Huge Shoppers Weekend in North Conway

November 11 - 13: Bring A Friend Shopping Weekend at Settlers' Green Outlet Village Plus -
There will be plenty of giveaways, prizes, and fun activities to make shopping fun this weekend. Extended hours of shopping from 8 am to 9 pm except Sunday 9 am to 6 pm. This is the sale you wait for! Sign up early this year for access to the VIP Tent. Free shopping bags loaded with discount coupons and gifts to the first 1000 shoppers. Gift with purchase on Sunday & Monday.


Each year several women's shoppers groups return to the Buttonwood Inn on the second weekend in November to take advantage of the great sales at Settlers Green Outlet Stores.  This Friday and Saturday, we will have 22 women shoppers in the inn where they'll wrap their Holiday gifts in the Mt. Surprise Room and then have their annual Saturday night party!

Tomatoes, tomatoes, and more tomatoes!

Finally after two summers of trying to grow a vegetable garden with fresh tomatoes, we're successful this summer.  Due mainly to the dry and hot summer weather we've been experiencing, the tomatoes are thriving and continue to ripen.  I made my first batch of tomato sauce two days ago and added my homemade Italian sausage to it.  Yum!!!

We are growing plum tomatoes (in addition to heirlooms and beefsteaks) which are ideal for make tomato sauce.  But when they come off the vine and as we become busier with guests staying at our inn, I'll just wash them and throw them in freezer bags and freeze them whole until I'm ready to make sauce.  As an alternative to a laborious canning process, the defrosted tomatoes are soft but retain their flavor and juices and the skins just peel off.  Put them in the food processor, then the pot to make Italian tomato sauce.  How easy is that...

Here's a recipe for my homemade Italian sauce.  Enjoy!

Italian Sauce

2 28-oz. cans of Cento San Marzano plum tomatoes or 20-24 fresh plum tomatoes

1 6-oz. can of Cento tomato paste

10 cloves of garlic, sliced or minced

8-10 basil leaves, sliced

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Saute garlic in olive in a large pot until tender, but not browned, for a couple of minutes; then add basil.  Process plum tomatoes in a food processor until pureed and add to garlic and basil mixture and simmer for half an hour.  Add cooked meatballs and simmer for another 30 minutes.  Serve over your favorite cooked pasta.

New Adirondack Chairs and Benches at The Buttonwood

Ever since we bought our first two sets of double Adirondack chairs with a built in table for the front of our property, we've longed to purchase more for the back of our property to take in the mountain views and animal sounds from the forest.  

This summer we purchased another double Adirondack chair, a large single chair, and a bench which we placed in our back garden above the pool area.  These chairs are solid and comfortable and made from cedar, so they'll last a long time.  Robin and Rob make these chairs and seem to always be in production throughout the year, since they're so popular.  Check out their website for more info. on their product line.

Scenic Chair Lift at Bretton Woods

Yesterday, Bill and I seized the moment on a glorious late summer afternoon and drove up to Bretton Woods to ride up the mountain on the ski chair lift.  Not a cloud in the blue sky, just a nice cool breeze as we took in the beautiful expanse of the Presidentials.  You can have lunch at the top in their restaurant and linger as long as you would like just enjoying the view.

Buttonwood Cookie Recipe Featured in "Family Travel Guides Newsletter"

If you like cookies as much as "Cookie Monster" on "Sesame Street," then try our Buttonwood recipe for Maple Pecan Shortbread Cookies recently published in the "Family Travel Guides Newsletter."  Enjoy!


http://www.familytravelguides.com/newsletter/2010/aug.10.html

Homemade Italian Sausage--So Easy!

I've been using my sausage machine with wanton abandon lately, making breakfast sausage and now Italian sausage.  It's amazingly simple, but a little time-consuming because you do have to cut up the pork into small cubes to prepare it for the sausage machine.


The result is amazingly tender and flavorful sausage with just a few seasonings and fennel seeds.  Here's the recipe:


Italian Sausage


2 pounds of boneless pork butt, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1-1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds
1-1/4 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley 


Toast fennel seeds in pan on stove for about 3 minutes until fragrant and slightly browned.  Remove from pan and place on dish to cool.  Then pulverize them in a mortar and pestle or grind them in a spice grinder.  Combine the fennel seeds in a medium bowl with the salt, pepper, and chopped parsley; then add the diced pork and mix.  Refrigerate covered for 1 hour; remove and put through the sausage grinder.  Make patties or cook as small chunks in any recipe that incorporates Italian sausage.


Note:  I'm not partial to sausage links since I don't like the casing, so I just use the bulk sausage in pasta recipes or sauce.

