Bubblehead

I was recently asked about my preference in Champagne, and it reminded me that the April-May edition of Hudson Valley Connoisseur will only be on sale at area Barnes & Noble stores for a few more days because the June-July issue has arrived. The April-May issue features the magazine’s wines columnist (and self-proclaimed “bubblehead”) Michael Weiss, who has an informative piece on Champagne along with reviews of six of his favorites.

Like Michael, I adore Champagne (which can only come from the Champagne region in France to carry that name – if it’s produced elsewhere then it’s “sparkling wine”). But I admit I also have a weakness for other bubblies, especially Italy’s Prosecco and Spain’s Cava. Locally, Clinton Vineyards in Dutchess County creates several méthode champenoise sparkling wines, including their newest – a blend of Seyval Naturel and Nuit, Clinton’s Wild Black Raspberry dessert wine. It all sounds delicious. Viva les bubbles!

Swap you

Ooo, this sounds like fun!

The Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County Master Gardeners Plant Swap (their 9th annual) takes place on Saturday, June 2 at the pavilion near Kingston Zoo in Forsythe Park (city of Kingston.)

Here’s how it works: Drop off your plants to swap between 9 and 10 a.m. on Saturday morning. You will receive vouchers for the number of plants you bring. Then return at 11 a.m. to swap vouchers for plants! At 11:30 the swap will open to the public for sale. No early birds.

Plants should be labeled by name and color of flower, be in pots, well cared for, healthy and not on the state's list of invasive plants. (I looked for that list online but only found some drafts-in-progress -- if anyone know where to find the latest official list, please let me know.) Master Gardeners reserve the right to refuse any plants not meeting these criteria. They will also be answering gardening questions and have lots of gardening information available. For more information visit the Master Gardener's Web page.

Hmm, I do have all that lily of the valley …

Iron Chef Hudson Valley -- the outcome

It was so exciting to see the Hudson Valley's Peter X. Kelly (a Marist College grad) competing on Iron Chef America over the weekend! And it looked like he brought quite a contingent of local fans along to the show.

If you haven't seen the show yet and plan to watch it on the Food Network, I won't spoil the outcome for you. But for those who want to see what happened, here are the details from Liz Johnson at the Journal News.

It's time - Iron Chef goes Hudson Valley

Hudson Valley foodies have been waiting for this! Local chef (and Marist College grad) Peter X. Kelly takes on celeb chef Bobby Flay in an Iron Chef America competition that airs this weekend. Show times are listed at the Food Network web site. Kelly is chef-owner of Xaviars at Piermont, Freelance Café & Wine Bar, Restaurant X and Bully Boy Bar, X2O Xaviars on the Hudson.

Date Night with a (sticky) chef?

I received an e-mail the other day touting: “Date Night -- NYC's first ever LIVE CHEF AUCTION to benefit The Friends of The FCI. Bid on a "date" with a celebrity chef...”

I think this June 11 fund-raiser from the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan should be re-named “Spend Time with a Chef” since I know at least a few of the chefs involved are not available, as we say. In any case, the event does sound like a lot of fun and there are a few regional ties. There are some big names listed here such as Jacques Torres (Take a private class at the NYC Chocolate Haven store for two people. Meet Jacques for a private tour and go behind the scenes and make something. Cool!) and Jean Georges Vongerichten (Have sushi with Jean Georges at the best sushi place in the city.) Dan Barber, creative director at the popular Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Westchester County is offering himself up for a trip to Union Square Green Market followed by dinner for two at his Blue Hill restaurant in Manhattan.

And I see the promotional materials for the event include a photo of a guy with local roots: Johnny Iuzzini, that hot young(ish) pastry chef known for his work with Jean Georges and Daniel Boulud -- so I’m guessing he’s another of the celeb chefs up for bid. Let's cut to the video: Here’s Johnny accepting the 2006 James Beard Foundation Award for Best Pastry Chef.

He grew up in Walden, over near Newburgh (and studied at the CIA in Hyde Park.) I’ve heard he’s a fun guy -- well, actually a real prankster who describes himself as “hyper.” Must be from the sugar he’s around all day. I'm sure a "date" with him would be quite an experience. Have you seen the photo of him covered in Marshmallow Fluff?

Feeding the monkey

Feeding the monkey on the back of every plant-aholic, that is ...


In response to my post "Calling all plant geeks!" Kathy wrote about buying peonies from the historic gardens at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie. (You can read her response under Comments.)

Buying plants from local historic sites is great. Not only can you usually find some beautiful heirloom plants, but the sales also benefit our regional museums, parks, and the like.

