To kick off the holiday shopping season, the city of Boston is partnering with the Downtown Crossing Partnership to encourage more shopping dollars to be spent here by offering shoppers a discount card and entertainment options that will, this year, add a petting zoo, carousel, a strolling Santa, and musical acts.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) and Downtown Crossing Partnership (DCP) are collaborating on a marketing campaign that will include the return of the free Holiday Savings Pass. Twice as many businesses last year have signed up so far to participate in the program, which will offer shoppers various discounts.
About 135 businesses – including stores, restaurants, and hotels -- have signed up for the free marketing program offering shoppers discounts and freebies. The pass will be distributed through several area outlets, and will be good from Nov. 28 to Dec. 30.
The city created this holiday pass program last year, but this year, the BRA, the city and DCP are creating a series of offerings to attract more shoppers. BRA Deputy Director for Community Planning Randi Lathrop said, “It’s a comprehensive program.”

Downtown Crossing’s festival-like atmosphere will feature:
• The 22nd annual Macy's Tree Lighting, November 28, at 5p.m.
• A December 13 home tour, like the one that was held in the spring. Downtown residents are opening their doors for a special home tour to show off their holiday décor.
• Light pole decorations and winter plantings along Washington Street, installed by the BRA as part of the Mayor's Economic Improvement Initiative for Downtown Crossing.
• A music stage on Summer Street near Macy's from Thanksgiving to December 30, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. DCP is looking for performers, musicians, chorus groups, and other acts, whether holiday related or not, to participate.
• Santa strolling through the district.
• An educational petting zoo: “Some children have never seen these animals up close,” Lathrop said.
• A visitors’ kiosk, at the old Washington Street police kiosk, will be staffed Old Town Trolley Tours, selling tickets for their tours and theater shows, also handing out neighborhood maps and providing information to visitors.

BRA spokesperson Jessica Shumaker noted a renewed enthusiasm downtown. She said, “Businesses are more engaged this year.” She credits the new leadership behind the Downtown Crossing Partnership, headed by Rosemarie Sansone, for the upbeat tone. “They are actually getting business on board and getting excited,” said Shumaker.
“Rosemarie has been a real leader,” said Lathrop. “I’m on the phone with Rosemary daily. The new board members in place are all very dedicated.”
Under her leadership, businesses continue to return to Downtown Crossing. This Saturday, Mayor Menino held a ribbon cutting to welcome FAO Schwarz to Macy’s.
As for the return of Filene’s Basement to downtown, the massive mixed-use retail, office and residential project is “alive and well,” said Lathrop. “We’re four months behind schedule,” she added, but it’s reporting a 65 percent occupancy rate for future tenants, which she called “ huge in this economy”.
However, one recent report states the lead developer of Boston’s Downtown Crossing redevelopment project says it has been put on hold indefinitely until costs are reduced and financing is secured. Columbus-based parent Retail Ventures Inc. had last predicted a fourth-quarter 2009 - first-quarter 2010 opening, months past its initially scheduled spring 2009. Developer John Hynes at a Boston College event last week said the project’s construction is being halted for at least 30 to 90 days, and that they are “$170 million in the hole,” quoted Columbus Business First. He added, “We can’t walk away... It’s currently a $700 million project.”
Like many ventures, they are having trouble lining up banks to fund the development.
Despite the hole left by Filene’s Basement, the pedestrian mall is still a hub that sees 250,000 passing through it daily, four T lines, more than 500 businesses, and 137,000 area office workers. More students will be moving in when the nearby 12-story dorm at Suffolk University is constructed.
In 2004, Menino announced the Downtown Crossing Economic Improvement Initiative, physically upgrading Downtown Crossing, and enforcing traffic regulations. Sidewalks and streets have been repaired, new trash receptacles, Big Belly trash compacters and acorn lights installed, flower baskets and seasonal banners are hung on the light poles throughout Downtown Crossing and the Ladder District streets.

