Gov. Chris Sununu submitted a letter to the members of the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee on Nov. 18, urging the acceptance and expenditure of $40 million for the Broadband Connect Program, according to a press release. In the letter, Sununu states that the program is “absolutely critical” for New Hampshire to retain and attract workforce, businesses, telehealth and other investments, and that broadband is necessary for access to health care, education and mental health services. “Delay of this authorization until 2023 puts extreme risk into our ability as a state to fulfill the promise to our constituents of high speed and affordable broadband in our most vulnerable areas,” Sununu wrote. “I ask that you support the citizens who are counting on this broadband item today.” The Committee approved a similar proposal for $50 million in July, providing 23,000 New Hampshire locations with access to high-speed, reliable internet.
Help for energy costs
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, along with U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan and U.S. Reps. Annie Kuster and Chris Pappas, have submitted a letter to the Department of Energy urging the acceleration of distribution of federal funds and programs under the bipartisan infrastructure law and Inflation Reduction Act to help cut energy costs for New Hampshire residents and to reduce the demand for fossil fuels. “As we enter into the winter months, we write to highlight specific challenges New Hampshire faces as global events continue to stoke volatility in oil and natural gas markets that in turn impact home heating costs and electricity prices for our constituents,” the letter stated. According to a press release, the delegation also called for preparation to use emergency authorities if warranted, and for the Department to work with federal agencies, industry fuel suppliers, utilities, grid operators, the State and other stakeholders to ensure that the energy infrastructure in place will be sustainable amid potential severe weather conditions this winter. The request follows an announcement made by the delegation earlier this month of the approval of $33.9 million in federal funding to support the Low Income Home Energy Assistance program (LIHEAP), which funds New Hampshire’s Fuel Assistance Program and helps low-income households pay their home heating and energy bills and other related expenses.
Decreased enrollment
The New Hampshire Department of Education announced that student enrollment in the state’s K-12 public schools is down by about 1 percent from last year. According to a press release, there are currently 161,755 students enrolled in New Hampshire public schools for the fall of 2022, compared to 163,600 students enrolled in 2021, and 163,288 students enrolled in 2020. Pre-pandemic, in 2019, student enrollment was at 171,866. Frank Edelblut, commissioner of education, said in the release that New Hampshire’s birth rate, which is currently the second lowest in the country at 8.8 per 1,000 population, along with an aging population, are contributing factors. “For the past two decades, student enrollment in New Hampshire has experienced a steady decline,” he said. “It is important for school leaders to understand how declining enrollment numbers may be impacting their districts and how to plan accordingly for the future.”
Child care policy
The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services has announced a new policy effective Dec. 15 in which new hires in child care will not be permitted to start work until their background checks are complete — a process that can take six weeks or longer — NHPR reported. Under the current policy, employers can apply for a waiver from DHHS allowing new hires to start work immediately under the condition that they are not left alone with children until their background checks are completed. According to the article, the consensus among child care employers is that the new policy will make hiring a struggle, and that weeks-long job vacancies will be detrimental to their operations. DHHS stated that the waivers put them at risk of noncompliance with federal rules regarding child care workers and background checks, which could cost them a $700,000 penalty.
Fish & Game dispatch
New Hampshire Fish and Game Dispatch will be administered by New Hampshire State Police Dispatch within the New Hampshire Department of Safety, effective Nov. 25. According to a press release, the State Police Dispatch will relay calls to Fish and Game Conservation Officers. “For the past year or so, after-hours calls to our dispatch number have been handled by State Police, but this change will make it permanent and it will now be effective 24/7/365,” NH Fish and Game Law Enforcement Division Chief Colonel Kevin Jordan said in the release. The number currently used for Fish and Game Dispatch, 603-271-3361, will remain the same.
FEMA Funds
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded nearly $9 million to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services to reimburse the state for the cost of providing Covid tests to the public. According to a press release, DHHA had contracted with Clear ChoiceMD to offer free testing seven days a week at Clear ChoiceMD Urgent Care facilities in Belmont, Lincoln and Keene between December 2021 and March 2022. A total of 56,616 tests were administered during that period. FEMA has awarded more than $181 million in assistance to New Hampshire to reimburse the state for pandemic-related expenses, the release said.
School credit programs
Three new programs have been approved for New Hampshire’s Learn Everywhere program, an alternative pathway for students to earn high school credit. According to a press release, the programs include Spanish NVivo, which provides access to Spanish language acquisition opportunities; EnCube Labs, which will be supplemented with the existing Zero2Maker and Zero2Entrepreneur programs to help students learn through applied STEM while also building venture-launching skills; and FitMoney, a free financial literacy program. Launched in 2018, Learn Everywhere now offers 15 programs for New Hampshire students to earn credit outside of the classroom.
Winter parking rules begin in Manchester on Thursday, Dec. 1, with even-odd parking on one side of the street only (even during even-numbered calendar months, so in December for example; odd during odd-numbered months, like January), from 1 to 6 a.m. through April 15. All vehicles must be off streets during snow emergencies. See manchesternh.gov.
The Dover Public Library will host a lecture on Indigenous land stewardship on Monday, Nov. 28, at 6:30 p.m. billed as “Celebrate N’Dakinna and the Life of Indigenous People on the Cocheco.” The presentation is in-person with a virtual viewing option. Call 516-6050 or go to library.dover.nh.gov to register.
The BJ Cirnigliaro Memorial Fund of Absolute Title (which has offices in Bedford, Concord and Portsmouth) donated a total of $20,000 to five local organizations: Families in Transition, Southern New Hampshire Services, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention – New Hampshire Chapter, Gather and Waypoint, according to a press release.
Few acts usher in the holiday season quite like Trans-Siberian Orchestra, with its Christmas cocktail of classic rock, classical music and theatrical flourish topped with lasers and smoke bombs. Fans set their calendars by them, gathering families to take in a show that gets bigger and better each year.
For their stop in Manchester on the day after Thanksgiving, TSO will reprise the rock opera that put them on the map, The Ghosts of Christmas Eve. Originally a 1999 television special, it offers traditional songs such as “O Come All Ye Faithful” and originals including “Music Box Blues” and “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24),” the latter the template for the massive band that’s captivated audiences for over 25 years.
