versions of some favorite dishes at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton on Wednesday at noon. The program is free, but reservations are required. They can be made by calling the library or online at myrml.org

Carnivores’ Night

    Steak night is Wednesday at both Michael’s restaurant at Maidstone Park, where a full steak dinner is $21.95, and at Cittanuova in “downtown” East Hampton, where diners can choose one of three ways to have their New York strip steak prepared, for a $19 prix fixe.

Cafe Max

Do you think of New Year’s Eve as a time to reflect on the past year, make resolutions to improve your life and the lives of others, or as an excuse to be as debauched as possible, drink too much, stay up late, and make a fool of yourself? Yeah, me too.

    How can you not love a place called the Corner Bar that has an address of 1 Main Street? So American, so Americana. Throw in a primo view of passing citizens, the windmill, and Long Wharf and you’ve got Norman Rockwell and Edward Hopper all wrapped up into one cool bar.

    The Corner Bar is charming and cheap, cozy and lively all at the same time. That is what I had to remind myself of when we went out for our review: It is a bar, not a restaurant.

For the Holidays

    Stuart’s Seafood in Amagansett has the makings of the traditional Italian Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes: all kinds of seafood, including bacalao, eels, smelt, sole, calamari, scallops, and clams.

    Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton will be closed on Christmas day, but will serve dinner beginning at 6 p.m. from Tuesday through New Year’s Day.

    Driving back and forth on County Road 39 in Southampton recently I noticed that Meson Ole was gone, and in its place is a big sign announcing the arrival of Greek Bites Grill.

    There is a Greek Bites Grill in Moriches. It is a casual, gyro and souvlaki-on-a-stick kind of place. The Greek Bites Grill in Southampton is its white-tablecloth cousin. And what a lovely cousin it is! And who better to go with than my friend Spyros, who knows his way around a Greek menu.

For Hanukkah

    Charlotte Sasso at Stuart’s Seafood in Amagansett will be making latkes and applesauce next week for Hanukkah. Those interested have been asked to call ahead to reserve their holiday goodies.

Christmas Eve

    With December flying by, it’s time to make reservations for Christmas Eve dinner, if your tradition is to have a holiday meal at a restaurant. Among the choices is Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton, which will offer a la carte specials beginning at 6 p.m. on

    Bread by Nightowl Baker, a Montauk business that creates wild-yeasted, triple-fermented, extra-tangy sourdough bread, will be available throughout the winter at White’s Liquor Store on Montauk’s Main Street, on Fridays through Sundays. Bread deliveries can also be arranged through the Web site nightowlbaker.com.

Winter Market

    Homemade food gifts for the holidays are thoughtful, economical, and original. I love making them and receiving them. They can be as elaborate as fruitcakes, stollens, and babkas or as simple as spiced nuts and infused vinegars. No offense to Williams-Sonoma, but why spend a fortune on store-bought seasonal peppermint bark when you can make your own in literally about 10 minutes for a quarter of the price? Get your children involved in simple baking and decorating the gift boxes.

Growing up, I was lucky to live close to the Chesapeake Bay. This meant an abundance of blue crabs and bay scallops.