Can Never get Enough of that Homestyle Cooking

Photo taken by Ariele Pappalimberis

This past weekend I want to my home town, Ipswich, MA.  I love going home for the simply reason that my mom is an outstanding cook!  She cooks everything you could even imagine, but ten times better.  The night before I came back to school my mom made me own of my favorite dishes which is Greek style chicken with garlic mashed potatoes, squash, celery stuffed with cream cheese, and cranberry sauce.  Can you say delicious?  Not to mention, while she was cooking dinner she was also preparing meatballs and cupcakes so I could take those both back to school with me!  My mom really is a wonderful mom and woman!
 


Now back to this insane dinner.  The Green style chicken is exactly what it sounds like.  A chicken breast covered with a seasoning of Greek and Mediterranean spices and herbs.  Some ingredients that are present in this rub are oregano, pepper, lemon, and a few other secret spices.  The chicken was so moist that when I cut into it all the juices spread out onto my plate and it was a glorious picture.  She always cooks them in the oven, but some how gets this beautiful lighten-brown crisp on the skin.  I don't know how she does it!

The next part of the dish are her wonderful garlic mashed potatoes.  When I first had these say about a thousand years ago I wasn't a huge fan because the garlic was very prevalent, but as my taste buds have progressed the garlic is a picture addition to the dish.  She sometimes uses red bliss potatoes, but this time she used the kind of potatoes that you would use for baked potatoes.  Either potato in my mind works for this meal.  She then lightly seasons the potatoes with spices and herbs and of course adds milk and butter when mashing.  She always gets them to be so light and fluffy once she mashes them and I honestly could just eat those mashed potatoes for days on end.

The squash is a part of the dish can be substituted for other vegetables such as carrots, celery or a whole bunch of mixed vegetables which is what my mom usually does, but this weekend she made squash and it was a good choice.  She lightly season it and mashed it up and there is nothing better then getting one whole bite of the chicken, mashed potatoes, and squash today.  It's like a food party in my mouth!

I know that celery stuffed with cream cheese sounds weird and gross, but it is the complete opposite.  It is actually a great way to add some lightness to the dish.  The cold pieces of celery mixed with the cold cream cheese makes for this to be a refreshing pallet cleanser.  You can use any kind of cream cheese, whether it is regular or chive.  Although this time my mother used regular cream cheese, she tends to switch back and forth from filling the sticks of celery with chive cream cheese and regular cream cheese.  The chive always adds another layer of flavor to the celery and the meal itself.

Now onto the last part of the meal.....  

The last part of this 5 course meal is the cranberry sauce.  Although cranberry sauce isn't anything special it adds some tart and sweetness to the overall meal.  Cranberry sauce can sometimes act as a divider between all the other portions in the sense sometimes the mashed potatoes and chicken itself can be a little filling, and the cranberry sauce helps digest it all.  I also sometimes consider the cranberry sauce to be an early dessert.  The texture of the cranberry sauce is like a dessert and it's whimsical feeling it adds some fun to the overall meal.

You can never get tired of home cooking.  It is actually one of the things that I look forward to when going home, especially if it is around a holiday.  Tune in for other homemade meals, pictures, and even recipes so you can bring home style cooking to your house as well.  Anyone can do it!

A Weekend @ Stratton

This Columbus Day weekend I had the privilege to spend it at my friends log barn in Stratton, Vermont.  I have never been to Stratton before so I was excited to see a new part of Vermont.  Her barn was ten minutes away from the Stratton Mountain Ski Resort.  Those who attended the wonderful weekend included my boyfriend along with the hostess's boyfriend, another couple, a few other people and a dog.  The barn consisted of a bunch of log beams that made the foundation and structure of the barn along with so many cute little inside furnishing.  One of my favorite parts about the barn were the fans because each fan had many layers and levels of animal parts such as antlers as well as different pieces of nature.  When I first walked in the feeling that came over my entire body was warm and organic.

