In the kitchen with Carly Feins

Carly Feins of Bedford is the owner of Carly’s Custom Cakes (carlyscustomcakes.com, find her on Facebook or Instagram), a homestead business offering custom desserts to order, including cakes, cookies, brownies, fruit bars and cupcakes. A baking and pastry arts/food service management graduate from Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, Feins has been baking since she was 11 years old. She fell in love with the craft after watching her aunt, Lisa Raffael (owner of Delicious Desserts in East Falmouth, Mass.), win on an episode of the Food Network Challenge. Feins, who has autism spectrum disorder, said she wanted to be a role model and an inspiration to others with similar diagnoses by starting her own independent business. In addition to accepting custom orders through her website for pickup or delivery within a 25-mile radius of southern New Hampshire, Feins participates in the Salem Farmers Market every Sunday, from 10 a.m. to noon, at Salem Marketplace (224 N. Broadway). As of last week, her fruit bars and cookies are also available for purchase at the Bearded Baking Co. (819 Union St., Manchester).

What is your must-have kitchen item?

I actually have two of them. My KitchenAid stand mixer and also my kitchen scale.

What would you have for your last meal?

I would get a Caesar salad at the Manchester Country Club without any Parmesan cheese. At home, I would have a homemade brownie ice cream sundae.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

I like Taipei & Tokyo in Bedford … and I also like to support Pizza Bella [in Bedford]. They provided pizza to Bedford High School when I went to school there, and I think they still do.

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

It’s a three-way tie between Food Network’s Duff Goldman, Sugar Monster Sweets [owner] Ashley Holt, and Jason Smith, also from Food Network.

What is your personal favorite thing to bake?

I can’t really decide, but basically any of the sugar cookies, cupcakes and whole cakes, because I like to put my own artistic spin on them. I’m an artist and desserts are my canvas.

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

I’ve been seeing a huge interest in no-contact deliveries and … smaller food operations relying on takeout and online ordering. I’ve also been seeing a lot more of a demand for meatless items.

What is your favorite thing to cook or bake at home?

I love cooking for my family. My favorite thing to do is chicken marsala with boiled rice. I also love to make chocolate cake with chocolate ganache.

1-2-3 sugar cookie dough
Courtesy of Carly Feins of Carly’s Custom Cakes in Bedford (who learned this recipe as a student at Johnson & Wales University)

2 pounds (or 4 cups) butter
1 pound (or 2 cups) granulated sugar
3 pounds (or just under 13 cups) pastry flour
170 grams whole eggs (or roughly three extra large eggs)

In a bowl, mix together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs in one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl as you go with a stand mixer. When all the eggs are in, add the flour. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight or for a minimum of three hours. When ready to bake, turn the oven on to 350 degrees. Knead dough on a flour-coated silicone mat and roll to about a quarter inch thick. Make sure the dough is still cold, as the temperature affects the cookie. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. You can augment with different flavors like lemon zest, or do chocolate by using cocoa powder.

Fostering hope

New foster care program supports young adults

In April, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Division for Children, Youth and Families launched the Hope Program, which extends the age limit for foster care in the state from age 18 to age 21. DCYF Director Joseph Ribsam discussed the new legislation and the support it provides for youth in foster care as they transition into adulthood.

Why was the Hope Program created?

The idea is that young people who enter the foster care system who are not able to achieve permanency meaning, they’re not able to return home and be reunified with their families, or are not able to be adopted into another family need more support entering adulthood than they would typically get through their 18th birthday. [The program] allows them to continue to have the support of a foster family [which gets financial support through the program] to help them transition successfully to adulthood. … We had the broad support of the [New Hampshire] legislature and the governor in pushing this forward, and it was included in the budget that passed last year. It was really exciting to see everyone come together and be willing to support this type of expansion going forward to make sure that our young folks in foster care have all the advantages that they need to be successful going into adulthood.

How does it work?

