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Berkshire Tidbits: Valentine's Delights
By Judith Lerner, Special to iBerkshires
04:52PM / Thursday, February 11, 2016
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Boxes of Chocolate Springs chocolates for Valentine's Day 2016 plus a chocolate heart specially designed by sculptor Andrew DeVries for Chocolate Springs.

This week's Tidbits has to start with the first Throwback Thursday social media postings on Feb. 11 to begin Mezze Bistro & Bar's 20th anniversary, 413-458-0123, 777 Cold Spring Road/Route 7 in Williamstown. Friday evening, Feb. 12, will feature a 1996 throwback dance party and celebration after dinner at 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 13 and 14, Valentine's Day weekend dining and drinking plays right into the celebratory atmosphere.

Since the summer of 2010, Mezze has been in the renovated lovely building and grounds that still housed the county-popular, longtime Le Jardin traditional French restaurant when owner — originally chef/owner — Nancy Thomas first opened Mezze as a small room, small-plate Middle Eastern eatery on Water Street in 1996.

Over two decades, Mezze has morphed into what it refers to as casual chic and a county dining power. Over this anniversary year, Thomas and her staff plan to continue celebrating with vintage menu items both food and drink, wine dinners, guest chef dinners and more dance parties. Call them for reservations to this first one.

 

Also Thursday, Feb. 11, Chez Nous Bistro, 413 243-6397, 150 Main St. in Lee, will host its last Manger! Boire! Eat! Drink! evening of the season before their Feb. 15 through April 5 vacation closing. Of course, the menu will center around French "Foods of Love" for Valentine's Day, co-owner and baker Rachel Portnoy said.

Her husband and co-owner Franck Tessier will serve and demonstrate a crepe purse with gingered vegetables as an appetizer with roasted duck breast for the main course. For dessert, Portnoy will make a classic Baba au Rhum with passionfruit and berries. As always, Portnoy will give their diners the recipes to take home.

Do not reserve online but and specify that the reservation is for Manger! Boire! If you reach only voicemail, leave a message. The price is $35 per person plus tax and gratuity.

 

And there will be lots more cooking classes this weekend and next week.

They start this Thursday, Feb. 11, from 1 to 2:15 p.m., with Eating Well for Less, the first of a series of free classes about tasty, healthy, affordable dishes taught by Danielle Debye, a registered dietician from The Nutrition Center, at the Christian Center, 193 Robbins Ave. at the corner of Linden St. in Pittsfield.

Since next week is school vacation, The Nutrition Center's free class at the Christian Center on Thursday, Feb. 18, will be Cooking with Kids, so bring yours along.

The last class of this free series will be My Healthy Plate, emphasizing how to create affordable, healthy menus.

Call the Christian Center, 413 443-2828, to let them know you will be coming to class. Stop there before class for a usually delicious free lunch at noon, no reservations needed.

 

Valentine's Day rules! Both Kushi Institute and The Chefs' Shop are offering heart-love-Valentine-centered cooking classes this weekend.

The two variations of chocolate confections do not compete. Get them both. I'm going to. This is the time of year…
And, come to think of it, you can never go wrong with a plate of those cherry chocolate cordials from Catherine's Chocolates in Great Barrington. Who else makes those from scratch around here?

Chocolate truffles made by Bettina Zumdick, who is teaching the Valentine's Day sweets cooking class this weekend at Kushi Institute.
On Saturday, Feb. 13, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., macrobiotic educator and chef Bettina Zumdick will teach participants how to make healthy, Vegan Desserts for Valentine's Day and Beyond using natural sweeteners and no refined sugar.

Her menu plan for the morning includes gluten-free chocolate truffles and gluten-free sticky black rice balls, cranberry-oatmeal-pecan cookies, carrot cake with tofu cream frosting, stewed pears with granola topping and strawberry mousse with cashew cream.

Bettina is a very good chef and baker as well as a counselor, educator and author. Healthy sweets have always been her specialty. There is no flavor or texture compromise in eating her food. She says that her "Valentine's desserts are gentler for your body and mood." Learning how she does this is a gift to yourself or/and whomever you love.

The cost of the Valentine's dessert class is $50 for a couple, $35 for an individual. Call 413-623-5741, Ext. 180, for reservations. If you reserve and stay for a vegan macrobiotic lunch on Saturday, there is a discount of $5 on the usual $15 cost.

The Kushi Institute is at 198 Leland Road, up the hill/High Street behind the Becket General Store on State Road/Route 8.

