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June 25, 2010
David and I had a great day canoeing on the Connecticut River yesterday. That sounds funny to me, since we were in Vermont and New Hampshire, but the Connecticut River is actually the biggest river in New England. It runs south from the Connecticut Lakes in New Hampshire, along the border between Vermont and New Hampshire, into western Massachusetts, then Connecticut and finally into the sea. The kind folks at North Star Canoe Rentals invited us to be their guests, which we did yesterday.
 Green Mountain Smokehouse Before we started our canoe trip, we stopped by to visit Jake Henne. He’s the owner of Green Mountain Smokehouse, which is just down the road a bit from North Star Canoe. In our world, all things pork come from Jake – hickory smoked bacon, Vermont maple breakfast sausage, and maple cured ham. In addition to the things that we use for breakfast, he makes many other kinds of sausages, beer brats for Long Trail Ale and Harpoon Brewery, smoked pork chops, corned beef, smoked turkey and chicken, and several other goodies. Always on the lookout for new things to serve at breakfast, we discovered that Jake makes his own corned beef. This was great news to us, since we made our own last fall, unaware that Jake could spare us from ourselves. It was also great to hear that Harpoon Brewery is a big supporter of Jake, using his turkey, ham, bacon and corned beef (more on that later).
Our time to start our trip had arrived, so off we went to meet the nice folks at North Star Canoe Rental.
 North Star Canoe Rental in Cornish, NH Once there, you sign a liability waiver, then they help you select the correct size paddle, provide you with a life jacket, and then drive you to your start point. We chose the shorter trip, which is 4 miles long, and takes about 1.5 to 2 hours – unless you are with my over-achiever husband – and then it takes only 1 hour and 15 minutes, with a pretty decent head wind. In any event, the trip is just beautiful. The scenic stretch of moving “flat water” is beautiful, taking you under the Cornish-Windsor bridge, which has a 449′5″ span, making it the longest covered bridge in the country. Once we were safely back at North Star, we were a little bit thirsty from the
 The longest covered bridge in the country! speedy paddling that we did.
Luckily, Harpoon Brewery just happens to be on the way back home to the Inn. What a great time – we started off with a UFO Hefeweizen beer, enjoyed the company of Jo the awesome bartender, and then had some great food – beer battered onion rings, the good fat kind where you can taste the onion (we’re not going to talk about the great greasy feeling on your lips). We followed up the onion rings with a Rueben . How nice to have great bar food done just right – Green Mountain Smokehouse corned beef, layered with homemade sauerkraut, Swiss cheese
 Harpoon Brewery in Windsor, VT and thousand island dressing. And all served on fresh onion rye from Stone Arch Bakery in nearby Claremont, NH. This confirmed our suspicions about the corned beef from Green Mountain Smokehouse – no need to make our own. Jake is the master. Tender, tasty, just enough fat, excellent.
With just a bit of time to spare, we went off to visit the Simon Pearce factory that is just a few hundred yards from Harpoon Brewery. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to visit the Path of Life Sculpture Garden, which is a public sculpture garden whose eighteen works of art symbolize the circle of life. We’ll have to make a return visit, and perhaps check out Great River Outfitters, located right next door, for another canoe trip. In any event, I highly recommend visiting these sights when you visit us at our Woodstock, Vermont Bed and Breakfast, it was a great way to spend the day.
June 10, 2010
Let me just start out by saying that pickled eggs are not something that I grew up with, and don’t worry, we don’t serve them for breakfast at our Woodstock VT bed & breakfast. David, on the other hand did, and he has always loved the purple vinegary beasts. The first time that I tried one I couldn’t imagine what there is to like about this – a rubbery, vinegary, hard-boiled egg. David looked almost relieved that he wouldn’t have to share with me.
 Pickled deviled eggs Fast forward a few years. I still can’t figure out why he is so happy to eat these things, but I give it another try. The first bite intrigues me. Exactly as I remembered, vinegary, a little bit rubbery, but somehow I’m really into it. I’ve been hooked ever since. It used to be that David only got to have these at his Mom’s house (in Pennsylvania), where she would buy them from the Amish people at her local farmer’s market.
When we moved to Vermont, we decided to make them ourselves, which is really quite simple. We roast fresh beets, then make a pickling syrup for the eggs, add the beets, some onions, peppercorns, a little bit of allspice, and the hard boiled eggs. The eggs need to absorb the flavors, which takes a day or so. If you leave them in the pickling mixture longer, they get more flavorful, and the vinegar does in fact start the make the eggs a bit tougher. I no longer mind the texture if they get a bit rubbery, which I find funny, because rubbery is generally not a good thing in the food world.
This week we decided to try pickling just the whites, and making deviled egg filling out of the yolks, just for something different. Well, we both agree that this is the best of both worlds, really quite nice. They made a wonderful accompaniment to our dinner – farmer’s market Boston lettuce, tossed with vinegar and olive oil, tomatoes and red onions, topped with lobster salad that we made with David’s homemade mayonnaise. Give them a try for your next picnic, and let me know what you think!
Pickled Deviled Eggs
4 or 5 medium beets
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
1/2 tsp. black peppercorns
big pinch allspice
1 small yellow onion, peeled and sliced thinly
6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled, cut in half, whites separated from yolks
Wash beets, trim ends, place in an oven safe dish that will just fit them, rub with a little bit of olive oil, cover with foil and roast in a 450 degree oven until tender when pierced with a small knife, about 45 minutes. Let cool, peel, then cut into wedges.