Who doesn’t love pie? And more importantly, who doesn’t love the opportunity to buy a pie for a good cause? In its 16th year of old-fashioned neighborly assistance, Community Servings’ Pie in the Sky is taking orders for apple, sugar-free apple, pumpkin and sweet potato pies.
“We are hoping to raise just under $400,000,” says Pie in the Sky Board Chair Mark H. Lippolt, who noted last week they had raised $30,000 so far, putting them on target. “Now that the elections are over. people will be thinking of Thanksgiving much more,” he adds.
The Pie in the Sky idea basically rose when Community Servings, which has been delivering warm meals to residents who are ill, noticed that restaurants during Thanksgiving week were pretty slow. “That week, everyone’s traveling, people don’t eat at restaurants to save calories…” notes Lippolt. And because the restaurant community had always been pretty active with Community Servings, the idea was born for what Lippolt calls “The country’s largest bake sale.”
Community Servings in Jamaica Plain started out serving the HIV-affected population. “Largely through the strength of our agency, we now deliver to a larger range – those with breast cancer, Lou Gehrig’s, and multiple sclerosis,” he says. “We feed people from Lawrence down to Brockton and Lynn. This is very much a community-based, grassroots effort.”
It recently relocated to a new kitchen facility in Jamaica Plain, big enough to run onsite nutrition education workshops and food service job training program. Its core group of donors and volunteers are able to keep Community Servings extremely cost-efficient: it costs just $25 to prepare and deliver a week's worth of hearty and comforting meals to a sick client.
In its 16th year of sweet relief, Community Servings organizes 150 bakers at nearly 100 area restaurants to make an expected 14,000 pies, then about 350 pie sellers compete to see who can sell the most, with the winners posted daily on the Pie in the Sky website.
Buyers pay $25 for apple, pecan, pumpkin and sweet-potato pies ahead of time. For a $75 donation, buyers get a raffle ticket for one of seven prizes, including a night for two at the Lenox Hotel.
The pies are baked and stored at a central facility, the Park Plaza castle, which when unheated, makes for a perfect walk-in fridge. “All the pies come into that location,” he says. “We do quality checking, and fulfill orders. In the three days before Thanksgiving, that is just one huge pie central.”
The pies are distributed to 40 pickup places, and buyers get their pies the day before Thanksgiving.
Pies that were damaged in transit are moved to the "Pie Hospital" and later distributed to other charities for their Thanksgiving meals.
What makes the pies a hit? It’s a generous community, Lippolt says. Plus, he adds, “People in Back Bay don’t have much of a kitchen.”
Beacon Hill backers include pie bakers at Lala Rokh and Beacon Hill Bistro, and the Advent School is one of the pickup places, as headed by local volunteer and Advent parent Julie Enders of Mount Vernon Street.
Because the pies are donated by area restaurants, they are able to give 92 cents of every dollar raised directly to their clients, adds Lippolt.
The outpouring of community help makes it not only a great fundraiser, but a fun event. First, who doesn’t love pie? Second, how many residents have time to bake fresh pies? And third, the $25 is an easy way to give. What keeps the organizers going is the competitive spirit behind the scenes. On their website, they list the top sellers of the 350 total pie sellers. St. Cecelia’s Church recently hit the No. 9 spot.
Lippolt, a Commonwealth Avenue resident and real estate consultant, was recently named Board chair, and previously served as treasurer. Lippolt bought his first pie in 1996, and joined the organization to help out the needy, and to also bring people together. He’s also done his share of sweet potatoes and yams.
"The organization does collectively what individuals and families did two generations ago - bring a casserole to a sick neighbor and their family."

To raise money, it hosts two annual fundraisers, Pie in the Sky and LifeSavor, whose March fundraiser dinner earned more than $525,000.
To order, go to www.pieinthesky.org or call 617-445-7777.

CAPTION: Georgia, 8, and Julie Enders of Mount Vernon Street sport a medal that Julie earned running the New York City marathon recently. For her efforts, she was able to also raise $15,000 for the Brigham and Women's NICU.

Julie Enders of Mount Vernon Street put her feet where her wallet is, and put a dent in her running shoes to raise serious money for charity.
Last week, she ran in the 26.2-mile New York City Marathon. Not only was she happy to finish the race, but she raised $15,000 for the NICU at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
The marathon was no easy fete for Enders, who up until now, had only run half-marathons. But it was pretty easy to raise money, despite these economic times. She e-mailed 150 friends and family members, and 80 sent donations.
"I had raised $5,000, and so I decided I'd personally match what I raised," she said. Then General Electric Co., for whom she does work, decided to match that amount.
The NICU unit has personal significance for Enders. Her now-8-year-old daughter, Georgia, had spent some time there when she was born. "She wasn't premature but suffered a seizure 12 hours after being born," Julie Enders wrote on her sponsor page at www.firstgiving.com/julieenders. "As well as giving Georgia the best possible medical care, the staff were amazing at supporting me at what was an extremely stressful and worrying time." Today, Georgia is a healthy second-grader.
The money Enders has raised will go toward equipment, and furnishings for visiting parents. "I know how much difference these small things can make. I spent 18 hours a day there visiting, feeding and caring for Georgia," she said.

CAPTION: Scampo Executive Chef Mario Capone.

