Fall goodies,…

I thought it might be fun to post a couple of simple recipes we’ve enjoyed here at Chez Shaw as this glorious Fall continues to unfold!  One of my favorite things about cooking is finding new treatments for ingredients that we’ve treated traditionally for SO long!  Growing up in the Adirondacks, pumpkin was solely the stuff of pies, pies that my Grandma Shaw baked to the delight of the entire town of Lake George!  Grandma was a Pie Goddess, and used to make a regular sized pie for dinner and a “snitching pie” for us kids.  What’s a “snitching pie” you ask?  Easy,…a small, kid sized pie that would magically appear in the window of the laundry for “cooling”, a window just high enough that 10 year old boys needed to get on one another’s shoulders to reach said pie.  Once absconded with, the pie would be wolfed down quickly while cries of “Pie thieves!!! Pie thieves!!!  Call the police!!!” would echo through the pines amidst the chuckles from Grandpa who found our foray into the world of crime pretty damned amusing.  This would happen at least twice a week through the fall to the utter delight of all participants!

So what we’re going to do here today is pretty simple, I’m going to serve up two recipes, one traditional and one not so traditional so you can savor a taste of our kind of Fall wherever you may be.  As good as her pumpkin pie was, her “piesta resistance” was Grandma Shaw’s Apple Pie so we’ll include that one here along with a whole new way to treat pumpkins!

Pumpkin Chipotle Soup

This is a wonderful, quick soup that works as a main dish with a compliment of cornbread, or as a great accent dish with your Mexican favorites! Even my kids gobble this one down!

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

4 cups vegetable stock

1 can of pumpkin 29 ounces

2 canned chipotle peppers

1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream

2 tablespoons sofrito

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon paprika

Garnish: shredded Monterey Jack cheese and fresh chopped cilantro

Cut flour into butter with a fork and cook over medium heat until light brown and bubbly Add vegetable stock and whisk until smooth and slightly thickened Whisk in pumpkin until smooth Fine chop the chipotle peppers and stir in Add remaining ingredients and cook over medium heat for 8 minutes Garnish and serve Note: Holds well in low crock pot! Grandma Shaw’s Apple Pie A sure fire favorite, first time, every time. 6 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2 ” thick slices 1/3 cup all purpose flour 1 cup light brown sugar 1 cup white sugar 2 TBS cinnamon 2 TBS nutmeg 1 TSP ground cloves 1 shot Canadian whiskey 1 TSP vanilla extract Pie crust: 2 cups all purpose flour plus a titch for dusting the work surface 3 TBS sugar 1/4 TSP kosher salt 1/2 lb. (two sticks) of cold butter cut into cubes 1 large egg yolk 3 or 4 TBS cold milk Stir flour, sugar and salt together in a large bowl Add butter and cut mixture together with two knives until crumbly “corn meal” consistency is achieved Whisk milk and egg yolk together and mix with flour mixture until a ball of dough is formed, add 1TSP more milk if necessary Place in refrigerator for 1 Hr. then divide in two and roll out 2 pie crusts Preheat oven to 425 degrees 1. Combine all dry ingredients in a paper bag 2. Mix apples and dry ingredients in paper bag 3. Arrange apple slices in bottom pie crust and pour remaining dry ingredients over the apples 4. Mix whiskey and vanilla extract and drizzle over apple mixture 5. Crimp top crust in place and cut vent slices for steam to escape Place a 2″ tin foil guard over the edge of the pie crust and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, remove foil guard for the last ten minutes. Serve warm with a slice of sharp cheddar cheese, preferably from Oscar’s Smokehouse in Warrensburg NY.  (Although a fire closed Oscar’s they’re rebuilding even as you read this!) Get eatin’!

Fall in full swing,…

This is my favorite time of year,…(if only trout season went later into the fall!!!  Alas!)  After an early cold blast, and snow in the North Country, we’ve settled into a classic fall season in the foothills.  I remember this time of year up on Lake George when I was a boy.  As soon as school was out, I’d head for my Boston Whaler as fast as my bike would carry me!  Sometimes I’d link up with Kevin out on the lake somewhere, and we’d cruise around in the outboards.  The smell of woodsmoke hung over the water, curling up from the chimneys on shore, and the campfires of the hardy fall campers out on the islands.  Fall is really the best kept secret in the Adirondacks.  Almost everything is still open, on the weekends at least.  There are no bugs, and no crowds!