Cranmore Summer Concerts

If you happen to be traveling to North Conway and plan to stay at The Buttonwood Inn, you may want to take in a concert on a Thursday or Friday evening at Cranmore Mountain Resort during their Summer Concert series in July and August.  Cranmore is located about 1 mile down Kearsarge Road from the inn.


This Friday, July 23, you can see "Assembly of Dust" with special guest "The Brew"--doors open at 5:00 pm and music is from 6:00-10:00 pm.


Tickets are $19 in advance or $25 at the door--purchase by phone at 1-800-706-0432 ext. 230 or on-line at http://www.cranmore.com/#

Wednesdays at Wildcat

From July 7 through August 25 from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon, Wildcat is hosting free, except for the cost of a gondola ride on some outdoor excursions, with a naturalist from Tin Mountain Conservation Center.  You will learn about the flora and fauna (including moose) of the alpine environment in the Presidential Range.


All you need to do is show up at the Wildcat Ski Lodge around 9:45 am to join in on this educational and fun activity.

"The inn thing was a pleasant surprise"--nashua telegraph.com

Recently, Richard Learned and his wife, Jan, stayed with us at The Buttonwood Inn.  Bill and I very much enjoyed their visit to the inn.  It's alway fascinating learning about folks from the "greatest generation" and listening to their stories.  Our parents were from this era too and it brings back fond memories of their experiences.

Richard is a writer of books and a weekly column for the Sunday Nashua Telegraph.  Surprisingly, he was interested in interviewing us for an upcoming article about in-state (NH) vacations as an alternative to more expensive lengthier vacations taken by most people pre-Great Recession.

Bird watching at the Buttonwood

Just four years ago, it was determined that in the U.S. there were 3,000,000 dedicated bird watchers.  Bill and I have been fascinated for years watching birds.  


As a result, we put out feeders with bird seed all year round and hummingbird feeders in the spring and summer.  Bill makes the sugar syrup with a ratio of 3 cups of water brought to a simmer, then stir in 1 cup of sugar until dissolved; let solution cool completely before adding to the feeder.   

On occasion the hummingbird feeders have attracted a bear, which soon learned that in trying to drink the syrup, it didn't get any "bear candy" because he drained it onto the ground when knocking off the bottom of the feeder.  Last time that happened, our guests were very amused and privileged to see a young bear on our front porch and captured the event on film.

In our New Hampshire location, we are amused by hummingbirds throughout the day from May until early September when they fly off to South America for the winter.  We've seen countless other types of birds from piliated woodpeckers to Cooper's hawks.  When you come to The Buttonwood Inn, you can view a video in the Mt. Surprise Room of our wonderous nature, both fauna and flora.

Time to harvest the rhubarb and make cake!

Time to harvest the rhubarb this weekend.  I usually get about 70-80 stalks from the two plants growing in the yard behind the inn.  It seems every other neighbor grows rhubarb up here in New Hampshire, since it's a cool season, perennial plant.


I clean it and slice it up in the food processor and freeze it in separate plastic bags to use in my Honey Rhubarb Walnut Bread.  But I wanted to try a dessert recipe for Memorial Day as we had friends over for a barbecue.  Here's a wonderful recipe for Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake that is packed with flavor due to the tart, yet sweet, flavor of the rhubarb accented with orange zest on top of a dense, buttery cake.

RHUBARB UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE              Yield:  1 10-inch Round Cake, Serves 10

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a 10-inch round cake pan and dot with 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, cut up into small pieces.

Crumb Topping

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

½ cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon Kosher salt

Mix together until moist and crumbly, and put aside.

Rhubarb

1 pound rhubarb sliced sharply on the diagonal ½-inch thick

¾ cup sugar

Toss rhubarb with sugar and let stand a few minutes, then toss again.

Cake

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

½ teaspoon finely grated orange zest

1 tablespoon of orange juice

2 large eggs

1 cup sour cream

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Beat remaining stick butter and cup sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in zest and juice. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream, until smooth. Spread rhubarb evenly in the baking pan over the dotted butter. Then spread cake batter over the rhubarb and crumble topping evenly over batter.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Buttonwood Memorial Weekend Events and Special Deal

Check out our Memorial Weekend Events and Special Deal in honor of our U.S. active duty Armed Forces and veterans at the Buttonwood Inn located on our home page!

http://buttonwoodinnspecials.blogspot.com/

Alliums first to bloom...

The alliums are the first to bloom among the native New Hampshire spectacular beauty, the lupine, in our backyard garden. An allium is a unique, single stalked flower that towers  3-4 feet above the other flowers with a globe-shaped spikey flower, which is still attractive after it's dried.  Alliums are deer resistant and are planted from bulbs in the Fall. 


Lupines grow among each other in home gardens and in fields across New Hampshire.  We even have a June Lupine Festival in their honor when they bloom in various shades of purple, pink, and white. 


