Tag: 241031

In the kitchen with Nikki miller

Nikki Miller is Head Bartender at Barley House Restaurant and Tavern (132 N. Main St., Concord, 228-6363, thebarleyhouse.com). A New Hampshire native, she has “always pretty much worked in restaurants,” she said. “I have bounced around a tiny bit, but definitely have landed here at the Barley House. I’ve been here for six and a half years now. I started as a server, and made my way up to a bartender. I am a manager, now. I run the events here, I throw parties, I do a lot. Sometimes I even wash dishes. I really like bartending. I think that you kind of command your space when you’re behind the bar. And there are a lot of people who don’t care about talking to you, but I work every Sunday during the day, and I have people that make it a point to come and see me. It’s part of their routine, so to speak. I took the weekend off last weekend, and I guess some people were asking, ‘Where is the Queen, herself?’”

What is your must-have bar tool?

Definitely a shaker, I would say. So it’s just a two-piece metal Boston shaker. We build all of our drinks in pint glasses here. Also ice. We just have small, little cube ice here, but crushed ice is amazing for a cocktail.

What would you have for your last meal?

Maybe a burger. I’m really into burgers right now, and I think you could make it just a classic, or you could build it up, and throw an egg on there. We have a burger here at the Barley House that has gravy and blue cheese. That would be a good one.

What is your favorite local eatery?

I am a big fan of Mexican food, so I go around to all of our local Mexican places. There’s so much you can do — tacos, nachos, burritos. I definitely love any variation of that.

Have you ever served a drink to a celebrity?

I have served some presidential candidates. They usually just order a beer. And it’s so funny — it’s a business, you know, a meet-and-greet thing. So they’ll come in, they’ll order a beer and then they don’t even drink it.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?

So we do have a Moscow Mule with some apple cider that is really tasty. It’s just a well-balanced drink. It’s got some juice, a little bit of bubbles, and then we have a bourbon one right now. It’s so good! There’s the bourbon, lime juice, ginger beer, and then some apple cider. There’s just something about it.

What is the biggest cocktail trend you see in New Hampshire right now?

I think that we all eat with the seasons. So right now, you know, we obviously are kind of an Irish-themed bar, so it’s a lot of beef stew, chicken pot pie, you know, those like warming things. And then of course in the summertime, people are eating salads, they’re eating a little bit lighter. And one of my favorite parts about bartending is sort of making cocktails with the seasons, you know, whether it’s fresh blueberries or right now apple cider is obviously one. Pretty soon we’ll be doing boozy hot chocolates with whipped cream and that will be a big hit.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home? Why?

It would have to be some sort of pasta. I have a couple of little boys. I make a butternut squash mac and cheese or American chop suey and those are always big hits.

Drunken Pumpkin
From Nikki Miller, head bartender at the Barley House

Combine 2 ounces of vanilla vodka with 3 ounces of pumpkin cider in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well, then strain into a glass with a cinnamon-sugar rim.

The wines you don’t know

Wine on Main explains ‘Misunderstood Wines’

One of Emma Stetson’s favorite parts of owning a wine shop — Wine on Main in Concord — is teaching classes.

“We do monthly wine classes,” Stetson said. “Each one has a different theme. For example, last month we [discussed wines from] Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It could have a more overarching theme, whether it’s about climate, or full-bodied red wines — things like that.”

This month the theme is “Misunderstood Wines.”

“I’ve noticed there are some wines that people are confused about,” Stetson said, “that have misconceptions around them. So I thought it would be fun to correct some of those for people. So that’s one component of the class. And then the other component is that we have Thanksgiving coming up. So the full title of the class is ‘Misunderstood Wines that are Also Perfect for Thanksgiving.’ It’s a way to clear up some misconceptions but also find unique wines for your holiday table.”

Stetson said some misconceptions about particular wines come from their names.

“An example,” she said, “is in the Loire Valley in France. There is a region called Muscadet. It’s a great wine for pairing, especially for Thanksgiving. It has bright acidity and bright fresh fruit flavors.” She finds that many customers are resistant to trying it. “They’ll tell me, ‘No, I hate sweet wines.’ My reaction is, ‘What are you talking about? Muscadet is a dry white wine from France’s Loire Valley!’ and they’re like ‘No, I hate Muscato and Muscatel’; they think in their heads because the words are so similar….”

“It was funny,” she said. “We did a wine tasting back in October with a Muscadet that was delicious, but it was a major hurdle that we had to overcome first.”

