Grazing: A Reimagined Hot Toddy, With Barrel-Aged Apple Brandy

For the last few days, my throat has felt like a slow-burning coal fire. I don't think I'm alone; hacks and sniffles and woeful looks are so plentiful that it's a miracle anything is getting done.

Trying to drink a bug away can work (almost magically), or it can make the ailment much, much worse. It depends on quality as much as quantity. The release of a new batch of barrel-aged apple brandy from New Hampshire's Flag Hill Distillery seemed an ample excuse for me to test out my theory.

Flag Hill, in Lee, produces wines from cold-climate grapes as well as spirits made from local fruits and grains — vodka, gin, grappa, white whiskey and a range of fruit liqueurs among them.

The company also distills apple cider from Concord's Apple Hill Farm into its own form of Calvados. This one is named for a New Hampshire physician, judge and signer of the Constitution, and his visage graces the bottle.

Josiah Bartlett ages for four years in oak barrels, and, like the guy from which it was named, it's elegant and restrained with waves of apple, pear, vanilla, caramel and maybe even a hint of cardamom that glide across the back of the tongue. Despite all the toastiness, it seems kind of feminine, somehow.

And the drink is as smooth as silk in a hot toddy, for which I usually prefer orange to lemon and only the slightest hint of honey. If this doesn't chase the bug away, at least it numbs the pain.

Josiah Bartlett Hot Toddy

3 ounces hot water
1/2 teaspoon honey
2 ounces apple brandy
Orange wedge, and slice for garnish
Cloves, optional 

In a glass mug, pour water over a spoonful of honey and stir to dissolve. Add brandy and squeeze in the juices from the orange wedge, then garnish with orange slice. Add cloves if desired. Sip slowly.

Grazing: No Breakfast-Food Rut at Stowe's Café Latina

Having the same weekday breakfast over and over again can be a drag. How many egg-and-cheese wraps or bowls of oatmeal can one person eat in his or her lifetime?

Yet when it comes to breakfast, Americans seem caught in their own particular egg-cheese-bacon box. Which is why Stowe's Café Latina is so refreshing. Yes, they serve breakfast sandwiches and burritos, but those can be dished up with chorizo or pork carnitas. There's also yogurt parfait, but it comes layered with coconut and mango coulis.

Here, guests might be surprised to encounter gallo pinto —  traditional Costa Rican rice and beans — which appears as a hulking plate of rice, black beans, red peppers and onions, seasoned with hearty amounts of cumin and red pepper, showered with minced cilantro and topped with two poached eggs. Anything topped with a poached egg is scrum-worthy, but gallo pinto, with its spicy-earthy appeal, was especially cosseting; a dose of Vermont Pepper Works hot sauce spiked it up nicely.

Cafe Latina's owner, Karen Nielsen, lived in Costa Rica for many years before moving to Stowe to open this place, and warmth infuses everything, from the colorful interior  — complete with gas fire and comfy red chairs — to the Latin-inflected food.

As filling as gallo pinto was, I didn't stop there; I also opted for some jalapeño-sesame beef tenderloin tacos, and they were delicious — the beef succulent, a subtle sweetness (from honey, apparently) infusing the entire thing.

Nielsen is committed to importing and selling coffee beans sourced directly from Costa Rican farmers, and while I couldn't quite enjoy one of her lattes — it was too late in the day for caffeine, at least for me — Café Latina's Aztec hot chocolate was creamy, dark, spicy and complex. Nielsen is also committed to gluten-free baked treats, and the peanut butter cookie with which she sent me packing was rich and sinful, and left tiny oil spots on the bag in which I transported it.

Café Latina is at 407 Mountain Road and serves the breakfast-and-lunch menu until 2 p.m. every day. 

Grazing: Smoothies, Lattes and a Haircut, All in One Place

With electric-blue walls, shelves filled with skin products and the buzz of a juicer mixing with house music, Eco Bean and Juice defies categorization — other than its focus on healthy (and sometimes caffeinated) insides.

Justin Cruz, who used to run Salon Cruz on Saint Paul Street, opened the salon-slash-juice bar in December in a cavernous space that was most recently a Meineke Car Care Center.

On one side of the space, Cruz and his staff run a salon and sell organic and natural beauty products; on the other is a kitted-out juice and coffee bar with an exhaustive menu featuring wheatgrass shots, fresh vegetables juices, and even house-made almond milk for lattes and mochas, all dreamt up by Cruz and barista Angela Talbert.