Combine vinegar, water, peppercorns & allspice in a small non-reactive saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves, then set aside. Put egg whites, beets and onions in a glass, ceramic, or stainless bowl (something that won’t get discolored by the beet juice), and pour the pickling liquid over. Cover and refrigerate, turning occasionally, until the whites turn a deep rich pink color, about 24 hours.
Yolk Mixture
Yolks from hard boiled eggs above – mash in a bowl with a fork until fine. Mix with about two teaspoons of Dijon mustard (or more or less, according to your taste), a pinch of salt, a grinding of fresh black pepper, and enough mayonnaise (we like to use homemade) to make a nice smooth mixture. You can pipe the mixture into the pickled whites with a pastry bag, but we find that a bit fussy (not to mention messy to clean the bag), so we just use a spoon.
Garnish as you please. In the photo, we used chives from our garden, a chive blossom in the center, and sage flowers from our garden.
 Beautiful balconies in New Orleans Vacations evolve sometimes. For us this year, we were scheduled to leave for France in the middle of April, but then the volcano in Iceland erupted. We were visiting family in Pennsylvania at the time. The airline rescheduled our flight, but not until five days after our original departure date.
Not that we don’t love seeing family, but we were really looking forward to going somewhere, and we really didn’t think that we would ever get to France with the doom and gloom that was being put out by the newscasters. On the spur of the moment, we decided to take a little trip to New Orleans, a place that always inspires us from many perspectives – amazing food, beautiful gardens, courtyards and wonderful antique shops. To add to our fun, David’s brother and sister in law joined us, quite a great surprise!
 A wonderful little creole cottage in the garden district in New Orleans In New Orleans, we ate at many great restaurants. We particularly liked Restaurant Luke, owned by celebrity chef John Besh. They have amazing oysters and are known for their specialty cocktails. Three out of four of us chose the French 75, and we weren’t sorry. A great cocktail, bubbly, not sweet, wonderful cognac for depth of flavor, and lemon to really open up the palate. It is the inspiration for this month’s cocktail special. Here is the recipe:
2 ounces cognac
1 ounce fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar
4 ounces champagne or sparkling wine
Combine the first three ingredients in a shaker, then fill with ice. Shake, then strain into chilled martini glasses and add two ice cubes per glass. Top each glass with two ounces of champagne. If you are lucky enough to be able to find Parisienne brandied cherries from France (as we have), put one in each glass. If not, a lemon twist is lovely.
 Beautiful gardens in Villefranche Our three days in New Orleans were filled with great meals, great company, and wonderful antique shopping. But alas, our time to leave was nearing. On our last night there, we watched the news, and a pundit on CNN assured all of America that no flights would be going into Heathrow (our stop over on the way to Nice) for at least a week. Needless to say, we were so glad that we went to New Orleans, since our vacation in Nice looked to be in peril.
 Terra cotta pots line the beautiful alleys in St. Paul de Vence When we got back to Pennsylvania the next day, we were surprised to find that British Airways did not cancel our rescheduled flight – mind you this is just one day after the dire news on CNN. So, already fat from New Orleans, back to the airport and off to Nice. Mind you, not complaining, Nice is another mecca for inspiration for us. Here are some photos of gardens that we fell in love with on the Riviera. Our inspiration for our terrace comes from both the gardens in Nice, the magnificent walled cities of the French Riviera, and the courtyards in New Orleans.
 Wonderful iris garden in Villefranche Rosé is the wine of choice for many locals on the Riviera, and it is our featured wine for the month of June. The fact that it is served chilled, and that you are in a warm place, seems to make this the perfect drink this time of year. It pairs wonderfully with the local cuisine, and it is also great just for sipping while doing some people watching! We hope that you’ll enjoy the same feeling here at our Woodstock, Vermont Bed and Breakfast on a nice summer day – relaxing on the terrace, watching the goldfish swim in the pond, and having a French 75 or glass of rosé.
June 4, 2010
 Summertime and the living is easy! New this summer, we are adding monthly drink specials to our regular tavern offerings. We will be featuring wines and cocktails that we have encountered in our travels, and/or that we just really happen to like.
To kick off the opening of the terrace for the season, we are offering the French 75 cocktail for $10.00 each. The La Vieille Ferme rosé is offered at $5.00 per glass, or $18.00 per bottle. Cheers from Woodstock, Vermont!
June 2, 2010
 Our cute little paddle boat Aah, the joys of early summer in Vermont. A warm sunny day, Inn chores all finished, and a few hours before guests are due to arrive at our Woodstock, Vermont bed & breakfast. Not a difficult thing for me to figure out what to do with myself- enlist a friend and make the short drive to Silver Lake State Park. For just $3 per person admission, you get to experience one of my favorite places. You can sun yourself on the grassy lawn that makes its way down to the lake, where you can go for a swim.
Another great activity at the park is to rent a little paddle boat. We did just that, and spent a lazy hour and half on the lake. In that timeframe we paddled from one end of the lake to the other, looking at all of the sweet little (and some not so little) houses and cottages along the lake.
 Pristine Silver Lake For those that have more time to spare than I did today, you can pack a picnic and make an afternoon of it. Ahhh, until next time, Silver Lake!
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