It was our pleasure to have The Red Chair with us at our romantic New Hampshire bed and breakfast this week. This slightly worn, bright red wooden chair is making its way around New England, traveling from inn to inn. It started from its home in Woods Hole at the Woods Hole Inn in July and will return to Woods Hole in mid-December. My job, as host of the chair for 3 days this week, was to take photos of the chair at the inn and in Chesterfield so that people could get an idea of where the chair had been.

My first photo was of the inn sitting in the field in front of the inn sign in the meadow in the front yard to the left of the pond. It was a cold November morning, and the trees and grass were all coated with a thin layer of frost, making the chair stand out even more.

I then moved the chair to the back of the inn, on the blue stone terrace, and snapped this photo. The terrace usually has several wrought iron tables and chairs with umbrellas on it, but the furniture has all been stored in the barn for the winter, so the chair was all alone out there.

We came inside to warm up for a few minutes, and then I packed the chair up into the car and drove 10 minutes up to the Madame Sherri Forest in West Chesterfield. The trails in the forest are beautifully laid out, and circle around the hilly landscape, climbing all the way up to Indian Pond, a beautiful pond hidden at the top of the hill but below the cliffs off the back of Mine Ledge. I carried the chair a short way up the trail, where it forks to the right and opens up so that you can see the ruins of Madame Sherri’s house. I was able to set the chair in the center near the stone staircase and take a nice photo.

With these intoxicating spring days finally upon us, I couldn’t resist picking up some asparagus and making my first batch of asparagus soup for our New Hampshire Inn! The recipe is simple, and is made without chicken stock for our vegetarian friends. Here’s how it’s made:

2 bunches asparagus (about 2 pounds)
4 tablespoons butter
1 leek, chopped
1 cup shallots, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 small potatoes, boiled in a separate pot

salt and pepper to taste
minced chives

1/4 cup heavy cream

Cut the woody, tough sections of the asparagus from the bottom of the stalks and boil for 30 minutes in about 6 cups of water. Reserve water, throw away stalks. Cut tips off asparagus for garnish, cut remaining stalks into 1/2 inch pieces. Reuse water to blanch asparagus tips. Reserve. Boil potatoes until soft. Saute leeks and shallots in butter for 3 minutes, until soft. Add garlic, saute  1 minute. Do not brown. Add asparagus pieces. Saute for 2 minutes, stirring. Put the reserved water back into the pot and cook the vegetables for 8 minutes, until asparagus is soft. Add potatoes to the mixture, salt and pepper to taste. Puree with a blender until smooth. Add water if it’s too thick, then finish with cream. Mix in chives and asparagus tips. Serve hot or cold. Bon Appetit!

“From the first call to make the reservation, to the accommodation of a breakfast table for nine family members, our stay was beyond perfect!”

Consider our New Hampshire luxury inn as a relaxing destination for a family reunion or get together, a place without the distraction of daily life, where you and your family can enjoy each others company and have a little fun! We have 15 beautiful guest rooms that can accommodate family members, from suites with pullout couches in the living rooms, to rooms with two beds, and we also have rollaway beds and porta-cribs.

Or consider taking the entire Johanna Wetherby building, which has 4 rooms with queen beds, fireplaces and private terraces, as well as a wraparound porch with wicker chairs to curl up in for long conversations. When was the last time you had coffee in the morning sitting on the porch with your brother or sister?

After breakfast, there are plenty of things to do in New Hampshire, from hiking to shopping, and our New Hampshire inn has a small porch dining room that would be perfect for a group of 10 or 12 people for dinner.

Call and reserve now for your family get together!

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 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!