BRUNCH!

We're really proud to be doing a Brunch at the O+A now! 

It's our favorite meal, and these first two brunches have felt like a little celebration of the meal. We thought it'd be really tough after a long weekend of shows to whip out a meal for more than just the two of us. But it's been really relaxing! It feels great to have people in to just find a corner and lazily unwind with a late breakfast or cuddle up to the bar and catch up. Greg said it's like the people that come in are the focal point instead of everyone's attention turned to the stage. It's been a really neat change and change of pace.We're excited to make this a regular thing!

Our first Sunday's Brunch Menu looked like this:

Buttermilk Waffles with maple syrup and butter/honey cinnamon butter
Homemade mushroom garlic Frittata with side salad
Waffle with homemade ice cream
-$7 with choice of beverage

Homemade Granola with milk, almond milk, or yogurt...$4.50
Homemade Rhubarb Muffins...$2 ea.

Rhubarb Muffins filled with Cream Cheese Frosting...$3 ea. 

And this past Sunday...

Buttermilk Waffles with maple syrup and butter / cinnamon honey butter
Egg Strata: a Mushrooms, Cheese, wholewheat bread, layered egg dish. slightly spicy.
Waffle with homemade ice cream
-$7 with choice of coffee, tea or orange juice
-$9 comes with choice of bloody mary, mimosa or sangria

Homemade Granola with milk, almond milk, or yogurt...$4.50
Rhubabrb Stir Cake...$2 ea.

Carrot Cake Cookies...$2 ea.

Coffee...$1
Tea...$2
OJ...$2
Bloody Mary..$4
Mimosa...$4
Sangria!...$5

Many recipes will have their chance to finally be tested (though it looks like the strata will be a mainstay from now on ;) Come out and try some of our favorite food made from scratch! We try to use local and organic whenever we can. Our eggs are certified humane. Rhubarb comes from Danielle's garden..thanks Danielle!!! This is a labor of love of food, we hope to expand on this slowly (Working on espresso drinks as well!) Thanks for the support and love everyone!

It's been awhile

, quite awhile since I've posted on here. But there has been much experimentation going on in my kitchen.

Someone very wise once told me that baking is science, and you can't just toss a recipe together willy nilly. If they were so wise, would they have said willy nilly? Wouldn't they have used a better word? But if they hadn't, maybe I would have trusted them. Yes, baking is science. It employs all the laws of science so that something rises, or a certain texture is achieved blah d blah. Nobody ever told me how much fun it is to play with those laws! If you add something, you need to consider it's role in the recipe. Each ingredient plays one, and sometimes it is just the role of flavor. But it makes me sad to think that people are out there...afraid to try out their weirdo ideas (I guess that's true for everything though). I've been writing down flavors on a piece of paper on the wall in my kitchen. The last one was honey and black pepper. 

We have a regular (wink), who is vegan, and also can't eat anything with soy in it. I love challenges like this. It's how I came up with my cocoa-mocha cookie recipe, to which I add whatever I like to help in replacing the egg. I've used pumpkin, banana, fig pureed with maple syrup and almond milk, and one made with jam made by my dad, mulberry beach plum. For the "warmer" weather I'm doing Strawberry Cocoa-Mocha, and the dark chocolate moonpie version has fled. 

My camera phone tends to make things look haunted...but these are the fig cocoa-mocha moonpies. If you cut a fig lengthwise you will get a heart shape. Sometimes the fig is too smushed, but just manipulate it a bit to get the right shape.

more to come..I just made vanilla blackberry ginger ice cream lastnight ;)! 

♥k

New Spring Sliders!

New Drink!

"The Greenpoint"

A puree of strawberries and fresh jalapeno over sake!
This will also be available virgin style. I made a batch and drank every last bit of it (it is so good it hurts! Literally, this was a reeally spicy batch.)

Named after and inspired by a drink from the now defunct "Relish" restaurant in Greenpoint Brooklyn. I used to spend evenings talking about this drink! We once sat with Langhorne Slim and drank this in the Summer, oh maaan! They made it with jalapeno vodka and were 10 bucks a pop!
I'll post a picture if the new batch survives.

♥
k

I can't believe it's not, not vegan!

One recipe I've been formulating in the Winter months is Mocha Pumpkin Fudge Cookies. It needs no eggs and it needs no milk. It's far tastier with pumpkin and almond milk! They are almost brownie like, really fudgy, with a bite of 72% dark chocolate chunks, and espresso adds an almost earthy background. Spring's a comin' (maybe), and so I tried a Springy version of these cookies, using bananas instead of pumpkin. Even better!!!

 new Banana Mocha Fudge Cookies

third transformation,

Ok ok...then! I made a vegan frosting and sandwichitized them!! The "frosting" is more like a pudding and made with almond milk, less sugar than a traditional frosting, and lots of cocoa powder, it comes out decadent like a pudding, smooth with no bite of sugary grit.

