Posts Tagged ‘Magic Hat Brewery’

• One Big Block Party

  Date: 02.25.2010 | Category: Coming Up | Response: 0

  Move over Crescent City. It’s Burlington’s turn to let les bons temps rouler. The Magic Hat Mardi Gras Celebration in downtown Burlington, Vermont, opens with music at Higher Ground on Friday night. On Saturday, live bands on Church Street will fill the air with Cajun/Creole sounds as pubs and cafes will serve up tasty New Orleans fare.

  The King & Queen of Mardi Gras Costume Contest begins at noon outside City Hall. Winners are each awarded $500 and will help lead the Grand Parade with Magic Hat’s Alan Newman and Mayor Bob Kiss. The event, now in its fifteenth year, will benefit the Women’s Rape Crisis Center.

  • If you go, keep in mind: Smart revelers park their cars at Magic Hat HQ on Bartlett Bay Road in South Burlington or Burlington High School and take the free Mardi Gras shuttle into town.

  • Buy your beads to throw at the Magic Hat Mardi Gras Headquarters located in the old Maplehurst Florist shop on Church Street in Burlington. Sales benefit the WRCC.

  • It’s going to be chilly! Fingerless gloves are best for catching the beads, authentic Louisiana moon pies and Lake Champlain chocolates as they fly from the floats!

  • Families with children under 7 years old are welcome to catch the parade from the Little Jambalaya Viewing Zone, on the corner of Main Street and South Winooski.

  More Regional Events

  (All events take place in Vermont unless otherwise noted.)

  Thursday, February 25
  Ron Krupp, local author of Lifting the Yoke: Local Solutions to America’s Farm and Food Crisis offers up practical actions for Vermonters.  7 to 9 pm at Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier. Free.

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• Sea Fare for Hungry Revelers

  Date: 02.24.2010 | Category: Real Food | Response: 0

  Mardi Gras v1 took place early last week for most people. Not so for those revelers north of 44 degrees latitude. Mardi Gras v2 comes to downtown Burlington, Vermont, this weekend. The annual pre-Lenten blowout is sponsored by Magic Hat Brewery and includes great music, great food and great beer plus one absolutely awesome parade at 3 pm on Saturday.

  Long ago in Catholic countries, the period after Mardi Gras meant seven weeks of meat-free meals. Butcher shops closed until Easter Saturday while fishmongers took up the slack, selling boatloads of salt cod to the faithful. It’s that salt cod tradition that inspires today’s recipe for brandade, a rib-sticking cod-and-potato classic from southern France. You’ll find it’s the perfect warming dish to serve after spending the afternoon outdoors catching beads and moon pies thrown by the kings and queens of the Mardi Gras parade.

  Brandade
  from the FarmPlate Kitchen
  Here’s one for slow food fans—the salt cod needs soaking for 1 to 2 days. After that, however, the recipe takes only about 20 minutes to prepare.

  A note on salt cod: Most of the cod fisheries in the Atlantic are too fragile to be considered sustainable, but Pacific cod is a different story. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) just last month certified two important Alaskan cod fisheries as sustainable. Some of that harvest makes its way to Brazil and southern Europe to be turned into salt cod. Look for the MSC sustainability label whenever you buy salt cod.

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• Here’s to the Holiday Pour!

  Date: 12.16.2009 | Category: Real Food | Response: 0

  Localvores and beverage enthusiasts alike have much to celebrate this holiday season. Brewing, vinifying, distilling and bottling are thriving businesses in Vermont today. We’ve started a list of just a few Vermont-produced beverages you might enjoy serving this season. We’d love to hear from you as well—tell us about your favorite pours and drink concoctions.

  

  After Skating Warm-Ups
  Serve warm mugfuls of Boyden Valley Winery’s Glogg.

  Sweeten hot apple cider from Vermont’s many fine cider mills (Champlain Orchards, Cold Hollow Cider Mill and Flag Hill Farm to name just a few) with a touch of maple syrup.

  Make hot chocolate from any of Lake Champlain Chocolates‘ five to-die-for cocoa mixes, topped with whipped Vermont cream, of course.

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• Chef Doug Mack Keeps It Local and Lively

  Date: 11.27.2009 | Category: Restaurant Beat | Response: 1

  Nestled at the base of the Green Mountains, Mary’s Restaurant at the Inn at Baldwin Creek is a Mecca for sustainably minded diners. Chef/owner Doug Mack has been cooking up local foods at this Bristol, VT, establishment for 25 years — long before “localvore” entered anyone’s lexicon.

  Mack is well known on the Vermont food scene. He was a founding member and first president of the Vermont Fresh Network, established in 1996, and he is active in the local Slow Food movement. His new winter menu boasts 21 Vermont Farm Partners, including Baldwin Creek Gardens — right out the kitchen door.

  For foodies who like to chew on ideas, Mary’s Restaurant is a hub for lively discussions on the politics of food and current food trends. Mack hosts a monthly Friday evening series called Table Talks: Side Dishes for Thought, which brings together authors, food producers and other interested folks to keep abreast of the latest culinary topics, both local and global. Mack prepares a farm-fresh, three-course meal before each talk, which he designs especially around the evening’s theme.

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• VT Conference to Focus on Cultural Aspects of Food

  Date: 11.12.2009 | Category: Coming Up | Response: 1

  Food writers, food producers and food policy makers will gather this Friday and Saturday (November 13-14) at the Vermont Humanities Council’s 36th annual fall conference ”Food for Thought,” which takes place at The Essex, in Essex, VT. The diverse group of food enthusiasts will examine the artistic, ceremonial, cultural and social implications of food.

  “Food shapes social organizations, from families to nations,” says Mark Fitzsimmons, conference director. “We want to look at the ways in which we use food for those purposes. Food is a joyous, sensuous experience, and we can’t lose sight of that.”

  Conference highlights include:

  • On Friday, a lively conversation about the revolution in American food in the past 50 years between Darra Goldstein, executive editor of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, and Judith Jones, renowned editor of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and vice president of Knopf publishing. Noted Vermont author Marialisa Calta will moderate.
  • On Saturday morning, Nils Daulaire, former president and CEO of the Global Health Council, delivers the plenary address, ”The Future of Food in a Hungry World,” discussing the relationship between health, food security and global politics.
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