In the kitchen with Liz Houle

Liz Houle is the owner of Good to the Last Krumb (find her on Facebook @goodtothelastkrumbnh), a homestead business specializing in scratch-made quick breads, whoopie pies, cookies, muffins and other baked goods, including multiple seasonal items. A native of Hudson, Houle has also worked as a baker at Lull Farm in Hollis for the past three years. Her products can be found at Estey’s Country Store (9 Old Nashua Road, Londonderry) and Mack’s Apples (230 Mammoth Road, Londonderry) and are also available to order through Facebook, for local pickups with at least a three-day advance notice.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

Probably a good sturdy rubber spatula.

What would you have for your last meal?

Filet mignon with a baked potato and a nice cold salad.

What is your favorite thing that you bake?

It would probably be either my lemon blueberry bread, or my whoopie pies.

What celebrity would you like to see trying something you’ve baked?

[Food Network’s] Duff Goldman.

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

I think it’s food trucks. Whenever there’s a food truck festival, all my friends and family are there.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

North Side Grille, right here in Hudson.

What is your favorite thing to make at home?

Any type of cookie, whether it’s chocolate chip or molasses. My family loves them.

Molasses sugar cookies
From the kitchen of Liz Houle of Good to the Last Krumb in Hudson

¾ cup shortening
¼ cup molasses
½ teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon cloves
2 cups flour

Mix ingredients together well. Roll into balls in sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 6 to 7 minutes.

Featured photo: Liz Houle. Courtesy photo.

On The Job – Alison Milioto

Alison Milioto

Human Resource Consultant

Alison Milioto is a human resource consultant at BlueLion, a woman-owned and -operated HR and operations consulting company based in Manchester, serving small to mid-sized companies throughout New England.

Explain your job.

We assist clients with everything HR-related — maintaining compliance with regulations, assisting with employee relations, answering lots of questions. A lot of [issues] our clients have seem very simple, but when you get into it, it’s always more complicated, so we try to decomplicate the complications around HR.

How long have you had this job?

I’ve been in HR in general for 15 years, and at this business for four years.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

I grew up in New Hampshire in a small town, and I know what small businesses do for small town communities. I always saw owners of companies not knowing how to make the right decisions, so we really started this business because we saw a need. We wanted to help small businesses be able to get time back in their day and not have to worry about compliance; let a plumber be a plumber and not have to worry about a Department of Labor audit.

What kind of education or training did you need?

I’m certified in HR. I have my SHRM-SCP [Senior Certified Professional] certification, and I also have an MBA.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

We dress appropriately depending on the client. We work with a lot of blue-collar companies, so if we’re going on site into a shop or something, we’re not going in wearing heels; we tend to dress down a bit. … We’re about to institute ‘Hoodie Mondays’ — we have logoed hoodies — because Mondays are typically an office day for most of our staff; we don’t go out on site. Of course, if I’m working at home, I have what I like to call ‘a Zoom mullet,’ which is business [attire] on the top and PJs on the bottom.

How has your job changed over the course of the pandemic?

We’ve grown drastically, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, when everything was happening so fast with the PPP loans and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. We got an influx of clients coming to us [saying], ‘We can’t keep up.’ They didn’t know when to lay people off or when to bring people back or how to handle all the changes in regulations. … Pre-Covid, [the staff] was just my business partner and me. Now, we have eight employees, and we’re about to hire two more.

What do you wish you’d known at the beginning of your career?

Everything happens for a reason, and hard work pays off. It’s all worth it in the end.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

I wish people knew that HR isn’t scary. We like to say, ‘We put the fun back in HR.’

What was the first job you ever had?

I started working at McDonald’s when I was a teenager. I worked there for six years and was actually a manager by the time I left.

What’s the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?

Everything is temporary. This too shall pass.

Five favorites

Favorite book:
Matilda
Favorite movie: Erin Brockovich
Favorite music: Country
Favorite food: Italian
Favorite thing about NH: We have some of the nicest people.

Featured photo: Alison Milioto. Courtesy photo.

Write of passage

NH Poet Laureate guides magazine by teens, for teens

Under the Madness is a new magazine, designed and managed by an editorial board of New Hampshire teens under the mentorship of New Hampshire State Poet Laureate Alexandria Peary, featuring creative writing by teens from all over the world. Submissions are being accepted now for the first issue, set to be published in February. Peary discussed the magazine and the importance of providing opportunities for young writers to be published.

How and why was the magazine started?

The magazine began as an offshoot of the 2021 North Country Young Writers’ Festival. It just felt like a natural outgrowth … of the festival. I held an initial meeting at last May’s festival so students from across the state could hear about this exciting opportunity, and most of the editorial staff were participants at the festival. The intent is to provide New Hampshire teens with leadership opportunities in the creative arts and to empower them to make decisions benefiting fellow teens.

What is your role?

My official title is editor in chief, but what I do is mentor the teen editors, helping them acquire leadership skills and connections with people their age who are likewise interested in writing. For example, pretty soon, I’ll be showing the editorial staff how to submit their own creative writing to magazines so they gain an other-side-of-the-table experience of what it’s like for a writer to trust a magazine staff with work.

