Tag: 260507

Orange Muffins with Grape-Nuts

From the 1930 Calumet Baking Book

  • 2 cups (240 g) all purpose flour
  • 1½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 Tablespoons butter
  • 2/3 cup (132 g) sugar
  • Zest of two oranges
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • ¾ cup orange juice — perhaps from the oranges you just zested.
  • 1 cup (114 g) Grape-Nuts cereal — At some point in your youth you probably tried the dry, gravel-like cereal that comes in a very small box and its appeal was lost on you. Interestingly enough, the older you get the better the Grape-Nuts get. You find this listed as an ingredient in a surprising number of recipes starting in the 1930s. Presumably, Grape-Nuts were new, exciting, and a social signifier of some kind?

Mother’s Day is one of the three or four days of the year when non-mothers decide to make a big deal about cooking breakfast for the mom of the house. Muffins are a good choice, because they are easy, hard to mess up, and don’t leave the kitchen looking like a combat zone.

This is a good recipe to make with even young children. It’s super straightforward. The key is to measure all the ingredients out ahead of time. Most of us have the image of the joy of intergenerational cooking with children. In point of fact, even very young kids like the idea of cooking but have the attention spans of coffee-addled squirrels. The act of measuring out ingredients is indescribably tedious to them, whereas turning on a mixer and adding ingredients one at a time will take about 11 minutes — the length of a Bluey cartoon.

Preheat your oven to 375°F, and put muffin liners in 12 muffin tins.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. Set it aside.

In your mixer, cream the butter, sugar and orange zest together. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula, then beat in the eggs, a little at a time.

When everything has mixed together thoroughly, add half the flour mixture (turn your mixer to its slowest speed to avoid poofing yourself with flour), then half the orange juice, then the rest of the flour, then the rest of the orange juice.

Remove the bowl from your mixer, and stir in the Grape-Nuts.

Divide the batter between the 12 lined muffin tins, then bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

Let cool 10 to 15 minutes, then eat with butter or topped with ice cream.

Featured photo: Orange Muffins with Grape-Nuts. Photo by John Fladd.

Strictly fudge, many flavors

Fudge following grows from grandma’s recipe

Dorothy O’Rourke runs a small candy company called Granite Bay Fudge.

“I had a plan,” she sighed. “Originally, I liked the name the New England Fudge Company, but it turns out the New England Fudge Company is actually already a company. In New York. Somebody did not do a good job checking on things. New York is not in New England! I was horrified to discover that the name I really liked was gone. So Granite Bay came out of Granite State and Bay State. I try to hide the fact that I grew up in Massachusetts, but I consider myself a New Hampshireite. That’s how we ended up in Granite Bay.”

O’Rourke strictly sells fudge, but in an impressive variety of flavors.

“At this point, I just hit 19 types,” O’Rourke said. “I get a lot of questions from people. I actually had somebody recently who asked me about dill pickle fudge and I’m going to turn that one down, hard. I’m not a believer in the weird. I’m not making jalapeno fudge and, no, I’m not making bacon fudge. Those are not what I consider fudge flavors. But on the other hand, I’ve had a lot of people asking for fruit-based fudges. Until just recently, chocolate-raspberry was my most recent, but I had a woman reach out to me and told me that she likes orange fudge. I’d never made orange fudge, but I just test drove that one, and so that’s our most recent. We do listen to requests. I added maple-walnut and chocolate-walnut. Maple and maple-walnut became huge sellers. I did not realize — I’ve lived in New Hampshire now since the mid-’80s and I had no idea how big Maple Weekend is in this state. It is huge and apparently I’m going to need to really ramp up and make a lot more maple and maple-walnut fudge this coming year because it sells at an insane rate.”

O’Rourke has found customers can be very particular about fudge.

“What I have discovered is that there are different types of fudge,” she said. “There’s the New England or American version of fudge, which is what I make. It’s the creamy version of fudge. But there’s also Scottish fudge. Scottish fudge is cooked to a higher temperature. It is a brittle, drier fudge; it’s very, very granular. We had a lot of people [at shows] asking us about our fudge and giving us some sort of funny looks. And what we realized as they tried our samples is that they were looking for that other type of fudge.”