It allows youth between the ages of 18 and 21 to stay with a foster family or have the support of a foster family through their time in college. It makes sure not only that they have their housing needs met, but also that they have social and emotional support from a primary caring adult maintained over time. … To qualify, they need to be engaged in some type of productive activity, [such as a] secondary education program or an equivalent such as a GED or HiSET program; an institution for post-secondary or vocational education for at least six hours per week per semester; an activity to promote employment or remove barriers to employment; or working [at least 80 hours a month]. Young people with medical or mental health challenges that impede their ability to maintain those types of activities can also be part of the program. … The program is voluntary, so when a youth turns 18 they can decide to be part of this or not. If they turn 18 and think they’re ready to be on their own and then, six months later, realize they still need extra help, they can come back at that point, too.

Prior to the new legislation, what were some of the biggest challenges facing foster care youth after they turned 18?

For most people, when they turn 18, their families don’t say, “Alright, you’re on your own now.” Their families are still there for them. Many young people in foster care haven’t had that kind of normalcy … The data shows that young folks leaving foster care are at a higher risk of homelessness, having substance [misuse] challenges and not graduating high school or being able to go to college. When you look at jurisdictions that have [allowed] kids [to stay] in foster care longer, you see trajectories moving in a different direction. More young folks successfully graduate high school or get into college and are more likely to avoid the traps of homelessness and things like that.

Have foster care families and youth expressed a need for this program?

Yes. This is something that they have been talking about and needing for quite a long time. … We’ve actually had a number of foster families who, even though they previously didn’t [receive funding] to continue supporting their foster kids after they turned 18, would still allow them to stay in their homes beyond their 18th birthday and try to support them into adulthood. … We also have a group of young adults some who are still in foster care and others who are alumni of the foster care system who are really engaged in trying to improve policy for other young folks in foster care. Some of them actually went to the legislative committee and testified on behalf of this idea, and I think that was really compelling and is what ultimately led to the [change in] legislation.

How is fostering a young adult over the age of 18 different than fostering a minor?

The dynamics change as they do in any household where somebody who is legally a minor becomes legally an adult. Young adults need to be taking some healthy risks and making some decisions on their own, but at the same time [foster families] need to maintain appropriate boundaries so that those young adults stay safe during that time. That transition period can be a challenge, but also really rewarding [for the foster family] when they are able to help that young adult succeed on their own.

What is the ideal outcome for young adults who participate in the Hope Program?

Ultimately, we want these young folks to be independent, productive adults who are able to care for themselves, care for their communities and be successful in doing whatever it is they choose to do with their lives. … For young folks who want to go to college, that’s great. For young folks who want to learn a trade, that’s great. For young folks who want to start working, that’s great. It’s about helping them find the path that’s right for them and making sure they have the support to follow it.

In the kitchen with Jon Buatti

In December 2019, Jon Buatti of Auburn took over ownership of Michelle’s Gourmet Pastries & Deli in Manchester, bringing with him a culinary education and a specialization in custom cake decorating. With the business now known as the Bearded Baking Co. (819 Union St., Manchester, 647-7150, beardedbaking.com), Buatti has built upon the longtime success of the popular Queen City bakeshop and deli, offering custom cakes with many of his own sponge and buttercream recipes. The bakery and deli also features a selection of breakfast and lunch sandwiches and smaller treats like cookies, cupcakes, cheesecakes, bread pudding, chocolate-covered pretzels and more. A Salem native, Buatti got his start in the industry as a busboy at La Bec Rouge in Hampton Beach before volunteering to work a shift making plated desserts. He graduated from Salem High School’s culinary program, followed by Southern New Hampshire University’s associate’s program in baking and culinary arts and its bachelor’s program in culinary management.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

Either an offset spatula or a bench scraper.

What would you have for your last meal?

Anything with barbecue. Ribs, maybe, or barbecue chicken.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

My fiancée and I love The Crown Tavern [in Manchester]. I get the Pep N’ Honey pizza, and their wings are outrageous.