What kind of content does the magazine feature?

The magazine features poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. … Creative nonfiction is not your average five-paragraph school essay; [it] means flash nonfiction, literary journalism, personal essays, memoir excerpts — true writing told with the story-telling tools of fiction and the vivid language of poetry. For our first issue, we’re not running a theme, but we anticipate future issues revolving around themes, including special issues or sections devoted to teens writing from other continents. I’m in conversation over social media with writers and arts organizers from a few countries. The magazine also runs a blog, composed by the editors. Our first two blog posts are interviews of editors at nationally known literary magazines.

What is the meaning behind the magazine’s name, Under the Madness?

It speaks to the confusing whirlwind faced by teenagers [due to the] pandemic, political polarization, global warming, inequity and unrest — [and] writing and creative expression as a way to set a foot on the ground when the adult-made sky seems to be spinning.

Who are your target readers?

The target readership are teens from anywhere around the globe who read or write in English. Adults will enjoy reading this magazine — I know I’m looking forward to sitting back with an espresso and perusing — but especially writing and language arts teachers. The writing resources will be relevant to anyone curious about how to write and publish.

Was there a need for a publication like this in New Hampshire?

The magazine addresses several creative needs in the state, but one of the biggest is to highlight the youth of the North Country, since the majority of the editorial staff, as well as our community advisors, reside in that part of the state.

How does writing and being published impact teens’ lives?  

One thing I’ve noticed as a professor and as state poet laureate and just from circulating in the world as a writer is that people of all ages hesitate to push the ‘Submit’ button. People face an uphill battle with self-doubt and rejection fears. So in development are resources our magazine will offer to help others find the confidence and endurance to try for publication. … [Publishing and writing] is hugely important [for teens] because it helps a student step beyond the fenced-in world of just writing for grades and teachers. Writing is far bigger and too important to be confined to the classroom. I’m a huge advocate of young people sending their work out, even if they have no intention of becoming an English major in college or a writer by trade.

Submit to Under the Madness
Submissions are being accepted now through Jan. 20 for the first issue of Under the Madness, set to be published in February. Writers from anywhere in the world who are ages 13 to 19 at the time of submission are eligible. Submissions may include poetry and short fiction and creative nonfiction and must be written in or translated into English and previously unpublished. Visit underthemadnessmagazine.com for full submission guidelines.

Featured photo: Alexandria Peary. Courtesy photo.

In the kitchen with Josie Lemay

Josie Lemay is the owner of Wildflour Cakes (wildflourcake.com, and on Facebook and Instagram @wildflour_cake), specializing in custom wedding cakes made from scratch in addition to morning pastries and other baked goods. A native of Deerfield, Lemay studied at the Culinary Institute of America in New York before going on to work in restaurants and bakeries in Boston and on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. She returned to New Hampshire about two years ago and now works out of a rented commercial kitchen, offering wedding cakes to clients all over New England. You can also find her freshly baked pastries regularly stocked at Revelstoke Coffee (100 N. Main St., Concord), which include an often rotating selection of scones, muffins and seasonal galettes.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

I think it would be a bench knife, which I use for cutting, for chopping and for shaping pastries. I probably have about 10 different bench knives and they are always within arm’s reach.

What would you have for your last meal?

Some kind of homemade ravioli or heavy pasta dish, and a glass of red wine.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

The Franklin in Portsmouth. They have this awesome Brussels sprout side dish with fresh mint and honey that is delicious. … I tried to recreate it at home but it wasn’t the same.

What is your personal favorite thing that you’ve ever baked for a client?

When I was living on Nantucket, I had one couple I worked with who were really good friends with a farmer there, and so we [incorporated] a bunch of his vegetables and herbs into the dessert menu for their wedding. It was a lot of fun designing it with them.

What celebrity would you like to bake a cake for?

David Chang. I’ve been listening to his podcast. I think he’s just so brutally honest that it would just be hilarious to bake a cake and then eat it with him.

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

I feel like doughnuts are definitely big right now. There was kind of a wave, and I think the wave is coming back around again, which is cool to see.

What is your favorite thing to make at home?

I love baking pies. I grew up baking pies with my mom for every holiday. It’s just such a very comforting, nostalgic thing to bake.

Vanilla bean shortbread cookies
From the kitchen of Josie Lemay of Wildflour Cakes

12 ounces butter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
3½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in vanilla bean paste. Add in flour and salt and mix until it comes together. Roll out dough between two sheets of parchment paper, using a cookie cutter of your choice. Chill the dough for 15 minutes in the refrigerator if it’s too soft. Bake for 15 minutes.

Featured photo: Josie Lemay. Courtesy photo.

On The Job – Keith McDonald

Keith McDonald

Water filtration specialist

Keith McDonald is the owner and founder of NH Tap, a Milford-based company that builds custom water filtration systems for homes in New Hampshire.

Explain your job.

I schedule and run free water tests for people who [request them]. Then, when people decide they want to move forward with cleaning their water, I engineer and design a custom system for them and have it built. Then I send it over to our installation team to have it installed.

How long have you had this job?

