Author: John Fladd

The Weekly Dish 26/06/11

• LaBelle happenings: There are several events on the schedule for LaBelle Winery (345 Route 101, Amherst, 672-9898, labellewinery.com).

LaBelle Winery Amherst (345 Route 101, Amherst, 672-9898, labellewinery.com) will host a four-course wild game dinner on Friday, June 12, from 6:30 to 10 p.m. The menu will include duck, wild boar and elk. According to the LaBelle website, “This intimate gathering celebrates rustic elegance, sustainable sourcing, and the adventurous spirit of the outdoors.” Tickets are $95 each, through labellewinery.com/public-winery-events.

There will be a Greek-god-themed murder mystery dinner at LaBelle Winery Amherst (345 Route 101, Amherst, 672-9898, labellewinery.com) Saturday, June 13, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. According to the LaBelle website, guests will “immerse themselves in a world of divine glamour, hidden secrets, and shifting alliances as they step into the role of powerful immortals, uncover clues, and unravel the truth.” The mystery will be accompanied by a three-course Mediterranean dinner. Tickets are $84 each through labellewinery.com/public-winery-events.

Also at LaBelle in Amherst,on May 18, the winery announced a new dog-friendly menu at both its restaurant locations. “Pups on the Patio [is] now available at The Bistro in Amherst and Americus in Derry,” the announcement read. “The menu, developed by executive chef Justin Bernatchez, features chef-prepared entrees and desserts formulated specifically for dogs, with no added salt, spices, onions, garlic, chocolate or artificial sweeteners.” Visit the LaBelle website.

• Pints, pipes and a podcast: Twins Smoke Shop and Lounge (twinssmokeshop.com) will host an afternoon of Nørding pipes, a live recording of the Not Just Blowing Smoke podcast and a tobacco tasking, Saturday, June 13, from noon to 4 p.m. at 603 Brewery (42 Main St., Londonderry, 404-6123, 603brewery.com). 603 Brewery will offer a $30 Beer & Brat Bar, and there will be a 4th Generation bulk tobacco tasting. Visit the Twins Smoke Shop website.

• Bubbles and boas: Unwined Wine Bar (1 Nashua St., Milford, 213-6703, unwinednh.com) will host a Corks and Queens drag brunch Sunday, June 14, at 11 a.m. Tickets are $28.52 through the Unwined website.

• Share and Pair: Sundays through July 5, Averill House Vineyard (21 Averill Road, Brookline, 244-3165, averillhousevineyard.com) will host Share and Pair Sundays. Relax in Averill House’s outdoor living room with up to seven friends. Each two-person ticket includes tastings of four Averill House wines or a wine slushy and a curated charcuterie board. Knowledgeable associates will be on hand to talk wine. Tickets are $59.

• Hot wax and bourbon: There will be a Maker’s Mark Dipping Event and Seminar at the NH Liquor & Wine Outlet Store No. 69 (25 Coliseum Ave, Nashua, 882-4670, liquorandwineoutlets.com) Sunday, June 14, from 1 to 3 p.m. Participants will see a demonstration of hot-wax dipping and have a guided tasting of three Maker’s Mark whiskeys. Each guest will receive a live-dipped rocks glass to take home, and a $3 coupon for selected purchases of Maker’s Mark products. Tickets are $12 through Eventbrite.com.

• Mozzarella stretching is the best kind of stretching: Learn how to form and stretch curd into a shiny mozzarella ball at a Hand-Stretched Mozzarella and Pizza-Making class at Tuscan Market (Tuscan Village, 9 Via Toscana, Salem, 912-5467, tuscanbrands.com) Wednesday, June 17, at 6 p.m. You can use your fresh mozzarella as a topping on your own hand-stretched pizza dough or take it home to enjoy later. Guests will also get to choose from a selection of house-made artisan ingredients. Tickets are $69.89 through tuscanbrands.com/cooking-classes.

