COOKOUT!

The weather was so brilliant that we started the traditional Bay 1 BBQ two months early. If it was bad for you, we ate it or drank it. Some did remember to wear sunscreen, and even managed a few runs down the mountain.


This movie may take a while to download, but it's sort of fun. I guess you had to be there. The best part is the background song I Don't Ski by the Renovators, off their Rythmn and Blueprints CD.

Hauling Home the Cookbook Booty

I went trolling for cookbooks today and scored big.


First stop Jeanne's Attic on Pleasant Street in Laconia, NH - a cool shop with reasonable prices and lots of mid-century modern goodies. I made a larger purchase at Country Tyme in Belmont, but the shopping experience was less satisfying. They advertised a storewide sale, however when I whipped out the credit card I was told that I could only have the discount if I paid cash. How tacky and crass. One price for everyone, I say.

So here's my loot (the rule is to not pay more that $15 unless it's unobtainium - I do try to keep purchases under $10):

The prize has to be The Entertaining Book by Teresa and Auberon Waugh. It's caustic, funny and the illustrations are lovely. It still doesn't make up for not having Waugh on Wine which is over $200 when I do manage to find it. Live in hope, die in despair.


The Blue Strawbery Cookbook
autographed by James Haller, the man who put Portsmouth on the culinary map. I pick up this one and Another Blue Strawbery Cookbook whenever I find them because they make great gifts.

Two by Craig Claiborne: Kitchen Primer,
a good present for beginning cooks with charming illustrations
and Cooking with Herbs & Spices.

Another choice for beginners is The Kitchenware Book

Gadabouts Cookbook & Travel Guide highlights all the cool restaurants in the Upper Valley, even Claude's, my favorite Killington restaurant and Powderhounds, which is, alas no more. Geoff will just have to settle for the recipe for cold peanut and sesame noodles on page 155.


My last stop was Borders Books, and though I hate to pay retail I could not pass up New Hampshire From Farm to Kitchen by Helen Brody.

I knew some of the locations featured including the Swain Farm in Sanbornton and Hillside Farm on Turkey Street in Chocorua. Yep, they raise turkeys there. My brother gets a fresh one from the Pughs every Thanksgiving; humane treatment of the birds and natural processing make a significant difference.

The recipe for Cucumber Salad with New Hampshire Fried Horned Pout made me all nostalgic - I remember when my brother and I would walk down to Woody's dock and catch the mean, cranky old things, which were considered inedible at the time. Now that catfish is popular I may have to rethink Horned Pout, especially if it's fried in corn meal.

ahh, singleton's

I drove up to Killington, Vermont last night to pick up all my ski gear for the big trip to Chile tomorrow. On my way back home I made a detour to Proctorsville to buy several sticks of smoked pepperoni at Singleton's Store. I used to think of pepperoni as vile greasy heartburn inducing discs of death on top of pizza with plastic cheese topping. Singleton's pepperoni changed all that; it's spicy, firm, and very smoky; the fragrance lingering on your fingers long after you've sworn you won't have another piece. It's lovely with cheese, and though I haven't tried it with pizza, I'm sure that it would be delicious.



Though there is an impressive array of hard-to-find foods, it's really all about the meat department. The bacon is a must, and we get bags of bacon ends in the fall and winter for lentil soup and baked beans. The teriyaki jerky is an excellent snack, or in some cases dinner - no matter how many packages we'd buy, they'd never make it back to the house.



They have a neat outdoor clothing section with merino wool jackets from Ibex - I had to get one, along with the pepperoni sticks; the cashier and I had a good laugh when I asked her to put the jacket in a separate bag.