Here’s the waterfront in Lake George where I grew up.  The scene you see here is pretty representative of what you can expect to see if you head up there soon.  Do yourself a favor and pack a picnic lunch, grab the fishing poles, and a couple of lawn chairs and set up on the “sea wall” on the Beach Road in town.  Get some minnows for bait, and a couple of big bobbers.  Bring your binoculars and camera, and a thermos full of good hot cocoa.  You can’t go wrong,…take my word for it!

If you go all the way back toward the Northway on the village streets, you’ll come to the trailhead for the Prospect Mountain trail.  There’s a cat walk that brings you over Rt. 87 and starts you on your way to the top!  It’s not a very difficult climb, and yields some pretty spectacular views, as you can see here.  This was my backyard as a kid, there was no Rt. 87 to cross, just a pine forest with a spongy forest floor that we used to think mimicked walking on the moon!  If you’re quiet, you may see deer or a host of other wildlife on the way up.  Make sure you carry water and some good trail food with you and make sure to dress properly.

If you want some guidance in that regard, I suggest you stop at the headquarters of the Adirondack Mountain Club on the Luzerne Rd. just south of town.  These folks protect the natural world that makes the Adirondacks the great experience it is, and membership can provide the information and camaraderie to really enhance your experience!  They’re great folks, ADK membership comes on my highest recommendation.

Meanwhile, back at the Shaw Ranch it’s soccer season!  Tink is the captain of the JV team, and Silas and his buddy Dan pictured here are banging and bouncing their way through their season of club level play.  I guess it doesn’t really matter how we get out there to enjoy the outdoors, but we’d all better take advantage of this glorious Fall while we can, for the season that’s approaching is going to require a whole other skill set for us to enjoy ourselves outdoors!

A trip up North,…just for fun

You may ask, “When it looks like this in your backyard, why are you driving for hours to go up north?  Easy,…the Adirondack Museum’s Fishing Derby for Kids!  Silas had this in his sights since we missed it last year, there was NO way he was going to miss it this year!

The ride up was pretty amazing, if this isn’t peak color, I don’t know what is.  The scene here to the left is Gore Mountain, which was absolutely on fire!  As we drove up we stopped to take a few shots along the way, and Silas played me some of “his” music on the iPod.  A light sprinkle turned to mist as we climbed higher into the mountains.

Lake Durant

The parking pull off at Lake Durant is one of my favorite “easy access” views in the central Adirondacks.  As you can see here, the foliage was unbelievable.  A small flock of wood ducks rocketed across the water about six inches off the surface.  As I looked out over the lake, I remembered a friend saying the fishing was quite good here, and the small campsite was really excellent.  I’m thinking an overnight there next summer might be in order, and if that happens I’ll post a complete report here.  It’s really easy to get to, not too far off the Northway, and would be a really family friendly location with easy access to food and other supplies.

When we arrived at the Museum, the sky cleared, the temperature came up a good fifteen degrees.  As you can see here, the grounds were every bit as colorful as the roadside view on the way up.  The Museum was packed with visitors from all over this country and Canada.  As Silas and I headed down to grab lunch at the cafe, folks passed us with an amazing bouquet of accents from southern drawls to Quebecois .

This is the view from the Cafe, Blue Mountain Lake looking south towards the Marion River Carry.  There was no boat traffic at all, and I couldn’t help but think this same view hasn’t changed for many, many years.  Except for the camp on the island, this was the same view Native Americans saw for years before my family came here in the 1700s.  The food was great, and the music of my buddy Dan Berggren wafted across the dining room from the cd player at the counter.  I would have been happy to sit there for quite some time, but we had to move on, and get Silas registered for the fishing tournament.

