Information from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.
Covid-19 news
State health officials announced 896 new positive test results of Covid-19 on Nov. 19, officially surpassing the 150,000 mark in the total number of cases reported since the start of the pandemic. The state averaged 876 new cases per day over the most recent seven-day period, an increase of 14 percent compared to the previous seven-day average.
Hospitalizations in the Granite State due to the virus also continue to be on the rise. “The health care system is extremely strained treating both patients with Covid-19 and those without Covid-19 who may have delayed care or preventative screenings, resulting in much more serious medical conditions,” New Hampshire Hospital Association president Steve Ahnen said in a Nov. 19 statement. “Our hospitals are struggling to find intensive care beds and have been forced to look across state lines to transfer patients due to lack of bed capacity.” According to the statement, there were 340 active hospitalizations statewide on Nov. 19, surpassing the record for the highest number set back on Jan. 1 of this year.
Meanwhile, the state has joined nine other states in filing a lawsuit against the federal government “for imposing a vaccine mandate on all workers at health care facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding,” according to a press release. New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella released a statement saying that “the new mandate … was not adopted in conformance with the law. … We are once again obligated to take action to protect the State from this illegal mandate and the burden it would place on our already strained health care workers and facilities.”
More fuel help
Granite Staters who use the New Hampshire Fuel Assistance Program will see an increase in benefit amounts, the New Hampshire Department of Energy announced last week. The increase comes due to “dramatic projected increases in heating fuels,” Interim Energy Commissioner Jared Chicoine said in a press release. Benefit amounts will increase by 60 percent over last winter for most beneficiaries and will range from $253 to $2,520, up from $158 to $1,575 last winter. The benefit amounts for qualifying households are determined based on factors like income, household size and fuel type, the release said.
Tax mandate ruling
The federal government will be barred from enforcing the ARPA Tax Mandate against New Hampshire and 12 other plaintiff states, according to a press release, after a United States District Court issued an order granting the plaintiff states’ request for a permanent injunction against the mandate last week. The lawsuit was filed on March 31 to invalidate the mandate, which would have prevented the plaintiff states from using ARPA funds to offset a reduction in net tax revenue resulting from state tax cuts. According to the release, this put the plaintiff states at risk of having ARPA money recouped by the federal government due to their enactment of state tax cuts. “The ARPA Tax Mandate was an improper and unconstitutional intrusion on the rights of New Hampshire’s elected policymakers to make decisions regarding State tax policy,” Attorney General John Formella said in the release.
Insta investigation
Attorney General John Formella has joined with attorneys general across the country to investigate Meta Platforms for providing and promoting Instagram to children and young adults despite knowing that using the social media platform is associated with increased risks of physical and mental health issues in young people, according to a press release. The release said the Meta’s own research has found that the risk of issues like depression, eating disorders and suicide have been associated with the use of Instagram. The investigation targets techniques used by Meta to increase how often and how long young users are on Instagram and the resulting harms, among other things.
Airport support
New Hampshire’s U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan and Reps. Annie Kuster and Chris Pappas announced last week that Manchester-Boston Regional Airport and Lebanon Municipal Airport will receive $9,786,943 in federal funds from Airport Rescue Grants funded under the American Rescue Plan Act to help airports adjust and maintain operations during the pandemic. Manchester-Boston Regional Airport will receive $8,735,862 and Lebanon Municipal Airport will receive $1,051,081, according to a press release. “This funding comes at a pivotal time right before the holidays, with a busy travel season on the horizon and supply chain issues impacting travel and commerce,” Shaheen said in the release.
Friends of Aine, which offers bereavement support services to children, teens and families, has opened its new location at 226 Coolidge Ave. in Manchester. The new space allows more support services, including four age-specific grief support spaces for children and teens and more peer-to-peer support groups.
Holly Stevens has joined NAMI New Hampshire as the nonprofit organization’s first public policy director. According to a press release, Stevens has been working in health policy for the past five years in Concord and said she will be working with mental health and suicide prevention advocates to effect change on the policy level in the state.
The towns of Salem, Epping and Groveton have been awarded funding totaling $500,000 to hire additional police officers, with Epping and Groveton each getting $125,000 and Salem getting $250,000, according to a press release from the Department of Justice. The grant funding comes from the Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Program.
More than ever, it’s important to support your local merchants. The pandemic has been hardest on small independent merchants in terms of income loss and staffing shortages. As the saying goes, the big get bigger, and the pandemic only heightened that. Though that can be good for some, it’s a net loss to us and our communities.
Local independent businesses are part of what makes our communities different from other places; they are part of the fabric of the community. Imagine no local retail, no local coffee shops, no local bars or restaurants or no local bookstores. We’d all be poorer for it not only economically but also socially. These places help bind us together the same way our schools and community organizations do. It’s important to protect that.
Though it’s not always easy, please be mindful to include local shops, local producers who sell online and local services in your gift plans.
It’s better on a few levels.
For starters more of the money you spend at local merchants ends up back in your community. A 2012 economic impact study in Andersonville, Illinois, found that for every $100 spent at a local independent business $68 remained in the local economy versus just $43 for national chains. I would venture to guess that even less of your money stays in the local economy when buying from an online retailer, such as Amazon. On top of that, I’d argue online retailers are significant users of our roads, sidewalks and bridges. Are they really contributing enough back to the local economy to help pay for their use? The folks at Civic Economics and the American Booksellers Association would say no. Check out civiceconomics.com.
Local merchants give back the community in numerous additional ways. They sponsor local sports teams and service organizations, such as Rotary. They lower prices by providing competition to chains and online retailers. They provide more choices. They can pay better wages than many of the chains. They tend to have a smaller environmental footprint than online retailers. They provide a way out of poverty for their owners. They make decisions locally based on the needs of their customers and community. They provide better customer service. They pay more taxes and fees. And they, maybe most importantly, provide much of the character of our community.
Are all local businesses or their owners perfect? Of course not. Some are stinkers. But by and large the benefits far outweigh the negatives, and they need your support. So please, this holiday season take a moment and think about how you can direct more of your spending to local businesses.