Making stuff with ‘very cool toys’

Celebrating creations of all types at MakeIt Fest Nashua

MakeIt Labs is a makers’ space in downtown Nashua. On Saturday, June, 13, it will host MakeIt Fest, a celebration of maker culture. For many people, the terms “maker” or “maker space” bring a mental image of a group of young inventors with soldering irons building custom electronics in a basement somewhere. Brad Goodman thinks that is just a starting point; Making (with a capital M) is about getting drawn into learning skills that might not seem to have anything to do with each other at first glance.

Goodman, a member and director of MakeIt Labs and a coordinator for MakeIt Fest, said Making is about learning to imagine something that doesn’t exist, and then learning how to bring it into reality. “MakeitLab is a community makerspace,” he said. “We’re an all-volunteer organization, and we are basically a collective of artists, engineers, hobbyists, crafters, self-proclaimed mad scientists, and people who just like to learn things, create things and teach each other. We are a community first. We’re a building full of a lot of very cool toys, second, and we have everything from pottery studios to woodworking places to machine shops to robotics and electronics labs and a million other things. We do jewelry making, woodworking, and conventional arts and crafts.”

This weekend’s MakeIt event is about demonstrating a thirst for curiosity with a wider audience, Goodman said.

“What makes MakeIt Fest unlike most craft shows that you go to where the idea is that you come and you look at stuff that other people have done with the hope that you’ll buy something, is it’s just really more of a gathering of our members and other people in the community who are also makers and crafters and doers and it’s a chance for us to show off the kinds of stuff that we do. Really, the goal isn’t about, ‘Look at what I did; buy my stuff,” but, ‘Hey, this is the kind of stuff that we’re into and we’re just learning this too. Come join this movement. Are you interested in blacksmithing? Are you interested in woodworking? Do you not know how to weld? Do you want to learn these things? Well, this is the kind of stuff that we’re into doing and learning.’ It’s not just about inspiring people, but really giving them more of a tangible way to get started in this kind of stuff.”

MakeIt Fest will be more hands-on than many craft fairs or hobby shows, Goodman said.

“At last count, there will be about 46 different areas set up. There will be booths for makers — our members and even non-members who have their own side businesses — who do a lot of weird and creative things. A lot of [the spaces] are different things that MakeIt Labs does — showing off our woodworking, showing off pottery, showing off in general. People will be able to have a picture taken with our robot mascot and we will use a dye sublimation process to give you a mug with your picture with a robot on it. Or one of our lasers can take your name and a design and we’ll engrave your name on a key tag for you. So there’s like a lot of giveaway type things like that. Showing off our resource areas. Like I said, blacksmithing, woodworking. One guy, he bought an old school bus, turned it into a conversion van for his band to tour in. So that’ll be set up for people to come in and look at and explore.”

“We’ll have tours of our Lab and our machine shop,” Goodman said, “and drive around on our remote control couch. We’ll have our man-made kinetic sculptures, which are things like a four-wheeled bicycle that goes through roads, mud and water on display there. It’s a kind of a showcase for all the weird, wacky stuff that we do and the kind of stuff that is really attainable if you want to come to an organization like ours and learn about some of this stuff.”

“Our hope is that people come in and go, ‘Oh, wow, here’s a neat machine. If I only knew how to do that, there’s this cool thing that I really want to do.’ And then we’ll help them do that.”

MakeIt Fest 2026
When: Saturday, June 13, from noon to 4 p.m.
Where: MakeIt Labs, 25 Crown St., Nashua, 487-6218, makeitlabs.com.
More: There will be contests and raffles open to all attendees. Visit makeitfest.com

Steamed pudding with rhubarb sauce

This isn’t the type of pudding you’re thinking of. It’s an old-fashioned, British-style steamed pudding adapted from a 1930 recipe booklet put out by a baking powder company that I found at a yard sale this spring. It’s like a dense cake, but steamed in a pot on the top of your stove, instead of baked in the oven. This sort of pudding goes back to pre-Roman times and makes a lot of sense if you think about how difficult it must have been to keep an oven at a consistent temperature. Using steam to cook would keep the temperature at a steady heat, so once you’d worked out the timing it would be an extremely reliable recipe.

