Chocolate Cup with Berries

Chesterfield Inn is the perfect place to celebrate Valentine’s Day! Because of the calendar this year, the holiday will continue here from Thursday until Sunday, February 14, 15 and 16. So make a date with that special someone right now, and plan to come for overnight or for dinner at our romantic New Hampshire Inn!

We’ll have some very special Valentine’s Day desserts featured next week, such as Chocolate Mocha Mousse, Chocolate Cups with Fresh Raspberries and Strawberries, and Chocolate Tissimo Cake. If you’re not a  chocolate lover, we’ll also have Maple Creme Brulee and Apple Cranberry Crisp.

Our special Valentine’s Day cocktails will include a Kir Royale , made with Prosecco, Chambord and raspberries, and our delicious Black Cherry Cosmo, garnished with brandy soaked cherries. You are welcome to enjoy a cocktail by the fire in the parlor before you go into the dining room.

If you can get away overnight, check out our Date Your Mate Package, which includes champagne, dinner for two and breakfast in bed! Romance is in the air this week at the Chesterfield Inn!

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!

Local Maple Syrup

After a long winter with snowstorm after snowstorm, spring has finally started to arrive at our Inn in New Hampshire. The daytime temperatures are now above freezing, most days, with temperatures dipping below freezing at night. It’s perfect “sugaring” weather! Maple sugaring is what our local farmers call the process of collecting the sap from our sugar maple trees and boiling it into maple syrup. As you drive along the back roads near our romantic northern New England B&B, you can see the local “sugar houses” with steam billowing out into the cold air as the sap is boiled down into maple syrup. One of my favorite things to do is top stop at a sugar house when they’re boiling and ask for a taste of the fresh maple syrup. It’s delicious!

All of this “sugaring” inspires us to use maple syrup in our cooking and the following Maple Cheesecake is one of our favorites!

Maple Cheesecake

10-12 servings

2 cups ground graham crackers

3 T. sugar

1/2 t. cinnamon

6 T. melted butter

3 8-ounce pkgs. cream cheese at room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

3 T. flour

1/4 t. salt

1 c. reduced maple syrup (1 cup maple syrup, simmered 4 minutes to reduce and concentrate flavor)

2/3 cup sour cream

2 T. vanilla extract

4 eggs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add melted butter and stir until crumbs are evenly moistened. Wrap outside of 9 inch spring form pan in aluminum foil so that the base and sides are covered and sealed. Press crumb mixture into bottom and about 2 inches up the sides of the pan. Bake about 10 minutes. Cool on rack. For filling, beat cream cheese with electric mixer with paddle until very smooth. Add brown sugar, flour and salt. Beat until blended and smooth. Add reduced syrup, sour cream and vanilla. Beat until blended. Add eggs, 2 at a time, and beat just until well blended after each addition. Tap bowl on counter several times to release any air bubbles. Pour filling into cooled crust. Bake cake in a water bath ( pan of warm water about 1 inch up the sides of the pan) for 1 and a half hours. Turn oven off, open door a few inches and let the cake sit in the oven for an hour. Remove from oven and water bath and allow to cool on a rack. Serve with fresh berries.