Being in Jamantics is like riding a bicycle; however long its five members are apart, the moment they plug in and play, their reliable groove reappears. As rehearsals began for a Nov. 19 reunion show at Bank of NH Stage in Concord, the synergy “was immediate,” guitarist Lucas Gallo said. “Beyond Jamantics, we all have experience musically with each other. … Now the whole band’s back together and it’s sounding great, in my opinion.”
“It’s like putting on a well-oiled glove,” fellow guitar player Freeland Hubbard added.
The group officially existed only from 2009 to 2011 but didn’t break up; it disbanded. Drummer Masceo headed west, and the rest — Gallo, Hubbard, bass player Eric Reingold and fiddler Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki — carried on with other projects.
Reingold worked with several bands, including NEMA winners Cold Engines, while Tirrell-Wysocki appeared on recording sessions and played solo, as did Hubbard and Gallo, who also helped promote local shows. Masceo worked for Napa, California-based Enchanted Hills Camp and served as Jamantics’ archivist.
In October 2015, Jamantics “re-banded” for a show at Concord’s Capitol Center.
When Masceo moved back to Concord in 2019, a 10th anniversary reunion show happened at the newly opened Bank of NH Stage. A planned event the following year was scrapped due to pandemic concerns, but they’re back on Nov. 19 at the same venue for what’s hoped to be a yearly JamAnnual GetDown.
In advance of the show, a new single dropped; “Immortal” began in Masceo’s home studio.
“I was bored like everybody else during the pandemic, and what happened was a ball rolling situation,” he said. “Freeland, Reingold and I had been playing together as a trio; [then] I just kind of sprung it on everybody when it was done…. I wanted everybody to be happy; when there’s five people in a band, that can be a little stressful. I guess it was taking it one person at a time.”
Called InstaJam, the trio had a live debut planned in April 2020 that didn’t happen, but later in the year they began playing around the area as The Special Guests. Masceo remembers walking on stage for the first time after months of lockdown as emotional and unexpected.
“It certainly was a reflection of nostalgia about all the times we’d felt that way… in the pocket of the crowd’s energy, feeling good about the music we’re playing,” he said.
Reingold was philosophical about the experience.
“It’s very rare that we basically as a species all experience the same thing as one people,” he said. “We all experienced lockdown, and I think it goes without saying that nobody was unhappy to get back to the world. Not only musicians, but just everybody in general. It was a breath of fresh air … enhanced by the fact that we’re the ones that get to play for the people coming out.”
When Jamantics formed, their two-part mission was making music and fostering the local music scene. Even as they hit milestones like opening for Little Feat at Casino Ballroom in Hampton, they worked to bring regional bands to Concord for shows at Penuche’s, the Barley House and other venues. Ten years on, they’re pleased with the city’s commitment to local arts, particularly the Capitol Center and its satellite 600-seat room that Reingold calls “the perfect venue.”
Beginning with transforming the Spotlight Room lobby space early in the decade, the nonprofit has long boosted area acts, Reingold observed.
“You’d be talking to the same people who just got off the phone with Willie Nelson’s booking agent, and they’re still making time in their schedule,” he said, adding the new space “fills a gap that I think has existed in Concord for quite some time. So we’re pretty excited to be able to be part of it.”
Jamantics Reunion w/ Teeba
When: Friday, Nov. 19, 8 p.m. Where: Bank of NH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord Tickets: $15 and up at ccanh.com
A girl having a rough time adjusting to a new school adopts a dog in Clifford the Big Red Dog, a live-action movie based on the books.
Clifford is a photorealistic CGI Labrador-ish puppy movie-magicked red. When 11-year-old Emily (Darby Camp) first meets him, he is a just nameless small weirdly red dog — so small that he sneaks into her backpack unnoticed. Her mother, Maggie (Sienna Guillory), is out of town for a few days for work and Emily’s somewhat aimless Uncle Casey (Jack Whitehall), who would like it to be known that he has only lost her twice while babysitting her, is watching her. He demands they take the dog back to the strange animal rescue where they first saw him but she turns her sad girl eyes on him and he says they can keep the dog for the night but look for the mysterious Mr. Bridwell (John Cleese), the rescue’s manager, in the morning.
But in the morning, Emily wakes to find that the tiny puppy she’s named Clifford is now very large — still a puppy but more the size of a medium elephant. Emily, who has recently started at a new private school where the kids are snotty and she is lonely, is desperate to keep the puppy. Casey is desperate to keep Maggie from learning that he’s let her daughter adopt a minivan-sized animal. So they set off to try to find someone — Mr. Bridwell, a veterinarian, the wealthy father of Emily’s friend Owen (Izaac Wang), who appears to own an animal sanctuary — who can help Clifford. And, help them before the family’s landlord (David Alan Grier), with a very strict no-pets policy, finds out that Clifford is living in their very small New York City apartment.
But Clifford quickly becomes a bit of a viral star, getting the attention of Tieran (Tony Hale), an evil tech guy from a company seeking to make bigger organisms with the goal of growing more food more quickly. So far, all they’ve managed to engineer are giant chicken eggs, a two-headed goat and a very mean sheep. But Tieran thinks that if his company captures Clifford, they might unlock the secrets to giant cows.
A neighborhood full of characters quirky enough that you feel like you’re supposed to get to know them rallies to support Emily, who learns how to stand up for herself against bullies and how to make friends. It’s all done very softly, with lessons easily learned and most people basically friendly. Even the moments of Clifford in peril are very mildly perilous — all of which made the movie perfectly palatable to my young elementary school kids. But also relatively mild were the animal hijinks — and as big-dog silliness gave away to more emotional stuff, the movie lost them somewhat. My more middle-grade-aged kid seemed more engaged in the story-telling, more entertained by the “pleasant family sitcom”-level of humor.
While Clifford is somewhat visually distracting in the uncanny-valley sense, the movie was overall inoffensive. And, sure, “inoffensive and fine, I guess, rave critics!” is not something you’re likely to see in movie trailers. But that is where this movie landed, and I don’t think that is necessarily a knock on it. Sometimes a movie just being watchable by kids of varying ages and something their parents can stomach having on without paying too much attention is exactly the kind of entertainment the whole family needs. B- Rated PG for impolite humor, thematic elements and mild action, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Walt Becker with a screenplay by Jay Scherick & David Ronn and Blaise Hemingway (based on the books by Norman Bridwell), Clifford the Big Red Dog is an hour and 37 minutes long and distributed by Paramount Pictures via Paramount+ and in theaters.
