The AP style 3rd person account of the travel conference examining the statistics and trends on US travel to Europe into the 2020s. It include photos of the event (including the party after) and the first word about a new travel app “visiteurope” that looks real cool!

That’s me, drinking Prosecco “Z” like there is no tomorrow (there was!) with the spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral behind me.

On May 9, 2013, I attended the first ETC (European Travel Commission) Transatlantic Conference in 3 years. It was convened in Manhattan to discuss travel trends in Europe into the 2020s. The conference was informative, with new and interesting people to meet, good food and a fabulous after party at the Rockefeller Center Loft & Garden. What an amazing place that is! Imagine being in a green oasis at the center of Manhattan. The early evening sunlight slanted through the scaffolding around the towering spires of St Patrick’s Cathedral and reflected off the skyscraper windows to cast a magical light on this rooftop Eden.
Actor Andrew McCarthy, whose latest book “The Longest Way Home” was named the New York Times Best Travel Book of 2012, regaled the ETC conference attendees with an account of the epiphany that inspired him to add travel writing to his repertoire.
It was the second time I heard Andrew McCarthy speak – he is truly inspirational – both as a writer and as a speaker. (He delivered the keynote speech at the Canadian Media Marketplace in the Waldorf a few weeks back.) I am surprised more of us weren’t in attendance. It seemed important to know what the European Marketing plan was in light of their budget slashes for PR and the cutbacks in press trips. It will help me to make better article pitches if I know what their marketing plan is – what they want to focus on. Besides, I got to spend time with some folks I haven’t seen in years (Meredith Pillon and Marzia Bortolin in particular) and meet new ones. I spoke with Andrew (he’s as nice as you think he will be) and met a content buyer representing many, many newspapers and TV stations, and the man who created the non-NY Times New York Travel Show last April. It was a very good opportunity to network, worth the 100 mile trip in from the Hudson Valley hinterlands.

Thanks to Google Alerts, every time “Richard Frisbie” appears on the web I get notified. Today I received an email telling me that “Richard James Frisbie Of Susquehanna, PA” age 55 (my full name but not my age or address – thank goodness!) passed on Feb. 16!

That was eerie to read, to say the least. I am sorry for the large family that lost a loved one, but so glad it was not my family. Or so I thought at first. Reading the obituary, I saw that he (I?) was predeceased by a great grandmother, Violet Frisbie. My grandfather had a sister named Violet, with violet eyes! No one else in my family has violet eyes, (I wish I did!) so that could be the clue to how close a relative we were, this other R J Frisbie and I.

But I won’t bother his family in their time of loss. I know all the Frisbie/ee/y families are related, we just spell our names differently. How related we are remains to be seen. As for how accurate the obituary is – I’m glad I lived to write about it.

Obituary For: Richard J. Frisbie | Hennessey’s Funeral Home, Inc.
Richard James Frisbie Of Susquehanna, PA Richard J. Frisbie, 55, of West Main St. Susquehanna, PA, passed away Saturday, February 16, 2013, at the Robert …
www.hennesseysfuneralhome.com/fh/…/obituary.cfm?o…

Greetings all
We trust you all survived the Holidays with only minor cases of the flu (Is everybody SICK?) Anyway, if you feel well enough, this weekend’s concert with the Strawberry Hill Fiddlers promises to be restorative good fun. We love to ring in the New Year with the youthful energy and enthusiasm of these young performers – please join us.

BREAKING NEWS: The Maruri & Jones Spanish Duo – while still scheduled for March 10th – may just be Michael Jones, cellist. At this writing Agustin Maruri is in a Madrid hospital having a heart valve replacement. He anticipates being recovered in time for their Northeast concert tour. We can only wish him well and hope for the best.

UPDATES:
#1 – The West Point concert scheduled for February 17th includes 5 musicians playing brass & drums. (pictured on www.saugertiespromusica.org) These are top performers ready to give a great (and FREE) concert.  See you there!
#2 – The newly reorganized Catskill Glee Club will perform on May 5th
#3 – a preview of next season is already online: http://www.saugertiespromusica.org

Thank you all for your patronage. Below is the official press release for the concert if you wish to copy and paste it into emails to your friends (hint hint)

WHO – Strawberry Hill Fiddlers
WHAT — SAUGERTIES PRO MUSICA Fiddle Concert
WHEN — Sunday January 20th, at 3 PM
WHERE — Saugerties United Methodist Church
SPONSORED BY — Saugerties Pro Musica
ADMISSION: $12 Adults, $10 Seniors, Students FREE
CONTACT: Richard Frisbie hopefarm@hopefarm.com

NEWS RELEASE
Saugerties Pro Musica presents the Strawberry Hill Fiddlers, Sunday, January 20th, 2013, at 3 p.m. This is their fourth appearance on our stage. The Strawberry Hill Fiddlers always play to a full house and receive rave reviews. They are middle school and senior high students from throughout the Hudson Valley who are dedicated string musicians. This year their youthful energy will help to ring in the New Year with a concert filled with smiling, foot-stomping, fiddle-playing, good family fun!

