Winter should be winding down at this point, but fresh local produce is still months away in New Hampshire. However, with a little creativity, you can enjoy treats that are full of summer flavors.
These cookies are reminiscent of summer, thanks to the addition of freeze-dried strawberries. This ingredient is the most important to consider when shopping for this recipe. You cannot use fresh or dried strawberries. Fresh strawberries have too much moisture, and dried strawberries would be chewy. However, freeze-dried strawberries are perfect, as the flavor is intense, and their crispness allows them to be diced easily.
The other ingredient of note is the white chocolate chips. They add a nice contrast of sweetness to the strawberries. Together they mimic a strawberry shortcake topped with whipped cream.
The cookies puff up when baking but flatten out while cooling. Don’t be alarmed when you return to check on them. They still are perfect. The cookies should have a moist and tender interior with a slightly crispy edge.
Now you can enjoy the flavors of summer even on a chilly day!
The berry best cookies Makes 20
½ cup unsalted butter softened ½ cup granulated sugar ½ cup light brown sugar 1 large egg ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 1⅓ cup all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda ¼ teaspoon salt 1 cup freeze-dried strawberries diced ½ cup white chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream butter and both sugars on speed 2 for 4 minutes. Add egg, beating to incorporate. Add vanilla, and mix. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and mix until incorporated. Add diced, freeze-dried strawberries and white chocolate chips, stirring until combined. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place heaping teaspoonfuls of batter on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until bottoms are golden. Transfer to a baking rack to cool completely.
Featured photo: The berry best cookies. Photo by Michele Pesula Kuegler.
Mike McDade of Hollis is the owner and founder of Saucehound (saucehoundbbq.com, amazon.com/saucehound and on Facebook and Instagram), offering two craft barbecue sauces and spice rubs each. A native of Billerica, Mass., and an award-winning competitive barbecuer, McDade got his start in the world of barbecue sauces and rubs originally as a side business before deciding to jump in full-time after the start of the pandemic. The company’s name and logo, he said, are inspired by his pet bulldog, Chunk. “He was the face of the barbecue team,” McDade said. “He would just sit there next to me for hours on end, while I cooked barbecue, and stare at the smoker.” Saucehound’s products — which include the Original Recipe competition barbecue sauce and rub, and the “Naughty Dog” sauce and rub, featuring habanero and jalapeno peppers — are available in several locations across New Hampshire and Massachusetts. See saucehoundbbq.com/findus for a full list of stores.
What is your must-have kitchen item?
I would say my cast iron pan. … Whatever you’re cooking, it’s just such a great tool to have.
What would you have for your last meal?
Really good pizza, and a side of burnt ends.
What is your favorite local restaurant?
Hollis Country Kitchen. They have a corned beef hash eggs Benedict, and it is unbelievable.
What celebrity would you like to see trying one of your products?
It’s got to be Guy Fieri — he’s the mayor of Flavortown! A lot of people pay attention to him and I would just love to see him taste my sauce and then see that spiky blonde hair get blown back. … I actually met him once. He’s a super nice guy. He was at the 2011 Jack Daniel’s world barbecue championship.
What is your favorite product that you offer?
I love my sauces, but in my own cooking in my house the rubs are what I use the most. … My favorite, because I like a little bit of heat, is the Naughty Dog rub. What I like it on the most is a BLT. … I’ll usually just fry bacon in a pan the way you normally would, and then as soon as I take it out of the grease, I’ll sprinkle the rub on there and then let it sit and kind of melt in for a minute or so. The extra flavor on the bacon with a good classic BLT is awesome.
What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?
I do think the explosion of mobile options is interesting. I’m sure Covid had something to do with that, but there was a big trend in food trucks and stuff like that even before Covid hit.
What is your favorite thing to cook at home?
Pizza. I make my own sauce, and I usually make my own dough but in a pinch I’ll go pick up a dough from the supermarket. … I love pizza in general, but my kids absolutely love mine, and both of them like to help out with me in the kitchen.
Saucehound BLT Courtesy of Mike McDade of Saucehound
2 slices of bread of choice Romaine or iceberg lettuce Tomato slices Mayonnaise Bacon Saucehound BBQ rub (“Naughty Dog” rub recommended for an extra zip)
For the bacon: Fry bacon in a pan as normal. As soon as it comes out of the pan, while still hot, sprinkle both sides with the Saucehound barbecue rub and cover with tin foil to let the spices soak in. Alternatively, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, season both sides of the bacon with the rub and bake at 425 degrees or until the desired crispiness is reached.