What celebrity would you like to see ordering from your bakery?

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

What is your personal favorite thing that you have ever baked?

As far as a specific cake that I’ve done, it’s a two-way tie with both of the wedding cakes I did for my two older sisters. Those were fun because being part of the wedding, I worked on it for a week straight for both of them, with a revolving door of friends and family coming in the kitchen to catch up and see how the cake was going.

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

Anything dietary, so gluten-free, vegan and sugar-free. We definitely do a lot more custom orders for those types of desserts.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

Our favorite dish to make at home together is zuppa toscana. It’s a kale cream soup with tons of veggies.

Homemade scones
From the kitchen of Jon Buatti of the Bearded Baking Co. in Manchester

4½ cups flour
½ tablespoon + ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cubed
1½ cups heavy cream
¾ cup corn syrup

Combine all dry ingredients into a bowl. Cut cold butter into dry ingredients. Create a well with dry ingredients and fold in corn syrup. Add in fillings of choice and form into even disks (makes about 10).

Summer QuaranTEEN

Camp offers creative outlet for teen girls

Tracey Miller, a wellness coach and yoga instructor from Manchester, and her teenage daughter McKenzie have created a new two-week virtual summer camp for teen girls called Camp QuaranTEEN. Miller talked about camp activities, how the first session is going and how teen girls can benefit from a program like this. The next CampQ session starts Aug. 3. Visit traceymiller.co/campq.

What inspired you to create Camp QuaranTEEN?

I have a 14-year-old daughter, and all of her camps were canceled. Then, I started talking to other mothers, who told me their kids’ camps were also canceled, and they felt that their girls were becoming isolated. It’s really easy for girls to get stuck sitting around on their phones all day. My daughter, for example, is really very creative, and I know she loves [doing creative projects], but the older she gets, the more I have to provide a little initiation or inspiration to get her to keep doing it. … I wanted to [create a program] where girls could engage and collaborate safely, be creative and think outside the box so that they don’t get bored at home.

What are some camp activities?

The girls get an e-journal and guide with journaling prompts and art projects for them to do each day. The first art project is actually making a notebook for their journal, which they’ll print out. … Another project we’re doing is a fashion project, where the girls are upcycling a piece of clothing to express something about who they are and what they like. … They do a scavenger hunt, which is my attempt to get them outdoors, because all the things they have to find are around their house. … There are live cooking demos that teach the girls how to cook healthy food, and one of the final projects is a cookbook that the girls put together with their own recipes. … We meet online for an hour to an hour and a half each day to talk about what they’ve been doing, to brainstorm random acts of kindness they can do and other [topics] that get the girls to be more reflective and expressive about who they are and what’s important to them.

How is the first session going?

It’s been really great. We have eight girls participating, and I’m so inspired at how creative the girls are. Some of them already sew, and many of them like to cook. It’s been really fun, and the girls seem to be really excited about it.

How is your daughter helping with the camp?

She’s helping me come up with ideas for the girls to keep it cool, because when you’re 14 your mom’s not so cool. … She loves to cook, and she inspired some of the recipes that the girls are learning. She’s also helping with the cooking lessons. This morning she taught the girls how to make a poached egg and avocado toast.

How can parents get involved?

I’ve provided parents with a materials list and a shopping list of food they need for the recipes, and I’ve tried to keep it simple with a lot of common ingredients that they probably already have. I’m really encouraging the girls and their parents to be creative and use what they already have around the house so they don’t have to go out and spend $80 on materials and ingredients. … I’m also encouraging the girls to go through their journal with their parents at the end of the week so they can share some of the things that came out in their journaling and show them their art projects.

What would you like girls to take away from their camp experience?

