Oktoberfest and Autumn Feasts - What’s Cookin’? – Smithtown

Oktoberfest and Autumn Feasts - What’s Cookin’? – Smithtown

 By Nancy Vallarella

This is the best time of the year to satisfy cravings for Bavarian cuisine.  Smithtown residents are especially lucky, we do not have to travel far to satisfy the yen.  Many options are available here in town but hurry; some are only available through Sunday.

Faradays of Smithtown kicked off Oktoberfest on October 1^st with a German three course dinner.  Some of the specialties featured are: potato pancakes, knockwurst, jaegurschnitzel, Hungarian goulash, and sauerbraten.  This three course German dinner is offered for $25. Pints of Paulaner Oktoberfest and Riesling by the glass are offered at $5 each. This dinning event is available through October 31^st.

Further west on Main Street, Croxley’s Ale House of Smithtown is serving German specialty dishes. Bavarian pretzels, potato pancakes, knockwurst, sauerbraten, kasseler rippchen (smoked pork chop) and wienerschnitzel with an accompanied reduced price for German biergarten beers are served through this Sunday, October 21st. 

Available all year round – Main Street Meats (MSM) located at 36 E Main Street. Here you can grab frozen entrees that are prepared on the premises.  Jaegurschnitzel, rouladen, dumplings in sauerbraten gravy and wienerschnitzel are some of the choices available. MSM has a large selection of fresh and vacuum packed knockwurst, weisswurst, krainerwurst and bratwurst from Forest Pork Store, Karl Ehmer and Schaller and Weber. They also stock imported spaetzel, red cabbage, sauerkraut and mustards. If all of this inspires you to host your own Oktoberfestapoluzza – Main Street Meats can cater the event.

For a home cooked Oktoberfest family dinner, try Great Grandma Fank’s German Style Pot Roast Recipe – located in the right column of Smithtown Matters Food & Restaurant Directory. This family recipe is over 100-years-old.  It requires marinating the beef in beer overnight instead of the several days of marinating in brine that traditional sauerbraten requires. It captures all of the sweet and tart goodness one looks forward to in a traditional sauerbraten but is somehow even more delicious than its traditional cousin.  I’ve been making and serving it for twenty years to rave reviews. The smell of this cooking will turn your residence into a chalet in the Alps. 

After you have labored over a hot stove, treat yourself and some company to a fine dining experience…This Sunday, October 21^st, Mirabelle Restaurant is offering a five course Peconic Bay Winery Autumn Dinner. The dinner starts with an Autumn Salad with pears, mache, beets and Catapano goat cheese curd and ends with a Spiced Sweet Potato Cake with pear ice cream. I won’t tease you with the rest of the in between menu items (trust me they are even more divine) because only a few seats are available. Call now for availability at the 5pm or 6:30pm seating. $75 pp ++ includes the ten wine pairings. Mirabelle Restaurant contact information is available in Smithtown Matters Food & Restaurant Directory.  - Access their website here for more information on seasonal menus and other dining events.

KAT – Kitchen a Trattoria is creating new fall menu items daily. This small kitchen turns out some big flavor.  Orecchiette with roasted cauliflower, raisins and breadcrumbs, Chicken Liver Crostino with apple preserves and Duck Confit severed with mushroom cream sauce have been featured.  Shown in this photo:  KAT staff turning fall harvest favorites into menu items.   Wondering what they are making with that squash?   Guess we will just have to dine there to find out!

Kings Park Youth Donates Baseball Field to Kings Park High School

Kings Park, NY – October 18, 2012 – Kings Park Youth (KPY) announced the donation of an upgrade to the Kings Park High School JV Baseball field.   The field, which is located on the western end of the school property on Rt. 25A, had become unusable over the last several years due to cutbacks in school funding.   The upgrade will include new fences, cement floors for future dugouts, a sprinkler system and a re-graded, sod field.  

Dr. Susan Agruso, Superintendent of the Kings Park School District, stated “We are very grateful to KPY for their generous donation.  This is a significant improvement to our athletic fields and a terrific example of how the Kings Park community goes above and beyond to support our schools.” 

Darryl Valinchus, President of KPY, stated “we are so happy that we’ve been able to put this together for the school.  Everyone in the school district from the Superintendent, the Athletic Department and the Grounds Maintenance staff have been very supportive through the entire process.  The field will be a model baseball diamond so that our JV baseball team can have a pristine baseball field that all of us in Kings Park can be proud of.”

Work on the field began on September 17^th and is expected to be completed before the end of October.  The field is new sod so it will need the remainder of the fall and winter to take root and will be ready for the spring baseball season for the JV baseball team.  

The field was made possible through the generous contributions of KPY and several of their members including;  Agostinelli Family, Cebulski Family, Gugliuzzo Family, Kings Park Irrigation, Don Brown from Relish Restaurant, Billy Moser from Wamco Electric and DeLea Sod Company.  There are several additional improvements KPY hopes to complete by the spring.  As an example, they will be soliciting additional funds to complete the dugouts.  Anyone interested in helping out is encouraged to contact Glenn Chiuchiolo or Joe Bianco at info@kingsparkyouth.com. 

Kings Park Youth is proud to celebrate over 50 years of service to the community.  KPY fields football, cheerleading, softball and baseball teams for more than 1,200 children per year.  Anyone interested in learning more about KPY can visit www.kingsparkyouth.com or email info@kingsparkyouth.com.  