 

 Photo taken by the Stratton Mountain Ski Resort

When I first walked in I was greeted by a few of the people who got their before me.  Along with warm welcomes was a buffet of great food from my friends new restaurant in the Stratton Mountain Village and who was also the hostess of this fabulous weekend.  The restaurant is called the Fire Tower Restaurant & Tavern and will be opening the week of Thanksgiving.  It was great being able to taste a variety of the foods that will be featured on the menu before anyone else.  The food consisted of pork wontons, jerk chicken wings, garlic bread topped with goat cheese, and pasta and beef that was tossed in a blue cheese sauce.  Being a food person, this was something that was certainly needed after driving for a few hours. 

While we were in Stratton were able to go to the village for the Brew Fest and Chili cook off.  For $10 you could purchase a bracelet that allowed you to eat all the chili you want as well as vote for the best chili.  There were 8 different kinds of chili; my favorite being number 1 which was a BBQ Biscuit Chili.  You could also spend $15 or $25 where they gave you a pint glass and a drinking bracelet which allowed you to try about 40 different types of beer.  I'd have to say that I loved drinking the Shipyard Pumpkin Head.  There were also a different kinds of cider that you could taste.  After filling up on tons of chili and beer we went back to our friends restaurant that I mentioned above to see what it will look like once it is completely furnished and finished.

Photo taken by Ariele Papplimberis 

Both nights that we spent there were filled with lots of fun as well as a well lit fire outside in my friends backyard.  Fire is always something that is needed when you are vacationing out in the wilderness.  With all of us being 21 and over we certainly had our fair share of drinking this weekend and it was certainly necessary after a long week and lots of work.  I can only wish that I will go back up to Stratton soon to have a great time like I did this weekend. 

 

Game Makers & Game Changers

After reading chapter 2 in our book the idea of "creating your own game" as been on my mind at all.  This one phrase can be misconstrued and allow for people to act in ways that shouldn't be aloud in some cases.  The chapter mentions the concept of thinking with your left side of the brain and comparing that to thinking with the right side of the brain.  Which side is better? How can we support that?
 
Everyday I see people creating new businesses and while some strive other do not.  This brings up the other controversial phrase, "Don't hate the player, hate the game" and vice versa.  One could be playing the game real well, but screwing over someone else.  How is this truly helping anyone?

This idea of game makers and game changers will always be a part of our lives especially as more and more technological enchantments come into play.  Making your won game allows for you personally to thrive, but for others is could be a way to paralyze someone.  Paralyzing them of their own thoughts, own beliefs, own way of crating their game and more importantly own way of playing the game.  Selfishness can shine through in this chapter and thus it is one of the more controversial ones so far.   

Have we found ourselves in a world where people walk on others to get to the top, but in reality there is never a top that can be ultimately grabbed and stuck unto?

Physical Book vs. e-book

In this day and age certain resources that we used to use are now being replaced by other resources.  In this case I am talking about books.  When I was a kid I used to love reading books with my mom.  I loved being able to flip the pages and put things out.  Are e-books a good replacement for the physical book, espceially when it comes to children?

I see so many little kids playing on their parents i-Pads and it makes me wonder, how are kids developing certain skills if they are always glued to a screen?  This has also raised the question, will the actually physical copies of books be diminished when I have kids in 5 years or so?

As technology becomes more and more part of our everyday lives, have we forgotten that there are actual physical copies of things?  I personally don't use e-books and I feel as if little kids shouldn't either.  They need that hands on activity with interacting with a book.  They want that hand on interaction.  When teaching at a preschool I found that many kids love the ideas of being able to hold a book.  That is very different than holding an electronic device.  Parents thees days just think, "Hey I'll throw them in front of a screen so I can get my work done."  Why not just put your kid in front of a book and see what happens?

We need to not forget that the physical copies of books can create interaction for young kids as well as interaction between a parent and their child. 