Recent times have been challenging. In 2017, visionary founder Paul O’Neill died, but at the behest of his widow Desi and other family members TSO carried on. Three years later, the pandemic sidelined them from playing live; instead they did a virtual pay per view show that was a far cry from their epic arena firepower.
“It was as strange for the band members as it was for the fans,” drummer Jeff Plate said of the lost year in a recent phone interview. Returning to the stage in 2021, he had “a whole new appreciation for wow, we are so lucky to do what we do. But we were also in the bubble; we were anxious, there was this anxiety … I was so relieved when we got done.”
Breathing easier this time around, the group is focused on keeping O’Neill’s vision going, a task that in the days after his death seemed overwhelming.
“When we lost Paul, I’ll be honest with you,” Plate recalled, “there was a moment when I sat down on the couch with my wife and said, ‘maybe that’s it’ … none of us were really sure what was going to happen.”
However, it soon became clear that continuing was “exactly what Paul would want us to do … he had said many times, ‘It’s going to outlive us all, we’re going to pass this on from generation to generation.’ The reality is, TSO has become a tradition. That’s a pretty heavy statement, but it’s true…. Some people can’t even function until they see TSO to get their holidays going.”
Moving forward was also helped by the fact that TSO is a well-oiled touring machine, with separate East and West Coast runs. Each has its own cast, crew and semi-truck fleet.
“We’ve been operating like that since the year 2000,” Plate said. “Losing Paul was huge, but everybody knew the job at hand and just how much more focused we needed to be…. There’s no way to make these tours as good as they are, and as successful as they are, without that kind of commitment.”
Plate first worked with O’Neill in Savatage, the band that spawned TSO, on their 1995 album Dead Winter Dead. “It was a really interesting time, because the band had changed so much and Paul’s gears were turning all the time,” Plate recalled. At first, no one knew what to make of the “Carol of the Bells” meets Emerson, Lake & Palmer track “Sarajevo,” which would reappear on the first TSO album, Christmas Eve and Other Stories.
“We were all questioning, what was Paul thinking, putting this song on this record, but there was no denying how great the final version was,” Plate said. “To see that song take off in a completely different direction and all of a sudden become this huge hit, it was like, you know, Paul could see down the road further than the rest of us.”
Once again, the upcoming show will be divided into two acts, starting with Ghosts of Christmas Eve stitched together with narration, followed by a greatest hits segment. “This is a fan favorite, and it’s a band favorite too,” Plate said, “one of my favorite shows to play. It’s high energy, with a really good vibe to the whole thing.”
As the interview ended, Plate made sure to make a note of another TSO tradition: donating a dollar from every ticket sold to a local charity. It came with another nod to their founder’s family. “Over $16 million we’ve donated across the country all these years,” he said. “It could have easily gone away when we lost Paul, but his wife and daughter really stepped up. … We can’t thank Paul enough for everything that he’s done, but his family has also been very, very critical to all that too.”
Trans-Siberian Orchestra – The Ghosts of Christmas Eve When: Friday, Nov. 25, 3 and 7:30 p.m. Where: SNHU Arena, 555 Elm St., Manchester More: $52.50 to $102.50 at snhuarena.com
Featured photo: Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Courtesy photo.
Marvel says goodbye to Chadwick Boseman, his T’Challa and his version of Black Panther while expanding the ideas of Wakanda and its place in the world in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, a lovely, complex entry in the more thoughtful side of the MCU.
The movie opens on a desperate Shuri (Letitia Wright), sister to King T’Challa and Wakanda’s scientific genius, trying to save an off-screen T’Challa who is dying from illness. His death seems to not only shake her emotionally but sever some connection to her culture and family’s sense of spirituality. She sinks into extreme rationality and guilt about not being able to cure her brother.
We jump forward a year, when Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) has become Wakanda’s leader. With T’Challa dead and the country’s Black Panther protector gone (the flowers that make new Black Panthers were destroyed by Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger in the first movie), Ramonda has to fight off international attempts to obtain the country’s all-powerful element, vibranium. At the United Nations, Ramonda endures the insincere disappointment by Western countries who want Wakanda to willingly share (or just give up) their vibranium — while at the same time those countries try to steal vibranium via military raids.
Plan B when Wakanda’s Dora Milaje (the country’s army of female warriors) prove to be more than equal to fighting off those raids is for Western nations to find their own vibranium elsewhere. A machine designed by Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), the Shuri-level genius who is still a college student in Boston, looks for vibranium in the oceans — and finds it in the Atlantic. But much like other things “discovered” by Western nations, this vibranium has been long claimed by another nation.
K’uk’ulkan, also called Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía), is the king of a people who live in Talokan, a nation under the ocean. Once living in Central America, the Talokanian ancestors escaped the colonizing Spanish and their diseases with the help of a plant that, similar to the flower Wakanda used for Black Panthers, offered extraordinary strength and an ability to live under the water. The people moved into the sea where their vibranium-dependent city has kept them safe for centuries. But now that the wider world knows about vibranium and its potential, Talokan is at risk and Namor blames Wakanda and T’Challa’s push for openness.
I like how this movie can be both about T’Challa and the grief over his (and Boseman’s) loss and about the unintended consequences of his response to Killmonger’s argument that the prosperous and powerful Wakanda owes something to the oppressed elsewhere in the world. Like Wakanda before the first movie, Talokan has chosen to hide its power from the rest of the world in response to colonialism and theft of resources. But Wakanda’s openness has made Talokan vulnerable. Does this make them natural allies, natural enemies or something else? I rewatched a bit of 2018’s Black Panther and that movie has a well-defined purpose and clarity of mission that this movie doesn’t. But this movie’s murkiness largely works, as some of the questions here are just messier and the overall story feels more contemplative.
