Waiting patiently at Kent Animal Shelter is Shea, a gorgeous 4-year-old calico with the sweetest personality. She is a smaller sized cat even though she is full grown but she has a huge heart! If you are looking for a cute, petite cat with a wonderful personality, then Shea is the girl for you! Lets find this sweet girl a home! Shea comes spayed, microchipped and is up to date on all her vaccines.
Kent Animal Shelter is located at 2259 River Road in Calverton. The adoption center is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day. For more information on Shea and other adoptable pets at Kent, visit www.kentanimalshelter.com or call 631-727-5731.
Augustus Gloop and his mother are interviewed
after finding the golden ticket.
Willy Wonka and his friends, the Oompa Loompas
A scene from 'Willy Wonka Jr.'
By Heidi Sutton
If your children have a sweet tooth and love live theater, why not head over to Smithtown and treat them to a scrumptious production of “Willy Wonka Jr.”? The Kids Performing for Kids show is currently in production at the Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts through June 24, and offers the perfect opportunity for young actors to hone their craft.
Directed by Christine Boehm, the play follows the original story closely, with all the wonderful music and unique characters (minus Slugworth) from the 1971 classic that we have come to love along with a few nods to the 2005 film (think nutty squirrels).
Charlie finds the last golden ticket.
Based on the 1964 novel “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl, the show stars Willy Wonka (Alex Mahr), the famous candy man who has not been seen or heard from since he closed his factory to the public years ago, even though Wonka sweets are still being produced. Now he reappears to stage a contest by hiding golden tickets in five of his chocolate bars. Whoever finds a golden ticket will receive a free tour of the Wonka factory along with a lifetime supply of chocolate. But Wonka has an ulterior motive. He would like to retire and is looking for a child to take over his candy empire.
As each golden ticket is found, the audience is introduced to the winner — Augustus Gloop (Dylan O’Leary), Veruca Salt (Cassidy Torns), Violet Beauregarde (Erika Hinson) and Mike Teavee (Michael Puglisi) in one of the funniest scenes in the show, revealing all their little quirks, nasty habits and bad manners as their overindulging parents cringe.
When Charlie Bucket (Olivia Cox), a poor young boy from a loving family, finds the last ticket, he picks his Grandpa Joe (Logan O’Leary) to accompany him on the tour. As the afternoon progresses, each child misbehaves in the factory and is led away by the Oompa Loompas until only Charlie is left. Will he receive the keys to the factory or be punished for sampling the Fizzy Lifting Drinks?
The cast, ranging in age from 6 to 18, does an incredible job portraying the story and its overlying message to think positive, and the many numbers, especially “The Candy Man,” “Pure Imagination,” “Oompa Loompa” and “I Want It Now,” are executed beautifully. Costumes by Ronald Green III are top notch, from the green wigs on the Oompa Loompas to Willy Wonka’s top hat and coat. Designed by Mike Mucciolo, the dazzling set, complete with lollipops and candy mushrooms with “whipped cream,” are right out of Wonka’s pure imagination. Get your golden ticket today!
Running time is 2 hours and 20 minutes. Candy and water will be sold during intermission and booster seats are available. Meet Willy Wonka, Charlie Bucket and Grandpa Joe in the lobby after the show for photos and autographs. An autograph page is conveniently located on the back of the program.
The Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts, located at 2 East Main St., Smithtown will present “Willy Wonka Jr.” through June 24. Children’s theater continues with “Pinkalicious The Musical” from July 14 to Aug. 19 and “Mary Poppins” from Sept. 15 to Oct. 28. All seats are $15. To order, call 631-724-3700 or visit www.smithtownpac.org.
“No matter what the story is, it’s all under the same sky.”
Author Sarah Beth Durst
In her new young adult novel, “The Stone Girl’s Story,” Sarah Beth Durst has created a genuinely unique universe where those of flesh and blood (human and animal) coexist with animate stone creatures.It is a fascinating conceit and she has populated a world where often the creatures of stone have more humanity and self-awareness than their living counterparts.
The book is an original take on the traditional Wizard of Oz-style journey. In this case, Mayka, a stone girl, leaves the mountain to rescue her stone companions. What has shifted in the secure retreat is that Father (the Stone Mason who carved them) has passed away and their markings have begun to fade. The markings are at the center of the story as they are at the heart of their stories: It is these designs that not only give them being but also individuality and purpose.