 

Here's a little more chocolate thought for you or any Valentine you love. You will be very happy, chocolate-satisfied, with any treat you get yourself from Chocolate Springs in the Lenox Common on the Pittsfield Road/Routes 7 and 20. Not only are there solid chocolate pops — dark, milk, white — in the shape of hearts, roses, bears and more, large hearts, cream filled morsels, truffles and more than I can think of at this moment, there is even a chocolate sculpture, newly designed by Andrew DeVries.
 
I am slowly eating my way through a bag of assorted truffles this week, one a day. Better than vitamins.
 
And, Doria Polinger, aka H.R. Zeppelin, who had a chocolate shop in Great Barrington for a short time but now is hard to find, will be at the Berkshire Grown Farmers' Market in Great Barrington on Saturday, Feb. 13. She makes unusual and wonderful chocolates, different from those that Joshua Needleman creates at Chocolate Springs, using organic and local ingredients and organic fair trade chocolate.
 

If your tastes runs to more hearty fare, The Meat Market is bringing back its annual Lonely Hearts Pig Roast for Valentine's Day from 6 to 9 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 14.The menu is roast pork with seasonal vegetables, giant crepe with dulce de leche, red velvet cake and a complimentary flute of prosecco for $65 per person.

The Meat Market was born to roast whole pigs. This is what they have to say about it:

"The pig roast is food alchemy, the unreal synthesis of rich flesh with wood flame and smoke, the transformation of pig, through hours of spinning, into incredibly tender meat and perfectly crisp skin. It's simple and decadent, a perfect meal for a special occasion and a community of like-minded individuals."

Call them at 413-528-2022 to make a reservation.
 

Sunday, Feb. 14, from 3 to 5 p. m., chef Julie Gale, chef and owner of At the Table Cooking School in Hillsdale, N.Y., will continue her hands-on participation Cooking at The Chef's Shop series with a class titled Valentine's Day Fare, using local and organic ingredients whenever possible.

Julie said she will "begin with a refreshing salad of hearts of palm with avocado and pink grapefruit segments with herb enhanced vinaigrette. We then prepare a classic French chicken Bordelaise with artichoke hearts and morel mushrooms. We finish with another French classic, pots de crème chocolate hearts with raspberries."

And then, everyone shares the meal.

She said her class is designed to help people "fall in love or fall in love all over again. This class is dedicated to all those who believe that food should warm your heart as well as fill your belly." She invites cooking students to "Come learn these recipes then prepare them for the love of your life!"

Class size is limited to 12 students. The cost is $60 per person for a single class, $150 for a series of three. Payment is required in advance with a 48 hour cancellation policy. The Chef's Shop, 31 Railroad St. in Great Barrington, offers class students a 10-percent discount on purchases made on a class day.

For more details or to reserve a place in any classes: 1-800-237-5284 or 413-528-0135 or Email@TheChefsShop.com.

 

In addition to the adult classes at the Christian Center, The Nutrition Center's Food Adventures program will bring a free cooking class for kids ages 4 to 12 to the Lenox Library, 18 Main St. in Lenox, during President's Week school vacation from 2 to 3 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 18.

In Food Adventures classes, children work as hands-on teams to make each recipe. They enjoy themselves and get to eat what they've prepared while learning about nutrition, food safety, how to make balanced food choices and the value of local farms and food producers. You can watch a three-minute YouTube promotion video about The Nutrition Center's Food Adventures classes at .

To register for the class call youth librarian Pauline Spinrad at the library, 413 637-0197 or contact her at pspinrad@lenoxlibrary.org.

 

Coming up at the end of Presidents Week, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 19, 20 and 21, Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Lenox and Stockbridge will be offering One-Pot Meals from the Kripalu Kitchen cooking classes, a weekend of soups, stews and braises Kripalu-style taught by their newish executive chef, Jeremy Rock Smith who trained at the Culinary Institute of America and worked in classical French cuisine.

This is not a vegetarian class. Cooking, poaching, marinating or brining poultry, fish and seafood with French flair are part of the lessons.

For local commuting Berkshirites, the weekend will cost $355 that covers the classes, all meals from Friday dinner through Sunday lunch, all activities at Kripalu such as yoga classes and evening programs, use of the facilities including the whirlpool and sauna. Check-in from 2:15 p.m. Friday, dinner is at 5 and the program begins 7:30 p.m. The program ends Sunday about 11 a.m.

