Tag: 250220

In the kitchen with Amanda Spooner

Chef at Honey Cup Tea Room in Manchester. Spooner is also a caterer and personal trainer. “I was raised in the restaurants with my dad. I was busing tables at 6, 7 years old and then, around 12, was doing catering with my aunt’s company, Sunshine Catering. … My first job out of high school was at the Black Brimmer as a hostess, then as a server and a bartender. Then I went to La Carreta and was a bartender over there, and then I had my first baby. At that time I took a different [path]. I started catering, but I also was intrigued with health and wellness so I ended up getting my certification to be a personal trainer. I’ve been in that industry, maintaining my certification for about 20 years now. My husband and I ended up opening up Big Kahuna’s Cafe and Grill out of Merrimack. I operated that for about 10 years. When Mara [Honey Cup owner Mara Witt] started thinking about the concept of having her own place, she came to me and asked if I would be up for helping her out. … I had full artistic, creative freedom with this. The only thing I had to really do was home in on how she wanted to see everything, how she wanted to feel. And from that point I was able to curate a menu.”

What is your must-have item in the kitchen?

All I need is fire. If I have fire, I can cook anything. We’ve done open pit cooking. I’ve done rustic-style cooking, open flame. An oven’s great, but I can cook anywhere with anything. And that’s probably my strongest suit as a chef. Also love. Love is what makes food great.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?

I think the “Chaffle” is really cool — the loaded potato waffle with cheddar, egg and potato. But our turkey sandwiches are the bomb, with herb cream cheese. I love the fresh herbs. I add in sage, basil, and thyme, garlic, and just emulsify that all together. It’s magical.

What is a trend you are seeing in food in New Hampshire?

I think we’re seeing a lot more of the cultural foods — things like African cooking, things that are becoming trendy on TikTok. There’s more of an interest in the flavors from around the world, which I admire.

What would you have for your last meal?

Lobster. All the lobster I could stuff in my face.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

In the summertime, I love cooking over fire. Then in the fall with the harvest, the harvest vegetables, the produce is just so beautiful … I love making stews with bones and bone marrow; it’s just rich, hearty, nourishing quality food.

1940s Recession Chocolate Cake

This cake was popular during the Great Depression and World War II because it uses no eggs, butter, or milk—ingredients that were often rationed, so it’s also vegan!

Servings: 8-10
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30-35 minutes

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons vegetable oil (or melted shortening)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon white or apple cider vinegar
1 cup water

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease an 8×8-inch baking pan lightly with oil or non-stick spray.
2. Mix dry ingredients: In the baking pan (or a mixing bowl), whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Make wells: Using a spoon, make three small wells in the dry mixture—one for oil, one for vinegar, and one for vanilla.
4. Add liquids: Pour the oil, vinegar, and vanilla into their respective wells, then pour the water over everything.
5. Mix gently: Stir the ingredients until well combined, making sure there are no dry spots, but don’t overmix.
6. Bake: Place in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. Cool and serve: Let the cake cool in the pan before slicing. You can dust it with powdered sugar or top it with a simple icing if desired.

Featured Image: Amanda Spooner. Photo by John Fladd.

Shakes and teas

New shop offers beverages with purpose

By John Fladd

[email protected]

Sean and Gina Wren picked a challenging location for a health-oriented business. PowerThirst, a shake and tea bar specializing in nutritional supplements, is located directly between a Mexican restaurant and a Domino’s Pizza on Mast Road in Goffstown. Two doors down is a tobacco and vape shop. On the other hand, there is a gym in the same plaza.

PowerThirst owner Sean Wren said the location has actually worked in their favor.

“We definitely have had a nice steady increase in traffic from the gym next door,” he said. “And then having the new Mexican restaurant next door [La Vaka Mexican Restaurant], it’s been fantastic, because I see so many people walking by, going into the restaurant, looking up, looking at our sign and looking in our window. I’ve had a number of people say, ‘Oh yeah, I was going to eat next door and I finally had a chance to stop by; I want to see what this place is all about.’”

What it is about is vitamin- and nutrient-enriched shakes and teas.

“PowerThirst is technically classified as a nutrition club,” Wren explained. “and what we provide are beverages for people who are looking to be more positive and health-minded. The teas have B vitamins, antioxidants, any number of our boosters for hydration, electrolytes, and things like collagen and different supplements to help with their overall health. The protein shakes provide protein and other nutrients. The goal is to keep everything tasting good, but also keeping it at a very low sugar content so people can be mindful of total caloric intake throughout the day.“

Customers order a tea drink or a shake at the counter, and the Wrens customize it according to flavor and the customer’s specific requirements. A long-distance runner might ask for different nutritional supplements than a power-lifter, for instance.

