Coming of Age

I could embroider a lot of tales about the Jackson Women’s Sewing Club, because the organization is a Tradition in our town with a long and colorful history. In fact, the Sewing Club is part of the very fabric of Jackson life, and has been since 1917. Though our Selectmen think that they are in charge, the Sewing Club is actually the power seat of local politics, and if you want to know what is really going on here, just ask one of the ladies! My daughter Zia and I joined the Club shortly after moving to Jackson 5 ½ years ago. We both like to sew, wanted to meet some people, and LOVED the idea that you could actually WALK to some sort of activity!! (We had come from the boonies where there was nothing around for miles and miles; where a car was an absolute necessity!). We met some lovely people at the club, although for a then-12 year old girl, there was waaay much too much talking at meetings and not enough sewing for her liking. But that was okay; I went to the meetings and she helped out at events. Our first luncheon, held that year at the Eagle Mountain House, was a very nice event for us. We knew absolutely no one as we entered the room, but we were instantly invited to sit at a table with some of the local women from the club. They were so kind to us and made us feel very welcome. They made a special point of including my daughter, young as she was … and it was one of the first times I had heard her speak as an ‘adult’ in a public situation. ‘Who is this amazing, interesting woman?’ I asked myself, as I listened with absolute awe! She was astutely and very intelligently discussing novels, authors, politics and a variety of other subjects, succinctly and with accurate details. It was an eye opening moment for me as a mother. My daughter had suddenly grown up before my very eyes, and without my noticing!

Today is another milestone in Zia’s life … and mine, consequently, as well. Today she turns 18 years old and has officially ‘come of age’. Well maybe not in the eyes of the state of New Hampshire, where legal adulthood begins at 21; but we are not a drinking family, so that means nothing to us. Zia is beautiful, mature woman, with a good head on her shoulders. As a true artist, she has been a watercolor painter since she was about a year old … ever since she could clutch her chubby baby fingers around a paint brush. I’ll bet there hasn’t been a day in her life since then that she hasn’t had a paintbrush in her hand, creating and experimenting with some new idea or artistic style. Zia has also been a chef, working at The Thompson House Eatery under Larry Baima’s expert guidance for many years, extending the range of her pallet (palate!)to include the art of food. As such, I was delighted to be able to treat her to the Sewing Club annual luncheon at the Wentworth the other day as an early birthday present.

Liz Jackson, owner of Libby’s Bistro up in Gorham, was the guest speaker. I could go on and on about Liz, some of which I only just found out about at the luncheon. However, everything I really needed to know about her as a person came through just by hearing her speak. She absolutely exuded passion! (Passion about cooking, passion about health, passion about travel, passion about her love of people … and expressing all this so creatively and PASSIONATELY through her artistic medium: food!). Wow! She was a slightly wild and crazy (in the good sense) one-woman act, and extremely entertaining! Yet I don’t want to overlook her BIO, which is also impressive: Cambridge School of Culinary Art; two stints in Julia Child’s Kitchen working on “In Julia’s Kitchen with Master Chefs”; a very successful catering business, and a long list of fine restaurants. She is also a wife and the mother of four children (no small feat, I can tell you!!). Her restaurant, Libby’s Bistro, occupies a century-old bank building, and its architectural renovation which she and her husband undertook, kept all the building’s initial integrity intact. (We’ve eaten there, and the bank vault, for example, is her wine cellar! The food is fantastic).

Liz loves to travel, and each year extensively explores different parts of Europe to learn its indigenous cooking techniques and foods. She just got back from Italy, where she was especially interested in learning about the foods prepared for school children. Liz is the catalyst behind a healthy foods movement in our local schools, and she told us some marvelous stories about Italian cafeterias, which she felt served some of the best and freshest foods she has ever eaten in her entire life!

Having worked with Julia Child in her home in Boston for two years, Liz’ ‘take’ on the ‘Julie and Julia’ movie was fun to listen to! The first time she saw it, Liz said she cried all the way through it; the second time she laughed the entire time. Meryl Streep apparently gave a marvelous rendition of the ‘real’ Julia, who loved people, food, wine, parties, and especially her husband. The portrayal of her marriage in the film was a realistic one. Julia had enormous energy. She was 80 when Liz worked with her on the shows, and after a full 12-14 hour day of filming, Liz and the crew would be wiped out, but Julia was ready to party! Her husband had died many years prior, and Julia, now in her 80s, had a boyfriend … so after a long day of TV sets and film productions, the two of them would go out and paint the town red!

Liz demonstrated making a fantastic salad using arugula, fresh strawberries, and a high-end, freshly-shaved, parmesan cheese. The dressing included extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, fresh lemon juice and sugar. As she tossed the ingredients together and mounded them on the plate in a huge pyramid, the colors and textures created as much of a visual sensation, as the sweetness of the fruit, the slight bitterness of the fresh greens and the tanginess of the dressing made a tasty and tangy one. It was a highly informative and interesting presentation. We highly recommend that you visit her amazing restaurant “Libby’s”, as well as her lighter, more economical “Saalt Pub”. “It was never our intention to have a high-end restaurant” said Liz. “Our clientele really dictated our emphasis in that direction. But now through the Saalt Pub, we are getting back to our original intentions of basic, regional, indigenous foods from around the world, that are delicious and very affordable for the common man (and woman)”. We at The Lodge at Jackson Village highly recommend that you try both!