Canterbury Country Store

Special post; Hors d’oeuvres and cocktails

Our tastebuds are tingling around here as we are mixing up new flavors for the holidays. We thought you might enjoy a few recipes to start your Thanksgiving celebration using some of our hard-to-find special products.

An hors d’oeuvre is a snack that is served alone usually with beverages. In french, the term literally means “outside the work” meaning it is not part of the courses in a meal. An appetizer is part of the meal as a first course to whet the appetite. In our household it was a tradition on Friday nights that our entire meal was hors d’oeuvres. But we weren’t that fancy to call them that; it was simply a Snicky Snacky dinner with an assortment of yummy, tasty bites.

One our all time favorites this time of year is our homemade spiced chutney poured over soft cheese, served up in goey globs over crackers. It is a fruit and cheese platter all in one. I made some cranberry orange chutney for you and it is in the back cooler along side some very lovely soft cheeses. Plain ol’ cream cheese works too but we love the tang of the vinegar in the chutney against the aged tang of a good soft cheese.

You may have figured out from my last post that I do love using condiments in different way than they were intended. Our organic olive spread and organic artichoke spread is delicious as-is piled onto crackers but another use for it is to create an appetizer (or hors d’oeuvre or Snicky Snack) using phyllo dough or even a very short biscuit dough. Roll out the dough into a rectangle then spread with either or both, sprinkle with grated cheese and roll it up into a log. Cut into 1/2” slices and bake according to the dough directions. Serve with a dipping sauce; pureed roasted red peppers, tomato jam, hot pepper jelly….you get the idea. Serve with a nice dry white wine.

We are assembling a few hors d’oeuvres/snicky snacks for you too. A fresh mozzarella flower marinated in 18 year old balsamic vinegar, good olive oil, fresh rosemary, orange peel, with a dash of garlic and sea salt. Serve each “petal” on a plate drizzled with the marinade. Eat with a tiny fork or tooth pick along side some warmed bread or simple crackers.

We love cocktails this time of year so we have fun playing with flavors. And not always do our cocktails contain alcohol. We have always been a fan of St. Germain Elderflower liqueur but it does contain alcohol. The store carries an alcohol-free Elderflower syrup so you can get the same taste with or without alcohol in a cocktail.

Sage and Elderflower cocktail

Take one to two rinsed sage leaves [we have them free of charge in our cooler if you need some] and crush them by twisting the leaf back and forth; place in the bottom of a glass. Add 1/2oz (1T) elderflower syrup into the glass, add 1oz vodka if desired, add 4oz club soda and stir gently. Fill the glass with ice. This is very refreshing!

We hope you have a happy thanksgiving and look for our Friday Feeding post in a few days.

Warmly, Jane and Dave

the Friday Feeding; VOL. 6

Tis the season, isn’t it? For parties, and food, and friends. It’s our aim to keep you covered here at the store. Our cases are now filling up with take-home appetizers and sides and sauces to help you make a party or keep you sustained as you race through the holiday season.

It’s Friday night pizza again. See the bottom of the post for ordering. AND – great news – as soon as our boxes arrive, we will be stocking the cooler with take-n-bake versions all week long.

A new season starting means that the previous one has ended. Our local farmers are done now with greens and veggies. But we have a source for really high quality greens grown in hot houses north of us that will keep us going here all winter. We would like your feed back though for other types of vegetables. We can stock them but we need to know what your preferences are. Local? Organic? Please give us your feedback.

And we want to be long on treats for you… look for new holiday bakes in our cases and shelves. And we have goodies that other sweet artisans make.

After a long wait with suppliers we were able to get your special beers. They’re here now…

Our newest art show opened this week. WOW. We have some amazing artists around. Come see it in the Feed Loft and mark your calendars for a reception to meet the artists, Thursday November 30 5-7pm. Refreshments and tastings will be served.

a word about stuffing…

We all are going to make it this week and what we call stuffing is as varied as we are. Originally a mixture to place inside of poultry or even rolled up meat, it now has come to mean a side dish which is how we like it, baked and crispy on the edges. My mother-in-law made her mothers “stuffing” with ground beef and mashed potatoes mixed together served outside the turkey. My mothers stuffing was Pepperidge Farms box mix served inside the bird.

