Author: Mya Blanchard

In the kitchen with Kerry Fay

Originally from the Detroit area, Kerry Fay, owner of Kerry’s Culinary Creations & Curb Appeal Meals Food Truck, moved to New Hampshire to attend the former Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts at McIntosh in Dover. After further schooling and internship opportunities in Italy and working off the coast of Maine, she returned to New Hampshire, and has since called Salem home. Seven years ago she started her food truck, figuring she could go to where the people are instead of waiting for them to come to her as would be the case with a traditional restaurant. While the menu is always changing, tacos, sliders and paninis are usually served.

What is your must-have kitchen item?
Definitely the chef’s knife. Aside from your hands it’s your No.1 tool. There’s a chef instructor who used to say the best tools in the kitchen are your two hands but after that comes your chef’s knife for sure.

What would you have for your last meal?
Authentic carbonara or maybe some duck confit with mashed potatoes.

What is your favorite local eatery?
It depends on what I’m hungry for. … If I want sushi I like Wasabi, which is in Salem, if I want Indian food I like Kashmir, which is also in Salem. I’m also a huge fan of Street in Portsmouth.

Name a celebrity you would like to see eating in your restaurant?
Anthony Bourdain would have been fun but he’s not with us anymore, so I’d probably go with Alton Brown.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?
The slow-roasted pulled pork, which I make into a taco or I add on top of fries or nacho fries or sometimes I [make] a Cuban panini with it.

What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?
I think probably [the] focus on plant-based [food] is pretty popular right now and seems to be the trend. When I have a fried avocado on my menu … or a falafel wrap [those are] … really popular. Farm to table is pretty popular around here [too].

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?
I like to cook slow and low at home, so things like short ribs and collard greens and corned beef. I also really like doing pasta because I can pretty much make a meal with pasta out of almost anything.

Chipotle Aioli
From the kitchen of Kerry Fay.

1 quart mayonnaise
Half of a 7.5-ounce can of chipotle peppers in adobo with some of the sauce (if you like spicier food, use the whole can)
1 teaspoon dry cilantro or 1 Tablespoon fresh chopped
1 Tablespoon sugar

Put half the mayo in the bowl of a food processor, then add the chipotle in adobo. Process on high for two minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula every 30 seconds until no large chunks of pepper remain. Add the cilantro and the sugar and process for another minute scraping down the bowl halfway through. In a mixing bowl, put the remainder of the mayo and then add the contents of the food processor bowl. Whisk the mixture until fully incorporated. It will be a light orange color with no light or dark streaks running through it.
Use as a dip for fries or veggies, serve on tacos, sandwiches, avocado toast etc.

Wags to Whiskers

Humane Society’s annual festival returns

On Saturday, Sept. 16, humans and canines alike will gather by the thousands at Anheuser-Busch in Merrimack for the largest pet dog event in New England, the Humane Society for Greater Nashua’s annual Wags to Whiskers Festival. The money raised will support the animals at the shelter.
“[It’s] one of the largest community events that the shelter hosts,” said Olivia Echteler, the director of community engagement at the shelter. “Basically it’s just an afternoon of dog-friendly family fun. People of all ages would benefit from this event. There’s plenty to do.”

Of all the activities at the festival, including raffles, games, vendors, demonstrations and food from stands and trucks such as The Traveling Foodie food truck and Ben & Jerry’s, the most popular, according to Echteler, is the adoption tent.

“When [people] find out that we have the adoption tent, that’s the first thing they want to go to when they arrive at the festival,” she said. “We typically have a line forming at that tent right as we open up the festival.”
The Humane Society for Greater Nashua works with transport companies from Arkansas and other southern states that bring puppies of various breeds up from overcrowded shelters, Echteler said. Prior to the festival, the staff spends time with the puppies and performs medical and behavioral exams.

“We want to make sure, of course, the dogs are ready to be adopted out and that they’re healthy and that emotionally they’re all set to go with their new families,” she said.