And don’t ask O’Rourke about penuche.

“We tell people, ‘If you’re looking for penuche, you’re talking to the wrong person.’ I do not make penuche; it does not fit the family recipe. It needs to be made differently. We tell people to go hunt down other people if they’re looking for penuche fudge. My fudge, the original chocolate recipe, was my grandmother’s recipe. It was handed down by word-of-mouth. It is not written down. I was told I was not allowed to write it down. I worry sometimes that my memory might go, but at this point I make it enough that everything is memorized.”

At this time, Granite Bay Fudge does not have a website or a storefront. O’Rourke depends on her fans hunting her down at events where she is a vendor. They usually find her through social media.

“I have Instagram and Facebook posts,” she said, “but word-of-mouth has been an interesting thing. It turns out I’ve got followers. It’s been an interesting experience having people reach out to me to say, ‘Where is the next show? We really need more of your fudge.’”

“I have fudge groupies.”

Granite Bay Fudge
Fudge groupies can follow Granite Bay Fudge @granitebayfudge on Instagram, or search for it by name on Facebook.

Featured photo: Bonne Richards, owner of Bonne the Baker. Courtesy Bonne Richards.

No gluten, no problem

Bonne The Baker wants to give you better options

Bonne Richards has had some memorably bad gluten-free baked goods.

“I saw a gluten-free pizza yesterday that made me cry,” she said. “It was so clearly awful. I was at a meeting on the other side of the state and someone sent out for pizza and the gluten-free thing looked like it was made of Play-Doh. It was probably better to eat the box it came in.”

After baking professionally for many years, Richards has made the move to open her own gluten-free bakery.

“I’ve been in the business for a long time,” Richards said. “I was Michael Buckley’s original pastry chef at Michael Timothy’s back in the ’90s. And I’ve been working for different people and running farm bakeries, then went out on my own a couple of years ago just doing some wholesale accounts in the area. After listening to customers tell me, ‘Please, please open your own place,’ I decided to jump in and do it finally. It will be a gluten-free, dairy-free, plant-based bakery and retail market in Nashua.”

Richards’ goal for Bonne the Baker is to be a resource for customers who follow a specialized diet and, like her, have been disappointed with the choices available to them.

“It will probably break down to something like 70 percent sweet baked goods,” she said, ”and the other portion will be savory. You know — muffins, some Danishes, pastries. I’ll have some bread. Of course things like whoopie pies and cupcakes, all kinds of stuff. I’m going to do a lot of plant-based items. I have a big vegan and vegetarian following so I’m going to have a grab-and-go section that will have fresh salads, grain salads, greens, a lot of protein balls, vegan cheeses and things like vegan salamis that are hard to get.”

Richards remembers when gluten-free baked goods like that disappointing pizza were the norm. “Back in the day, at the beginning of gluten-free, the flours weren’t right,” she said. “Nobody really had a good formula for making eggs that weren’t eggs, you know what I mean? [Ingredients like that] have come such a long way and the procedures have taken a while to catch up with them. I can’t tell you how much I’ve thrown out perfecting my recipes. I’ve finally gotten to the point where I hear my favorite compliment pretty often: ‘ I cannot tell that this is gluten-free and there’s no eggs in this or dairy.’ So I’m pretty proud of that.”

Richards said the new space is promising.

“It looks so good!” she said. “I’m like, ‘Oh my god, it’s looking even better than I thought it was going to look like. It’s a fabulous space. It is so beautiful. I lucked out finding it. The City of Nashua has been so good, I can’t even tell you. And the comment out of the deputy health inspector was, ‘We want you in business’.

Richards’ original plan was to open for business on May 1, “but with paperwork, there are always issues,” she said. “I finally got my food licence. Now, we start baking and stocking the shelves and putting up my sign. The new plan is to have a soft opening on Saturday [May 9], and then the grand opening is going to be that Wednesday, May 13, which is my mother’s birthday, and she’s not here anymore, so even though it’s a Wednesday I’m going to call it Mother’s Day all weekend.”

