Byline: Carolyn R. Choate

It’s unprecedented, alright.  What the 6-0-3’s Liquor Commission has created from modest beginnings in 2005 is, today, the envy of event planners in any major metropolitan zip code. Rock star participants, sell-out crowds, proceeds benefitting a worthy and respected local nonprofit, EasterSeals New Hampshire.  

The Barking Tomato recently traveled from Nashua to the Queen City – passport in hand – to eat what all the fuss was about vis a vis Yelp and Trip Advisor food critics and I gotta confess:  you are the Queen of global yummy.

One early December morning well-spent in Manchester and my foodie Christmas list is all but wrapped up! In beautiful baskets with festive cellophane. Ready to ship across the city or across the country.  

Enjoy a walk-through of the new Whole Foods in Bedford, opening April 8. Carolyn Choate goes aisle by aisle, and leaves no fruit bar jug unturned.

Of course, I awoke those spring mornings to the requisite Easter basket filled with green cellophane grass and heaps of jelly beans in Red #40, Yellow #5, Green #3, and Blue #1; not to mention bunches of beautiful pastel foil-wrapped chocolate eggs and, the crown jewel of the Easter candy crowd, a foot-tall, hollow milk chocolate bunny with solid chocolate ears. Breakfast? I was perfectly satisfied; stoked on a massive sugar high which, when combined with Aquanet, to hold my curls after sleeping with mom’s foam rollers, I could recite the week’s Bible verse, Luke 24: 46-47, in 10 seconds flat: Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

With the magic of Christmas less than a week away, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite foodie things – both old and new – in case there’s a food-lover on your list you haven’t checked off yet. Or, even better, maybe you’re the food-lover taking a shine to an idea (or two) of mine. Feel free to send to Santa!

I have four shelves of proof of my tomato bumper crop – waxed paper quart containers, freezer bags, and plastic tubs – that will be gone by January. (If not sooner.) Roasted Tomato Rustic Sauce, whose ridiculously easy recipe from Stonewall Kitchen, I thank God for – and share with you here.