The carved designs define them. For instance, the cat, Kalgrey, is engraved with “This is Kalgrey the cat. Sharp of tongue and claws, nimble of paws and mind. She climbed the top of the chimney and scolded the sun and then slept when it hid, frightened behind a cloud.” But there is more to Kalgrey: as she “curl[s] up every night by the door to watch over [them] … and keep the rats out of the chicken feed.” Durst captures these simple yet complicated souls in an eloquently poetic prose.
The book opens with a touching scene where Mayka is visiting a stone turtle who is no longer aware, as its marks have faded. The poignant tableau casts the shadow of what is happening and possibly what is to come. Her feelings toward her comrade establish who she is and what she is willing to risk to help this intimate community. Even though she cannot smell the flowers or shed tears (though she ponders what both would be like), she has a heart that is full of truth, honesty and compassion.
The cover jacket of ‘The Stone Girl’s Story’
The stone Badger, now the oldest of the group, gives Mayka a blessing of sorts to send her on: “We are family. No blood binds us, for we have no blood, but we are bound by time and love. You will carry our love and hope with you to the valley, and it will strengthen you.” With this kind benediction, she leaves the protected Eden (where the stone animals feed and care for the real ones) and embarks on an odyssey down the mountain, into the valley, and finally to the town of Skye, where her goal is to find a stonemason to return with her and restore the patterns.
She is accompanied by two stone birds:the cautious Risa and the outgoing chatterbox Jacklo, who provides a wholly enjoyable mix of on-the-nose as well as deadpan humor. On their way, they are joined by a whimsical 2-foot-high stone dragon, Siannasi Yondolada Quilasa — called Si-Si—who deeply yearns to find her purpose — her “story.”
“The Stone Girl’s Story” has a rich and accessible mythology, complete with the lore of how the first Stone Mason brought his work to life as well as a historical Stone War that devastated the society. It is this event that had far-reaching repercussions:Stone Masons went from revered to feared to something in-between, now sequestered in the Stone Quarter. (The departed Father turns out to have had a very important connection to the war and all that ensued.)
Mayka and her troupe become embroiled in the events surrounding the annual Stone Festival. It is here that they meet and join forces with a young man, Garit, who is apprenticed to Siorn, the stone mason. Siorn is a fully realized character, not merely an adversary and a villain; he is a dimensional human with his own deep-rooted beliefs (both dangerous and misguided).
Without revealing too much of the tightly woven and engaging plot, it is the challenges the quartet face and how they overcome them that encompasses the latter half of the adventure. Mayka and her mountain friends truly learn what it is to be “other” — both from humans and other stone creations.
While not illustrated, Durst paints in language so vivid that the tale leaps off the page. Her images are visceral. Prior to Mayka’s first experience in the city, her life has been pastoral. Now, she is overwhelmed by Skye’s tumult; the account leaves the reader in the midst of the chaos and is truly breathtaking: “Now that she was within the city, it seemed … too full, too much. This deep in the forest of people, she couldn’t see anything but more people.” Even gazing up, “the sky was only a thin streak of blue. But the roar of the city felt muffled, smothered by the walls.”
She takes in the surroundings and the inhabitants:
“They came in all shapes and sizes, wearing more colors than she knew existed: a boy in a more-orange-than-a-pumpkin hat, a woman wearing a dress of feathers, a man with a bare chest but a many-layered skirt with tassels dangling all around. Between them were stone creatures, plenty of them. Stone rats scurried through the street with rolls of paper strapped to their backs, carrying messages. A stone squirrel with a bucket around its neck was scrambling across the face of a building as it cleaned the windows. Other stone creatures — bears, wolves and bulls, some crudely carved and others exquisitely detailed — blocked the entrances to the fancier houses, acting as guards.”
Durst ponders what it is to be alive and the wonders of the natural universe (epitomized in a memorable depiction of butterfly migration). Time is relative and it is in how you use it, and she presents this in the contrast between mountain and valley worlds.
The book offers several important lessons without every overstating them or sacrificing the engaging narrative: That joy in living is freedom and we must be able to choose our own destinies … and that, ultimately, we have the ability not just to create but to change our own stories. Furthermore, it is not what we ask of others but of ourselves — and that our own untapped resources can be our deliverance. The powerful message is elegantly and honestly presented in a way that young people of all ages can comprehend the significance of this lesson. Like in “The Wizard of Oz,” the heroine seeks help but finally realizes she had the power within herself all along.