“If they have the time,” Wren said, “I would talk with them and ask them what they’re currently doing. And then just give them some general guidelines as to things they might want to try, because in the world of fitness and nutrition … everybody’s body’s different. There’s no cookie-cutter approach of ‘this is what you have to do if you want to be good at X’. It’s going to be a little bit different for everybody.”

Wren looks at his job as providing a counterbalance to some of the dubious nutritional information that many people are bombarded with.

“It’s a tough place to be if you’re someone who’s trying to get into fitness and you don’t have a lot of background in [nutrition],” he said. “Because while the internet is fantastic, you can find anything you could possibly imagine on there, and, there are a lot of charlatans out there and there’s a lot of people selling snake oil and just telling you this is the new hot thing that’ll change your life. My goal here is to provide people with the most simplified, straightforward answers to get them moving in the right direction and make a lot of those decisions for themselves and be as informed as possible. Because yes, you’ll have people who like a new supplement will pop up and everybody says it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. And then a year goes by and all of the actual research comes out, it doesn’t do anything.”

That relaxed, comfortable attitude is reflected in the interior of PowerThirst. There is comfortable seating, and space for customers to sit and talk with each other or to take their time enjoying their drinks.

“I didn’t want to set this up and have it be too over-the-top gym health-related,” Wren said. Someone who doesn’t necessarily go to the gym all the time or is in that space would think, ‘Oh that’s not for me.’ We want to feel very welcoming to anybody who just enjoys a delicious beverage, wants to make some slight changes in their life, all the way up to people who are like hardcore athletes, gym goers, high school athletes.”

PowerThirst

Where: 553 Mast Road, Goffstown, 937-2412, powerthirstnh.com
When: Open seven days a week: Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Featured photo: PowerThirst owner Sean Wren. Photo by John Fladd.

Kitchen futures

Culinary cards get you thinking about your day and your meals

By John Fladd

[email protected]

There are any number of ways to get inspiration in the kitchen and to become more thoughtful about your food. Dawn Aurora Hunt has a new one: a deck of cards.

“This is the Kitchen Witch Culinary Oracle Deck,” Hunt said. “This is different from a tarot deck, because a tarot deck has suits and you’ll always have certain cards. This is a fun tool; you could use it for insight and inspiration, but you could use it just for cool recipe ideas.”

The Culinary Oracular Deck is a set of 50 large, illustrated cards, similar in appearance to tarot cards, each with a different kitchen ingredient or tool.

Hunt, the owner of Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery in Salem, spends a lot of time thinking deeply about cooking and the sharing of food.

“Everything I do is about cooking with love,” she said, “cooking with intention and finding a deeper meaning in food and our connection to food through the seasons and mindfulness.” It was this introspective examination that led to the development of her new Oracular Deck. “I was teaching classes on the deeper meanings of simple food ingredients for a while and people have been saying to me, ‘You know, this would make a really cool oracle deck, so that people could take the class and work with that information in an easy way.’ I have a couple of other cookbooks that I wrote that are sort of themed similarly; this has been a natural progression for that.”

Hunt used one of the cards as an example. “One way that you might use these cards would be in the morning while you are maybe having a cup of coffee or getting ready for your day, you might shuffle up the cards and pull one card out of the deck. Maybe you pull the card that says ‘eggs’. Eggs are associated with new birth, new life and fertility. So you might read about the symbolic meaning of eggs on the egg card, and it says that your endeavors are about to reap rewards. What have you been working on? What have you been working toward or fighting for? When the egg card shows up for you, things in your life are about to come together. So you can take that message into your day.”

Alternatively, Hunt said, you might not have eaten eggs in a while and this might simply inspire you to cook or eat something eggy. Each card has suggestions of dishes and a simple recipe. So you might find yourself making quiche for dinner. Almost all the recipes are ones that are easily customizable.

According to Hunt, that was a deliberate decision.

“I have a ton of food allergies,” she said. “So when I am creating recipes, I’m coming from a perspective of whether I can eat this and how people with other limitations might enjoy it. So there’s always comments in my recipes about how to make something gluten-free or how to make it dairy-free or if you’re vegan maybe you want to do this other thing. I try to make it as accessible as possible. I try to keep all of my recipes simple, accessible. And in most cases you probably already have 75 percent of the ingredients lying around your house. The truth is, the simpler the recipe, the simpler the ingredients — in my opinion — the better the meal is. The more we connect with those ingredients and the closer we are to Mother Earth and what Earth is giving us.”

Oracle Deck

A Kitchen Witch’s Culinary Oracle Deck: Gain Daily Insight and Bring Magic to Your Meals with Everyday Ingredients is available through the Cucina Aurora website, or where books are sold, and costs $24.95.

There will be a launch party for the deck at Moon River Wellness Center (17 Windham Road, Pelham, 635-8938, moonriverwellnesscenter.com) Sunday, Feb. 23, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free.