Silas couldn’t resist a try on the stilts in front of the old school house on the way up to the pond where registration was located.  He’s been coming to the Museum as long as he can remember, trying activities like this one, making toy boats, wandering through the exhibits, and even listening to his old man play songs and tell the tales he learned  here in these mountains when he was his age.

The pond at the Marion River Carry exhibit was already buzzing with activity as kids hit the eight different stations trying to catch the trout stocked there last spring.  The pond has to be drained each fall to avoid ice damage, and that means the kids get a shot at fishing for some really respectable trout.  As I stood on the dock a rainbow in the 20″ class glided easily under the dock as kids casted frantically trying to get it’s interest. Clearly, it was going to be a challenging day on the water for these young anglers.

While some were watching the action on the water, others were  watching volunteers from Trout Unlimited tie flies, and give  casting lessons on the lawn.  The museum staff helped the kids trace, weigh, and clean their catch.  As Silas and I perused some of the tracings of fish caught earlier in the day, it became obvious there were some monsters in there.  The little spin cast rigs handed out at the registration desk would be tested to the max.

Silas’s frustration with the kiddy pole was palpable.  Worm fishing is not his cup of tea, but he busted out cast after cast as the shell shocked trout became tougher and tougher to engage.

Finally, he abandoned the spin cast rig with the Superman decal on the reel, and grabbed Dad’s  9′ St. Croix fly rod.  A quick switch to his first choice river fly, the Montana, and he was back in business.  The Montana is a stonefly imitation, and I had no idea if these fish had ever seen a stonefly, but the return of his confidence was obvious as he worked the fly across the rocky bottom.  All of the sudden there was a flash across the bottom, the fly line straightened out, and Silas let him have it!  The fish ran back and forth across the face of the dock, finally breaking water less than six feet in front of him.  Folks gathered round as Silas guided him to the front of the dock, I reached down with the net and,…

Silas capped our season with a 12″ Brook trout,…that’s my boy!  Boy, it’s gonna be a LONG winter waiting for the next time we can do this up here again, but what a year it was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last trout of the season,...

Ahhhh,…Fall

Although the color wasn’t peak, the peaks had great color for the 21st installment of Field, Forest, and Stream, the festival that celebrates all that is Adirondack each year at the Essex County seat, Elizabethtown, NY.  Bill Smith, Ben Raino, Akwesasne Women’s Singers Katsitsionni, and I kicked things off with an hour and a half of stories about the North Country from some pretty diverse perspectives!

Bill and I were at the first Field, Forest. and Stream 21 years ago.  We sat in a little gazebo in the gardens of the Adirondack History Museum while the snow came in sideways so hard somebody put up a card table over on the side to block the wind, while Roy Hurd literally scraped the snow off the side of my hat!  Over those 21 years I’ve been there more times than not, some times in snow storms, sometimes in 90 degrees!  Caroline Thompson of the Arts Council for the Northern Adirondacks has organized every one, but I’m afraid if the town and the county don’t take a more prominent role here, Elizabethtown will lose one of, (if not it’s biggest), tourist traffic days, and the Adirondacks will lose their premier showcase of Adirondack arts and culture.  Bill, here to the left,  is not only an icon as a storyteller, but is also a master pack basket maker, a skill learned a a boy from his Akwesasne neighbors, a greatly overlooked staple of the fabric of Adirondack life.

I guess it’s no secret to anyone here that I’m passionate about preserving  the culture of this region where I grew up as a boy.  Here to the right are some folks preserving the great basketmaking tradition gifted to us from the Akwesasne people.  It may look like a parlor activity, but I’m here to tell you it’s hard work.  Until you’ve gone up to Bill Smith’s house and pounded ash splints from a log with the back of a single bit axe, it’s hard to fully appreciate that fact.  Some of the baskets at the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake are over a hundred years old, a testament to the design and artistry developed in the Akwesasne culture for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Here to the left you see the Akwesasne Women’s Singing Society, who appeared at the festival.  They not only sang, but danced as well, and invited the audience to join them as they wove in and out of the festival goers and activities!  The Singing Society is charged with the responsibility of assistance and support to those in the community who have suffered a loss of some sort.  The majority of the songs are written in the Mohawk language with the help of fluent Mohawk speaking people in the community.  They believe, as do I, that if their language dies, so will the Akwesasne Nation, because without language they would have no culture.  Through their songs they honor our Mother the Earth, our Grandmother the Moon and all that is natural to us.

