It seems that winter has finally arrived in Southern New Hampshire and Vermont! Yesterday’s snowstorm dropped 6 inches of fluffy snow on our barren landscape, making everything look better. Now we have more options for outdoor play this weekend! Previously we were able to hike in the woods around our New Hampshire Bed and Breakfast, just like it was still November, or go ice-skating on ice that had never had snow on it. That was pretty great!

This weekend, we can snowshoe in Pisgah Park, Friedsam Forest or the Madame Sherri Forest in Chesterfield, and have the woods all to ourselves. The snow has covered the trees and made the forest into a winter wonderland that sparkles all around in the sunshine.

For cross-country skiing, I would suggest the ski center at Grafton Ponds in Grafton, Vermont. Grafton Ponds has been making snow on its lower loop all season and has been a popular place for all of the local racers to go to train. Now they have snow in the woods and plenty of trails open. They also have a ski shop for rentals and a lodge where you can enjoy a cup of hot cocoa. You can check their Facebook page for info on the ski conditions.

Downhill skiers have of course also benefited from the new snow. The downhill ski areas have been making snow and this new snow will only improve conditions. The ski areas closest to our New Hampshire Luxury Inn are Mount Snow, Stratton, Bromley and Killington, all about an hour’s drive.

I’m so excited about this new dessert that I want to share the recipe so that others can try it! It’s delicious, easy to make and beautiful to look at! It’s called a Pavlova, and I discovered it when I was invited to a holiday party that was focused on international food and wine. My assignment was to bring a bottle of wine and a dessert from New Zealand. The wine was easy because I love New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, so I picked up a bottle of my favorite Sauvignon Blanc from the Kim Crawford Vineyard. The dessert was a bit more challenging; I had no idea what New Zealanders enjoy for dessert.

I did a little research and discovered the Pavlova. A Pavlova is a dessert made with a meringue base, covered with about an inch of whipped cream and topped with the fresh fruit of your choice. I chose strawberries, raspberries, and kiwi in keeping with the season. It has to be made just before serving so I made the meringue and whipped the cream, cut up the strawberries and kiwi ahead of time and packed it up to take to the party to assemble at dessert time. It was easy to put together, and looked great! Everyone loved it!

Here’s my recipe for Pavlova, which serves 8-10 people.

1/2 cup egg whites at room temperature (from about 4 eggs)

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

2 tablespoons brown sugar

12 strawberries, trimmed and sliced

2 kiwi fruit, peeled, cored and sliced

1 cup fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt in a mixer until foamy. Add sugar, cornstarch, vinegar and vanilla and whip until stiff and glossy, about 6-8 minutes more. On a sheet pan, trace a 9-inch circle on a piece of parchment paper. Flip paper so that you can see the circle and pile the meringue in to the circle. Smooth top, without losing the loft of the meringue. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 300 degrees. Bake 45 minutes more. Turn off the oven, prop the door open and leave in the oven until it is cool.

Whip the cream with the brown sugar and slather it on top of the meringue. Top with fresh fruit and serve. Bon Appetit! If you’re at our Chesterfield NH Inn on New Year’s Eve, we’re going to make individual Pavlovas for our special New Year’s Eve dessert. I bet they’ll be great with champagne!

We’ve got a new place to send you when you’re looking for things to do in the area. Kringle Candle Company opened in 2009 in Bernardston, Massachusetts, a short 20 minute drive from our New Hampshire bed and breakfast.

Kringle Candle is owned by Mick Kittredge III, the son of the Mike Kittredge who founded the famous Yankee Candle in Deerfield, Massachusetts.  The candle shop specializes in scented candles, with 36 scents, such as peppermint twist, Nantucket rose, gingerbread, and frosted cake. The candles are all white, for the purest light, in beautiful glass containers that can be re-purposed for many things once the candle been finished. They also have votives, tea lights, fire starters, and home decor items.

Kringle owns 200 acres of property in Bernardston, and on the property you’ll find the Kringle store, bulit in 2010, and the newly opened Christmas Barn and The Farm Table restaurant, opened in late October 2011. The Christmas Barn is a two story former dairy barn filled with Christmas decorations, Christmas trees, toys, gifts, and more candles. The Farm Table restaurant is in a 200 year old house, beautifully renovated and decorated, where you can enjoy brunch, lunch daily and dinner as well. They have a full bar and wine list and feature local fare. Enjoy a visit during your stay at our New Hampshire luxury inn!

