An inventor is lifted out of his doldrums by a visit from his plucky granddaughter in Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, a charming Christmas-y family musical about STEM, the dedication of the post office and the importance of small business loans.
I mean, it’s also about the magic of creativity and believing in yourself, the magic of actual magic and the importance of familial bonds and friendship, but small business loans and the post office play a not insignificant role.
Jeronicus Jangle (Justin Cornwell as a young man, Forest Whitaker as a grandpa-aged man) is a toymaker and a dazzling inventor in some kind of Victorian-ish world that has a vaguely steampunk feel but without any menace. He believes he has finally cracked the puzzle of a toy so marvelous that it will solidify his Greatest Inventor status and a lifetime of wealth for his family, including wife Joanne (Sharon Rose) and young daughter Jessica (Diaana Babnicova), who wants to be an inventor just like her dad. The toy is a sentient toy matador called Don Juan Diego (voice of Ricky Martin), who is fairly flawed from the outset in that he is extremely vain and possibly evil. When he hears that Jeronicus’ plan is to mass produce him, which means he would no longer be one of a kind, Don Juan convinces Gustafson (Miles Barrow as a squirrely young man; an excellent Keegan-Michael Key as a desperate older man), Jeronicus’ underappreciated apprentice, to steal him, the plans for him and Jeronicus’ book of inventions. Thus does Gustafson become a rich and famous toy inventor and Jeronicus lose his confidence in his inventions, his livelihood and even his family as Joanne dies abruptly and he becomes estranged from Jessica.
As a grown woman, Jessica (Anika Noni Rose) has an inquisitive and creative daughter of her own, Journey (Madalen Mills). Journey has grown up hearing stories about Jeronicus and his inventions but, due to the estrangement between father and daughter, she has never met him. She finds a way to travel to meet Jeronicus, but finds a man mired in sadness. He is barely hanging on in his shop, which is now a pawn and fix-it store. Though his young apprentice Edison (Kieron L. Dyer) believes in him and post officer Mrs. Johnston (Lisa Davina Phillip) cares for him (reminding him in song that she is a widow ready to mingle), Jeronicus wants nothing to do with any of it. He isn’t terribly welcoming to Journey — making her sign a non-disclosure about any plans or inventions she might stumble on — but he slowly starts to warm to her.
With singing! As I mentioned, this is a musical and, while I’m not necessarily humming anything from the movie at the moment, all of the songs are high-energy, plot-appropriate and fun.
I don’t understand the weird financial alchemy that makes a family musical with music co-written by John Legend and a whole bunch of really expensive-looking wooden-toy and paper pop-up-book and wind-up robot animation (used to move the narrative through time jumps between live-action scenes) possible for Netflix distribution but — cool! I’m so glad this movie exists! And I’m so glad it’s getting distribution this way, which feels like the most family-accessible way to put it out there. This movie features genuine artistic achievement, particularly for the look of this film, as well as some solid storytelling. The movie creates a very specific world and then builds a magical story in it, with flavors of The Nutcracker and Peter Pan. The actors do a good job at making us care about these people and believe them, even if they’re doing math equations in the air or singing in the middle of a Dickens’-London-esque setting (but, like, clean and bright, and calling to mind a snow globe with colors that pop). In addition to the core cast, Phylicia Rashad and Hugh Bonneville show up for small roles, which give this movie a quality-throughout feel.
There is also solid adventure, a friendly robot, a goofy villain and not too much scariness — I feel like kids a few years into elementary school can handle this movie. (Common Sense Media gives it an 8+ rating.) Looking for something for a family movie night? Jingle Jangle has enough action that it can probably keep kids engaged and enough storytelling cleverness to entertain adults as well. A
Rated PG for some thematic elements and peril. Written and directed by David E. Talbot, Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey is two hours and two minutes long and distributed by Netflix.
Featured Photo: Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey
How to Write One Song, by Jeff Tweedy (Dutton, 159 pages)
Of all the implausible goals on my bucket list, writing a song is not one of them. Although I possess both a guitar and a piano, and regularly abuse a vintage iPod, I have always been a consumer of music, not a creator, and it never even crossed my mind to try birthing a song. I’ll venture to say that’s probably true of you, too.
So Jeff Tweedy’s How to Write One Song should have no value to people like us, but as it turns out, the book is a quirky little pep talk that’s more about creativity in general than about songwriting in specific. Imagine Julia Cameron (The Artist’s Way) or Steven Pressfield (The War of Art) in a cowboy hat. Like these creativity coaches, Tweedy proposes to wrest people from tedium — of jobs, lives, dinner choices — by inviting a daily visit from the muse. But he believes that anyone can write a song that is meaningful to them, even without music education or even owning an instrument.
Tweedy, recently described in Rolling Stone magazine as “one of today’s greatest songwriters,” leads the Grammy-winning rock band Wilco and was co-founder of the group Uncle Tupelo. He begins with an interesting assessment of how songs differ from other art forms, like novels or paintings. “They’re hard to hold on to — airlike and ephemeral. They pass through time. They’re here, then gone … Yet they’re portable, they can linger as a memory, and even crazier, they can just pop into our minds for no discernable reason.”
If people think at all about the craft of songwriting, Tweedy says, they’re likely to assume that songs are conjured, not written. He concedes that there is some sort of partnership between the conscious mind and the unconscious, but doesn’t subscribe to the magical “the universe gave me this work, I am but a lowly conduit” mindset. Instead his is a practical method that benefits from timers, schedules and, amusingly, theft.
“Everyone who you could possibly steal from at this point in human evolution is a thief. Even innovators seemingly without any historical precedence are found to be building on someone else’s foundation, upon deeper investigation,” Tweedy writes.
That doesn’t mean he endorses presenting someone else’s work as your own, but seeing the work of others in the context of a “shared ability to create,” and thus allowing for inspiration and integration into your own work. “I believe that writing your own lyrics to an existent melody is a damn fine thing to do if you don’t have much of handle on the music side of things and you really need to get something off your chest in song.”
In fact, one of his suggested exercises is to steal words from a book. Think of a melody, and then “Open up a book anywhere, any page, and keep humming the melody to yourself as you scan. Don’t really try to comprehend what you’re reading; just let your mind skim over the surface of the words on the page and focus your attention on the melody.”