Last year, all of the puppies, around 20, were adopted. About the same number is expected this year. Two tents will be set up, one where the puppies will be, and another where people can go to fill out applications. If they are a good fit, they can get their picture taken with their new addition and take them home that same day.

In addition to the adoption tent, the Merrimack police department will bring their dog, Drei, who will demonstrate commands, and the Granite State Disc Dogs will return to show off their tricks. Attending dogs can join in the fun too and try out the lure course provided by Good Mojo Dog Manor, who is one of the vendors this year. Others include Paws and Spas Boutique, Gunther’s Goodies, Point and Shoot Photography and Stitch N Stick Boutique. There will also be a raffle where you could win a gift basket filled with dog toys, beds and food dishes, a wine basket or a Yankee Candle holiday basket. Multiple organizations have donated gift cards, like Pet Supplies Plus in Nashua, Starbucks and Bahama Breeze, that you could win as well.

“We’re also planning on doing … something to honor our alumni,” Echteler said. “We have a lot of people come to this event with dogs that they’ve adopted from our shelter in the past, and we usually either have an alumni bandana, a badge or a little name tag that indicates that that dog was a previous Humane Society pup. We get a lot of people who will send us updates on their alumni and usually we will post those up on our social media pages, but it’s just nice to of course meet those previous adopters in person again and see how their dogs are doing.”

Wags to Whiskers Festival
When: Saturday, Sept. 16, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: Anheuser-Busch, 221 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack
Cost: $15 for adults 21 and older (includes one free beer), $12 for ages 17 through 20, free for those 16 and under. Purchase tickets at hsfn.org.

In the kitchen with Heidi Piotrowicz

Heidi Piotrowicz created 603 Perfect Blend, a loose-leaf tea and spice company, two years ago with her husband, John, when they wanted to find healthy alternatives to soda and sugary drinks for their three kids, who also have roles in the business. They started by offering 15 teas and have expanded to more than 40 different tea blends, flavored sugars, rubs and spice blends. The blends change depending on the season but include flavors like alpine apricot tea, classical creme brulee tea, ginger snap and apple fritter sugar. You can find them at the Milford, Bedford, Candia, Hooksett and Church Street (Deerfield) farmers markets. They will also be at the Deerfield Fair from Thursday, Sept. 28, through Sunday, Oct. 1.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

Our must-have kitchen item is our glass mason jar steeping pitcher for hot and iced tea. We love to cold-steep iced tea and you can always find several of these pitchers steeping in our refrigerator.

What would you have for your last meal?

A nice rib-eye steak with Big Fripp Coffee Rub and fresh pasta with our Italian Pesto Blend Seasoning served with a big glass of sangria.

What is your favorite local eatery?

We are a huge breakfast family and hands-down Tucker’s is our favorite local restaurant to visit for breakfast. When we travel we always find ourselves comparing other breakfasts to them.

Name a celebrity you would like to see trying your blends?

Martha Stewart and of course Snoop Dogg. We would love to serve them up some tea-inspired cocktails and a sangria using Snoop Dogg’s wine.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?

Our family’s favorite tea blend is Wicked Pissah Supa Tea, which has notes of acai, elderberry and blackberry. This tea is delicious both hot and iced, but we prefer it as iced tea.

What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?

In the tea industry, boba has become a huge trend alongside the popularity of mocktails.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

John is the cook in our family. When we’re not at an event or market, he loves to make big pots of chili and comfort foods. He has an award-winning chili recipe from our chili cook-off days that is unique and very delicious.

603 Perfect Blend White Tea Sangria
From the kitchen of 603 Perfect Blend

4 Tablespoons loose-leaf white tea
4 cups boiling water or cold water
1 bottle white wine (750 ml)
2 cups white grape or white cranberry juice
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

In a teapot or mason jar, cover the tea leaves with 4 cups of boiling water and steep for 4 to 7 minutes. Strain tea leaves and let tea cool. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
OR
Cover tea leaves with 4 cups of cold water and steep in the refrigerator overnight. Strain out tea leaves or remove tea steeper.
Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher. Add the fruit of your choice. Chill in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours to let all the flavors combine. Serve over ice and add fruit from the sangria for garnish.

