Mountain Home, January 2017

E E R F he wind

as t

RODAN THE WEATHERMAN WETM Forecaster Chip Maxham Overcame a Stutter to Become a Star, with a Little Help From a Godzilla Character

Destin-Interest Winter Weddings The Troy Sale Barn Sails Again Spinning Through Winter in Wellsboro

By Brendan O’Meara JANUARY 20171

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Spinning Your Wheels?

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Putting a new twist on winter.

Rodan the Weatherman

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By Maggie Barnes

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Tossed

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WETM forecaster Chip Maxham overcame a stutter to become a star, with a little help from a Godzilla character.

More Raves for Ravines

By Holly Howell

Mountain Home Wedding

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Editors & Publishers Teresa Banik Capuzzo Michael Capuzzo Associate Publisher George Bochetto, Esq. Managing Editor Gayle Morrow O pe r a t i o n s D i r e c t o r Gwen Plank-Button Advertising Director Ryan Oswald Advertising Assistant/Accounting Amy Packard Circulation/Gallery Manager Alyssa Strausser D e s i g n & P h o t o g r ap h y Tucker Worthington, Cover Design Contributing Writers Melissa Bravo, Patricia Brown Davis, Alison Fromme, Carrie Hagen, Holly Howell, Roger Kingsley, Don Knaus, Cindy Davis Meixel, Fred Metarko, David Milano, Cornelius O’Donnell, Brendan O’Meara, Gregg Rinkus, Linda Roller, Diane Seymour, Kathleen Thompson, Joyce M. Tice, Melinda L. Wentzel, Maggie Barnes, Ruth Tonachel C o n t r i b u t i n g P h o t o g r ap h e r s Mia Lisa Anderson, Melissa Bravo, Bernadette Chiaramonte-Brown, Bill Crowell, Bruce Dart, James Fitzpatrick, Ann Kamzelski, Jan Keck, Nigel P. Kent, Roger Kingsley, Tim McBride, Heather Mee, Ken Meyer, Bridget Reed, Suzan Richar, Tina Tolins, Sarah Wagaman, Tim McBride, Curt Weinhold, Terry Wild, Deb Behm, Linda Stager, Bill Crowell S a l e s R ep r e s e n t a t i v e s Alicia Blunk, Maia Stam, Linda Roller, Richard Trotta D i s t r i b u t i o n T eam Michael Banik, Layne Conrad, Gary Hill, Grapevine Distribution, Duane Meixel, Linda Roller T h e B ea g l e Cosmo (1996-2014) Yogi (Assistant)

ABOUT US: Mountain Home is the award-winning regional magazine of PA and NY with more than 100,000 readers. The magazine has been published monthly, since 2005, by Beagle Media, LLC, 87-1/2 Main Street, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, 16901, and online at www.mountainhomemag.com. Copyright © 2016 Beagle Media, LLC. All rights reserved. E-mail story ideas to editorial@mountainhomemag.com, or call (570) 724-3838.

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Rodan

The Weatherman

Tag, you’re it: Steve Adams after another successful hunt.

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WETM Forecaster Chip Maxham Overcame a Stutter to Become a Star, with a Little Help From a Godzilla Character

By Brendan O’Meara

W

hen talking to people about Chip Maxham, forty-one years old, the chief meteorologist for WETM-TV in Elmira, there are words like “cool,” “family guy,” “community-minded,” “awesome,” “honest,” “guts,” and, maybe even a little bit “shy.”

That latter description may come as a bit of a surprise to those who presuppose that television personalities are, in many if not all ways, extroverted. This may be the case with some, and even speaking with Maxham you get the idea that being shy and introverted is the default, out-of-the-box software running his computer. The words are all upright, lowercase, demonstrative, clear, but not…inflated.

But then there’s a little switch, call it a red light, the producer’s fingers Three…Two…One…Point, and something changes.

Suddenly the voice doesn’t feel as slow-traffic-right-lane-only, it zips into the far left lane and sounds commanded, damn near regal, “Hey, it looks like this storm is going to get here on Thursday morning, and it’s going to have some rain, but it’s going to be to our south. And

by Friday as it gets colder there could be some snow.”

Which feels like it comes out of nowhere, but you feel like a Hall of Fame pitcher just used his fastball on you and you watched it whiz by you, hit the mitt, and all you can do is stare in awe of what you just saw, this alchemical transformation before your very eyes.

• A longtime friend of Maxham, Jason Law, who started out in the business with Maxham in Greenville, Mississippi, and now works for a station in Boston, Massachusetts, says, “They think that everybody on television has to be an extrovert, they have to be comfortable with it. Talking in front of people is hard to do.

Just because he’s on camera doesn’t mean you don’t get nerves. He had to overcome that. I always remember that about him, thought that was really cool.”

And it wasn’t overcoming shyness, per se, that Maxham endured on his long frequent-flyer-laden journey from Virginia (home), to Georgia (undergrad), to Florida (graduate school), to Mississippi (work), to South Carolina (work), to Texas (Wichita Falls, work, met future wife), back to Virginia (work), then back

to Texas (El Paso, oldest daughter born, also work) until he settled into the Twin Tiers region (where his second daughter was born, and…work) in 2012.

It was something far more taxing and far more brave when you consider how far he’s come after knowing where he began.

And we’re not talking miles.

• You soon find when talking to people who choose weather as a vocation that they were nearly genetically predisposed to the trade. As a kid, Maxham loved watching storms, and if he knew it was going to snow, he’d run outside every fifteen minutes to check for snowflakes falling from the sky.

He also remembers watching the local news during dinners with his family in Lynchburg, Virginia, and watching Charles Middleton deliver that evening’s weather forecast.

“I would pay attention to what he had to say,” Maxham says.

“I guess I idolized him. I thought that was such a cool thing to do.”

So when Middleton visited Maxham’s elementary school, naturally Maxham was on the edge of his seat in the school cafeteria listening to Middleton tell them about how he measures atmospheric temperatures and how he, along with his team, forecast the weather.

Suddenly the key to the sky was put before him. Up there in swirls of clouds, down in the crashing waves, tornados funneling, and hurricanes making landfall, was something measurable, something elemental, and, with enough skill, knowledge, and experience, something predictable.

“I really was interested in why we had snow or why we would have a thunderstorm,” Maxham says.

Maxham would play with his sister and he took his Rodan toy—a pterodactyl in the Godzilla franchise symbolizing the Soviet nuclear threat—soaring this little figurine around the sky: Rodan the Local Weatherman.

In order to fully embrace a possible career as an on-air weatherman, Maxham had to deal with a speech impediment that would be patently unacceptable as the face of a television station’s forecast.

“I grew up with the worst stutter,” Maxham says. “It made me See Weather on page 8

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Weather continued from page 7

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uncomfortable speaking in front of people. I didn’t have a lot of friends. I was shy. Kids are cruel, and there’s nothing you can do about it. What makes a stutter harder, sometimes the harder you try to say something the harder it will be. When you put yourself in a public-speaking-type situation, it’s extra difficult.”

Maxham would learn that Bill Walton, an NBA Hall of Famer, a two-time NBA champion and a two-time NCAA champion, dealt with a similar speech impediment and eventually became a broadcaster after his career ended as player. Even as a star for the UCLA Bruins in the early- to mid-1970s, Walton—who stands at six-foot-eleven-inches tall—experienced shaming and ridicule from his peers in a college speech class.

“When I had to actually formulate words and make a statement,” Walton told damelionetwork.com, “I could not do it at all.”