Sometimes people assume wines from a particular region are the same. “Riesling kind of goes hand in hand with that too,” Stetson said. Rieslings are white wines that originated in the Rhine River region of Germany, with a reputation for being sweet. Some of them are, Stetson said, but “riesling” covers many different wines. “I have so many people tell me, ‘I don’t like riesling,’ and for the same reason; they say because it’s too sweet. Riesling can be made in a huge array of styles, especially ones made in the Finger Lakes [of New York State]. They are so close to us, are frequently done in a dry style and so aromatic and beautiful.”

November is a good time of the year to clear up some of these misunderstandings, Stetson said. “Riesling is such a classic wine for Thanksgiving, so I wanted to present people with a dry riesling. The aromatics in the wine and even the grape itself will give hints of blossom and honeysuckle. That pairs really well with root vegetables and Thanksgiving seasonal fare. And white wine is kind of a classic pairing with turkey. You could do reds too, but you would choose a lighter red. White goes well with turkey because it won’t overwhelm the poultry.”

Small classes provide a relaxed, focused atmosphere for wine drinkers to wrap their heads around wines, Stetson said.

“Class goers get the opportunity to have a more in-depth understanding of each wine,” she said, “and ask their questions as opposed to at a wine tasting where it’s quick and they’re contending with other people who might be here. I think it’s a great environment for them to have a more personalized experience.”

“I want them to start to figure out what their palate is like,” Stetson said, “what kinds of wines they enjoy and what they gravitate to. For this particular class, I hope people find really fun wines for the holidays that they can share with their family and friends and talk knowledgeably about. Hopefully, clearing up some of these misconceptions in a Misunderstood Wines class will encourage people to try wines that they might have steered clear of because they thought they wouldn’t like them or just didn’t know about them.”

Misunderstood Wines Class
When: Tuesday, Nov. 12, or Wednesday, Nov. 13, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Where: Wine on Main, 9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828
More: wineonmainnh.com
Each class is limited to 20 people and includes six wines and light snacks. The cost is $35 per person.

Featured Photo: Emma Stetson leading a class. Courtesy photo.

Sleazy Vegan parks the truck

Popular purveyor serves food at Pembroke City Limits

For Kelly Sue Leblanc, a turning point in the direction her life was headed came in the form of a vegan cooking class.

Leblanc, who goes by KSL, was curious about plant-based foods, but was frustrated by how limited her dinner choices seemed to be. “I was definitely a carnivore,” she said. “I’d been eating that way my whole life. I honestly was like, ‘OK, I made a stir-fry and a salad and some pasta and now I’ve run out of vegetable things to cook for myself. Am I just going to be stuck eating pasta and salad and stir-fry for the rest of my life?’ I didn’t know how to cook without butter or dairy.”

A cooking class led KSL to a deeper understanding of how food is constructed — why certain ingredients go together, and what the elements were that made some dishes work, and some crash and burn. Learning about food became fascinating to her, which, in short order, led to buying a food truck.

“We bought the truck in June of ’22,” KSL said, “and that first season we kind of stuck around Manchester because of the crazy amount of different health licenses that are in the 16 self-governed towns of New Hampshire. Being a mobile food truck in New Hampshire is a very strange kind of gig because of the way that we [New Hampshire towns] manage our health licenses.” Limited by the cooking space in a food truck, she did the lion’s share of cooking in a commercial kitchen in Manchester and then finished each order on site.

She named the truck The Sleazy Vegan.

“The Sleazy Vegan got its name in a couple of different ways,” KSL said. ”I plan on living on a sailboat at some point, and I was playing with business names that began with S-V, and that came into my mind, and worked for me in that way, but it also worked because of the philosophy of food.” She remembered that when she first switched to a plant-based diet she felt like she was being judged. “I went to a couple of different places that were vegan restaurants, and I was made to feel very, very uncomfortable because I was wearing leather shoes or had a leather handbag. And the penny hadn’t dropped on me about what the word ‘vegan’ really meant and how fully loaded it could be. And Sleazy Vegan is sort of my acceptance of being an imperfect vegan and wanting to just make sure that everybody knows that about the food and about what we’re doing before they get there. The name Sleazy Vegan kind of ties together our whole concept of being a vegan food provider.”

Earlier this year The Sleazy Vegan became the food provider at Pembroke City Limits (134 Main St., Suncook, 210-2409, pembrokecitylimits.com), a multi-use entertainment venue. KSL said cooking in the new space is not too different from working from her food truck.

“The space that we have at Pembroke City Limits is smaller than what’s on my truck,” she said. She and her head cook, Trafton Hanscom, who describes himself as a “Sleaze Wrangler,” still do all their preliminary cooking at her commercial kitchen, then finish each dish to order at the brick-and-mortar restaurant. “What we have been doing at Pembroke City Limits is introducing things that we’ve done in the food truck,” she said. “I am an unruly cook because I am constantly making new items. But that’s, I mean, that’s why I’m doing this, right? If I look at our current menu — between our snacks and apps, bigger bites, drinks and sweets — we are doing over 30 items from that tiny little kitchen.”