Passing (PG-13)
Two childhood friends reconnect as married women in 1920s New York City in Passing, based on a novel by Nella Larsen with an adapted screenplay by Rebecca Hall, who also directed the movie.
When we first see Irene (Tessa Thompson), she’s out shopping on a hot summer day — being sort of quiet and deliberate in the way she walks, surveys a room and talks to people. What we realize she’s doing before every interaction is figuring out what the other person — fellow well-heeled shoppers, store clerks, hotel doormen — sees when they look at her. Irene is, as she later explains, “passing,” for the convenience of not being recognized as African-American in these predominantly white spaces in the 1920s.
Clare (Ruth Negga), also hanging out at the hotel, does give Irene a second look — and keeps looking until she comes over to reintroduce herself. Irene is rather shocked to realize that this blonde woman with a white husband — John (Alexander Skarsgard) — is her girlhood friend from the neighborhood. She is even more shocked to learn that John, whom she meets and quickly gathers is quite the racist, has no idea that Clare (or Irene) is Black.
Irene’s encounter with Clare seems to sort of shake her. She leaves with little intention of talking to Clare again; Irene’s husband, Brian (Andre Holland), even makes fun of Clare’s shallow-sounding apology letter (Irene was clearly appalled by John’s casual racism) that she sends later on. But then months later Clare shows up at Irene’s house and the women rekindle their friendship.
The movie leaves a lot ambiguous about what is happening between Clare and Irene. Both are well-off women, but living in different worlds with different levels of freedom in different circumstances because of how they present themselves to their worlds. Both seem to have tensions in their marriage — Clare’s more obvious than Irene’s but Irene also seems to have a wall between herself and her husband. We never really learn what their relationship was like in their youth and it’s never completely clear what each woman is looking for from the other now. At one point Irene tells a white writer friend, Hugh (Bill Camp), that everybody is passing in some way — one of many times when we wonder if the devoted wife and mother Irene seems to be working so hard to present herself as is her cover, of sorts, for other internal conflicts and frustrations. When she seems to push Clare and Brian to spend more time together, is she defeatedly accepting an attraction between them that she senses or is she doing it as a way to avoid thinking about her own attraction to Clare? There’s a lot that happens in the silences here, in the way Thompson and Negga look at each other, in the way the movie lights a scene, that leaves you to fill in the blanks of what you feel it all means. This even carries through to the way the movie ends. At times, I felt some frustration with this — exactly what does this movie want me to think I’m seeing? But Passing has stuck with me and, if anything, the ambiguity has left me thinking more about what’s going on with the people than strictly about the movie’s plot points.
Perhaps because it leaves so many things gray — both figuratively and literally, as this movie shot in black and white seems to most often play, beautifully, with grays — the movie is also able to touch on a lot of issues without it seeming like “Issues Related to Race: The Movie.” We see moments of Irene’s marriage, her interactions with her housekeeper, her parenting, her social life that all get to different elements of socioeconomic status and gender roles and hint at the tensions between the things she may want in her life and the things she feels she’s expected to do.
Passing is a quiet movie that leaves a bigger impression than it initially seems. Strong performances by Thompson and Negga and interesting choices in the way the movie was shot made this movie feel like a surprise masterpiece — something that had me invested and enthralled before I realized how much I liked what it was doing. A Rated PG-13 for thematic material and some racial slurs and smoking, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Rebecca Hall with a screenplay by Rebecca Hall (from the novel by Nella Larsen), Passing is an hour and 38 minutes long and available via Netflix.
Red Notice (PG-13)
Get cops, thieves and quips in Red Notice, a broad mostly fun adventure comedy starring Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds.
A nice fast food fried chicken sandwich with pickles, a side of fries and maybe a shake or some lemonade: Is it, you know, good? No. But is it good? Yes! Yes, so delicious even though you know it has very little nutritional value and is possibly contributing to long-term health problems. Likewise, is Red Notice contributing to the decline of theatrical distribution by providing, directly to your home, widely appealing or at least widely tolerable entertainment potentially in that four-quadrant sweet spot with big-name stars? Er, possibly. But is this movie good like a hot and crispy meal that comes in a paper bag and doesn’t require any work on your part? Yes, yes it is. Greasy, a little much, but satisfying.
After some extensive exposition explaining the fabled (and fictitious) three bejeweled eggs of Cleopatra, a fancy wedding present from Marc Antony back in antiquity, we meet FBI profiler John Hartley (Johnson) on the trail of Nolan Booth (Reynolds, playing the Ryan Reynolds Character TM that has become his whole shtick), an internationally known luxury-items thief. When Hartley’s paths cross with Booth’s, Booth has just stolen one of those eggs from a museum in Rome. We learn that all of art-thiefdom is likely looking for these eggs, one of which has never been found in modern times, because a wealthy Egyptian is looking to give them to his daughter as a wedding gift and he’s willing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to whomever can bring them to him.
After some fighting and some quipping, Hartley nearly has Booth but then Booth is able to slip away — only for Hartley to follow Booth to his fancy home in Bali and take back the egg. Too easy, thinks Interpol agent Urvashi Das (Ritu Arya), who turns around and arrests Hartley. It seems that his identity, including proof that he works at the FBI, has been erased, possibly the work of The Bishop — a rumored but never identified thief even more successful than Booth. (I’m going to spoil it right now and tell you The Bishop is Gal Gadot, which is only a spoiler if you haven’t seen any movie-related images and have never seen a movie before.) Both Hartley and Booth wind up in a Russian prison and decide that the only way out is to work together to help Hartley catch The Bishop. If he turns her in, Hartley hopes he can restore his good name and Booth hopes that there may be just enough wiggle-away room to score the three Cleopatra eggs himself.