Food truck Fridays

Intown Concord sponsors food trucks for First Friday

This past May, Intown Concord started a new tradition with First Friday. On the first Friday of every month, businesses in downtown Concord are encouraged to stay open until 8 p.m. or later. Each month, Intown Concord sponsors one food truck to attend, previously Wicked Tasty Food Truck and The Sleazy Vegan. Next up, on Friday, Sept. 1, is One Happy Clam.

“In the past, people have made comments about Concord closing up early and how there wasn’t much to do in the evening here, so we thought to focus on an effort to get the businesses to do something special once a month to encourage people to come downtown,” said Jessica Martin, the executive director for Intown Concord. “We have been sponsoring a food truck to come … and we’re hoping long-term that more food trucks will come down.”

Derry native Rick Metts, who has been in the restaurant business for 50 years, established One Happy Clam in September 2021. He started out at McDonald’s in 1974 and worked there through high school and into college. Twelve years later Metts, along with a friend, bought Clam Haven in Derry, where he worked for 33 years along with his wife, daughters and grandson.

“I had always dreamed of owning a diner, and the food truck craze was starting [around] 2015, 2016, so I put that in the back of my mind to maybe pursue when I got out of Clam Haven,” Metts said.

In 2020 when he sold the restaurant, that’s exactly what he did with his wife, daughters and grandchildren. He bought a pre-built truck in August 2021, bought and sold the necessary equipment, and a month later, One Happy Clam was on the road. Along with seafood, they also serve hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches and more. Due to his time at Clam Haven, he already had a reputation in the community.

“They knew what we served at the restaurant, so I try to use the same suppliers and the same menu items,” he said. “There’s a consistency, so they know if it’s me this is what they’re going to get.”

Unable to attend First Friday in July because the truck needed a new transmission, Metts is eager to be involved in September.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “It’s a little different market. They don’t know who I am up there, some might, most don’t, so we get a chance to make a good first impression.”

Martin says there’s been a great response from the downtown businesses, Gibson’s Bookstore, Homebody and Achromatic being among the ones that have taken part in the later hours.

Revelstoke has been having a DJ, Wine on Main has done a free wine tasting and Spruce Home has even given out free iced coffee and doughnuts.

“It’s been a little bit of a slow burn but we’re gaining momentum,” Martin said. “We’re trying to put some sort of musical act near the food truck so it’s kind of a nice vibe, people get their food, they can sit there and eat and listen to some entertainment at the same time.”

First Friday
When: The first Friday of every month. The next event is Friday, Sept. 1
Where: Downtown Concord
Cost: Free
This month’s First Friday is being billed as “Dogapalooza” highlighting the dog-friendly nature of downtown, according to an Intown newsletter which include a list of businesses that allow dogs either inside the business or outside leashed as well as which businesses offer treats or water.
Also this Ryan Deachman (pictured bottom right) from 6 to 7 p.m. at Bicentennial Square.

Featured photo:Courtesy photo.

All things extraterrestrial

Annual UFO Festival celebrates the “Incident at Exeter”

It has been 58 years since the Incident at Exeter, when 18-year-old Norman Muscarello saw an unidentified flying object, described as being about the size of the car with flashing red lights, on his way home one night in Kensington. The incident has been celebrated for the past 14 years with the annual Exeter UFO Festival. This year’s event will be held from Saturday, Sept. 2, to Sunday, Sept. 3.

The Exeter Kiwanis Club took over the event as a fundraiser from Dean Merchant in 2014, according to Bob Cox, the president of the organization. All of the profits go to children’s charities and programs and community programs.

“At the time it was only speaking events,” Cox said. “We took [it] on and expanded it to include the whole family [with] arts and crafts and food. … Each year we keep growing.”

