There are many great reasons to go on the 26th Annual Kitchen Tour to Benefit The Music Hall. You get great ideas for countertops, backsplashes, and cabinetry. You get to spend a fun day with family and friends. And you get to see some kitchens you might never have imagined resided on the Seacoast.Read More
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I hate to admit it, but I’ve never seen a Met Broadcast at The Music Hall. I go in and give the welcome speech, but slip out as just as the music starts to swell. Now, as we are announcing our next Met season, I figured this was the perfect time to experience my first show and learn a little bit about the opera. Read More
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The kitchen that I’m writing about today, one of 12 on the upcoming 26th Annual Kitchen Tour to Benefit The Music Hall, is in a lovely home in Portsmouth. One of those old and grand places that you love driving by, the kind that make you know Portsmouth is a special place with a special history.Read More
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For those of you who know me, you’ve heard me go on and on about the many wonderful qualities of the State Street Saloon, I would refer to it as my living room. It was my home away from home, where I celebrated every birthday and life milestone, where I spent my football Sunday’s, where I drowned my sorrows, and most importantly, where I found my Portsmouth family. It’s a bar, just a building, and everyone is safe no one was hurt. It’s the mantra that I keep repeating to myself. It’s sad, it’s the end of something that I can’t describe, and I all I lost was my favorite bar. So many others lost so much more.Read More
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I just got a message from my Netflix account asking for my rating of a bunch of recent movies. If I do this, they say, they can focus the recommendations they make for other films I might enjoy watching.
Based on what I have streamed in the past, Netflix thinks I love British detective TV shows (which is true) and also teen comedies (not so much) and action films and costume dramas and romantic comedies, with a sprinkling of dramas thrown in. In other words, I’m all over the map. Accordingly, I get recommendations for a mixed bag of movies, very few of which are really my cup of tea, but all of which share a genre with something I’ve watched in the past.Read More
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There’s a great line in Peg Bracken’s I Hate to Cook Book (in my very yellowed 1960 paperback copy, it’s on page 15), in her directions for a dish she calls Skid Row Stroganoff. After telling you how to brown the ground beef, garlic, and onion, she offers this gem: “Add the flour, salt, paprika, and mushrooms, stir, and let it cook five minutes while you light a cigarette and stare sullenly at the sink.” Priceless.
But what does that have to do with this year’s 26th Annual Kitchen Tour to Benefit The Music Hall, you say? Well, I’ve had the great pleasure of seeing all 12 kitchens that are on the tour already. And The Stolzer Home has this fantastic view of the Piscataqua River Back Channel. Most of us don’t smoke anymore, but I can just picture the cook in this fantastic kitchen staring happily out her big front window at that gorgeous water view whilst, for example, her roux and stock start to thicken. I’m afraid I’d be prone to burning things with that lovely scene to gaze at all day. Read More
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This week as I was trying to figure out what to write my blog about, I realized that I hadn’t take you all on a desk tour in almost a year. So I dug up my questions and headed over to the Box Office to visit Wes and to interrogate, or interview him about his desk. Thankfully, Wes is a good sport, and very used to having to do crazy social media things for me, so he took some time to answer my questions. Check out our conversation below, and next time you’re at the box office say hi! Read More
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Hard to believe it has been nearly a year since the 25th Annual Kitchen Tour to Benefit The Music Hall in 2016. But I’m here to tell you, this year’s tour is almost here. Which brings me back to this blog space to share some info on the gems we are featuring this year. It’s May 13, the Saturday before Mother’s Day. You’ll love the area we’ve chosen this year – the Little Harbor neighborhood of Portsmouth, all very walkable. You can stroll with friends or family from kitchen to charming kitchen. Read More
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