In fact, there’s a really great sale coming up soon, the 18th Annual Hudson Bush Plant and Garden Exchange at Clermont State Historic Site. It runs from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday. (The site is off Route 9G just north of Tivoli and the Dutchess-Columbia county border. It's not in Hudson, despite the name.) The folks at Clermont say that more than 30 vendors and exhibitors are expected at this year's sale and exchange, which attracted nearly 2,000 people from throughout the Hudson Valley last year. Vendors include specialty nurseries, private gardeners and purveyors of unique garden ornaments and furniture. The Friends of Clermont will be selling plants divided from the historic gardens at the site. Food and beverages will be sold too.

Event chair Jane Lehmuller suggests that you arrive early to get the best selection of plants. The gates to the site will open at 10 a.m. But an Early Buyers Breakfast Ticket is available to the public for $20, which will allows access to the site at 9 a.m. for an hour of leisurely shopping and includes a continental breakfast. A $5 per vehicle Special Event fee will be charged starting at 11 a.m.

Charles Baker and Dr. Norman Posner established the annual exchange at the Hudson Bush Farm in Greenport in 1990, and 10 years later the sale was moved to the Clermont estate and the Friends of Clermont, a private, non-profit educational organization began managing the sale.

The Clermont estate was the home of seven successive generation of the Livingston family, and now is a museum and park owned by the state. The grounds feature several formal gardens created in the early 20th century by Alice Delafield Clarkson Livingston. Restoration of a portion of the wall in the formal walled garden at Clermont was completed last year by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, in partnership with the Friends of Clermont. The public is encouraged to visit Mrs. Livingston's gardens during the plant sale

Calling all plant geeks!

I know it's harder to grab plants while holding an umbrella but here are two sales events definitely worth checking out this weekend. (Don't forget to bring those little red wagons!)

Master Gardener Plant Sale at the Dutchess County Cornell Cooperative Extension, Dutchess County Farm and Home Center, 2715 Rt. 44, Millbrook.
Today through 4 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. Annuals, tropicals & unusual vegetables. Volunteers will answer your gardening questions too!

The IES plant sale is a big event with a broad selection of perennials and woody plants. Included will be native plants, tree peonies (Ooooo, tree peonies!), groundcovers, roses, bird and butterfly favorites, alpine and rock garden plants, deer-resistant varieties, sun-lovers, shade plants, assorted trees and shrubs and more. I NEED more zebra iris, so leave some for me! At the Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Gifford Garden, 181 Rt. 44A (Sharon Turnpike), Millbrook
Today through 4 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-4 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Plant lust

Returning to the issue of plant lust (and that really is what my plant-aholic pals and I call it: plant lust) – I guess it’s really not so different from other collectors’ obsessions. Except our collectibles are living, and require various levels of ongoing maintenance. And replacement, if you’re not so good about the maintenance part or if the plant simply lives out its lifespan.

Northern Dutchess Botanical Gardens (on the outskirts of Rhinebeck) is one of my favorite spots for picking up plants in the area. It’s a little hard to find but well worth the hunt – they have exceptional perennials and every year seem to be more adventurous in the varieties of heirloom vegetable seedlings they grow. My interest is mostly with edible plants but this nursery also turned out to have a great collection the year I developed a coleus obsession and was trying to find every variation available of this highly ornamental plant with bright variegated foliage.

A growing addiction

My close friends know that I am a plant-aholic. Their responses to my gardening addiction are varied -- from unsuccessful intervention to unquestioning acceptance to enabler. I’ve also been a pusher. By age 3, my daughter already knew the difference between lemon balm and lemon verbena and was helping shoppers ID herb varieties when we visited nurseries.

I’ve done crazy things like grow (from seed) 15 varieties of hot pepper with purple, white and green variegated leaves -- just to see if they really are different botanically or are, in fact, the same plants with different names created by marketers. (That's a photo of one, the Jigsaw hot pepper, that I grew a few years ago.) Dragged friends out to my garden to tour the 30+ kinds of heirloom tomatoes I’d started from the seeds swapped with other plant-aholics across the country. Forced chef friends to accept gifts of French sorrel, edible calendula flowers and lemon- and lime-mint -- bags and bags of it. (At least it wasn’t zucchini!) Carried a caper bush, delicate white Alpine strawberry plants, and grape-scented iris plants on my lap all the way from Lincoln, Nebraska to Rhinecliff – by train. (And yes, the purpose of the trip to Nebraska was to visit some of my plant-aholic friends!)

It helped that I had worked as a garden writer and columnist for several publications, so I could excuse my habit as “research.” But the behind-the-scenes tours of famous gardens just fueled my need for more and more plants.

This is the time of year when it’s hardest to keep my impulses under control. I go to New Jersey to visit Well-Sweep Herb Farm, and over to Litchfield in Connecticut to White Flower Farm, and know many little nurseries right in the valley that sometimes have botanical treasures for sale. In the next week I’ll share the names of some great places that sell or swap plants this time of year. I know I’m not alone in my addiction. Do you have favorite places in the area to buy plants?