This movie checks all the boxes for this kind of treasure-hunt-with-hot-people affair: We get a variety of international locales, cat-and-mouse scenes between thieves and cops and sometimes between thieves and thieves, and an unlikely partnership in Booth and Hartley leaving room for lots of physical comedy as well as rat-a-tat quips. This movie even has a secret art cache that blends ancient artifacts and stolen-by-Nazis loot. Does this movie underline what it’s doing by having Ryan Reynolds whistle the Indiana Jones theme music? Yes it does. But did I laugh when he and the Rock hunt for the egg and he advises to “look for a box that says ‘McGuffin’”? Yes, yes I did.
Red Notice does not exceed exceptions; it does not do any extra credit with the performances or dialogue or cleverness of the action or plot. But it delivers on the kind of National Treasure-y level (with just enough swear words that I probably wouldn’t show it to a kid younger than 13 or so) that I think it’s aiming for. Red Notice is easy watching and just fun enough to justify the low-bar effort involved in finding it on Netflix. B-
Rated PG-13 for violence and action, some sexual references and strong language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, Red Notice is an hour-and-58- minute-long break from serious thought and is available on Netflix.
Red River Theatres 11 S. Main St., Concord 224-4600, redrivertheatres.org
Regal Fox Run Stadium 15 45 Gosling Road, Newington regmovies.com
Rex Theatre 23 Amherst St., Manchester 668-5588, palacetheatre.org
The Strand 20 Third St., Dover 343-1899, thestranddover.com
Wilton Town Hall Theatre 40 Main St., Wilton wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456
Shows
• The Big Parade (1925), a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Wednesday, Nov. 10, at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey. Tickets start at $10.
• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Thursday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. at the Colonial Theatre in Keene (thecolonial.org). Tickets $15 (free for veterans).
• Spencer (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, Nov. 12, through Sunday, Nov. 14, at 1, 4 & 7 p.m.
• The French Dispatch (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres Friday, Nov. 12, through Sunday, Nov. 14, at 1:30, 4:30 & 7:30 p.m.
• Gojira (1954) the Japanese-language kaiju film introducing Godzilla, will screen with subtitles at Wilton Town Hall Theatre on Friday, Nov. 12, and Saturday, Nov. 13, at 7:30 p.m.
• Judgement at Nuremberg (1961) will screen at Wilton Town Hall Theatre on Friday, Nov. 12, and Saturday, Nov. 13, at 7:30 p.m.
• The Littlest Rebel (1935) starring Shirley Temple and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, will screen at Wilton Town Hall Theatre on Saturday, Nov. 13, at 2 p.m.
• Hot Water (1924) starring Harold Lloyd, a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Sunday, Nov. 14, at 2 p.m. at Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Admission free; $10 donation suggested.
• Sunflowers (2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord on Wednesday, Nov. 17, at 6 p.m.
• Warren Miller’s Winter Starts Now at The Music Hall, Thursday, Nov. 18, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Nov. 19, at 6 and 9 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 20, at 4 & 7 p.m. Tickets start at $28.
Featured photo: Clifford the Big Red Dog. Courtesy photo.
Holiday-themed charcuterie boards that taste as good as they look
603 Charcuterie in late 2020, she started with just filling small takeout orders. A year later she’s teaching weekly classes that keep getting sold out, and she recently expanded into catering larger boards and grazing tables for weddings.
603 Charcuterie of Derry. Courtesy photo.
“This business started because I have always loved making charcuterie boards … just for family parties, birthdays and events,” Zwart said. “It has blown up way more than I thought, and I’ve just been going, going, going, and continuing to add more things on.”
More than just throwing cured meats and cheeses on a platter, creating the most intricate charcuterie boards is all about finding those palates that complement one another. It’s a key part of what Zwart teaches in her classes and what other charcuterie businesses offer in their boards.
The upcoming holiday season is a great time of year to discover these flavor pairings. We spoke with New Hampshire restaurants, shops and charcuterie businesses for tips on how to construct holiday-themed boards that will stand out and taste just as delicious as they look.
Say cheese
Beyond a run-of-the-mill sharp cheddar or colby jack, cheeses varying in flavor, color and consistency will lend themselves to even more added pairings you can play with on your board.
“If you have a soft cheese then you’d want something sweet and fruity to go with it, like a sweet jam. A hard, mild cheese can go with a mustard or something spicy,” Zwart said. “For people who are afraid of venturing out to the fancier cheeses, a manchego or a smoked cheddar is great. Manchego is a cheese from Spain, and the taste of it is kind of like a sharp cheddar mixed with a hard Parmesan. In my classes I call it a gateway cheese, because it’s kind of like the next step.”
Erica Stanford of The Char 603, based in Kingston, said brie is a great choice of cheese if you’re looking to incorporate sweeter or fruitier flavors. Even fancier cheeses, like blueberry goat cheese or cranberry cinnamon goat cheese, take it a step further by adding a fun pop of color.
Granite Slates of Stratham. Courtesy photo.
“I think a lot of times when it comes to cheese, people like to stick to their cheddars or their pepper jacks,” she said, “but there are so many other cheeses that have so much good flavor that you wouldn’t even think about, and they also end up enhancing all the flavors on the board. … Another one that I love is a creamy Toscano cheese, and it’s with syrah, so it has a wine rind on it. It’s got a beautiful purple color and it also tastes amazing.”
With a round cheese like brie you can create themed cutouts in the center of the cheese wheel out of a small cookie cutter, which can then be filled with a sweet jam.
“You’d want to use a cookie cutter that’s smaller than the diameter of the brie, so it doesn’t cut off the edges, and then you’re cutting the whole top off so it’s like a flat cookie,” Zwart said. “Then you can just press your cutter into that top piece, put jam on your bottom piece and place the top part back over it without the little cutout. … Anything sweet and fruity works well. A fig jam is great, or a strawberry rhubarb or apricot jam. Even maple is good.”
When it comes to cured meats, you can stick with a simple genoa salami or soppressata, or go with prosciutto, a sweeter and saltier option that Zwart said goes well on a holiday board. Slices of salami can also be easily transformed into “roses” for additional aesthetic appeal.
“I call them ‘meat flowers,’” she said. “You roll up a slice nice and tight, and then you wrap another one tightly around it and then another and another, and then you start loosening up over time. You loosen them up and just keep wrapping them around, not too symmetrically.”
The Char 603 of Kingston. Charcuterie board in the shape of NH. Courtesy photo.