I put the cookies in the freezer so they can set. They make incredible "flying saucers" too, oh man. But as they defrost they get even more fudgy...

 

don't worry, I ate that one!

These might just be a staple menu item for awhile, so come and git 'em! Rosewater or maybe strawberry for Summer!

Why yes, we dooo have mixed drinks!

This post is for those who know what I'm talking about when I mention the collage like menu wall behind our bar (and to prepare those who haven't)

I can tell when it's someone's first (or second or third...) time seeing it. The wide open mouth, the look of confusion, the leaning in for a good while and then finally asking if we sell beer (!!)

(Answer is yes)

So, mixed drinks though. I'm including here a menu of current and soon to be Sake Cocktails and other Mixed Drinks!

Sake is actually an amazing "liquor". I didn't used to be a big sake person either, but it adds so much complexity to a mixed drink and has a nice astringency like vodka. I've been constantly surprised at how well it blends.

We'll be printing up drink menus soon that one can hold and love and contemplate over.

So here it is folks and folksas..

O+A Mixed Drink Menu

Hot Sake Cider  
(has become our signature drink!)

Hot local apple cider and sake

Spicy Sake Cider 

Made with Sake infused with Chilis, Lemongrass, and honey in Hot Cider

Vegan S.S.C

Made with Sake infused with Chilis, Lemongrass, and local Maple Syrup in Hot Cider

Bloody Mary

Spiked with Sake,

Homemade & Spicy!

Eclipse 
Sake with OJ

& orange slice

Simonne 
Sparkling Apple Cider and Sake


Alphonse 
Sparkling Cranberry juice and Sake

Mimosa 
Champagne & OJ
withe slices of clementine


Full Moon
White Wine and OJ with slice of orange 


Kittywitch
Cardamom, Clove, Mint, Orange Peel, Ginger, Cinnamon, Black Tea (decaf available)
steeped in Hot Apple Cider with honey...$4
Spiked generously with Sake...$5

Kahlua
served over ice or with coffee
*add organic chocolate syrup  .50


"Olas"
Spiced tea steeped in Hot Cider over Red Wine
 
Night Cap
Secret Garden Tea (Rose Petals & Buds, Mint, Lavendar, Chamomile, Rooibos) 
steeped in Hot Apple Cider

Coming for Spring!!

Lua Saka 
Pineapple, Coconut milk, Agave nectar over a shot of sake

Sake Temple 
Grenadine, Lemon Lime Soda, and Sake 


Greenpoint 
Strawberry puree & Jalepeno over Sake
with strawberry ice cubes!


Papi 
OJ, Infused Spicy Sake, and muddled Mint leaves


Guiness Float
(or beer o' choice)
over homemade Ice Cream


*Flavor of the Day* 

TEA!

We've been trying to slowly build our tea selection. We just opened a new batch of "Secret Garden" and it's filled with whole dried roses, it's really gorgeous! We also just got in "Winter Solstice" and you can very nearly snack on it. It has big pieces of spicy, aromatic dried fruit, my favorite so far.

Our tea menu so far looks like this..

Secret Garden (Organic, Fair Trade)  -herbal tisane

Mint, Lavender, Rose (Buds & Petals), Chamomile, Rooibos

Mandela Masala (Organic, Fair Trade) (decaf)

Cloves, Cardamom, Ginger, Cinnamon, Rooibos

Nilgiri (Organic)

Black Tea Origin:  India, Dunsandle Estate

Temple of Heaven (Organic, Fair Trade)

Gunpowder Green Tea
Origin: China 
Estate: Zhejiang Province

Colonille

Vanilla, Vietnamese Black Tea

Autumn to Winter

Peppermint, Mint, Cloves, Cardamom, Ginger, Spearmint, Orange Peel, Chinese Black Tea

Fiji

Pineapple, Papaya, Chinese Green Tea

Ginger (Organic)

Peppermint (Organic) 

Origin: Egypt

Yerba Mate

"Yerba Mate, a ubiquitous S. American herb with deep cultural roots is native to Argentina, Brazil & Paraguay. The wild-grown holly shrub (Ilex paraguariensis), now formally cultivated, is found in the rainforest. Highly nutritious, loaded with anti-oxidants & numerous essential vitamins, like tea, Yerba Mate was used by indigenous people as food, beverage, medicine, a show of hospitality & even as currency. It contains matteine, a stimulant similar to caffeine yet much milder on the body with an energizing effect that doesn’t disrupt sleep or negatively react with the nervous system. Green Yerba Mate is grassy & herbaceous; Roasted is toasty & mellow."

