By Ginger Isham

Final season – final recipes

 

Yup! Mother Nature fooled us but I am not surprised, as she has let the whole country down this past year! We made a little less than the normal amount of maple syrup this season.  We will ration it as sugar was during WWII.

 

Maple Marinated Berry Dessert

4 cups strawberries (you can use raspberries, blueberries and/or mix)

½ cup Grand Marnier liqueur

3 egg yolks

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup maple syrup

¼ cup white wine

Place berries in a bowl and drizzle with Grand Marnier. Spoon into heatproof custard cups. Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl until foamy and pale. Set in pan of simmering water. Whisk all the time you are adding maple syrup and wine until mixture is thickened and fluffy. Spoon sauce over berries and place under broiler just until golden in color – about one to two minutes. Serve with mint leaf on the side.

 

Maple Walnut Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

1 egg

¾ cup oil (I use a scant less)

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup sugar  (I use ¼ cup)

¾ cup maple syrup – dark grade

Mix all together and add following:

3 cups oatmeal

1 cup flour

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts

¾ cup unsweetened coconut flakes (you can get at health food store)

Mix well and drop by teaspoon on oiled or aluminum foil cookie sheets. Bake 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cookies will spread some.

 

No-Cook Apricot Cookies with Maple

¾ cup Grape-Nuts cereal

¾ cup graham cracker crumbs

¾ cup dried apricots, cut up very fine

½ cup powdered sugar

¼ cup light maple syrup

1 tablespoon orange juice or water

Combine all ingredients and shape into balls with lightly greased hands. Roll in powdered sugar.

 

Ginger Isham lives with her husband on a fifth generation family farm on Oak Hill Road.

 

FORMER COLLEGE, ESSEX HIGH STAR AT HELM OF CVU GIRLS LACROSSE

When the Champlain Valley Union High girls lacrosse team opens its season on Saturday, April 7 at Montpelier High, a new coach with considerable high school and college playing experience will be calling the shots.

Taking over the reins is Erin Malone, a former three-sport captain at Essex High and career record-setter in lacrosse at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. She was recently an assistant coach at Essex. At Wesleyan, Malone set a career mark in assists while making the team’s 100-point club.

After opening in Montpelier, Malone and the Redhawks play at Spaulding High in Barre on Wednesday, April 11 before their home opener against Rutland High on Friday, April 13.

HONORS FOR THREE CVU GIRLS BASKETBALL PLAYERS

Three members of the Division 1 runner-up Champlain Valley Union High girls basketball team have earned recognition from the Vermont Basketball Coaches Association.

Sophomore Emily Kinneston was named to the Association’s Division1 and 2 Dream Dozen, which recognizes season-long contributions from underclass players. Also named to the dozen was junior Kari Lavalette of Williston who played at Essex High.

CVU seniors Remi Donnelly and Elana Bayer-Pacht played Saturday for the North team in an annual Division 1 and 2 senior all-star game against the South team at Windsor High with the North winning, 61-59.

 

CVU’S SISK, HAYES, YANDELL EARN HOCKEY HONORS

High school hockey all division teams were announced recently with CVU’s girls team members Rowan Hayes and Nicole Sisk gaining academic all-star honors.

Hayes, from Burlington High, was a CVU forward while Sisk was the Redhawks’ goalie. Both are seniors.

Qualifications for the Academic All-Star Team include at least a 3.5 cumulative grade point average.

Yarnell, a senior defenseman on the CVU boys team, was a member of the Harris Conference team in Saturday’s Essex Rotary-Key Bank All-Star Hockey Classic which played its Austin Conference counterparts Saturday in the all-senior game at the Essex SkatingFacility. The Austin Conference won, 2-1.

By Mal Boright

Observer correspondent

Champlain Valley Union High’s boys junior varsity basketball team went 14-6 over the recently completed basketball campaign and included a pair of last-second victories in the process.

“It was a pretty good year for these guys,” summed up coach Seth Emerson Monday.

One of the white-knuckle triumphs came at Spaulding High thanks to sophomore co-captain Ryan Schneiderman. “Ryan hit an eight-foot floater in the lane to give us the win,” said Emerson.

The coach said Schneiderman was the team’s top scorer and rebounder and “could drive the bus if needed.”

Another chiller-thriller came late in the season in a home contest against Colchester High, when sophomore Matt Howell sank a final seconds three-pointer from the deep corner to put the youthful Redhawks in front of the junior Lakers.

The team’s leading ball handlers were sophomore co-captains Ed Myers and Zach Evans who ran the offense. “On defense, they created crazy pressure on the opposing guards, “ said Emerson.

Guards off the bench included sophomores Mike Iakovlev, Matt Cockayne and Clarke Shedd, all “super solid” according to the coach.

Big guys working inside included Peter Scrimgeour, Brandon O’Connell and Jake Stoll, while Eric Bergkvist did some of everything. Emerson called freshmen Jack Frost and Collin Osbahr the team’s most improved players.

With 10 varsity players returning next winter, competition for jayvee and varsity slots will be intense with this year’s undefeated freshman team added to the mix.

