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Some middle-aged dudes might fantasize about rock-star camp. Others will pay a mint to don big-league pinstripes and run around the field. Me, I just wanted to dismember an animal. At times during my decadently carnivorous years, enjoying everything from alligator to yak, I have wondered, "Could I cut it as a butcher?" So I decided to ask one for a tutorial. But, given the proliferation of non-service supermarket meat counters, I wondered if the eager-to-please meat cutters of my childhood even existed anymore.... Read more

It didn't make the Food Network, but the heat was on last Saturday when 12 groups of high school students showed up for Vermont's first annual Jr. Iron Chef competition at "Kitchen Stadium," a.k.a. the "Blue Ribbon" building at the Champlain Valley Expo. The budding cooks competed for a trio of prizes: "Most Creative Dish," "Most-Best Use of Local Ingredients" and "Best in Show." Earlier in the day, 23 teams of middle-school students went head to head for the same honors.... Read more

Until recently, The Busy Chef in Essex strove to cater to the semi-homemade crowd. Folks who like to dabble in cooking, but lack the time or energy to pick up the groceries or suds up the dishes, could stop in and blend carefully prepped ingredients to make easy entrées such as turkey bread pudding and shepherd's pie. Each seasonal recipe was broken into explicit steps by owner Cindy McKinstrie.... Read more

The town of Essex Junction was covered in ice, but a little before 8 in the morning a few Sundays ago, some 200 men, women and children were filing into a nondescript white building just off Route 15. The lettering beside the double doorway read: “ESSEX ALLIANCE CHURCH. Making Friends out of Strangers.”... Read more

Eric Engler handed me the gun. “Careful,” he said. “The trigger’s sensitive.”

I slowly squeezed the . . . pop-pop-pop!

“Well,” I said, “I guess it is.”

I regrouped and recalled the advice I had just heard an overbearing father relay to his school-aged son: “Sight. Breathe. Squeeze.” I repeated that cycle six times before I hit my target — a glowing, incandescent light bulb perched inside an Oscar the Grouch-esque garbage can.... Read more

The sounds outside the Acupuncture & Qigong Health Center on Route 15 in Essex Junction on a recent afternoon are enough to grate on anybody’s nerves: trains whistling, traffic rumbling and the occasional door slamming. But inside, the darkened room is unusually peaceful. The serenity is most apparent in Colchester’s Bill Maynard, who has just received five needles in each ear. He closes his eyes and lets his tightly clasped hands relax on his black jeans. Maynard’s head tips back as if he’s sleeping.... Read more

Since its introduction in 2005, “Guitar Hero” has become one of the most popular video game franchises in the world. Its latest installment, “Guitar Hero III,” released at the height of the 2007 holiday shopping blitz, raked in more than $115 million in sales in its first week alone.... Read more

ESSEX JUNCTION — Ming’s at Essex Chinese Restaurant near Five Corners now sits dark and lifeless, with a commercial “FOR SALE” sign posted at the curb. Next door, a rundown commercial building, where kitchen help from the neighboring eatery once lived — in violation of local zoning ordinances — is also vacant and on the market. Behind Ming’s, the big, white Victorian at 2 Park Terrace is still occupied.... Read more

To purists, the move was a masterstroke. With an “RE” and an “R” on the board, separated by seven spaces, a veteran player at last weekend’s 2nd Annual Green Mountain Scrabble Challenge neatly plucked every tile from his rack of seven to complete the word “RECONSIDER.” A 13-year-old boy animatedly discussed the move with a group of thirtysomethings, recalling an improvisational play of his own a few moments before. With just “_ _ L _ _ _ Y S” to work with, and needing to plug into three other words, he performed Scrabble alchemy by playing “BALONEYS.”... Read more

The Coffee Barn, a double-sided java drive-through, has been open since July, but unless you keep your eyes peeled when you drive down Route 15 in Essex — a.k.a. Pearl Street — you may not have noticed. It's located in a small building in the parking lot of Essex Automotive.

According to Sara Richard, 27, who owns the Coffee Barn with partner David O'Donnell, 23, finding it was kismet. She'd always wanted to own a "café-style place." O'Donnell noticed the place was for sale and contacted the owner. Then, "everything fell into place."... Read more