Category: Food

Church Wedding

It probably goes without saying that the name of this drink is a reference to a particularly awful dad joke.

Why does a melon have to have a church wedding?

Because it can’t elope.

For this drink, step 1 is to get a cantaloupe.

It would be nice to have some sort of assurance that you’ll be able to get your hands on a good one — sweet, a little acidic, maybe with a hint of musk — but in life, love, and cantaloupes, there are no guarantees. Cantaloupes are fickle. You might get three or four great cantaloupes in a row, then have your heart broken by one that tastes like orange cardboard. You might have been inflicted with a handful of duds and you might be considering giving up hope, when infuriatingly a good one will knock you back to Square One, emotionally.

Do your best. Squeeze the melons. Smell them. Take whichever of them gives you a whisper of a promise.

Secondly, you’ll want a little 2-ounce bottle of fruit-flavored liqueur, like the ones you get on airplanes. You can find a rack of them near the checkout at a liquor store. If you’re like me, over time you’ll find yourself buying little bottles of exotic booze on impulse, and before you know it you’ll find yourself with a drawerful of schnapps and flavored whiskeys that you’ve never gotten around to doing anything with. Today one of them will have its Big Day.

Today’s special cameo performance will be played by (drumroll) pineapple schnapps.

  • 2-ounce bottle pineapple schnapps
  • 2 ounces fresh cantaloupe juice – Scoop out the inside of a fresh cantaloupe, seeds and all, and puree it in your blender, then strain it through a fine-mesh strainer. More than one, if you have them.
  • 1 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice – about half a large lime
  • 2 ounces plain club soda or seltzer

Combine cantaloupe juice, lime juice, and the contents of your tiny bottle of fruit-flavored liqueur with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake thoroughly, until you hear the ice start to break up into tiny shards.

Strain over fresh ice in a Collins glass, then top with club soda and stir gently.

Drink this with a straw.

Tasting fruity, and a little acidic, and a little zippy from the carbonation, this is a very good drink to have while petting your dog.

If you own a collie, you can call this your Melon Collie Baby.

Featured photo: Raspberry + chocolate. Photo by John Fladd.

Mexican focus, West Side home

Jorge’s Mexican Grill opens in Manchester

The new Mexican restaurant on Manchester’s West Side has history.

“This [building] opened in 1910,” George Sklavounos said. “It was a movie theater. I had customers tell me today that they printed their wedding cards here because it used to be a print shop after the theater. I met an old man — his name is George as well — he’s in his 90s, and he was telling me he used to come here and for 45 cents he would get his popcorn, he would get his pop soda, and he would sit here and watch four hours of movies. This was in 1956. There’s history in the building. We found the building, then realized the depth of its history and took care of it. We have completely gutted the building. fixed its bones and then put skin on it.”

Now it is a Mexican restaurant. Jorge’s Mexican Grill is Sklavounos’s latest project. Sklavounos is the owner of Giorgio’s Cocktails & Eatery in Nashua, Milford and Manchester. Jorge’s is directly across the street from his existing Manchester restaurant and has come after a lot of hard thought and research, Sklavounos said.

“I did a lot of research about San Diego,” he said, “which is kind of the birthplace of the burrito in the United States. I started doing research about what grows in Mexico, what makes it Mexican.” It was important to him, he said not to lump all of Mexico’s many cuisines together.

“It’s like the way that different things grow in different parts of Italy. Different topography, different soil and different earth are going to produce different foods. I went down to Mexico; I met with the cooks in the kitchens because that’s the best place to get a sense of the reality of a cuisine. And I came back here and started purchasing ingredients and playing with them — understanding what all those peppers are, the processes that they put in their peppers, why some are smoky, what different peppers are used for.”

“Then,” he said, “we started building a menu.”

For his new restaurant, Sklavounos said, he wanted to work with a limited number of ingredients to start with.