Pudding

  • 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup (about 5½ Tablespoons or 75 g) butter
  • ½ cup (99 g) sugar
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 cup (227 g) whole milk
  • 1 cup (170 g) dried, sweetened cranberries

Rhubarb Sauce

  • About 3 cups (333 g) frozen, chopped rhubarb
  • An equal amount, by weight (333 g), sugar
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • Juice of ½ lemon

Whisk the dry ingredients together — the flour, baking powder and salt — in a bowl, and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together with your electric mixer, then beat in the egg. Add the milk and the dry ingredients a little at a time, alternating between the two. Stir in the cranberries by hand.

Fill a “mold” with a cover with the batter. Back in the day, every kitchen would have a couple of pudding molds. If you have a small Bundt pan, that will work well. Crumple up some waxed paper or parchment paper, then cover the pan, and tie it on with twine. (Yes, I know that sounds like Too Much Trouble, but it really isn’t.) Alternatively, I used a 1-quart glass bowl with a plastic lid, and it worked well.

You probably have a steamer in one of the drawers in your kitchen, but you’ve never been sure what it is. It’s really easy to use. Look up “How to steam a pudding” online and you’ll find any number of short videos that will demonstrate it for you. If everything seems too complicated, place a couple of bricks in the bottom of your largest pot, then pour an inch or so of water into the bottom. Place your mold on top of the bricks, and that will work just as well.

(My only steaming hack is to wet a tea towel and drape it between the top of the pot and its lid, and use it to make a tight seal, so the steam is trapped in the pot.)

Steam the pudding over low heat for two hours.

Meanwhile, cook the chopped rhubarb and sugar together over medium heat in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally, until it comes to a boil. Remove it from the heat and stir in the lemon zest and juice. This makes a sweet but tart sauce that goes spectacularly well with your steamed pudding — and, if you are so inclined, a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Featured photo: Steamed pudding with rhubarb sauce. Photo by John Fladd.

Herbs for food and health

Greenery is on the menu for the 17th annual Herb and Garden Day

As you might suspect, the New Hampshire Herbal Network is made up of herb enthusiasts.

“We are a social group that gets together to talk about herbs, gardening, herbal medicine, environment and society,” said Ann-Marie Jackson, the group’s president. The NHHN will hold its annual Herb and Garden Day Saturday, June 6, at the Forest Society Conservation Center in Concord.

“This will be our 17th annual Herb and Garden Day,” Jackson said. “It’s an educational fair, so there are workshops for all levels, plant ID walks, kids’ activities, and there’s also a market, and it’s an artisans market. It’s like a fair. There are activities that can be crafty, so [people] can make and take, or they can be super-fun and just interesting. [Activities] might be about gardening or they might be about health or a particular issue. For instance, one of the workshops this year is going to be on menopause, and another workshop is going to be on botanical beauty — how to use herbal products for your skin care and your hair care and things like that.”

The Herbal Network looks at herbs from perspectives of food and of health. In fact, Jackson said, there isn’t a huge distinction between the two.

“If you look at [herbs like] thyme, basil, oregano or garlic,” she said, “these are all actually medicinal herbs. In workshop sessions for a plant ID walk on Saturday, an herbalist will take you around the property and point out any medicinal herbs that they would see, or plants of interest that they would see, or even fruiting trees and mushrooms. Myself, I am leading the mushroom ID walk.”

Jackson said that this year’s Herb and Garden Day will be a little more tightly focused than in some previous years, with a more select group of vendors. This is due, she said, to the event’s new venue.