Very lightly toast the bread so that it’s warm but still soft. Apply a generous amount of mayonnaise to both bread slices. Put down a layer of lettuce on one slice, then cut enough slices of tomato to form your second layer. Place the bacon on top of the tomato slices. Top with your second slice of bread and cut diagonally.
Featured photo: Mike McDade, owner and founder of Saucehound. Courtesy photo.
When George “Rocky” Burpee of Loudon decided he was in the mood for some homemade bacon one day in February 2021, he couldn’t have imagined the kind of career trajectory it would set off for him in just a few short years. By the end of that summer, he quit his day job to sell his own small-batch bacon at several local farmers markets. A butcher shop-like retail space featuring an expanded line of his scratch-made bacon-themed foods then arrived in the former Smokeshow Barbeque storefront in Concord the following spring.
Now, Burpee has expanded even further, this time in the form of a full-service breakfast menu. Shaker Road Provisions, named after his home street where the bacon venture all started, now offers a variety of scratch-cooked breakfast items five days a week. Plans are in the works to acquire a liquor license for serving brunch cocktails, mostly on Saturdays.
“My wife, Laura [Munyon], and I had always wanted to have a restaurant,” Burpee said. “When the farmers markets ended back in October, we thought, well, why don’t we look into doing a little breakfast place to sort of supplement the income until the markets start up again. … Ever since we opened here, people have come in looking for food, and we had always been kind of on the edge of like, ‘Hey, this is something we can do.’”
You’ll still be able to get bacon slices and bacon bits at the shop, as well as the bacon burgers, bacon macaroni and cheese, chicken salad and other bacon-infused items Burpee has sold out of his deli case since opening the shop last April. But now the space’s interior has been rearranged to accommodate four small tables for dining, and there are plans to incorporate a few more.
“You won’t find English muffins or bagels or breakfast sandwiches like that. Our main focus is on our waffles,” Burpee said of the new breakfast menu. “We make an amazing waffle here in house, Eggo-sized for reference, and we do breakfast sandwiches with those.”
Each menu item, he added, is named after the place where it originated from. The Concord, for example, is their signature sandwich, featuring a sausage patty, a fried egg and Vermont cheddar cheese served between two house-made apple cider waffles. Then there’s the Costa Rican, a breakfast burrito that’s stuffed with authentic Latin American rice, scrambled egg, Cotija cheese, avocado, grilled onions and peppers and Burpee’s own bacon. That one, Burpee said, is served with a side of fresh pineapple salsa that he makes himself.
“I wanted to recreate our favorite burrito that we had when we were down in Costa Rica, and so I worked hard to make it … as close as I could to the way they made it down there,” he said.
Specials are switched up every Friday. Those options have included everything from a breakfast quesadilla with egg, cheese, bacon, sausage, peppers, onions and a side of house pineapple habanero hot sauce to a corned beef hash wrap, featuring chopped and grilled homemade brisket with diced potatoes, roasted garlic, sauteed onions, eggs and cheese in a flour tortilla. Burpee has even done his own Sloppy Joe eggs, complete with scratch-made hollandaise sauce and cheesy garlic and onion hash browns on the side, and bacon “steak” and eggs, using half-inch-thick pieces of bacon that are slow-cooked.
“Our hope is that as this gets bigger, if we can get breakfast to where it’s a little bit busier … we want to transition into doing lunch as well,” Burpee said. “That’s our goal right now, is to do breakfast and lunch, and then especially for the weekend, to get a liquor license so we can bring in bloody marys and mimosas and stuff like that.”
Shaker Road Provisions’ presence at farmers markets will continue this year — the company participates in the Concord and Salem outdoor markets during the summer, and may be picking up one or two more depending on how the application process goes.
“We’ve got a girl that works for me … who is basically going to take over the bacon business, so she’ll be doing the marinating, smoking, slicing and packaging, and then she’ll be going to the farmers markets for us,” Burpee said. “That way, my wife and I are basically running the breakfast thing. So both things will still exist, but as we get into the market season they’ll kind of separate into their own entities.”