Daves and my stuffings have varied over the years as we tried new ingredients and new flavors; toasted sour dough with wild mushrooms and leeks, toasted sweet bread with chestnuts, cherries and walnuts… its all so good. Here is a recipe made a little more simple by using our maple corn bread mix. Inspired by the corn bread at Rutherford Grill in Napa Valley, CA, our mix uses several textures of corn and high heat to yield a crispy-on-the-edge but moist inside loaf. It took dozens of trials to get it just right.

Make a pan of our corn bread mix (either the classic version or the ancient grain version). Once it has cooled down so you can handle it, cut it into cubes, spread them onto a baking sheet and pop them back into the already hot oven and bake until browned and hard, 20-30 minutes.

In a large pot melt one stick of butter (that’s a lot but the bread soaks it up). Once melted add and sauté on low for 5 minutes:

one medium sized onion, diced
One celery root bulb OR 5 stocks of celery; cut into 3/8″ pieces
1 T finely chopped fresh sage – we have it at the store from our own organic gardens.

With the heat still on add:

3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
all the toasted corn bread.

Turn off heat and toss everything together. Scoop this wet mess into a well buttered 9×13″ pan and bake at 375 for 35 minutes until browned. YUM.

Back to pizza…

Call ahead and order your choice and pick a time slot to pick it up. These are 12″ pizzas for $15.95. 603-783-9933 This weeks choices are:

Prosciutto Ham, green peppers and cheese with red sauce OR
Broken Meatballs with extra parmesan cheese with red sauce OR
Orange zest Fig, gorgonzola and honey with olive oil (no garlic) OR
Cheese only upon request. We are happy to substitute Portobello mushroom instead of any meat…just ask.

SPECIAL ORDER BIG GREEN SALAD; serves 2-4 $9.95 Mixed greens, shaved fennel & parmesan, tomatoes, Kalamata Greek olives, Italian dressing

Have a good week and happy Thanksgiving!

Jane and Dave

Click here to see this weeks menu…

the Friday Feeding; VOL. 5

Welcome first snow! And let us welcome you into the store this week-end with warm food and festivity.

Friday night pizza is back! See the bottom of this post for how to pre-order yours for pick up or stay and eat it here if you like. Dave has some great choices this week…YUM. And while you are across the road for the indoor Holiday Farmers Market on Saturday, stop in for some freshly made seafood chowder and see our own artisan’s holiday wares.

Thank you to everyone who came out last week-end for our grand opening celebration. We had fun meeting the artists in our art show (closing this week-end; new show “What is a Holiday” opening Tuesday), we had fun tasting and fun catching up with friends.

Now that we are ready and set…

…we are excited to build on our breakfast, lunch and bakery offerings that you have embraced with gusto. You have fulfilled our vision for the store as a place to eat and meet so we want to go deeper into that. Beginning this week we will be filling our cases with more mid-day variety, side dishes and holiday specials which means scaling back a bit on our end-of-the-day larger entree offerings. We see your stop-in shopping patterns so want to meet those needs.

It was always our mission to teach you how to create your own meals quickly. In case you missed the mini-cooking-lessons last week, here is a recipe for making something delicious in seconds with what you have in your cupboard.

In a sauce pan or microwaveable cup, mix together the following and heat until bubbling then keep cooking until the sauce is reduced by half. *

2T grainy or specialty mustard. Blackwater’s cranberry mustard is perfect this time of year. We have it in stock now.
1/2 tsp granulated onion powder
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 cup apple cider. * You can skip the need to reduce the sauce by half and instead use 1/2 cup of Boiled Apple Cider on our shelves right now.

Serve this sauce over any vegetables or protein or over our Meals in a Minute Hearty Stew mix. Dinner is served in 15 minutes.