Walton became a hero for Maxham.

“I’ve never heard him speak with a stutter,” Maxham says, “but apparently he had a really bad stutter growing up. He went into broadcast and has a very smooth voice. I don’t want to say that I was directly inspired by him, but I was aware of his background as a stutterer and how he got past it. It made me feel a little more confident that I could do it, that these other people could do it. I didn’t want to be an adult stuttering. It puts you at a disadvantage socially, and it’s hard to get dates if you can’t talk to girls.”

“He had a stuttering problem,” says David Margolin, who met Maxham in the Florida State University graduate program. He also says, “I’ll be honest. I was skeptical that he could overcome it and become a TV meteorologist. That wasn’t a minor thing. You knew after talking to him for two minutes that he had that problem.”

So, instead of hiding behind the camera, instead of hunching behind a computer screen and letting emails do all the talking, Maxham did something far more audacious and put his voice on air.

“He doesn’t stammer or stutter at all,” Law says. “He’ll stammer in a conversation with me, but when he’s on air, he overcomes that. If you didn’t know him and you were watching him on TV, I don’t think you would know. It takes a lot of guts.”

• At FSU, Maxham worked out some kinks while studying the nature of hurricanes making landfall. He soon took his first job in Greenville, Mississippi, a place where he reported (Maxham split time as a weatherman and reporter) doctors—who performed free medical screenings—saying “We come to Haiti, Africa, and here.”

Prior to Maxham’s first weather broadcast, a Saturday night, he had all day to stew over his first professional appearance.

College football ran late that day, so that meant he had to wait far longer and think about this crucial, maiden broadcast.

“Terrifying, I was frightened,” Maxham says.

He continues, “I was really tight, really nervous, and I held my arms close to my body like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, like I was giving myself a hug. I remember practicing beforehand, and I watched [the tape] a couple years ago. It was pretty bad.

“One thing I do remember: I made a prediction, ‘It could rain by early tomorrow morning.’ After that show, which was like the ten o’clock news, I left the studio and it was raining. I didn’t get the forecast wrong; I got the current conditions wrong.

So that was another lesson. Look outside before you go on TV.

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welcome to Check the window.”

Those years in Greenville provided the requisite experience any budding broadcaster needed. In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina annihilated Louisiana, Hurricane Rita, a storm every bit as strong as Katrina, followed on her coattails heading straight for Mississippi.

The weather team couldn’t go live with a van because of the extreme winds. Maxham chose to do live updates from the parking lot of the news station, looking up into the clouds that appeared to be swirling in ever more unsettling circles. A wall cloud—a cloud that will, at times, become tornadic—passed overhead.

“Later that day a tornado came out of that swarm and went through a trailer park,” Maxham says. “Someone was hurt in the buildings. It was the first time when I felt a connection to what I did and real people. That thing I saw hurt somebody a half-mile away. It was definitely humbling.”

Law, who worked with Maxham in those early days in Greenville, says, “I remember he was outside. He was describing it on camera with this long cord. He had this long cable, he started getting excited for the rotation in the clouds.”

That excitement is echoed by David Margolin. He says, “I don’t think I’m alone on this, as almost for as long as I can remember, being like six years old, I had a thing for weather. It stood out even then. It was odd or different. I remember my mom yelling me to turn off the Weather Channel, bringing a thermometer to school to see if rain was changing to snow, sneaking to check the thermometers, driving up to nearby mountains an hour away to see if there was snow, driving friends crazy having sleepovers and it was snowing going outside every twenty minutes. My mom or dad were not weather wienies. That was me. Now being in the field, I don’t think that my case is isolated.”

No, it’s not. Once there was a kid who played with a toy pterodactyl named Rodan the Local Weatherman.

• As luck would have it, and as is the nature of local TV journalism, Maxham bounced around and eventually landed in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he met his future wife, Micaela. They now have two young girls—Felix, four, and Noel, three.

But back in Wichita Falls, Micaela’s hometown, before the girls, Maxham and Micaela were co-workers at the local station.

“I was a reporter doing weekends, start the day with the morning show,” Micaela says. “Chip would fill in. We would do shows together. Met him when I was there. I worked for a year before working for the city. I loved it. Being from a small town, I’d probably still be there if it wasn’t for Chip. I grew up watching the local station, and left the station for the public information office and worked with the city officials I once interviewed.”

Micaela admired how Maxham overcame his speech impediment to become a weatherman, something she would not have been comfortable doing. She has seen him become more community-minded now that the Maxhams have settled into the Twin Tiers.

Micaela, who volunteers at the First United Methodist Church on Broad Street in Horseheads, says, “Before, as a young, aspiring weatherman, it’s career first. It’s community too, now.

He has children. It’s not ‘go to the next market.’ It’s lay down some roots.”

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Weather continued from page 9

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And being more settled has allowed Maxham to not only hone his own craft, but to help and mentor others. Marissa Perlman, who got her start at WETM-TV and now works as a reporter in Buffalo, New York, says, “Chip is great. He has a lot of experience in the business. So when we first met it was my first job. He had been all over the country, so I definitely knew I was going to learn a lot about the business in general. Chip has this awesome, dry, sarcastic personality, so we hit it off right away.”

Perlman, like anyone grinding away in daily journalism, was often pulled off the ledge of law school and other careers that tend to pirate the jaded, worn down, underpaid and undervalued journalist.

“Alternative career paths were definitely discussed, the lows of lows,” Perlman says. “He would tell me ‘You’re good, you’re going to go far.’ He was a real confidence booster. He helped me put together resume tapes. I’m working in Buffalo; that’s 150 market jump [in ratings]. I appreciated his support more than I can tell you. It’s stressful. I would go back and forth and different career options and next steps. He would advise, not pushing me in any direction. He had confidence in me.”

Just by watching Maxham, she realized what makes an on-air personality of that nature, successful.

“I think that viewers can relate to

Chip,” Perlman says. “He is someone that when you watch on television you can see somebody you can welcome into your home every night. He’s likable. He’s just like me. He’s my family member, cousin, uncle, brother, never pretending to be somebody he’s not. He’s very much Chip and he knows what he’s talking about.

Second, he’s knowledgeable about weather.

He knows what he doing. He studies. He’s passionate.”

Nicole Phillips, who moved to Elmira from Kansas City (and is subsequently back in Kansas City), took her first job under Maxham’s leadership at WETM-TV. Maxham hired Phillips and said she made him “look good.”

“I think for me it was the whole confidence thing—gaining it that I can do this every day because I have to,” she says, “It was horrible at first. I didn’t understand the weather as much as I would like. He was always there and supportive about it.”

Just as Maxham attacked his speech impediment by going into broadcasting, Phillips went into weather as a way to approach her fear of tornados. Growing up in Kansas City, she often took shelter from violent twisters.

“I was afraid of tornados growing up,” Phillips says. “It was me wanting to know more, and why those happen was the thing for me. I can remember a tornado when I was nine, terrified having to take shelter.

Why do these happen? Why other areas

don’t? That fear turned into curiosity.

Some people thrive on things they’re not good at and that propels them to what they want to do. I remember being so terrified, and crying all the time. I really wanted to know more. I think it might be the drive. ‘I need to get over this.’”

Where once Maxham sought out the mentors, he now appears to be making that impact on those around him. Not too long ago, he visited a local school, and stood up in front of the kids and talked about weather models and how meteorologists measure air temperature and predict the weather.

The science and technology has come a long way the past several decades.

