It’s Chocolate season! 
Consider these two alternative methods of making a great cup of hot chocolate:
You can simply go to your neighborhood grocer and get your favorite hot chocolate mix, add water or milk and voila, you have instant gratification. I do this all the time-and my preference is Silly Cow Hot Chocolate from Wells River, Vermont. It comes in a rather touristy, cute little milk bottle, but the stuff rocks! And for God’s sake, add milk. It’s so much richer and tastes so much better.
And for the complete experience, add marshmallows. If you get a chance, try the outstanding home-made marshmallows from Farmhouse Inn, right down the road in Bridgewater, Vermont.
But the best method for hot chocolate, in our opinion-though it takes a little more time-is the old traditional Mexican way…Grate Mexican Chocolate, which comes in a pressed disc, flavored with vanilla, almonds, cinnamon or even hot chilies, into a mug of steaming hot milk. Stir until the chocolate melts in. The result? Rich, luscious, aromatic, thick as pudding. Check out this amazing recipe on our website.
Enjoy the Hot Chocolate Season!
Patrick
I am having a full blown back lash against the annual parsimonious magazine articles about eating “less”, “light”, “low calorie”, and “low fat”, you get the idea. It’s not that I don’t care about health and fitness, it’s just that I prefer to moderate rather than cut foods out of my diet and turn up the exercise rather than dismiss comforting meals on short, cold days. An all time favorite is cheese fondue, it is family friendly, perfect on a Saturday evening in front of the fire and it qualifies as a quick evening meal. While traditionally made with Swiss mountain cheeses we are fortunate to be in a state which produces cheeses which are perfect for fondue. I particularly like a mixture of Consider Bardwell, Rupert and Ascutney Mountain from Cobb Hill.
When our children were young we would have fondue/fondue nights or cheese fondue followed by chocolate fondue. This meal has a high fun factor and it’s a great way to load up on fruits and vegetables and have a full flavorful meal with local cheeses!
Enjoy! Lisa
VERMONT CHEESE FONDUE
1 garlic clove
2 cups dry white
8 oz. Ascutney Mountain cheese, shredded
8 oz. Rupert cheese, shredded
2 Tbls. cornstarch
2 Tbls. water
1 Tbls. Kirsch (a clear brandy distilled from black cherries-optional)
Rub the inside of a heavy saucepan with the garlic. Discard the garlic.
Add the wine and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add the cheese gradually to the simmering wine, stirring constantly in a zigzag pattern to prevent the cheese from forming a ball. Cook until the cheese is melted and the mixture is creamy, stirring constantly. Combine the cornstarch and water in a cup and mix well. Stir into the fondue. Cook for 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly. Stir in the Kirsch. Pour into a fondue pot and serve.
CHOCOLATE FONDUE
12 ounces if dark chocolate (chips or roughly chopped if blocked)
8 ounces of heavy cream
A pinch of salt
In a heavy sauce pan, heat cream until small bubbles appear around the edges of the pan. Add chocolate and salt, remove from heat. Stir to combine chocolate and cream. Pour into fondue pot and keep warm.
DIP-ABLES FOR CHEESE FONDUE
French Baguette, cubed
Button mushrooms
Carrot sticks
Celery sticks
Cherry tomatoes
Broccoli, blanched
Cauliflower, blanched
DIP-ABLES FOR CHOCOLATE FONDUE
Apple slices
Grapes
Orange segments
Pear wedges
Banana slices
Dried Aprictos
Dates
In this K-Cup, convenience world we live in, I think it may be very refreshing to start the New Year by slowing down and brewing your coffee the old fashioned way. I would argue that it seems to be a lost art. I was horrified this holiday season to visit friends in Phillie and NYC only to find those silly Keurig machines sitting on the counter with little wasteful plastic inserts. I mean it makes ok coffee, I guess. But the process? What a bummer. No trickle of hot brew filling the entire house, no patients with the process of grinding or measuring, no nothing.
Brewing coffee the new, “old-fashsioned way”, takes a little more time but as in most things in life, “e=mc squared”. In other words, as with most things, if you take the time to get it right, you will be rewarded with something superior. In this case, a great cup of coffee. Here are a few tips from yours truely and from Paul Ralston–owner of Vermont Coffee Company on how to slow it down and make a decent cup of Joe.