The goal is to capture ideas without the control of the ego, to connect with an “anchor word” from which inspiration flows. Tweedy says that he used this process when writing Wilco’s song “Hummingbird,” conceived with an assist from Henry Miller’s Stand Still Like the Hummingbird. (That’s a nice example of how “theft” doesn’t have to be a crime.)
Simple and folksy, How to Write One Song does not attempt to be more than what it is, a conversation between someone who knows how to write songs and people who don’t. There may not be any great gems of insight here, but there are pebbles of smart, such as Tweedy’s insistence that, to truly succeed at any form of art, the process has to be the goal, not the success of the work, or even the work itself.
In other words, if you want to write a song in order to make money and win a Grammy, you will most likely be emotionally crushed. If you, instead, decide that writing a song is a worthy goal in itself, that the act of creating it has benefits (which Tweedy believes), then you win every time you sit down with a timer and work on your song (or painting or poem) for five minutes. That you win every day when you do it for nothing more than the love of the work.
“There’s just a lot of joy in it, in having created something at all. I don’t feel as bad about other things. I don’t necessarily feel high, or overly joyed. I just feel like, ‘Oh, I’m not wasting my time.’”
But what if we are wasting our time? It’s easy to think that if we are creating things that don’t net us money or recognition. Tweedy says we have to mentally return to childhood, when we hunched over a Crayola masterpiece for an hour and were so proud of what we produced, despite its actual artistic worth. “The drawing got hung up on the fridge regardless of how good it was, because your mom loves you and everyone loves you. Why can’t you be that kind to yourself?”
He goes on: “That’s one of the problems with humans — that we can be talked out of loving something. That we can be talked out of loving something that we do, and we can be talked out of loving ourselves. Easily, unfortunately.”
Will you write a song after reading this book? Maybe not, but it’s still worth the small investment of time, and if nothing else, maybe you’ll resume coloring on the floor, a joyful activity that Tweedy himself would endorse. B
BOOK NOTES Since songwriting is, well, writing, it’s a natural progression for musicians to write books, too. Whether they’re readable is another story. Anything by country music superstar Dolly Parton, however, seems a safe bet. She’s out this week with Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, written with an assist from music journalist Robert K. Oermann (Chronicle, 388 pages). The publisher promises that fans will learn the origin stories of Parton classics such as “Jolene,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You,” as well as more than 170 other songs that Parton has written. If you have a Parton fan on your Christmas list, pair this with a “A Holly Dolly Christmas” CD and you’re done. But Thanksgiving stands between us and Christmas, so more pertinent to your life this week may be The Book on Pie: Everything You Need to Know to Bake Perfect Pies by Erin Jeanne McDowell, with photos by Mark Weinberg (Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 352 pages). McDowell, the author of 2017’s The Fearless Baker and a host on Food Network Kitchen, believes that pie of any kind is perfectly acceptable fare for breakfast, which seems reason enough to buy this book. In it, she walks novices through crust-making (she prefers butter to Crisco and lard), and offers her own recipes on classics like apple pie, entrees such as chicken pot pie, and dozens of creative variations such as striped citrus pie, watermelon pie, triple chocolate caramel truffle pie and pina colada pie. Your socially distanced relatives and friends will thank you for reading this book. Also, fans of Hallmark holiday movies (I don’t understand you, but I know you exist) will want to pick up the clunkily titled Hallmark Channel Countdown to Christmas: Have a Very Merry Movie Holiday (Hearst Home, 224 pages). Author Caroline McKenzie offers recipes and decorating tips from “stars, screenwriters, set designers, costume designers, and directors who create the movie magic.” In other TV-inspired holiday fare, check out The Official Downton Abbey Christmas Cookbook (Weldon Owen, 240 pages) by Regula Ysewijn. “Now you can eat like an aristocrat,” a review in Delish promises, evidence of yet another wide divide in America: the Downton Abbey stans versus the Hallmark Christmas movie peeps.
The Old Rochelle, Pony Steps (Crumple Crumple Crumple Records)
This band is too messy and cool for me to dismiss as an average fedora combo, even if most of the varying ingredients are there. Thing is, this Lowell, Mass., band, led by Bucky Fereke, has hit on something that’s like a zydeco-washed cross between Eels, Springsteen and ’80s-era Randy Newman. The up-front stuff on this record, starting with “It’s All A Mystery,” is party-time Cajun-pop, made legitimately listenable through the efforts of the band’s accordion player, Tony Cavalieri. It goes on like this for a few tunes, and then, as expected, comes a nice knuckleball, in the form of “West Coast,” an examination of personal rebirth sizzling with a squeaky clean Byrds-style guitar line, in other words stylized in the manner of every other indie-rock song made in the Aughts. That’d usually make me reach for the Tums, but Fereke’s battered yet unrelenting voice can be, as alluded, redolent of Mark Oliver Everett, even borderline Elvis Costello, come to think of it. I’m sure this is a blast to hear live, if this Covid nonsense ever ends. A+
Orianthi, O (Frontiers Records)
You may remember this millennial answer to Lita Ford from her 2009 bubblegum hit “According To You,” a Michelle Branch-style rockout in which the mononymed Australian did her own guitar shredding, something she’s done for a long time now, not only as a solo artist but also as a sidekick for Michael Jackson, Alice Cooper and others. The aforementioned 2009 album, Believe, earned platinum sales status, mostly on the strength of the similarly Avril Lavigne-esque stuff that was on it, but on this, her fourth LP, she ventures into other blends of familiar female-rock, applying a grungy Alanis Morrisette vocal to the Evanescence-drenched opener “Contagious.” “Sinners Hymn” ropes in the noise-heads with a brilliantly beaten-down mud-blues riff, and I suppose I’d love the tune even more if it didn’t rip off Alice in Chains, but what are ya gonna do. “Sorry” finds her trying Trent Reznor goth-electro on for giggles, at which point anyone into heavier music has to tip their hat. A
Retro Playlist
People who are old enough to have their mailboxes stuffed with AARP spam remember when ’80s hair-metal hack Billy Squier, a Boston native, once sang “Christmas is a time to say I love you.” In my mind, now that it’s looking like a Covid Christmas, I’ve changed the lyrics to “Covid is a time to stop being a sucky band.”