“We have 15 to 20 items that we prep here,” he said. “When you have a few ingredients you can really, really knock them all out of the park. So our chorizo bacon black beans is one item that you can focus on making the best that you can. We use imported spices and Mexican oregano and epazote and the dried peppers. We make our own chili-lime powder. We do make our own pickles — carrot, onion and jalapeño pickles — which is a staple in burrito shops in San Diego. We’ve developed a couple of nice salsas,”

The tightly focused number of ingredients means the Jorge’s menu is equally tightly focused — concentrating on tacos, burritos and Mexican bowls for its main courses.

“But we also make fresh churros and we stuff them,” Sklavounos said. “We have a Boston cream churro. And my pastry chef makes all of our paletas [a frozen Mexican dessert that looks like but is not a popsicle]. And we’re serving Mexican coffees and drinks.”

Sklavounos said he has taken a cue from the restaurant’s location and focused it on the neighborhood’s community.

“We’re on the West Side [of Manchester],” he said. “As you get to the West Side we’re the very first place you see. I think they built the original theater here for that reason.”

Jorge’s Mexican Grill
Where: 290 Granite St., Manchester, 854-5970, jorges.com
When: Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Featured photo: Jorges. Photo by John Fladd.

Pubs and pups

Humane Society holds its weekend-long Pup Crawl

What would it take to be entered into a special type of raffle, a raffle with prizes you can’t buy for yourself? In the case of the 2026 Pup Crawl, it would involve petting dogs and drinking beer.

Olivia Ross from the Humane Society for Greater Nashua described the three-day fundraiser. “It’s not a traditional pub crawl,” she said. “We call it our Pup Crawl as a play on words. But really it’s a weekend-long event for folks who want to support local breweries, but also it is a dog-friendly event.”

Every stop along the Pup Crawl is a pro-dog brewery, she said. “We’ve chosen places that allow dogs on the outdoor patios or inside the breweries so that we get a lot of dog lovers who come through. It’s a great time for people to get together to celebrate and enjoy some good beer and some good food.”

It starts by buying a ticket on the Humane Society website, Ross said. “We sell tickets through our website, which is hsfn.org for, $25 per person. You do have to be 21 or older, of course, to purchase them. That money goes straight to the shelter, so it’s helping our animals right now who are currently awaiting adoption. And with that ticket you receive your Pup Crawl T-shirt and what we call our ‘Pawsport,’ which is a brochure with all the brewery and event info located on it.”

Throughout the weekend, each Pup Crawler will visit whichever and however many of the participating breweries they want to, Ross said. “So when they visit a brewery and they make a purchase, whether that’s for food or drink or even merchandise, they will get a stamp on that Pawsport from one of the staff members. And when we have our finale event on Sunday they’ll pass their Pawsport in and receive raffle tickets for each stamp that they’ve got on their Pawsport.”

The prizes for the raffles vary, Ross said, from things you might expect, like branded swag from participating breweries, to things a little harder to come by.

“One of the prizes is four tickets to a pre-season Patriots game,” she said. The most noteworthy prize is something much more personal. “This will be our third year doing this raffle where folks can enter to have their dog featured on next year’s Pup Crawl T-shirt. You can see this year’s T-shirt on our website. Our model is Miss Biscuit. She is an adorable cattle dog mix, and she’s just got a perfect little face for the T-shirt. She and her mom attend Pup Crawl each year, so she was very excited to win the raffle last year and have Biscuit featured on this year’s shirt.”

This year’s Pup Crawl will start on Friday, July 17, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Able Ebenezer Brewing in Merrimack.

“Our finale or closer will be at AJ’s Sports Bar and Grill in Hudson,” Ross said. “We used to host our finales at Anheuser-Busch in Merrimack, but unfortunately the location closed down. We visited AJ’s in Hudson and met with one of the managers there. They were so kind. They actually offer a doggy-friendly menu. You can order food and drink for yourself, but you can also order dog-friendly items like grilled chicken and plain rice for your dog. During the finale, along with the raffle, we’re also going to have a lure course that the dogs can participate in. Basically it is a white bag that’s attached to this zip line that sticks to the ground. Some dogs stay very focused and they run and follow the bag. It’s great exercise. Some of them will even catch the bag. And then you get the dogs like mine who get distracted and just wander off in the field or they just like to roll around in the grass.”