On the road

My beloved old Outback was ready for retirement. I often find myself driving around with a car loaded with kids, Big Dog with muddy feet, bikes and other sports equipment, plants and garden tools, groceries, and lots of other stuff, so I had an idea of the type of vehicle I needed -- something with space, something with the latest safety features and preferably something with all-wheel-drive. (I was spoiled by my Subaru.) But I also have a fairly long commute to work. When I tallied what I was spending at the gas pump each month, I really didn’t like the numbers.

What to do? I bought a hybrid SUV. It’s a whole new world.

Driving a hybrid, I have realized, is like learning to drive all over again. That is, if you want to maximize fuel efficiency. I find myself thinking a lot more about the path I’m taking and I mean that literally. There's a real science to driving with the terrain and using the car's potential. I’m already getting some pretty impressive MPG numbers from my vehicle and there’s lots more to learn.

Anyone have any hybrid stories or driving tips to share?

Crickets redux

They're gone, nothing more than a memory and a faint smell of eau de cricket if I sit on the porch stairs. (Ewwwww.) The postal service picked them up late Friday morning.

get this though -- Friday night (24 hours after I called the sender and left a voice mail about receiving the crates o' crickets) I get a call telling me that, oops, he mistyped the address and could *I* call the person who was supposed to receive them and tell him that they were at my house? Of course, by then the critters were long gone. But do you think this was a proper business reponse?

Crickets ... ick!

OK -- this is not about the Good Life. It's more about the bizarre.

I came home last night to find 10,000 live crickets in crates on my porch. I did not order crickets. I don't even know what anyone would DO with 10,000 live crickets (don't want to go there, nope, nope, nope ...) They were sent to my address by a business called cricketfactory.com. (They were shipped to my home under the name of someone I have never heard of, and whose name doesn't turn up in local directories.) I called cricketfactory.com but apparently they are away or don't answer their phone very often. The postal service has promised me they'll show up soon to take the icky crickets away.

At least two people have said to me, "oh how cute, crickets." Let me tell you -- 10,000 live crickets are not cute. A single cricket chirping in the summer evening where you can't see it -- that is cute. Maybe. Thousands of crickets only a few feet from the inside of my house -- now THAT is creepy. And I've learned a new thing about crickets -- they stink. There are some really vile smells coming from these crates.

The crickets sound happy though. At least they're chirping. They chirped all night long. I, however, am not feeling so chirpy today. :-(

Garden to plate

A few years ago I wrote a series of articles about restaurant chefs who garden. I remember touring the Montreal Casino and being amazed by the extensive rooftop herb garden planted (and tended) by the executive chef of its main restaurant. And I can still recall how Andrew Sutton, the executive chef at Napa Rose, came out of his kitchen to enthusiastically talk about the plants (mostly herbs) he was growing in his small garden behind the high-end, award-winning restaurant in Anaheim, California. I was equally impressed by the chef at Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck, who grew a small patch of herbs outside the hospital so he could use them in his dishes to brighten patients’ meals.

Chefs clearly recognize that a short distance between garden and plate usually makes for good eating.

Last summer, during a golf course photo shoot for Hudson Valley Connoisseur, I was also able to visit the gardens overseen by Executive Chef Jeff Raider outside Valley Restaurant at The Garrison. At the time, the gardens produced a good amount of fresh food used in his American seasonal menu, including heirloom tomatoes, greens, and herbs. This year, workable farmland at The Garrison has more than doubled to about two acres over three different plots, including the original kitchen gardens. There’s an organic grower, Brian Bergen, in charge of them and he has planted more than 20 varieties of heirloom tomatoes alone. That’s a lot of salads and appetizers!

The folks at Valley say that if the weather cooperates, the first of the fresh vegetables – including lettuces, herbs, sorrel and about six varieties of Asian baby greens – should be arriving in Chef Raider’s kitchen at the end of this week.

Slow down

Last Friday I attended Farm to Table: A Spring Slow Food Dinner at Terrapin Restaurant in Rhinebeck. The RSVP-required event was sold out with 60 attendees. There was a nice mix of Slow Food devotees, curious foodies, and regular patrons of the restaurant. Two new graduates from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park even came with their families to celebrate their commencement earlier that day.

Chef Josh Kroner's challenge was to present a meal composed of all local and seasonal foods. (I wrote about the entire menu in an earlier blog.)

My favorite was the venison medallions, which were right on delicious. I'm a big fan of venison but it's sometimes tricky to prepare well. This dish, made with deer raised at Highland Farm in Germantown, was cooked to a tender perfection and was accompanied by a demi-glace made with Clinton Vineyard's cassis, or black currant liqueur. I'm not sure if the venison has made it onto the chef's regular menu -- but I recommend asking about it!