A few years ago, when we first bought the Buttonwood Inn, we had about two to three plants--now we have more than a dozen along the pool fence in the back yard and quite a few more in the various gardens around the inn.  I've transplanted a few after they bloom where they've spread their seeds in the garden.  The suggested way to grow lupines is to harvest their seeds in the early Autumn, dry them, and plant them the next Spring.  Aside from their beautiful conical-shaped summer blooms, lupines are hardy, deer resistant, and require little care.

Going organic—planting a garden…

Now that the snow has melted and the weather is a balmy 80 degrees (Yikes!) here in North Conway, NH, it’s time to start the vegetable seedlings in the egg cartons and place them in the sunny windows in the inn. We’ll expand our NH garden to nearly twice the size this year and place some vegetable and herbs in between the flowers too.



The rhubarb is growing and I should be able to harvest it by the end of May. As usual, I will make Honey Rhubarb bread as a starter for breakfast, which is a favorite of our guests. Here’s an interesting recipe for an Upside Down Rhubarb Cake from the Martha Stewart website.

Do you know the source of the food that is on your plate?

In a recent PBS, P.O.V. broadcast of the 2010 Oscar nominated documentary entitled, Food, Inc., the filmmaker, Robert Kenner, shows that the food we eat in America is not generated on small farms any longer. Over the past few decades, small farms have been eliminated and now a few major corporations provide our food. It’s a highly mechanized process dictating how the animals are raised in the most inhumane conditions. Cattle, pigs, and chickens no longer graze in green pastures eating grass or grain, but exist in large feed lots crammed next to each other steeped in their own excrement. To control disease, the animals are given antibiotics in their corn feed, but more strains of E. coli have developed affecting 73,000 Americans annually.

You can also read the article, "Getting Real About the High Price of Food," in Time magazine by Bryan Walsh.

We do have a choice, however, to eat organically raised animals, vegetables, and fruits though a little higher in cost. In fact, here in New England, there are many small, family-owned organic farms going back to the natural way of raising animals in pastures feeding on grass and grains. Bill and I just ordered a quarter of grass-fed beef that will rotate feeding on grass in the open pasture, which turns out to be economical and ensures a safe food source.

New Buttonwood Inn outdoor experience!

Over the past month, Bill and I have been working in the inn “yard” raking leaves, cutting down trees for next winter’s firewood, and cleaning out flower gardens. Yesterday we found a treasure trove of rocks in the forest to create a fire pit ring for our Chiminea stove. This new addition to the backyard will serve two purposes: we can burn the tree branches and sticks that land on the property and, more importantly, enjoy relaxing with a beverage of choice sitting around the fire after a long day’s work.



In the summer, our guests can also enjoy this experience conversing with other guests or looking up at the constellations in our glorious New Hampshire night sky.  Big kids and little kids of all ages can toast marshmallows over the fire too. You’ll enjoy the best of both worlds, staying in the comfort of our inn while experiencing the outdoor fun of a camping evening.

Only microsculptor in the world

If you saw this past CBS Sunday Morning show, you would have been impressed, as I was, by the microsculptor, Willard Wigan, from Birmingham, England.  He is currently showing his minute sculptures of people through microscopes.  For example, he sculpted Charlie Chaplin on the end of a human eyelash using a microscope to create it.  Wigan, currently, is the only artist in the world who does microscopic sculpting and strives to make even tinier sculptures.  He is now introducing his works in the US market which go for over a $100,000 for each sculpture and is exhibiting in the Atlanta Art Gallery.

New Hampshire also has many artists, including talented photographers, across the state who mainly capture the surrounding natural beauty of the White Mountains, rivers, lakes, and countryside.  It's not an uncommon sight to see them sketching or photographing The Presidentials on the White Mountain Highway in North Conway.  Some of these artistic works can be viewed in the White Mountain Artisans Gallery, The Underground Gallery, or the Mt. Washington Valley Visual Arts Center, to name a few.  

In fact, we are displaying and selling several photographs of the Mt. Washington Valley area taken by a guest from California, Jeffrey Aiello, who stayed during Fall Foliage.  If you visit The Buttonwood Inn, you can view or purchase his work from us or go directly to his website, Jeffrey Aiello Photography, and look in the Portfolio for New England.

Interesting neighbors on Mt. Surprise

Bill and I plan to "escape" from the inn this evening to attend a slideshow and talk, "Lost on Everest:  An Evening with Thom Pollard."  We've had our neighbors and friends, Thom, Kristen, and their boys, Will and Sam, over for dinner and always enjoy hearing about his recent filming adventures all over the world.  Now we'll see Thom "in action" professionally this evening.