The Strawberry Hill Fiddlers are directed by Emily and Carole Schaad. Evolving since 1999, the Fiddlers are now part of Stringendo, Inc., a 501(c) 3 non-profit community music school. Besides learning string instruments, these young students are taught how to present themselves well and please an audience. There will be some singing, some dancing and, of course, some great string music performed for your enjoyment. Please join us for the irrepressible enthusiasm these talented young string players are guaranteed to bring.

FUTURE CONCERTS – a FREE West Point Concert on February 17, 2013 (performer TBA); NEW ADDITION to our world-class spring lineup: the Spanish cello & guitar duo, Maruri & Jones return once again on March 10th; The Colorado String Quartet returns for the third time on March 24, 2013; the Merling Trio (piano, violin, cello) on April 28, 2013; and finally, to close our season – the Catskill Glee Club returns for their annual concert in May, 2013 (date TBA.)
 To learn all about Saugerties Pro Musica and the upcoming concerts please visit our website, www.saugertiespromusica.org.

All concerts are on Sunday at 3 PM, at Saugerties United Methodist Church on the corner of Washington Avenue & Post Street. Admission is $12 for Adults, Seniors $10. Students are always FREE – kindly invite some to join you at our concerts. For more information please call: 845-679-5733, 845-246-5021 or visit www.saugertiespromusica.org
–
Richard Frisbie

This photo of Moutarde de Richard would not turn to be upright!

If you are adventurous and have some experience in the kitchen, and maybe some discerning palates you want to impress, you could try your hand at homemade mustard. There’s a little book of mustard recipes titled “Mustard.” In it, author Janet Hazen included a German-style mustard that is spicy and as good as any you’ve tasted. If you can measure ingredients, and run a spice grinder and a blender, you can make this mustard.
Recipe:
½ cup coarsely ground whole yellow mustard seeds
½ cup coarsely ground whole brown mustard seeds
¾ cup dry white wine
½ tsp ground caraway seeds
6 ground whole allspice berries or ¼ tsp powdered allspice
Pinch each: ground mace, cloves and cinnamon
3 Tbls olive oil

2 Tbls Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp salt
Puree all the ingredients in a blender until smooth. Place in a clean jar in the refrigerator. Let it age for at least two weeks to remove the bitter taste and come together. Serve to rave reviews!
OR, package in fancy jars and use Avery labels to personalize them for gifts.

How to make a classic French terrine (thank you Julia Child) with ground dark meat turkey, ground chicken and turkey ham, instead of the original veal, pork and beef. It’s simple. Just substitute poultry! Now everyone who eats meat can enjoy the delicious flavors of a French country pate.

On an isolated rocky point, ancient inuksuk, or Inuit stone cairns, reflect the delicate balance of mankind’s presence on these shores.

from the Travelingboy article: Food For Your Soul on the Flavor Road of Charlevoix

There is nothing more delicious than comfort food, and no food more comforting than pot pies. The other night I decided I just had to make one – out of leftovers, naturally!
I’d roasted a small 4 lb chicken for dinner Wednesday night. We each ate a leg and thigh, with the beautiful breasts just begging for a gravy and mashed potato accompaniment at another meal. At least that’s what I thought. My partner heard the chicken begging to be turned into pot pie instead. So, pot pie it was!
I usually have homemade pie dough on hand. If not, it is as simple to make as pushing the pulse button on the food processor. Two cups of flour, butter, salt and ice water did the trick in less than a minute. I put the dough into the refrigerator to chill and took out the pan of chicken.
The chicken fat had risen to the top and congealed. I put it into a frying pan with some butter. I added half an onion, chopped fine, ditto a clove of garlic. When they were softened I sprinkled in flour and continued cooking to remove the raw taste uncooked flour has.
Meanwhile, I scooped all the gelled chicken juice out of the roaster and boned and cubed the breast meat. The gelled juices mixed with the roux of chicken fat & butter to make a nice gravy, one I seasoned with thyme and salt.
I cubed a few Yukon gold potatoes, chopped some carrots and celery and microwaved them together for 5-6 minutes to pre-cook them. While they cooked, I rolled out the pastry. Using my deep-dish apple pie plate as a guide, I rolled out a large bottom crust and a smaller top crust. With the bottom crust nicely overhanging the sides of the pie dish, I filled the pie with chicken, pre-cooked vegetables and gravy. Then I tossed in a handful of peas, because you can’t have a pot pie without peas, and lay on the top crust. It had a slight overhang.
Some cooks trim the bottom crust close and roll the top crust under the bottom, but I find that to be harder than folding the bottom crust up over the top and rolling it into a pretty pastry lip. That done, I appliqued some pastry pieces onto the top with a moistened finger, cut a small steam vent in the pie’s center and brushed the whole thing with half and half. I could have used an egg wash, but the half and half was open, “just going bad in the refrigerator!”
I baked the pie for about an hour at 375 degrees until it was golden brown and bubbling in the center. It turns out that it took longer to bake than to make! Start to finish, the pie was assembled in 45 minutes. The prep, cooking and coming together/cooling off time was just under 2 hours. Not bad at all! We ate dinner at 8 p.m.
Besides creating a beautiful and very tasty dinner, I used up leftovers as I made room in the refrigerator for the half of pie we ate for lunch the next day. The chicken carcass, a butt of celery, the other half of the onion and some carrots went into a stock pot to simmer on the wood stove overnight. (If you don’t have a wood stove, use a slow cooker.) It made great broth for a recipe I’m planning soon. Egg and spinach soup, anyone?