KSL sees her new restaurant as the next stage in an evolving story.

“Being that my history is in tech,” she said, “I view everything as a prototype. We’re prototyping this idea that we can put in something that would cost about the same as a food truck or less into a small establishment and be able to run Sleazy Vegan as a busy vegan kitchen, so that maybe we can grow this idea up and repeat it.”

The Sleazy Vegan
Where: 134 Main St., Pembroke
Hours: Open Wednesday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Thursday and Friday, 4 to 10 p.m., Saturday, 2 to 10 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.
Info: 233-5078, thesleazyvegan.com
The menu is available online, as well as links to The Sleazy Vegan’s social media accounts. The Sleazy Vegan can cater occasions from weddings to corporate events.

Featured Photo: Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 24/10/31

News from the local food scene

• Brewery opening: A new brewery is set to open in Manchester during the first week of November. Republic Brewing Co. (72 Old Granite St. Manchester, 836-3188, republicbrewingcompany.com) will have a Founder’s Club soft opening from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 1, with a public opening soon after. It will serve six house-brewed beers and pub food, initially focusing on tacos and burgers.

• Market opening: World Market (79 S. River Road, Bedford, 688-8947, stores.worldmarket.com) is slated to have had its ribbon cutting on Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 9:45 a.m. with a grand opening celebration Thursday, Oct. 31, through Saturday, Nov. 2, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 3, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to a press release which said the opening will include food and drink tastings.

• Find fish: The University of New Hampshire (unh.edu) has announced a new online tool to help consumers access information about locally sourced seafood products: NH Seafood Finder. According to UNH, the website will allow users to search for seafood by “seafood type (ex: lobsters, oysters, scallops), vendor, location type (ex: off-the-boat, storefront, farmer’s market), time of year, or [search by] map/town.” See bit.ly/NHSeafoodFinder.

• Farmers market opening: Saturday, Nov. 2, will be the opening day for the Concord Winter Farmers Market (7 Eagle Square, Concord, downtownconcordwinterfarmersmarket.com). The Market will be open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon, November through April.

A craft wrapped in a tradition inside an art

Matryoshka Nested Dolls with Marina Forbes

By Zachary Lewis
[email protected]

Marina Forbes is an award-winning artist, master iconographer and art historian whose focus is on traditional Russian art forms and culture.

Forbes will give a presentation on “Traditional Matryoshka Nested Doll Making: From Russia to New Hampshire” on Thursday, Nov. 7, at Gafney Library in Sanbornville. She is native of St. Petersburg, Russia.

“As a traditional artist, I love to do traditional art inspired by the thousand years of tradition. I teach how to actually paint nested dolls as well,” Forbes said. “I work as an art historian and I also work as an artist.”

Forbes is with New Hampshire State Council on the Arts as a traditional artist and contributes in categories like health care and education. “I’ve been doing programs for the last 30 years. I came to America 30 years ago. I’ve been doing programs with New Hampshire Humanities and I have a series of programs,” she said.

Her Matryoshka Nested Doll presentation involves just as much history as art. “As an art historian, I love to talk about art’s history and culture and their interconnection. In my presentation, we will start with the history of nested dolls, which has lots of legends, and then we’ll just examine the tapestry of rich folk tradition,” she said.

More contemporary historical events have influenced this old art form. “The collapse of the Soviet Union, early 1990s, people used nested dolls as a venue to search for identity, to explore new ideas. That’s why it’s such a creative process,” Forbes said.

The old and the new are used by Forbes to illuminate the story of this craft. “I’m going to use some of my exhibits as well so people can understand the connection between the 150-year art form and icons, which is more than 1,000 years of tradition, because nothing comes from nowhere — everything is built on a tradition.”

One aspect of the interconnection of art’s history and culture in her presentation relates to why nested dolls look the way they do.

“Nested dolls traditionally depict a woman, so it’s very interesting to talk about women through their lens of history and their dress and fashion and what it took to be beautiful, because in every culture it’s different, ‘what does it mean to be beautiful?’ and we’ll talk about what it is to be beautiful in Imperial Russia,” Forbes said.

How big is a typical nested doll? “Normally the nested dolls have one piece inside, three, five, seven, 10, 11, and everything with more than 11 pieces inside is considered to be a kind of custom-made piece. People, artists, work on whatever size of doll which is convenient for them.”

“The final piece in a set of 11 can be just smaller than the size of your fingernail. …. The big doll can be 10 inches, 15 inches, 7 inches, but it’s all about what’s inside, because when you open one it reveals a smaller one, and the smallest can be really very small. And if you’re curious, the craftsmanship is all about how many dolls you can nest in a certain shape,” she said.