Bonne The Baker
Where: 2 Cellu Drive, Nashua, 669-4200, bonniethebaker.com
When: soft opening Saturday, May 9, and grand opening Wednesday, May 13.
Hours: open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sundays 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Featured photo: Bonne Richards, owner of Bonne the Baker. Courtesy Bonne Richards.

The Weekly Dish 26/5/07

• French wine, French dining: There will be a wine dinner, “La Belle Saison: A French Wine & Culinary Experience,” Thursday, May 7, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Murphy’s Taproom & Carriage House (393 Route 101, Bedford, 488-5975; 494 Elm St., Manchester, 644-3535, murphystaproom.com). Organized by Wine Not Experiences, this dinner is inspired by the fresh energy of spring in France, featuring elegant French wines thoughtfully paired with a creative seasonal menu. Tickets are $150 through winenotexperiences.com.

• Wine and love stories: Averill House Vineyard (21 Averill Road, Brookline, 244-3165, averillhousevineyard.com) will host “Pouring Over Pages: A Romance Book and Wine Pairing Event” on Saturday, May 9, from 6 to 8 p.m. This event brings together books, wine and playful fun for a memorable literary wine tasting experience. Sip delicious local wines while exploring four swoon-worthy novels, play flirty games, win prizes, and connect with fellow book lovers in the scenic vineyard setting. General admission tickets are $49.87 through the Averill House website.

• Mother’s Day tea: The Culinary Playground (16 Manning St., Derry, 339-1664, culinary-playground.com) will host a Mother’s Day Tea on Sunday May 10, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Students will make a batch of berry tea cakes ​and compose their own tea sandwiches, ​then sit to dine in the kitchen. Tea, coffee and juice will be served. The cost is $65 per person at culinaryplaygroundnh.com/adults.

• A high-end Mother’s Day dinner: The Bedford Village Inn (2 Olde Bedford Way, Bedford, 472-2001, bedfordvillageinn.com) will host a three-course prix fixe Mother’s Day dinner on Sunday, May 10, with seating times from 2 to 7 p.m. The cost is $85 per adult and $45 per child. Visit bedfordvillageinn.com/bvi-holidays/#mothersday.

• A wine-filled Mother’s Day: Averill House Vineyard (21 Averill Road, Brookline, 244-3165, averillhousevineyard.com) will host a Mother’s Day high tea brunch and wine pairing Sunday, May 10, with seatings at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tickets are $59 through the Averill House website.

• An artsy Mother’s Day: Arts Alley (20 S.Main St., Concord, 406-5666, artsalleyconcordnh.com) will host a Mother’s Day brunch buffet called “A Toast to Mom” Sunday, May 10, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. This promises to be a “relaxed and memorable afternoon filled with great food, cocktails, and time together” according to the Arts Alley website. Tickets are $55 per adult and $20 per child.

• A gardeny Mother’s Day: Birch Wood Vineyards (199 Rockingham Road, Derry, 965-4359, birchwoodvineyards.com) will host a garden-inspired brunch Sunday, May 10, with flavors, flowers and seasonal dishes. There will be three seating times. Adult tickets are $70 and children’s tickets are $30 through the Birch Wood website.

• A small-plates Mother’s Day: Fulchino Vineyard (187 Pine Hill Road, Hollis, 438-5984, fulchinovineyard.com) will host a six-course small-plate dinner Sunday, May 10, from noon to 3 p.m. Indulge in a carefully curated selection of gourmet small plates surrounded by vineyard views. Adult tickets are $60 each, children’s meals $25, through the Vineyard’s website.

• Cake and countesses: LaBelle Winery Amherst (345 Route 101, Amherst, 672-9898, labellewinery.com) will host a Bridgerton-inspired cake decorating class Wednesday, May 13, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. An instructor will guide you through adding beautiful icing decorations to your own 5-inch mini cake. You can add on a glass of LaBelle wine and a cheese plate to enjoy during class. You will take your cake home with you. This class starts at $74 through the LaBelle website.