Looking out over the crowd of children, he found his touchstone.

He’d tell them about Madden NFL, the iconic video game, and how the game has changed in fifteen years, which to second graders is like forever ago.

Maxham told them, “If you watch somebody play it, it didn’t look very realistic. As you get more information about the different players nowadays, when that game is made they know every detail about every player. They know how old they are, how quickly they get tired, what they’re good at, and of course, within all the rules of the game, it makes a more realistic looking game. If you were to watch it, it would be pretty much like real life.

The weather forecasting models are kind of like Madden NFL. As the computers get smarter you can make them look real, make the game and the forecast like real life.”

And like how Charles Middleton inspired Maxham over thirty years ago, there could be a seven- or eight-year-old boy or girl in that audience looking up at this TV star—because that’s what he is—and maybe they’ll take their figurines and their dolls and they’ll hold them high in the sky, silhouetted against the clouds, wondering what may fall to the ground and why.

Award-winning writer Brendan O’Meara is the author of Six Weeks in Saratoga: How Three-Year-Old Filly Rachel Alexandra Beat the Boys and Became Horse of the Year.

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Spinning Your Wheels?

Putting a New Twist on Winter

By Gayle Morrow

W

ell, it’s the middle of winter and you’re in a bit of a slump.

Too much holiday cheer, you mournfully acknowledge to no one but yourself. A friend suggests joining him in a spin class. A lot of people are doing it, he says. They have it right upstairs in the Deane Center for the Performing Arts on Wellsboro’s Main Street. Spin? Does it have anything to do with wool? You don’t have any sheep, you wouldn’t know how to shear them even if you did, and you don’t

have anything that remotely resembles a spinning wheel.

Not that kind of spinning, silly. The kind of spinning we’re talking about here is the kind you do on a bicycle, the kind that gets your heart pumping and your lungs expanding. It’s the kind, says instructor Sue Webster, as she gives a thumbs-up to the last student leaving one of her morning classes at Mountain Life Cycling Studio (www. mtnlifecycling.com; [267] 446-4452), that is about “finding that mind-body

connection.” It’s also the kind that is great fun.

“It is completely my passion,” Sue says.

“I love it.”

She wants you to love it, too.

The story of spinning has its beginnings in Santa Monica, California, when, in 1991, a South African endurance cyclist named Johnny Goldberg joined forces with another ultra-distance cyclist and entrepreneur, John Baudhuin. Together they started making and marketing the Spinner brand See Spinning on page 15

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Spinning continued from page 12

of stationary bikes and the Spinner brand of workout programs.

In 1994, Mad Dogg Athletics, Inc., registered and trademarked the Spinner name and developed the Spinning Instructor Certification Program (Sue has been a Certified Spinning Instructor for seventeen years, by the way).

What followed then for Spinning was a nod from Rolling Stone in one of their famous annual “What’s Hot” editions, a Spinning conference or two, a few international Spinning events, videos, an infomercial, and official Spinner bikes for the home market. A recent pairing with Precor, a provider of personalized fitness solutions, has resulted in new technology and new equipment. Today, twenty-five or so years later, official Spinning programs are available in eighty countries, and there are 140 Spinning Master Instructors worldwide.

Here at Mountain Life Cycling Studio in Wellsboro, Sue explains what makes Spinning so satisfying.

“The program was derived from outdoor cycling, and it is the leader in indoor cycling programs. It builds confidence, courage, and self-esteem. It is for men and women of all fitness levels.”

And, with a laugh from someone who looks amazingly fit and coordinated, “No coordination is necessary.”

Sue’s own Spinning story began in the mid 1990s—she had injured herself in a step aerobics class and needed a different kind of exercise routine. Spinning presented itself.

“I took to it right away,” she says of the non-impact cardio workout. She’s had the opportunities over the years to work with several Spinning Master Instructors, including International Spinning Master Instructor and former professional cyclist Josh Taylor. She spent ten years directing Spinning programs in Bucks County, and moved to Tioga County three years ago.

One of the things that makes Spinning a little more than just pedaling on a stationary bike is that the bikes themselves have the “geometry” of a road bike, along with a weighted flywheel that helps with stability. Riders don’t have to worry about falling off or keeping up with anybody else in the class. Instead, Sue says, “you can close your eyes and go inside.” A Spinning session, which typically takes place in a room with quiet lighting rather than the glare of a gym setting, is “not just coming in and sweating and leaving.” It is, however, “extremely addicting”—in the best possible way, of course, and is a huge stress reliever.

Ultimately the best way to find out what Spinning is all about is to give it a try.

“Taking an Intro to Spinning class is the best way to start,” Sue says. “We teach the core movements. We go over the basic set-up and safety, and a short ride, and then you’re prepared for a regular class.” The intro classes are offered on Mondays and Saturdays at 10:30 a.m.

Regular classes are scheduled for a variety of times throughout the week and are typically either forty-five minutes or an hour long. No special equipment is needed, although Oswald’s Bike Shop in Mansfield and CS Sports in Wellsboro (formerly Country Ski and Sports) carry products that might be useful to Spinners and are offering Spinning-related discounts. Sue says water and a small towel (you will sweat) are really all you need.

So—no excuses. A Spinning session of forty minutes burns 400-600 calories. That’s what we need to hear in mid-January.

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Olde Barn Centre ~ ANTIQUES ‘N SUCH ~

AgeLess SPA What does it mean to be “ageless?”

To Shelly Cilip, CEO of AgeLess Integrated Medical Spa and AgeLess SPA, it doesn’t mean a mad dash into plastic surgery or radical weight loss. Rather, it is the achievement of a sense of comfort for whatever phase of life you are in. “I’m turning fifty,” she relates, while perched on the edge of her desk. “I don’t want to look thirty, that’s not realistic. But, I do want to look the best at fifty that I possibly can.”

Shelly and her husband, internist Dr. Michael Cilip, were running a busy medical practice eight years ago when they decided to expand their business to match their philosophy. The result was an Arnot Mall business, with parallel hallways for both medical and spa services. It became the merger of “feel good” and “look good.” Four years later, AgeLess opened a location in the Radisson Hotel in Corning. (Visit www.agelessllc.com for full details on each location.)

Now employing some forty people between the two locations, Shelly admits that she and her husband learned the spa business on the fly. “We learned as we went,” she smiles. “I had a passion for skin care. My husband is a doctor. The idea of a medical spa grew very organically.”

Impressively, Shelly and Michael managed to blend the two sides of their business without any impact to the medical practice. Dr. Cilip still sees a full slate of patients.

AgeLess prides itself on the subtle nature of the techniques they offer. “What we do is more discreet, more corrective than drastic,” says Shelly. “And, consequently, more affordable than other options.

The greatest compliment we can receive is when a client tells us that their friends can’t pinpoint what is new about them, but they tell them how fabulous they look.”

At the Arnot Mall location, laser treatments, cosmetic injections, and medical weight management all team up with more traditional spa services to improve multiple aspects of a client’s health. Some things may be covered by insurance and the staff at AgeLess can help get that determined.

All of this is not to say that the classic spa treatments are an afterthought. Far from it, as one young lady found out when she and her boyfriend indulged in a couples massage at the Corning location.