Like, why not, bands? There’s really nothing else to do other than reassess your whole approach. It’s either that or just keep trying to press on with the current plan, which, for most bands, involves streaming live shows from someone’s basement. That hasn’t worked out so well, at least from a critic’s eye view. I’m not the only one who’s noticed it; in a recent Facebook post, local veteran rock writer Billy Copeland noted, “The sound quality sucks. The singer keeps pausing to acknowledge all of the fans watching, and that reminds me of … Romper Room, when the lady used to look into her crystal ball and say ‘I see Tommy, and I can see Sally, and I can see Robin[…].’”
The more palatable option for bands looking to make a socially distanced splash, according to one of my favorite PR guys, is to spend no more than $500 on two professionally shot videos. I like that, but I’d always rather see bands getting better at, or changing entirely, their approach to music-making.
We’ve already discussed the possibilities that can come from bands changing their sounds, both the good (Fantastic Negrito’s dumping his Prince trip and becoming the best Led Zeppelin wannabe in the world) and the bad (The Horrors, enough said). But there’ve been others, like Staten Island indie rockers Cymbals Eat Guitars, who in August 2011 gave up posing as a lousy Pavement-type band and released the LP Lenses Alien, which, I noted back then, evinced “a talent for funk-chill, an ear for angsty hooks, a singer who can accurately karaoke Trail of Dead, and a gimmick (mad, mad bliss) — the whole Pavement thing was doomed from the start.”
On the flip side, we have trip-hop legend Tricky, a once-vital character in the Massive Attack canon. His 2013 album False Idols was too minimalist and wasn’t my cup of tea. He went “completely torch,” I whined then.
So, if you’re an artist or band, don’t just change for the sake of changing. I know, it’s totally Captain Obvious, but true.
PLAYLIST
A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases
• It’s here, fam, Nov. 20, the next dump-day for general CD releases! What’s in the can and headed our way, don’t you wonder? Maybe an album of T-Pain burping complete Bach concertos through an Auto-Tuned mic? A Blu-ray of Cardi B giving twerking lessons while wearing a scowling “I Heart Beethoven” half-top? Miley Cyrus covering the entire Mastodon Leviathan album? (You know she wants to, seriously, have you even seen what she’s been up to lately?) Jeezum crow, I can’t imagine what sort of horrific monstrosities are on their way, for the final shopping weeks of this, Week 47 of The Worst Year Of Our Lord 2020, when marriage counselors and family therapists made more money than the airline, cruise ship and hotel industries combined, all while working from home in their Scooby Doo pajamas! Harumph, I say, old chaps and chapettes, look yonder, it’s mummified English EBM/industrial-punk veterans Cabaret Voltaire, with their 15th album, Shadow Of Fear! Hmm, it says here that Richard Kirk is the only remaining member of the band. What fun could that have been, with no drama over artistic differences? Boring! The single, “Vasto,” is a krautrock-electro thing, with no singing. It is OK, because at least it isn’t like some stupid Kraftwerk fanboy thing. Nice tribal-house loops, I shall allow it to live.
• Canadian pub-emo band Partner is commanded by two lesbian guitarists, Josée Caron and Lucy Niles! They won a Canadian songwriting contest or another, whatever, and then got semi-famous when their video for “The ‘Ellen’ Page” went viral, when actual Ellen Page shared it on her Twitter and such. Anyway, Never Give Up, the band’s new LP, features the tune “Honey,” a pretty decent hipster-ized nicking of Joan Jett’s “Do You Wanna Touch Me.” Totally salvageable tune; you might possibly like it, but also might not!
• Speaking of ambivalence, maybe you liked “My Heroine” by Canadian screamo geeks Silverstein, back in 2005, when you were a nerdy tadpole playing Counter Strike for 26 hours a day, but now you’re hopelessly adult and don’t have time for dweeb-rock anymore, yet you’re still interested to know that the band has a new album, Redux II, coming to your Spotify! The first single, “My Disaster (2.0)” is mostly oi-tinged ape-screamo, but then the Dashboard Confessional part comes in, and you realize you must drop everything and go pwn noobs on CS just like back in the old days, what are you waiting for!
• Finally we have my favorite stoner band in the world (because their name fills up almost one million characters of column space), King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, with not one but two new albums! We’ll first talk about the new studio album, K.G., which includes a song titled “Automation,” a shuffle-y, super-cool, mid-tempo post-grunge tune in which our demented heroes try to make Indian sitar-like sounds with their guitars; you’ll totally love it, it’s like a s’mores of Queens of the Stone Age and Ravi Shankar. Now, of course, because it’s holiday shopping season and this band loves putting out albums every two weeks or whatnot, they are also releasing a concert album, Live In S.F. ‘16, which will include such songs as — oh, whatever, it’s all awesome, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard everyone!
The ultimate day of indulgence requires the appropriate brew
Thanksgiving is the ultimate day of indulgence — savory gravy, delicious stuffing, buttery potatoes and vegetables, sweet and rich yams and flavorful roast turkey followed by a spread of sweet, rich desserts.
And you can’t just sip any old beer on the ultimate day of indulgence.
I sort of teeter back and forth when it comes to beer on Thanksgiving. On the one hand, the food of the day is so rich, so decadent and so carb-heavy that it’s almost a challenge to try to add a similarly rich and decadent brew into the mix — but richer, maltier brews work so well with the sweet, buttery foods that dominate the day. We’ve got ourselves a predicament.
On the other hand, I find that crisp, clean brews like Pilsners or bright, tart sours can cut through the fat a bit better, and that allows you to really focus in on the food you’re eating — nothing wrong with that either.
But you don’t want to feel like you held back on Thanksgiving, so how should we handle this dilemma? That is the question and I don’t have the answer because I’ve gone back and forth on what the best move is from holiday to holiday, and sometimes even from brew to brew.
With respect to these two competing narratives, I’d like to offer a few suggestions from both lines of thought to help you drink your way through Thanksgiving.
Carry On Bohemian Style Pilsner by Great Rhythm Brewing Co. (Portsmouth)
This is crisp, clean, light and so, so easy to drink. You can enjoy this without really having to think about it. This would be a nice choice during appetizers, or honestly, really at any moment on Thanksgiving day.
Georg Munich-Style Dark Lager by Schilling Beer Co. (Littleton)
While this is rich and offers layers of complexity, what stands out to me is that it’s quite dry and easy to drink. I think you get some notes of toasted caramel that would do very well alongside a piece of warm apple or pumpkin pie.