And, most of all, the book reminds us that “we make our stories our own.” It is that “everyone [has] a story that matter[s] most to them, that define[s] them.” “The Stone Girl’s Story” is that we are all need and hope — but, above all, we are potential. “I am the hero of my own story.” And that is a wonderful truth in a truly enchanting novel.
Sarah Beth Durst is the award-winning author of 15 fantasy books for kids, teens and adults. The master storyteller lives in Stony Brook with her husband, her children and her ill-mannered cat. Recommended for ages 10 to 12, “The Stone Girl’s Story,” published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Clarion Books, is available online at Barnes & Noble and Amazon. For more information, visit www.sarahbethdurst.com.
Arrangements of cut lilac flowers can brighten a room and fill a house with their delightful scent. Photo by Kyrnan Harvey
By Kyrnan Harvey
My wife cut a large bunch of lilac flowers yesterday and stuffed them in a pewter pitcher. We inherited an old shrub when we moved to East Setauket. English ivy was growing up its gnarly stems, a young black cherry was growing right through the clump and bittersweet had twisted itself up into the crown. There were only a couple blooms the first May here — the common lilac, Syringa vulgaris — but I immediately freed it and cut out cracked branches and each year it has been more bountiful.
Lilacs are deer-proof and otherwise very tough and durable shrubs that present wonderful colors and scents to the early spring garden. Most are in bloom for the second Sunday in May, but if you plant a few different types — early, mid, and late varieties — you can have that lilac scent in your garden — and home — for four weeks.
This week the earliest, the hyacinthiflora hybrids, may be about faded and finished. If you see a Syringa x hyacinthiflora label on a shrub in a garden center it will be a good variety: dark “Royal Purple” or reddish “Pocahontas” or “Maiden’s Blush.” Add one each year if you have the space. I planted an “Angel White” two years ago but so far it has been shy of flower.
Last year I discovered the gorgeous “Declaration,” with reddish tints in the purple, at a wholesale nursery. I gave one to mom and planted one myself. My son’s school bus driver apparently has a good eye for an unusual color so I got her one too. The common vulgaris lilac is not easily discerned from hybrids, but they flower a little later. I have my eye out for “Beauty of Moscow” (pink buds, white flowers), for “Primrose” (creamy yellow, most strongly perfumed), and for “Wonderblue,” but there are dozens of varieties, only a few of which are readily available commercially. Just avoid buying a plant merely labeled S. vulgaris, because it might be just a little too ordinary and there are so many good cultivars to seek out. My old stomping ground, the New York Botanical Garden, has an astounding collection, cataloged online. Hurry there and take notes.
A week or so after the common lilac, the so-called Canadian lilacs flower. Bred originally in Ottawa by a Miss Preston they are hybrids labeled S. x prestoniae. “Donald Wyman” has been readily available for as long as I can remember, and maybe “Red Wine,” but that’s about all.
Extend the lilac season with S. patula “Miss Kim” and S. meyeri “Palibin.” Known as Korean lilacs, they are both dwarfer than the old-fashioned varieties. “Miss Kim” is readily available, “Palibin” less so, though it has caught on in recent years. “Miss Kim” is a valuable addition for its flowering season well past all others, except the badly scented tree lilac.
“Palibin” has been a favorite of mine for a long time. It doesn’t get much taller than five or six feet and it spreads broadly, rooting in. I have dug up pieces for years and planted them in clients’ gardens. It flowers profusely in light shade, doesn’t get powdery mildew, and is twiggy with small leaves.
All the other varieties must have tons of sun. Even then, they might be shy of flowering, especially when still young. Avoid high-nitrogen fertilizer. Very old shrubs too can disappoint with flower production, and, moreover, be overgrown eyesores. Every few years you should cut to the ground a third of the gnarliest old stems, which encourages fresh new growth, and reduces the shrubs to better scale. Do this directly after flowering, and give them lime. Or — if you burn logs in your fireplace — spread the ash around your lilacs.
Kyrnan Harvey is a horticulturist and garden designer residing in East Setauket. For more information, visit www.boskygarden.com.