Yesterday, I escaped for a quick foliage getaway between breakfast and lunch. It was sunny and crisp, with morning fog from the river burning off quickly. My friends picked me up, with dogs in tow, for a hike up Putney Mountain. We drove up Route 5, enjoying the beautiful colors of the leaves along the roadside, into the village of Putney, and then out to the Putney School and to the Putney Mountain Trail Head.

There was just one car in the parking lot, a great sign for a quiet walk in the woods. We hiked up the well-marked trail, about a mile, to the lookout area at the top of the Mountain. There were 2 women sitting in chairs, using binoculars to look for birds. They were up there for the day, basking in the sunshine, counting birds for the Putney Mountain bird count. We spent a few minutes at the top, figuring out which mountains were which to the East and West. We could see Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire, and in Vermont we had a clear view of Mount Snow, Haystack, Stratton, and Bromley. The hills were gorgeous shades of red, yellow and orange mixed with the dark green of the evergreens.

After the quick downhill hike, we retired to Green Mountain Orchard just past the Putney School, for homemade cinnamon and sugar donuts and apple cider. If we had wanted to, we could have walked into the orchard and picked several varieties of apples to take home. It was tempting, especially when I saw the 6 apple pies that they had just taken out of the oven! I love making apple pies in October! It was just great to be out in the fresh air on a beautiful warm autumn day, enjoying the scenery with friends before heading back to Chesterfield Inn.

Gaines Farm Corn Maze

It seems that Summer is officially over and Fall has arrived at Chesterfield Inn! I know this because the Gaines Farm Corn Maze opens this Saturday. For those of you who haven’t ever experienced it, a corn maze is a maze cut through the corn stalks in a corn field, with dead ends, winding paths, and, finally a way out. The challenge is to make your way through the maze without getting lost, and finding your way out on the other side!

I grew up on a dairy farm in Hardwick, Massachusetts, and as children we used to play in the cornfields. We never had anything as sophisticated as a corn maze, but we would play between the rows, in our own little world. You see, the corn stalks grew over 7 feet tall, so that once you entered the cornfield no one on the outside of the field could see you. It was perfect for us and we spent hours playing games between the giant rows of corn.

The Gaines Farm corn maze covers 7 acres of cornfield, and the corn has grown to heights of up to 10 feet. The pattern of the maze, as you can see here, is a tribute to the 250th anniversary of the town of Guilford, Vermont, which is about 20 minutes drive from our New Hampshire Bed and Breakfast. The corn maze opens this Saturday, September 17 and will be open weekends until October 30. Admission to the maze is $7 and includes entrance to the baby animal barn, pumpkin bowling, and many other activities. Fun for kids of all ages!

On Saturday and Sunday, September 24 and 25, a group of artists whose studios are located in Brattleboro, Marlboro and Dummerston, Vermont are hosting an open studio tour. These artists enjoy living and making art in this beautiful corner of Southern Vermont, a place where artists are welcome and supported by the local community. These artists invite you to come by their studios and get an idea of what their creative process is like.

You can choose between Kris McDermet‘s hooked and braided rugs, Doug Cox‘s handmade violins, Malcolm Wright‘s woodfired pottery and clay and bronze sculpture, Petria Mitchell’s and Jim Giddings’ paintings, and Josh and Marta Bernbaum‘s blown glass. You can download a map and make your way around the hills to the artists’ studios. All of these artists’ work is rooted in the natural beauty that surrounds them, as well as the culturally sophisticated town of Brattleboro.

So, plan a weekend away and make your home base the Chesterfield Inn. You can drive up Friday night, enjoy a delicious dinner at the inn, sleep until you wake up, enjoy a famous breakfast at our New Hampshire Inn and head out on the tour. What a great way to spend the day, exploring the back roads, looking at art, and actually meeting the artists in their studios!

One of the best things about living 20 minutes away from Marlboro, Vermont is our close proximity to Marlboro College, which is overrun by world-class musicians in the summer rehearsing for the Marlboro Music Festival concerts. The festival was founded in 1951 by Rudolf Serkin, Adolph and Hermann Busch and Marcel, Blanche and Louis Moyse. The musicians gather each summer for 3 weeks of intensive rehearsals, preparing for several concerts each week from mid-July to mid-August.

Over 200 pieces are rehearsed each summer, in all combinations of instruments and vocal ensembles. The programming is a mix of music written centuries ago by the giants of classical music (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc.) to compositions written in the 20th and 21st centuries, some which are played for the first time at Marlboro.