Winter Solstice (decaf)
Apple, Cloves, Orange Peel, Apricot, Rosemary, Hops, Red Currant, Allspice

winter flavor

I think there's a delicate balance that needs to be struck in the Winter in Maine to coast through it with all mental hinges still intact. I'm sick of the vaguely Fall flavors hanging around our menu...polenta, pumpkin, cinnamon.
I love Winter! It's getting colder and I need deeper flavors...heat, textures need to change. Instinctively I went to my roots. The Fall was an expression of mainly Italian flavors, my roots but a different side.  My other side is mainly Armenian. Armenia is darker, it's people are so warm but tough because of a repetitively harsh past, I think dark meats, earthy spices, and fire blackened flavors cooked into the air over long periods of time. Oooh, it brings to mind ancient mysticism!
Anyway, I have to tell you about this soup I just read about....copied:
khash, is considered an Armenian institution. Songs and poems have been written about this one dish, which is made from cow's feet and herbs made into a clear broth. Tradition holds that khash can only be cooked by men, who spend the entire night cooking, and can be eaten only in the early morning in the dead of winter, where it served with heaps of fresh garlic and dried lavash.
Oh man....
Here's what I'm thinking...a "Wonton" or "Lamb Meatball" Soup- vegetarian ground meat- seasonings will sound something like garlic, alleppo, mint, and tarragon, lots of onion, maybe dried celery. Meatballs rolled in bulghur wheat and fried and served with sesame onion lavash.

Karshm- It's a local soup made in the town of Vaik in the Shirak Province. It'a a walnut based soup with red and green beans, chick peas, spices, garnished with red pepper and fresh garlic.

I've been craving a stew! My mom sometimes cooks a stew in a crockpot in the winter, with potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, beans, cracked pepper. The smell is the most comforting thing. And it builds all day long peaking your appetite. I'd like to do a beautiful, hearty stew like that with rosemary potatoes, "chicken" stock, homeade veg. sausages sliced and pan-fried then slow cooked in, kale and more and more.

Lahmajoun.......
Pelmeni!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

play and posting soon to come!


k

taralucci

homemade polenta

a lovely couple

Homemade bloody Marys!!!

If you like a spicy bloody mary, this will make you very happy. Gives a delightful burn going down! Lots of horseradish and secret spices. This will be a mainstay for awhile (at least so we can deplete it slowly ourselves). Instant mood lifter and congestion degester!

kombucha

i know some people hate this stuff, but it's like moxie, or say...sake! You have to take time, get acquainted in order to understand the magic!
So my mixture's been sitting in a pot for over a week and only little bubbles formed. I thought "it was dead, I peeked too many times, should i drink it anyway? probably not.."
But today! I smelled a smell and 'lo! a circle of cloudy bubblish things were forming! I'm excited.
It actually sits covered in a cloth next to me at the table like a friend.
So if this all works out we may be making homemade kombucha at The O+A

 

say hello to my little friend

-k

 say hello to pickled eggs!

actually we all have to wait 3 weeks to say hello to pickled eggs. in the meantime say hello to hard boiled eggs in a bitter broth, hahahahahaha!

is it just me or is there something Halloweeny about pickled eggs???

i'm so excited about pickled eggs!!!! 

did i mention that if they're good they will be our new bar food?

i'm off to go pickle more things!

k

halleleaaaaauuu!

 

before

say hello to pistachio ginger custard ice cream.

hello

after

i managed to save some to sell this weekend at the o + a.

oh man this stuff is good! homemade is so much freakin better than anything else.

we wanted to do root beer floats with homemade ice cream, but it would almost be a shame to tamper with it's flavor. we have some really great sea dog root beer for anyone leaning that way though.

this batch is very very not vegan, but i'll be working on a vegan version for the next round. any suggestions?

leftover scramble

tuesday night we made vegetarian sausage sliders for our bands- made with marinated sundried tomatoes, feta and italian bread spread with thyme, oregano, and fresh garlic olive oil. i baked it for just a few minutes in the oven to crisp the edges of the bread.
 i should really have a picture of the sliders, but instead i've posted our sloppy hangover breakfast...
greg made us a scramble with leftover "sausage", local radishes , eggs, and kale.
so good! these radishes were soo spicy and cooking them just a little took the edge off but retained there pepperiness.