I’ve been in the water treatment industry since I was 22, and I’m 38 now. We started NH Tap in 2017.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

I’m from Jaffrey, originally. I moved to Florida to pursue a professional breakdancing career, and I was actually very successful. I got hired … to dance professionally everywhere from Disney to Universal Studios. At the same time, I got introduced to the water treatment industry. I learned so much, in Florida, about public water. … When I moved back home to New Hampshire, I saw a real need here. There were no companies really focusing on public water … so I saw an opportunity and started NH Tap.

What kind of education or training did you need?

All the chemistry I needed to understand and the engineering skills I needed in order to design systems were self-taught; I read a lot of college publications. … I also had a fantastic mentor in Florida who [taught] me about water and how to present and communicate things about water and design systems … and taught me a lot about the business side of things.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

We have slate blue or battleship gray polos that say ‘NH Tap’ across the upper chest area.

How has your job changed over the course of the pandemic?

The pandemic was actually really good for us. More and more people from the cities outside of New Hampshire, like Boston, were moving to New Hampshire, and many of them were going from having public water to having a private well for the first time. They had no idea what it meant to have clean water because they were used to just turning the faucet on and having the city provide what was considered to be clean water.

What do you wish you’d known at the beginning of your career?

To not be in any rush, and to enjoy every step of the process. … I’m not in a rush to grow anymore. I wake up every morning, motivated, and focus on being diligent and patient and persistent so that I can just enjoy everything as it grows organically.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

The importance of building a fantastic team. You have to get all the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and all the right people in the right seats before you can figure out where to drive it. I have those seats filled now, and I can honestly say that I have no stress or anxiety, because everything is so streamlined, thanks to my team.

What was the first job you ever had?

I worked at Athens Pizza in Jaffrey.

What’s the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?

Do nothing out of selfish ambition. I’ve learned to actually put others before myself, and the more I continue to do that, the more joy I have in building NH Tap.

Five favorites

Favorite book:
 The 4-Hour Workweek
Favorite movie: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Favorite music: Breakdance beats
Favorite food: Arepas
Favorite thing about NH: Nothing beats a New Hampshire summer.

Featured photo: Keith McDonald. Courtesy photo.

Life on the lam

Manchester author chronicles his years as fugitive

Jorge William Nayor of Manchester discusses his memoir, Dinosaur in the Park: Adventure Behind the Walls and Inside the Criminal Mind.

What is Dinosaur in the Park about?

It’s about my life growing up and the things I went through, good times and bad times, good places and bad places. It covers my time in the military, the times when I used to build race cars, my problems with drug possession and drug dealing and my time spent behind bars. Then, it’s about how, later on in life, I came out to New England, where I [lived as] a fugitive for 20 years. … I turned my life around and got on the straight and narrow. … I turned myself in and served out the rest of my term … [which was] one year … then came back to New Hampshire and went into video production and had my own remote television production company.

What were the circumstances that led to you being a fugitive?

I was in prison for a parole violation, so when my time [served] for that was up, they were ready to release me, but they didn’t know that there was actually another warrant out for me. They let me out by mistake. … I was in California at that time. I contacted some people I knew who knew a lady in New England … I could stay with … so I took off to New England.

Why did you turn yourself in?

When my mother was dying, it was her dying wish that I turn myself in, so I did, gladly, for her. … Nobody was looking for me, and there was no active warrant out for me in New Hampshire, but it was the right thing to do. … I only had one year left on my sentence, so I was hoping the judge would just say, ‘Time served,’ especially because for the 20 years that I was gone, I didn’t get in any kind of trouble, not even a traffic ticket. However, the judge had other ideas, and I had to go back for a year.

Why did you return to New Hampshire after your release?

The woman I stayed with when I moved here … didn’t know about my shady past [at first]. We eventually became boyfriend and girlfriend. … When I had to go back [to prison], she stuck with me the whole time. She stayed in contact with me every day. After I was released legitimately, I came back to New Hampshire for her, and we got married. … She was an English teacher, so she helped me a lot with my writing. She passed away in June of 2020, and I’m still grieving over that.

Why did you decide to write a memoir?

There are a lot of books and movies about life behind bars that are all about violence and gangs and stabbings and prison breaks. My story is unique, because it wasn’t like that for me. … I feel that I’m a good person on the inside, and a lot of people get the idea that people who are in prison are not [good people], so I wanted to show people that the atmosphere in prison isn’t always violent. … I didn’t have to keep one eye open and be looking over my shoulder all the time. The people [in prison] like me — the older people and people who are [incarcerated] for nonviolent crimes — were just regular guys.

What is the meaning behind the book’s title?

I called it Dinosaur in the Park because I’m an old dinosaur — it’s my birthday today — I’m 74. … I would often ride my bicycle over to Livingston Park [in Manchester] and do some of my writing there, so Dinosaur in the Park just clicked.

What are you up to these days?

I’m starting to write a second book that will take off from the middle of [Dinosaur in the Park]. It’s fiction … and shows an alternate path — what would happen if the main character, me, hadn’t come to New Hampshire, hadn’t gotten on the right foot, and had kept on his trail of criminal activity?

Featured photo: Jorge William Nayor. Courtesy photo.

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