Rye IPA by Stoneface Brewing Co. (Newington)
I haven’t tried this one but I’m intrigued by this brew, in particular because I think the bitterness and the earthiness from the rye would really cut through the richness of the day. The brewery indicates this beer is “bold and malty,” which is a bit different than your typical IPA. This one seems like a good choice on turkey day.
Pandora’s Kettle #4 by Concord Craft Brewing (Concord)
This Berliner weisse is tart, bright, and quite refreshing. Brewed with apple and cranberry, this is perfectly seasonal—and a great choice to sip with the meal or right after when you’re trying to give your belly a bit of a break. At 3.7 percent ABV, you can have more than one.
Vendel Imperial Stout by Kelsen Brewing Co. (Derry)
This is the one you grab when you just decide to go all in on Thanksgiving. This beer holds nothing back. It’s incredibly rich and creamy with big notes of chocolate and coffee. Savor this one slowly on the big day.
Working Man’s Porter by Henniker Brewing Co. (Henniker)
This is dry and robust but it’s also very, very drinkable, making it a nice choice when you’re embracing the decadence of the day but not trying to go too overboard. It’s that dry complexity that I think pairs quite well with Thanksgiving fare.
What’s in My Fridge DDH Pulp Daddy by Greater Good Imperial Brewing Co. (Worcester, Mass.)Wow. This one comes at you with hop ferocity. The brewery states that it is its hoppiest beer — double the hops of its little brother, Pulp Daddy (which is also quite hoppy, as is the youngest brother, Pulp). This is a hop-lover’s dream: a tropical juice bomb that pulls no punches. The dry hops adds another layer of complexity and freshness that really allows this beer to stand out. Cheers!
Featured photo: Happy Thanksgiving. Courtesy photo.
Matt Casey is the owner-operator of Casey Magee’s Irish Pub & Music Hall (8 Temple St., Nashua, 484-7400, caseymagees.com), which opened in June. Casey Magee’s offers a menu of American comfort items with an Irish flair, featuring burgers, sandwiches and wraps, appetizers, flatbreads and entrees, with specialty cocktails, beers and wines available out of its full bar and a brunch menu on Sundays. Since opening, the pub has become especially popular with the late-night crowd on the weekends, Casey said, with upstairs pool tables and a jukebox you can use from your phone. Casey is a graduate of Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island and a three-time marcher in the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day parade as a costumed leprechaun. Casey Magee’s is the culmination of his decades-long dream to open his own Irish pub.
What is your must-have kitchen item?
The grill is huge. You can throw anything on it and get creative with it.
What would you have for your last meal?
It would be steak, cooked medium, with a loaded baked potato and an IPA.
What is your favorite local restaurant?
Tostao’s Tapas-Bar. They are right around the corner from me on Main Street in Nashua. I’ve been in there a few times and they are really nice people with incredible food. The Buffalo dip and the empanadas are great.
What celebrity would you like to see eating in your restaurant?
Adam Sandler. I would love to have him come in during an open mic night!
What is your favorite thing on your menu?
The Irish nachos are awesome, and also the Guinness-battered fish and chips. I also love our traditional Irish boxty. That’s a different type of item that you can’t really find around here.
What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?
Street tacos, and just experimenting with different sauces and flavors. I think we will be jumping on that wagon. We’re looking into adding them on our menu.
What is your favorite thing to cook at home?
English muffin pizzas. I eat them like M&Ms. I like to do a chunky mushroom sauce and mozzarella cheese.
Traditional Irish boxty (potato pancakes) Courtesy of Matt Casey of Casey Magee’s Irish Pub & Music Hall in Nashua 2 pounds mashed potatoes (no skin) ¼ cup diced red onion ¼ cup diced green peppers ¼ cup diced bacon ¼ cup shredded cheese of choice ¼ cup diced scallions ¼ cup milk 1 egg 1½ teaspoons salt 1½ teaspoons coarse black pepper 1 tablespoon butter Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Place onto a skillet, forming into patties and cooking on both sides, like pancakes. Layer and top them with scallions and a citrus sour cream drizzle.
Featured Photo: Matt Casey. Photo by Matt Ingersoll.
Ideas for getting big Thanksgiving flavors in smaller, easier dishes
If you’re used to cooking a large Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings, chances are this year may look a bit different — but that doesn’t mean your meal can’t be just as delicious.
“I do think that we have to make it a little more accessible and casual and less grandiose to fit the world we’re living in right now,” said Dawn Hunt, owner of the Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery in Salem. “For me, what actually stands out in my memory are the smaller intimate gatherings, and if Covid has taught us anything it’s how important it is to slow down a little bit and reconnect with our families, and maybe just give ourselves a break.”
From smaller entrees and appetizers to soups, salads, sandwiches and light brunch options, local chefs and cooking instructors give some suggestions that will work for a smaller gathering this Thanksgiving while still allowing those familiar holiday flavors to come through.
Tips for your bird
As an alternative to a full-sized turkey, which can often be up to 15 to 20 pounds, bone-in or boneless turkey breasts, or even roast chicken breasts or small Cornish game hens, can all be good options to serve tables of smaller groups.
“A whole turkey is a huge meal if you’re only talking about a small gathering, so you’re not going to go through all of those extremes of deep-frying it or smoking it. You can keep it simple,” said chef and cooking instructor Liz Barbour of The Creative Feast in Hollis.
Bone-in turkey breasts, as well as “hotel-style” turkey breasts, which come with the bird’s wings and usually its neck and back, are usually much smaller in size — around 6 to 7 pounds.
After letting the bird stand at room temperature for an hour to an hour and a half, Barbour said, she likes to add a mixture of butter, salt, pepper and chopped parsley and thyme to be placed under its skin. You can do this by carefully separating the skin from the meat over the breast without tearing it. A turkey or chicken’s pan drippings can also make a flavorful base for gravy.
Merrimack chef Oonagh Williams, also a cooking instructor and the owner of Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh, said she has prepared turkey thighs in a slow cooker, to be used in smaller items like crepes, curries or soups. She also likes to stuff tenderloins from boneless turkey breasts, with a mixture of herbs, Craisins, bacon, onions and finely chopped apples, served cold with a salad or reheated with gravy the day after you cook them.
