VPR Cooks: Brendan Kinney's Mariner's Cider Mussels

Brendan Kinney is VPR's vice president for development and marketing.

A few years ago, we unearthed a friend’s old-fashioned cider press and got a little carried away. After squeezing out 15 gallons of the sweet stuff, we decided to set aside five gallons and try our hand at making hard cider. After months of waiting, obsessively leafing through a copy of Annie Proulx’s “Cider: Making, Using & Enjoying Sweet & Hard Cider,” and suffering through a major basement spill, we had our first batch. Since then, I’ve decided that authentic hard cider is an acquired taste, but can be a versatile ingredient in the kitchen.

Ingredients
2 lbs fresh live mussels
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 finely chopped onion
5 fl. oz. dry hard cider
2 oz. butter
1 large handful finely chopped parsley
4 Tbsp. cream
Salt and pepper

Clean and rinse the mussels.

In a large saucepan, melt butter, add chopped onion and garlic. Cook for three minutes on medium heat.

Pour the hard cider into the saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.

Add the mussels and cover with a lid. Cook on high for three minutes, shaking the pan occasionally to ensure the mussels are evenly cooked.

Remove the mussels as they open and discard any that remain closed.

Boil the remaining liquid in the pan until it reduces to half and finally stir in the cream and parsley. Add salt and/or pepper to taste.

Transfer the mussels to a large bowl and pour the sauce over the mussels. Serve immediately. Enjoy as an appetizer or with angel hair pasta.

Morning Edition Is Bliss

We're spreading the word about how awesome Morning Edition on VPR is, and New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss is helping us do it! Check out our website and this week's Seven Days newspaper for the first in a series of cartoons designed by Harry Bliss for VPR.

Each one features Morning Edition Host Mitch Wertlieb keeping you company as you start your day - letting you know the latest news, updating you on the weather and sports scores, interviewing interesting people and playing music that makes you want to get up and go.

Visit our website to see this week's cartoon and to connect with Morning Edition on VPR. And be sure to check back next week for another installment!

VPR's PrEview E-Newsletter: February 24, 2010

Every time the Winter Olympics comes around, I discover my favorite new sport. In 2006, it was curling and snowboard cross. This year it’s ski jumping, thanks in part to a road trip to the Harris Hill Ski Jump Competition in Brattleboro earlier this month. VPR’s Olympic coverage has helped me to appreciate the rich culture of winter sports we have right here in our own backyard, where athletes toil in relative obscurity for the pure love of the sport.

In this edition of prEview, Olympic coverage continues with interviews with medal winners and profiles of the places where they got their start. Also, Governor Jim Douglas joins us Friday on Vermont Edition. We also want to know what issues you’re discussing in your neck of the woods as Town Meeting Day approaches, and in VPR Cooks, our newest staffer shares his recipe for mariner’s cider mussels.

Read more...

How The Spark Exchange Saved My Roller Derby Career

On the program and on VPR.net, I'd been hearing rumblings about the new Spark Exchange. The concept is simple: bring together the listeners of Spark - techies and luddites alike - and have them help one another with their tech questions and answers.

As it happens I had a nagging tech question of my own, one I've been asking friends for months now. As the training director for Vermont's roller derby league, the Green Mountain Derby Dames, I've been desperate to get all of our drills into a database that allowed me to tag each drill according to what skills it helps to develop, so we can plan practices more easily, and make them more diverse and fun. So, I posted my question to the Spark Exchange, and wouldn't you know, 20 minutes later I had an answer! Evernote - an online service that allows you to save and tag photos, text, web pages, almost anything - would allow me to do what I wanted to do.

Well, that was easy! After a long weekend of posting and tagging drills, my skater coaches think I'm a genius, and I can feel my sanity returning already. Try out the Spark Exchange for yourself here.

The Moth: The Reason My Co-workers Shusshh Me

For the next five Saturday afternoons at 4 o'clock, you'll have the opportunity to hear The Moth Radio Hour. These were aired on VPR last Fall to great acclaim.

As one of my responsibilities as a Producer, I must listen to the shows before they go on the air. This is a task for which I should not draw a salary. It is a sheer delight to listen to these programs. With my headphones on, I feel as if I'm part of the original live audience who heard these great tales when they were recorded. They usually have me laughing so loud, my co-workers who reside within 10 square city blocks of my cubicle wonder if I'm really getting any work done. Not all the stories are funny, but they are all compelling.

If you haven't heard The Moth yet, I urge you to give it a listen. But please, do not do it at work in your cubicle. Your co-workers may not be as forgiving as mine are.

Thanks For a Successful, Shorter Drive!

Thanks to everyone who made VPR's Winter Membership drive a success. We exceeded our goal for the drive and ended early. VPR received more than 6000 pledges totaling more than $588,000.

VPR's financial goal for the drive was $580,000; we also wanted to achieve the goal as quickly as possible. Thanks to you, VPR was able to do both. Here's the math:

Listeners who contributed before the drive let us shorten the 12 day drive by one day, so there was no on air fund raising on Sunday the 7th. Our Ground Hog Day Power Morning was also a success. VPR listeners helped us complete an entire day's fund raising by 9am ($48,000), so we were able to take the rest of the day off.

Then on Monday the 8th, the day after Superbowl, VPR listeners came through again. Our Monday Morning Blitz raised $30,000 before 9am and we took the rest of the day off. Finally, VPR listeners came through in the home stretch, allowing us to end the drive at 9am on Friday instead of 7pm.

Counting each of those days that we ended early as 2/3 of a day, the drive was three days shorter than planned! It's also important to note that VPR's 5000+ sustaining members also play an important role in allowing VPR to bring you more programming and less on air fund raising. The consistent monthly donations from our sustaining members allow us to plan shorter membership drives.

We also want to recognize the many volunteers who contribute their time, talents and humor to VPR Membership Drives year after year, as well as our business partners who donate drawing prizes and food.

On behalf of everyone at VPR, Thanks!

Step Right Up, Get Your VPR Here!

The new VPR Artist Mug is one of those designs that looks just like it sounds when we describe it on the air. Designed by Toni-Lee Sangastiano to look like an old-time carnival poster, it entices people to check out the "AMAZING Vermont Public Radio, informing and entertaining our listeners, LIVE!" It's a neat departure from some of our other designs (which you can see at our Artist Mug Gallery), and takes our mug series into yet another artistic direction. Here's what Toni-Lee had to say about her design:


"Amazing" not only describes VPR, but also my experience designing the VPR Artist Mug! From Click and Clack as the Siamese Twins to Steve Maleski as the Mind Reader or Coney Island's Astroland Park, this final idea was the clear winner. My inspiration was based on a historical circus/sideshow banner. VPR entertains and informs and this mug is the perfect combination of my art and my tribute to my favorite radio station. Thanks, VPR! It is an honor!