Here we see a group of Elizabethtown and local natives recounting the many years celebrated with the Maple Festival, a pillar of Elizabethtown’s Adirondack heritage.  No matter where you go up here, there is a proud heritage of local traditions that have somehow survived the ravages of time and “progress”.  Often it’s simple stuff, but simply delightful to experience.  That’s why this festival is so vital to the preservation of the culture and flavor of the North Country.  Where else can people go for a one day smorgasbord of the things that make the Adirondacks unique?  If going to the woods is all folks want, there’s plenty of places to go all over New England, but THIS is the stuff that sets us apart.  If you agree, please hit the “Leave Comment” button at the top of the page and tell us what YOU think.

My weekend didn’t end there, but rather just began.  Then I headed north to an “undisclosed location”, (read here- I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,… ; >)  It was the swan song to this extraordinary fly fishing season, a season that led me north twice with my boys, Tink and Silas, who went from neophytes to solid fishermen in the last two seasons.  The weather was less than ideal, but I don’t give a hoot, the same group of crazy guys I’ve gone up there with for over 20 years was installed in the cabin and ready to usher out a season that has had no rival in my tenure there.  The rain and cloudy weather may have confounded many a beach goer this summer, but for those of us with staff and rod, it was the stuff of stories that will be told around the campfire for years to come.  Hell,…some of them will even be true,…

Our venerable grill chef, Lew, seared the filets to perfection once more in the traditional dinner that ends the season for our group.  Other than Len Kilian and his son Chris, Lew is the only member senior to me in this group that has fished through heat waves and blizzards over the years.  The pavilion you see here has hosted impromptu concerts by John Kirk, Bill Tripp, Jack Hume, Curt Stager, Chris Kilian, and myself for better than twenty years.  The rest of the time we build a modest fire, sit quietly, and sip our sarsaparilla, in a humorless, subdued discussion of the days events.  (Are they buying that, Larkin?)

We don’t do all the cooking, each morning we go to the local diner for breakfast.  You’ll notice the locals have had the good sense to clear the streets so no one gets trampled as the boys head in for breakfast.  Of course we remain in that same subdued demeanor here, never being boisterous or outspoken.  We simply eat our healthy fare of whole grains, fruits, nuts and berries with local organically fed goat’s milk before heading out to the streamside.

(Hey Larkin,…are they still buying it?)

The Grand Master holds court,...

This is the scene after breakfast as we ponder the logistics of the days fishing.  Places with such colorful names as the Washing Machine, Kirk’s Glide, the Grand Staircase, Seven Ferns, and Shaw’s Delight are all fair game as we fan out over the river.  This is our Fearless Leader, our Grand Pubaah, Le Grand Frommage,…Len Kilian.  Here we see him making that daring fashion statement only he can pull off, the rakish tilt of the club hat coupled with devil-may-care flowing sweatshirt, finished with the shocking white sock-moccasin combo.  But then again,…he always was a slave to fashion.

Below you see another picture of Barnum Pond, it’s not a particularly good one, but conditions were less than favorable that day.  I posted a much better one almost exactly a year ago when I started this blog.  Go to the very bottom of this page and hit “older entries”, and scroll back to see it.  I’m going to try to take a picture of the pond every year at this time to remind us all of the importance of tradition.  As Len has often said, and as it appears on the crest of our club, “DFWT”  (Don’t Fool With Tradition)

Flashback,…

Midnight on the water,...

It seemed amazing tonight, I looked up at the moon rising, and I was swept back to my years as a teenager in Lake George.  Labor Day was the Great Divide,…the tourists left town in the blink of an eye.  Yesterday the streets teamed with people, and on this night, the newspapers blew down Main St., and the music from the jukebox at the Peppermint Lounge  echoed down through the penny arcades and the smell of carmelcorn and pizza wafted on the breeze. The sound of your own heels on the pavement rang in the advent of returning to school, and making some life changing decisions.  Imagine a kid from Lake George feeling a complete connection to a kid from Asbury Park, NJ,…right Kevin?