FRIDAY NIGHT PIZZA. Order ahead 12” pizzas to take out or sit down and eat here. Call to order and choose a time slot. 603-783-9933

Choices are:

red sauce with pepperoni and cheese.
red sauce with pineapple, onion and green peppers
olive oil (no garlic) with fig, gorgonzola cheese and a honey drizzle

Thanks for reading and have a great week,

Dave and Jane

Click here for this weeks menu

the Friday Feeding; VOL. 4

It’s another big week-end here at the store as we celebrate opening our doors with a Grand Opening event! We have worked out most of the bugs in the last 5 weeks so want to thank you for coming in and dance a little happy dance with a big party! Here is what we have planned…

Friday night 5-7pm

Let’s celebrate the artists who submitted their work to hang in the community art gallery at The Feed Loft. This is our very first show entitled “What Lurks in the Woods”. It’s a beautiful selection of diverse works. Meet them and enjoy wine tasting of some of our favorites PLUS try some of our special cheeses.

Saturday 7am – 6pm

Sample food & drink all day long; our Meals-in-a-Minute Hearty Stew mix with beef pepperoni, sweet baked bites, Naomi’s mulled apple cider, Naomi’s garlic dip, specialty drizzling syrups and other goodies.

From noon to 2:00 enjoy the music of Celtic Joy, Jacqueline Laughman and her friends will fiddle us happy.

And the Feed Loft is open for sitting and eating and visiting while all this is going on.

Sunday 9am – 4pm

Food samples all day. Noon: the Hummus Taste Off…what is your favorite style of our own slow-cooked hummus. And learn about the many types of garlic that go into hummus, grown right here in Canterbury by Grateful Garlic. At 2:00 join Jane in the back kitchen area to learn a bit about cooking with condiments. Get some tips and some recipes to discover that your refrigerator may already hold some gourmet meals during this informal discussion.

We want to take this opportunity to publicly thank and bid a warm farewell to Silvia who helped us behind the scenes the last 7 weeks to get us up and running here at the store. Her work here is done and she is returning to her normal life. She is remarkable and we love ya gal!

Our special Sue that keeps us running smoothly

A feast for your eyes; Lorrie Carey’s beautiful flowers from Marshall’s Florist and Gifts brought to us every week for you to take home.

There has been quite a bit of discussion about scones over our counter. You like how we make them and have confessed that you have not had the same success. Here are some tips for making pastry in general.

Time. To make good pastry it takes time. No rushing, no shortcuts, patience. For a roll-out pie dough the gluten needs to develop in order for the crust to hold together so your finished dough needs to rest for at least 30 minutes before rolling out. To make scones, I use 3 steps of cutting in butter, flattening each piece of butter and gently folding in each ingredient; patience.

Temperature. All your wet ingredients need to be ice cold. It’s hard to make pastry in the summer unless you are in a chilly air conditioned environment; in the winter it’s easier. Stone counter tops aid in pastry making because they help hold the chill. But handling the dough too much with your hands warms it up. I really like using tools and only finishing with my gloved hands to keep it all cool.

Texture. Your finished dough should look and initially feel dry and grainy with chunks of fat/butter etc. When you are pulling the dough together with your hands, their slight warmth melts the butter so the dough will come together and not be grainy any longer. Remember, though, still seeing chunks of fat is a good thing. When the hot oven melts those chunks, it forces the gluten apart into layers and that is what makes a flaky crust. Most people make the mistake of adding too much liquid to their dough and it is this that makes it cardboard-like.

We thank you for reading this week and click here for the weekly menu.

See you this week-end we hope,

Dave and Jane

the Friday Feeding; VOL 3

There is a lot happening this week-end around the store and it starts here tonight with Friday night pizza! You have been waiting for this we know and Dave is ready to go.

Here is how it works for now until we do an on-line order system. Call in your order in to the store 603-783-9933 and we will have it waiting for you to pick up at the designated time.