Each year my partner and I (he’s the church organist) nurture plants all summer to put on the plant table of the annual flea market at Overlook Methodist Church. Then we buy some cookies from the bake sale tables and scour the treasures the field full of vendors have attractively laid out. We’ve really gotten some great bargains there!

This year the venerable lady who runs the plant table is unable to continue her duties. Guess who got volunteered. This is a major fund-raiser for the church, so we accepted, but we don’t have the plants to fill the table. If you have some perennial divisions, potted plants or garden items to contribute (this is the plant table, not a compost bin – only salable items in good condition please) we are accepting them Saturday morning at 9 a.m.

So come to the Overlook Methodist Church on Saturday, September 1 at 9 a.m. (on Rt 212 halfway between Woodstock and Bearsville. It’s the modern stone church on the Bearsville Flats.) drop off your plants, buy some fresh-baked goodies and wander through the vendor’s great stock of have-to-haves! Together we can have a fun-filled day while helping to support the worthwhile programs of the church.

See you there!

New York State Books Newsletter

from Richard Frisbie of Hope Farm Press

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    FROM THE EDITOR

The summer passed so quickly I couldn’t keep up with these missives. Besides the bookshop, I’ve been filling in for other’s vacations at Hudson Valley Dessert Company, chairing often contentious Historic Review Board meetings (It’s amazing how often people try to put a modern edgy look on a business in a 150 year old building, in an almost 30 year old National Register Historic District.) getting ready for Saugerties Pro Musica’s September 16^th opening concert (Palisades Virtuosi – a classical quartet) and attempting to enjoy a tiny particle of the summer while maintaining my house and recovering from another bout with Lyme Disease. WHEW! I think I’m looking forward to summer’s end so I can rest! (That’s not likely to happen.)

My involvement as the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountain guide for examiner.com is growing. People subscribe to my articles about the region and events.  If you haven’t checked it out yet – please do. (FULL DISCLOSURE: My income is determined by the number of visitors to the site and how many subscribe.) The page is all about a region you’re most likely interested in, so please click below and subscribe to my articles. http://www.examiner.com/hudson-valleycatskills-in-new-york/richard-frisbie

Sept 8-12 I’m away on another foreign culinary tour. Sorry to miss you when you are in the neighborhood, but I couldn’t say no. I’ll be meeting the artists, artisanal cheese makers, brewers, millers, and visiting top hotels and restaurants for a full immersion into the food & culture of Charlevoix, Canada.

Below you’ll find some surprising old periodicals for sale and a long list of the new books that have come in over the last few months. There’s more to come, so get them while I’ve got them! The books are still here (with more on order) but I’m not. Please make the digital, virtual shop work as much as possible. Your patience with me is appreciated. Thank you!

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USED PERIODICALS FOR SALE

THE DUTCHESS – (30 issues) – the genealogical quarterly from the Dutchess County Genealogical Society – used copies available. Originally published quarterly from June 1973, I have the first issue- June 1973 (missing 2^nd-4^th quarter) and the yrs 1974-1981 complete (volumes #2 through #8) ending with  Summer 1981. A total of 30 separate issues offered at $150. (<- That’s a GREAT price!)