From left, Jon Longtin, Sotirios Mamalis and Benjamin Lawler. Photo courtesy of Stony Brook University
By Daniel Dunaief
It’s not exactly Coke and Pepsi designing a better soda. It’s not Nike and Reebok creating a more efficient sneaker. And, it’s not McDonald’s and Burger King uniting the crown and the golden arches. At Stony Brook University, it is, however, a combination of energy systems that haven’t historically worked together.
“Fuel cells and engines have been seen as competing technologies,” said Sotirios Mamalis, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at SBU. “The truth of the matter is that these two technologies are very complementary because of their operating principals.”
Indeed, Mamalis is the principal investigator on a multi-year project to create a hybrid fuel cell-engine system that recently won a $2.3 million award from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.
Working with Benjamin Lawler and Jon Longtin at Stony Brook and Tom Butcher, leader of the Energy Conversion Group at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Mamalis plans to build a system that uses solid oxide fuel cells partnered with a split-cylinder, internal combustion engine. The engine system will use the tail gas from the fuel cell to provide additional power, turning the inefficiency of the fuel cell into a source of additional energy.
“These ARPA-E awards are extremely competitive,” said Longtin, adding “If you land one of these, especially a decent-sized one like this, it can move the needle in a lot of ways in a department and at the university level.” The group expects that this design could create a system that generates 70 percent fuel to electricity efficiency. That is well above the 34 percent nationwide average.
Reaching that level of energy efficiency would be a milestone, said Longtin, a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stony Brook. The core of the idea, he suggested, is to take the exhaust from fuel cells, which has residual energy, and run that through a highly tuned, efficient internal combustion engine to extract more power. The second part of the innovation is to repurpose the cylinders in the engine to become air compressors. The fuel cell efficiency increases with higher pressure.
A fuel cell is a “highly efficient device at taking fuel and reacting it to produce DC electricity,” Lawler said. One of its down sides, aside from cost, is that it can’t respond to immediate needs. An engine is the opposite and is generally good at handling what Lawler described as transient needs, in which the demand for energy spikes.
The idea itself is ambitious, the scientists suggested. “These projects are high-risk, high-reward,” said Mamalis. The risks come from the cost and the technical side of things.
The goal is to create a system that has a disruptive role in the power generation market. To succeed, Mamalis said, they need to bring something to market quickly. Their work involves engineering, analysis and design prior to building a system. The project could involve more tasks to reduce technical risk but “we’re skipping a couple of steps so we can demonstrate a prototype system sooner than usual,” Mamalis said.
They will start by modeling and simulating conditions, using mathematical tools they have developed over the years. Once they have modeling results, they will use those to guide specific experimental testing. They will take data from the engine simulation and will subject the engine to conditions to test it in a lab.
“The biggest challenges will be in changing the operation of each of these two technologies to be perhaps less than optimal for each by itself and then to achieve an integrated system that ends up far better,” Butcher explained in an email. “The target fuel-to-electricity efficiency will break barriers and be far greater than is achieved by conventional power plants today.”
Butcher, whose role will be to provide support on system integration concepts and testing, suggested that this could be a part of distribution power generation, where power is produced locally in addition to central power plants. People have looked into hybrid fuel cell-gas turbine systems in the past and a few have been installed and operational, Mamalis explained. The problem is with the cost and reliability.
Mamalis and his colleagues decided they can tap into the inefficiency of fuel cells, which leaves energy behind that a conventional engine can use. The reason this works is that the fuel cell is just inefficient enough, at about 55 percent, to provide the raw materials that a conventional engine could use. A fuel cell that was more efficient, at 75 or 80 percent, would produce less unused fuel in its exhaust, limiting the ability of the system to generate more energy.
The team needs to hit a number of milestones along the way, which are associated with fuel cell development and engine and hybrid system development.
The first phase of the work, for which the team received $2.3 million, will take two years. After the group completes Phase I, it will submit an application to ARPA-E for phase II, which would be for an additional $5 million.
Lawler suggested that fundamental research made this kind of applied project with such commercial potential possible. “The people who did fundamental work and [were involved in] the incremental steps led us to this point,” he said. “Incremental work leads to ground-breaking ideas. You can’t predict when groundbreaking work will happen.”
The other researchers involved in this project credit Mamalis for taking the lead on an effort that requires considerable reporting and updating with the funding agency.