Featured photo: Dawn Aurora Hunt. Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 25/02/20

News from the local food scene

By John Fladd

[email protected]

• New coffee shop: Two Moons Coffee and Curiosities has opened in South of the 6 Salon (155 Dow St., No. 102, Manchester, 782-7198, southofthe6.com). Described on the South of the 6 website as having a “spooky-vintage-bookstore vibe,” it serves coffees, teas, smoothies and baked-in-house pastries. Open Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• Food donations and beer: To Share Brewing (720 Union St., Manchester, 836-6947, tosharebrewing.com) will host a food drive to benefit the New Hampshire Food Bank (nhfoodbank.org) Saturday, Feb. 22, beginning at 5 p.m. Bring a donation and get a chance to spin To Share’s Prize Wheel for a chance to win awesome prizes.

• Worldly wines: Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) will host a free wine tasting with Tom from Pearl Lake on Saturday, Feb. 22, between 1 and 4 p.m. Taste four wines from around the world. The store is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. as well.

• Irish and delicious: Peddler’s Daughter (48 Main St., Nashua, 821-7535, thepeddlersdaughter.com) will host its Annual Guinness Dinner Wednesday, Feb. 26, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. There will be four beers, four courses and endless fun conducted by “Cicerone” Michael Reardon, New England Guinness Ambassador, with special guest speaker Malcolm Patterson from Diageo Guinness USA. Tickets are $65 each through eventbrite.com.

• Tea in history: Register now for a special tea lecture. The Cozy Tea Cart (104A Route 13, Brookline, 249-9111, thecozyteacart.com) will host a discussion on “The Social Impact of Tea in Our History,” beginning with the discovery of tea and the spread of tea throughout Europe, the tea trade with China and the Opium Wars, its impact on the U.S., and the First World War. Throughout the presentation, enjoy sipping teas from the major tea-producing countries. The lecture will take place Thursday, March 20, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., but registration is required at least two weeks in advance. Tickets are $30 per person through the Cozy Tea Cart website.

Kiddie Pool 25/02/20

Family fun for whenever

Ski days

Area ski hills are offering special events and camps during New Hampshire’s February vacation week.

• McIntyre Ski Area (50 Chalet Way in Manchester; mcintyreskiarea.com/kids-vacation-camps, 622-6159) has single-day and five-day camps, which run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., for ages 6 to 12. Five-day lessons for ages 4 to 6 (12:30 to 1:30 p.m.) and 6 to 16 (9:30 to 11:30 a.m.) are also available. See the website for pricing for camps and rentals.

McIntyre is also holding its Rail Jam on Sunday, Feb. 23 — rider registration is 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., 11:45 a.m. riders meeting at the top of the park, at noon the GROM Heat (13 and under) starts and then skiers open class at 12:30 p.m. and snowboarders open class at 1:30 p.m. Registration costs $25 and includes a lift ticket during the event; helmets are required, the website said.

McIntyre is open daily; lift skiing hours during vacation week will be 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and tubing hours will have two-hour sessions starting at 11 a.m. and ending at 9 p.m.. McIntyre also offers a one-rate fee for lift tickets and rentals during the end of the day until 9 p.m.; prices vary based on start time. See the website or call for each day’s offerings and times.

• Pats Peak Ski Area (686 Flanders Road in Henniker; patspeak.com, 428-3245) offers a three-day camp, Feb. 24 through Feb. 26, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., for 7- to 14-year-olds, with and without rentals.

Pats Peak also offers a Pay One Price ticket for skiing, snowboarding, snowtubing, rentals and lessons for the end of the day — through 10 p.m. starting at 4 p.m., 5 p.m. or 6 p.m., price varies based on start time. The promotion runs through vacation week (except for Sunday, Feb. 23).

Art vacation

• The Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St. in Manchester; currier.org) is offering a three-day workshop for ages 6 to 12 during February vacation. The half-day workshops are themed “My Favorite Things” and run Wednesday, Feb. 26, through Friday, Feb. 28 — 9:30 a.m. to noon for grades 1 to 3 and 1 to 3:30 p.m. for grades 4 to 6. The cost is $180 ($162 for members).

Visit the museum Wednesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free for kids ages 12 and under and $5 for ages 13 to 17, $15 for students and 65+ and $20 for regular admission.

• Kimball Jenkins (266 N. Main St. in Concord; kimballjenkins.com) has February Break Programs for ages 7 to 14 with morning programs (9 a.m. to noon) for ages 7 to 11 and afternoon programs (1 to 4 p.m.) for ages 11 to 14. Classes are $198 and “rotate through a diverse array of artistic mediums with each class featuring an art activity that aligns with our arctic theme,” the website said.