The wonderful thing about Marlboro is the collaborative approach. Young and old professional musicians work together to prepare the pieces, each bringing their own experiences and personal perspectives to the rehearsals. The atmosphere at Marlboro is warm and supportive, a true family of musicians who eat together, play, work, share chores, learn from each other and inspire one another.

Some of my favorite memories as a new innkeeper were attending the Sunday afternoon concerts with a family friend from Massachusetts. He would make a gourmet picnic and we would enjoy it on the grass outside the concert hall before going in to listen to the glorious music. Marlboro is a very special place!

The Chesterfield Inn is a very convenient place to stay if you’re visiting the Marlboro Music Festival. Even though we’re across the river from Brattleboro, Vermont in New Hampshire, we are just a 20-minute drive to the Marlboro College Campus.

We have a new beer on the Chesterfield Inn beer list: Smuttynose India Pale Ale. Smuttynose Brewing Co is located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire where they began making beer in 1994. The company is named for Smuttynose Island, which is one in a group of nine islands that lay off the coast of Portsmouth. The company was founded by the owners of the Portsmouth Brewery and the Northampton Brewery, in Northampton, Massachusetts (a nice place to have a beer and a bite to eat and located just 45 minutes from our West Chesterfield B&B.) 

Shoals Pale Ale was the first beer that was made by Smuttynose back in 1994, and it was a great start! The India Pale Ale is a more recent offering, which is very “hoppy” and is unfiltered.

This India Pale Ale won a gold medal as “Best American Beer” at the Great British Beer Festival in 2004. Its characteristics include golden color, light body and crisp flavor. This is the perfect drink for the hot summer days of July. Come sit under an umbrella on the back terrace at our New Hampshire Inn and sip a Smuttynose IPA!

The Summer Menu at the Chesterfield Inn is now being served in the dining room and on the back terrace. The menu features fresh local foods, with the new twist of many of entrees available in smaller plate portions. The smaller plates will please those who like to graze through a menu, allowing guests to try an assortment of different menu items in smaller portions and still have room for dessert.

The Crab Cakes are a very popular appetizer, served with a Tomatillo and Roasted Corn Salsa with an Ancho Chile Remoulade – this is also available as an entree. A few of my favorites are the Roasted Petite Veal Rack on Balsamic Braised Swiss Chard with Porcini Mushroom Jus, and the Mussels with Tomatoes, Kalamata Olives, and Fennel on Fresh Rosemary Pappardelle. Another summery item on the menu is the Grilled Chicken and Whole Wheat Pasta Salad with Arugula Pesto, Roasted Sweet Corn, and Feta Cheese.

The Bruschetta is made with Sun-dried Tomato Tapenade, with Vermont Goat Cheese and Roasted Yellow Peppers. We make the Rosemary Baguettes – that are the base for the bruschetta – here at the inn and the flavors are perfect for summer! We invite you to come sample the new menu and enjoy sunset from the terrace – by far the best seats in Chesterfield!

We love gardens at Chesterfield Inn and we’d like to share about one of our favorites! One of the hidden jewels of Windham County in Southern Vermont is Olallie Daylily Gardens. Olallie’s is in South Newfane, which is a lovely little town off of well traveled Route 30. When you turn off of Route 30 and meander off into the web of country roads that lead to South Newfane, you can feel the hustle and bustle fall away. Olallie’s is off of Williamsville Road, on Augur Hill Road, on the left after the South Newfane Country Store.

The lilies are grown on a third generation organic farm and fill 40 display beds in a 6 acre field. The Darrow family owns the farm and it is managed by Christopher Darrow, his children and his mother, Ellen.  They continue the work of Christopher’s grandfather, George Darrow, who began collecting and hybridizing day lilies in 1957. Lilies are very hardy plants and come in many sizes and colors. Olallie has over 2,500 varieties of day lilies, in all colors, that bloom during the months of June, July, and August.

Olallie also has irises, field grown perennials, unusual hostas, shrubs and trees, and pick your own blueberries. During June they are having a Siberian iris and field grown perennial sale that will go until June 26. The farm is a great place to just wander, enjoying the gorgeous blooms and quiet surroundings. They even have picnic tables and benches with market umbrellas if you’d like to bring a picnic to enjoy after you have seen the flowers.

We hope that you have an opportunity to visit this beautiful farm during your stay at our New Hampshire B&B!