Of course, we get great performances all the way around — including from returning players Danai Gueria, as the badass Dora Milaje general; Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, who has been working as a school headmistress in Haiti, and Winston Duke as M’Baku, the leader of a Wakandan tribe. Bassett and Wright do an excellent job of giving us the weight of grief — a weight they each carry in a different way. Mejía offers a nuanced Namor — not a villain but not a saint either. The movie’s actual villains — represented by someone who I guess is one of the Disney+ Marvel TV show characters (it’s hard to keep up) — are the predatory U.S. and European powers and their plans for vibranium, which don’t seem great based on the CIA director’s near cackled “I dream about it,” a response to the question of what the U.S. would do if it had vibranium.
Namor isn’t quite the electrifying antagonist Killmonger was and, though cool, the watery Mesoamerican wonderland of Talokan isn’t quite as thrilling as the Afro-futurism of Wakanda (as with Aquaman’s Atlantis in the DC universe, making bright and majestic-looking stuff under water is just tough). And, despite its two-hour-and-41-minute runtime, there is a slight “sudden stop” quality to the movie’s final conflict (perhaps because of the nature of “the true villain is colonialism”). Wakanda Forever is nevertheless a deeply touching movie that holds your attention with enough Dora Milaje fighting action to add some pep. A-
Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, action and some language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Ryan Coogler with a screenplay by Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is two hours and 41 minutes long and is distributed in theaters by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Television chef Mary Ann Esposito presents new cookbook
Chef and University of New Hampshire graduate Mary Ann Esposito isn’t just the host of the longest-running television cooking show in America — she’s also the author of more than a dozen cookbooks, each meant to tie into her series in some way. Ciao Italia: Plant, Harvest, Cook!, her latest book, scheduled for a Nov. 15 release, continues that theme by focusing on the home vegetable garden, with easy-to-follow planting advice and more than 100 recipes.
Following an exclusive book launch event at The Music Hall Lounge in Portsmouth on release day, Esposito will hold signings and Q&A sessions at Water Street Bookstore in Exeter on Thursday, Nov. 17, and at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord on Friday, Nov. 18. She’s also scheduled to hold a signing at Tuscan Market in Salem on Saturday, Dec. 10 — there, she’ll be accompanied by Tuscan Brands wine director Joseph Comforti for a special wine tasting.
Esposito is the host of the PBS series Ciao Italia with Mary Ann Esposito, which debuted in 1989. Its 30th season — the first to be filmed in front of a live audience, at Tuscan Village’s Scuola Culinaria — recently wrapped up production and is currently airing.
Her 13th book overall, Ciao Italia: Plant, Harvest, Cook! took Esposito about two years to write, dating back to the early months of the pandemic when Ciao Italia had to suspend production.
“I wanted it to be a dual-purpose book,” she said. “It’s not only a cookbook with all of these wonderful vegetables, but it’s also a simple primer gardening book for anybody who wants to start a garden. But you absolutely do not have to have a garden in order to use this book.”
Esposito divides the book into two sections. The first focuses on cool-weather crops of an early spring garden, such as lettuce, peas, radishes and spinach; that’s followed by a section devoted to summer garden vegetables, from tomatoes and eggplant to peppers, zucchini and others that need heat. Recipes incorporating vegetables in all kinds of traditional Italian dishes are also featured.
“The tomato is the king of the garden, so obviously I have lots of tomato recipes … including, of course, eggplant Parmesan with fresh tomatoes,” Esposito said. “There’s a wonderful recipe for my mother’s upside-down stuffed peppers … and then there’s my Nonna Galasso’s simple tomato sauce. … One of the other recipes I really like is the giardiniera, which translates to pickled vegetables. Any vegetable like carrots, green beans and broccoli will work for pickling.” Recipes, she said, cover every category from antipasti, soups and salads to garden vegetables and herbs added as ingredients in meats, fish, pastas, casseroles and even some desserts.
“I have a raspberry thyme tart using fresh thyme from the garden that’s really good,” she said. “There’s also a cake that is made with the leaves of the rose geranium plant, minced and put into the batter. There are whole leaves that line the pan first before you put the batter in, so that when you turn the cake out you’ve got this beautiful-looking cake embedded with those leaves.”
Esposito said she likes to treat each book signing and Q&A session as though she is having a conversation at someone’s kitchen table. During the Nov. 18 event at Gibson’s Bookstore, she said, her husband Guy — who is also Ciao Italia’s head gardener — will join her.
“Everything I know about vegetable gardening, I learned from him, so he’ll be coming along to probably answer some questions that I might not be able to answer,” she said.
Meet Mary Ann Esposito Mary Ann Esposito presents Ciao Italia: Plant, Harvest, Cook! Visit ciaoitalia.com.
• Thurs., Nov. 17, 7 p.m.: Water Street Bookstore, 125 Water St., Exeter (visit waterstreetbooks.com or call 778-9731) • Fri., Nov. 18, 6:30 p.m.: Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., Concord (visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562) • Sat., Dec. 10, 11 a.m.: Tuscan Market at Tuscan Village, 9 Via Toscana, Salem (event will also include a wine tasting with Tuscan Market wine director Joe Comforti; visit tuscanbrands.com or call 912-5467)
Three-squash soup with orzo Courtesy of Mary Ann Esposito; taken from her book Ciao Italia: Plant, Harvest, Cook! (makes 1 ½ quarts)
Photo by John W. Hession.
1 2-pound spaghetti squash, cut in half, seeded and cut in half again 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter 2 large leeks (white part only), cut in half lengthwise, then cut crosswise into ¼-inch to ½-inch moons (about 2 cups) 2 cups large-diced zucchini 2 cups large-diced butternut squash 4 cups tomato juice 1 cup hot water 3½ teaspoons salt, or to taste ¾ cup orzo, ditalini or other small soup pasta 6 to 8 fresh basil leaves, minced
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the spaghetti squash quarters cut-side down in a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking dish. Pour in about ¼ inch of water. Cover with aluminum foil and bake until the squash is very soft (about 30 minutes). When it’s cool enough to handle, scoop the pulp from the shells and transfer it to a food processor or blender. Puree the squash (in batches if necessary) until smooth — there should be about 1½ cups of puree. Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use (it can be prepared a day or two ahead if needed). While the squash is baking, melt the butter in a large pot over low heat. Add the leeks, cover and cook for three minutes, stirring a few times. Add the zucchini and butternut squash and stir to evenly mix the vegetables. Cover the pot and cook until the vegetables are cooked through but still retain their shape (about 12 minutes). Stir in the tomato juice, hot water, pureed squash and two teaspoons of the salt. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, bring a small saucepan of water to a boil, stir in the remaining 1½ teaspoons of salt and the orzo, and cook until the orzo is al dente (about 10 minutes). Drain well, then stir the orzo into the soup. Stir in the basil and serve. (Note: spaghetti squash can be cooked in a microwave oven on high power for five to six minutes per pound. Be sure to pierce the rind before microwaving).