Kiddie Pool 26/05/07

Family fun for whenever

Storytime

• Wonderland Books and Toys, 245 Maple St., No. 12, in Manchester, will hold its Stuffy Sleepover Storytime on Friday, May 8, at 6:30 p.m. Register via a link on the store’s Facebook page for this free event where kids can attend a storytime with their stuffy on Friday evening and then leave their stuffy for a sleepover at the store, to be picked up Saturday, according to a Facebook post. See wonderlandbooksandtoys.com.

On stage

• The Manchester Community Theatre Players wrap up a production of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown with shows on Friday, May 8, and Saturday, May 9, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 10, at 2 p.m. at the MCTP Theatre, the North End Montessori School, 698 Beech St. in Manchester. See manchestercommunitytheatre.com for tickets.

• 101 Dalmatian Kids will be presented by Ovation Theatre Company with performers ages 7 to 14 on Friday, May 8, through Sunday, May 10, at Ovation Studios, 61 Harvey Road in Londonderry, according to ovationtc.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• The SpongeBob Musical will be presented at the Amato Center, 56 Mont Vernon St. in Milford, on Friday, May 8, and Saturday, May 9, at 7:30 p.m., and on Saturday, May 9, and Sunday, May 10, at 2:30 p.m. See amatocenter.org/riverbend-youth-company.

• And the older kids can catch Majestic Academy Teens’ production of Legally Blonde, The Musical, at the Derry Opera House, 29 West Broadway in Derry, on Friday, May 8, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, May 9, at 2 and 7 p.m., and Sunday, May 10, at 2 p.m. See majestictheatre.net or call 669-7469 for tickets, which will also be on sale at the door, the release said.

• The Palace Youth Theatre, with performers in grades 2 through 12, will present Romeo & Juliet Wednesday, May 13, and Thursday, May 14, at the Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St. in Manchester, according to palacetheatre.org, where you can purchase tickets.

Music!

• Concord Community Music School, 23 Wall St. in Concord, will hold Kids Music Day on Saturday, May 9, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., featuring Mr. Aaron, Miss Heather and Miss Julieann with concerts, demonstrations, an instrument petting zoo and more, according to ccmusicschool.org. For kids who want to see even more musical goings-on, the student piano recital starts at 1 p.m.

• For the sci-fi fans old enough to appreciate a live quintet performance, the Principal Winds Quartet of the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra will present “Space Heroes” in the planetarium at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord on Saturday, May 9, at 3:30 (listed as “sold out” on May 4) and 6:30 p.m. Musical selections from TV and film will be paired with “stunning visuals,” according to starhop.com/discover/spaceheroes, where you can purchase tickets.

Game time!

• The New Hampshire Fisher Cats kick off a six-game stand versus the Reading Fightin’ Phils on Tuesday, May 12, with a 6:03 p.m. game time. Tuesday will be “Tenders Tuesday,” when the team will play as the Manchester Chicken Tenders (the game is one of the Reading Challenge Days, for kids who earned those tickets), according to milb.com/new-hampshire. The Wednesday, May 13, game is at 11:05 a.m.

Treasure Hunt 26/05/07

Dear Donna,

I have a hanging lamp shown in my basement. It was with the house we bought in 1998. It was removed from our dining room to make a bedroom. Any ideas what year or price if we sell this item? Thank you.

Kristina

Dear Kristina,

Your hanging slag glass lamp looks to be from the 1970s. It also looks to be in good condition. Any cracking in the glass would change the value greatly.

This style of hanging lamp was very popular for a dining room during that period of time. Usually with a caramel color slag glass (non transparent glass), then a band of colored glass. Red, green, blue etc.

I think the value today would be to a collector or decorator who enjoys that period of time. The value would be in the range of $100.

I thank you for sharing, Kristina, and I hope you find a new home for your hanging lamp.

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