By Mal Boright

Observer correspondent

This coming winter will bring at least six new faces to the Champlain Valley Union High girls basketball team, but the future looks strong thanks to a junior varsity team that went 17-3 this past season.

Coach Cathy Kohlasch praised the work of the team members who she said, “played well together.”

The junior Redhawks scored at a 46-point clip per game while allowing foes only 31 points per outing.”All of our players brought something to each game,” Kohlasch said. “Different games meant different leading scorers.”

As to which players are destined to move up next season, the coach was reluctant to make forecasts. “Next year we will have a different varsity team from this year,” Kohlasch said. “We will need some height.”

CVU, which made it to the Division 1 championship game, graduates six players, five from the front court.

In looking ahead, Kohlasch said much depends on players gaining experience through AAU and various basketball camps prior to November’s tryouts. She also pointed to a superior Jayvee (freshmen) B team, plus a strong incoming group from junior high leagues.

One player who saw action with the varsity this past season was sophomore Amanda Lougee, called up to fill in when injuries depleted the roster. Kohlasch said sophomore Kirsten Bird was a strong presence inside and freshman Caitlin Grasso handled the ball most of the time and ran the offense.

Others included freshman Amari Boyd (“rebounder”), freshman Maddie Turnau (“versatile, tremendous improvement”), sophomores Jenna Brassard (“good height, defense, blocked shots”) and Sydney Lalancette (ditto),

Also sophomore Talia Cohen (“outside shooting”), sophomore Kestrel Grevatt and freshman Katherine Scotnicki (“played well when and where asked”) along with freshmen Sami Harvey and Sarah Bergkvist (“solid seasons”).

“I was very pleased with the season,” Kohlasch concluded. “We had a nice group of athletes.”

By Katherine Bielawa Stamper

Seize today

Latin music permeated the air as the barista churned out lattes and “flat whites” for caffeine-craving clients. I treated myself to tea and a custard slice. It was spring 2007 and I found myself sitting in the café of Wellington’s public library.

My husband was hiking one of the green paths traversing New Zealand’s capital city. Our daughter, a visiting fifth grader at Karori Normal School, was attending youth group at a local church. Caroline, the energetic college student who facilitated the fun, plied the middle schoolers with candies and cookies as they played team-building games while learning a little about faith.

Pen in hand, I prepared questions for an interview with the director of a faith-based unit at Rimulka Prison. After working with incarcerated women in Vermont, I felt eager to learn about Kiwi reintegration strategies.

Audrey proved gracious and patient, thoughtfully answering each of my questions. I learned that the Maori, New Zealand’s indigenous people, represent a disproportionate percent of inmates. This is not unlike Blacks and Native Americans in the United States. Repeated devaluation and disparagement of a culture—by a powerful, dominant class—penetrates deeply, impacting the collective psyche of a people.

Communal living, sustainable agriculture and a rich tradition of ancestral storytelling revealed themselves as expressions of Maori cultural values. The restorative justice movement is actually inspired by the practices of the Maori and other indigenous peoples.

We visited a Marae, a Maori meeting house. These gathering places evoked a church-like reverence. They are places of celebration, mourning and lessons in accountability when a community member commits an offense and must face his/her people to seek forgiveness.

My vegetarian family passed over meats at a Hangi, a traditional Maori feast. We indulged in bowls of kumara (sweet potato) soup and root vegetables simmered in a pit of heated stones dug into the earth. We practiced, but did not perfect the Haka, a Maori war dance now closely associated with the rugby team the All Blacks.

We visited the Franz Josef Glacier—it was melting—and waded in the Tasman Sea. (The sand fleas were irritating.) We hiked 72 km on the Queen Charlotte Track, fighting off hungry weka birds trying to steal our humble trailside lunches. We spent countless hours at the Wellington Public Library reading books and downing hot chocolate with pink marshmallows.

Our daughter learned she could land in a new school, city, country, and continent and, somehow, find her way. She adjusted to her teacher’s very different teaching style.  She experienced “American foreign policy” as more than mere words—it impacted how some people perceived her. Myth-busting and defying stereotypes was part of the gig. Friends like Aperva, Luhama, Charlotte, Emma, and Darin warmly welcomed her into their circle, assuring her a spot in playground games.

Reading, writing, learning, exploring, volunteering and connecting formed our New Zealand to do list during two months that flew by at lightning speed. This was our second sabbatical, following a similar stint in Poland when our daughter was five.

These experiences proved life-changing as we reassessed personal priorities and material needs. Sometimes life feels too busy to sit down and seriously ponder what we hope to accomplish, see and experience in this life. None of us knows how many grains of sand remain in our hourglass.

The “travel bug” seems to cause a persistent itch in our family. Five years have passed since our New Zealand sojourn. Our now 15-year-old daughter asserted herself, spending this year studying at an overseas high school. With leaves secured and backpacks packed, I bid you adieu with plans to send my next dispatch from somewhere along the North Sea. Thanks for reading.

Seize today.

 

Katherine Bielawa Stamper lives in Williston. Reader comments are welcome at [email protected] or [email protected]