“When they came out, there were lit candles and rose petals everywhere,” recalled AgeLess Sales and Marketing Specialist, Amy Gessi. “Then the young man got down on one knee and proposed. She was thrilled and we were thrilled to be a part of their special moment.” ~ Maggie Barnes

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Tossed

Adding Something Fresh to Market Street

By Teresa Banik Capuzzo

There is a reverent quality in the air at 88 W. Market Street in Corning, home of the new restaurant Tossed, and it seems to come from everywhere: from the serene dining room to the sparkling glass that houses the bright salads and salad fixings right down to the owners themselves, Kelly Maurer and Todd Patterson.

The restaurant is open from 11 to 6, Monday through Saturday, and Todd says with satisfaction that, no matter what time you come in, “one of the owners will be serving you.”

That devotion to their new venture went in from the ground up.

The couple did all the construction themselves, and everything in the place—except for the freezer and refrigerator units and the Giuseppe Arcimboldo vegetable portrait prints on the walls—is repurposed from somewhere else. Actually, Kelly and Todd themselves come from many years at more removed plateaus in the food industry. Todd, a Bath native who has lived all over the place, has never been anywhere as long as he has been in the Corning area. Kelly, from Hamburg, was always on the go for her job, too, and trying to hew to healthy eating in spite of all the miles. California, Chicago, Philly—wherever she landed, she would send Todd pictures of the fresh fast food that impressed her.

When they decided to open a restaurant together devoted to that idea,

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the choice of Corning, with its sophisticated population, was obvious to them both.

Every morning from Monday to Saturday, the vegetables are cut fresh and the quinoa and chicken and olive-oil-sautéed tofu are all cooked fresh to create a salad selection of twenty-five items that can vary with the seasons (from strawberries to butternut squash). The dressings are all gluten free. “We can make a salad as fast as McDonald’s can make anything for you. And it’s all fresh,” says Kelly.

Don’t get the wrong idea from the dozens of items devoted to greenery. Daily specials include “rib-sticking good food like lasagna,” says Todd, as well as a list of wraps including buffalo chicken and gyros (both classic Greek style or antibiotic-free chicken), and fresh soups of the day (which on one local visit was a chicken soup with cauliflower, carrots, onion, and peas, for which a customer lined up to request the recipe).

The simple, and ample, brown take-out box that houses your lunch (and which you can fold down to take away if you manage any leftovers), the wooden utensils, and the take-out bags are all 100 percent biodegradable. “The bags will be gone in five years,” says Kelly. “We are going the extra mile to be good to the environment.”

To that end, all the fresh vegetable trimmings—five gallons daily—go to a budding gentleman’s farm nearby, to be fed back into the natural cycle through pigs and chickens and baby goats.

“Our recycling team in Avoca,” Kelly calls them. Their picture is on the wall, too. Now that’s building a salad from the ground up.

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More Raves for Ravines

By Holly Howell

T

he Finger Lakes has been blessed with some of the most challenging vintages over the past decade or so. Good winemakers know how to take what Mother Nature hands them and turn it into the best it can be. One producer in particular has consistently topped the charts with its Rieslings: Ravines Wine Cellars— four top hits on the world wine billboard.

That billboard is Wine Spectator Top 100, and it is released by that magazine’s editors as a selection of the best wines they have tasted over the past year. This list began in 1988 and has become a holiday wine bible to wine lovers everywhere. The chosen wines that make this list “reflect significant trends, spotlight successful regions, and recognize outstanding producers.” Well, there you have it. Riesling. Finger Lakes.

And Morten Hallgren.

Morten (winemaker) and his wife Lisa (chef and ultimate foodie, above) are the founders of Ravines Wine Cellars.

Morten was raised on his family’s winery, Castel Roubine, in Provence, France. After winemaking stints in Bordeaux, Texas, and North Carolina, he landed in the Finger Lakes working at Dr. Konstantin Frank’s Vinifera Wine Cellars. He purchased vineyard property in 2000, and Ravines officially opened its doors in the spring of

2003. Just months later, their wine earned the title of “Best Dry Riesling” at the World Riesling Cup at the International Wine Competition. The awards have been flowing ever since.

Making the Wine Spectator Top 100 list is no easy feat. Ravines Dry Riesling 2014 nabbed a much-honored spot at number seventy on the list this year. The wine received a ninety point score and sells for about eighteen dollars. This Riesling is a classic and can be described as having flavors of crisp apple, tangy citrus, and a distinct note of that amazing Finger Lakes “slate” minerality.

The very first American Riesling to make the prestigious list was Hermann J. Wiemer Dry Riesling Reserve 2008 on the Top 100 list of 2010. Ravines has since managed to hold a spot for the Finger Lakes on four of those yearly tallies.

Congrats to Morten on a beautiful wine and on a great run on the Top 100.

You have truly set the bar for the Finger Lakes, and we are looking forward to many more delicious Rieslings to come.

Holly Howell is a Certified Specialist of Wine (by the Society of Wine Educators) and a Certified Sommelier (by the Master Court of Sommeliers in England).

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Courtesy Steve Robbins

The Troy Sale Barn

Reincarnated, Refurbished, and Much Loved

By Ruth Tonachel

I

n the late 1800s and early 1900s, Troy, Pennsylvania, was nationally renowned for the quality of its butter and other dairy products. Produced by superior dairy cows on lush grasslands, butter from Troy was shipped out by train and served in elite dining places—the military academy at Annapolis, Maryland, among others.

In 1920, a consortium of local farmers in western Bradford County decided to build an auction barn in order to serve local farmers and take advantage of the high demand for cows from their area. Located at 50 Ballard Street (behind the Chinese restaurant), just blocks away from the main downtown intersection, the Troy Sale Barn is now getting a whole new lease on life.

Starting in 1922, sales were held every Wednesday; buyers came from throughout

26

the Northeast and even Canada to purchase animals. In years past, restaurants were in high gear and farm wives patronized downtown stores while their husbands procured livestock. Says Bill Bower, one of the primary organizers of the barn’s recent renovation, “You couldn’t get into restaurants in Troy when the cattle sales were held. The barbershop was full. The grocery store was full.”

Diversified dairy farms were the lifeblood of western Bradford County for many decades, but government policies of the 1970s encouraging farmers to “get big or get out” and “plant row crops fence row to fence row” did not benefit the type of smaller grass-based farms that had existed here. Farming was becoming more inputintensive and less diversified. As a result, it

also became less profitable for many, and in the 1980s small dairy farms began to die out. Young people growing up on farms chose to move and/or get jobs off the farm.

As a result of that decline, the Troy Sale barn was sold several times. The last regular livestock sale took place on February 21, 1996. On New Year’s Day 1997, the barn was re-opened by Roy and Diane Andrus, who tried to keep it operating for a few more years. In 2004, they held their last livestock sale and the barn closed once again.

After that, Charles Earl purchased the barn. He held several events there but was unable to make the facility profitable and so sold it to the Borough of Troy in 2010.

The barn sat idle for several years and the rumor in Troy was that it was going to be torn down. At that point, the Troy

Historical Society began circulating petitions to try to save the building. There was a town meeting, and the Borough subsequently agreed to transfer the barn to the Municipal Authority (which still owns it) in 2014.

The Troy Historical Society then leased the Sale Barn with the understanding that they would renovate it and make it into a community hall and center. The society hoped to complete the project for $300,000. Donations were solicited across the county and $60,000 each came in from Talisman Energy (now Repsol) and the Bradford County Board of Commissioners.

Other individuals and businesses held raffles and fundraisers to aid the cause. To date, over $350,000 has been raised.

Initial costs were kept to a minimum, as most of the labor was provided by a group of very active volunteers. Not without major challenges, the project has continued to move forward and reinvent itself several times over.