The Shelburne Inn

Photo taken by Shelburne Farms

This past weekend my boyfriend, his family, and I went to the Inn at Shelburne Farms for a lovely dinner to say the least.  Considering all of the food they serve is straight from the farm we all knew going into indulge in many of their dishes.  Their menu ranged from scallops to roast beef.  When walking into the Inn I truly wanted fish, but after seeing the other dishes I knew that fish was not on the top of my list anymore.  It only made sense to order some type of meat considering they are on a farm and all their meat is fresh.

Our experience began with having drinks and some wonderful Cheddar cheese right when we walked in.  The cheese was delicious and the atmosphere was great.  We made our way down into the game room where there was a pool table, a few board games, and a ton of amazing wooden sculptures.  The game room was also filled with all  different kinds of animal heads.  I found that to be quite interesting and somewhat appropriate.  It gave the overall feeling of being in a wilderness type of establishment.

Once we were seated I knew that this was going to be one long evening just because there was so much different food on the menu and we wanted to try basically everything!  We began with bread and butter of course and made our way onto ordering a smorgasbord of different appetizers.  We got an order of lamb wontons, pulled pork with pieces of crostini, a beet salad, and a platter of mixed vegetables, better known as the "Feast of the Fields."  We also got a bottle of wine that was a great match for our appetizers.  

The lamb wonton was a special that they had and we were excited to try it.  The wonton itself was fried to perfection and the lamb that was stuffed inside was moist and had amazing flavor.  The texture of the crispy wonton mixed with the tender pieces of lamb made for a each bite to be satisfying.  The fact that the wonton was bite size made for it to be a great introduction into the other appetizers that we had coming our way.  The pulled pork with the pieces of crostini on the side was not what I was expecting.  It was a bit salty as my fellow diners also pointed out and the crostini were almost too toasted for my taste, but the seasoning of the pulled pork complimented the light seasoning on the crostini.  When putting a little but of the pulled pork onto the crostini made a different layer of flavor come out for both the pork and the crostini.

After taking in some rather heavy dishes, the beet salad came out and that was a great pallet cleanser.  The vinaigrette that the greens were dressed in was sweet and certainly complimented the blue cheese crumbs that were featured in the dish.  The beets along with the greens were visually appealing and that is something that is huge in the food world.  Visual appearance is right up there with taste, especially in my mind.  When the "Feast of the Fields" came out to our table I was surprised to see how beautiful it was.  I was expecting a huge plate of vegetables piled on top of each other, but that certainly wasn't the case.  The mixture of veggies came out on a wooden spatula.  The kind of spatula that you would put a pizza in a brick oven with.  This made the dish look a lot more rustic and it also made the dish fun and playful all at the same time.  After eating all four of the appetizers an actual entree was something that I wasn't craving, but as I saw my plate of roast beef coming out I was excited to see how they could make this ordinary dish special.    

For my entree I ordered the roast beef with potatoes and braised greens.  Everything about the dish was wonderful.  The roast beef had an amazing texture and it was cooked to perfection.  It was pink in the center, and certainly had no fat on any of my pieces of beef.  The roasted tomato sauce covering the meat, green, and potatoes was a great addition.  The braised greens mixed in one bite with the potatoes and beef made for a great savory flavor in my mouth.  I also tried the dishes of my boyfriend and his parents and their meals were amazing as well.  The way the cook was able to pack so much flavor into each dish was highly notable and it certainly made me want to go back.

A dinner isn't complete without a dessert, so we ordered the mixed berry tart along with the chocolate cake with a raspberry and plum drizzle.  Both were absolutely delicious.  The cake with the plum sauce and ice cream filling was rich, but balanced.  The cake was moist and each bite that I took I made sure I got the cake and ice cream together so I could get those numerous layers of flavor.  The combination of the different berries that were given in the tart made the overall dish filled with great a dimension of flavors.  I was pleased, not too mention that wine goes well with any dessert. 

The Inn at Shelburne Farms was a great experience and I would certainly recommend it for those who love ingredients being taken straight from the farm!  Each bite that I put into my mouth was soul soothing and made me smile.