Featured photo: Mary Ann Esposito. Photo by John W. Hession..
What makes up the perfect Thanksgiving feast? Is it traditional roasted turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gelatinous canned cranberry sauce? But what if you don’t like turkey (or don’t eat meat altogether)? Pumpkin pie is delicious (agrees not everybody) but are there more crowd-pleasing options?
We asked local livestock farmers, butchers, restaurateurs, chefs and bakers to debate some of the key components of the standard Thanksgiving feast and provide tips and recipes into their idea of the best Thanksgiving dishes.
The main event
Turkey or non-turkey — what’s your pleasure?
By Matt Ingersoll
mingersoll@hippopress.com
Turkey is the pièce de résistance of the Thanksgiving feast for many — after all, there are so many different ways to prepare the bird, from the traditional method of oven-roasting to simple grilling, spatchcocking, smoking and even deep-frying. The type of turkey you are using, whether it’s a broad-breasted bird or a heritage breed, also plays into how you prepare it.
Karina Allayne of Greetwist Acres in New Boston usually fills orders for both types of turkey. She said broad-breasted turkeys are more likely what you’ll find at the grocery store or major commercial outlet, and are bred to produce much larger breasts — thus, a bird with more meat.
“Broad-breasted [turkeys] are very popular because they clean up really nice … [and] the skin is all white and pretty-looking,” Allayne said. “So, a person might say, ‘You know what, I love broad-breasted because we get a lot of meat on it,’ and that’s what they’re into. … The heritage breeds, those are more closely related to the wild ancestors. There’s not as much meat, [but] a lot of people also feel that heritage … has more flavor, which I agree. Also, there may be an issue in terms of [people saying] ‘Do I want to eat a bird that was only being produced to get fat and die within a year or two’s time,’ because broad-breasted do not usually live past the age of 2.”
When it comes to cooking turkey, Allayne said she now prefers to throw hers on the grill for Thanksgiving after previously preparing it in her home kitchen oven.
“We popped it in the grill one year and it was the best-tasting turkey I’ve ever had, and so from that point on I always grill my turkey,” she said. “[We] cook it somewhere between 350 and 400 [degrees] and then basically it just becomes its own little oven outside.”
Shelley Morley of Mt. Dearborn Farm in Weare similarly likes to grill her turkey, noting that it saves precious oven space in her kitchen for any accompanying side dishes. Last Thanksgiving, she decided to try spatchcocking her turkey, which proved to be, as she said, a “game changer.”
“[Spatchcocking is] when you remove the spine and then flatten the bird, so it cooks more evenly,” she said. “I didn’t even know about spatchcocking until two or three years ago and, of course, with Thanksgiving you always want everything to be perfect. … So last year, there were only five of us, and so I said, ‘Why don’t I try something different,’ when the stakes weren’t as high. I’m going to do it again this year because it just came out so well.”
Non-turkey meat alternatives
Thanksgiving chicken. Photo courtesy of Karina Allayne of Greentwist Acres in New Boston.
What if you don’t like turkey, or you simply just don’t have the sizable crowd coming over this year to help you finish such a large bird? Both Allayne and Morley will often find themselves selling chickens to customers for Thanksgiving, and Allayne even also sells duck.
“It might just be two people that are getting together, and it’s really hard to find a turkey that is small enough for two people,” Allayne said, “so they’ll order maybe a large roasting chicken. … I do actually sell quite a bit of duck, too, because people want something small, but special.”
As duck meat tends to be fattier, Allayne said it ought to be cooked at a lower temperature for a longer period of time. Duck fat can also be rendered for use in cooking potatoes, she added.
Rob Darling of Concord Beef & Seafood, a premium butcher and fish market on South Main Street, said that while they do regularly sell farm-fresh turkeys around Thanksgiving, he does also end up selling a small amount of spiral-cut hams, as well as prime rib or tenderloin roasts.
“I mean, a roast is a 45-minute to an hour cook, so it’s a lot more manageable [than a turkey],” Darling said. “Beef also has a lot more flavor than turkey, in my opinion, whereas I feel like turkey is pretty much the tradition for Thanksgiving, which is why people have it.”
If you’re cooking a roast, Darling recommends using a meat thermometer to ensure it comes out perfect. For beef specifically, he likes to season with rosemary and garlic powder, in addition to some salt and pepper, to allow the flavor to come through in the meat.
“Beef is actually a lot easier to cook than, say, a pork roast, or even turkey, just because it’s not as lean,” he said. “If you’re cooking something so lean and you overcook it, it’s going to be dry.”
As the shop also does tailor most of its focus to appetizers, Darling said Thanksgiving is also one of the more popular holidays for items like shrimp cocktail, bacon-wrapped scallops and bacon-wrapped tenderloin bites, in addition to some cheeses and meats for platters.
“I think people are just looking for something they can put out and not have to think about. They know it’s going to be good and that people are going to like it,” he said.
Even fresh fish is a viable main course option for some. Elisha Ewing of Liberty Fish, a Peterborough-based business delivering fresh seafood to farm stands and farmers markets in parts of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, said Thanksgiving is a very busy time for her.
She said salmon in particular, as well as haddock, cod and halibut, is among the more popular alternatives to the main turkey dish. Her scallops also prove to be a highly requested appetizer.
“I do think that the majority of my customers probably have turkey as at least one of their main dishes, but I will get orders … from people who are looking for an alternative protein, and so they’ll reach out and order fish,” Ewing said. “I also have folks that will say, ‘Hey, I’ve got friends or family that are going to extend their visit, and I’m really just needing to stock up to do meal prep for the extended holiday weekend.’ … I think some people are basically just maxed out on turkey come Saturday, and they want something else.”
