Sure, my own are fine, but other people's? Other countries? They're great too. 

By Rachel Forrest

Because I have no discernible ethnicity or heritage, (I'm one-fourth Irish so I tend to identify as such but it's a stretch) we don't really have big food or ritual traditions in my family. Around the World Traditions are Great

We had a tree, sure, but the only thing I really remember is when my Great Aunt Dora would ring a little bell on Christmas Eve and my brother and I would come out and open presents. Other than that, we get together at my Mom's house in Pennsylvania (or my aunt's house nearby) and on Christmas Eve we have shrimp cocktail, a big beef tenderloin roast and of course those Company Carrots I keep squawking about. We eat, drink and are merry, but really no big rituals or traditions...

 DECEMBER 17, 2008, NEW YORK, NY — When asked to recall the top food-related stories of 2008, the nation’s food editors focused on issues with global significance. Topping the list was the spike in food prices across the world, followed by the tainted milk scandal in China—a crisis that spanned five continents. Milk

The sixth annual year-end survey was conducted by Hunter Public Relations (www.hunterpr.com), one of the nation’s leading public relations agencies serving the food and beverage industry. Hunter PR reached out to more than 900 food editors and bloggers across the country and asked them to rate the top ten food-related stories of 2008.

The biggest food story of the year was decidedly the rise in food prices around the world.  Countries across the globe faced food crises due to high oil prices, growing demand, lower food reserves and unexpected weather patterns. As a result, the hunger rate grew rapidly, especially in Haiti, Cairo, Niger, Malaysia, Senegal, Indonesia and many Latin American countries. Rice prices hit a record high in Asian countries, and this caused major concern since rice is a staple for the world’s hungry.

Tips on keeping food safe in a power outtageKeep your food safe in a power outage

The power's out so no lights, no hot water, and certainly no cooking, unless you break out the grill. So what happens to all the food thawing and warming up in the fridge? Much of it might not be safe to eat anymore. Here are some tips adapted from the US Department of Agriculture on how to save food in an outtage and how to prepare for next time.

When the power goes out

Keep meat, poultry, fish, and eggs refrigerated at or below 40 °F and frozen food at or below 0 °F. This may be difficult when the power is out.

Two owners looking for financial backers to remain open
 
Rob Levey
yorkweekly@seacoastonline.com
 
YORK : The economic downturn has claimed a business in town, although its owner hopes not forever.Co-owners of Sticks Restaurant Nick Gough and Steve Peckey are hoping to find outside interest in investing in their business.
 
Sticks Restaurant, an increasingly popular family eatery on Route 1, shut its doors the day after Thanksgiving due to financial difficulties, a year almost to the day after opening.

(Read our restaurant review here)
 
Steve Peckey, who owns the restaurant, the building and the property along with fellow Chef-owner Nick Gough, said although they are closed now, he's hopeful they're "not out of the game yet."
 
"We're looking for investors or partners to carry on the premise of the restaurant," Peckey said. "Many seasonal restaurants have closed down and year-round restaurants are closing down early ; it doesn't leave many choices for the consumer in York."...more..

The past few years, my annual post-Thanksgiving "cookbooks to give for the holidays" columns have been filled with all those thick practical recipe-filled books your loved ones will use for decades and those are definitely great ones to give. A Day at el Bulli: I'll never get to dine at this restaurant but I can sure read the book. Sigh.

They're a great value, the recipes are relatively easy and there are plenty of basics in them as well — how to cut up a cow, how to make a béchamel sauce or even a simple stock.

Let me refresh your memory — "The Joy of cooking," 75th edition, "The Gourmet Cookbook," "The Silver Palate," new 25th anniversary edition, "Silver Spoon" (the Italian one) and "1080 Recipes" (the Spanish one) both from Phaidon press. All good, all inexpensive, all a great gift.

But forget practical this holiday season because it's a whole new ballgame out there in cookbook land....more...

Au gratin, my gratin!

By Rachel Forrest
I "cop" to all of my little neuroses. I've identified them, make fun of them, indulge them and I apologize for them.

One of these charming little quirks is having to get to the airport maddeningly early for a flight. "Mom,what time are we getting to the airport? The night BEFORE?" Teen Daughter Avalon will groan. My step-dad, a psychiatrist, calls it fahrflughoffenangst — anxiety about getting to the airport — in Freud's lingo. But that's just one of them.

A few weeks ago the price of lobsters hit a twenty year low, down to  $2.50 a pound in some areas, making  Maine's delicious, local live lobster  even less expensive than bologna. With prices so low, some Maine families have taken to eating lobsters two and three times a week, and many  looking forward to including  the sweet, fresh and easy to prepare seafood on the Thanksgiving table this year.