Shaker Road Provisions Where: 89 Fort Eddy Road, Suite 2, Concord Hours: Tuesday and Wednesday, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Thursday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. — breakfast is served from 6 to 11 a.m. during the week and from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays More info: Visit shakerroadprovisions.com, find them on Facebook and Instagram @shakerroadprovisions or call 856-7400
Featured photo: Breakfast quesadilla. Photo courtesy of Shaker Road Provisions.
Milford husband-and-wife chef team takes over Pavilion in Wolfeboro
In just a few short years Chris Viaud has established himself as a leading New Hampshire chef, beginning in the spring of 2019 with Greenleaf, the seasonally inspired, locally sourced farm-to-table restaurant off the Milford Oval. Last fall, following more than a year of hosting successful monthly pop-up dinners, Viaud and his family opened Ansanm just one street over, offering authentic Haitian cuisine on a regular basis for the first time along with some new items.
Along the way, Viaud has picked up a James Beard Award nomination, and he even traveled to Portland, Oregon, to compete on Season 18 of Bravo’s Top Chef, which aired in 2021.
Now, Viaud is building on his success even further, this time up in New Hampshire’s Lakes Region. He’s the new owner and executive chef of Pavilion Food & Spirits in Wolfeboro, and his wife, Emilee, will serve as the eatery’s executive pastry chef. Pavilion is scheduled to reopen with the Viauds at the helm on Thursday, March 23, and will start with dinner service from Thursday through Sunday. Reservations are preferred, with walk-ins possible depending on availability. Starting around mid-May, days of operation will likely expand from Wednesday through Sunday.
Chris Viaud. Courtesy photo.
The new acquisition is something of a full-circle moment for Viaud, who originally toured the space that is now Pavilion some five years back, prior to opening Greenleaf. Pavilion opened in December 2020 and is directly adjacent to Wolfeboro’s Pickering House Inn, its name in honor of the town’s Pavilion Hotel, which was built in the mid-1800s by Daniel Pickering.
“It was probably back in about August or September when the owners of Pavilion had presented the opportunity of doing a collaboration between their project and ours,” Viaud said. “They saw the incredible growth that we’ve been having, and we’ve been communicating back and forth not about the possibility of doing a partnership, but more of a transfer of ownership. … It’s definitely a wonderful addition to everything that we’ve been building over the past few years.”
At Pavilion, Viaud plans to unveil a menu that, like Greenleaf’s, will reflect ingredients from local farmers and vendors that change across New England’s seasons. Among the available items out of the gate are beef tartare, roasted pork loin, smoked clam and coconut curry chowder, scallop crudo, confit delicata squash and crispy skin duck breast.
“Greenleaf, I would say, is more of an upscale casual comfort fine dining [experience], whereas Pavilion offers a higher-end type of dining,” Viaud said. “I will transfer that same kind of relationship that I’ve built with all the farmers … and [we’ll be] expanding from southern New Hampshire all the way to northern New Hampshire, and in Maine, as we’re heading closer to the border. … So we’re definitely going to focus on … just doing the best that we can to incorporate all of those ingredients into the dishes that are presented in an extremely beautiful fashion.”
Emilee Viaud, meanwhile, will oversee Pavilion’s pastry program. She plans to keep her own business, Sweet Treats by Emilee, on the side for now, until the return of hot cocoa bomb season.
Despite Pavilion’s being more than 70 miles north of his two Milford restaurants, Viaud said it will remain business as usual at both Greenleaf and Ansanm — earlier this year he named Justin O’Malley the new chef de cuisine of Greenleaf, while at Ansanm his parents, Myrlene and Yves, primarily run the back of the house. His sister, Kassie, serves as the director of operations across all of the brands under the Northern Comfort Hospitality Group umbrella.
“Chef Justin … has built an incredible support staff behind him who is continuing to elevate and execute his vision in terms of that kind of upscale comfort dining that he has going,” Viaud said. “Emilee and I have this crazy schedule of running back and forth between northern New Hampshire and southern New Hampshire, just making sure that everything is continuing to run smoothly across all companies. It’s a lot to kind of take on, but we’re excited for the opportunities and just tackling each journey as it comes.”
Part of the acquisition of Pavilion, he added, allows them to work exclusively with the owners of the Pickering House Inn on some of their dining projects. Overall, Viaud said it represents not only a unique opportunity for the continued growth of his company, but an opportunity to continue to keep the Granite State on the map as a respected culinary destination.