Patrick’s Tips
–Take your Keurig machine and put it the closet. Pull out your old Cuisine Art, Mr. Coffee or whatever machine (even a french press), dust it off and plug it in. –Grind your coffee finely. Bottom line, fine grind makes better coffee. Best to grind it right before in one of those little grinders but it’s ok to pregrind in your neighborhood store.
–Use fresh coffee. Don’t store it in a refrigerator or freezer. Just buy smaller amounts more often and keep it at room temperature on the counter.
–Use more than you might need. It’s not a one to one ratio of cups of water to ground coffee. I always use the heaping teaspoon method and if I’m putting 7 cups of water in my coffee maker, I use 8 or 9 scoops of coffee.
–Use good water. If your water smells or tastes funny, filter it, or use bottled.
Paul’s Suggestions on Brewing a Great Cup of Joe
Paul’s Scientific Method
This method relies on measures: water temperature, grind particle size, amount of coffee and water, and time of brewing.
1. Start with ‘good water;’ filter water that is chlorinated or use bottled water. Never use water from the hot water tap.
2. Brew with water between 195 and 205 degrees fahrenheit. At sea level, water boils at 212 degrees F, so you have to wait till it cools a bit after boiling to avoid extracting bitter elements from the coffee. (A real scientist would use a thermometer!)
3. Use the correct grind (fineness) for your brewing method. A courser grind for plunger pots, a medium grind for old-fashioned drip machines, a fine grind for filter drip machines. (You can learn to distinguish grinds by rubbing the grounds between your fingers and noting particle size.)
4. Measure the water and coffee grounds carefully. The standard measure is two level tablespoons (one standard coffee scoop) for each six ounces of brew water. Remember, if you make a 12 ounce mug of coffee, you should use four tablespoons (two standard scoops).
5. Control the contact time of water on the grounds. For plunger pots, allow three minutes of brew time before plunging; good automatic drip pots are calibrated to optimize contact time.
6. Never use disposable, paper filters. Permanent, ‘gold filters’ are preferred as they don’t impart any ‘papery’ flavors to the brew. Plunger pots, of course, don’t use filters, so they are a recommended method of brewing.
Paul’s Practical Method
Every once in a while, I resolve to follow the ‘scientific method’ of brewing, convinced that I might find some improvement in the quality of my brewed coffee. This resolve sometimes lasts a week or so, sometimes only a day. Then, on a groggy morning, in the dark of winter, I revert to my simple, practical method. I wish I could say I notice the difference in the cup, but I don’t. When the coffee beans are really fresh, I always get an enjoyable cup, even with my abbreviated method.
1. I always (almost) filter my brew water because our municipal water is chlorinated. I don’t bother with bottled water. When I am at a place that has good well water, I use it straight from the tap.
2. I fill my Krupps grinder up to the top with fresh beans (this is a standard ‘measure’ of sorts). I grind them long enough to let others in the house know that fresh coffee is on the way; I pulse the grinder a couple of times and shake it a bit during the process.
3. I pour the ground coffee into a cone filter (yup, a paper filter), put it in my spiffy Braun automatic drip machine, fill the machine’s reservoir up to the “7 cup” line, and hit the brew switch. This formula gives 4 mugs of good, strong, morning coffee. (Some day, I’m going to try one of those gold filter; really I am.)
That’s it. Though a simplified method, you can see how it relies on the principles of the scientific method – a standard amount of coffee and water brewed in a reliable way. Just develop some repeatable habits, and you will enjoy the results.
Patrick
When we reopened the Market two and a half months after Tropical Storm Irene, one of my greatest joys came from calling cheesemakers to restock our coolers. My first call was to our neighbor the Putnam’s. John and Janine produce the now famous Thistle Hill Tarentaise. High on a hill in North Pomfret, Vermont, while our world near the river was in turmoil, John’s cows were being milked and cheese was being made.
John said, “Not only do I have cheese for you, but this cheese was made in early June and it is exceptional.” This is not a boastful comment—it’s made with the pure joy and understanding that comes from the special timing of all the elements. Sometimes on the farm and in the cheese making and ageing room magic occurs. If there such a thing as vintage cheese, this could be it.
Wine and cheese each have certain characteristics and flavor profiles which are identifiable. You know a Brie or a Gruyere from its appearance and taste, as well as you can identify a Chardonay from a Cabernet. But given that basic information there are nuances which will produce outstanding examples of what make the wine or cheese exceptional. The combination of soil, rain, temperature or the winemaker or cheesemakers expertise and ageing coaxes something extraordinary into the final product.