Working with an importer and exporter down in Boston, Ewing always obtains her fish fresh — never frozen. Locally, you can find Liberty Fish at Trombly Gardens in Milford, where Ewing makes weekly deliveries every Wednesday and where pickups are from 2 to 6 p.m. Visit libertyfish.net to join Ewing’s weekly email notification group and order your fresh catch.
A vegan Thanksgiving
Of course, if you simply just don’t eat meat, then you’re likely in store for a whole different kind of main course Thanksgiving option. But, as local vegan and plant-based chefs suggest, that doesn’t mean your holiday feast has to be any less delicious.
Celery root roast. Photo courtesy of Madeline Rossi of The Green Beautiful vegan cafe in Manchester.
Madeline Rossi and Olivia Lenox of The Green Beautiful vegan cafe in Manchester recently hosted their second annual “gentle Thanksgiving” dinner, a plant-based feast and fundraiser for the New Hampshire Animal Rights League. The couple, who also run New Roots Meals — a plant-based meal prep company — has dabbled in all kinds of unique options over the last few years. Some can even work as “mock turkey” alternatives with similar palates to that of a bird.
“In terms of more of a mock turkey, we’ve done a thing in the past called celeriac. It’s basically just the root of a celery plant,” Rossi said. “They get big and round, and it’s very cool because I’ve done it where it’s sort of in a similar thing that you cook a turkey in, kind of like a stock, and I put it in the oven … and baste it every 30 minutes like you would with a turkey. … It comes out really well and slices really easily. The texture is pretty meaty, but also soft.”
She said the celery root is fairly easy to find — they can be found in most local grocery stores and specialty markets, as she noted that it’s in season during the cooler months.
“The thing is, if you don’t know what it is, you would just walk right past it in the grocery store,” she said. “It’s huge and gnarly and doesn’t look edible, but it very much is.”
Carrie Burt of Joyfull Eats, a plant-based meal company based at Deep Meadow Variety in Exeter, has made a lentil loaf, as well as a chickpea-based “chick-un” loaf that’s also meant to mimic the flavor profiles of a traditional Thanksgiving turkey. Both options, she said, are available to pre-order on her website (joyfulleatsnh.com) through Sunday, Nov. 20.
Other great options, Rossi said, include a white lasagna that’s made with tofu and vegan cheese.
“I feel like doing a white lasagna instead of [with] a red sauce kind of pairs even better with the flavors of Thanksgiving, like stuffing and gravy and green beans and all that stuff,” she said.
“Chick-un” loaf (vegan chickpea-based loaf) Courtesy of Carrie Burt of Joyfull Eats in Exeter
1 cup onions, diced ½ cup celery, diced ½ cup carrots, diced 4 garlic cloves, minced 3 Tablespoons dried cranberries, chopped up 1 15-ounce can chickpeas 1 15-ounce can cannellini beans ½ cup to 1 cup gluten-free oats 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice 2 Tablespoons soy sauce (can substitute for tamari or coconut aminos) 1 Tablespoon sunflower butter 2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, minced 1 teaspoon cumin 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning ½ teaspoon salt 2 Tablespoons flaxseed meal (mixed with 2 Tablespoons water)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Saute the onions, celery, carrots and garlic with an oil or broth, until the onions are translucent. Add the chopped cranberries to the pan, mix and let rest. Using a food processor, pulse the beans and oats until crumbly. Add in the rest of the ingredients, including the sauteed mixture, and pulse until fully combined. If needed, add in some extra broth or water if the mixture is too dry — the texture should be a little sticky and it should hold together. Place into a greased loaf pan (or form a loaf on a sheet pan), cover with foil and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. If you’d like to glaze it, remove the foil after 20 minutes and cover with ketchup or barbecue sauce, then cook for an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Let the loaf partly cool before serving.
Celery root roast Courtesy of Madeline Rossi of The Green Beautiful vegan cafe in Manchester
For the spice rub: 1 Tablespoon salt 1 Tablespoon pepper 1 Tablespoon thyme 1 Tablespoon oregano 1 Tablespoon brown sugar 1 teaspoon paprika 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Rinse all the dirt off the celery root and clean with the rough side of a sponge. Use a fork to perforate the root, making tiny holes all over to ensure the basting liquid can fully seep in while roasting. Fill the bottom of a deep pan with the chopped vegetables and the vegetable broth. Pour the olive oil all over the celery root, enough to coat, and rub with the spice blend. Place in the pan in the oven for three to four hours, or until cooked through. Baste with the vegetable broth every 30 minutes while the celery root roasts for a deeper flavor. Once fully cooked, slice the celery root into ¼-inch rounds and serve with your favorite sides.
Spatchcocked turkey. Photo courtesy of Shelley Morley of Mt. Dearborn Farm in Weare.
How to spatchcock a turkey Instructions provided by Shelley Morley of Mt. Dearborn Farm in Weare
• Using kitchen shears, cut from the tailbone along both sides of the turkey’s spine to remove the backbone. (You can use the backbone to make gravy just as you would the neck and giblets.) • Open up the turkey by pulling it apart where the backbone was removed. • Turn the turkey over so that the breast is facing up and press down hard on the breast until you hear a crack or two and the turkey can lay flat. • Place the turkey on a rack on top of a rimmed cooking sheet or broiler pan to catch the juices. You can place some chopped onions, carrots and celery into the pan to help keep the oven moist. They will also add some nice flavor to your gravy. • Pat dry the skin to encourage extra crispiness. You can also rub the skin with a little olive oil and sprinkle it with sea salt, or season the turkey however you want. • A 12- to -14-pound turkey roasted at 450 degrees cooks in about 90 minutes — or about seven minutes per pound. • After the leg meat reaches a temperature of 165 degrees and the breast around 150 degrees, take the turkey out of the oven or off the grill, cover loosely with foil and let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes before carving. Letting the meat rest allows the juices to settle into the meat. This time can also be spent making your gravy and doing any other last-minute meal preparations.