Perhaps an even easier option could be to transform your Thanksgiving feast into a grilled cheese. Hunt said a freshly cooked sandwich with sliced turkey, stuffing, bacon, crispy fried onions, baby spinach, Swiss cheese, her rosemary olive oil and a homemade cranberry Dijon sauce offers a delicious balance of flavor. The cranberry Dijon sauce, served on the side, features a simple mixture of Dijon or brown mustard, cranberry sauce, honey and mayonnaise.
Sides, soups and salads
Roasted winter squash with herb yogurt sauce. Courtesy of Liz Barbour of The Creative Feast in Hollis.
Over the last several weeks, through her online recipe blog and virtual classes via Zoom and Facebook Live, Barbour has shared several easy ways you can prepare your favorite Thanksgiving sides. One recipe features smashed fingerling potatoes, simply cooked in the oven for about 25 minutes and plated with garlic, bacon, rosemary and chopped parsley. As a low-carb replacement for potatoes, you can also make mashed cauliflower.
She’s also done a roasted winter squash, cut into small slices or cubes, with a Greek yogurt herb sauce made up of ground coriander and cumin, chopped mint leaves, parsley, lemon juice and honey. Butternut squash works great, or you can use delicata to save time on peeling.
Soups and salads with fall flavors can also be simple options to pivot your Thanksgiving meal this year if you’re serving a smaller group. Michelle Thornton, director of marketing and business development at LaBelle Winery in Amherst, recommends a butternut squash soup with diced apples and ground nutmeg and cinnamon, cooked in either a vegetable or chicken broth and LaBelle’s dry apple wine, and garnished with sour cream and caramelized apple slices.
To go with her grilled cheese and cranberry Dijon sauce, Hunt said she’ll be making a spicy pumpkin chowder using an unsweetened pumpkin puree prepared with bacon, veggies and ground chipotle pepper to give it a kick. She’s also done an autumn salad with apples, candied pecans, greens, radishes, goat cheese and a rosemary maple vinaigrette dressing made from New Hampshire maple syrup.
Easy sweet treats
Beyond baking a full pie, there are all kinds of simple ways to recreate some of your favorite sweets and treats. An apple and Craisin bread pudding, for example, served with a maple bourbon butter sauce, is an option Williams said can be great for a Thanksgiving Day brunch. Naturally sweet apple varieties, like Gala, Fuji or Braeburn, work best when peeled and sliced into very small pieces, like shredded cheese. Plain bagels or a challah bread are best for cooking, as a softer white bread would make it too mushy, she said.
Nicki Leavitt, owner and executive chef of the Purple Finch Cafe in Bedford, said pumpkin puree parfaits are also fun and easy to prepare, as either a snack or a quick breakfast.
“You can use a blend of organic pumpkin puree and some Yoplait yogurt … and then add cinnamon, nutmeg or maybe some fresh fruit at the base,” she said. “We bake our own pumpkin bread in house and dice that up and put it in the glass. … If you have a sweet tooth you can add whipped cream or caramel sauce.”
Hunt said you can easily make your own honey butter from brown sugar, cinnamon and unfiltered honey, which serves as a great complement for several types of fall-inspired baked goods, like pumpkin bread. She’s also baked apple muffins to go with it.
Barbour has baked apple Dutch baby pancakes in a cast iron skillet, featuring apples cooked in brown sugar and butter and a crepe batter poured on top.
“It’s basically like a big pancake you cook in the oven that rises like a souffle,” she said.
Mulled apple wine. Photo courtesy of LaBelle Winery in Amherst.
Decadent drinks
If you need to take the edge off this Thanksgiving from what has been a tough year — let’s face it, most of us do — you can incorporate some fall flavors into your cocktails.
Barbour, for instance, has a whiskey cranberry sour recipe that uses her own “cran-raspberry sauce,” or a homemade sweet sauce made from fresh cranberries or frozen raspberries. The recipe works just as well with regular raspberry sauce or your favorite brand of fruit jam.
LaBelle Winery, according to Thornton, is holding its annual “Cranberry Wine Week” now through Nov. 25, during which its cranberry wine and several other cranberry-flavored items are available for sale. The wine works great in several types of cocktails, including a cranberry cosmopolitan, which features triple sec liqueur, fresh lime juice, sugar and a lime wedge garnish. The mulled apple wine, with the winery’s dry apple wine, brown sugar, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg and an orange garnish, is another seasonal favorite.
Spicy pumpkin chowder From the kitchen of Dawn Hunt of Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery in Salem (cucinaaurora.com) 6 slices bacon 2 tablespoons Cucina Aurora Savory Sage olive oil ½ yellow onion, chopped 2 ribs celery, diced 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds 3 fresh sage leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried sage) 3 cloves garlic, minced 3 potatoes, peeled and cubed 8 ounces frozen corn 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth 2 15-ounce cans pumpkin puree, unsweetened ½ teaspoon ground chipotle pepper (or sweet paprika for less heat) Salt and pepper to taste 1 cup half-and-half .
Heat a large soup pot over medium heat. Chop three
slices of bacon into small pieces and cook in the pot until crispy. Add olive oil, onions, celery, carrots and garlic, cooking until onions are tender (about five minutes). Add sage, potatoes, broth and corn. Stir with a wooden spoon to remove any bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat to simmer until potatoes have become tender but not mushy (about 30 to 40 minutes). Meanwhile, cook remaining strips of bacon until crispy and set aside. In a small saucepan, mix pumpkin, chipotle pepper, salt and pepper until heated through. Add pumpkin mixture to the soup and heat through for about a minute, stirring while simmering. Add half-and-half and stir until well-incorporated and heated through. Serve immediately, topped with crispy bacon and sour cream if desired.
Smashed potatoes with garlic and bacon From the kitchen of Liz Barbour of The Creative Feast in Hollis (thecreativefeast.com) 2 pounds fingerling potatoes (or other small potatoes) 4 tablespoons olive oil ½ teaspoon kosher salt ¼ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced ¼ pound thick-cut bacon, diced (or diced pancetta) ½ cup parsley, chopped Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Drizzle a rimmed baking sheet with two tablespoons of olive oil. Place the potatoes onto the baking sheet and shake the pan to coat the potatoes on both sides with oil. Season with the salt and pepper. Place the pan into the oven and cook for 25 minutes or until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork.