 

It's February, as everyone knows, and, even so, Berkshire cooks can choose between two farmers' markets for local products including produce this Saturday, Feb. 13. Both the Berkshire Grown Winter Farmers' Market and the Downtown Pittsfield Farmers Market will be open selling their wares and fares, each in its distinctive way.


Berkshire Grown's last winter market is this Saturday.

Berkshire Grown's last market of the season, at Monument Valley Middle School, 313 Monument Valley Road, in Great Barrington, runs from 10 to 2. It will showcase winter vegetables including beets, carrots, greens, mushrooms, garlic and onions, potatoes, four kinds of radishes and winter squashes. There will be eggs, chicken, goat, grass fed pork and beef, honey and maple products. Local producers will bring their ice cream, jams, kimchi, sauerkraut and other pickles, tempeh and baked goods. Many of the farmers' and artisans' food products will be available to sample to taste your way through the market. And grilled sausages and omelets will be on sale to eat.

Food Adventures from The Nutrition Center will lead children in their own snack-making. Greenagers will be selling seeds for next summer's garden.

Here's who'll be there: Asia Luna, Berkshares, Berkshire Co-op Market, Berkshire Mt. Bakery, Berkshire Wildflower Honey/Mill River Farm, Caroline’s Scottish Shortbread, Chaseholm Farm Creamery, Cricket Creek Farm, Gray Raven Farm, Greenagers, Hay Berry Farm, Hillhome Country Products, Holiday Brook Farm, Hosta Hill, Ivyopal, JK Custom Furniture & Design, HR Zeppelin Chocolates, Matt’s Cookie Bars, Mountain Girl Farm, MX Morningstar Farm, North Plain Farm & Blue Hill Farm, R&G Cheese, Rock City Mushrooms, Rolling Rock Farm, Sky View Farm, Soasa Designs, SoCo Creamery, SoMa Catering, Square Roots Farm, Strudel Z, Trusted Roots Farm.

You'll start seeing these farmers again in May and June at Berkshire Grown's individual, local farmers' markets.

Downtown Pittsfield's market, at the Boys & Girl's Club Lighthouse Café, 16 Melville St. in Pittsfield, runs from 9 a. m. to 1 p. m. selling brewed and bagged coffee, wine, shortbread cookies and — sometimes — shortbread crumbs, spices, cheeses, breads, pastured beef and pork, gluten-free sweets, eggs, various goat, pig and sheep products, maple syrup and other sweets, vegetables, breakfast and lunch fare, jewelry, body care products, wooden toys and kitchenware, etc.

Their vendors include food producers: Assembly Coffee Roasters Balderdash Cellars Caroline's Scottish Shortbread, Country Seasonings Cricket Creek Farm Dandelion Hill Farm ELMARTIN FARM Green Meads Farm Herbals Matt's Cookie Bars Mountain Girl Farm North Yeast Bakery Square Roots Farm Trusted Roots Farm White Goose Gardens Artisans: Jake Czaja Milltown Beadworks MVB Printmaker Things That Work

As part of Pittsfield's February 10x10 Upstreet Arts Festival, is building the morning around a KID 10 Farmers Market during which more than 10 kids will be there selling their kid-made crafts and food such as dog biscuits, doughnuts, cupcakes, Valentine's treats and lemonade; and non-foods such as jewelry, scarves, terrariums, fairy houses and more!

The market will have musicians performing from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; they are still trying to find kid musicians. Also this month, since Valentine's Day is Sunday, the market has arranged to have a write-your-own love letter station available for market patrons. The letters "will be set free across Pittsfield on Valentine's Day."

MVB Printmaker, who makes handbound books, might have just the uncommon but appropriate gift to give your sweetie this Valentine's Day.

 

Pleasant & Main Café & General Store, pleasantandmain@gmail.com, 413-274-6303, 1063 Main St. in Housatonic, wanted me to know they take Valentine's Day seriously.

Their Saturday, Feb. 13, and Sunday, Feb. 14, breakfast and brunch will feature romantic specials. On Sunday, they will serve a romantic afternoon tea meal and their Valentine's Day dinner menu items are sensual.

Their 3-course $25 prix fixe candle-lit Valentine's Day dinner starts with a choice of mesclun & duck confit salad with poached pear & lingonberry dressing or a bowl of New England seafood bisque. Main course choices are roast Cornish game hen with honey-maple glaze & Montmorency cherry sauce or petit filet mignon with wild mushrooms or lemon sole filet with seafood stuffing. All dinners are served with scalloped potatoes Dauphinois and seasonal vegetables. Dessert is a choice of Belgian chocolate soufflé with raspberry sauce or classic crème caramel or a blood orange crepe. Assorted cookies and chocolate truffles are also part of the meal.