Getting saucy
Jarred cranberry sauce goes toe to toe against homemade
By Katelyn Sahagian
ksahagian@hippopress.com
From gelatinous cylinders that hold their shape after slicing to relishes filled with citrus and spices, cranberry sauce can come in a wide variety.
For Kristen Chinosi of The Culinary Playground in Derry, the only option is homemade cranberry sauce.
“I’m homemade all the way,” Chinosi said. “You’re limited with the canned stuff.”
Chinosi said she loves that there’s a personalization that happens with homemade cranberry sauce. She said that there’s a magic behind being able to add different spices and citrus flavors, to personalize the sauce. Even having control over something as simple as the texture of the sauce can make all the difference.
Chinosi did admit that there is a nostalgic factor associated with the easy, can-shaped cranberry sauce. But in the end, there’s no comparison between that and the homemade — and personally customized — version of the condiment.
“It’s fun to see [the berries] pop open. … They do these little explosions,” Chinosi said. “Just cook them down with sugar and orange juice, then slowly add some warm spices, like cinnamon, cloves, allspice and ginger. It’ll smell like fall.”
While Amy LaBelle, owner and winemaker of LaBelle Winery, said she loves a good homemade cranberry sauce, she hopes people will think of her jarred cranberry jam as a viable alternative to people who don’t want to worry about cooking the jellied condiment.
“It’s a lot easier,” LaBelle said. “Just put it in a bowl and let it set up. But it’s still delicious because we still write the recipe.”
The jam, which is a homemade recipe featuring some of LaBelle’s cranberry wine and fresh spices, has many different uses besides as a side dish on the table. LaBelle’s favorite ways to enjoy it are either in a cranberry old-fashioned, with orange bitters and high-quality bourbon, or as the spread for a Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich.
While LaBelle noted that her own sauce wouldn’t need any doctoring to get the spiced, sweet and savory flavor that tastes like fall, she also said that there are a number of good ways to spruce up any jarred or canned sauce.
“If you’re going to buy a can of whole cranberry sauce, you can absolutely take that and add to it some orange zest, orange juices and … definitely add just a tiny bit of clove, some nutmeg [and] cinnamon,” LaBelle said. “But that orange juice and orange zest are really going to be your best way to perk that up. Those, and my cranberry wine, of course.”
Cranberry Jam Bourbon Smash Courtesy of LaBelle Winery in Amherst and Derry, labellewinery.com
3 ounces good quality bourbon 1½ ounces fresh orange juice ½ ounce cranberry juice 1 teaspoon maple syrup 1 Tablespoon The Winemaker’s Kitchen cranberry wine jam Dash of blood orange bitters
Place all ingredients in a shaker over ice and shake for 30 seconds. Pour with ice into a highball glass rimmed with cinnamon sugar.
“Your” Cranberry Sauce Courtesy of The Culinary Playground in Derry, culinary-playground.com (yields about two cups)
1 teaspoon orange zest ½ cup fresh squeezed orange juice (from 1 large orange) 12 ounces fresh or frozen cranberries, divided ½ cup water ¾ to 1 cup packed brown sugar
Optional add-ins: Up to ½ teaspoon cinnamon and/or allspice Up to ⅛ teaspoon ground ginger and/or cloves Up to ½ cup toasted pecans and/or walnuts, chopped Up to ½ cup dried apricots and/or dates, chopped 1 Granny Smith apple and/or D’Anjou pear, peeled, cored and chopped
Zest the orange to yield 1 teaspoon, then set aside. Cut the orange in half and juice it to yield ½ cup. Measure out ½ cup of cranberries and set aside. Add the remaining cranberries into a medium saucepan set over medium heat. Add the water, orange juice and brown sugar. Stir occasionally as the mixture comes to a simmer. Once simmering, reduce heat to medium-low. While stirring occasionally, continue to cook until the liquid has reduced and the cranberries have burst and thickened (about 10 more minutes). Decrease the heat to low and stir in ½ cup reserved cranberries and orange zest. Taste and add additional brown sugar if it’s too tart. Remove from the heat. If customizing your sauce, stir in those ingredients as well (except for any nuts). Transfer to a serving bowl and allow to cool and thicken. Once cooled, cover and refrigerate for at least a few hours, or up to a week. Bring to room temperature before serving. If using nuts, stir them in before serving.
Potato vs. potato
Traditional mashed takes on sweet potato
By Angie Sykeny
asykeny@hippopress.com
Mashed potatoes: the flavor conveyor
Everyone has their preferred Thanksgiving side dishes, but for Brandon Rainer, co-owner of The Potato Concept in Derry, there’s one dish that should make it onto every plate.
“Mashed potatoes. One hundred percent,” he said. “That’s the ultimate side dish. Thanksgiving just isn’t Thanksgiving without it.”
And the simpler they are, the better; Rainer’s high praise for mashed potatoes, he said, comes from the dish’s unique ability to act as a “vessel” for the medley of flavors on your plate.
“You can take your fork, take a little bit of turkey, take a little bit of cranberry sauce, and take it in with your mashed potatoes,” said The Potato Concept co-owner Lauren Lefebvre. “You’re able to play with different textures and flavors on your plate and make different combinations, which is fun.”
Mashed potatoes can also serve as a “holder” on your plate for whatever you want to combine with the potatoes — and for the foods that you want to keep contained from the rest.
“My kids like to make what they call a ‘gravy pond,’ where they make a little space in their potatoes to hold their gravy,” Lefebvre said.
Be sure to leave a bite or two of mashed potatoes for last to soak up all the remnants of Thanksgiving goodness.
“It’s the perfect way to clear your plate,” Rainer said.
Preparation tips
The first and most important step for making good mashed potatoes, Rainer said, is to use real potatoes, never boxed.
“That’s the biggest way where you can go wrong,” he said. “You have to have the real thing. Nothing else will substitute for it.”
If you’re boiling your potatoes, patience is key. Plan the rest of the meal so that you have a burner reserved for potatoes to give them the time that they need to cook thoroughly.