Choose your preferred type of pizza base: A. red sauce B.Garlic parmesan white sauce or C. Olive oil only/no garlic
Choose your preferred topping: A. Cheese only $12.95 B. cheese and veggies $13.95 C. meat/cheese $15.95 or D. meat/cheese and veggies $15.95. Topping are cooks-choice. Please specify any allergies or dislikes.
Pick a ready time between 4 and 6.
Call the store to place your order with all the above.
Come to store, pay at register, then take your receipt back to the kitchen counter for pick up.

NOTE: our sauces are home-made-and-already-famous. We use Sunnyfield Brick Oven Bakery pizza dough, naturally fermented and yeast-free. 12″ pizzas

Around the town green this week-end...

If you come by the store porch Saturday night you might find some treats…

It’s looking pretty pumpkiny around here.

Aren’t we lucky to live in a region that supports and encourages so many wonderful farms! We are fortunate here in our little country store we have some of the best of the best.

SPOT LIGHT; meat.

Glines Sloping Acre Farm – we know them and you do too but did you know the Glines have been farming in Canterbury nearly since the town was settled? Several generations deep now they supply us with ground beef that has excellent flavor. And it is nice to know that those pristine fields we drive by are sustaining the cattle.

Robie Farm; Piermont, NH – this farm has been in continuous operation since 1870. They have an unwavering passion for sustainability for their land and their healthy herd. They supply us with pork.

Stonewood Farm; Orwell, Vermont – a family owned business that offers turkey processed in a humane manner…”Plenty of Vermont air, cold nights, good feed and tender loving care”.

In the freezer right now.

It’s been another busy week as we prepare for our Grand Opening next week-end Nov.3-5. we hope you’ll stop by. In the meantime for your planning, click here for this weeks menu.

Happy Halloween,

Dave and Jane

GRAND OPENING WEEK-END

Friday November 3, 5-7PM meet the artists who are currently showing in The Feed Loft. Refreshments and wine tasting
Saturday November 4 Mulled cider and garlic dip tastings with Two Sisters Garlic. Fiddling music by Jacqueline Laughman and friends noon to 2PM
Sunday November 5 Garlic and hummus taste offs. Mini cooking lessons with Jane.
Store hours: Mon – Sat 7-6, Sunday 9-4

the Friday Feeding. VOL. 2

Another week is under our belt feeding you, visiting with you and helping you stock your cupboards at home. The Canterbury Country Store thanks you for coming in.

It’s been good to see familiar faces taking up new routines and meet some of you that we had only “seen” on Facebook. Its a gathering place for all of us, after all, and we are so happy that the Feed Loft is feeling like home to you.

We still like hearing your suggestions for the store.

You asked for walnuts. Check. They are in stock now along with cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds, dried fruits and some snazzy new plump gourmet peanuts. Our favorite? Dill Pickle! They are really good…

You asked for peanut butter crackers. Check. There is a big jar with assorted varieties.
You asked for more Shain’s of Maine Ice Cream. Check. The freezer is full again.

So let’s talk food now. It all starts in the kitchen. So let’s talk about the kitchen.

It’s always been part of the plan to have the kitchen support the store; not only by creating food to sell there but that its existence allows the store to stock fresh food and not worry about waste.

Our kitchen itself is a no waste kitchen. By that we mean that every scrap of food gets used in one way or another and the bits of ends of unusable pieces go into a compost bucket. Thanks to Ruth and Beth for providing this and doing the pick up. This is why our daily soups, for example, are not planned far ahead. We want to see what needs using and this is a part of a creative process that makes food prep so interesting for us.

Our kitchen range is electric and the cook top is induction. This means using no fossil fuel to cook with and it is safer for our historic building. Induction only works when the pans make contact. You couldn’t even catch a piece of paper on fire. The side benefit is that it keeps our insurance costs down.

And 80% of the containers we put our prepared food in is composable or recyclable. We are trying to be good stewards of this place and the land it sits on in our special little town.

So what you have all been asking for, here is the menu for the week starting tonight.

Click here for this weeks menu

Thanks for reading, Jane and Dave

PS. Yes that’s a pix of caramel corn at the top. Something fun for the season at our counter.