“The undertaking went quite well at first, because we were tearing things out of the barn and not spending much money,” says Bill Bower. “Then came a time when we began spending money, and it wasn’t long until we realized that $300,000 was an unrealistic figure. We spent money adding bathrooms, a kitchen, and a small storage area that wasn’t on the original plan.

A wall was torn out that separated the barn area from the sales arena. Later, we realized what a big mistake that was, because the inspector then told us we would need a sprinkler system, which we learned would cost nearly $65,000.”

“Then there came a time when volunteers who were working on the barn quit for various personal reasons,” he continues.

“They were convinced to come back to work. But then a board member resigned from the board. He was later allowed to rejoin, with the stipulation that he did not have anything to do with the barn. His position was to sell items we had received from the old hospital, apply for grants, and other computer work. From this point on, the board started to fall apart. Nothing could be decided on in a reasonable time frame. Several members of the board wanted to micro-manage the work going on and all the volunteers, except one, quit. The man who was guiding most of the work in the barn said that he would not put up with all the bickering and he took his tools and left.

“We argued about putting fans on the ceiling of the barn for four weeks. Then it took eight weeks to decide on what type of fan—and another two weeks to decide on the color of the fans,” adds Bill to illustrate what a quagmire things had become.

With funds running low and no new funds coming in, work stopped at the barn. Since not much can be kept secret in a small town, people heard about the problems with the barn project and were hesitant to donate.

According to Bill, “the final problem occurred when Krista Kendall wanted to rent the barn for her wedding reception.”

“She had asked about renting the barn far in advance, and the Historical Society thought that we would surely be finished with the main barn area and told her she could rent the barn.

However, an occupancy permit was needed before she could rent the barn. Without its volunteers, the Society was not going to be ready to get a permit before the wedding date.”

Bill acknowledges that the Historical Society did an outstanding job with what they have done with the barn, but

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See Sale Barn on page 28 27

Sale Barn continued from page 27

says, “the mission of the historical society is to collect and preserve the history of the area and not to preserve buildings—even though they may be historical ones.”

Members of the Historical Society ultimately decided to break the lease with the Municipal Authority. Several members of the society then resigned and formed a new non-profit entity—the Troy Sale Barn Operating Corporation. The first goal was to complete the main barn area so that an occupancy permit could be issued and the young woman could hold her wedding there as promised.

When the split from the Historical Society occurred, all of the volunteers came back to work on the barn. Gregg Jones was asked to join the new committee. With his construction knowledge and equipment, the sale barn received its occupancy permit on Friday, October 14, 2016—one day before the wedding of Krista Kendall and Cory Bailey!

On the heels of the Operating Corporation’s formation, a second committee, The Friends of the Troy Sale Barn Corporation, will do scheduling and

management of events. Nicole Carman Harris is head of the Friends committee.

(She can be reached at [570] 337-0815 if you are interested in reserving the space for an event of any sort.) There are already three wedding receptions planned for 2017, she says. The facility has also become popular with Future Farmers of America (how appropriate), the Chamber of Commerce, the local Garden Club, and other Troy-area groups. It is an amazing space—up to date, yet infused with history.

The last building phase is to create a theater from the area where the auctions were once held. This will be an incredible venue for performing arts. Troy Community Theatre recently held auditions for a play to be put on in February in the newest space.

There is also a display area in the lower area where calf sales used to take place.

Volunteers are now working on the entire arena area of the barn, and are once again seeking donations so that the entire Sale Barn project can be completed.

The Troy Sale Barn was a major economic asset in Bradford County for nearly a century, and Troy benefited greatly

from having all the activity it brought to town in the past. With the dedicated efforts that have been made during the past couple of years, the barn—which will be ninety-seven years old in 2017—will once more be an economic and cultural force in western Bradford County. It also stands as a testament to the indomitable community spirit that continues to help define this rural region. To make a tax deductible donation to the Troy Sale Barn, checks made out to the Troy Municipal Authority, and marked for the Troy Sale Barn, may be sent to Bill Bower at 1244 Redington Ave., Troy, PA 16947. Call Bill at (570) 297-2943 for further information or email troysalebarn@ gmail.com. There is also a Facebook page for the Troy Sale Barn where you can keep up on events and follow progress.

Ruth Tonachel is a writer & folklorist with a particular interest in local food, agriculture and other traditional arts. She has been living and working in the Endless Mountains for more years than she cares to count.

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Things just happen: As Misty and Levi Gardner (pictured left and below) can attest, a winter wedding can provide its own level of uniqueness.

A Destin-Interest Winter Wedding

Want Your Wedding Day to Sparkle? To Some Brides, That Means Snow!

By Gayle Morrow

S

o you’re planning your wedding.

Congratulations! If you’re opting for the traditional June walk down the aisle in your hometown church, followed by an evening of champagne toasts, a catered meal, and dancing, then your work involves reserving the church and the reception hall, menu-planning with the caterer, finding a photographer, and arranging for the DJ or a band.

30

If you’ve decided to be married near the top of Denton Hill, then your work proceeds down a slightly different track— one that may or may not be groomed.

Destination and special interest weddings (destin-interest) are kind of the thing these days. Couples are tying the knot on horseback, on the beach, on mountain bikes, on mountaintops. Ten reasons to have a destination wedding;

destination wedding dos and don’ts; five things every bride must know about destination wedding etiquette—Pinterest and other Internet sites are absolutely loaded with don’t-forget-to-do-this and under-no-circumstances-should-you-everdo-that tips and recommendations for those wanting a not-so-traditional day.

So what’s the advice from a bride who has walked the walk and talked the talk?

“Prepare your guests,” says Misty Gardner, whose walk was more of a schuss down the mountain, and whose talk included some teeth-chattering. “And you definitely can’t be one who gets upset if everything doesn’t go according to plan.”

Back on December 26, 2010, Misty and her betrothed, Levi, went the destin-interest route; it was a combination of factors which led to the choice of Denton Hill for the location and December 26 as the date.

“We’re both skiers,” she explains. “I grew up on top of Denton Hill—it’s like a second home. My brother, my sister, my husband, my son all started skiing there.”

Picking the day after Christmas for the celebration was for sentimental reasons.

“It was my grandparents’ anniversary,” she says. “Seventyseven years before.”

Fortunately the planning for the Gardner’s special day took only a fraction of that time, but it was still a year in the works.

“We knew we wanted to get married in the snow,” says Misty, so choosing to honor her grandparents and their commitment to one another made a winter holiday date something of a logical selection. “It was more of a fun thing and definitely not traditional. We kind of themed it around Christmas.”

To that end, her mother made her dress—red, of course— and a winter-princess white coat to wear over it. And under it?

This bride’s lacey lingerie was supplanted by something a bit more practical.

“I had to wear long underwear under my dress,” Misty laughs. “We had snow. It was very cold that day. We told everyone to dress appropriately.”

The ceremony was at the top of Katie-O, one of Denton’s most popular runs. Misty rode the big chair lift up; Levi took the pomalift. After the couple exchanged their vows, they skied down the mountain, but they were the only ones who did.

“We wanted to have more people ski down with us but it was so cold,” recalls Misty.

The couple had decided to have the reception in another venue, which gave the wedding party and the guests an opportunity to warm up and shed a few layers. Overall, says Misty, the day was “such a reflection of us.”

“I think everyone had a good time.”

If she had it to do over, Misty says she would have hired a professional photographer. The friend with whom she’d arranged picture-taking duties was unable to get to Denton because of a snowstorm.