“A lot of times, people have a lot of different things they need to cook, and they get impatient and take the potatoes off as soon as they can slightly put a fork through them,” Lefebvre said, “but once they go to mash them, they find that the potatoes are still very much hard in the center.”
Mash as you might, there will still be chunky bits, so those few extra minutes on the stove are always worth it.
“They’re supposed to be creamy. Nobody likes to have to chew on their mashed potatoes,” Lefebvre said. “That can throw off the dish completely.”
Sweet potatoes: a dessert before dessert
Sweet potatoes are the better option if you’re looking to add a bit of variety to the traditional Thanksgiving lineup.
“Thanksgiving has a lot of savory items and a lot of salts, but there’s not a lot of sweet things you can add, aside from maybe cranberry sauce,” Lefebvre said, “but sweet potatoes bring that bit of sugar to diversify the flavor profiles on the table.”
You can bake sweet potatoes and serve them whole, bake them into sweet potato fries, or, for a custard-like treat, you can mash them.
“That by itself would be pretty indulgent,” Lefebvre said, “but, of course, you can always get fancier with it.”
Amp up the sweetness with toppings like brown sugar or marshmallows, or, if you want some additional flavor without the additional sugar, try spices, like cinnamon or nutmeg.
“It adds a bit more to the flavor profile of the sweet potato,” Lefebvre said.
Preparation tips
Sweet potatoes tend to be softer than the russet potatoes typically used for mashed potatoes, which means less prep time. The downside is their potential to get messy.
“If you’re baking them, and they start to pop and explode and leak everywhere, that [juice] will caramelize and burn quickly and create a mess in your oven and make for a kitchen nightmare,” Rainer said.
To prevent, or at least minimize, such a mess, simply poke some holes in the potatoes with a fork before putting them in the oven.
“Some people say you shouldn’t poke the potatoes, but after experimenting with many, many, many potatoes this year, we’ve found that, with sweet potatoes, the poking is necessary,” Rainer said.
Ginger sweet potato Batch of five Courtesy of The Potato Concept
5 sweet potatoes ½ cup butter 1 cup brown sugar 15 gingersnap cookies ¼ cup maple syrup 2 cups mini marshmallows 1 teaspoon salt
Get good quality sweet potatoes — ones between 1/2 and 3/4 pound work best. Stay away from ones where the skins and the ends of the potato aren’t fully intact. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. While it’s coming to temp, poke each potato a few times with a fork. Put them directly on the oven’s wire rack. Make sure there’s a pan underneath to catch the drippings, which may start to leak out toward the end of the cooking process. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes. Take the potatoes out of the oven using tongs and let them rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Set your oven to broil. While they’re cooling, cut 1/2 cup of butter into smaller pieces and put them in a mixing bowl. Add a cup of brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Once the sweet potatoes have cooled slightly, slice them lengthwise and carefully scoop out the insides while doing your best to keep the skin intact. Add it to the mixing bowl. It should still be hot enough to easily melt the butter. Use a fork to hand blend the ingredients. Scoop the mixture back into the sweet potato skin. Place the mini marshmallows on top of the potato and put them back in the oven on a sheet pan on the top rack. Keep a close eye on them as you’re just looking to brown the marshmallows, and it shouldn’t take more than a minute or two. Once browned, remove from the oven. Take 10 of your favorite variety of silver dollar sized gingersnap cookies and smash them into crumbs using a food processor or a hammer. Top the potatoes with the crumbs and save five cookies to put directly into the potato whole, as pictured. Then, take a teaspoon of maple syrup and drizzle on top.
Any way you slice it
Apple versus pumpkin — which pie takes the cake?
By Mya Blanchard
listings@hippopress.com
On the question of apple pie versus pumpkin pie, Christiana Lehman, owner of From Gracie’s Table in Brookline, is 100 percent Team Apple Pie.
Courtesy of From Gracie’s Table.
“Pumpkin is gross,” Lehman said. “I make it because I know people eat it, but I do not even know what my own pumpkin pie tastes like because I do not like pumpkin pie.”
Local food blogger and chef instructor Liz Barbour, of The Creative Feast in Hollis, also picks apple.
“I personally like an apple pie better. … I like the texture of the apples, the different flavors of the apples and it’s a family favorite at our house,” she said.
On the other hand, Lisa Lucciano of The Cake Fairy in Hooksett doesn’t have such strong feelings.
“Personally I don’t [have a preference]” she said. “I like them both. … I probably would always choose pumpkin pie because it’s only made usually at Thanksgiving and Christmas … if I was only able to eat one I would eat pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.”
While pumpkin pie might not take the cake as the fan favorite, it’s generally easier to make than apple pie, as it requires fewer steps and less preparation.
“[Apple pie] does require more effort because you have to peel them, then you have to mix the stuff [in] the apples, then you put it in the crust and fix the crust and decorate the crust,” Lehman said. “But with pumpkin … you open a can, you mix in the spices … and you put it in the crust.”
Barbour simplifies the apple pie making process by skipping the step of peeling the apples.
“[With] a properly baked apple pie, the way you can tell if it’s baked enough … is when you look at your pie at the end of the baking, the filling should be bubbling up through the vent holes,” Barbour said, “and that way you know that the skins have broken down [and] the apples are softened.”
When choosing which apples to include in your pie, variety is the key.
“You’re going to be looking for apples … that are sweet, apples that are tart [and] apples that add texture,” Barbour said. “When you combine all of those, then you have a really nice flavor base as opposed to using just one type of apple.”
Apple pie also wins the category of versatility.
“I think you can be more creative with an apple pie. … The apple pie is absolutely more versatile,” Lucciano said.
No matter which pie you choose to serve at Thanksgiving, it’s important to make it with care.
“You have to make sure that it’s spiced just right, mixed just right and in proper ways too,” Lucciano said. “Baking is a science that people don’t realize. If there are directions on how to do things, follow them.”