Summer,…(man, that was fast!)

As I sit here on Labor Day, I can’t believe the summer’s over!  Oh, I know, technically it goes on for a couple more weeks, but if you’ve got kids in school, Labor Day is definately the finish line!  We had SO many great Adirondack adventures, as well as travels that took us to Maine, Tanglewood, and other cool locations.  But now our attention will shift to Fall activities, as will the content here.  But first a little glance over our shoulder in pictures,…Some would argue, (and I would be among them), that Fall is the perfect time to go to the Adirondacks.  I’ll be up there quite a bit this fall, and will be posting ideas for day trips, hikes, and cool ways to enjoy the views and foliage as we dive into the next season!

Sometimes, it's the little things,...

Silas and "the big one",...

On the trail to John Pond,...

A trailside peak,...

Tranquility,...

Summer concert highlights,…

Bill Smith and I go back farther than either of us really want to admit.  Bill was singing Adirondack songs and telling whoppers before I ever came on the scene, and was kind, and supportive to me from the git go.   We both went on to be in the storytelling troupe “The Adirondack Liars Club”, founded by our dear friend, the late Vaughn Ward.  We’ve performed together at festivals, concerts, and special events all over the place  On a beautiful night in early August Bill and I, and Vaughn’s husband George got together to sing and lie our butts off for “Author’s Night” at Hoss’s Country Store in Long Lake, NY.  I’ve featured Hoss’s in this blog previously, but wanted to give you a taste of that special night when authors, musicians, and artists from the Adirondacks converge on Long Lake for the quintessential “Gathering of the Clan”!

George Ward is an amazing guy.  He’s a multi-instrumental performer of original and traditional songs, not only the Adirondacks, but also the Erie Canal.  As a matter of fact, I’d say George is the leading expert on Erie Canal songs, lore, and history.  He’s been a major figure in both the Caffe Lena and Old Songs for as long as I can remember, and a staple on the folk scene in upstate NY.  But most of all he’s fun to listen to, he has the ability to make you feel like you’re traveling in time as he performs, not like some slick guitar slinger, but as a guy that’s actually been there.  If you’re linking to this on Facebook, try to “friend” him, if you’re cruising the web go to www.mulesong.com.

Bill Smith is the real deal.  Born and bred in the Adirondack foothills, he brings a lifetime of rich regional experience to every performance of the songs and stories of his native North Country.  The first time I saw him I almost fainted, as he so closely resembles my late Uncle Walt!  Who knows, maybe we’re related?  (People have often said the Adirondacks have a gene pool you can’t get your high top sneakers wet in,…)

All that aside, don’t miss the opportunity to see Bill in action.  His shows will have you falling off the chair with laughter,…and just maybe leave you with a bit of a tear in your eye at the same time.  Watch the master at work :http://galenfrysinger.us/adirondack_tales_copy(3).htm

All in all, the summer shows were an absolute blast!  This summer is flying by at a lightspeed pace, but my shows for this season have come to a close.  These last couple of weeks will be spent with the family doing all the stuff folks do this time of year.  The boys and I just hit the river for a fly fishing blitz one last time for the season, an entry on that will follow soon right here on the blog.  Get out there and get wet, get hiking, get to the track, BBQ a beast, and laugh till you can’t stand up!

Next,… the fall shows

Adirondack icons and Vistas,…

Here we see the Racquette River at Tupper Lake, a fresh water ecosystem at it’s Bass bustin’ best!  This is the view you’ll get on Rt. 30 as you head for the Wild Center, and once you spend a day there, you’ll never look at this scene quite the same again!This is the Wild Center in the dead of winter, your view during the summer months is much different as you and your family will have the chance to experience the Adirondacks here as few have in the past.  I took he boys there last summer, and was absolutely astounded at the breadth of the experience!  From the otter pool where wild river otters splash and play right in front of you, to the trout tanks , to the labyrinth of trails surrounding the center itself, there is no better introduction to the natural world of the Adirondacks than tis outstanding facility.  There’s food onsite, plenty of benches, and programs running throughout the day.  Don’t miss it!

