A Hot Night to Benefit the Library - Feb. 26

Banish the winter and heat up your taste buds!

The Northwest Corner’s hottest winter event is back. The D. M. Hunt Library in Falls Village will be sure to melt snow and ice with their annual fund raiser Chocolate & Chili in the Village on Saturday, February 26th at the Old Town Hall from 5 to 8 pm. This year’s event will be held upstairs in the Senior Center .

This popular event will feature a lineup of competing chili varieties prepared by local community organizations. Each attendee will have the opportunity to taste each chili and cast votes for their favorites. Some of the competitors this year include The Falls Village Inn, the Fire Department, Daycare Center , Historical Society, Great Mountain Forest , Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Toymakers Café, and Crossroads Deli.

Dozens of delectable chocolate creations from sweet to savory will be on hand for tasting and buying. Amazing baked goods, truffles, chocolate mice, chocolate granola, and chicken with mole sauce are just some of the treats that chocolate lovers can sample.

Joshua Stone, Falls Village ’s own Emmy Award-winning composer, will host “Name that Tune” a musical game with prizes which always draws a crowd after the chili awards are announced. A live auction featuring gift certificates for chocolate desserts, books and more will round out the event.

Tickets are $25 per person and include all the chocolate and chili you want, beer and wine, and ten tickets to vote for best chili. All proceeds benefit the library. For information and to reserve tickets call the library at 860-824-7424.

Chocolate & Chili in the Village
To Benefit the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village
5pm to 8pm, Saturday, February 26
The Old Town Hall – 107 Main Street , Falls Village , CT 06031
Tickets $25 / Information: 860-824-7424
Wheelchair accessible
Interest: Adult

What's Cooking in Falls Village?

Erica Joncyk, the new director of the D.M. Hunt Library, is helping to organize The Falls Village Day Care Cookbook Volume 2, and she is inviting everyone to submit recipes:

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! One and all!! You may have heard through the grapevine that there is to be a second edition of Friends of Falls Village Day Care Cookbook! Remember the first one? Back in 1990, Norma DeMay (formerly Grusauskas), Jean Bronson, Fran Chapell and Karen Lindquist put together a treasure of a cookbook. I know because my copy is so stained, written in and 20 years later, with out a cover. It is the only cookbook that I know of that when mentioned at a local party and one of the people at the party wasn’t around in the ‘90’s to have purchased one, that there is a collective sigh of ‘aw too bad for you’ from the ones who do have a copy. There are so many fantastic recipes that my family grew up with and continues to use in their lives and I trust, will pass those recipes on to their children.
Here is a great opportunity for all Falls Villagites to gather their favorite recipes and share them with their neighbors. Those of you who have contributed before and may have changed their recipes to fit our now ‘healthier life styles’, please submit those changes….we would love it! Melissa Lopes has spear headed this fundraising project and her timing couldn’t be better to help the Day Care earn some needed funds to keep our excellent Day Care center running smoothly. The committee has decided for the sake of continuity to bestow the title of Friends of Falls Village Day Care Cookbook, vol. 2. You can pick up recipe forms at the D. M. Hunt Library right here in town or the Douglas Library in North Canaan. Even if you don't have a recipe, you can pre-order your cookbook by sending your check payable to FVDCC". Our hopes are to gather 200 recipes and the target date to get all of the recipes in is April 30th, 2010 so we can have the cookbook published by September 1st, 2010. If you have any questions, please feel free to email Melissa at mannymelissa@sbcglobal.net.
Thank you and can’t wait to read your recipes,
Erica Joncyk

Click on the form for a full-size version to print out

Mardi Gras Menu at Toymaker's

To celebrate Mardi Gras, Annie and Greg Bidou have a special menu this weekend that includes traditional New Orleans specialties like jambalaya, Muffuletta sandwiches and King Cake. Besides serving you delicious food, Annie will bedeck you in sparkling Mardi Gras beads that you get to take home with you.

The New Blog in Town

What does a farmer's wife do in the winter? She gets herself some dairy cows and starts a Farmwifery blog. If you miss being in touch with Chubby Bunny Farm's Tracy and Dan Hayhurst during the winter, make sure to check out Tracy's new online diary.