While the potatoes are cooking, heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add one tablespoon of olive oil and the bacon. Cook until the bacon begins to brown. Add the sliced garlic and cook for one minute. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside. When the potatoes are fork tender, remove the pan from the oven. Gently press down on each potato to “smash” it and flatten a bit. Be careful not to flatten too much, or else the potatoes will break apart and lose their shape. Warm the bacon and garlic on the stove. Add the potatoes in a single layer. Turn the potatoes over to coat both sides with the garlic and bacon. Place the potatoes onto a warmed platter. Continue with the remaining potatoes and place onto the platter. Drizzle any remaining garlic and bacon onto the potatoes and sprinkle with parsley. Serve hot.
Grateful grilled cheese sandwiches with cranberry Dijon sauce From the kitchen of Dawn Hunt of Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery in Salem (cucinaaurora.com) Sliced turkey (leftover from Thanksgiving or cooked fresh) 1 cup crispy fried onions 6 to 8 strips crisp bacon 6 to 8 slices Swiss cheese 1 to cups stuffing (cooked to package instructions or leftover) 1 cup fresh baby spinach 4 to 6 slices sourdough bread (or gluten-free bread) 2 tablespoons Cucina Aurora rosemary olive oil
For the cranberry Dijon sauce: 2 tablespoons Dijon or brown mustard 2 tablespoons cranberry sauce 1 teaspoon honey 1 teaspoon mayonnaise
Make the cranberry Dijon sauce by placing the Dijon mustard, cranberry sauce, honey and mayonnaise in a small bowl and stirring until combined. Set aside. Warm a
Grateful grilled cheese sandwich. Photo courtesy of Dawn Hunt of Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery in Salem.
large skillet or griddle pan on medium-heat for about two minutes. Brush four slices of bread with rosemary olive oil on just one side of the slice. Place bread oil side down on the hot pan. On each slice of bread, lay ½ slices of cheese. On two slices of bread, layer bacon, then spinach, then turkey. On the other two slices, layer a bit of the stuffing and the fried onions. When the bread starts to toast and the cheese starts to melt, build the sandwiches by carefully flipping one slice of bread onto the other. Grill on each side of the sandwich until both sides are light brown and the sandwich is warmed through. Repeat with remaining bread and ingredients to make as many sandwiches as desired. Serve warm with cranberry Dijon on the side.
Autumn mini quiche From the kitchen of Dawn Hunt of Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery in Salem (cucinaaurora.com)
8 to 16 slices deli ham 6 to 8 eggs (use 2 less than your muffin tin has cups) ¼ cup milk Salt and pepper to taste 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated 1 large tart apple, grated
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray.
Line each muffin cup with one to two slices of ham. Set aside. In a large bowl, gently beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Gently fold in grated apple and cheese. Ladle the egg mixture into muffin cups and fill each only halfway. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the egg has set in the middle and the tops have browned slightly. Serve warm or cold, or freeze in an airtight container for up to two months. To reheat, place on a microwave safe dish and heat for 30 seconds.
Cranberry-orange vienna French toast From the kitchen of Nicki Leavitt of the Purple Finch Cafe in Bedford (purplefinchcafe.com)
1 loaf cranberry-orange tea bread (available at the Purple Finch Cafe’s takeout area) 2 eggs ⅔ cup milk ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 ½ zested orange Salt to taste
Make a French toast batter by beating together egg, milk,
salt, spices, orange zest and vanilla. Set aside. Cut the cranberry-orange tea bread into 1-inch thick slices, yielding approximately eight slices (10, including bread ends). Collect your favorite ingredients to top your French toast with (suggested toppings include whipped cream, caramel sauce, Craisins and powdered sugar). Heat a lightly oiled griddle or skillet over medium-high heat. Dunk each slice of bread in egg mixture, soaking both sides. Place in the pan and cook on both sides until golden. Add your collected toppings and serve.
Whiskey cranberry sour cocktail From the kitchen of Liz Barbour of The Creative Feast in Hollis (thecreativefeast.com); recipe makes one 5-ounce cocktail
¾ ounce maple syrup ¾ ounce fresh lime juice 1 ounce leftover “cran-raspberry sauce” 3 ounces whiskey of choice (Jack Daniel’s works well) 2 dashes Angostura bitters (optional) Ice cubes for mixing and serving Optional additions: ¼ cup seltzer water 1 egg white
For the “cran-raspberry” sauce (makes about three cups) 1 12-ounce package fresh cranberries ½ cup sugar 1 cup water 1 12-ounce packages frozen raspberries
To make the cran-raspberry sauce, combine water, sugar and cranberries in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat. Cool the cranberries to room temperature. After the cranberries have cooled, gently stir in the raspberries. In a cocktail shaker filled with five ice cubes, combine together the maple syrup, lemon juice, cran-raspberry sauce, whiskey and bitters (if using). Fill a seven-ounce glass with ice. Cover your shaker and shake your cocktail for 30 seconds. Pour into your glass of ice. Top with the seltzer, if using, and give it a stir. Serve immediately. (If using egg white, put in a shaker with all the ingredients and the ice. Leave the seltzer out).
Featured photo: Smashed potatoes with garlic and bacon. Photo courtesy of Liz Barbour of The Creative Feast in Hollis.
• More drive-thru Greek eats: On the heels of the success of a similar event it held last month, Assumption Greek Orthodox Church (111 Island Pond Road, Manchester) will host another drive-thru food fest on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Now through noon on Nov. 20, orders are being accepted for a variety of fresh Greek eats, like meatballs in a tomato sauce with rice and garlic bread, homemade Greek rice pudding sprinkled with cinnamon, spinach or cheese petas layered with phyllo dough, baklava layered with walnuts and honey syrup, and assorted Greek cookies, like finikia (honey walnut cookies) and kourambiedes (Greek butter cookies with powdered sugar). Pre-paying online is required (there will be no walk-ins). To place your order, visit foodfest.assumptionnh.org.
• Grab a pint: The New Hampshire Brewers Association is promoting local breweries with the launch of a new fundraiser called NH Pint Days. From Wednesday, Nov. 25, through Wednesday, Dec. 2, limited-edition collectible 16-ounce pint glasses will be available at more than 40 participating New Hampshire breweries, with $1 from each glass benefitting the Association. Visit nhbrewers.org or find the association on Facebook @nhbrewers to view a list of breweries that will have the pint glasses, which is sorted by region of the state.
