This book features the best dishes served at the nationally renowned Pitcher Mountain Inn - recipes developed over many years of worldwide travel and testing by Dawn and Bill Matthews. The authors' cooking credo is that every ingredient should be as fresh, as perfect, and as simply prepared as possible. Herb garnished garden vegetables and their own freshly baked breads and rolls set off the Matthews' varied and original repertoire of delicious appetizers, soups, main courses, and desserts; there is also a special chapter covering brunch - a specialty at the Pitcher Mountain Inn.
Wonderful food ideas abound, such as Sate Indonesian, Curried Cream of Broccoli Soup with Apples, Gingered Beef, Lemon Veal, and Shrimp in Whiskey Cream, to mention just a few. Top these off with delectable desserts like Queen of Sheba Cake, Poached Pears with Creme Anglaise, Lemon Cream Tarte, or glorious cookies. The brunch chapter features all sorts of tasty egg-and-cheese dishes, appetizers, breakfast pastries, and drinks.
Both Dawn and Bill Matthews have taught cooking, and their recipes reflect a culinary sophistication gained from years of cooking, teaching, and "traveling on our stomachs." Their directions are clear, straightforward, and uncomplicated; the same simple elegance found at the Pitcher Mountain Inn keynotes the Matthews' book. Now you can create this elegance in your own dining room with The Pitcher Mountain Inn Cookbook!
For the past 20 years, from the time we met at the age of 15 at the Maryland Yacht Club on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, we have always been involved with cooking and food. Indeed, Bill had already been the chief cook for his Boy Scout troop at the National Jamboree in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
During high school and college we tried out all the fine seafood restaurants in Baltimore, Washington and on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. At off-campus dinner parties, Dawn and her sorority sisters went over to Bill’s apartment to bake the spoon bread and buttermilk biscuits, while Bill prepared the main courses – mainly local seafood such as softcrabs, striped bass ("rock fish") or oysters.
College was interrupted for Bill when he enlisted in the army, where his first tour of duty was Vietnam. We were married just before he left. Bill managed to cook with the 66th Engineer Co., concocting for his buddies what can only be described as a gourmet C-ration meal, followed by pound cake doused with brandy. About halfway through his tour of duty, Bill became manager of the EM and officers’ clubs. His club always featured good music and hors d’oeuvres. With a driver and truck for picking up supplies assigned to him, Bill often went into Saigon to sample the great French and Chinese cuisine.
After Bill’s return from Vietnam, we were stationed in central Pennsylvania, where we learned about sausages and pheasants, and Dawn learned how to pluck a bird. We also had an occasional quail and woodcock.
Next stop, after Bill’s discharge from the army, was a big farm on Maryland’s Chester River, where we feasted on magnificent vegetables raised by a neighboring farmer. (Freshly shelled lima beans have a velvety texture that you never find in frozen limas.)
After Bill graduated from college, we spent several weeks in Europe, traveling on our stomachs, of course. Bill picked up some ideas for sauces and seasonings in France and Belgium. Dawn loved Lenotre’s croissants and brioche, and learned how to make them when we returned. Back in the United States, we drove the Trans Canadian highway to the West Coast, turned down to San Francisco and then back, motoring across the northern states. In Vancouver and San Francisco, we discovered wonderful seafood and Chinese food.
Shortly thereafter we moved to New Hampshire, where we decided to start a restaurant right in our own house in Stoddard. We cleared the furniture out of the living room, purchased several chairs, had a friend make tables and bought the necessary kitchen equipment. Nellie Stewart’s Restaurant was born. It was very small and open only in the summer. Bill was the chef; the dishwasher, Tony, was also the assistant cook; and Dawn was the baker and the maitre d’ and did salads and desserts during the dinner hours. The restaurant proved successful – too much so, for by this time we had two children and space was tight. So we closed Nellie’s and did catering while we looked for a place to house a larger restaurant.
We found a large, old, but extensively renovated, farmhouse right up the street. It had eight bedrooms, a spacious kitchen with pantries and beautiful dining rooms. We turned the library into a small bar and added two bathrooms on the first floor. We converted the kitchen for commercial cooking, still maintaining the homespun atmosphere. The house came with 35 acres of land, and the main lawn area had terraces and extensive flower beds filled with yellow da lilies, iris, narcissus, violets and daisies. The Pitcher Mountain Inn opened for business in July 1978.
That first year the restaurant was "discovered" by Anthony Spinazzola of the Boston "Globe," who gave us a 3-star rating and an excellent review, as did Dayton Duncan in the "New Hampshire Times" and Liz Brown of "New Hampshire Profiles." Syndicated columnist Roy Barrette wrote, "If you are within a hundred miles of Stoddard and don’t go to Pitcher Mountain Inn, you are missing an opportunity."