Every three months, Mamalis has to submit a detailed report. He also participates in person and on conference calls to provide an update. He expects to spend about 90 percent of his time on a project for which the team has high hopes.
“It’s an exciting time to be a part of this,” Longtin said. “These folks are pivotal and we have developed into a very capable team, and we have been setting our sights on larger, more significant opportunities.”
It’s that time of year again. Sweetbriar Nature Center, 62 Eckernkamp Drive, Smithtown will hold its annual Wildlife Baby Shower on Sunday, May 20 at 1 p.m. Come celebrate nature as it comes alive in the spring with beautiful flowers, vibrant green leaves, and, of course, baby animals. Sweetbriar takes in hundreds of orphaned animals a year. A Sweetbriar rehabilitator will show you how baby animals are cared for by their parents in the wild and here at the nature center. A cake to celebrate will be shared with all to celebrate the occasion.
Please bring donations to help them feed their wildlife.
How you can help ……. wish list:
CHEERIOS
APPLESAUCE-NO SUGAR
TUNA IN WATER
AD/CANNED FOOD
DRY CAT FOOD
DRY DOG FOOD
CANNED CAT FOOD
CANNED DOG FOOD
WEE WEE PADS
RUG SKID PADS
ALMONDS
WALNUTS
DISH DETERGENT
LAUNDRY DETERGENT
VINEGAR
FACECLOTHS
OLD TEE SHIRTS
SPONGES
LARGE ZIPLOCK BAGS
LARGE TRASH BAGS
TOLIET PAPER
PAPERTOWELS
GRIT
OATBRAN CEREAL
OATMEAL
LIDS OF PEANUTBUTTER JARS
PUPPY FLEA SPRAY
VETWRAP
TRIPLE ANTIBIOTIC OINTMENT
ZIP TIES
WATER BOTTLES
SHREDDED WHEAT
Admission is $10 children, $5 adults, discounts available for scouts. For more information, please call 631-979-6344.
Where’s Waldo? He’s waiting for you at Kent Animal Shelter! This handsome boy is a 9-month-old Saint Bernard with lots of love and energy. He is so sweet and is looking for an active household to run and play for the rest of his days! Why not drop by and say hello? Waldo comes neutered, microchipped and is up to date on all his vaccines.
Kent Animal Shelter is located at 2259 River Road in Calverton. The adoption center is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day. For more information on Waldo and other adoptable pets at Kent, visit www.kentanimalshelter.com or call 631-727-5731.
‘No, Agnes, a Bordeaux is not a house of ill repute.’
— George Bain 1920–2006, Canadian author, “Champagne is for Breakfast,” 1972
At a fabulous private wine event, I had the opportunity of tasting wines from three classic Bordeaux wineries dating back to 1982. The wineries were Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Château Branaire-Ducru, and Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte. Leading the sit-down discussion were representatives from each of the Bordeaux estates. My tasting notes of some of the wines are below.
Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste (Pauillac; fifth growth—1855Classification)
Produces only red wine from a grape blend that varies by vintage; Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc.
2009: Dark red color with a complex bouquet of fruits, black currant, cedar, spices, licorice. Youthful.
2006: Bouquet of black currant liqueur with hints of cedar, black tea. Still tannic.
2005: Garnet-color with hints of cherries, black currants, spices and wet stone. Still quite youthful.
2000: Brick-color; bouquet of cherries, mint, licorice, and plums. Still quite flavorful and fruity.
Château Branaire-Ducru (Saint-Julien; fourth growth—1855 Classification)
Produces only red wine from a grape blend that varies by vintage; Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Wines are aged in oak barrels for 16 to 20 months.
2011: Dark color with a bouquet of cedar, sweet cherries, chocolate, and spices. Some tannin to lose. Overall quite young.
2010: Closed, tight nose; heaps of fruit, well-balanced, tannin and plenty of cherries.
2008:Perfumed bouquet, violets, dried red fruits, well-balanced, still tannic, some black currants.
2005: Bouquet loaded with brown baking spices (cinnamon, nutmeg), wonderfully structured, softening. Still youthful.
1989: Perfumed bouquet of roses, cherries and violets. Medium-full bodied and elegant but thinning out. Drink by 2020.
1982: Brick-color; certain sweetness of fruit; soft, elegant with some tannin, hint of tea and orange peel. Drink by 2020.
Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte (Martillac, Graves)
Red wines are made from a grape blend that varies by vintage; Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. Red wines are aged in oak barrels for about 18 months.