“This is our first time at the Society for the Preservation of New Hampshire Forests’ Conservation Center in Concord,” she said. “And we could not take as many vendors as we have in the past. For the last four years we were at the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum in Warner and we were outside and we had about 35 vendors. This year we have some indoor and outdoor space, but we only have 20 vendors at this one.”

According to a schedule of events posted on the Herbal Network’s website, in addition to plant ID walks there will be workshops on aromatic kitchen herbs, oils and mushrooms, herbs used for pain relief, herbs used to fight cancer, plant-based dyes, herbs’ role in gut health, self-sufficiency through food preservation, and more — highlighting the versatility of herbs in different aspects of people’s lives.

Jackson said Herb and Garden Day is a good way to introduce the public to the New Hampshire Herbal Network.

“We do not ask membership dues from any of our members,” she said. “In fact if you want to become a member all you need to do is either subscribe to our newsletter or buy a ticket for Herb and Garden Day and you will become a member. We have other public meetings through the year, but this is our big fundraiser. The money is to go toward paying our teachers and getting guest speakers and things like that.” She encourages people to visit NHHN’s website for more information about this year’s Herb and Garden Day.

Herb and Garden Day
The New Hampshire Herbal Network’s annual Herb and Garden Day will take place Saturday, June 6, at the Forest Society Conservation Center at 54 Portsmouth St. in Concord. Tickets are $35 in advance, or $55 on the day of the event. Visit nhherbalnetwork.org/herbday.

Featured photo: Herb and Garden Day will focus on culinary and medicinal herbs. Courtesy photo.

Local bacon, beer and help

High Hopes Foundation makes NH its focus at Bacon & Beer Festival

The High Hopes Foundation is a nonprofit organization committed to providing life-enhancing assistance that promotes independence, inclusion and fun for New Hampshire’s chronically ill children. According to High Hopes’ Lisa Rourke, for the past decade the answer to getting buy-in from the community has come down to two factors: beer and bacon.

On Saturday, June 6, High Hopes will host its 10th annual NH Bacon & Beer Festival in Manchester’s Arms Park.

“This is really New Hampshire’s premier all-inclusive event,” Rourke said. “It includes all-inclusive tastings of craft brews, cider, seltzer, all-inclusive tastings of the bacon creations we have going on, and live music.” For Rourke, the key term here is “all-inclusive.”

“I’ve done my due diligence,” she said. “I’ve visited other beer fests to see what’s been going on. I’ve always had a great time, but then I’d get hungry and I’ve had to go pay for food. Not here. The general admission ticket prices are $70, but you don’t take out your wallet once you get in. The food is included, the drinks are included, it’s all included.”

“The High Hopes Foundation exists to serve the state of New Hampshire only,” Rourke said, and that is represented in the food and drink at the festival. “There will be more than 20 local restaurants, and food truck vendors participating. There are about 60 local brewers and makers of cider and seltzers. They all come together to support the Foundation and our mission. We award a people’s choice prize for the best bacon sample. It’s fun to see those guys get real creative. Over the years, we’ve come a long way from a bacon jam and now we’re up to dishes like inside-out pork belly and bacon-wrapped dumplings. It’s been really fun to see those guys having fun and getting really competitive with it over the years.”

Rourke said that because one of the organizers’ main priorities is to focus on the attendees’ good time, the restaurants coming up with these bacon dishes never present them to a panel of judges. “It’s all the people’s choice,” she said. “We have about 1,500 attendees [who] come to the event,” and feeding them something great is critical.

“I think food just brings people together,” she said, “and certainly, especially in the Manchester area, there’s some culinary greatness coming out of there. And we’re excited about a lot of the restaurants we have this year, like Campo Enoteca, Stashbox, and Industry East; those guys are just so good at their craft. And they’re really good at ramping up the crowd. They’re just fun people to be around. For all of us, I think it’s more about getting together over great dishes than anything else, and just coming together for the good of the community and having a great time.”

Rourke said the Bacon & Beer Festival has become the unofficial launching point of the food festival season.