Air and space

• During February school vacation week, the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road in Londonderry; aviationmuseumofnh.org) will be open additional days — 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday Feb. 25, through Thursday, Feb. 27. The museum will offer the Elite Flight Simulator on Feb. 25 and Feb. 27 from 1 to 4 p.m. for kids ages 12 and up, according to a museum release. The museum will also host a story time on Feb. 26 at 11 a.m., the release said.

• The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (2 Institute Drive in Concord; starhop.com) is open daily through Sunday, March 2, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission costs $13; $12 for ages 13 through college and 62+, and $10 for ages 3 to 12, according to the website. Planetarium show tickets are an additional $7 for everyone ages 3 and up.

Spring is on its way

It’s flower time

By Henry Homeyer

[email protected]

Here in Cornish Flat, this seems like an old-fashioned winter. Temperatures have been consistently below freezing, and the ground has had at least a light covering of snow most of the time. No deep snow, the kind that insulates the ground and keeps tender perennials safe, but enough to soothe the eyes when looking at the landscape.

But we gardeners are already thinking of spring. Fortunately, I planted many small pots of Tête-à-tête daffodils last fall and stored them in my basement, which stays at 40 degrees. The foliage is up now, and their roots are pushing through the holes in the bottom of the pots, so I know they are ready to bring up to the warmth of the house. I’ve been putting them in sunny windowsills, and many are blooming — and ready to give away. For me, this is a spring ritual: giving 4-inch pots of flowers to friends and neighbors.

If you are hungering for spring, you might consider going to a spring flower show. Unfortunately, many of the spring shows have given up. Boston no longer has its extravaganza, so the Connecticut show in Hartford is now New England’s big event. It has many nice displays and many great classes to attend. This year it is Feb. 20 to Feb. 23.

Then there is one of my favorites, the Vermont Flower Show in Essex Junction, Vermont, March 7 to March 9. It’s small enough to see everything in one day, but has lots to offer.

In Rhode Island there is the Home Show from April 10 to April 13, and it has a flower and garden portion, though I have not been down to Providence since the big flower show folded its tent in 2016.

For the travel-inclined there is the Philadelphia show, March 1 to March 9. It has been a spring tonic since 1829. The poinsettia was introduced to American gardeners at that first show, and Ben Franklin may have attended that year. Go on a weekday for smaller crowds, and be prepared to spend a lot but to have a lot of fun.

February is the month I go through my seed packets to see what I need to buy. Most vegetables and flowers stay viable for three years. Exceptions to that rule are all onion-family seeds and parsnips, so I buy them each year. I’ve found that shallots do very well for me and keep longer than onions in the winter, so I will buy new seeds and plant them indoors and keep them under lights starting in early March. Peppers of all sorts need a long time to get big enough to plant outdoors, so I also start them in March. Tomatoes I start in April, usually around the 10th.

This is also the time of year to pay attention to your houseplants. The days are getting longer, roots and shoots are growing, and they need more water. If you are trying to overwinter a rosemary plant, double the water it gets. A fully dry rosemary is a dead rosemary, and late February or early March is the time of year most of us kill ours. I admit to failing with rosemary by keeping to my weekly watering schedule.

If you have the mid-winter blues, buy yourself some nice cut flowers at your local florist. I prefer to buy from a florist, as they generally take better care of their flowers than big box grocery stores. Many years ago I went to the Boston flower market — leaving at 5 a.m. — with a friend who owned a florist shop to buy flowers for her shop. The flower market was the size of a football field and had every kind of flower you could imagine. What fun that was!

Some years ago the flower trade got a bad reputation because many of the flowers came from Colombia, South America, where the growers used pesticides liberally and paid their workers a pittance. But I believe that now many flowers in winter are grown in the States and done so with environmentally sound practices. You can always ask your florist where their flowers come from.

If you want cut flowers that last a long time in a vase, try alstromeria or lisianthus. Both hold up very well. Also excellent are chrysanthemums, asters, sea lavender and bells of Ireland.

Then there are a couple of gorgeous potted flowers that bloom for a long time at this time of year: cyclamen and Phalaenopsis orchids. The key to these is to minimize watering and to keep them out of direct sunlight. The cyclamen are cheap enough that you can compost them when they are done blooming (in eight to 10 weeks). Phalaenopsis orchids are more expensive but can be saved from year to year.

Lastly, this is a good time of year to think about your outdoor gardens and how you can improve them, come spring or summer. Start by looking out your favorite window. What do you see now that gives you joy? If you only grow flowers, the landscape is bleak.

Think about trees, shrubs and decorative grasses that you could add to the landscape. Would a nice miniature or weeping conifer fit into a perennial bed? A Merrill magnolia in the middle of your lawn could offer a nice shape and buds and bark that please you. It will bloom magnificently with large double white blossoms in April. It will give you something to look forward to. And after all, isn’t that part of the reason why we all garden?

You can reach Henry at [email protected].

Featured photo: These daffodils are ready to bloom on a sunny windowsill. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

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