“Things just happen,” she says with a shrug. “And you can’t get upset if people can’t come if you plan it around the holiday.”

The main thing, she says, is to “just enjoy it.”

If you’re interested in planning a destin-interest wedding in the Mountain Home readership area, the options are as endless as the mountains. There are woodland trails, bike paths, lake banks and stream sides, bed and breakfasts from casual to formal, vacation rentals that run the gamut from rustic cabins to elegant houses, state parks, wineries, micro-breweries, and food options for vegans to hardcore carnivores and everybody in between. So pop the question and let the fun begin.

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31

Bernadette Chiaramonte-Brown

Nigel Kent

Winter Hues

D Linda Stager

Ken Meyers 32

eep winter has its own beauty. The mix of grays and whites and browns gives the landscape an almost metallic quality unique to this often interminably long period between the holiday season and the first breath of spring. Those occasional spots of color—a branch of winter berries, a hemlock, an azure sky—are all the more valued when juxtaposed with the steel and iron hues we are accustomed to seeing this time of year. Nature and all her incarnations are precious—the fireworks of a frozen waterfall as jaw-dropping as any day in May.

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R&M Restaurant When newyorkupstate.com launched their Best Upstate NY Burger tour, it may have been a surprise elsewhere, but everyone in Corning’s Gaffer District pretty much knew where the trophy was headed: to the R&M Restaurant at 101 W. Market Street. Because this wasn’t the first time lightning had struck here. Back in the early ’90s, the local newspaper had a contest for the best local burger. The paper prepared a voting ballot, and R&M wasn’t on it. “But we ended up winning it as a write-in,” chuckles owner Bob Pierri. “From that point on, we were noted for burgers.”

Bob has run R&M for at least twenty-five years, having taken over from his father, who first opened the restaurant forty years ago.

The restaurant evolved with demand, upgrading to big coolers and stoves and fryers and everything that goes with it. And for forty years, Thursday and Friday (with their respective specials of rigatoni with meatballs and sausage; and fish fry with coleslaw and bread and fries or mac ’n’ cheese) have been the days the restaurant packs them in.

Bob does it all with three other employees, one with thirty years in at the business, one with twenty, and one part-timer.

Then the contest happened. “Urban Corning nominated us in July,” says Bob, “with ten places from each region in upstate New York, a total of thirty nominations. It was narrowed down to six places by voter’s choice, and they added two more at the end for the judging.”

The team of judges went to each of the eight restaurant finalists to taste for themselves. Bob didn’t know they were there until three people started asking a lot of questions about their meal, which they had cut up into chunks to share: the half-pound cheeseburger (with standard toppings including lettuce, tomato, and cheddar) and the Big House, which they ordered in its half-pound size (featuring marinated ground beef, banana peppers, Monterey Jack cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomato, onion, and a special sauce). “We have only had that burger [the Big House] on the menu for about six months,” says Bob of the award-winner (pictured above with Bob). He laughs about what it’s done to his burger business. “From the moment it was announced, it was crazy for the next three or four weeks. We were going through almost 300 pounds of hamburger a week for that month. People just kept coming…from Syracuse…from all over the place.” Months later, “It has mellowed out a little bit. But the burger business is still up 100 percent,” he adds. And Thursday and Fridays? Rigatoni and fish fry once more rule the full house. ~ Teresa Banik Capuzzo

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35

FOOD

l if the eggs aren’t when you have eggs a week or two.

12 eggs salt and pepper 2 scallions, finely chopped (optional) paprika (optional)

m of a pot that is large wiggle room. If you them—they might tead.

classic

&

DRINK $3.60 t o ta l

$ 0 .15 / h a l f e g g

2 tbsp mustard 2 tbsp mayonnaise 2 tbsp water, pickle juice, or lemon juice

ring the pot to a boil As soon as the water is er the pot with a tight

chili and lime

2 tbsp mayonnaise 2 tbsp lime juice 1 jalapeno, finely chopped

Lightly Curried Butternut Squash Soup

pour out the hot water d water. The cold water Squash is almost the perfect vegetable for soup: it’s flavorful and has a you don’t end up with divinely smooth texture when cooked and puréed. Serve this soup to people around who your yolk. think they don’t like squash or

$6 t o ta l $1. 5 0 / s e r v i n g

for four

To prepare the squash, peel off the tough skin with a potato peeler. Cut the squash in half lengthwise with a sharp chef’s knife, then scoop out the seeds and gloop.

(You can save the seeds for a tasty snack later, if you like: just clean the gloop off, then toast them.)

curry, and you’ll change some minds.

You can substitute any winter squash for the butternut; I just like butternut because it’s faster to peel and chop than its many cousins.

own technique, but s the counter to nd until it looks like peel it starting from e egg and set it aside. he eggs.

1 butternut squash or other winter squash 1 tbsp butter

1 medium onion, diced 1 green bell pepper, diced

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 tsp cumin powder 1 tsp coriander powder 1 tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp cayenne pepper 1 can coconut milk 3 cups water

Pop the yolks out and n’t worry if you leave a aside on a plate. salt and pepper optional

sour cream

scallions fresh cilantro

pepper, then add other bowl. Mash with a elatively smooth paste. soup

curried

2 tbsp mayonnaise 2 tbsp water 4 tsp curry powder or 1 tsp each of turmeric, cayenne, coriander, and cumin

Next, slice off the stem and very bottom of the squash and throw them away. Take each half of the squash and place it face-down on a cutting board. Chop each into ½” slices, then turn each slice into cubes.

Put a large pot or Dutch oven on the stove on medium heat. Melt the butter and let the pot get hot. Add the onion, pepper, and garlic, then sauté for two minutes.

ramen

-inspired

2 tbsp mayonnaise 2 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp cup rice vinegar chili sauce

Add the cubed squash and spices and stir it all together.

Put a lid on the pot and let it cook for another two minutes. Add the coconut milk and water and stir.

Bring the soup to a boil, then turn down the heat to low and let it cook for about 30 minutes, or until the squash is tender.

Once the squash is tender, taste the soup and add salt and pepper as needed. Soup usually needs a fair bit of salt, so be generous.

t o m at o

If you have an immersion blender, you can purée the soup in the pot. If you have a normal blender, wait until the soup has cooled before transferring it to the blender.

Purée until smooth, then taste again and add any more salt and pepper it might need.

2 tbsp mayonnaise ¼ cup fresh or canned tomato, finely chopped, or tomato sauce (p. 142)

You can enjoy the soup as-is or serve it with another drizzle of coconut milk or a dollop of sour cream, plus some chopped scallions or cilantro.

soup

40

41

chorizo

2 tbsp mayonnaise 2 tbsp fresh chorizo, cooked 1 tsp paprika

d spoon the yolk the filling high! o a plastic sandwich dwich bag and squeeze

va r i at i o n s

4 slices bread 2 tbsp butter salt and pepper topping fried egg (optional)

any spice combination (p. 166) any vegetable, finely chopped green chili and cheese feta and fresh dill bacon avocado olives

131

Things On Toast

for six

$ 0 . 65 / s e r v i n g

$ 0 . 75 / s e r v i n g

ome paprika for color.

Vegetable Jambalaya

ideas

$ 3 .9 0 t o t a l

$1. 5 0 t o t a l

I love bread, and toast in particular is my comfort food—I crave it when I’m sick or worn down. Here, I would like to suggest that you take some toast and put something tasty on it. That’s it!