Nested dolls glowed with a springlike joy when they were first created in the late 19th century. “Siberia, minus 40 degrees outside, everything is covered with snow, that’s why the concept of a nested doll is a wonderful toy with bright happy colors with fabulous flowers like from paradise to cheer yourself up.”

The dolls had six distinct versions, she said. “We had six factories all over Siberia, and every factory had its own style. Probably the best way to understand it is McDonald’s. You go there, you know what to expect, and it’s kind of different from Burger King. So that’s why each factory had a distinctive style but still it was a nested doll.”

Nested Doll events
Traditional Matryoshka Nested Doll Making: From Russia to New Hampshire
When: Thursday, Nov. 7, at 6 p.m.
Where: Gafney Library, 14 High St., Sanbornville, 522-3401

Matryoshka Nested Doll Painting: Storytelling and Hands-on Workshop
When: Saturday, Nov. 16, 10 a.m to 1 p.m.
Where: New England Language Center, Rochester
To register: email [email protected] or call 332-2255

Featured image: Courtesy photo.

Kiddie Pool 24/10/31

Family fun for whenever

Trick-or-treat time!

• If you’re hitting the streets with kids searching for full size candy bars and Nerds Gummy Clusters or handing out candy, check out the Oct. 17 issue of the Hippo for our listing of trick-or-treat times (and other spooky events). Find the Halloween guide on page 10; find the issue in our digital library at hippopress.com.

Story time!

• Pajama Storytime at Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord)will take place on Friday, Nov. 1, at 5:30 p.m. Local children’s author Tabatha Jean D’Agata will lead an interactive storytime filled with crafts, giveaways and more, according to their website. Attendees should wear their favorite pajamas and bring along their coziest stuffed animal friend. D’Agata’s new picture book is called More Magic. Gibson’s will be open late for First Friday, so plan an evening of entertainment downtown for the family. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• Join Beaver Brook educator and master storyteller Rachael for the last Forest Tales of the season on Monday, Nov. 4, from 10 to 11 a.m., an hour of outside story time with your little ones. This program is free and is offered to grown-ups and their children. The event takes place at their Maple Hill Farm (117 Ridge Road, Hollis) location on beautiful grounds with lots of room for children to play and meet new friends after the program. Visit beaverbrook.org.

Stories on stage

• The Riverbend Youth Company will present Beetlejuice Friday, Nov. 1, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 2, at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 3, at 2:30 p.m.at the Amato Center for the Arts (56 Mont Vernon St., Milford, amatocenter.org/riverbend-youth-company). Tickets cost $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and children.

• Enchantment Theatre Company will present My Father’s Dragon, based on the book series by Ruth Stiles Gannett and illustrated by Ruth Chrisman Gannett, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. at the Music Hall (28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth, themusichall.org). The show will then come to the Capitol Center for the Arts (Chubb Theatre, 44 S. Main St. in Concord; ccanh.com) on Wednesday, Nov. 13, at 10:30 a.m. where tickets are $8. See a video trailer for the production at ccanh.com. See enchantmenttheatre.org for more on the company.

• The Wizard of Oz will be presented by the Rochester Opera House (31 Wakefield St., Rochester, 335-1992, rochesteroperahouse.com) through Sunday, Nov. 3, with shows on Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m. Tickets range from $26 to $32. Visit rochesteroperahouse.com to purchase tickets.

Stories on screen

• Coraline (PG, 2009) will screen via Fathom Events in celebration of its 15th anniversary with shows on Thursday, Oct. 31, and Friday, Nov. 1, at Cinemark Rockingham Park in Salem (4 and 7 p.m.) and Regal Fox Run in Newington (1 and 7 p.m.). See FathomEvents.com.

• Catch Wes Anderson’s stop motion Fantastic Mr. Fox (PG, 2009), based on the Roald Dahl book, as part of the Little Lunch Date series at Chunky’s (707 Huse Road in Manchester; chunkys.com) on Tuesday, Nov. 5, at 11:30 a.m. (Election Day, when some area schools are closed). Reserve seats for $5 per person (plus fees), which includes a $5 food voucher.

And, speaking of Chunky’s, save the date: tickets to Friday, Dec. 6, through Thursday, Dec. 19, screenings of The Polar Express(G, 2004) are on sale now, including regular admission tickets and a ticket that comes with a bell and a Santa cookie. Special screenings include the Monday, Dec. 9, and Monday, Dec. 16 5:30 p.m. which include a visit from Santa Claus, and the Wednesday, Dec. 11, screening at 11:30 a.m., which is sensory friendly.

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