By Rachel Forrest

The oven is occupied with a 21-pound turkey, the stovetop crowded with pots and pans, and you've still got to bake that pumpkin pie and squash casserole. With sometimes 10 or more dishes to prepare for Thanksgiving, timing is everything to get it all out hot and on time. Turkey Time

When it comes to timing your complex Thanksgiving feast, local experts say stay calm, get organized and don't be overly ambitious.

"My first tip — keep the menu simple," says Susan Tuveson, the owner of Cacao Chocolates in Kittery, Maine, and also a chef who holds classes in her professional kitchen and around the Seacoast.

"Over the years I have pared down the selection of dishes to our absolute favorites, and surprisingly this helped in making it easier to have everything come out at serving time."

Tuveson says that her menu includes a potato, the dressing/stuffing, a green vegetable, the meat selection, a gravy, and cranberry sauce, or sauces, in her case...

40 area farmers and food producers offered their wares to a public hungry for local food at the Holiday Farmers' Market at McIntosh Atlantic Culinary Academy in Dover, NH. From 9am-2pm, customers streamed in and by days' end over 1400 of them went home happy, reusable market bags filled to the brim Joe Marquette of Yellow House Farm Sells Chickenswith seasonal fall vegetables, sustainably raised meats and poultry, eggs, cheese, and a wide assortment of prepared food items.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, the farmers' market  also accepted donations for a local food pantry.  Donations of food or money for the Cornucopia Food Pantry's Baskets of Hope program were  accepted at the market, helping to provide healthy, local food for our neighbors in need. The market bags were lined up awaiting transport to needy families. Baskets of Hope

In response to popular demand, Seacoast Eat Local expanded the series of winter farmers' markets...

There's a new restaurant in town, folks. Cava Tapas and Wine Bar opened on Saturday night with a great looking tapas menu. The space has an upstairs with open kitchen and seats to watch all the action right there and a small bar nearby. There's downstairs seating as well. Chef Gregg Sessler came out from California and joined up with with friend and business partner John Akar who some might recognize from Cava Tapas and Wine BarAgave in Newburyport and Portsmouth, The Oar House and The Beach House. Chef Sessler is a certified sommelier so the wine list should be great and was chef at the critically acclaimed Caprice in Tiberon, CA.

The restaurant, located at 10 Commericial Alley right between Market St. and Penhallow near Corks and Curds, is a great looking little hideaway. Close on Tuesdays, on all other days the tapas bar opens at 3:30 p.m. for traditional Spanish snacks like chorizo and potato and later in the evening look for plenty of small plates like roasted artichoke with serrano ham & romesco and blue fin tuna with olive oil and sea salt. Try more substantial dishes like a paella or seafood stew.  Learn more at http://www.cavatapasandwinebar.com/ 

Cocktail time at Agave Mexican Bistro with LuLu JonesPORTSMOUTH — "We're booked solid on Friday night and we had 100 reserved for Tuesday— 100 on a Tuesday in the middle of November! — I didn't realize we'd get such a response."

That was the happy report from restaurateur Massimo Morgia of Ristorante Massimo, one of 18 restaurants participating in Portsmouth's Restaurant Week organized by the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce. The event began on Monday and continues until Sunday. It offers diners preselected three-course lunches for $16.95 and three-course dinners for $29.95, plus tax and gratuity — and plenty of local and out-of-town food lovers are taking full advantage.

Morgia said about 60 percent of his reservations are coming from people who've never been to the restaurant before, making Restaurant Week a good marketing venture. He is offering dishes like short ribs, osso bucco and purple potato crusted Atlantic salmon over stewed red bell peppers and fennel. <!--break-->

"It's good for people who want to try a different restaurant," he said. "I told (executive chef Jethro Liochle) I don't care what the food cost is, I want to represent the restaurant well."

The strategy is paying off, Morgia said, as he turned the pages of a reservation book crowded with names and times. And while the check total might be lower than usual, the staff's tips are made up in the cost of cocktails, wine and just more business overall in a season when restaurant traffic slows down as did the economy.

"We wouldn't have had this much business at this time, so while they were apprehensive at first, it's more business than they'd see in November."

Restaurant Week organizers Jay McSharry, owner of Jumpin' Jay's in Portsmouth, and Nicki Noble, tourism director for the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, are also overwhelmed by the response.

