Scenes From Norwich, Vermont

In addition to organizing a wonderful day of baking at King Arthur Flour Company, Megan also arranged for us to stay overnight at Norwich Bed and Breakfast.  Since all of us were staying over (except for Bridget who needed to head home after the class), she actually booked the entire bed and breakfast to ourselves.

We arrived at the Norwich Bed & Breakfast early Saturday evening and it was absolutely what you hope for at a Vermont inn. 

We didn't spend too much time at the inn that evening since we had dinner reservations but Megan, Kristen and I managed to explore the area the next morning and I wanted to share some of these scenic photos with you.

The B&B owners' dog Zoie, a beautiful 11 year-old golden retriever.

They also had a cat. I don't like cats but this one was actually really sweet.

This barn housed the B&B's chickens.

The Inn's sheep!

Our tour guide.

After our little tour, we headed inside where we had a really delicious breakfast.

Orange Juice

Fruit Salad

Stuffed French Toast with Blueberries and Bacon.  This didn't photograph well but it was YUMMY!

And then we packed up and hit the road back to Boston (with a quick detour at the New Hampshire state liquor store).  Before we jumped into the very full cars (filled with pizza boxes, brownies, overnight bags, King Arthur Flour goodie bags and shopping bags), we took one last photo.

Thanks to Megan for organizing such a wonderful food-filled weekend retreat!

Norwich Bed and Breakfast is located at Shear Luck Farm, 229 Bradley Hill Road, Norwich, Vermont.

Local Ingredients: Carpenter & Main

When I was up in Norwich, Vermont a few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get a chance to dine at Carpenter & Main.

After some research and many group emails later, Alicia contacted the restaurant to make a reservation.  Since there were nine food bloggers with distinctive food preferences and allergies, she asked if the restaurant if Carpenter & Main could create a prix fixe menu for us.  We were all thrilled when they happily obliged.

When we arrived, we were seated at a semi-private dining room.  There were a few tables finishing up their dinners when we arrived and for most of the evening we had the room to ourselves.  I liked that they displayed local artwork in our room.

I was also happy to find that Carpenter & Main utilizes as many local ingredients as possible and proudly state it on their menu.

 To start, we were offered an amuse bouche of white bean cassoulet. 

This was the perfect bite for a cool end-of-summer evening.

We also indulged in a few bottles of bubbly.  Who could say no to champagne?

Despite baking and nibbling all day, we were all pretty hungry and eagerly munched on the dinner rolls.  To be honest, I found that the bread was a little bland and lacking salt.

The dinner roll became a distant memory as I perused the menu.  The restaurant gave us a lot of different options for each course and it was hard to choose.

 

The house pate was delicious even if it didn't photograph well.  Although I loved the toasted bread, pate and mustard, the real star for me were the pickled greens.  They were sharp and helped cut the richness of this dish.

I couldn't resist the fennel pollen crusted halibut with its accompanying carrots, spinach and fennels.  Although I am not a fan of tomato based soups, this tomato saffron broth had a lot of great flavors and because it was a broth, it was nicely thinned.

And then came dessert....

When I saw the cream soda float with coffee ice cream and chocolate hazelnut donuts, I knew it was the right dessert for me.  I thought a milkshake and donuts was so whimsical that I couldn't help but order it.

It was a wonderful leisurely meal and the perfect way to end a wonderful day at King Arthur Flour.  Thanks Alicia for organizing this great meal and a special thanks to Carpenter & Main for being so accomodating!

Carpenter & Main is located at 326 Main Street, Norwich, Vermont.

Bloggers Who Brunch: Lord Hobo

During a blogger dinner last month at Ristorante Villa Francesca, the topic of brunch came up.  For the record, there is nothing food bloggers like more than talking about food, especially when eating food.  We were all in agreement that brunch is one of our favorite activities during the weekend and that it would be great for a group of us to get together for brunch sometime.  Renee of Eat.Live.Blog. took it upon herself to organize our first brunch this past Sunday at Lord Hobo.

After the previous night where I indulged in way too many cocktails, I was desperately in need of brunch on Sunday morning.  Since significant others were welcome, Bret was also coming along to the brunch.  We took the T to Kendall Square and walked over to the restaurant.  It was a gorgeous fall morning and the fresh air definitely felt great.