In the case of wine it will only happen once a year but with cheese the possibility of greatness occurs daily, weekly or monthly. As the animals are set out to pasture each day natures formula changes, there may be new herbs growing in the pasture, it may have rained for a week, there are subtleties which present themselves in the milk which ultimately are tasted within the cheese. It’s this special combination of events that must have occurred in early June up at Thistle Hill Farm.
Our Tarentaise, in house now, is like none other—it’s a cheese that John and Janine Putnam feel is an all-time, great tasting Tarentaise…the best of the best! It has a rich, golden buttery color, sweet closely grained texture which is perfectly balanced with its characteristically nutty flavor and a long finish.
Check it out at WFM right now or buy it online on our 24/7 secure website.
Lisa
Wow! After a two and a half month hiatus, the Woodstock Farmer’s Market is back up and running! Opening day on the 19th was pretty cool…the first customer in the door was Louise, followed by others that I can’t name off the top of my head. It was a blur. Staff and customers shouted and clapped. My mother sent balloons. Stas’ from Zingtrain sent flowers. I went out and hoisted the OPEN flag in it’s proper place.
It was kind of surreal making a big deal about just another day–but indeed the day was grand. After just a few short months of being closed due to massive destruction from Tropical Storm Irene, we were open again. We don’t have our usual array of stuff and it’s a little sparse in our usually packed market. But I think our reopening is less about what we have and more about what it represents. It’s about the moving on and healing from a horrific community event where lives were changed forever and patterns disrupted. It’s about trying to look forward and less backward. And it’s about once again serving our great community great food, which we love to do more than anything else.
Stop by and check us out this weekend. Every week, we will have more and more and will be getting back to our old selves by year end.
Patrick
We are so excited to announce that we’ll be back open in less than two weeks! We’ll be opening our doors on Saturday, November 19th at 9am!
It’s been a wild ride since Tropical Storm Irene rolled into town and swept through our lives. Cleaning up our store after four and a half feet of water turned all of our equipment over or on end, and left ten inches of thick mud studded with tomatoes and loaves of bread and paper and ripe peaches and jars of bacon jam and bags of chips…was traumatic, actually. If it weren’t for the help and support of dozens of friends, neighbors and staff, I don’t know how we would have managed, physically or emotionally. (Check out our super-cool commemorative Irene T-Shirt on our website.)
But now, just two months later, our store is clean and fresh, with new insulation, drywall, and equipment. Our parking lot is being repaved as I write this. Deliveries are pouring in, and mail order packages are flying out. We’re moving in to our new offices in the Glassworks building next week, after two cozy, comfortable months in the Vollers Law Office building where we’ve enjoyed the novelty of sharing space with friends and dogs, working with shoes off, brown-bagging it for lunch.
But we’re ready to be “home”. And we’re more than ready to be back open. Initially our hours will be a little more limited than usual, 9-6 each day, until we get our feet back under us. Our offerings will be limited as well, at first, because it takes a long time for our special display cases to be built, delivered and installed. So for the first few weeks our deli menu will consist mainly of sandwiches, soups and a few salads; cheeses, olives and meats will be sold out of our dairy and beer coolers; and we won’t have any frozen foods besides ice cream for a while.
But we’ll be open, selling coffee and cookies, fresh bread and produce, turkeys, holiday greenery and goodies, groceries, wine and our famous sandwiches. And gradually, as the weeks progress, we’ll be adding equipment and more foods, until we’re back to normal. Better than normal.
We’ve taken the opportunity during our down time to improve some systems as well. We’ve completely revamped our check-out area, improving ergonomics and flow. We installed a much better dishwashing area in the kitchen, added more cooler space, and moved our business offices next door. We’ll be able to do more, in the long run, thanks to these changes.
We want to thank everyone who has been a part of this reconstruction effort, from our staff volunteers, to friends and neighbors who travelled from near and far to shovel mud, to everyone who bought an Irene card, to the vendors who’ve extended credit and free products to get us started. We are truly blessed, and humbled by your response to our time of need. And we can’t wait to thank you in person!