Additional accoutrements
An artfully crafted charcuterie board may start out with cheeses and salamis, but how you build it from here can really be about making it your own unique creation.
“You can play around with different combinations, and the options are endless,” said Melissa Hayden, co-owner of Granite Slates of Stratham. “Berries, dried fruits, honey and jams bring fresh and sweet flavors, and dark chocolates or cookies are great additions as well.”
For holiday boards, Stanford said, herbs like rosemary, sage or thyme can make great additions when used as garnishes. White chocolate-covered cranberries are also a favorite of hers.
“They are fantastic,” she said. “The great thing about them is that you’re getting the white and the red, but you’re also getting that sweet and slight sour kick.”
No matter the time of year, Zwart’s favorite ingredients to add to boards are pickled items, like kalamata olives and pepperoncinis. But you could even go with dilled green beans or asparagus.
“I think it’s very vegetably, very fall-looking, and would be great for Thanksgiving,” she said. “Grapes are always a good staple too. I feel like most people at gatherings, when they are eating charcuterie, a lot of them are drinking wine, so that’s self-explanatory. Depending on the kind of color scheme, if you’re trying to stick to fall colors, you can use red grapes.”
Another trick you can do is make a flower out of a kiwi fruit, taking a knife and cutting in small zigzag-shaped slices, or what Zwart said is similar to the mouth of a jack-o’-lantern.
As for crackers, Stanford recommends serving them on the side or away from anything moist or wet, like salami or goat cheese.
“One of the things I’ve been working with is using a cupcake liner and putting your crackers in that … and you can get holiday-themed ones too, so that’s an extra fun piece,” she said.
Hayden also said crackers ought to be served on the side, especially if you’re storing your board.
“While most of the ingredients … will remain fresh in the fridge for 24 hours, crackers will not,” she said. “They tend to get soggy and absorb the flavors of everything around them.”
Classes with 603 Charcuterie. Courtesy photo.
Charcuterie classes
If you want to learn some hands-on tricks (while sampling lots of cheese), you can take a charcuterie board-building class led by Theresa Zwart of 603 Charcuterie, based in Derry. She began offering classes at Creative Chef Kitchens this past February, but has since branched out to doing them at area wineries and breweries. Private classes can also be booked.
Participants are provided everything from the ingredients to the tools, right down to the wooden board itself, which can be taken home at the conclusion of each class. From start to finish, classes typically take around an hour and a half to two hours, and Zwart will often change up which types of cheeses, meats and other accoutrements are featured.
“During every class, I teach people how to make a salami rose and some sort of fruit flower,” Zwart said. “Then there’s different ways of arranging everything, and different ways of cutting hard cheeses versus soft cheeses. I’ll talk them through the pairings as well, so for example if you have a soft creamy cheese I’d say you’d want a sweet fruity flavor.”
Two beers or wines are usually factored into each class cost, depending on where it’s being held.
The feedback for her classes has been so great that Zwart said they repeatedly sell out, often with returning participants who then bring a new guest to try them.
“I think people like that it’s a different sort of date night idea or a thing to do,” she said. “It’s kind of similar to a paint night, but it’s even better because you get to eat the finished product.”
Here are a couple of 603 Charcuterie’s upcoming classes, but be sure to check back on their website and Facebook page, as more dates will be announced in the near future. Email 603charcuterie@gmail.com to register.
• Sunday, Dec. 5, at White Birch Brewing (460 Amherst St., Nashua), from 5 to 7 p.m. Tickets are $98. • Tuesday, Dec. 14, at Rockingham Brewing Co. (1 Corporate Park Drive, Derry), from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $98.
Leave it to the pros
If you’d rather order and pick up a ready-to-eat charcuterie board for your next holiday gathering, several local eateries and other businesses have you covered.
Steven Freeman started pushing charcuterie boards when he took over ownership of Angela’s Pasta & Cheese Shop in Manchester in June 2020, but he was making them for decades before then. Each board at Angela’s is built less than 24 hours from when it’s picked up, featuring cheeses sliced in house, and you never know what other additions you might come across.
Local Baskit’s jarcuterie. Photo by Marcella Hoekstra of Tiny Screen Media.
“Fresh local honeycomb is the centerpiece of every one of our charcuterie boards, because the sweetness of the honey is a natural pairing for almost anything,” Freeman said. “What I love about selling charcuterie at the shop is that we get to expose our customers to a bunch of cheeses, or nuts, or fancy items that they wouldn’t have otherwise tried.”
Caperberries, for example, are tart fruits the size of the grapes that you’ll sometimes find. Freeman has also loaded up his boards with marcona almonds, flavored jams and jellies, amarena cherries, European orange peels, and even a special toffee variety he gets locally.
“We interview the customer and ask them what they want,” he said. “Some might say they want more cheese than meat, or they say they don’t want any stinky blues or runny triple creams … so we let them sort of define the parameters and then let us go wild.”
At Local Baskit in Concord, owner Beth Richards said she has begun offering small- and large-sized custom cheese and charcuterie boards, in addition to single-serve “jar-cuteries,” which feature a variety of sweet and savory items portioned individually in small mason jars.
“I’ve been doing the grazing boards for the last two holidays for our subscribers, and last year they really took off,” Richards said. “I saw the jarcuterie on the Today show like everybody else, and decided to make it a line sold year-round. … I think they’re really fun for a book club or some type of small gathering, or they can even be really cute for kids’ birthday parties.”
Fig & Olive out of Milford features four standard boards, each with distinct flavor profiles and cheeses, meats and other accoutrements to match, but owner Danielle Tedford has since introduced other themed options. The brunch board, for instance, consists of brie cheese, fresh fruit and prosciutto along with mini biscuits, a fruit jam and flavored bread slices, while holiday cocoa boards have included candy canes, marshmallows, chocolate chip cookies and more.
“I really love to putting the effort in to bring different flavors together that work, or things that maybe people don’t really think of that would go together,” Tedford said.
NH Bowl & Board. Courtesy photo.
All across the board
Some charcuterie businesses in the state even have local partners for their wooden boards.
Zwart, for instance, sources her boards from Souhegan Wood Design of Amherst, which you get to take home with you after completing a class with 603 Charcuterie. Owner Andy Pearl is a self-taught charcuterie board builder who said he started the business as a side job making one for his own wife. He makes a few different sizes out of maple, birch and cherry hardwood.