I have never been to Lord Hobo before and I was ecstatic to see that there is a rooftop garden.  I couldn't tell if the garden was used by the neighboring building or by Lord Hobo but I'm always happy to see people participating in the local food movement.

When Bret and I arrived about fifteen minutes early, Renee was already there at a high top for twelve people.  Even though Lord Hobo had some awesome brunch cocktails (including a bacon-infused Bloody Mary), I spotted one of my favorite hangover drinks on the menu and I couldn't resist.

Our server offered me a glass but I said I'd "drink it like a man" and straight from the bottle.  The water, on the other hand, I eagerly gulped from mason jars.  I think everything tastes better from a mason jar.  

Soon the others arrived, and we began looking at the menu.  Actually, Bret and I read the menu earlier at home since I like to read the menus ahead of time.  The menu had a lot of interesting hearty brunch dishes but there was one that was particularly appealing to me - the mushroom ragout.

The porcini mushrooms were served on top of a slice of toast and topped with a poached egg.  While I ate every last bite of this dish, I must say that I was hugely disappointed that the egg was overcooked and lacked the runny goodness of a poached egg.  The yolk would have really added a great element to this dish and it was severely lacking.

My mushroom ragout also came with more toast and there was a decent selection of bread choices but I went with boring old wheat.

I also ordered a side of fruit.  I know, its a lot of food and most of the fruit salad and toast went uneaten but you can't help but over-order when you are hungover!

Bret ordered the pork belly hash and he told me that his brunch hit the spot to prepare him for a lazy Sunday on the couch.  I was insanely jealous of the runny egg yolks in his dish.

Thanks again to Renee for organizing this brunch.  We had a great time and I can't wait for the next Boston bloggers brunch!  In fact, Renee and I have already been emailing about possible locations for our next brunch outing.

What are some of your favorite places for brunch and why?

Lord Hobo is located at 92 Hampshire Street, Cambridge, MA.

King Arthur Flour: Whole Wheat Double Fudge Brownies

Before getting to my whole wheat double fudge brownies, I wanted to thank everyone who voted for me in the first round of Foodbuzz's Project Food Blog! With your support, I advanced to the second round and I'd like to ask you to once again vote me into the second round!  Voting for this second challenge is open from September 27th (9 AM EST) to September 30th (9 PM EST).  Winners from this challenge will be announced on Friday, October 1st.  There are 400 entries and only half of us will move on so please vote here to help me be a part of the 200 that advance!  You can vote for me by clicking here to read bout my Classic Spinach Kugel!

Are you sick of reading about King Arthur Flour yet? I can’t believe how much we learned in just a half a day of baking classes and I’ve been loving sharing it all with you. You’ve learned about my new-found commitment to making my own pizza dough and my adventures with making my own crackers. While these savory recipes are fantastic, King Arthur Flour didn’t let me down when they shared their recipe for double fudge brownies!

I was excited for the double fudge brownies, especially when I spotted this waiting for us.

Is there anything better than fresh local butter? It smelled so delicious. I know, butter isn’t the healthiest thing in the world but trust me, butter and salt are what makes things taste delicious!

Like the previous recipes, Susan first demonstrated the recipe and then let us do it on our own. Over low heat, we melted butter with brown sugar. This alone smelled divine.

She slowly stirred in cocoa, salt, baking powder, vanilla and her secret ingredient – espresso powder! She stirred the mixture until it cooled down enough to use the finger test (i.e. is it cool enough to put your finger in there for a few seconds?), she whisked in the eggs, added flour and semi-sweet chocolate chips. And that’s it!

Bridget and I paired up again and got to work. We took turns stirring, measuring and whisking and I have to admit that maybe we did the finger test a few times more than necessary just so we could taste some of this delicious batter.

When the batter was done, we poured the mixture into individual greased brownie pans and they went in the oven. While the brownies were baking, we got to check out some of the amazing desserts baked in another class next door.

These macaroons and chocolate banana bites were definitely my favorites!

And soon enough our brownies were done. They looked absolutely gorgeous!

Susan recommended that we wait twenty-four hours before we ate it because it gives the bran a chance to soften. I didn’t have my brownie until I got home Sunday night and they were absolutely delicious!

Since this is my final post about my baking class at King Arthur Flour, I wanted to thank them for such a wonderful experience. They also gave us generous goodie bags filled with flour and a huge cookbook that will give me a lot of great recipes to try out!

Now that the weather is cooling, what are you looking forward to baking this fall?