My dining companions included Slow Food Hudson Valley co-leader Lani Raider and Scott Koster from Millbrook Vineyards, who was on hand to pour the winery's latest bottling of Tocai. (That's Scott with me in the photo above, enjoying a Millbrook Pinot Noir before dinner.) They are doing some delicious things with grapes over in Millbrook! I have to get my hands on a bottle of the Tocai for the next time I plan a barbecue -- I can see this wine being adaptable to my kind of entertaining.

There's something very special about sitting with a group of interesting people and leisurely enjoying a well-prepared meal of seasonal, local foods. It's something for which I'm trying to make more time in my life.

Voices

I'm going to be at the Kingston Barnes & Noble on Sunday to hear a great vocal performance AND benefit a community group at the same time.

The Rhinebeck Choral Club (which has roots going back to 1945 and has members from all over the region) will be performing for free from 3 p.m.-3:45 p.m. Sunday at the Kingston Barnes & Noble, located off Route 9W. They'll present a small sampling of music from their upcoming Spring Concert, "Folk Songs International."

While you're there, you can pick up a voucher and then 10% of your Barnes & Noble purchases will benefit the club. And yup -- you can even buy a copy of Hudson Valley Connoisseur at the store!

The group's 2007 Spring Concert schedule is:
Saturday, May 19~Rhinebeck Baptist Church
Sunday, May 20~New Hackensack Reformed Church
A portion of our 2007 Spring Concert program will feature a collection of folk songs from around the world. Traditional settings of familiar folk songs will be mixed with vibrant, new vocal arrangements recently published. The remainder of the concert will feature a variety of music including spiritual, classical, sacred, secular, novelty, and patriotic selections.

Post time

So the Queen of England is coming to the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Chances are, neither you nor I will be joining her at Churchill Downs for the Run for the Roses. But we can celebrate a Derby Day tradition here in the Hudson Valley -- the mint julep. In the April-May issue of Hudson Valley Connoisseur (on sale now at local Barnes & Noble stores), chef Jessica Bard shares her step-by-step instructions for mixing up a classic mint julep as well as her grandmother's recipe for a related alcohol-free beverage. Both drinks look tasty.

And to make it even more local, you can spike your julep with Hudson Baby Bourbon from Tuthilltown Spirits in Gardiner.

Cheers!

On the edge

I have to preface this by saying -- at the risk of undermining his performance persona -- that Mikhail Horowitz is a sweet guy. He's also an incredibly talented writer and editor. We used to work together, long long ago, and his influence helped make me a better journalist. (If he is reading this he's probably plotzing, heehee. But he'll get over that.)

Here are the details about an upcoming gig. Mik's shows are thought provoking and drop-dead funny, and they are not to be missed. So go, get tickets already.

The profoundly shallow, hermetically soiled, and metaphysically unfit comic duo of Mikhail Horowitz & Gilles Malkine will once again lower property values at the Woodstock Guild’s Kleinert-James Art Center, 34 Tinker Street, Woodstock, on Saturday, May 12, at 8 p.m. The pair, who have married great literary works to hip hop, blues, bluegrass, and Mongolian tongue drumming, and who have ruffled the scales of political regressives and religious poltroons of every persuasion with their socially savvy songs and screeds, will be accompanied by bassist John Menegon.

Horowitz & Malkine have shared bills and/or collaborated with Peter Schickele, Ed Sanders, Robert Bly, Jim Hightower, Amy Goodman, Natalie Merchant, Kate Pierson, David Amram, Happy & Artie Traum, and Jay Ungar & Molly Mason, among many other living national treasures. They are personally responsible for the defunding of (at the latest count) 53 arts organizations, the closing and condemning of a dozen clubs, and the suicide of the music critic for Modern Maturity magazine.

Admission is $20, $15 for Guild members. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. For reservations or more info, call 679-2079, or stop by the box office, which is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

It's all about the toes

It’s getting warmer outside, and that means casual sandals and toes peeking out of dressy shoes. There’s a place in Orange County, California that I love to go to for pedicures when I’m visiting my friends (Hudson Valley natives who moved to Southern California about 15 years ago.) But going back and forth to California to keep up a pedicure can get to be a little pricey. I was spoiled in California and I’ve mentioned before that I am in search of a really good pedicure salon in the Hudson Valley.

One of our readers, Barbara, e-mailed to let me know this:

“My grandson's wife, Laiza just transferred from Dana Cole Salon in Wappingers Falls to TW Nail Technology on Main St. in Fishkill. She gives a great pedicure (and) is a nail technician and hair stylist. She is fully licensed in all and has a great personality.

I am sending you this (after reading you missed your good pedicure), not because she needs clients, but because I think you will find her one of the best in her field in this area.”

Thanks, Barbara! Sounds worth checking out!