• Milford Farmers Market ends: The Milford Farmers Market will hold its final outdoor date of the season on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 300 Elm St. in Milford (across the street from the New Hampshire Antique Co-op). The market was originally scheduled to end Oct. 10, with the indoor market kicking off a few weeks later. Instead, it was extended outdoors and canceled indoors for the winter. According to market manager Adrienne Colsia, the outdoor market will likely return earlier than usual next year, possibly in early May. Visit milfordnhfarmersmarket.com for updates.
• New programs at Anheuser-Busch: Join Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tours (221 Daniel Webster Highway, Merrimack) for the final two dates of its “Day Fresh Drive-Up” and “Growlers to Go” programs, on Thursday, Nov. 19, and Tuesday, Nov. 24, from noon to 8 p.m. Purchases for the “Day Fresh Drive-Up” program can be made online by visiting budweisertours.com to pick a six-pack or growler type and preferred pickup time. The first six-pack you order includes a complementary warm Bavarian pretzel from the Biergarten. Prices start at $15, with each additional six-pack priced at $10. The “Growlers to Go” program lets you customize your own growler type and brew selection (64 to 128 ounces). Visit budweisertours.com.
The Bektash Shriners of New Hampshire is moving its annual Feztival of Trees online. Starting Saturday, Nov. 21, you can view photos of the trees and buy raffle tickets online for a chance to win your favorite tree. You can also buy cash calendars and enter a Treasure Tree raffle and a 50/50 raffle. Find the Feztival, plus a special message from Santa, at nhshriners.org.
Bingo!
LaBelle Winery (345 Route 101, Amherst) is hosting a Family Bingo Night on Saturday, Nov. 21, at 6 p.m. featuring six rounds of bingo (with one adult and one kid winner per round) and an Italian dinner and a full bar with alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. There is a limit of six adults per table, with no more than 10 people, including kids, per table. Tickets are $25 to $33 and can be purchased at labellewineryevents.com.
Chunky’s Cinema Pub is hosting a family-friendly Theater Candy Bingo event at its Manchester location (707 Huse Road) on Saturday, Dec. 5, at 6 p.m. Purchase a ticket online to reserve a spot; for $4.99 you get a ticket and a box of Chunky’s theater candy. Players will turn in their candy to the host to get a bingo card, then play a few rounds to try to win some of that candy as well as other Chunky’s prizes. Doors open at 5 p.m. Visit chunkys.com to reserve your spot.
At the movies
Cinemagic theaters in Hooksett (38 Cinemagic Way; 644-4629), Merrimack (11 Executive Park Drive; 423-0240) and Portsmouth (2454 Lafayette Road; 319-8788) will have special showings of The Santa Clause (PG, 1994) from Nov. 20 to Dec. 3 for $5 a ticket. Visit cinemagicmovies.com for times and safety protocols.
Hit the ice
Though hockey competitions have been canceled, several local rinks are still open and offering public skating, with restrictions (see facility websites for the most up-to-date information). At the Everett Arena in Concord (15 Loudon Road, concordnh.gov), public skating hours are Monday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Sunday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Admission is $6 for ages 14 and up and $5 for ages 4 to 13; kids 3 and under skate for free. Skate rentals are available for $5. Public skating has been reduced to 50 percent capacity, and masks are required inside the building and while on the ice. Tri-Town Ice Arena (311 West River Road, Hooksett) is now offering limited public skating sessions for $6. Skating times vary and are subject to change; visit tri-townicearena.com for an updated schedule, as well as Covid-19 safety guidelines. Walkers and skate rentals are not available at this time.In Manchester, JFK Memorial Coliseum (303 Beech St.) typically offers public skating on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The cost is $3 for students (high school and under) and senior citizens and $5 for adults. Skate rentals are $5 and are available only for weekend public skating, school vacations and holidays. Face masks are now required on the ice. And West Side Ice Arena (1 Electric St.) offers hourly private rentals. Call 624-6444, ext. 5346. Visit manchesternh.gov.
I am grateful for bright red geraniums on my windowsills. Courtesy photo.
I think it’s important to take time to count my blessings. I try to take time each day to reflect on how grateful I am for living the life I do. And on a sunny afternoon near Thanksgiving I like to sit outside and reflect on everything I have to be grateful for. Here are some thoughts about my life, and how gardening helps to make my life full, satisfying — and rich in flowers and vegetables.
I am grateful to have a loving family and wonderful friends. On July 1 of this year Cindy Heath and I got married, after 11 years of partnership. Our family and friends attended via Zoom. Cindy is a wonderful person, an accomplished fiber artist and a terrific gardener. Not only that, she loves to weed! The gardens here in Cornish Flat have never been so well-tended. I am so grateful to have her in my life.
I am very pleased to have a newspaper column that has kept me writing and learning for 22 years. On Nov.11, 1998, my first gardening column appeared in the Valley News of West Lebanon. In that article I reflected on how important it is to clean up the garden each fall, and to get rid of weeds before their seeds get in the soil.
I also noted, “As insects may have laid their eggs on or in vine crops, tomatoes and potatoes, it is not a good idea to compost these plants.” Diseased or insect-prone plants I recommended for the burn pile or the household trash — or perhaps a pile in a far corner of the property, well away from garden beds. I am happy that our vegetable garden is fully cleaned up and put to bed.
I am grateful for my gardens. My huge ‘Merrill’ magnolia tree that blooms with a thousand white blossoms on my birthday in April. The primrose garden with hundreds of blossoms in the shade of old wild apple trees in June. The peonies that are seemingly everywhere. Milkweed that attracts and nourishes the gorgeous monarch butterflies. Fall asters, and so many more.
Although this may sound silly, I am grateful to have so many potted geraniums in the house. This year we brought in all our geraniums (Pelargonium spp., not to be confused with perennial geraniums of a different plant family that winters just fine outdoors). They sit on bright windowsills and will bloom off and on all winter, and go outside next summer. Their bright red blossoms give me joy.
I am happy and grateful that I have a small crape myrtle tree in a pot and have learned how to overwinter it indoors. I bought it in Florida in 2018 and brought it home as carry-on luggage. Last winter I brought it indoors and overwintered it in our cold, dark basement that stays in the 35- to 50-degree range. I didn’t think it would survive, but it did and bloomed magnificently this summer. The fall foliage was a great red, the leaves dropped, and it has now settled in for its winter rest.