The restaurants are packed and the waitstaff is very, very busy just a few days into Portsmouth's Restaurant Week which continues until Saturday, November 16. Even the restaurants that serve the three-course lunch for a mere $16.95 are feeling the frenzy of diners streaming in for a great meal at bargain prices. Get this lovely view from the Sheraton Harborside Hotel Dining Room

Get your reservations now. Many restaurants are reporting full dining rooms already and with only four days to go, they'll be turning people away. My delicious strawberry shortcake at The Sheraton HarborsideDon't forget--if you want to dine out on the Restaurant Week menu on Saturday night, you'll need to dine before 6:30 p.m. at all participating restaurants.

Restaurant Week. Day One. Ristorante Massimo is packed with happy diners who can dive into three delicious courses for only $29.95. Massimo Morgia himself sweeps through the romantic dining room greeting new arrivals and chatting up the guests. It's one of the more elegant restaurants in town and to be able to have some of their great cuisine for such a low price, well, that's what Portsmouth's Restaurant Week is all about. And at Ristorante Massimo, you get three choices in each course. Start with Osso Bucco, the braised pork with stewed mire poix, smoked caraway and pine nut risotto, Osso Bucco

Or this decadent minestre, a flaky parmesan profiterole filled with a roasted celery root and white truffle bisque and garnished with parsley oil and roasted tomato. For an entree, try the Salmone del AtlanticoCelery root and white truffle bisque in a parmesan profiterole

Or the Costolette di Manzo Brasato, slow-braised beef short ribs with tourne of potatoes, local grown Meadow's Mirth farm root vegetables and a Chianti braising jus.  The Gnocchi di Zucca is made from localy harvested butternut squash with a ricotta croquette for the vegetarians...

The autumn brews
by Rachel Forrest

"Brewery?"

Ah yes, that single, lovely word Organic Farmer Andy says toward the end of the day after we've both been working so hard — he, out on the farm harvesting squash and oak leaf lettuce or developing Web sites, me at my computer writing, then eating, then writing about eating.

We're hard-working folks who like to get a pint after work and usually we wind up at the Portsmouth Brewery and sip a big glass of IPA and do the New York Times crossword puzzle. Heaven. Our fave, the Hop Harvest, is gone, but there's still the Bottle Rocket IPA and many more new brews to come. More on that later. I have to admit that before I met Andy I wasn't really up on just how great a beer can be, but my eyes have been Tod Mott, Portsmouth Brewery Master Breweropened and I'll sometimes choose beer over wine even when I'm not in a craft brewery. Naturally this has led to trying many kinds of interesting beers, many of them seasonal, and great choices for Thanksgiving and holiday parties.

Some new brews out are from Peak Organic up in Portland, Maine. I had a chance to try their new Espresso Amber Ale and the Maple Oat Ale up in Portland at the Harvest on the Harbor festival and they're both very good. The Espresso Ale is made from a dark Sumatran coffee blend, organic and fair trade of course, roasted by Coffee by Design in Portland and the brew has a toasty character and a touch of sweet malt.Peak Organic Brews: Find it on tap at 11 Water St. and Loaf and Ladle in Exeter and in bottles at Portsmouth Provisions and supermarkets I didn't find the espresso overpowering either, it was interesting and mellow. The Maple Oat Ale is good as well. The organic oats give it a smooth flavor and the maple syrup from Vermont adds a hit of sweet. Have it with your turkey or pumpkin pie. www.peakbrewing.com.

Also new on tap and local is ...

You can have Thanksgiving dinner a few weeks early and celebrate the harvest with Slow Food Seacoast's 3rd Annual 100-mile Thanksgiving Potluck feast.

On Friday evening, November 14th, 2008, Slow Food invites the public to a 100-Mile Thanksgiving Potluck Dinner at the Portsmouth Pearl, 45 Pearl Street, Portsmouth, NH, from 6:00-9:30 PM. Slow Food Seacoast will serve up locally raised roasted turkeys from Kellie Brook Farm in Greenland, NH and present a fun Cranberriesprogram featuring speakers, music, and information from organizations working toward a sustainable, healthy and affordable regional food supply for everyone. 
 
In this "learn by eating" event, participants are invited to bring potluck dishes featuring at least one ingredient grown or raised within 100 miles of home. Guest speakers from farmers to food writers will give short talks on the history and lore of the familiar Turkey Day dinner, and share hints, sources and methods for planning your own hometown harvest celebration. How did the classics - turkey, cranberries, pumpkin pie - end up with a permanent place on our Thanksgiving menus? Why is Thanksgiving a perfect time to celebrate New England agriculture? Where can a home cook find...