Everyone loves Lydia Shire, the local chef responsible for turning people into lovers of all things offal, at her landmark Biba; she breathed new life into Locke Ober. She’s been named top chef all around the country. And now she heads Scampo, in the renovated Charles Street Jail turned posh Liberty Hotel.
But her right-hand chef for years has been Executive Chef Mario Capone, who helped her achieve her success at Biba and Locke Ober. He tried New York’s Danielle, and sunnier climes at Las Vegas, running several kitchens at Caesar’s Palace and Aladdin, but he returned to help Shire remake the venerable Boston institution Locke Ober. The team turned it into one of Gourmet’s top 50 restaurants.
“I missed New England,” he said. He also returned with a Vegas bride, Gina, and is now dad of two boys living in Lexington.
He gained his Italian cooking skills from his parents, who came over in 1958 and taught him how to make broccoli rabe and to use arugula when everyone else thought they were weeds. “We always had homemade pasta, polenta, prosciutto,” said Capone, who would go on the family trip to Italy every summer and pick up tips.
It was a natural transition to becoming a chef. “Lydia and I get together to write menus,” he says. “It’s a good balance of her ideas and my ideas. She gets some creative, crazy ideas.”
He is not as much of a fan of the organ meats as she is, but he is creative with pig parts -- his mind is creating something with pig’s feet with lentils, along with some homemade sausage and braised items for the winter months. He loves tripe, but doesn’t think it will be making its debut on his menu anytime soon. “I bring the great techniques and the great ideas,” he says, without modesty. But he’s not boastful, either, just confident. His restaurant gets booked even on weeknights.
He buys his fish from Capt. Mardens in Wellesley to make panko-crusted cod roasted in the oven with lobster stock and caked fennel and cauliflower mousse, which is a big seller. His organic pork from a Midwest farm that maintains lots of marbled fat for flavor is the kurobuta black pig with chestnut and parsnip puree. They also buy a whole suckling pig every Friday, which disappears. His rabe is sautéed with jalapenos, with polenta croutons. The man likes to play with food. No wonder Scampo made it to Esquire’s Top 20 restaurants in the country.
But Capone wanted to show me how to make gnocchi, which I had only done once, with terrible results. He’s a good and patient teacher.



Mascarpone and Potato Gnocchi
Serves 8-10
4 baking potatoes
3 egg yolks
½ cup mascarpone cheese
½ cup Parmesan Reggiano cheese, shredded.
3-4 cups of flour
salt to taste
2 TBL white truffle oil
1. Bake potatoes until tender, about 45-50 minutes. Split open and let cool.
2. When cool, peel and pass through ricer or food mill. Don’t do this if the potatoes are hot, or else the steam will absorb too much flower.
3. Combine cooled potatoes with egg yolks, truffle oil, and mascarapone and parmesan cheeses, and mix until just smooth. Do not overmix, or gluten will form to make them gluey.
4. Combine some of the flour and the salt, until it just holds together. He added 3 ½ cups. When it forms a dough, let it rest for 20 minutes.
5. Roll dough into dime-circumference log, and cut every ½ inch. Roll each piece gently onto a gnocchi paddle; if you don’t have one, you can use a fork or a grater. What you’re trying to do is add texture for the sauce to catch on, but to avoid squishing the tender dough. For newbies, it’ll take a few tries to leave an indent on one side as you roll the other side over the grater or paddle. You’re making a lot of gnocchi, so you’ll have plenty of practice.
6. Boil gnocchi in salted boiling water for about 8-10 minutes, until they float. Drain, then toss with butter, salt and pepper, along with some more grated cheese. Add cauliflower cream sauce.

Cauliflower Cream Sauce
2 cups chopped cauliflower
3 cups heavy cream
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
1 Tbl truffle oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoon butter
1. Sauté chopped shallots and garlic in butter. Add cauliflower, and continue to sauté, not adding any color through browning.
2. Add heavy cream, truffle oil, salt and pepper. Cook until the cauliflower is tender.
3. place mixture into blender, then pass through a fine strainer. Keep warm on stove until ready to use.

Scallops and Chanterelle Mushrooms
Chef Mario wasn’t specific here, so I’ll just say buy as many scallops as will feed your group, and an equal number of chanterelle mushrooms.
Canola Oil
Chopped garlic and shallots
Salt, pepper
Chopped parsley.
Lightly season Nantucket Bay, or if not in season, sea scallops with salt and pepper. In a hot sauté pan, add two tablespoons of canola oil, and sauté quickly, about a minute each side, until browned, and remove from heat. Finish with a spritz of fresh lemon juice.
In another pan, cook the mushrooms in oil with garlic and shallots for a few minutes until lightly brown, then flip; place scallops on top to keep them warm. Season with salt, pepper and chopped parley.

To plate
Place gnocchi with butter and cheese in dish. Add cream sauce, to with scallop and mushroom, add parsley garnish and drizzle around the edges with a nice olive oil.
He noted that for a heavier sauce like a Bolognese, you’d have to make a heavier gnocchi by adding more flour. These gnocchi here are light and delicate, perfect for this cream sauce.
Chef Mario recommends a pinot noir, and a light sorbet for dessert, or perhaps a pistachio gelato.