The sliders were such a hit, we're probably going to put them on our menu. I've been longing to make a certain biscuit recipe again, which I think would make it a perfect balance.



k

ice cream

I thought "we can't dive into ice cream making in the Fall!  It's...cold and people don't expect it and we've never done it before, and there's so much else we need to do!!!". But to go along with new habits, we're gonna do it anyway!!!

Does anybody want to see NY style egg creams?




I do believe Fall has the best flavors known to all seasons...maple, pumpkin, cinnamon, apple cider

In that pictures Greg's eating green tea, taro, and ginger ice cream at a place in NYC called Sundaes and Cones. I haven't had enough of the flavor of Taro in my life, actually taro (a root vegatable- perfect for Fall) and ginger sounds great!



k

musings on hogfarm studio

as we creep ever closer to an opening date, i feel its important to explain exactly whats going on here. as someone who has had the fortune to tour with my bands all over the country and into europe, i've come to value the venues, and venue owners of smaller communities- the folks attempting to carve out something personal, sometimes something truly weird. the folks who take risks putting themselves out there when there may or may not be an audience for what they do. the thrill is in finding an audience in those smaller communities. somehow it manages to resonate in a way that simply doesn't happen in larger cities.
when you find a venue like that, you remember it. and what gil and coco at hogfarm have been able to do is something truly beautiful and important to me in my daily life. when we heard they were going to close the annex my wife, kristin and i, saw this as an opportunity to attempt to continue on in their spirit, because honestly this is what we want to do with our lives.
our hope is that we can be a fraction of how hospitable and warm they have been to all of you who come through our door. what we can offer is a very select collection of the things we love: the music that means so much to us, the films, art, performances and food that we long to share with all of you.
we are not from maine. but we have somehow always been drawn to it, and look forward to it becoming our home.

thanks for stopping by,

greg & kristin

for lunch

Greg made amaaaazing "chiki" salad sandwiches for us today!! I would have taken a picture but I ate it!

I was busy trying to figure out which local beers we should sell (it is actually a hard job. especially when there are no tasters :(

So what I can guess of the ingredients are:
TVP (textured veg protein)
Vegenaise
Carrots
Dill
maybe miso?
dijon mustard?
soy sauce?

I feel like besides the most obvious ingredients (I definitely know what a carrot looks like), I'm way off.

Anyway, we neeeed to add this to our menu! I've been bugging him to write down the recipe before he forgets it . I'm sure you'll see it in some form of it's not-chicken self soon soon.
ooh! I forgot, we have some leftovers in the fridge! here's sort of what it used to look like...



yip!

() ()

( ="= )
( . . )
k

Welcome

It's not official but the ideas are still flowing!

We will open our doors to a brand new community in late September, early October.
Just in time for our favorite season of all!

So here's our story..

We being charmed by the world of Gil and Coco Corral fell in quick love with them, their little girl, their home and music venue/listening room, which was only an extension of their home so full of warmth- Hogfarm Studios Annex...

When we heard that they were going to close the doors of that adopted home, Greg and I looked at each other and didn't have to say very much. Our dream: to open a cafe/venue/community art space in a town that needs it.

We spent some time freaking out, writing endless emails to Gil and Coco, deciding to do it, deciding that would be totally crazy. Very suddenly, in all this confusion and the perpetual heat wave NYC has been going through I lost my vision in one eye. It was disorienting and was gradual like a curtain being drawn lower every day, plus it hurt!

I won't get too much into that whole thing, but with my mom having MS and optic neuritis as we found out it was being an initial symptom of the disease. Well, it just sucked. I went through the steps, to figure it all out, and when my MRI results came back negative everyone was shocked! We were planning for it, and I was prepared for the news. I saw this as such a second chance for me. Or a kick in the pants! Just what I needed. Clean air, water, and most importantly being in a place I love (Maine!). I decided immediately that we should just jump in!
I was on my break at work when we found out, and sent Greg home to tell Gil and Coco that we're in!

So here we are.
Still in New York, but gearing up and excited/scared as hell!

I hope you'll all get excited with us (no need to be scared)!
My vision hasn't totally come back yet, but I am legal to drive in NY once again!
So much more to say, more info soon and often!

We are Kristin & Greg
and this beautiful re-adopted space will be futurely known as
The Oak + The Ax

love \ kristin

p.s.
Gil and Coco have taken their name (Hogfarm Studios/HFS Annex) and gone back to the barn
with it, where it was born. Keep tabs on their upcoming shows!!!