“The other thing I like about this festival,” she said, “is we promote it as a kickoff to summer. So you can go sample from 60 different breweries and figure out what they have that’s new and fresh and that you want to bring to the lake with you all summer. We hope. that attendees have a great time, that they feel good about their ticket proceeds going to a nonprofit that supports our state. And we hope that attendees get to experience different vendors within our state and what they have to offer and hopefully remember them and visit them after the festival.”

And that they eat a lot of bacon.

10th Annual NH Bacon & Beer Festival
When: Saturday, June 6, from 1:30 to 5 p.m., with last pours at 4:30 p.m.
Where: Arms Park, 10 Arms St., Manchester
Tickets: General admission tickets cost $70 in advance or $80 at the gate if they are still available. A three-hour session includes continuous 3.5-ounce brew tastings from 60 brewers. More: nhbaconbeer.com

Featured photo: Lucky Pig BBQ. Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 26/06/04

• Manchester farmers market opens for the season: Manchester Farmers’ and Makers’ Market has opened for the season. Wednesdays, 4 to 7 p.m. at Arms Park — the one by the river, with the painted steps. Has your local farmers market opened for the season yet? Let us know at jfladd@hippopress.com.

• Popcorn and pinot: Red River Theatres (11 S. Main St., Concord, 224-4600, redrivertheatres.org) and Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) will host a Sip and Snack party Thursday, June 4, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Theatres. Snack on classic movie concession treats paired with fun, sippable wines and a voucher to a movie of your choice. Each $40 ticket includes four classic movie snacks, four complimentary wines and a glass of bubbly. Visit the Wine on Main website.

• A daze of wine and roses: Lose yourself in an evening of painting, flowers and wine. There will be a Paint & Sip workshop on floral watercolor paintings on Thursday, June 4, at LaBelle Winery Derry (14 Route 111, Derry, 672-9898, labellewinery.com/labelle-winery-derry) from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Paige Lindsey of Paige Lindsey Design will teach you how to paint expressive summer florals while exploring foundational watercolor painting techniques in a relaxed, creative setting. All class materials are provided, and no experience is necessary. Tickets start at $64 through the LaBelle website.

• Rhubarb! The Town of Bennington will hold its Annual Rhubarb Festival on Saturday, June 6, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Sawyer Memorial Park, 148 Route 202. Enjoy a celebration of all things rhubarb. There will be a craft fair, vendors, food trucks, children’s activities, a petting zoo, a story walk, music, plants, baked goods, jams, beverages and more. Visit townofbennington.com/rhubarb-festival.

• Brunch at the winery: Flag Hill Winery (297 N. River Road, Lee, 659-2949, flaghill.com) will hold its first Brunch and Bubbles event of the summer Sunday, June 7, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sparkling Cayuga White is included with your brunch; have fun with a make-your-own-mimosa bar. Tickets are $42.30 through the Flag Hill website.

• Classy but relaxed: Local Street Eats (112 W. Pearl St., Nashua, 402-4435, local-streeteats.com) will host Bubbles and Bumps, an evening of Champagne and caviar with Island Creek Caviar and Moët & Chandon, Wednesday, June 10, at 6 p.m. Guests will explore four distinct varieties, from buttery California white sturgeon to bright Danish trout roe, while sipping perfectly paired Champagne and building their own bites with elevated accompaniments. Tickets are $95 per person through the Local Street Eats website.

• Cupcakes and martinis! The theme of June’s cupcake-and-martini pairing at the Copper Door (15 Leavy Drive, Bedford, 488-2677, or 41 S. Broadway, Salem, 458-2033, copperdoor.com) is mango and coconut. The Mango and Coconut Martini includes coconut tequila, coconut rum, mango juice and pineapple juice with a toasted coconut rim for $14.75. The Mango and Coconut Cupcake is a coconut cupcake with a mango puree filling, coconut frosting, a white chocolate cup, coconut cream drizzle, dried mango and dried coconut flakes for $12.

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