“Having the ability to expand from southern New Hampshire to northern New Hampshire just really enforces what we’ve been trying to build,” he said, “just trying to kind of elevate the cuisine and push the envelope, to which people have a more inviting and enticing dining experience.”
Northern Comfort Hospitality Group Here’s a look at each of the restaurant brands under the Northern Comfort Hospitality Group umbrella, owned and operated by Chef Chris Viaud.
Ansanm 20 South St., Milford, 554-1248, ansanmnh.com Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 8 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. Ansanm, which gets its name from the word meaning “together” in Haitian Creole, opened in October 2022 in the former Wicked Pissah Chowdah storefront on South Street. The eatery continues the success of the Viaud family’s restaurant concept following nearly a year and a half of hosting monthly pop-up dinners, featuring staples like griot (marinated pork) and poule nan sós (braised chicken in Creole sauce) in addition to some new spins on classic flavors.
Greenleaf 54 Nashua St., Milford, 213-5447, greenleafmilford.com Hours: Monday through Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m. Greenleaf is a seasonally inspired farm-to-table restaurant that opened in the former space of an old 19th-century bank in May 2019. The menu changes all the time, and that’s because it’s based on what the chefs can get for product from the farms they partner with. But you’ll almost always find some type of beef, pork, chicken, duck or vegetarian dish. In January of this year, Lowell, Mass., native and Culinary Institute of America graduate Justin O’Malley was named Greenleaf’s new chef de cuisine.
Pavilion Food & Spirits 126 S. Main St., Wolfeboro, 393-0851, pavilionwolfeboro.com (reopening March 23) Anticipated hours: Thursday through Sunday, 5 to 9 p.m.; expanded hours likely coming soon Directly adjacent to Wolfeboro’s Pickering House Inn, Pavilion Food & Spirits opened in December 2020. The restaurant gets its name in honor of the town’s Pavilion Hotel, which was built in the mid-1800s by Daniel Pickering. Earlier this month, Chris Viaud of Northern Comfort Hospitality Group announced the company’s acquisition of Pavilion — he’ll serve as the eatery’s owner and executive chef, while his wife, Emilee, will run its pastry program.
Featured photo: Pavilion Food & Spirits in Wolfeboro. Courtesy photo.
• A wine wonderland: Join the Bookery (844 Elm St., Manchester) in welcoming LaBelle Winery owner and winemaker Amy LaBelle on Sunday, March 26, from 4 to 6 p.m — she’ll be there to present her recently released debut book, Wine Weddings: The Ultimate Guide to Creating the Wine-Themed Wedding of Your Dreams. At a total of 10 chapters, the book offers advice on planning and hosting weddings of every size and type, covering everything from choosing invitation designs and wedding favors to creating your own menu of signature drinks and wine choices. It’s also filled with photographs taken at weddings hosted at both of the winery’s locations, in Amherst and Derry, and LaBelle even shares the details that went into planning her own wedding. Admission is free and the event will include a free wine tasting at the conclusion of LaBelle’s presentation. Visit bookerymht.com.
• Spring into flavor: Enjoy the flavors of a new season at a special Welcoming Spring grand tasting on Saturday, March 25, from 3 to 5 p.m. at Beer & Wine Nation (360 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack). More than 50 varieties of beer, wine and ready-to-drink cocktails will be available to sample from around 10 different vendors. Admission is free and open to all attendees over the age of 21. Beer & Wine Nation, which opened June 2021 inside Merrimack’s 360 Shopping Plaza, features one of the largest selections of beer, wine and ready-to-drink cocktails under one roof in the area, with more than 2,000 craft and domestic beers and more than 1,300 from around the world. Visit beerandwinenation.com or follow them on Facebook and Instagram @bwnmerrimack to keep up with the newest product arrivals.
• Pizza at Presto: Manchester’s Presto Craft Kitchen (168 Amory St.) is introducing a pop-up craft pizza menu, which will be available on Thursday, March 23, from 11 a.m. to 7:45 p.m., while supplies last, in addition to its regular menu. Specialty options will include, among others, the three-cheese House Pie with aged balsamic and basil; the Hungry Hornet, featuring locally sourced honey, pepperoni and a secret “stinger” seasoning; and the Dracula, which has garlic cream, provolone, fresh mozzarella, confit garlic and aged balsamic. According to a recent Facebook post announcing the pop-up menu, the goal is to begin offering it on a monthly basis. Visit prestocraftkitchen.com or find them on Facebook @prestocraftkitchennh to view the menu.