"There was no place in Burlington to get wheatgrass shots," says Cruz, though I reminded him of the Juice Bar in Burlington Mall that offers them on Wednesdays. "All week long," he clarified. Cruz also wanted to offer organic milk from Kimball Brook Farm for his coffees, which are brewed with organic beans from Ozo Coffee Roasters in Colorado.

 Among the imaginative coffee drinks are a Zebra Mocha with both white and dark chocolates, an Americano Florentine coffee with raw cacao, and a frothy, tropical-tasting, totally delicious Coconut Latte (pictured).

Juices range from $6.50 up to $11 and are filled with various blends of greens, herbs and veggies; a Minty Green combines celery, mint, spinach and apples, while a Hot Rocket pairs those same apples with cilantro, coconut water and jalapeño.

I walked out with a bright-red Careberry smoothie — a blend of orange and apple juices, frozen raspberries and carrot juice, which lent the whole thing a sweet earthiness. I took my first sip while standing in the slushy parking lot outside, and it made the afternoon seem a few degrees warmer.

Eco Bean and Juice, 688 Pine St., Burlington, 861-2789. Open seven days.

Grazing: Washing Down Cupcakes With Wine (at My Little Cupcake)

As a dedicated wine drinker, I can be reluctant to admit that beer pairs stunningly well with food. Yet it can be the naked truth, and one encountered in the unlikeliest of places — such as at my little cupcake in Burlington.

For the past few weeks, the bakers at my little cupcake have been hosting a Friday night fête called 3 Sweet Treats, offering guests the chance to pair three petite desserts with wines chosen by Brad Kelley of the Burlington Wine Shop — for a 10-spot.

You can also drop in at the College Street bakery whenever it's open (till 8 p.m. during the week, 10 p.m. on weekends) to approximate the experience; on the counter is a standing beer and wine menu, including a "free mini cupcake or cake pop" with each drink.

The alcohol menu is static — the choices include Prosecco, red wine, local beer and even ChocoVine — but the paired treats rotate based on what's been baked that day. On the dreary afternoon I visited, I sampled three pairings that sounded promising: Prosecco with a sesame-ginger cupcake; Cabernet Sauvignon with a red-velvet cupcake; and a bottle of Harpoon Octoberfest with a salted-caramel cupcake. 

Grazing: Mashed Potato Pancakes with Pickled Red Onion, Smoked Salmon & Dill

Turkey hash, turkey chili, turkey sandwiches. When it comes to Thanksgiving leftovers, the bird dominates.

While I definitely have plenty of turkey left, more challenging to repurpose is the surfeit of uneaten mashed potatoes. Reheated mashed potatoes are no fun; potato pancakes, however, are. Rolling mashed potatoes into sticky balls with your hands, then smashing them into discs and frying them to a crispy nut- brown, is a tactile way to spend a post-Thanksgiving brunch.

Potato pancakes — or latkes, if you prefer — are also harbingers of Hanukkah, when they're eaten as part of the celebration. Topping them with smoked salmon (or trout), sour cream, pickled red onions and dill sprigs makes for a fresh, briny, filling lunch. And with a glass of 'leftover' Prosecco, they pave the way for yet another food-induced nap.

Note: If you're an experienced latke maker, know that mashed-potato pancakes take longer to cook. They'll also shrink more during frying and become misshapen. If you used copious amounts of butter and cream in your mashed potatoes (as I did), you won't need any extra moisture. If it seems like they want to fall apart, though, add a beaten egg as a binder. And since this is a very feel-your-way-through-it kind of snack, ingredient amounts are loose and approximate.

Mashed Potato Pancakes with Pickled Red Onions, Smoked Salmon & Dill

ingredients
1 red onion
Rice vinegar
Dash of salt
Sugar
A bowl of leftover mashed potatoes
More salt & pepper
Cooking oil
Sour cream
Smoked salmon or trout
A few sprigs of dill

First, quick-pickle some red onion: Peel, halve and then slice a red onion into very thin slivers; pile the onion into a bowl, cover with red wine (or cider or rice vinegar) and throw a dash of salt and half a handful of sugar in and stir until sugar dissolves. Let sit for an hour.

Put a sauté pan on medium heat and pour in enough oil to cover the bottom (I used canola). While the oil heats, shape mashed potatoes into golf-ball-size orbs, then flatten between your palms and drop into the hot oil. While they cook, sprinkle the tops liberally with salt and pepper.

Cook for 4-5 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Keep cooked pancakes in a warm oven while you finish the rest.