I’m hoping to really provide more tools for them during these teen years that they can carry with them through their whole life. This is such a formative time for girls, and an important time for them to start expressing themselves, become more confident and take care of their bodies. … I want them to learn new cooking skills and be creative [with] and curious about new food. I want them to become more mindful about their uniqueness and to appreciate their uniqueness rather than feeling like they have to be “normal.” I want them to be able to share their feelings so they can understand that they’re not in this alone, and that other girls are going through some of the same things and having some of the same thoughts and feelings.

Do you plan on continuing CampQ, or something like it?

I definitely plan on continuing to do some workshops in the fall that teach girls about how to be more mindful and grounded, how to be more confident and how to deal with things like stress and anxiety.

In the kitchen with Doug Loranger

Doug Loranger of Nashua is the owner of Ranger’s BBQ (rangers-bbq.com, find them on Facebook @rangersbbq17), a food trailer specializing in a variety of styles of barbecue, including North Carolina-style pulled pork and slow cooked Memphis-style ribs. He also offers smoked brisket, pulled chicken and several sides, like homemade macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, cornbread and his smoked baked beans with bacon, which won first place in last year’s New Hampshire Bacon & Beer Festival. A Nashua native, Loranger lived in Texas for more than a decade, working in capital equipment sales, before returning to New Hampshire. After cooking barbecue for a Super Bowl party in 2017, Loranger said the feedback was so positive that it prompted him to begin seeking out potential trailers the following day. Currently you can find Ranger’s BBQ at 324 Daniel Webster Highway in Nashua (near the Tyngsboro, Mass., state line) most Saturdays or Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., unless Loranger is catering for a private event that weekend. Follow him on social media for the most up-to-date information.

What is your must-have kitchen item?
A big spatula to get the brisket out of the smoker easily. I have some custom spatulas from Humphrey’s Smokers out of Maine.

What would you have for your last meal?
Probably a good rib-eye or duck breast.

What is your favorite local restaurant?
Giant of Siam [in Nashua]. I just love how fresh their food is, and their service is excellent.

What celebrity would you like to see ordering from your trailer?
Aaron Franklin, because I’d like his take on my food. He owns Franklin Barbecue down in Austin, Texas. People wait in line for hours to eat at his place. They come from all over the world just to have his barbecue, so it would be neat to get a little bit of feedback from him.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?
My ribs. Both the ribs and the brisket tend to sell out very fast.

What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?
I don’t know that this is a recent trend, but New England is getting more ethnically diverse in its foods. It’s nice to see more … diverse [options] than when I was growing up.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?
Prime rib, or duck.

Homemade macaroni and cheese
From the kitchen of Doug Loranger of Ranger’s BBQ in Nashua

1 pound macaroni or pasta of choice
½ cup (or one stick) butter
½ cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons pepper
1 quart milk
1 quart shredded cheese of choice (Loranger likes to use a mix of provolone, cheddar, mozzarella and sometimes Gouda)

Melt the butter and mix in the flour to make a roux. Slowly add the milk so it gets warm as you add it. Mix in the salt and pepper. Add the cheese and stir until the mixture achieves a creamy consistency. Boil the pasta to al dente and add the mix to it.

Theater for kids

The Palace brings back live theater with summer series

After suspending its programming for four months, the Palace Theatre reopened its doors on July 7 with Beauty and the Beast, the first show of the 2020 Bank of New Hampshire Children’s Summer Series, which will continue with kid-friendly live theater performances every week through mid-August. Palace Theatre President and CEO Peter Ramsey discussed why the theater decided to move forward with live performances this summer and how Covid-19 has changed the theater-going experience.

What is the 2020 Bank of New Hampshire Children’s Summer Series?

We’ve done it at the Palace for 20 years now, and it’s become very successful. [The shows are] generally performed by college graduates and college students who are seeking theater degrees. … We generally have between six and 12 [shows], so for eight or nine weeks in the summer, we do a different children’s theater title every week. … We have a list of about 25 shows that we choose from, and they’re generally shows that are popular with people and that have a nice message. They’re typical kinds of shows that kids would like, because this is really for the kids. … It’s generally mothers, grandmothers and young children between [the ages of] 3 and 12 who come.