Erica Stanford of The Char 603 in Kingston similarly began a partnership with Fox + West, a woodworking company out of Danville, for her own hand-crafted boards.
In Contoocook, New Hampshire Bowl & Board is unique for not only making its own reversible boards — featuring a cutting and carving board on one side, a charcuterie serving board on the other — but also its own charcuterie-themed accessories, from smaller wooden trays to carry your olives or your nuts, to wooden honey dippers and cheese spreaders.
“I think every board should have a little companion with it,” owner Paul Silberman said. “We try to give people the ability to really make it their own. Much of it can be personalized.”
Where to get charcuterie boards, artisan cheese boards and platters
This list includes New Hampshire-based businesses offering custom charcuterie boards ahead of the holiday season, in addition to butcher shops offering meat and cheese platters and restaurants offering artisan cheese and charcuterie boards from their starter menus. Do you know of a local business offering charcuterie or cheese boards or platters that isn’t on this list? Let us know at food@hippopress.com.
• 603 Charcuterie (Derry, 603charcuterie.com, find them on Facebook and Instagram) offers charcuterie boards to go, sourcing nearly all of its items from New Hampshire providers. Owner and founder Theresa Zwart also regularly holds charcuterie board-building classes at area breweries and wineries and, as of last month, is now licensed to provide catering services to weddings and other larger events and parties. Special holiday-themed charcuterie boards are available to order for Thanksgiving and Christmas, for pickup at Creative Chef Kitchens (35 Manchester Road, Derry).
Angela’s Pasta & Cheese Shop of Manchester. Courtesy photo.
• 815 Cocktails & Provisions (815 Elm St., Manchester, 782-8086, 815nh.com) offers charcuterie boards on its starters menu, featuring hand-selected cured meats, cheeses and other accoutrements.
• 900 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria (50 Dow St., Manchester, 641-0900, 900degrees.com) offers an artisanal cheese display with nuts and fresh fruit on its private dining and catering menu, featuring herb-crusted goat cheese, cubed grana padano, provolone, Italian fontina, Gorgonzola, and other soft and hard cheeses. The eatery’s dine-in appetizer menu also has cheese boards with the option to add cured meats like prosciutto, ham or salami.
• Angela’s Pasta & Cheese Shop (815 Chestnut St., Manchester, 625-9544, angelaspastaandcheese.com) takes orders for charcuterie boards, featuring freshly sliced cheeses, cured meats, and other items like nuts, dried fruits and more. Boards are usually available for pickup with a 24- to 48-hour ordering notice.
• Bedford Village Inn (2 Olde Bedford Way, Bedford, 472-2001, bedfordvillageinn.com) offers an artisan local cheese board on its dining room appetizer menu, featuring house-made baguettes, lavash, black pepper walnuts and local honey.
• The Birch on Elm (931 Elm St., Manchester, 782-5365, thebirchonelm.com) has a cheese and charcuterie option with a rotating selection of meats and cheeses, as well as grilled bread and house pickles and preserves.
• Brothers Butcher (8 Spit Brook Road, Nashua, 809-4180; 142 Lowell Road, Hudson, 577-1130; brothers-butcher.com) offers assorted deli platters featuring Boar’s Head meats and cheeses, available in medium (serves 15 to 20 people) and large (serves 25 to 30 people) sizes. Selections can include Genoa salami, hot capicola, prosciutto, honey ham, provolone cheese and more. Order as soon as possible for Thanksgiving — pickups will be available through Wednesday, Nov. 24, at 5 p.m.
• Cask & Vine (1 E. Broadway, Derry, 965-3454, cask.life/cask-and-vine) offers “A Little Something to Nosh On,” featuring a selection of assorted cheeses, salami, dried fruit, hummus, dilly beans, crackers and pita chips.
• Celebrations Distinctive Catering (1017 Second St., Manchester, 888-401-3663, celebrationsmenu.com) offers a handcrafted charcuterie and tapas display (serves five people) featuring organic salmon, sous-vide Magret duck rillettes, prosciutto-wrapped dates stuffed with Gorgonzola and almonds, grilled assorted vegetables and more. Assorted cheese, fruit and vegetable platters (serves 10 people) are also available.
• The Char 603 (Kingston, char603.us, and on Facebook and Instagram @thechar603) offers a variety of themed charcuterie boards to go, available to order online with at least a few days advance notice with local pickups and deliveries.
• Colby Hill Inn (33 The Oaks, Henniker, 428-3281, colbyhillinn.com) offers a local farmers’ cheese and charcuterie plate, which includes four local cheese and two charcuterie selections, plus house-made pickled vegetables, grilled bread, artisanal crackers, and other accoutrements like fig paste and honey.
• Concord Food Co-op (24 S. Main St., Concord, 225-6840, concordfoodcoop.coop) offers a cheese and cracker tray on its catering menu, featuring assorted domestic and imported cheeses that are served with candied pecans and dried cranberries.
• Copper Door Restaurant (15 Leavy Dr., Bedford, 488-2677; 41 S. Broadway, Salem, 458-2033; copperdoor.com) offers a charcuterie and cheese board on its starters menu, featuring hand-selected meats, cheeses and seasonal accompaniments.
• The Crown Tavern (99 Hanover St., Manchester, 218-3132, thecrownonhanover.com) offers a party platter on its starters menu, featuring soppressata, pepperoni, fresh mozzarella cheese, Vermont cheddar, feta, olives and wood oven focaccia.
Fig & Olive of Milford. Courtesy photo.
• Cured and Craved (Auburn, find them on Facebook and Instagram @curedandcraved) takes orders for charcuterie boards to go. The contents of each board may vary depending on availability but will typically include cured meats like prosciutto, salami and pepperoni, goat cheese, brie, sharp cheddar, Gouda and blue cheese, and additional items like Kalamata olives, nuts, and fruits like grapes, dates, kiwis or dragon fruit. Orders can be placed online through the Facebook page, with local pickups and deliveries available.
