New England Cooks

On vacation in Maine this summer, I met Brandy Lee McCurry at the Webhannet River Bait & Tackle store in Wells Harbor, Maine. She mentioned her blueberry pie won a contest at a chili fest in Wells Harbor. I thought our readers might like the recipe — the simpler the better so here it is, in Brandy’s words:

1- Pre-made roll out pie crust or your favorite crust recipe
3-4 cups of fresh (preferred) or frozen blueberries

Roll out bottom crust into an 8-inch glass pie pan that has been sprayed with Pam. Fill the shell with the blueberries. Sprinkle with cinnamon to your liking.

On the stove top, in a 2-quart sauce pan, add the following ingredients:

1 cup cold water
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp corn starch

Bring to a boil over med-high heat. Once at a rolling boil, continue stirring constantly for two minutes (this creates a sugar gravy). Remove from heat, stir in 1tsp of vanilla extract. Pour evenly over berries in the shell, add top crust and cut slits for venting. I like to brush the top crust with milk and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

Place aluminum foil below the pie to catch drippings, this works best on the rack below the one you set your pie on and prevents the pie from sticking or baking to the foil. Bake at 350 degrees on the center rack for about 45 minutes or until the top crust is browned. Let cool completely before serving.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped topping.

This pie is easy and it can’t be beat. Also works with strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, or your favorite combination.

Enjoy!

Brandy Lee McCurry
Wells, Maine

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Chef Bob Hildebrand of The Three Stallion Inn in Randolph, Vt. will kick-off the fall 2007 season of New England Cooks on Thursday, September 13.

Bob will be featuring Pan-Roasted Cod with Pancetta Vinaigrette, Sautéed Spinach and Beet Risotto for the show. As always, our studio audience will get to sample the creation. To purchase tickets, click here.

“That is my favorite time of the year to cook,” said Hildebrand, who is also chef and co-owner of the Randolph Depot, a breakfast and lunch café in downtown Randolph.

Hildebrand grew up in West Boxford, Mass. And has been baking and cooking since he was a teenager. He studied finance and economics in college and “did the suit-and-tie-thing” for about 15 years, he says.

Around 1997, he was thinking of pursuing his MBA but decided to he wanted to be in the kitchen instead. He had some restaurant experience so he enrolled at the New England Culinary Institute.

NECI, he says, turned him into a chef.

“It was beyond just learning the tricks of the trade,” said Hildebrand. “The chef instructors at NECI stressed the importance of good, local ingredients, and letting the flavors speak for themselves. They made me what I am today.”

In 2002, Bob was hired to be the executive chef at the Three Stallion Inn in Randolph, Vt. He has since opened the Randolph Depot, a more casual café and coffee bar in downtown Randolph.

“I can’t wait for the show,” said Hildebrand. “We are going to have a lot of fun.”

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You asked for it, you got it!

Many of our fans have wanted to purchase tickets to our show online.

We are happy to report that now you can do that. Follow this link.

There is a drop-down menu for the first six shows of our 15-show season. We will put the other nine shows up as we finalize the second half of our schedule.

We are getting close. Our first show is Thursday evening, September 13!

Cheers,

Tony

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A lot of fans of New England Cooks wonder what our co-hosts do when they are not hosting the show, so we recently caught up with Carol Day to find out how her summer is going:

“Well, first off, I should tell you I play a lot of golf in the summer, usually two times a week. We like to play at Montague, in Randolph. They recently re-did all the putting greens and it looks beautiful. It hasn’t helped my game any, but it looks nice.

“Other than that, my children and seven grand-children keep me busy. We will visit one of our daughters in Lakeville, Connecticut soon and the grand-kids around here are always involved with baseball and things like that. We don’t have any specific vacation plans at this point, but we seem to be pretty busy this summer anyway.

“I also have some flower gardens, and I love spending time doing that. It is always great to be outside no matter what we are doing.

“Of course, you have to remember, I’m retired. So I do what I want when I want!”

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I was lucky enough to have dinner at the Three Stallion Inn over the weekend with Cindy and five friends after a long day on the golf course.

I had never been there but it was a dinner I won’t soon forget.

First off, the view from the restaurant is fabulous. The entire atmosphere was incredibly relaxing. People kept asking me “Tony, why are you so quiet?” and it was because I was just so relaxed. The Three Stallion just does that to you. It was pleasantly quiet so you could enjoy the conversation at your table without feeling like you were in a museum. And nothing was rushed. As I said, the atmosphere was perfect.

On to the food. I had sauteed veal scaloppini with lemon-caper sauce and asparagus risotto and a glass (just one!) of the house wine and I heartily recommend all of it. Man, the risotto with asparagus was to die for. I love asparagus.

Cindy went for the sautéed pork tenderloin stuffed with spinach, Asiago and pine nuts, served with Madiera demiglace and sweet potato agnolotti. She loved it.

For dessert we had this raspberry/lemon dome thing (I wish I could remember what it was called) and it was a great finish to a great meal.

We also had a visit from Chef Bob Hildebrand who will be the guest chef at the opening show of our fall season of New England Cooks on September 13. We can’t wait to have Bob in the studio and find out what he’s going to be cooking up for us.

So, if you are ever in the Randolph area, Cindy and I heartily endorse the Three Stallion Inn.

Cheers!

Tony

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Hi friends!

Many of you have been asking about our fall schedule and I am happy to report we have finalized our schedule and you can see details by clicking here.

We will have six shows in the fall and another nine shows in late winter/early spring. We also hope to make tickets available for purchase online in the days ahead and offer a season subscription to all six fall shows.

Our first show is September 13 and our first guest chef is Bob Hildebrand of the Three Stallion Inn in Randolph, Vermont. Cindy and I actually had dinner there recently and we are very excited about having Bob kick-off our new season.

This blog is a new venture for me and I plan to update it as often as possible, so check back frequently. Also, I would love to hear from you. You can leave a message by clicking the “Comment” button.

I hope to hear from you!

Cheers!

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