Argo, the new movie - Review by Sandy Trehy

Argo, the new movie from actor-director Ben Affleck, I’m sure will be getting great reviews, and I for one also thought it was good. The audience in the theater I was in clapped and cheered at the end as the credits rolled.

I vividly remember that from Nov 4, 1979 through it’s conclusion when the hostages were released on January 20, 1981, the news was always about the hostages in our Embassy in Iran.  It was an awful time, and each day was ticked off until on day 444 they were brought home.  This movie is “based on the true story” of six U. S. Embassy staff members who made it out of the embassy without being captured, and the efforts of those who were to help them make it to safety.  So spoiling the ending is not an issue here… but asking those who see it to do a little fact checking is.  Whether you fact check before or after the movie, please just do it.

As I said, I really liked this movie… but, why can’t they make a movie without distorting the facts? This was a larger than life real story… And obviously making the ending an “edge of your seat” experience was more entertaining then the “smooth as silk” ex-filtration that it was…  But why not give credit where credit is due?   From what I can learn, the Carter administration did not pull the plug on the operation at the last minute… And the Canadians were the real heroes jeopardizing their lives and masterminding and implementing most of the operations to get our citizens to safety.   If we can get all excited following the role of “007” as a British spy, why wouldn’t that work for a movie about our neighbors to the north?  After viewing the movie last night, I feel like it would have been a great story on it’s own without the hollywood enhancements. 

Enjoy the movie… and thanks Canada.

Audubon Photographer Richard Speiser At Caleb Smith Park Preserve

By Carole Paquette

Audubon photographer Richard Speiser leads a group on a birding trip through the fields of Caleb Smith Park Preserve in Smithtown The program “A Year in the Life of a Bird Photographer” presented by Audubon photographer Richard Speiser at the Caleb Smith Park Preserve in Smithtown on Saturday turned out to be not only informative with his beautiful photos of birds, local and other-worldy, but filled with charming anecdotes. Approximately forty people attended the Saturday morning event sponsored by the Friends of Caleb Smith Preserve. 

Mr. Speier regaled his audience with plenty of good photography tips. For those with a simple point-and-shoot camera, he said: “Go for composition, focus on the landscape with a bird in it.” For the serious photographer with the more technologically advanced camera with faster shutter speed, he suggested: “Shoot in the bright light as you can’t use a flash with birds as it causes a sheen.” He added, “If you don’t have a tripod for stability, turn yourself into one, then hold your camera steady, smush it into your eye and control your breathing.” Other tips for photographing birds included wearing neutral colors and when sneaking up on them, stop once the bird starts “twitching”.

Mr. Speiser presented his slide show, according to seasons, noting that we are in the midst of the Fall migration and the chill is good for seeing migrating birds. He first  took his audience through the Fall season of hawks, warblers, hummingbirds and finches; then the Winter of owls, waterfowl, ravens, bluejays and the Great Blue Heron. “Marshes are a great place to go in the winter,” he said.

Getting into Spring, “the breeding time when the birds really belt out their songs”, he presented shots of sparrows, warblers and vireos. In between, he snuck in a photo of a roadrunner from a jaunt to Texas. Then came the Summer series, including a variety of shorebirds, kestrals, and indigo buntings.

Following the slide presentation Mr. Speier took the audience, armed with their cameras, out for a nature walk through the Preserve’s meadows and trails.

Gail Hessel - KP Resident, Retired Teacher And Author Of "Obadiah Smith House"

Gail Hessel

“When the new Brooklyn County Farm (later to become the Kings Park Psychiatric Center) came to the area in 1885, James saw an opportunity to sell them something they needed, which was water and ice from his pond.” The Obadiah Smith House by Gail Hessel

Have you ever driven down St. Johnland Road in Kings Park and wondered about the old house with the sign indicating that it is a historic location? Kings Park resident Gail Hessel drives past the house all the time and admits to not really seeing “it” for a very long time.  The house, according to Gail, was “simply part of the road.” Yet something compelled her to learn more about the Obadiah Smith House and after doing research she realized, “I learned that this house is the beginning and the foundation, if you will, of the hamlet of Kings Park.”

Gail Hessel has penned a book, “The Obadiah Smith House” in which she gives an in depth look at the Obadiah Smith home and the people who have lived there. The Obadiah house was continuously occupied for 300 years with 232 years being occupied by the descendants of Smithtown’s founder, Richard Smythe. Imagine its history and its significance to Kings Park and all of Smithtown.  In addition to the Obadiah home, the book includes the history of what we call “Harrison Pond”.

Gail has written this 35-page book to raise awareness to the significance of the Obadiah house as part of Smithtown’s history.  A second goal is to raise funds to maintain the Obadiah Smith House which is deteriorating and needs many repairs and regular maintenance. The Smithtown Historical Society, in an attempt to preserve the home, took ownership of the house in 1960 but maintaining the property has been a challenge.  The Society is hoping to preserve the house and to someday open it to the public and school groups.

You can be a part of preserving Kings Park’s history by purchasing “The Obadiah Smith House” through the Smithtown Historical Society. The book, which was published by the Historical Society, sells for six dollars. You can contact Gail through the Smithtown Historical Society at info@smithtownhistorical.org.