The Monadnock Center for History & Culture will host its 118th annual meeting on Thursday, but this year’s celebration will be a little different than those of yesteryear.
Not only will the Monadnock Center conduct its annual meeting for the first time online through Zoom, but attendees will also get a lesson in mixing up some Monadnocktails courtesy of Dublin native Caitlin Ruth.
Ruth, who graduated from ConVal in 1988, will join the meeting from Ireland, where she has lived since 1992, “having met and married an Irishman when I was living in Antwerp, Belgium,” Ruth said.
Ruth said she’s been interested in cooking since she was a little girl, “but it was never my dream to work in restaurants. That was born out of necessity,” she said.
During her time growing up in the region – she was born in Jaffrey and moved to Dublin at the age of nine – Ruth worked at a variety of dining establishments, like the Hancock Inn, the Pizza Barn in Peterborough, The Folkway, and Pickity Place. She said she taught herself a lot in the kitchen, but is cautious to describe her skills as self-taught.
“That disregards all the people who showed me what to do in kitchens for years,” Ruth said. Tim Elliot and his dad Bill of The Folkway were the first people to let her test her mettle cooking in a restaurant kitchen for real.
For 25 years, Ruth spent her career as a head chef, working at some very nice establishments, but now owns a mobile catering business.
“And it’s better, way better to be on the move,” Ruth said. “The restaurant biz, as anyone can tell you, is relentless and excruciating, although you can meet some excellent, hilarious people working in kitchens.”
In the kitchen, Ruth characterizes herself “as kind of a slapdash cook, adding stuff until the dish tastes right,” but when she started mixing up cocktails for the restaurant she worked at a dozen years ago, she quickly learned that was not the case with a finely tuned drink.
“I learned that drinks are a lot less forgiving, and that measuring carefully is key. So it was like a new aspect of cooking I could learn about,” she said. “I’m also quite interested in mocktails, because people who don’t drink alcohol can get left out of the cocktail thing, and there’s no reason they can’t enjoy a beautiful, well-garnished drink along with the drinkers.”
According to Ruth, cocktails actually don’t pair that well with food. They’re a stand-alone thing, she said, but added they are a fabulous way to start a meal, “though, it’s like adding another course.”
During Monadnocktails, Ruth will show attendees how to make four drinks. Two are historical cocktails from the days of yore, Ruth said, and include the Flip – “which is a totally crazy drink” – and the Twentieth Century. And specially for Monadnocktails, Ruth created two more modern cocktails for the demo – a Pumpkin Cable Car and a Cranberry Martini – with seasonal ingredients. Everyone who attends the annual meeting will receive a shopping list, recipe booklet and how to create non-alcoholic versions of some of the drinks.
As for Ruth’s “favorite classic cocktail of all time?” That would be the Negroni, which she said could never be non-alcoholic. It includes one part Campari, one part Tanqueray Gin, one part CarpanoAntica Formula Red Vermouth, and one dash bitters. Stir vigorously in a cocktail shaker full of ice, pour liquid into a lowball glass, and garnish with an orange twist. But she cautions to only have one.
Ruth said she still has friends in the Monadnock region, even after living abroad for so many years and hopes to be waving to the likes of Marcy and Ted in Francestown, and Kirky and Rick in Peterborough Thursday night.
While Ruth doesn’t expect people to have all the ingredients necessary for the drinks she plans to mix up, if they do anyone is welcome to put one together at home. And if not, enjoy the show with your favorite beverage at your side.
The program will begin at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29 with a brief business meeting. Then Ruth will show you how to make some interesting concoctions.
The program is free and open to everyone. To register, visit https://monadnockcenter.org/event/monadnocktails-a-cocktail-hour-celebrating-our-118th-annual-meeting/.