Because of the Presidents Day holiday, Pleasant & Main will be open to serve brunch on Monday, Feb. 15, a day of the week they are usually closed.

 

Since Monday, Feb. 8, it's now 4713, the year of the red fire monkey. The Chinese New Year/Spring Festival will continue through Monday, Feb. 22. You can still say gung hay fat choy! or may the new year bring you health, prosperity and good fortune.

We had the most wonderful feast and celebration at Panda House in Lenox on Chinese New Year's Eve last Sunday, Feb. 7, in competition with the feasts of Super Bowl Fifty. As far as we were concerned, we won!

Choose your favorite Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese or Malaysian restaurant and choose your banquet but don't miss this.

Our superb dinner consisted of

white shoumei tea & green Jasmine tea

egg white egg flower soup with chicken & shrimp

gao chi/steamed housemade meat-vegetable dumplings

chef-pickled sweet & spicy daikon & carrots

Chinese broccoli with whole garlic

eggplant & sweet peppers with garlic sauce

ee fu/longevity noodles with black mushrooms & snow peas

shrimp & scallops over pan-fried noodles

deep-fried salt & pepper soft shell crabs

Shanghai shrimp over baby bok choy

fried rice with duck & basil

steamed whole flounder on the bone with scallions & ginger

deep-fried crispy whole Chilean sea bass on the bone in spicy bean sauce

crispy duck with garden vegetables

nian gao sticky rice cakes with pork, mushrooms & cauliflower

dessert

egg custard pastries

eight treasure sticky rice

sweet Chinese meringue soup with tang yuan/sticky rice balls

orange wedges for prosperity

 

The Leab family's Ioka Valley Farm, 413 738-5915, Route 43 1/2 mile west of Jiminy Peak Resort, 4 miles east of Route 22 in Hancock, did their first maple sap-to-syrup boil last Thursday, Feb. 4. They say that the flavor of this year's syrup is delicious.

Maple season has begun!

Judy and Donald Leab's son Rob and his wife, Melissa, built up the syruping side of the farm over the last nearly 25 years. Now, Ioka Valley has a big guest/visitor component to their farm. Their Calf-A will start serving their well-known pancake meals, with their own syrup and other seasonal goodies this Saturday, Feb. 13, between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. They'll be open every Saturday and Sunday between those hours through Sunday, April 10. They will also be open from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., every day this coming Presidents Week.

You can watch the syrup being made, buy some, and eat a meal featuring maple syrup. Really, it is the time and local, traditional spot to give in to your carb fix and know you are sustaining the community as well as your taste buds.

Ioka Valley Farm posted this easy comfort sweet on their Facebook page last week. I've adapted it for Berkshire Tidbits. Wouldn't it be perfect to cut into little hearts for your Valentines?

Easy Maple Fudge

1/2 pound butter

1/2 pound maple sugar

1 pound confectioners sugar

On lowest heat, in a heavy medium size pot, melt butter. Add maple sugar. Keep on lowest heat.

While still in the pot on the stove, mix the butter and maple sugar with beater on low speed. Continue mixing until smooth.

Add confectioners sugar. Still in the pot on the stove on the lowest heat, mix all by hand with a wooden spoon.

Once well blended, press into a well buttered pan.

Let set until firm. Cut in pieces as you choose.

Enjoy!

Other sugar houses, especially those that serve syrup-focused meals during sugaring season, will be featured soon.

 


Raspberry Hamentaschen. Congregation Knesset Israel made 6,000 to sell for Purim.

For the last couple of weeks, Berkshire volunteer bakers have met to bake about 6,000 Hamentaschen in the kosher kitchen of Congregation Knesset Israel synagogue in Pittsfield to get ready for the holiday of Purim which precedes the Passover seder by about a month.

Hamentaschen are filled cookie triangles traditionally filled with honeyed poppy seeds or thickened dried apricots or prune spread/lekvar. Here in the Berkshires, Hamentaschen are most commonly filled with raspberry or apricot preserves.

The synagogue sells the Hamentaschen by the dozen for $12 a bag. If you would like some, contact office manager Diana Macfarlane, 413-445-4872, Ext. 10, to get an order form. Fill it out and return it with payment by Friday, Feb. 19. Pickup will be at a date in March yet to be announced.

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