GRAND OPENING WEEK-END

Friday November 3, 5-7PM meet the artists who are currently showing in The Feed Loft. Refreshments and wine tasting
Saturday November 4 Mulled cider and garlic dip tastings with Two Sisters Garlic. Fiddling music by Jacqueline Laughman and friends noon to 2PM
Sunday November 5 Garlic and hummus taste offs. Mini cooking lessons with Jane.
Store hours: Mon – Sat 7-6, Sunday 9-4

the Friday Feeding; VOL. 1

The Feed Loft opens tomorrow!

At long last, the upper seating area in the store will be open to take your soup and sandwiches or coffee and pastry to sit and eat…and sit and visit. The auxiliary room just beyond this space, where an extra seating counter will be, is not quite cute yet. But it will be open to see and imagine…more windows to see our beautiful town out of.

The art show by our own Canterbury Artists lines the walls of the Feed Loft. Tomorrow opens their show “What Lurks in the Woods” Come to see all their work and see the calendar below for a Meet the Artist event.

This is what the room looked like before. It was a garage used to hose off snow blowers. Later on as shown here, it was used for storage and animal feed was sold from it. Now that we are feeding people in the spot that once fed animals, we thought an appropriate name for this room would be The Feed Loft. If you haven’t already come see it now.

The LLC building owners did such an amazing transformation.

Once the far back garage is completed we will once again be selling animal feed and grain in that far back space.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

This Sunday October 15 Rachael Cress will be here at noon playing bagpipes
Our Grand Opening week-end is November 3-5 with something happening every part of each day!.
Friday November 3, 5-7PM meet the artists who are currently showing in The Feed Loft. Refreshments and wine tasting
Saturday November 4 Mulled cider and garlic dip tastings with Two Sisters Garlic. Fiddling music by Jacqueline Laughman and friends noon to 2PM
Sunday November 5 Garlic and hummus taste offs. Mini cooking lessons with Jane.
Store hours: Mon – Sat 7-6, Sunday 9-4

This post marks the first of our new Friday tradition, of posting our menus for the upcoming week. Our kitchen is almost completely operational so let us today talk about food in broad sweeps and next week we will be specific.

Menu ideas for Monday October 16 thru Sunday October 22.

Dave says he wants to make more hot sandwiches this coming week. People have loved his grilled cheese and bar-b-que roast beef. Today he fired up the oven and did some test batches of pizza and calzone. He is using natural dough from Ann at Sunnyfield Brick Oven Bakery in Tamworth. YUM. This might be a Friday regular thing. Stay tuned.

Jane is still finding her rhythm with all the baking then moving into prepared meals. We are pleased you love it all so much! For take-out meal she is thinking that she might do certain themes each day like a Pot pies one day, pasta dishes another day, grain bowls etc. Stay tuned for that too.

We promise to post to FB each day this week what we are making then by next Friday we will be on it.

Thanks for reading,

Dave and Jane

Routine; getting the swing of it

We all like routine. What is familiar is comforting. Doing the same ‘ol thing feels good like a pair of worn in jeans. So now that the store has been open for 10 days we are starting to develop our own routine and we are feelin’ good about it. Dave is learning how many of you like breakfast & lunch sandwiches and how early he needs to start making them, Jane is learning what your favorite baked goods are [scones!] and how many of you are into really great groceries and our take-out meals.

It’s a good start to a fun daily routine.

And it looks like you too are falling back into the ‘ol Country Store routine.

The bench gang; Stephanie, Dudley, Frank and Dave.

And we are still learning our new equipment. We had fun with some new visitors to town being patient while we figured out the hot water for a custom cup of tea. It was the Dave and Jane comedy show! And that tea was definitely on the house.

The store is nearly full now. By next Tuesday it should be done and maintained…so many fun and yummy things are coming. And thank you to everyone who has responded enthusiastically to encourage our buying!

We are loving our days spent visiting with each of you and hearing about your lives & your requests/suggestions for the store. We are chomping at the bit to get the Feed Loft open this week…once construction is completed…soon, very soon.

Our very first customers. What a lovely family!