Amelia
November 10th, 2011 in
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We’re down but not out! We’ve decided to do a Flood Sale for all the stuff that made it through the incredible floodwaters in August this weekend! Check it out! We’re selling some great stuff cheap–plus having a few of our friends stop by and sample their great products–VT Farmstead Cheese and Two Guys from VT Soups to name a few! 10-4 both Saturday and Sunday. Apples, syrup, pumkins and WFM…for two days only…
I’ve been officially unemployed for almost a month now, a unique experience in my life. I’m lucky in that, I know. But having been a working person for the past 30 consecutive years (I consider earning my degrees part of my working career), I have to say that I stink at not working. I’ve been showing up at our office almost every day, adapting to a 9-5, Monday thru Friday schedule, and frantically spending my off-hours cleaning my house or mowing the lawn. Many of my coworkers are the same way–we work as we always have.
I’m reminded of Robert Frost’s poem, “Two Tramps in Mudtime” in which the narrator talks about his love of splitting wood, his pleasure at the strain of the chore. His quote: “My avocation and vocation/Like two eyes, make one in sight”. Like that character, we are people who love what we do. When we lost our outlet for expressing that love, we experienced profound feelings of grief and loss, and have had to come to grips with our compulsion to express ourselves in other ways. Lisa has cleaned her garage and is frantically pickling and preserving fall produce. Abby is comforting herself with daily Nutella sandwiches. Steve P continues to put in 8-10 hours a day in the office on the computer. I listen to hours of books on tape. We each have our ways of ignoring reality.
But there have been many beautiful moments for us in the weeks since tropical storm Irene raged through our store. The love and sympathy and support from our loyal shoppers has been a tsunami, dwarfing the flood that we experienced in comparison. We are humbled, and blessed, and more dedicated than ever to getting back on our feet–and getting everybody employed again.
Amelia
PS–to all those I work with, and for all those who helped us in our recovery effort, I dedicate the reference of the following poem:
http://www.northnode.org/poem.htm (To Be Of Use, by Marge Percy)
September 22nd, 2011 in
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Made in the traditional manner since 1840, these stone-ground mustards from Burgundy are exceptionally flavorful and versatile. Mustards often are not the glory condiment but they are a staple in my packed fridge, and I always have two or three different types on hand at all time.
Not that I eat a lot of sandwiches at home. Yes, I love the regular or green peppercorn Dijon on a hamburger, but in general I use the mustards with grilled or braised meats and sausage (I especially love the wholegrain Dijon with New England boiled dinner); in potato salads of any kind; and in vinaigrette dressing.
I have a couple of favorite variations on the dressing theme. For a salad of bitter greens (arugula, dandelion, endive, radicchio and the like), I am partial to a blend of tarragon Dijon, garlic, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. For a sweeter salad, one that might contain pears or dried cherries with red leaf lettuce and caramelized butternut squash, I make Walnut Dijon vinaigrette. It’s simple and rich, and tastes like fall.
Walnut Dijon Vinaigrette
2 Tablespoons Fallot Walnut Dijon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup red wine vinegar
Whisk together until salt has dissolved. Add:
¼ cup walnut oil
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
Whisk until combined. Taste and adjust seasoning for salt and acidity. Toss with tender greens, fall fruits, roasted squash, and sugared pecans or walnuts. Makes almost 1 cup of dressing, which will serve 6-8 people.
(For the bitter greens variation, substitute tarragon Dijon for the walnut, and add a clove of minced garlic. Substitute lemon juice for the vinegar, and use olive oil only.)
Do you love crispy pickles but fear the lengthy prep and mess? Does making pickles conjure up a vision of standing over a hot stove, in an old-fashioned print apron, on a hot afternoon in a bygone era? I promise you won’t break a sweat making delicious refrigerator pickles. In the time it takes to boil water, you could have several finished jars of garlic dill pickles. Here’s the recipe…during peak cucumber harvest, it’s fun to make a couple of jars a week to keep a steady supply well into the fall.
Refrigerator Dill Pickles
Yields 1 pint
3-4 pickling cucumbers, about 4 inches long
2 heads dill weed (the seed heads)
1 clove garlic, peeled and halved
1 tablespoon minced fresh dill weed
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
Soak cucumbers in ice water in the refrigerator for 2-6 hours. Remove from ice bath and slice lengthwise. Place a dill seed head in a sterilized pint jar and add half a clove of garlic. Pack cucumber slices into the jar then top with second seed head, minced dill, celery seed, mustard seed, and second half garlic clove. Heat vinegars, water and salt together just until salt dissolves, then pour over cucumbers. Seal tightly with a lid and refrigerate 7-10 days before eating. Pickles will last up to a month in the refrigerator but are NOT shelf stable.
Check out other recipes in our recipes section on our website.
August 17th, 2011 in
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