2010 ‘Blanc’: (Blend of 90% Sauvignon Blanc, 5% Sauvignon Gris, 5% Sémillon grapes) Bouquet and flavor of coconut, marzipan, citrus, peach, mango and ripe melons. 10 months in oak.
2012 ‘Blanc’: (Blend of 90% Sauvignon Blanc, 5% Sauvignon Gris, 5% Sémillon grapes) Flavors of peach, apricot and citrus, with hints of caramel and star anise. 10 months in oak.
2012 ‘Rouge’: Dark colored with huge mouthful of black tea, black currants, spices and black cherries.
2009 ‘Rouge’: Full-flavored with red fruits abounding; spices, perfumed bouquet, cinnamon and raspberries.
2000 ‘Rouge’: Notes of sweet cherries, cranberry, licorice, and black raspberry with light tannins. Elegant.
1998 ‘Rouge’: Maroon-colored with an earthy bouquet; black currants, dark fruits, sweet cherries, leather, mushrooms. Velvety and very long aftertaste. Wow!
Bob Lipinski, a local author, has written 10 books, including “101: Everything You Need to Know About Gin, Vodka, Rum & Tequila” and “Italian Wine & Cheese Made Simple” (available on Amazon.com). He conducts training seminars on wine, spirits and food and is available for speaking engagements. He can be reached at www.boblipinski.com OR [email protected].
From left, Museum Executive Director Nomi Dayan, Museum Board President Patricia Aitken, Receiver of Taxes Jillian Guthman, Councilwoman Joan Cergol, Town Historian Robert Hughes, Supervisor Chad Lupinacci and John Newkirk from The WG Pomeroy Foundation. Photo from Whaling Museum
MAKING HISTORY
In a time when most towns are losing their historic significance as older buildings get torn down for newer, modern designs, the Cold Spring Harbor Whaling museum received recognition from the Pomeroy Foundation for their 1894 offices, on May 11.
The reception saw townspeople, board members, and museumgoers, as well as many of Huntington’s town leaders, and representatives from Senator Gillibrand’s office come out for the unveiling. Following speeches, Joan Lowenthal, one of the museum’s interpreters, led the crowd on a walking tour through Cold Spring Harbor Village, highlighting the many historic structures along the way.
“It’s amazing coming to work every day in such a special piece of history, while we work on history programming,” explains Assistant Director Cindy Grimm. “It really makes you appreciate how fortunate we are to have these structures standing today; in fact most of Cold Spring Harbor is the same as it was in the 1850 whaling boom.”
The Captain James Wright house was built in 1894 for the coastwise captain, who also fought in the civil war and was a Huntington town constable. When he died at home after a short illness in 1923, his daughter, Eva (who was the operator of the first telegraph in Cold Spring and later a librarian at the Cold Spring Harbor Library), remained in the home until she sold it to the Whaling Museum in 1956. It was partially rented out until the 1980s, when the museum moved its offices to the building.
As warm weather becomes the rule rather than the exception in this weird spring we’ve been having, our appetites and menus turn more and more to salads and their refreshing effect on our palates.
Salads can be the main attraction of a meal if they contain lots of different ingredients including protein and are artfully arranged in a bowl or on a platter. These one-dish meals are called composed salads after the French “salade composee” and you’ve probably seen them on restaurant menus.
Onewell known composed salad is Salade Nicoise (also after the French and meaning salad as it’s done in Nice). It’s a savory combination of potatoes, marinated in olive oil and vinegar; fresh or canned tuna; green beans; hard boiled eggs; anchovies; black olives; tomatoes and cucumbers all dressed with extra virgin olive oil and wine vinegar.
Another is the traditional Cobb Salad. Chock full of bacon, egg, tomatoes, roasted chicken breast, avacado, and Roquefort cheese, it is thought to have been invented back in the early 20th century by Robert Cobb, owner of the Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood.
And finally there is a composed seafood salad that I’ve recreated from one I remember at a tiny seaside restaurant on Cape Cod many years ago. As you might expect, it features cooked lobster, scallops, shrimp and cod plus fresh peas, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, cannellini beans, chorizo sausage, boiled potatoes and fresh corn scraped off the cob. And of course, all three of these recipes call for underpinnings of tender seasonal lettuces.