• Fig & Olive (Milford, figandolivenh.com, and on Facebook and Instagram @figandolive.nh) offers a variety of themed charcuterie boards to go. Selections include classic boards like “The Spicy,” “The Sweet,” “The Savory” and “The Smokey,” while owner Danielle Tedford has also done brunch boards and holiday cocoa boards. An advance ordering notice of at least five days is requested, to be placed online through the website. Boards can be picked up or delivered in Milford or surrounding areas.
• The Flying Butcher (124 Route 101A, Amherst, 598-6328, theflyingbutcher.com) offers deli platters featuring a variety of assorted meats and cheeses, including ham, roast beef, turkey, Genoa salami, and American, Swiss and provolone cheese. At least a week’s advance ordering notice is encouraged.
• The Foundry Restaurant (50 Commercial St., Manchester, 836-1925, foundrynh.com) offers local cheese and charcuterie plates on its starters menu, with the option to add house-made pickles or chef’s choice mixed nuts.
• Granite Slates (Stratham, graniteslates.com, and on Facebook and Instagram @graniteslates) offers charcuterie boards with hand-selected cheeses, meats, assorted crackers, seasonal fruits, nuts and more. Boards are available in three sizes (small, medium and large), with the most popular, the medium, serving four to six people. Ordering is done online, with pickup and delivery options within 25 miles of Stratham. Co-owners Sarah Thibodeau and Melissa Hayden currently have plans to open a retail charcuterie shop, where they hope to offer classes and provide seating to enjoy small boards with locally made baked goods, coffee and tea.
• Greenleaf (54 Nashua St., Milford, 213-5447, greenleafmilford.com) has a local cheese board on its starter menu, usually with other accoutrements like honeycomb, crostini or pickled cucumber.
• Hermit Woods Winery & Deli (72 Main St., Meredith, 253-7968, hermitwoods.com) offers a few charcuterie and cheese board options on its deli menu, featuring a variety of New England-sourced meats, cheeses and spreads that are served with crackers. Ingredients can also be packed individually for you to take home and create your own board with.
• Industry East Bar (28 Hanover St., Manchester, 232-6940, industryeastbar.com) has a charcuterie board on its starters menu that is available in small and large sizes, featuring an assortment of cured meats and cheeses, candied nuts, local honey, crostini, pickles, preserves and whole grain mustard.
• J&B Butcher (259 E. Main St., East Hampstead, 382-0999, jandbbutcher.com) offers a variety of Boar’s Head deli platters on its catering menu, like the Italian festival, featuring mortadella, salami, hot capicola, prosciutto and provolone cheese.
• LaBelle Winery (345 Route 101, Amherst; 14 Route 111, Derry; 672-9898, labellewinerynh.com) offers an artisan cheese board on its holiday catering menu, featuring an assortment of artisanal local cheeses with dried fruit, nuts and The Winemaker’s Kitchen jam that’s served with crackers. Two sizes are available. The deadline has passed to place orders for Thanksgiving, but Christmas orders are now being accepted.
• Local Baskit (10 Ferry St., Concord, 219-0882, localbaskit.com) is now offering custom cheese and charcuterie boards, available for individual orders of small and large grazing platters, as well as individually portioned “jar-cuteries,” featuring sweet or savory items served up in small mason jars. Each order can be custom made with a 24-hour notice or less, depending on volume.
• McKinnon’s Market & Super Butcher Shop (236 N. Broadway, Salem, 894-6328; 2454 Lafayette Road, Portsmouth, 559-5714; mckinnonsmarkets.com) offers several types of cheese platters on its catering menu. The classic cheese platter, for instance, comes in 12- or 16-inch sizes and features hand-cut selections of cheddar, Swiss, pepper jack and colby jack cheeses, and is garnished with red and green seedless grapes and a port wine cheese ball with almonds.
• Moulton’s Kitchen & Market (10 Main St., Amherst, 673-2404, moultonsmarket.com) offers several types of snack platters on its catering menu, including a Calef’s cheese and cracker tray that’s available in small (serves six to eight people) and large (serves 12 to 15) sizes.
• Mr. Steer Meats (27 Buttrick Road, Londonderry, 434-1444, mrsteermeats.com) offers a variety of meat and cheese platters to choose from, including the Italian festival, which features Genoa salami, capicola, mortadella, sopressata, pepperoni, your choice of two cheeses, and prosciutto as an added option. Platter orders require at least a 24-hour notice.
• Palette (Exeter, palettegrazeboards.com, and on Facebook and Instagram @palettegrazeboards) is a sister business of Laney & Lu in Exeter, offering several types of assorted boxes of artisanal cheeses, meats, crackers, fruit and more. They’re taking Thanksgiving orders now with a 48-hour advance notice. Orders must be placed by Nov. 22 for you to receive them by Thanksgiving Day. Free pickups can be made on Wednesday, Nov. 24, at Laney & Lu (26 Water St., Exeter), while deliveries can also be made within a 60-mile radius.
• Presto Craft Kitchen (168 Amory St., Manchester, 606-1252, prestocraftkitchen.com) is taking orders for charcuterie board platters for Thanksgiving, available in several sizes, including small (serves 6 to 10 people), medium (serves 12 to 18 people), large (serves 20 to 30 people) and mega (serves 50). Each board features an assortment of domestic and imported cheeses, along with Italian salumi, berries, crackers and breads. Order by Nov. 19. Pickups will be on Tuesday, Nov. 23, and Wednesday, Nov. 24.
• The Prime Butcher (201 Route 111, Hampstead, 329-7355; 58 Range Road, Windham, 893-2750; primebutcher.com) offers several platters on its catering menu, like a Boar’s Head meat and cheese platter with added garnishes, and an antipasto platter with Italian cold cuts and marinated vegetables.
• Revival Kitchen & Bar (11 Depot St., Concord, 715-5723, revivalkitchennh.com) has a New England-sourced cheese selection on its starters menu, which you can build by choosing add-ons like fennel salami, marcona almonds, marinated olives and more.
• Station 101 (193 Union Sq., Milford, 249-5416, station101nh.com) has a small selection of food items to go with its beer selections, including an assortment of cheeses, meats and crackers.