Further down Rt. 30 you’ll find the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, NY.  Above you’ll find Silas standing in the BIG Chair out in front of the main entrance, probably one of the most photographed sites in the Park!  This year, on both August 10th and 11th I’m leading musical tours through the museum for the general public!  No two tours are quite the same, and if you haven’t been up to the Museum in a while, this is the time to come up!

There’s always something cool going on at the Museum!  Here you see some of the staff and volunteers teaching folks how an Adirondack lean-to is built by actually building one!  That’s right, they start with the logs and go from there.  Having been one of the artists-in-residence there over the years, it never fails to amaze me how kids and adults alike flock to all these hands on presentations.  Some of the folks you least expect to want to dig in are the first ones to pitch in!

Leave it to my boys to find the trout in any given situation!  Here’s Silas again, feeding the trout at the Marion River Station exhibit in the middle of the Museum grounds.  Every day about 12:30 one of the volunteers will help anybody interested feed these beauties.  The days of a museum being a spectator sport have come and gone!  When you come to the Adirondack Museum, you’re right in the middle of it!  From basket making, fly fishing, primitive camping, logging exhibits, millionaire’s railroad cars, and even a song or two, your day at the museum will be one you and the family will remember for years to come!

If you haven’t been to Hoss’s Country Store in Long Lake, NY, you’ve missed an Adirondack icon.  To paraphrase Garrison Keillor, “If you can’t find it at Hoss’s, you can probably get along without it!”  From fish hooks to flapjacks, hiking staffs to coffee tables, Hoss’s provides the weary traveler with pretty much anything they can ask for!  They have a legendary collection of Adirondack books and music, and have featured my stuff for longer than John Hosley and I want to admit!  Every year they offer “Author’s Night”, when they invite the authors and musicians in their collection to have a “meet and greet” with the public right there at the intersection of Rt. 28 and Rt. 30!  I’ll be there this August the 11th at 7 PM, come up, grab an ice cream and say hello!

North River, North Woods CD Release concert

It was quite a day in the North Country for Dan Berggren, John Kirk, Cedar Stanistreet and myself, as we played a “double header” concert at the Tannery Pond Community Center to celebrate the release of our new CD, “North River, North Woods”.  For years we’ve threatened to do a project together, but coordinating the schedules of five touring musicians is like trying to get cats to do water ballet.  As it was we couldn’t coordinate getting Ann Downey to  join us as she had commitments in British Columbia.  Ann, who was kind enough to take time from her busy schedule with the primere Canadian folk group”Finest Kind” to grace the new album with her incredible vocals, will hopefully join us next time!

The album was the vision of this man, my good friend Len Kilian.  For better than 20 years Len has counseled me on everything from rushing to judgement, to rushing my backcast!  A dear friend of his, with direct ties to North River and the log driving era, took the financial burden off the project, and we were off and flying.  Little did we suspect this flight would take 3 years, but did I mention the “Cat Water Ballet” scenario before?  In addition to being the catalyst for the recording itself, Len also graced the stage with the reading of a poem by the great Adirondack poet Jeanne Robert Foster, who was also a great personal friend of Len and his wife Mary, who also joined us on that special day.

Tannery Pond Community center is located in the center of North Creek village, and is an incredible venue.  A wide variety of art is presented there from almost all disciplines.  Don’t miss the opportunity to visit when you head up that way.

For more information go to: http://www.larac.org/Organ_of_Month/2005/Tannery_Pond_Community_Center.html

Here you see John and I wailing away at one of our old traditional favorites, “The Ballad of Blue Mountain Lake”.  We got the audience to sing along on the chorus and had a grand old time!  As usual, John played everything but the kitchen sink,…banjos, guitars, mandolins, fiddles,…geesh, isn’t there anything this guy can’t pick??!??!?!

