CULTURE & LEISURE • Friday Routine
CLARE de BOER • cook and writer • The Best Bit, Stissing House, Roseland
Neighborhood you work in: Park Slope / Pine Plains, NY
It’s Friday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
I pick up my son, Abe, from school in Brooklyn Heights, then walk over to the Roseland store my husband and I just opened on Atlantic Ave. It’s in the little Picture Room space by Salter House, and we’ve filled it with Stissing martini tables, fire tools, our bed, kitchen island, etc.
Abe helps me remake the bed so my favorite part of the bedspread (a cornucopia motif pulled from a Virginia quilt) is centered. We’ll likely end up at Hometown BBQ in Red Hook with my husband and three other sons for brisket and live jazz — we love it, and it gets us closer to the tunnel for our drive upstate. The kids fall asleep in the car.
Where are you drinking or dining this weekend?
On Saturday I work on the menu at Stissing House with my CDC, David. We have a running list of ideas, which we taste and workshop at lunchtime. If I eat the whole plate of anything, it’s ready for the tavern. This week we’re messing around with spit-roasted rabbit stuffed with the last of the ramps.
I’ll cook dinner at home — something from Dashing Star Farm or Millbrook Beef and Dairy, whose meats I stockpile in the freezer, and veg from our garden. After dinner, we usually end up getting soft serve in town.
How about a little leisure or culture?
We have 10 kids under five and their parents coming to camp on our farm. Everyone’s bringing their own tent, and I’m armed with marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers. The only thing that might be more exciting than a first camping trip is taking my kids on theirs.
Any weekend getaways?
Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia is a quick flight or a six-hour drive from here, and it’s a perfect two-day trip. I don’t think there’s a more beautiful place in America to be immersed in craftsmanship and material history. The museum there has some of the finest American folk art, quilts, and furniture, and the acres of “living museum” are keeping arts that would otherwise be lost alive. Make sure to visit the Governor's Palace kitchen, the cabinetmakers, and any home that is open to the public.
What was your last great vacation?
Sicily with my husband, before we had kids. We drove around the whole island and ate and swam ourselves silly. La Cieloma, Da Vittorio, I Rizzari.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
A Jonathan Kline basket at Stissing House’s Craft Feast.
What store or service do you always recommend?
Live Auctioneers and UShip.
Where are you donating your time or money?
Prospect Park Alliance, The American Chestnut Foundation.