I am grateful that we have put up so much food for the coming months. We froze lots of whole tomatoes in zipper bags for use in soups and stews, along with dried cherry tomatoes and some tomato sauce. What else is in the freezer? Lots of leeks, zucchini, kale, Hubbard squash, beets, blueberries and peppers.
I’m happy to have good farm stands nearby. I only had a few peppers this year, so I bought half a bushel from Edgewater Farm in Plainfield at the end of the year. They are great farmers who use the IPM method: Integrated Pest Management. As IPM farmers, they use many of the techniques of organic farmers but reserve the right to use pesticides if a crop is in danger. I prefer to buy organic produce, but trust them to use the least toxic chemicals, and only if necessary. I buy my corn from them and I am always pleased when I get a corn worm: it means that they did not have to spray.
I am happy and grateful that I have been able to plant bulbs each fall for decades. Winters are long here, and the thought of all those little balls of energy waiting in the soil for the onset of spring to come up and share beauty with me makes me happy.
At age 74 I like to point out that I willmake it through another winter just because I want to see what else did. I regularly take chances with plants that are not supposed to be hardy in my climatic zone. This year I planted a cut-leaf Japanese red maple, a variety called Tamukeyama. The cut-leaf varieties are generally less hardy than the standard varieties, of which I have three.
The grower of our Tamukeyama, John Lyon of Newbury (Lyon Family Nursery) told me it is one of the hardiest varieties. We’ll see. I’m happy to have it, and if it does not survive a cold winter, so be it. Although I have never done this before, I will protect it from the wind with a little A-frame shelter made of plywood. I do love the plant.
I am happy and grateful for you, my readers. Each week I get nice emails or thoughtful hand-written notes thanking me for sharing my knowledge and sharing personal experiences, and only occasionally disputing my assertions. When my corgi, Daphne, passed away last summer, I was inundated with messages of sympathy. Thank you. Please write to tell me what you are grateful for, where you live, and if I can quote you in a future column.
Lastly, I am grateful that all the newspapers that carry my column are still in business. Subscribe! Buy the paper. Donate to the paper if you get it free. Advertise if you have a business. Local newspapers are the lifeblood of our communities.
Featured Photo: Freezing tomatoes extends the season, feeding me even in winter, for which I am grateful. Courtesy photo.
The latest from NH’s theater, arts and literary communities
Larissa Fassler, Manchester I, 2019-2020, pen, pencil and pencil crayon on paper, four panels. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris, France. Photo by Jens Ziehe.
• Holiday art shopping: The newly formed Two Villages Art Society has partnered with the Hopkinton Historical Society to present “Home for the Holidays: an Art Show & Sale” from Nov. 21 through Dec. 20 in Contoocook and online. The show will feature all kinds of art, including oil and watercolor paintings, ceramics, tapestry, woodworking, wearable art, book making and more, created by local artists and artisans from Hopkinton, Bradford, Warner, New London and other surrounding towns. “We are excited to partner with Two Villages Art Society for this new show that includes … an impressive variety of art forms,” Heather Mitchell, executive director of Hopkinton Historical Society, said in a press release. “It is a wonderful way to support local artists and to shop local.” The show will be held in person at the Bates Building (846 Main St.; masks required) on a drop-in and by-appointment basis and virtually at shop.twovillagesart.org. Show hours at the Bates Building are Tuesday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with extended hours, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., on Saturday, Nov. 21, Friday, Nov. 27, and Saturday, Nov. 28. Visit twovillagesart.org.
• Virtual solo play: Manchester-based theater company Theatre Kapow presents A Tempest Prayer, third and final production in a series of three virtual one-person plays, Nov. 20 through Nov. 22, with livestream showtimes on Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 4 p.m. The play by Peter Josephson is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest for today’s times. The performances are being shot in a small studio space in Manchester and are full theater productions with sets, costumes, props, lighting design and sound effects. “It’s still theater, not film,” Theatre Kapow artistic director Matt Cahoon told the Hippo in September. “If people were here watching [in the studio], it would look like a regular live theater performance.” Tickets cost $10 per streaming device. Ticket holders will be sent the link to watch the show. Visit tkapow.com.
• Manchester maps: The Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St., Manchester) presents a new special exhibit, “Critical Cartography: Larissa Fassler in Manchester,” on view now through spring 2021. The exhibit features immersive large-scale drawings created by Berlin-based artist Larissa Fassler, who was an artist-in-residence at the Currier Museum in 2019. Stylistically inspired by maps and cartography, the drawings reflect Fassler’s observations of downtown Manchester and explore civic issues like the use of public spaces, the role of community organizations in supporting the needs of citizens, and the effects of poverty on the physical and emotional health of a community. “Larissa’s drawings complicate our expectations of what a map can do,” Samantha Cataldo, curator of contemporary art, said in a press release. “As an artist, her role is to ask questions, rather than offer answers, and she inspires us to think critically about our own perspectives on the concepts present in her work.” Museum admission costs $15 for adults, $13 for seniors age 65 and up, $10 for students, $5 for youth ages 13 through 17 and free for children under age 13. Reserve in advance online. Call 669-6144 or visit currier.org.
• Now playing at the Hatbox: Mary and Me, presented by Glass Dove Productions, continuesat the Hatbox Theatre (Steeplegate Mall, 270 Loudon Road, Concord) through Nov. 22, with showtimes on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. The original play by Irene Kelleher, inspired by a true story, follows a pregnant 15-year-old girl and her search for understanding while growing up in 1986 Ireland. The production marks the beginning of the play’s premier tour in the U.S. The theater has limited its capacity to 40 percent, and masks are required. Tickets cost $22 for adults and $19 for seniors and students and should be reserved in advance. Visit hatboxnh.com or call 715-2315.
• An evening of classics: The Garrison Players Arts Center’s Readers’ Theater presents a virtual show, “Classics We’d Love To Do (But May Never Get The Chance),” on Friday, Nov. 20, at 7:30 p.m. The show will feature scenes from various works, including Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet, Moliere’s Tartuffe and Sheridan’s The Way of the World. Tickets are free, but registration is required. Visit garrisonplayers.org/showsandevents.