As with so many recipes I share with you, the real fun is not in duplicating these, but in using them as guidelines to create your own versions of these salads or even to invent your own completely original composed salad.
Cobb Salad
Cobb Salad
YIELD:Makes 4 servings
INGREDIENTS:
1 head Bibb or romaine lettuce, leaves, washed, dried and separated
1 split chicken breast, roasted or poached and torn into large chunks
2 to 3 hard boiled eggs, quartered
2 cups cherry tomatoes, each sliced into halves
1 ripe avocado, peeled and cut into wedges
Juice of one lemon
6 slices bacon, fried and crumbled
1 cup crumbled Roquefort cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
DIRECTIONS:
Line a serving bowl or platter with lettuce. Arrange chicken, hard-boiled eggs and tomatoes in a line or circle on top of lettuce. Brush avocado with lemon juice and add to arrangement. Add bacon on the side and crumble Roquefort cheese over everything. Serve with Roquefort or ranch dressing, rolls and butter and iced tea or coffee.
Nicoise Salad
Nicoise Salad
YIELD:Makes 4 to 6 servings
INGREDIENTS:
1 head Bibb lettuce, leaves washed, dried and separated
4 to 6 small new potatoes
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
One tablespoon or more wine vinegar
Half pound fresh green beans, washed and trimmed
Two 7-ounce cans tuna
4 hardboiled eggs, quartered
2 medium tomatoes, quartered
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into one-inch cubes
4 to 6 anchovy filets
1 cup Greek or Italian black olives
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup wine vinegar
DIRECTIONS:
Line bottom of large bowl or medium platter with lettuce leaves. Scrub potatoes and boil until just tender. Cut in halves or quarters; dress with olive oil and vinegar and set aside to cool, then pile in center of bowl or platter. Steam green beans until tender but still bright green. Immerse in ice water, let sit 5 minutes, drain and set aside. Drain tuna, separate into chunks and arrange over or around potatoes,
Add green beans, eggs, tomatoes and cucumbers, then anchovies and finally olives. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper; dress with extra virgin oil and vinegar right before serving. Serve with French baguette slices, unsalted butter and a cold, crisp, dry white wine.
Cape Cod Salad
YIELD:Makes 6 to 8 servings
INGREDIENTS:
1 head iceberg, romaine or red leaf lettuce, washed, drained and dried
3 cups cooked lobster meat, cut into large chunks
1 pound cooked sea scallops
1 pound large shrimp, peeled, deveined and cooked
1 pound cooked cod or salmon, broken into large chunks
One 10-ounce package frozen peas, thawed
2 cups cherry tomatoes
2 cups frozen artichoke hearts, cooked and cooled
1/2 pound cooked chorizo sausage, sliced
Fresh corn, scraped off 2 cobs
6 to 12 small new potatoes, scrubbed and halved
One 14-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
3 to 4 lemons, cut into wedges
1 cup snipped fresh chives
DIRECTIONS:
Line a very large platter with the lettuce. Arrange the remaining ingredients, except for the chives, in circles around the platter in whatever order you desire. Sprinkle chives on top. Serve chilled with a variety of dressings such as mayonnaise, green goddess, vinaigrette, Russian and cocktail sauce and a well-chilled Chablis.
It’s that time of year again. Sweetbriar Nature Center, 62 Eckernkamp Drive, Smithtown will hold its annual Wildlife Baby Shower on Sunday, May 20 at 1 p.m. Come celebrate nature as it comes alive in the spring with beautiful flowers, vibrant green leaves, and, of course, baby animals. Sweetbriar takes in hundreds of orphaned animals a year. A Sweetbriar rehabilitator will show you how baby animals are cared for by their parents in the wild and here at the nature center. A cake to celebrate will be shared with all to celebrate the occasion.
Where’s Waldo? He’s waiting for you at Kent Animal Shelter! This handsome boy is a 9-month-old Saint Bernard with lots of love and energy. He is so sweet and is looking for an active household to run and play for the rest of his days! Why not drop by and say hello? Waldo comes neutered, microchipped and is up to date on all his vaccines.
At a fabulous private wine event, I had the opportunity of tasting wines from three classic Bordeaux wineries dating back to 1982. The wineries were Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Château Branaire-Ducru, and Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte. Leading the sit-down discussion were representatives from each of the Bordeaux estates. My tasting notes of some of the wines are below.
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