To that end, we had this special instrument handcrafted especially for John.  A bevy of Bavarian clockmakers- turned- luthiers worked for over 10 years to create the masterpiece you see pictured below.  John, we expect you to have The Ride of the Valkyries ready to go for the next concert on this little beauty,…

In addition to our wailings and moanings, Dan and Cedar ripped through some smoking Quebecois fiddle tunes and great ballads to really set the tone for the evening.

Cedar graduated at the top of his class at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY for violin performance!  He then headed out for Boston where he’s learning to MAKE the violins he, and others will play!  He actually made the violin he performed on at the shows!  John announced he had “dibbs” on the fifth instrument Cedar comes out with and spent a good amount of time playing the one you see Cedar playing here.  Above you see Cedar “holding court” as curious concert goers wanted a better look at is handiwork.  I certainly had no intention of letting Cedar get out of there without playing a tune or two with him myself!  As you can see below, we managed to pull that one off as well!

All in all it was a memorable night, good friends sharing good music and more than a couple of laughs!  We’ll be doing it again on August 15 ant the Nakidenna Educational Center in Greenfield Center, NY.  Check the website at www.chrisandbridget.com for the information on that, and all the other concerts over the summer!  If this first concert of the summer is any indication, it’s going to be quite a summer!

More Adirondack chow halls,…

Above:  Lew Bowers and I grilling for the boys, as Kilian watches on the right behind the green stool,…(if you believe that, I have some swamp land for you,…)

; >)

The Algonquin

Rt 9, Bolton Landing, NY

Yup,…there’s no end to the culinary possibilities in the North Country!  We’ll be visiting quite a few right here, in no particular order.  I thought I’d start out with one close to where I grew up.  Bolton Landing is only a few miles up Rt. 9N from my old stomping grounds of Lake George.  I’ve seen a lot of restaurants come and go there over the years, but the Algonquin has stood tall for as long as I can remember.

This is the view from the deck area of the Algonquin, located just a mile or so south of the center of Bolton Landing village on Rt. 9N.  It’s been a favorite of the boating set for decades who come in seeking a quick bite, dinner, or one of their legendary Peach Daquaris.  As good as the view is, the food is better.  Their lunch menu “skates all the compulsories”, from killer burgers to a towering Club sandwich, but it’s their panninis that can’t be beat.  A fine selection of brews, local , national, and international, together with a good wine list ensure you won’t go away thirsty.

The dinner menu provides choices for either a full dinner, or lighter fare if you’re just gnoshing.  The Oscar selections, (Veal, Chicken, Filet, and Salmon) are all winners, but the steaks are the stars of this show.  Desserts change form season to season, but an after dinner drink on the deck is a must here!

Desperados

2090 Saranac Ave.

Lake Placid, NY

If a leprechaun in a sombrero seems a bit of a culinary/cultural oxymoron, put your mind at ease, the often seen proprietor ,Mr. Quinn, has put it all together here at Desperados.  There is another fine Mexican restaurant in the next town over that we’ll discuss another time, and the two are often compared by locals and visitors alike.  Both are very, very good,  and if competition sharpens their game, then we are the winners!

What Quinn has done here is pay attention to the basics.  From the basket of chips, (both flour and corn), to the two salsas, (both red and verde), Desperados flaunts its mastery of the details.  It offers all the choices you’d expect to find in a good Mexican restaurant in Old Town in San Diego, enchiladas, tacos, chimis, and even a fine Mole choice, but it’s the specials that change daily that really allow the kitchen to shine.  We’ve all had jalapeno poppers, generally a dismal disappointment with a heavily breaded, pathetically bland pepper, and a glob of non discript cheese.  At Desperados, their “Mexican Roulette” redeems the genre with five real, fresh, batter fried  jalapenos, stuffed with Monterey Jack and a jumbo shrimp.  This comes with a side ramekin of sour cream to temper the bite, and you’ll need it, these are NOT for the faint of heart!  A fine array of Mexican beers, and what seems like an endless choice of margaritas help put out the fire in time to cap it all off with to-die-for flan.