Why did you decide to move forward with the series, amid everything that’s going on with Covid-19?

The governor of New Hampshire and the CDC created guidelines about a month ago that allowed public theaters to open, so we worked with the City of Manchester and the State of New Hampshire to reopen under these guidelines. We had been closed for four months and lost $1.5 million in ticket sales. We had 70 employees, and now we’re down to 15, so we felt very strongly that this was an opportunity to keep some of our employees employed, and to invite the public back in.

How did your reopening week go?

People loved it. The response has been fabulous. [There was] not one complaint. Everyone brought a mask with them to the theater; we’ll offer a mask to anyone who doesn’t have one, but everyone brought one. … The phones have been ringing a lot this week, and people seem very excited about [the upcoming shows].

How has live theater at the Palace changed as a result of Covid-19?

Everything’s different. We are only selling tickets by phone. When a customer walks up to the front door, we greet them, we ask them to put a mask on and we ask them questions, like ‘Have you been sick?’ and ‘Do you have a fever?’ … There’s actually a list of seven questions that the State asks that we ask everyone who comes into the theater. … We’re at 40-percent [capacity], so we have about 350 seats blocked off where people can’t sit. There is six feet between every seat, so if a mom and daughter sit together, there would be six feet between them and anybody else. … The shows are very short they’re 45 minutes and we keep the doors open so we can keep the air going in the theater. … There are no concessions. … We have very strict rules for the ushers; they have to wear a mask, and they can’t touch anybody. … The actors [on stage] are always 25 feet away from the audience, so there’s a lot of room between them. We’ve always had the [Summer Series] actors come out and meet the kids after the shows, which is very popular the kids would wait an hour to meet Cinderella but we canceled that, so there’s no interaction between the audience and the actors this year, which is very important.

How was the cast able to rehearse safely?

They committed that they would behave themselves and be very careful. We tested some of them [for Covid-19], and others had already been quarantined. They all live at home. We know each actor. We’ve known most of them for four or five years through our children’s theater program; these are our young actors who trained with us, then went off to college. Backstage, they stay six feet apart at all times. They are very careful during rehearsals, and they rehearse with masks on. There’s very little interaction.

Did you need to modify the shows in any way to maintain distance between the actors?

Yes. There’s no hugging or kissing nothing like that. They’re very careful about staying separate. There’s no live music; it’s all tracked, so that helps. There are very few props and not a lot of things [for the actors] to touch. We have this beautiful video wall which is 20 feet high and 30 feet wide, and it looks really cool, so, because of that, we don’t need to use a lot of props.

What does the return of live theater do for the community right now?

It helps bring our community back together again. … It’s not normal to stay at home for months. Stress levels are very high. … Going to the theater allows you to smile. It allows you to do something with your child. These are family shows, and I think [families] can feel that it’s safe.

What are the Palace’s other plans moving forward?

We hope to open the Rex Theatre in two weeks and [accommodate] 100 people in there, safely spaced and wearing face masks. We hope to bring Bob Marley he’s a big, famous comedian to the Palace in August, and we hope to open up for our regular theater season in September … with Nunsense.

2020 Bank of New Hampshire Children’s Summer Series
The lineup for the rest of the summer includes The Wizard of Oz on Thursday, July 16; The Little Mermaid Tuesday, July 21 through Thursday, July 23; Aladdin Tuesday, July 28 through Thursday, July 30; Alice in Wonderland Tuesday, Aug. 4 through Thursday, Aug. 6; Peter Pan Tuesday, Aug. 11 through Thursday, Aug. 13; and Cinderella on Tuesday, Aug. 18 and Wednesday, Aug. 19. Showtimes are at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Tickets cost $10. The Palace Theatre is located at 80 Hanover St., Manchester. Call 668-5588 or visit palacetheatre.org.

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