The Humane Society for Greater Nashua’s annual Pup Crawl
When and where: begins Friday, July 17, at 4 p.m. at Able Ebenezer Brewing Co. (31 Columbia Circle, Merrimack, 844-223-2253, ableebenezer.com) and ends Sunday, July 10, at AJ’s Sports Bar (11 Tracy Lane, Hudson, 708-1102, ajs-sportsbar.com). Visit participating breweries in between.
More: hsfn.org/pup-crawl

Featured photo: Pup Crawl pup. Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 26/7/09

• Lavender date night: Lavender Fields at Pumpkin Blossom Farm (393 Pumpkin Hill Road, Warner, 456-2443, pumpkinblossomfarm.com) will host a Sunset Date Night in the Field, Friday, July 10, from 7 to 9 p.m. Share a sunset in the lavender fields at Pumpkin Blossom Farm picking lavender, eating a curated picnic, and drinking lavender-infused mocktails and Champagne. Tickets are $249 through the farm’s website.

• Sweet summer cookie decorating: Practice intermediate cookie decorating skills in a beautiful garden studio setting in Brookline. This class, taught by Make Sweet Art, is recommended for adults who have basic cookie decorating skills already. This event will take place Saturday, July 11, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in a private garden or an indoor studio, depending on the weather. Tickets are $69.82 through eventbrite.com.

• Cake and gardens are a perfect combination: The Sugar Connection Bakeshop (thesugarconnectionbakeshop.com) will lead a garden party cake workshop Sunday, July 12, at noon, guiding guests through decorating their own garden-inspired cake, sharing tips and techniques along the way. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, this workshop is all about having fun, sharing tips, and getting creative with yummy treats. Tickets are $55.20 at sapphiresocialnh.com.

• Wine, yoga, and Dave Matthews are another good combination: On Monday, July 13, from 1 to 5 p.m., join Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) and Blossom Yoga (120 N. Main St., Concord, 226-9642, blossomyoganh.com) for a celebration in Bicentennial Square of everything Dave Matthews Band. There will be free wine-tasting, yoga, and other Matthewsian celebrations. Visit wineonmainnh.com/event for details.

• Teens, tweens and basil: There will be a meeting of the Teen/Tween Spice Club at the Nashua Public Library (2 Court St., Nashua, 589-4600, nashualibrary.org) Tuesday, July 14, from 2 to 3 p.m. Discover a new spice or herb each month through tasting simple recipes and hands-on food exploration. This month the club is featuring basil, a versatile herb used in cuisines around the world. Sample a variety of basil-inspired treats, make your own refreshing basil lemonade, and explore the many ways this fragrant herb can add flavor to food and drinks. You’ll also take home a recipe to try in your own kitchen.

• A cupcake and martini explosion: The martini and cupcake pairing at the Copper Door (15 Leavy Drive, Bedford, 488-2677, or 41 S. Broadway, Salem, 458-2033, copperdoor.com) in July is themed around fireworks. The Fireworks Finale Martini is made with whipped cream vodka, white chocolate liqueur, Triple-Eight blueberry vodka, blueberry syrup and cream, with a blueberry garnish, for $14.75. The Fireworks Finale Cupcake is a blueberry cupcake with blueberry puree filling, vanilla frosting, a fresh blueberry, and gold star candy sprinkles, for $12.

Raspberry cake with raspberry ganache

Chocolate and raspberries are a classic combination. What makes this particular cake so very raspberry-y is that it is flavored with actual freeze-dried raspberries, not raspberry flavoring. There is lemon zest to brighten the flavor, and actual chocolate for chocolateyness. The rainbow unicorns will appear independently.

Cake

  • 1⅓ cups (300 g, 2 cubes + 5 Tablespoons) butter
  • 1⅓ cups (266 g) granulated sugar
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
  • ¾ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ⅓ cup (80 g) milk
  • 1 envelope (1.2 ounces or 34 g) freeze-dried raspberries

Ganache

  • ⅓ cup (80 g) heavy cream
  • 8.8 ounces (250 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • Another 1.2 ounces (34 g) envelope of freeze-dried raspberries

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and sugar a Bundt pan.