Certainly toast can feed a crowd, but I like this meal for times when I’m on my own and want a quick meal or snack. It’s a great way to use leftovers or turn a side dish into a full meal.

What makes this more like a special dinner than a quick snack is the way you treat the bread—toasting it in the pan like a nice piece of fish.

A pile of sautéed or raw veggies over buttered, toasty bread is the perfect meal for one and a great way to try a new vegetable. I’ve suggested a few other toast variations on the following pages, but you can use pretty much any veggie dish from this book or invent your own. Add a fried egg on top if you’re extra hungry.

I don’t make jambalaya exactly the way they do down south, but this vegetableheavy version is faster and just as good—a great, throw-everything-inthe-pot kind of meal. It’s spicy, savory and deeply satisfying. The leftovers are great for making burritos or warmed up with a fried egg on top.

Melt ½ tablespoon of butter in a small pan on medium heat.

Place the two slices of bread in the pan and let them cook for about 2 minutes, then lift them with a spatula to check whether they’re golden brown underneath. When they are, flip ’em over.

Start with the oil in a large high-sided saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, pepper, and celery, then cook for about 5 minutes, until they become translucent but not brown.

Add the rest of the butter to the pan to make sure the second side of the toast becomes just as golden as the first. Sprinkle the top of the bread with salt and pepper. Once the second side is golden, set the bread on a plate to await its topping.

Add the rest of the ingredients except for the rice and broth. Let everything cook for about 1 minute to let some of the tomato juice release.

bat c h e s

For the toppings, you can go raw or, as I most often do, sauté veggies or beans with flavors like garlic and chilies, olives and and dill, ginger and turmeric, or any other classic combination (p. 166).

131

Add the rice and slowly pour in the broth. Reduce the heat to medium and let the dish cook until the rice absorbs all the liquid. It should take about 20 to 25 minutes.

2 tbsp vegetable oil 1 medium onion, chopped 1 green bell pepper, chopped 3 stalks celery, chopped 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped ½ small green chili, finely chopped 2 large tomatoes, chopped 2 bay leaves 1 tsp paprika 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp cayenne pepper ½ tsp dried thyme ½ tsp dried oregano 1 tsp salt 1 tsp pepper 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce ¾ cup long grain rice 3 cups vegetable broth or chicken stock additions

slices of fried sausage shrimp leftover meat, tofu, or beans

If you’re using any of the additions, throw them in at about the 15-minute mark to let them warm up.

Instead of toast, the topping ideas on the next few pages would also be great over rice or any other grain, in a tortilla, tossed with pasta, or even on a pizza. It’s up to you!

bites

dinner

bites

dinner

68

96

69

97

A Good and Cheap New Year

Our Writer Plumbs the Award-Winning Cookbook for Cold Weather Fare

By Cornelius O’Donnell

J

ust before I sat down to write this, I made myself a lunch of a grilled cheese sandwich and a cup of warming tomato soup.

Let’s face it—I needed a break from the culinary excesses of the holiday season. Something like that lunch, or breakfast for dinner (i.e. eggs), is about all I’ve been cooking these days. Perhaps you’re also ready to simplify and slimify. (Is that a word?) I am reminded of all the dips, ribs, dressings, cakes, Christmas cookies, and the like I’ve been sampling the past several weeks. “A minute on the lips, a year on the hips,” they say. Shedding some pounds sounds like a January/February plan. Besides, cooking feasts takes time—and bucks. And I’ll bet you’re as busy as I am opening those ominous envelopes that you know contain the post-holiday bills, so saving on groceries is also a good financial plan.

So, the plan might be to forgo fancy cuts of meat for a while and find dishes that are good and cheap. Hmm, I thought, didn’t I have a cookbook by that name around this joint? I searched and found Leanne Brown’s Good and Cheap, published in 2015 by 36

Workman and a prizewinner to boot. The book fell open to a toasted cheese and tomato soup spread. What a serendipitous moment! I read the recipe (it’s down below a bit) and found it good—easy as well as inexpensive.

Ms. Brown’s book has a subtitle: Eat Well on $4/Day (maybe I could pay off the credit cards, I thought). That’s four bucks per person, of course, and she explains how she came to this figure.

The dollar amount refers to a federal guideline for the program once known as food stamps. In addition, the author emphasizes, her work is “more than a book of recipes, this is a book of ideas.”

I’ll buy that. And to get to the dollar figure—or thereabouts—her dishes focus on vegetables rather than meat.

I sat down, and in a couple of hours I had devoured this userfriendly book. The back cover includes a blurb by the eminent food writer/activist Michael Pollan: “A beautiful book full of recipes that fit a food stamp budget.” I read as well this encomium from Time: “This could change the way you shop, cook, and eat (by) busting up

the myth that eating healthfully entails spending a ton of money.”

Let’s take a closer look.

She Made a Little List(s) Possibly the most important parts of the book are the many full-page lists, ones such as “Groceries You Won’t Regret Buying,” “Supermarket Strategies,” and “17 Tips for Eating and Shopping Well.” Along with most food writers these days, Ms. Brown emphasizes buying and cooking ingredients when they are in season (it’s cheaper that way, and better quality), and includes a handy chart from apples to winter squash.

Then come the recipes, organized by type of meal. In “Breakfasts” she not only gives a basic recipe for oatmeal (so welcome on these cold mornings), but adds nine variations. The apple-cinnamon sounded appealing, and, for the youngster who snarls at the thought of oats, try her chocolate version. You make this by mixing one cup of milk, one cup of water, one tablespoon of cocoa, one tablespoon of sugar, plus a quarter teaspoon of salt.

Prepare all this before adding to a saucepan containing one cup of rolled oats. Stir the whole thing well and then bring it to a boil on medium heat. Immediately turn the heat to low and cover the pan. Cook five minutes or until most of the liquid is evaporated.

The author and I agree: “Who needs Cocoa Puffs?”

And now for that killer lunch (or dinner): The Tomato Soup 1 Tbsp. butter 2 medium onions, chopped 3 or 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped (see my note* below) 2 (28 oz. total) cans of whole tomatoes (such as Hunt’s or Muir Glen) 6 c. low-sodium vegetable broth (Brown says bouillon cubes dissolved in water are okay. I prefer the canned variety.)

Salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste Additions/options: ½ c. heavy cream Leaves from 2 sprigs fresh thyme 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil Zest of 1 lemon (love my Microplane) Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, stir them to coat, then place a lid on the pot and leave it for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and stir the onions. *My note: use the now very available Microplane—a Darth Vader swordlike handled grater—to reduce the garlic to a puree. Watch your fingers. Add the garlic and cover again until the onions are soft and just starting to brown, another 2 minutes. Crumble tomatoes to a puree with your impeccably clean hands (I might add that the author uses a blender or food processor to puree whole tomatoes.).

Add the almost-pureed tomatoes and their liquid plus the vegetable broth to the pot and stir, being sure to scrape any sticky onions off the bottom to keep them from burning. Bring the soup to a boil, then turn it down to low to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. If desired, add the cream, herbs, or lemon zest, if using. For smooth soup use an immersion blender to quickly purée the onions into the tomato mixture. If using a standard blender, wait for the soup to cool before you blend it.

See Good and Cheap on page 38 37

Good and Cheap continued from page 37

The Sandwiches Far be it for me to tell you how to make a toasted cheese sandwich, but, despite the risk of courting ridicule, I’m telling you anyway.