Which slice took the whole pie? Competition was as hot as the gooey cheese on top of a wedge of pizza right out of the oven at the Portsmouth Sunrise Rotary Club's 8^th Happy pizza fans: TJ Scott 9, Jason Madeira 9, Allison Madeira 9, and Soleil Gagne 9 all of Portsmouth say “Cheese” for the Best Pizza in Portsmouth Contest sponsored by the Sunrise Rotary Club.Annual Best Pizza in Portsmouth Contest on Sunday, October 19, 2008 at Redhook Brewery.  Seven local pizza establishments competed for the Judges and Peoples Choice Best Pizza. All proceeds from the Pizza Contest are used for community service projects by the Portsmouth Sunrise Rotary Club. 

The Judges awards went to:

Best Cheese Pizza: Gas Light
Best Crust: Bratskellar
Best Specialty Pizza: Portsmouth Pizza Factory
Best Cold Pizza: Bread Box
Best Booth: Bread Box

The coveted Peoples Choice Award (from ballets cast by attendees):
Best Cheese Pizza: Joe's NY
Best Specialty: Joe's NY

Sunrise Rotary Club meets Thursday at 7:30 am at the Gas Light.

The underwater gourmet
Submarine crew learns from top local chefs

Some chefs make submarines — sandwiches, that is — and some chefs work in submarines, and on Wednesday, some chefs made strombolis in a submarine.

Culinary specialist Brian McNulty, who is on the team that creates breakfast, lunch and dinner for the crew of 150 aboard the submarine New Hampshire, expanded his culinary repertoire with tips from chefs Chris Souder of Enoteca Italiana in Kittery and executive chef Dan Dumont from Wentworth by the Sea Hotel and Spa in New Castle, N.H.

Souder, who specializes in Italian fare, found the experience to be quite a challenge.

                  Four Days left until Portsmouth Restaurant Week Begins!                             
 Finding out there's no cashola at the end of the month for one of your favorite activities--dining out? Well, from November 10-16 you'll have the opportunity to try a full three course lunch or dinner at 18 of the Restaurant WeekSeacoast's best restaurants. Cheap. Portsmouth area restaurant owners have joined together with the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce for a collaborative culinary event: Restaurant Week Portsmouth, November 10-16, 2008. The event will highlight the Portsmouth area’s draw as a culinary destination. With 252 restaurants in Portsmouth alone, combined with a vibrant arts and cultural scene, Restaurant Week Portsmouth will showcase this small “foodie” haven (population 21,000) with one of the highest concentrations of restaurants per-capita in the nation. But you'd better get crackin' because according to Nicki Noble at the Chamber, reservations are already pouring in.

Restaurant Week Portsmouth will feature three-course prix fixe menus: $16.95 per person for lunch and $29.95 per person for dinner (does not include beverages, taxes or gratuity). Reservations are recommended, but not required. To book reservations, diners must contact the individual restaurant(s) of their choice. And the menus are looking very, very good...

Uncorked 101: Wake up and smell the wine

By Rachel Forrest

"I want to hear you sniff!" Yes, that was our order from Carla Snow, certified specialist of wine, as we thrust our noses into a rich, red Merlot from California. I'm taking a series of classes--  Uncorked 101--  to brush up on my wine knowledge and we've just gone over the California wine regions. An acre of Napa Valley Carla Snow: When she tells you to sniff, you sniffprime wine land is only $305 million. Get out the check book. So, we have our noses in the wine and we're trying to come up with just the right words to describe what we're experiencing. But why? Why don't we just taste it?

Well, the nose is much more sensitive than the taste buds you've inundated with potato chips and vodka over the years and what you smell in a wine will tell you more about the taste and flavor nuances before your lips reach the glass. As we sniffed away, Carla was making little noises of appreciation or rejection  I couldn't tell which was which  but no clues as to what we should be detecting. Much of it's subjective of course, but some of what we detect might save us from doing the unthinkable  drinking bad wine...

Elegant dishes and vibrant flavors at Four

Perusing the menu on the door of Four, the new restaurant on State Street won't tell you much. It might list merely "halibut" and in that case you'd have no idea that the fresh white fish comes with a delicate orange beurre blanc or that the roasted chicken confit is cooked in duck fat, making the skin all crispy.

All of that is revealed by the staff who'll tell you all about each dish in mouth-watering detail like a bit of culinary performance art — including the way some of the steaks are cooked in the wood-burning oven, hence the name "Four," the word for oven in French. Four: Steakhouse, Bistro, Yum

Four is part steakhouse, part bistro, a small spot with a decidedly neighborhood vibe. It is the result of what seemed to many who watched its progress, months and months of plenty of blood, sweat and tears on the part of chef/owner Simon Lampert and manager/owner Bryan Dagostino. I have to say it was all worth it because the pair have created a little gem with great food and a spirit that thrums through the restaurant....