Friday June 04, 2010

Carole’s Concoctions:
Close Encounters with Music Gala Reception

Heirloom Meals is catering the Close Encounters with Music patron's reception at the Taggart House in Stockbridge this Saturday and all hands are on deck to help out in the Boulderwood kitchen! In the interest of keeping everyone's imaginations and taste buds happy, we want to share with you our menu for the evening along with some photographs of the Murko gals in action. Carole's mother, Jo, has come up for the weekend to act as our saporous ship's ballast among this sea of cookbooks, recipes, appliances and spatters. Thank you, Jo!

It is our second year hosting the event so some of the recipes are requested repeats and others are delicious newcomers that we hope the guests will enjoy but also inspire our readers to consider as summer hors d'oeuvres for their own gettogethers.

THE Menu (You'll notice that we LOVE our sauces but even though we LOVE Seinfeld too, please no double-dippin'!)

Passsed Hors d'Oeuvres:

Chicken Satay with peanut dipping sauce
Grilled Salmon Skewers with garlic soy dipping sauce
Phyllo Triangles with roasted red peppers and goat cheese
Mushroom Strudel
Dilled Gravlax with Mustard Sauce on Pumpernickel
Miniature Asparagus Risotto Cakes

Camembert Walnut Pastries
Miniature Oriental Chicken Salad Tartlets
Miniature Quesadillas
Skewered Ravioli filled with Mushrooms with lemon dipping sauce

Stationary Hors d'Oeuvres:

Crudite with Tarragon-chive dipping sauce
Asparagus with Wasabi dipping sauce
Endives with Smoked Salmon Mousse
Wedges of assorted Vegetable Frittatas
Mini Orange Muffins with Smoked Turkey
Lahvash Pizza with caramelized onions and goat cheese
Assorted nuts (sweet and savory)
The No-Party-Is-Complete-Without-It Cheese Board with slices of apples and grapes
Crackers and Breads
Lemon cake and assorted cookies and brownies
Dulce De Leche Cheesecakes

If you are curious about any of the recipes let us know and we can send them your way!
Happy Friday!

We would like to think that Uni the guinea hen pecks at the door for a chance to taste some goodies but it's more like our ankles!

Thursday June 03, 2010

Heirloom Breeds & Seeds:
Farmer Val Thursdays!

Farm Girl Farm

The name is so telling. All women. There is chemistry, drama, and mind blowing teamwork. All five from dramatically different backgrounds drawn to one place, thrown together at this point by the Green River under the leadership of the quiet understanding Laura. The restaurant orders are heavy, the sun strong, and the dirt sticky on skin as we strive to get seedlings in the ground and weeds out of it. They're just trying to reestablish equilibrium: there are nutrients in the ground, water in the soil pores, space for roots and leaves. Their seeds are there, waiting to recover the bare ground so prone to erosion, deformation. The root vegetables are the first to come, radish shoulders poking their shoulders through the muck from afternoon showers: "send me to Allium! A salad, a salad, that is where I belong!" Small white turnips, begging to be shined and scrubbed, gleaming like a pale child's cheeks, wishing to be photographed.

The weather has a way of playing with our minds, we are driving to the tilled earth through bright grey-white fog, thicker than our skins, but we do not know that the sun will easily burn through the curtain within an hour and sear our skin more than the previous ninety five degree days. We lay plastic in many beds, creating order out of freshly rough-tilled chaos with stakes, mallets, and string. Squash, cucumbers, and melons will be emerging from the course ground in just a few months. Ollie leaps among the beds, inspiring consternation as he tears up just-done work indeterminately in his dominant pursuit of fun.

We are all thinking and learning as we use our bodies in pursuit of feeding the Berkshires.

--
thou mayest...timshel

Wednesday June 02, 2010

Heirloom Meals Radio:
Madeline Finnerty

Heirloom Meals Radio talks with Madeline Finnerty who shares with us the culinary traditions of 3 generations of women out of Stockbridge, MA. Her interview, memories and recipes truly embody what the Heirloom Meals project is all about as she takes us down food memory lane as a young girl growing up in an Irish/German family in the Berkshires where the power of observation effects her cooking style and know-how today. We will be positing visuals of Madeline's handwritten, heirloom recipes and hopefully some video of her in the kitchen. if you are local and listening, maybe your family story overlaps with Madeline's, in which case please please share! Did you buy fudge at the church bake sale or grow up on Goodrich street too? Let's try and piece together the local Heirloom Meals history of our hometown!

Tuesday June 01, 2010

Life at Boulderwood:
Burtee, our Border Collie

What is black and white, has no tail, and is the king of 80 pasture and forest filled acres of land??
Burtee!
There is no doubt that Boulderwood wouldn't be the same without our miracle Border Collie.

When he was just a young pup he was run over by a car but was nursed back to health by mama Murko and papa Jim. Now, at 5 years old, he welcomes every visitor with boisterous barks and a toothy smile (really!), enjoys hearty homemade turkey and sweet potato dog food, loves a good staring contest and, yes, boasts his own boulder!
There is one thing that Burtee might be longing for though.....sheep. Sorry, Burt. As long as the coyotes are wandering the Berkshires, herding the humans and the chickens will have to suffice.