The talk at Kennett High School is about Thom's 1999 PBS Nova and BBC expedtion with a filming crew that climbed Mt. Everest in search of two climbers, George Mallory and Sandy Irving, who were trying to reach the summit in June 1929.  Thom and his crew found Mallory's body on May 1, 1999.   In an effort to solve the mystery of whether Mallory and Irving made it to the top of Everest, Thom and his crew plan to go back next year to find Irving's body and Mallory's camera which would produce evidence if either reached the summit.  You can read more about this interesting adventure in today's article on page 14 of the Conway Daily Sun. 

Chocolate Lovers Festival Weekend

If you enjoy chocolate as much as I do and most of our guests who stayed with us for the 21st Annual Chocolate Festival on February 28, 2010, you may want to plan ahead and come for the last Sunday in February 2011.  Aside from the delectable chocolate goodies provided by various inns and retail stores, the Mt. Washington Valley Ski Touring & Snowshoe Foundation added an additional incentive for participants--a chance to win a $200 gift certificate good towars a stay at any one of the participating inns or towards a purchase at any of the participating stores.  When you book this Chocolate Festival package at The Buttonwood, it also includes your event passes.

My chocolate treat was a Triple Chocolate Cookie--recipe follows:

Recipe: TRIPLE CHOCOLATE COOKIES Yield: 2 dozen


Ingredients:


¼ cup butter, softened


½ cup dark brown sugar


¼ cup granulated sugar


¼ cup canola oil


1 egg


1 teaspoon vanilla


½ cup all-purpose flour


½ cup whole wheat flour


¼ cup cocoa powder


¼ teaspoon salt


1/3 cup coarsely chopped dark chocolate


1/3 cup coarsely chopped milk chocolate


2/3 cup chopped pecans


Baking Process:


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars. Add the oil and egg and beat until creamy; then mix in the vanilla. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, cocoa, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Stir in the dark and milk chocolates and pecans, mixing well. Scoop a tablespoon of the batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 12 minutes.

HAPPY BAKING!--  Paula

The Saints are no longer the "Aints"

I realize I’m a few days late in writing about this year’s most exciting Super Bowl, but it’s probably still in the minds of many New Orleans inhabitants. The Saints can no longer be nicknamed the “Aints” because they finally got into the Super Bowl and won it for the first time since it began in 1967.



Do you know which East Coast team won the most Super Bowl titles since then? No, it’s not the Patriots, but they do reign from the state that begins with a “P” (see answer below).


The real reason I’m writing my Blog today is not about the sport of football, of which I know little about, but to inform you of the favorite menu item I served at our Super Bowl Party. Bill likes to have friends over to watch the game; I’m more interested in preparing the food creating different menus each year.


Aside from a creamy baked macaroni and cheese with a crunchy bacon topping, I made barbecue pulled pork sandwiches—the “hands down” favorite. The recipe takes a long time to braise in the crock pot, but is easy. I made a simple rub of 3 ingredients to cover the entire pork shoulder roast and put it in the crock pot with onions and water to braise before I went to bed. On Sunday morning during breakfast, our guests asked what was cooking aside from the usual breakfast smells. Bill told them I cooked barbecue pulled pork during the night for our Super Bowl Party.


Recipe: BARBECUE PULLED PORK SANDWICHES                         
Yield: About 15 sandwiches


Ingredients:


4 pound pork shoulder roast


3 onions, sliced thick


For pork dry rub:


1/3 cup paprika


3 tablespoons brown sugar


1 tablespoon onion powder


Mix pork dry rub ingredients together and rub it all over the pork roast, cover with plastic wrap and let sit in the refrigerator for 8 hours. Meanwhile prepare the barbecue sauce.


For barbecue sauce:


2 cups catsup


1 cup water


½ cup apple cider vinegar


5 tablespoons brown sugar


1 tablespoon lemon juice


1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce


½ tablespoon ground black pepper


½ tablespoon ground mustard


½ tablespoon onion powder


In a medium sauce, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer 1 hour, stirring frequently, until reduced and thickened becoming more flavorful. Cool sauce in a bowl, cover, and refrigerate while pork roast is marinating in the dry rub.


Braising Process:
After 8 hours, remove the pork shoulder roast from refrigerator and put in a crock pot. Cover it with sliced onions and water, put the lid on and set the crock pot time for 8 hours on low and let it cook overnight. In the morning, remove the roast; throw away the onions, grease, and water. After the roast has cooled, remove the outside fat layer and discard. Pull the pork apart with a fork or your fingers. Clean out the crock pot; put the pulled pork and barbecue sauce in it and cook on low for another 1-2 hours before serving. Serve on your favorite bun.


                                  Answer: Pittsburg Steelers