“Oh my!” apple pie From the kitchen of Christiana Lehman of From Gracie’s Table and Brookline’s Finest
2 pie crusts 8 apples 1 10-ounce container From Gracie’s Table “dry” apple pie mix (includes brown sugar, cane sugar, cornstarch, white flour, ground cinnamon, nutmeg and sea salt) 2 Tablespoons butter
Lay out the crust into the bottom of a pan. Peel and chop apples. Mix dry ingredients with apples and butter. Pour seasoned apples into the pie crust. Cover with the other pie crust and pinch the edges together. Make three small slits on the top to vent. Cook at 425 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.
Pumpkin apple custard pie Courtesy of Diane Souther of Apple Hill Farm in Concord
8 medium-sized apples, peeled, cored and sliced 1 ½ cups pumpkin puree 3 eggs, separated ½ cup white sugar ½ cup maple sugar (or light brown sugar) ½ cup maple syrup 3 Tablespoons flour 1 Tablespoon cinnamon ¼ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice ¼ teaspoon salt 2 ½ cups warm whole milk 2 9-inch unbaked pie crusts (can use graham cracker crusts)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Make your favorite pie crust and place in two pie plates, or use store-purchased crusts. Peel, slice and core the apples. Line the inside of the bottom of the 9-inch pie crusts. Separate the eggs, yolks and whites, and beat the whites until stiff, then set aside for later. Mix the yolks with the pumpkin puree, then add the white and maple sugars, the maple syrup, the flour, the salt and the spices and mix well. Add the warm whole milk (not hot) and mix well. Gently fold in the egg whites. Divide the mixture in half and gently pour between the two pie plates. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 15 minutes, then give them a spin and reduce the heat to 350 degrees for about 30 minutes longer, until the custard is set and no longer loose.
The State Board of Education has approved a list of 17 New Hampshire school districts seeking funding for construction projects for the fiscal years 2024 and 2025, ranked according to priority. According to a press release, the top five districts are Rochester (Nancy Loud School and School Street School), Colebrook (Colebrook Academy & Elementary School), Monadnock Regional (Emerson Elementary, Gilsum STEAM Academy, Mt. Caesar Elementary, Troy Elementary and Cutler Elementary), Concord (Rundlett Middle School) and Litchfield (Griffin Memorial School). The proposed projects include new school buildings as well as additions, consolidations and renovations for existing school buildings. Priority was determined by various criteria, including school security, unsafe conditions, obsolete or inefficient conditions, operation efficiency and more. The total estimated funding sought for all 17 projects is about $227.7 million. NHDOE will present the list to the state legislature for consideration as part of its proposed overall budget; it is not yet known how many projects will be funded, and some of the projects would require local approval from voters before construction can begin.
Restoring Chandler House
Merrimack County Savings Bank has supported the Currier Museum of Art’s Chandler House Restoration Fund with a purchase of $10,000 in tax credits, facilitated through the Community Development Finance Authority. According to a press release, CDFA tax credits allow New Hampshire businesses to fund qualifying economic or community development projects in exchange for a tax credit worth 75 percent of their contribution that can be applied against state business tax payments. The Currier Museum of Art worked with the City of Manchester’s Planning and Community Development Department and supporters from the community to acquire the George Byron Chandler House, a 19th-century architectural landmark located across the street, completing the sale in February 2021. It is the third architectural landmark to be purchased by the museum, joining two houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The contribution from Merrimack County Savings Bank will be used to restore the Chandler House into a gallery, ceramic studio, art classrooms and office spaces. “We’re grateful for The Merrimack’s support as we restore this architectural treasure from the late 19th century to its original glory,” Alan Chong, director of the Currier Museum of Art, said in the release. “Saved by the community, we look forward to making the historic property accessible for everyone to enjoy.”
More historic spots
The State Historical Resources Council has added eight historic properties to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places, representing 150 years of New Hampshire history, according to a press release from the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources. The properties include Brown School, one of eight public schools built in Berlin in the early 20th century; Academy Hall in Henniker, which was built in 1836 and alternated as the town’s high school, event venue and grange hall for more than a century; First Congregational Church, built in 1766 in Hopkinton; First Congregational Church and Parish House built in Milford in 1834; Eagle Hall in Milford, used as a meetinghouse and town hall in the late 18th century; the 1798 New Hampton Town House; Captain Smith Emerson Farm in Lee, dating to circa 1765; and Goodell Company Mill in Antrim, which includes five adjoining brick structures built between 1867 and 1895. Visit nh.gov/nhdhr for more information about the historic properties.
Planning help
The New Hampshire Alliance for End of Life Options, in collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Association and Gibson Center, will host an online workshop, “Before You Lose Your Mind … Take Control and Start Planning,” on Wednesday, Dec. 7, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. via Zoom, for people who are concerned about developing or a loved one developing Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia in their future. According to a press release, the workshop will address how people can specify what they want and don’t want for life-prolonging medical treatments and interventions should they not be able to speak for themselves due to Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia in the future. It will include sample documents and real-life scenarios raising essential questions of life and death, and health care practitioners and an elder law attorney will guide the discussion and answer questions. The free workshop will be recorded and made available to people who register but are unable to attend. Visit nhendoflifeoptions.org/events-2.
The New Hampshire Liquor Commission and DHL Supply Chain celebrate the 27,000-square-foot expansion of the DHL distribution center in Bow with a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 10. According to a press release, the facility houses products sold by New Hampshire’s 67 Liquor & Wine Outlets and more than 6,200 licensed sellers in the state, and the expansion will allow it to hold more products, aligning with NHLC’s continued sales growth.
Families in Transition will host its 29th annual Breakfast Fundraiser on Tuesday, Nov. 22, at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Manchester. The event, which is FIT’s largest yearly fundraiser, will be held in person for the first time in three years. Funds raised support various FIT programs, including emergency shelters, affordable and supportive housing, food programs and essential supportive services for individuals and families who are homeless or in need. See fitnh.org.
A new temporary traffic pattern is being implemented on Route 101 in Bedford as part of the red-listed bridge replacement at Pulpit Brook, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation announced. Daytime paving was scheduled to begin on Wednesday, Nov. 16, with the configuration expected to be functional by the end of the day on Tuesday, Nov. 22. On the days that road work is in progress, traffic will be directed through a single lane of alternating two-way traffic between 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Once implemented, the new pattern will be in use until further notice.