• TJ’s Deli & Catering (2 Pittsburgh Ave., Nashua, 883-7770, tjsdeliandcatering.com) has a variety of trays and platters on its catering menu, including a tray of assorted cheeses with pepperoni, and an Italian platter that has imported ham, Genoa salami, mortadella, pepperoni and provolone cheese, along with potato salad, pickles, olives and rolls.
• Tomahawk Butchery & Tavern (454 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 365-4960, tomahawktavern.com) offers charcuterie boards featuring four meats and four cheeses, along with bread, honey and bruschetta.
• The Town Cabin Deli & Pub (285 Old Candia Road, Candia, 483-4888, towncabin.com) offers several types of platters on its catering menu, like a cheese and cracker platter with the option to add meats, and an Italian platter available in two serving sizes, with imported mortadella, capicola, salami, pepperoni and provolone, served on greens with marinated artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers and kalamata olives
• The Tuckaway Tavern & Butchery (58 Route 27, Raymond, 244-2431, thetuckaway.com) offers several types of trays and platters on its catering menu, including assortments of meats and cheeses that are available in half tray (serves 15 people) and full tray (serves 25 people) sizes.
603 Charcuterie. Courtesy photo.
Brie cheese and jam cutout Information courtesy of Theresa Zwart of 603 Charcuterie in Derry
• Choose a wheel of brie cheese with a diameter wider than your chosen cookie cutter. • Choose a top side of the brie and carefully cut it off, about ¼ inch thick. You should have a wide circle base and a thin circle top. • Use your cookie cutter to cut the shape in the middle of the thin top piece of your brie. • Carefully remove your cookie cutter, keeping both the outside and the inside of the brie intact. Set aside the inside piece. • Place a scoop of your choice of fruit jam in the center of your large base brie. • Take your thin top piece of brie and place the intact outskirts back on the base (the jam is in the center and showing in the open shape). Gently “squish” the outside edges of your circle to the base to secure the jam in the center. • Place the inside of the brie cut anywhere you want on your board and enjoy.
Featured photo:Angela’s Pasta & Cheese Shop in Manchester. Courtesy photo.
Concord author talks about the inspiration for her award-winning book
A children’s book born out of divorce, a trip to a garden center and an itch to write has won two 2021 Biennial New Hampshire Literary Awards, two years after it was self-published by Kayla Fisher — a surgical technician with “a writer’s heart.”
Rootbound Rescue won the Children’s Picture Book category and the People’s Choice Award in that category, the only book out of the 80-plus submitted to win two awards. It’s about a hellebore rose named Helen who is uprooted from the life she expects and learns how to flourish in her new life with the help of some animal friends.
“She’s packed in the back of a truck, on her way to be planted in a spectacular garden, when the truck hits a bump and she falls off and lands in a ditch,” Fisher said. “A lizard comes … and says, ‘You are where you are. You’re here. This is where you landed, like it or not [so] be here and grow here.’”
The idea for the book came during a trip to a local garden center, when Fisher saw the owner, Dennis, grab a plant that was too big for its pot, tear out some of its overgrown roots, and settle it into a bigger pot.
“It just hit me, this analogy of having your roots ripped up,” she said.
Fisher saw her own life in that moment. Newly divorced, she’d been feeling unrooted herself, worried about how she was going to grow in this new life that she hadn’t expected.
“You put your roots down with a person and it [doesn’t] work and you basically just got torn out of the ground,” she said. “After I saw [Dennis] pull that plant out I thought, that’s my story. It clicked so heavily, it surprised me.”
Fisher wasn’t new to writing; her first career was in marketing and PR, and she wrote for magazines as a freelancer. She took time off to raise her children, but when she was ready to get back into the workforce, technology and social media had changed marketing as she knew it. So she decided to go back to school to get into the medical field.
“I graduated high school 1985, when AIDS was really coming to light, and I really wanted to get into medical research and I really wanted to solve this problem,” she said.
But her English teacher pointed out that her grade in chemistry was a D+ and encouraged her to stick with what she excelled at.
An illustration by Rebeka Chase from Rootbound Rescue.
“She said, ‘That is the gift that you have — go be a writer,’” Fisher said.
So while Fisher transitioned to the medical field and trained to be a surgical technician, it was important to her to continue writing, as a hobby rather than a job.
“I used to write for money, and now I write for love,” she said. “I have a writer’s heart.”
It had been a lifelong dream to write a children’s book, so that’s where her heart took her with Rootbound Rescue. She worked on the book over the course of a year, writing for at least 15 minutes a day.
When the writing piece was done, Fisher reached out to Beka Chase, a graphic designer she’d worked with when doing PR.
“I always stayed in touch with her because she was just brilliant,” Fisher said.
It took a couple of years for the two to finish the book, incorporating the illustrations into the text.
“It was just a really great creative process; she would do these beautiful boards and creative development,” Fisher said. “She was very intuitive. … The characters jumped off the page the way she developed [them].”
The end product isn’t your typical children’s picture book, Fisher said. It’s more than 50 pages long, and the message is one that likely resonates with adults, too. Fisher likened it to the message in Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, and to pretty much any Disney movie, with content and concepts that are more adult but with characters and visuals that are appealing to children.
“I think that for kids it’s an opportunity to look at how you grow and how you have to change,” Fisher said. “[It] has sort of this timeless message of growth.”
Rootbound Rescue was published in July 2019, but Fisher said that was more for herself and her sense of accomplishment. But as a member of the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, she was aware of the biennial New Hampshire Literary Awards, and the 2021 awards accepted for consideration any book written in New Hampshire from 2019 on. So she went for it, and the feedback and two awards were beyond her expectations.
“This is my piece of art, [and] I’ve been thrilled with how it’s been received,” she said.
Knowing that people see value in her book has prompted Fisher to start promoting it, which she had never really done before, so to her it almost feels like the book is newly published. She’s thinking about writing another one, too.
“In my mind I’m working on another children’s book with my 16-year-old daughter, Olivia, [who is] an amazing writer,” Fisher said.
The two of them had been pondering the marvels of their golden retriever’s face one day and started throwing out story ideas. The title, if they do turn it into a book, will be Saggy Baggy Dog Jaw.
“I think she’s working on it in her head too,” Fisher said.
Rootbound Rescue
You can find Kayla Fisher’s children’s book in Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, on Amazon and on lulu.com.