• Seventeen years in the making: Save the date for a special apple brandy release party at Flag Hill Distillery & Winery (297 N. River Road, Lee) on Friday, April 7, at 7 p.m. The event celebrates the release of Flag Hill’s apple brandy, which has been slowly aging for 17 years — in addition to a cocktail hour with upscale hors d’oeuvres and sample sips of the brandy, there will be live music and a three-course meal, featuring your choice of peppercorn-crusted filet or chickpea and kale portabella as an entree. Tickets are $80 per person and the dress code is cocktail attire. Visit fhapplebrandy.eventbrite.com to reserve your spot.
Spring means a lot of different things to different people:
Flowers
Mud
Taxes
Bunnies
Spring Break
When I was a college student, back in the Late Cretaceous, I had strong feelings about Spring Break. I had heard the stories about 24-hour beach parties, bacchanalian excess and overcrowded hotel rooms. I had dreams of going on a proper Spring Break, but each year I ended up broke and crashing on various friends’ couches, teaching them how to make piña coladas.
Admittedly, I was something of a low achiever in college. I was not smooth or popular. I never made the dean’s list. I did not break any hearts. I didn’t write much poetry.
What I did do, however, was master the art of making a piña colada. I prized my blender and through sheer repetition and practice could measure out the ice, rum, pineapple juice and coconut cream by eye, and make a roomful of college students with low standards very happy.
“Who’d you invite over, tonight?”
“Rick, Bob, Hugo, those three girls and their friends.”
“And—”
“And Fladd.”
“Ugh. Really?”
“And his blender.”
“Oh, OK, then.”
From time to time I’m tempted to make one of those college piña coladas, but just as there are television shows from my youth that I won’t watch for fear that Adult Me will hate them, I’ve been too afraid to make one.
But it is spring.
What if I made something that Adult Me would think tasted like spring but at the same time was strange enough that College Me would cautiously approve of it?
I give you —
The Pea-ña Colada!!!
2 ounces pea-infused rum (see below)
1 ounce pineapple juice
1 ounce coconut rum – I like Malibu or Coconut Jack for this.
½ ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
¼ to ½ ounce simple syrup, depending on how sweet you would like this
Put on your most garish shirt, preferably something that will utterly humiliate your children.
Combine all ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker. Tell your digital assistant to play “Margaritaville” at Volume 8. (Granted, you aren’t actually making a margarita, but the sentiments are just about perfect for this situation. If you can’t make yourself listen to Jimmy Buffet, ask for something by Van Halen.)
Put the top on your shaker, then shake until the ice cubes — and maybe your heart — break.
Pour, ice and all, into a rocks or small Collins glass.
Don’t make any plans for the rest of the afternoon, because this drink will go down very quickly, get lonely, and call for a bunch of its friends to celebrate Spring Break in your stomach.
OK, with all my industrial-strength reminiscing, I skipped over a detail that you might want to discuss a bit before actually making this drink:
“Excuse me? Pea-flavored rum?”
You heard me. Pea. Infused. Rum.
Here’s the thing: Against all odds, it’s delicious. The peas carry a spring-like herbaceousness that plays really well with the fruit juices. The coconut — which your own embarrassing memories lead you to expect to be too sweet — is actually restrained and tasty. Adult You probably doesn’t want a drink quite as sweet as you did in your salad days, and dialing in the actual sweetness with simple syrup will allow you to make this just perfect for singing really loudly. You might want to call an old friend on the phone and sing loudly to them, too.
Bright Green Rum
Add equal amounts by weight of fresh sugar snap peas and white rum to your blender. Don’t worry about snipping off the little stems and squiggly parts on the ends. Just wash them briefly and throw them into the pool with the rum. Go with a basic white rum for this. I like either Bacardi or Captain Morgan. The flavor of the peas will cover up any subtle nuances that you might want to savor in a top-shelf rum.
Blend the rum/pea mixture on a medium-low speed for a minute or so, so that the peas are chopped up really finely but haven’t been liquified.
Let the mixture rest for an hour, then strain it. It will be a vibrant, please-don’t-ignore-me shade of green. If you are so inclined, filter it through a series of coffee filters, which will tone down the color but leave you with the vibrant, pea-ey taste that you want for a proper Pea-ña Colada.
Featured photo: Pea-ña Colada. Photo by John Fladd.