When finished, smear each cake with sour cream, then layer on a few curls of pickled onion, a flap of salmon and a sprig of dill. Finish with coarse sea salt and pepper, if desired, and serve.

 

Grazing: Tequila Negroni

It's days before Thanksgiving, and we're being clobbered with recipes for steamed turkey, curried brussels sprouts and complex squash purees. Yet, while Thanksgiving surely involves cooking for days — then devouring everything in under 30 minutes — it can also be rich with awkward distant-relative encounters. What better time to get liquored up?

Yes, Beaujalois and Pinot Noir and Riesling shine ever so on the Thanksgiving table, but sometimes you need a stiff cocktail to blunt the holiday's edges.

Since I've just had a particularly trying week, I've had plenty of inspiration to experiment with that simple but gorgeous concoction, the Negroni. In its classic form, the Negroni is a sweet-bitter blend of gin, sweet vermouth and the Italian bitter Campari. A bad one can taste like airplane fuel, but a great one is bracing, juicy and too easy to make. And, since all of the elements contain alcohol, it can also get you quite buzzed, quite fast. (One Negroni is really all you need; two could cause trouble.)

With Prop 37 Dead in California, Will Vermont Become the First to Label GMOs?

 

While a tide of blue helped push Barack Obama into a second term, legalize gay marriage in three states, and green-light recreational marijuana use in a few others, not all election results were cause for Democratic swooning this week.

In California, voters rejected Proposition 37 — a ballot initiative that would have required mandatory labeling of foods that contain genetically-engineered ingredients. The measure, backed by organic farmers, natural food purveyors and people concerned with what they eat, was defeated by a margin of 53 to 47.

The victory for the No-on-37 supporters likely stemmed from their unrelenting media blitz in the state, such as the commercial above — it implies that the bill would financially burden farmers and result in higher food prices.

Grazing: Manchester Restaurant Week

Since Seven Days held the first Vermont Restaurant Week in 2010, a spate of similar shindigs have sprung up around the region — including weeklong events in New Hampshire, Killington and now, Manchester.

This is clearly a welcome phenomenon for those of us who live to eat. Usually scheduled to coincide with slower times of year — i.e., mud season and stick season — restaurant weeks offer perfect windows during which to chow down at places hitherto unknown to the people of this area (to quote Frank Zappa).

At least a dozen restaurants are taking part in Manchester's first Restaurant Week, offering three-course, prix-fixe meals that cost $20.12 at lunch (clever) and $30.12 for dinner. For those who've never ventured there, the town is a food mecca, a liminal zone where top Vermont ingredients collide with the polished, classical techniques expected by tourists from points south. As far as I can tell, stick season is the only reason that some of the dining rooms in Manchester appeared half-empty last night, at least from the road; the two meals (!) I ate there were both spectacular, albeit in different ways. 

Grazing: Can't. Get. Enough. Cider.

Last week I undertook the brutal, grueling task of pairing local hard ciders with creamy, unctuous local cheeses. Just when I thought my stomach had recovered, I was invited to a cider pairing dinner at the North Hero House Inn & Restaurant on the Champlain Islands. It sounded too unique to pass up.

If last week's exercise taught me how well cider plays with cheese, last night's dinner schooled me in two more things: The hard, and even the sweet, stuff works equally well with savory dishes, and there's a seriously talented chef lurking inside the North Hero House. Last April, chef Tim McQuinn — who cut his teeth at Boston's Craigie On Main — joined the team here. (Even longer ago, McQuinn was a Paul Smith's College alum; one of his mentors, former NECI vice president and current consultant Paul Sorgule, was at last night's dinner.)

Grazing: Cocoa Beans Save the Day

A spate of new businesses is moving into Montpelier, into spaces owned by Montpelier Property Management. I'm sure it's welcome news to most everyone in town. Yet I've eagerly anticipated one in particular — Chill, the brand new gelato place at 32 State Street.

So I went down Tuesday to check it out. The best-laid plans: Chill is only open from Thursday to Monday, at least until spring. Through the window, I could see the gelato flavors scrawled on a chalkboard — hazelnut, stracciatella with roasted cherries, "Mint-pelier" — as well as lemon and pear-anise sorbets. Sigh. It would have to wait for another day.

Next door, fortunately, a similarly tantalizing operation is in full swing — Cocoa Bean at 40 State, which also opened a few weeks ago. Inside the airy space, the smell of chocolate layers the air, and two cases are loaded with truffles, barks, caramel-filled chocolates, pumpkin- and moose-shaped pops and free samples of glossy dark and milk chocolate leaves.