Meanwhile, we celebrate. Jacqueline. Martha and friends played on the front porch last Sunday and this coming Sunday the 15th Rachael will be playing the bag pipes.

We still need one more fun person to join us behind the counter part time. The key is flexibility so everyone who works here can take time off when needed. Please send us someone to hire. Its a great job!

Till next post,

Jane and Dave

We are open; THANK YOU!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by the store over the week-end and in this early week to help us celebrate getting our doors open! You know we are not completely set up and you are patient with us. You have told us you liked it here even though not all our merchandise is in. And best of all, we all can now envision this new space for you and for us and for new friends to come. Yay Canterbury!

This week is another big week as we obtain our wine and beer license and receive our first orders, AND that the Feed Loft should be finished and open near the end of this week. Since those items finish our opening check-off list, we are planning a week of Grand Opening celebrations. Details will follow in Friday’s blog post. BE SURE TO CHECK YOUR IN BOX FRIDAY MORNING!

Things are starting to come out of our kitchen as it gets more set up.

The fresh produce is a hit for all of us…things to cook with here and things for you to take home. Sanborn Meadow Farm’s greens, Turning Mill Farm’s lettuces and root veggies, Apple Hill Farm’s winter squash and late season corn, and Russel’s Grateful Garlic

We had a discussion yesterday about how to more easily cook our hard shelled squash including the sugar pumpkins for making pie. This is our easy way; maybe you already know this but some folks did not:

Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds,
Turn the halves upside down into a roasting pan and stab them with a sharp knife several times. (This lets the steam escape when cooking)
Roast at 375 degrees until it falls in on itself and is very squishy when squeezed wearing a pot holder or oven mitt,
Scoop out the insides to make a pie OR simply eat with butter and brown sugar or drizzled with olive oil and minced garlic. YUM.

See you soon we hope,

Jane and Dave, your storekeepers

Count down, we open tomorrow!

We are still not completely renovated but we are keeping our promise to you to get the store open by the end of September! We open Saturday, September 30 at 7am.

Start. Stop. Change courses. Re-think. Re-design. Make exceptions. Be grumpy. Hug. Sleep with your mouth open. Breathe in, breath out. Whew; what a picture we all were. We have all worked 7 days a week 10-12 hour days since July 15 to make this deadline happen. COVID got a few of us along the way, supply chain shortages mucked things up and the old building asked for a lot of TLC. Despite our blurry eyes, we kept a smile on our faces and can’t wait to see you back in!

This is a “soft opening” meaning that not everything will have arrived because orders & deliveries can only happen on certain days and we were just licensed. It will take a week of days to get it all here. Our Grand Opening is next week with everything in place.

Here is what you can expect tomorrow Saturday:

8 dozen Brothers Donuts waiting for you when the doors open!
Hot and iced coffee with free-of-charge flavor pumps. Hot tea too.
Lots from our own bakery; fresh cookies, scones, muffins
From our new kitchen; hot breakfast sandwiches, mid-day lunch faire with sandwiches, salads and soup, hummus, paté
Also from our new kitchen, a take home prepared dinner meal put out in the afternoon
Milk, eggs, meat, most every grocery item
Fresh produce from our local farms
Fresh flowers from Lorrie
Newspapers
Multitudes of beautiful art and craft from NH artisans
A sneak peak of the community art show that will be mounted week
Public restroom open – YAY Town Center!!
A couple tables for sitting

What will come next week:

Beer and wine (Step one is store license-got it- then alcohol license comes followed by delivery from the distributors on their particular day)
More groceries and dairy
The Feed Loft seating area will open with full art show

Dave with Food Safety inspector Angelar;
“Great, beautiful, perfect”

You might find some of this during our grand opening week October 7- 13…

cheese tastings garlic tastings hummus taste-off

special guest appearances music demonstrations

sandwich sampling cookie sampling popcorn

Stay tuned for another post on Monday with a menu for the week and the announcement of the grand opening details!

Cheers, Jane and Dave

STORE HOURS: Mon-Sat 7am-6pm, Sunday 9am-4pm

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