The Sweet Smell of Success

Whenever I am invited to someone's house outside the Falls Village city limits, I head to Sweet William's Bakery for cookies to bring as a gift. (I don't bring them to people in Falls Village too often anymore after I arrived at a dinner party and three other guests had also brought Sweet William's cookies.) Without fail, baker Jason Young's desserts (especially the transcendent ginger cookies) are savored and devoured, and I feel proud to bring a gift with the "Made in Falls Village" label. One hopes that the success of Jason's business will inspire other entrepreneurs to set up shop in town. When Jason opened last winter, he never anticipated that the retail part of his business would be so successful and he has been overwhelmed by how loyal Falls Villagers have been. But it's easy as pie to support Sweet William's because Jason's personality and products are sweet as can be.

Think Globally, Eat Locally

The best thing you can do for your health, the environment and your community is to to eat as much locally raised food as possible. And while organic fruits, vegetables and meat are the best, it is better to eat a conventionally grown local tomato than an organically grown tomato from a mega farm in California or Mexico, according to former Cornwall resident and best-selling author Michael Pollan and author Barbara Kingsolver. So when I have finished all my produce from Chubby Bunny I head to Dean's Farmstand on Route 63, where George Dean was born and where he has been growing tomatoes, cukes and corn for 30 years. Mr. Dean trades with other Connecticut farmers, which is how he gets the wonderful blueberries and peaches he usually has for most of August. As the last and oldest farm stand in Falls Village, Dean's deserves our patronage, gratitude and respect.

The Artists' Way

When I was invited to a cookout at Robin and Allen Cockerline's picturesque Whippoorwill Farm, I was expecting awesome burgers (because the Cockerlines raise extraordinary grass-fed beef) and endless beer (because they know how to party.) What I didn't expect was the enormous pot luck buffet provided by scores of Falls Village friends who had come to help them celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary and first anniversary at their farm on Salmon Kill Road in Salisbury. (I did not expect the amazing firefly show in their pasture either.)
When the Cockerlines packed up and moved to the other side of the Housatonic they apparently left their hearts in Falls Village. Living in a different Zip Code hasn't changed them. Allen and Robin remain warm, open, opinionated, funny and passionate. They generously share their wisdom and expertise with Dan and Tracy Hayhurst at Chubby Bunny Farm and with Shamu Sadeh, who runs the organic farming program at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. The Cockerlines are the ideal neighbors, because their way of life preserves ours. As Allen said at a public forum last fall on protecting the rural character of our region: "I AM the rural character." They are trailblazing Farm Artists (and Artistic Farmers) who are role models for anyone who wants to make a creative and honest living off the land.

Caramba!!

I may have been one of the few people who mourned the closing of La Herradura in Canaan. I liked its quesadilla and I liked the street-vendor-style tacos. But the ambiance was even a little too down-at-the-heels for me, and I have never met a greasy spoon I did not like.

Now another eccentric Mexican restaurant with a clever name, Mexi-Canaan, has opened on Railroad Street next to the video store. It's painted bright yellow and blue inside and you feel like you have stumbled into a typical family-run cafe on a side street in Puerto Vallarta where tourists are not expected to go. It's funky with cheap plastic lawn chairs surrounding the tables, but who cares when you are starved for an alternative to pizza and Chinese?

The restaurant has a good vibe. The young family who own it has an optimistic spirit, and they seem eager to please.

As in Mexico, the kids are hanging out at the restaurant and my chips, salsa, and menu were delivered to the table by an adorable girl who must have been all of 6. The food is promising and carefully presented, but don't expect American style Mexican food or frozen margaritas. I might have liked the savory enchiladas and rice and beans to have been piping hot, but I am guessing that the way they were served (closer to room temperature) was more authentic. For $5, the three "sopes"--thick corn cakes topped with beans, tomatillo sauce, crumbled cheese, onions, cilantro and sour cream--were a very tasty, quick lunch.

The restaurant does not officially open until Friday. There's no liquor license and they are not sure about BYOB or doing take-out, but I get the sense that the folks behind Mexi-Canaan are determined to make us happy, so we'll keep coming back. I know I will.

Hop Over to Chubby Bunny Farm

Falls Village is blessed to have its very own sustainable farm: Chubby Bunny. It's a CSA (which stands for Community Supported Agriculture.) You buy a share for the entire season (which lasts almost till Thanksgiving) and once a week head over to Undermountain Road to pick up the week's harvest. On Saturday, farmers Dan and Tracy Hayhurst and their daughter, Bea, are hosting an open house with live music from 1 PM to 3 PM at the farm (on the corner of Cobble Road) to introduce themselves to prospective members and welcome back their regulars from the last two summers. It's a great way to kick off the Memorial Day weekend.