Among the 10 speakers at the town hall will be award-winning documentary filmmaker Jennifer Stein, who will give her presentation on Sunday. She is involved with the Mutual UFO Network in Pennsylvania and Arizona, and has been in the UFO field for 25 years. This year Stein will take her audience on a virtual journey through the Sacred Valley of Peru, focusing on Cusco, Sacsayhuaman, Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu, where, she says, some of the most interesting and significant megalithic architecture exists.

“Ollantaytambo is a megalithic site that sits high up on top of a plateau … and it shows huge megalithic blocks of stone that really defy explanation of how they got there,” Stein said. “On the underside where they are not eroded by sun and weather, some of them have smooth granite blocks. They’re huge, as big as semi trucks. How the heck did they get there and who put them there and why?”

Another mystery is the nazca lines in southern Peru. These massive illustrations seem to depict monkeys, humans, lizards and scorpions among other images that can only be fully viewed from an aerial perspective.

“Many people think that it would be impossible for us to build them and they kind of say maybe an earlier culture that wasn’t from Earth built them,” she said. “Erich von Daniken was one of the first people to bring attention to the amazing enigmas of Peru … and [to] coin the phrase ‘ancient aliens.’ … He claimed in his [1968] book, Chariots of the Gods? that these things had to be built by a culture that had aerial abilities.”

Other speakers include paranormal researcher and investigator Mike Stevens, paranormal adventurers and authors Paul and Ben Eno, and ufologist Peter Robbins.

Other happenings include kids’ activities such as face painting and rock painting, an alien costume and alien pet parade contest, a souvenir shop, an opportunity to meet the speakers, food concessions, and trolley rides to the site of the incident.

“One of the favorite things for the kids and the Exeter community are those trolley rides,” Cox said. “Last year we had only one trolley … and they made four or five trips. It was so popular, we got a lot of feedback that we should have more this year, so we’re having two trolleys on Saturday and one trolley on Sunday to try to respond to their interests and requests, so that’s a big growth [opportunity] for the festival.”

Exeter UFO Festival

Meet the speakers
Where: Hampton Inn & Suites Exeter, 59 Portsmouth Ave., Exeter
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Cost: $25

UFO Festival souvenir shop
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 8 a.m. to Sunday, Sept. 3, 4 p.m.
Where: Exeter Town Hall, 10 Front St., Exeter
Cost: varies

Town Hall speaker series
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
Sunday, Sept 3., 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Exeter Town Hall, 10 Front St., Exeter
Cost: $35 for both days (no single-day pricing)

Food & refreshments
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 9 a.m. to Sunday, Sept. 3, 4 p.m.
Where: tent by the bandstand
Cost: varies

Trolley ride to the “Incident at Exeter” site
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 3, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: Trolley leaves from 10 Front St. and goes to incident site 5 miles south in Kensington
Cost: $5

Kids’ activities
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 10 a.m. to Sunday, Sept 3, 2 p.m.
Where: Town House Common Park, corner of Front St. and Court St.
Cost: Free

Alien costume & alien pet parade and contest
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, noon to 12:30 p.m.
Where: Town House Common Park, corner of Front and Court streets
Cost: Free

In the kitchen with Amanda Baril

Amanda Baril is the owner of NH Doughnut Co., a small family-run doughnut shop with locations in Concord and Bedford. The company, which Baril started in 2018, serves yeast and cake doughnuts made fresh each morning. While the menu rotates monthly, the doughnuts come in a wide variety of flavors like guava cheesecake, blueberry lemonade and honey dipped glazed. They also offer other baked goods like French crullers, with flavors like key lime pie and toasted coconut, apple fritters, as well as vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free options. You can find them at the Concord farmers market on Saturday mornings.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

Scissors. I like to keep at least six hanging around since they seem to disappear.

What would you have for your last meal?

Mashed potatoes. Last meal, every meal, give me all the potatoes.

What is your favorite local eatery?

This is a toss-up between Cotton and Mangia Italian Restaurant.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?

Definitely the French crullers.

What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?

I know I am biased, but doughnuts are hot right now. They are popping up everywhere, including restaurant dessert menus and pairing events.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

Shepherd’s pie.

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