Grind each envelope of freeze-dried raspberries. Sift with a fine-mesh sifter to remove seeds. Set each aside.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and raspberry powder together. Set Team Pink aside.

Cream the butter, lemon zest and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla. Spoon the dry ingredients into the mix, then the milk.

Transfer the pink batter to the Bundt pan, one large spoonful at a time, then smooth the blobs out. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until the cake reaches an internal temperature of 200°F. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes or so, then flip it out onto a serving plate, and cool for another hour or so.

After you’ve dusted your mahjong trophies or written a Portuguese love poem, return to the kitchen.

Heat the chocolate and cream in a microwave-safe bowl for a few seconds at a time — 30 seconds, then 20, then 10, etc. — stirring each time, until combined and silky. Stir in the remaining raspberry powder, then spoon the ganache over the cake. Don’t worry if it’s drippy; it’s supposed to be.

Give the ganache a few minutes to set up, then cut slices, and serve with ice cream, or very cold milk.

Featured photo: Raspberry + chocolate. Photo by John Fladd.

Ice cream sandwiches for all

Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream has Happy Cake too

Jennifer Belmore was making a Happy Cake Bowl.

“I make cake pretty much every day here,” Belmore said, as she cut a slab of chocolate sheet cake from a baking pan and cut it into cubes. “Right now I have chocolate cake and funfetti to put at the bottom of a bowl. and then you get to pick your ice cream. You get to pick a hot topping and then it’s covered in whipped cream and sprinkles and a cherry. It’s a hybrid sundae per se — kind of like a throwback to your younger days when you were a birthday boy or girl and you had your cake and ice cream. We got away from it for some reason. And who doesn’t love cake and ice cream?”

Belmore opened Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream & Dessert Creations in Merrimack in April,

“I opened April 18. And business has been good so far,” she said. Her vision is to serve ice cream with a different spin on things. “My background is in baking,” she said. “I was trained as a French pastry chef, and I’ve always wanted to have a bakery. And so, fast-forward all these years later, and I have the attitude of, ‘What goes better with baked goods than ice cream?”

Belmore bought an existing ice cream shop on Daniel Webster Highway in Merrimack. “It already had the right footprint,” she said, “and I just had to add an oven, and voila! Here I am.”

At this point, Belmore put cubes of chocolate cake in the bottom of a bowl, setting several off to the side, and scooped ice cream on top of the bowl-cake. At any given time Sweet Bel’s offers more than 30 choices of ice cream.

“Our ice cream comes from Shain’s of Maine, up in Sanford, Maine,” she said, “a small little place.” This time Belmore chose banana ice cream to go over the cake cubes. Given the choice of chocolate, marshmallow, caramel, peanut butter or strawberry sauces, she chose peanut butter to go over the two scoops of ice cream.

“This is probably one of the best combinations,” Belmore said with a nod. “This and our peanut butter cup sundae; everyone loves peanut butter and chocolate.” She said she really likes making Happy Cake Bowls. “There’s something very satisfying about them,” she said. “My favorite ice cream probably changes by the week, but right now, it’s Turtles — vanilla [ice cream] with chocolate chips, cashews, and swirled with caramel. It’s so good; I like the texture. And then chocolate peanut butter is probably my second favorite.”

Scooped ice cream and sundae’s make up a large part of Belmore’s sales, she said, but her particular specialty is custom ice cream sandwiches.

“We do custom ice cream sandwiches,” she said. “I bake cookies every day and then you can pick your cookie, your ice cream.” Baking two types of cookies per day means that a customer might have more than 60 different ice cream sandwich combinations to choose from.

Belmore covered the sundae in the Happy Cake Bowl with whipped cream, then crumbled the remaining cake over the top. She examined the bowl carefully, then added a cherry, and sprinkles, then nodded again.

Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream & Dessert Creations
Where: 608 DW Highway, Merrimack, 670-2161, sweetbels.com
When: open seven days a week during the summer, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Featured photo: Happy Cake Bowl from Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream. Photo by John Fladd.

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