Softened butter, for the bread 10 slices good bread of your choice Dijon mustard (optional but I think essential) 2-½ c. grated cheese (a great use for bits and pieces of leftover holiday cheese) Lay all the bread slices on your counter and then spread the butter on one side of each slice of bread, all the way to the edge.

Flip over 5 of the buttered bread slices on waxed or parchment paper. Top each with mustard and then with approximately 1/2 cup of the cheese. Place the other bread slices butter-side up on top. Heat a frying pan or skillet over medium heat and add the sandwiches. Brown the bread to the lovely golden color that pleases you, and make sure the cheese is nicely melting. That’ll take about 2 minutes. Press down gently on the top of each for even browning. Flip the sandwiches over with a spatula and repeat on the second side.

Once the sandwich is golden and the cheese is melted in the middle, serve it up with the soup. As Ms. Brown says, “Dunking is optional.”

The Egg and You and Toast I just typed that subhead and then I thought “Yikes.” How many remember that 1940s book The Egg and I by Betty White? It’s a charming chronicle of a woman who marries and finds herself on a farm and in the egg business. She would have been appalled by the trials and tribulations of the egg. A few years ago, the nutrition police declared more than a few eggs a week a resounding no-no.

It was too bad, too, because eggs, priced around thirty-three cents each, was a heck of an inexpensive way to pack in the protein. As you might have read, eggs are now back to being shining stars in the diet. I have friends of a certain age bragging that they never listened to the dieticians and ate one or even two almost every day.

Yes, I plead guilty. (“Does egg salad count?” I used to joke.) Turn to page 137 of Brown’s book and learn eight ways to fill deviled eggs (surely one of my favorite foods). I never thought of stuffing the hard-cooked whites with feta and dill, or chili (diced, seeded jalapeno) and lime, nor, minced chorizo sausage and paprika.

Then Brown lists a dozen “Things On Toast.” I started salivating when I got to avocado mashed with chili flakes and a squeeze of lemon, then caramelized onions and cheddar, and sautéed mushrooms and garlic. Only a little more work is the mashed cauliflower, the winter squash puree, or mashed celery root (another big favorite at my place).

I must add that Ms. Brown seems to never have heard of a microwave oven (or even a slow cooker). Personally, I love the microwave, and all of the above mentioned “mashes” are far easier when the vegetable is cut up and steamed in minimal water (for vitamin retention). Hmm. But to be positive, each mash lists many additions you can choose from to make the vegetable more of a meal. I just might add raisins to my squash next time.

More Ideas Another hunger-slaking but non-wallet-emptying food is 38

popcorn. Here again there is a list of great add-ins for basic popped kernels—there’s Parmesan, of course, but add to that crumbled dried oregano. Great. Maybe minced cilantro and scallion for the adventurous?

Back to that wallet. One heavy expense for many people, especially families, is packaged drinks. Agua fresca, Brown’s answer to this, is a concoction of fresh fruit and good spring water.

Refreshing and hydrating and easy on the finances. Again, she gives many ideas for additions and variations. Personally, I haven’t had one of the usual carbonated beverages—with the exception of ginger ale and club soda–in at least fifteen years, and I am still able to talk, move, and take nourishment. I’ve been known to get my bubbles from an Italian wine such as Asti Spumante or the hottest thing around now, Prosecco. Now, that’s different.

Where’s the Beef?

I mentioned when I started this review that the author suggests cutting back on meat, and nowhere in the book is this better illustrated than in the recipe for halfveggie burgers. She uses 3 cups of cooked lentils or beans to 1 pound of ground beef or other ground meat. (I’d love to try this with lamb.) To give more taste she adds a cup of finely chopped bell pepper or other vegetable. (Cooked celery root is what I’m rooting for.) Add an egg if you are grilling this on a—yup—grill. That’ll keep the patties from falling apart. Cook about 5 minutes on each side, whether in a skillet or on the grill. Lay cheese on the patties after flipping them once. Voila—cheeseburgers.

This combination serves about 8.

Vegetable Jambalaya One look at this recipe and I knew I’d be making it. Why? I love the seafood version, why not the veggie? (And seafood can sure be pricey.) Brown has a great description of jambalaya. To her it’s a “throw-everything-in-the-pot, spicy and savory” kind of meal. It reads long but it’s a matter of gathering ingredients and measuring. I couldn’t resist adding some comments of my own.

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil or butter 1 medium-sized onion, chopped 1 green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped 3 stalks of celery, chopped

3 to 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (or pureed with a Microplane) ½ small green chili, finely chopped 2 large tomatoes, chopped (I use canned in winter) 2 bay leaves (make ’em large so you can fish ’em out) 1 tsp. paprika (preferably imported Hungarian) 1 tsp. cayenne pepper ½ tsp. crumpled dried thyme ½ tsp. dried oregano 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce (no soy for me) ¾ c. long-grain rice 2 c. vegetable or chicken broth Salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste Additions/options: slices of fried sausage, shrimp, leftover meat, tofu, or cooked beans Place a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat and add the oil.

After it gets hot, add the onions, bell pepper, and celery (the “blessed trinity” of Southern cookery) and cook for about 5 minutes, until they become translucent but not brown.

Add the garlic, chili, tomatoes, bay leaves, paprika, cayenne, thyme, oregano, and Worcestershire. (A bit of the salt and pepper would not be amiss: taste.)

Let everything cook until some of the tomatoes’ juice releases, about 1 minute.

Add the rice and slowly pour in the broth.

Lower the heat to medium and let the dish cook until the rice absorbs all the liquid, 20 to 25 minutes. (I partially cover the pan with a lid to speed things up. You can always uncover and let the excess liquid float off to wherever steam goes near the end of cooking.) If you are using any of the additions, throw them in to cook with the rice after 15 minutes have passed.

Taste and adjust the salt, pepper, and any other spices. Is this perfect for a wintry evening—or what?

There aren’t many desserts in Good and Cheap, though I’m certain to kick up my next dinner’s taste quotient with Brown’s easy caramelized banana recipe. But it’s time I kicked myself out of these pages.

Keep warm and keep well.

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B A C K O F T H E M O U N TA I N

Cardinal Knowledge

By Tim McBride

P

erhaps I deserved this backyard visitor’s look near the end of a winter’s day. Maybe it was a change or lack of favorite birdseed. But the stare-down was something exceptional. Two older males bonding and sharing each other’s company, Man and Bird together—and Camera.

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Feel right at home at The Laurels.

“We thought we could handle mom on our own, but she was forgetting to take her pills and not eating. She wasn’t safe living alone. We finally called The Laurels. They understood the challenges we were experiencing and offered expert help and care. Not only is she now safe, she is happy living at The Laurels.”

The Laurels believes that providing a premier personal care home experience begins with our people. That’s why our caregivers are not only highly trained professionals, but they are also a joy to be around.

The Laurels is conveniently located in downtown Wellsboro, directly across from Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hospital.

(570) 723-6860 UPMCSusquehanna.org/TheLaurels

Susquehanna Health is now UPMC Susquehanna.

Together means a new level of innovation and advanced care.

At Susquehanna Health, we have a proud history of caring for the community and putting the needs of our patients first. That tradition of service and excellence continues as we merge with UPMC. Our affiliation with UPMC, ranked as one of the best hospitals in the nation, is based on shared values and a mission to provide compassionate, personalized care to the people we serve. Now as UPMC Susquehanna, we are able to bring a new level of innovation and advanced care to you and your family.

For more information, visit UPMCSusquehanna.org

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