OLDE ULSTER Magazine – (94 issues) – was issued each month from Jan 1905 to Dec 1914. It contains a wealth of genealogical and biographical data available nowhere else. Only 400 were printed and complete sets (all 120 monthly copies) are rare. Volumes I & II were reprinted and sold as individual volumes for $30 ea. The last originals I sold went for $8 an issue. I offer February, October and December 1905, November 1906, and from July 1907 through December 1914 complete – 94 volumes. The later years, especially 1913 & 1914, are difficult to find because subscriptions dropped off towards the end of the run, so this is an unusual collection with all the rarest copies. About half the issues have original covers, the others do not. 3 or 4 pages are loose (one ripped in half) but generally these are in very good condition. $595 for all 94 originals. (<- That’s a GREAT price! A reprint of one issue – June 1910 –  is on Amazon right now for $15.95!)  The complete Tables of Contents for Olde Ulster 1905 – 1914 is here: http://www.hopefarm.com/oldulstr.htm

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NEW BOOKS

Condensed History of the 143d Regiment (Sullivan County) New York Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War 1861-1865

Don’t be confused by the title, this is the complete reprint of the original 1909 publication, which was titled “Condensed”, not a condensed reprint of the original, with complete regimental roster service history of every member of the unit (some were from Tompkins County) and a full index. With b&w officer’s photos, 239 pages 6×9 paperback $19.95

WICKED NIAGARA The Sinister Side of the Niagara Frontier

By Lorna Macdonald Czarnota. These are the tales told in whispers, the stories that go beyond the beautiful landscape and majestic architecture and far below the rocky terrain of the Niagara Gorge.  A Canadian invasion, a mafia stronghold, madness, murder and savagery are all detailed in this revealing look into Niagara’s sordid past. 6×9 126 pages b&w photos  paperback $19.99

ETHAN ALLEN & the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga America’s First Victory

By Richard B. Smith. Meet the men who answered freedom’s call to arms in the spring of 1775, and discover the risks, obstacles and adventures they encountered on the road to Fort Ti. 6×9 127 pages b&w photos  paperback $19.99

WICKED ULSTER COUNTY Tales of Desperadoes, Gangs & More

By A.J. Schenkman. From murders and mobs to an alligator in the Ellenville sewer, these are Ulster County’s most wicked stories. The unsavory characters and immoral events of more than a century ago that sullied Ulster’s good name are all documented here..  6×9 123 pages b&w photos  paperback $19.99

HAUNTED MOHAWK VALLEY

By Dennis Webster and Bernadette Peck. This book, part of the Haunted America Series from History Press, explores the supernatural encounters along the Mohawk River as it winds through the bucolic valley in upstate and central New York. From the Revolutionary era to modern times, these haunted places refuse to be denied – read why. 6×9 109 pages b&w photos  paperback $19.99

ADIRONDACK ROOTS Stories of Hiking, History and Women

By Sandra Weber. Investigate legends, tramp trails, ascend mountains and experience the feeling of the wilderness as the author presents this rich and diverse collection of reflections on the Adirondacks. Women’s feats, the naming of mountain peaks and the fight to save forests and alpine plants all combine to define America’s enduring bond with the region. 6×9 126 pages b&w photos  paperback $19.99

THE BRONX RIVER An Environmental and Social History

By Maarten de Kadt. From Valhalla to the East River, all 23 miles of the Bronx River are steeped in history and lore from the first settlers to the present day. After reading this book you will never look at the Bronx River the same way again. This is an engrossing history of a largely forgotten New York City waterscape. 6×9 155 pages b&w photos maps  paperback $19.99

GHOSTS AND LEGENDS of Lake Champlain

By Thea Lewis. Remnants of Lake Champlain’s past remain along its shores which were the site of dark and mysterious events. This book, part of the Haunted America Series from History Press, explores the otherworldly inhabitants, hauntings and unidentified creatures in the lake and surrounding forests that litter the otherwise serenely beautiful landscape.  6×9 126 pages b&w photos  paperback $19.99

FIRE ISLAND Heroes and Villains on Long Island’s Wild Shore

By Jack Whitehouse. The exquisite natural beauty of one of the most famous and picturesque seashores in America is only eclipsed by the fascinating stories of its past. Dashing heroes and dastardly scoundrels left their mark on this pristine landscape. From Captain Kidd’s ‘lost’ treasure to the inspiration for Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, the incredible stories of Fire Island’s most memorable characters are compiled here. 6×9 126 pages b&w photos  paperback $19.99

WICKED NORTHERN NEW YORK

By Cheri L. Farnsworth. The dark and sordid history of the North Country, when duels, tramp camps, “wild man” sightings and horse thieves competed for the public’s attention with the region’s natural beauty, and won! This carefully researched compilation of the region’s most wicked stories may surprise you today, but they were once the headlines in the local and national newspapers. 6×9 126 pages b&w photos  paperback $19.99

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BOOK NEWS

#There’s an updated edition of the Fire Towers of the Catskills due out soon.

#I’m often in the bookshop afternoons from 2:30 to 5:30

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Well, that’s all for now. Thank you again for your indulgence and attention. To unsubscribe simply send me an e-mail from the address you are subscribed under with Unsubscribe NY Newsletter in the Subject line.

Richard

  – -

Richard Frisbie

dba Hope Farm Press & Bookshop

15 Jane Street Saugerties NY 12477

http://www.hopefarm.com    hopefarm@hopefarm.com

Specializing in New York State Books since 1959

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