- [Narrator 1] Tonight on WPBS Weekly, Inside The Stories, Super Bowl 59 is just around the goalpost, we team up with Johnny Spezzano and guest, George Ashcraft, head coach for the Watertown Red and Black football team to share some tasty appetizers perfect for your Super Bowl party.

And every person, regardless of background or abilities, possesses unique strengths.

We'll show you how the Bloom Skills Center in Kingston encourages young adults with developmental challenges to achieve their full potential.

Your stories, your region, coming up right now on WPBS Weekly, Inside The Stories.

(scene whooshes) (scene whooshes) (scene whooshes) (scene whooshes) (scene whooshes) - [Narrator 2] WPBS Weekly, Inside The Stories is brought to you by.

(bright music) - [Narrator 3] When you're unable to see your primary care provider, the Carthage Walk-in Clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and Healing close to home when you need it most.

- [Narrator 4] North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports-related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same, or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us.

North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

(light piano music) - [Narrator 5] We are the North Country.

We're protecting one another like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North Country strong @claxtonhepburn.org today.

- [Narrator 6] Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants program, a re-grant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.

- Good evening, everyone, and welcome to this edition of WPBS Weekly, Inside the Stories.

I'm Michael Riecke.

It's game time in Johnny Spezzano's kitchen and he's bringing the heat with some apps perfect for any Super Bowl party.

Tonight he teams up with George Ashcraft, head coach of the Watertown Red and Black, to make some bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers and pigs in a blanket that will surely score big with your taste buds.

(bright music) (rock music) - Hey, come on.

(rock music) Hello, my friends, and welcome to another Johnny on Fire.

I'm Johnny Spezzano.

We're in my kitchen, we lit the fire.

And we have the legendary coach of the Red and Black, George Ashcraft.

How you doing, coach?

- I'm doing good.

Ready to catch a ball?

- All right.

Aye, all right, we'll take it.

You ready to make some food?

- Yes, sir.

- All right, we're gonna cook some food.

First of all, welcome.

Thank you for being here.

- I'm glad to be a part of your show.

I've watched ya on a few segments and I enjoyed it, it's really neat.

- Oh, we have a lot of fun here.

We're gonna cook up some good stuff.

We're gonna make dogs in a blanket.

We're also going to stuff some jalapeno, so they're kind of like jalapeno poppers in their own way, but they're not gonna be fried.

We'll tell you more about that in just a little bit.

Now, here's our ingredients.

We got our jalapeno peppers.

We got a few different cheeses here, so I'm gonna put these together.

We got some bacon, we got some garlic.

And then over here, this is like a dough.

Okay?

You might know it as a croissant dough, or crescent roll dough, right.

That you see in the store that comes in the roll, so.

So we're ready to get started.

Okay.

Well, first of all, we got some jalapeno peppers, coach, I want you to tell me a story about when you worked at the paper mill and somebody brought you some jalapeno peppers.

- Oh man.

One of the older gentlemen that grew a garden every year brought in some real hot peppers.

And I happened to put 'em in my shirt pocket and not thinking I went up on the job and I crushed them.

20 minutes later, I had to be peeling my shirt off, 'cause it was burning my skin.

- It's the seeds that are the hot part.

I'm kind of cutting those out right now.

- Well, don't wipe your forehead after you do 'em.

- (laughs) All right, so how long have you been playing football?

How long have you been part of the Red and Black?

- Since 1973, I played 73, 74, and 75 and 89, I got back into coaching and I've been the head coach ever since 1991.

- 1991.

They even named the field after this guy.

That's how legendary he is.

- Pretty honorable, you know?

Humbling, humbling.

- Let's learn a little bit about the history of the Red and Black while I continue to cut a few peppers here.

- [Coach] Their first season was in 1986?

- 1896.

- 1896.

- We're getting it together.

- 130 years this coming year.

And I'm glad to be a part of it for, since, like I said since I was 18 years old, I started playing the day after I graduated from high school.

Made hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of good friends, get phone calls from all over the country.

Half of my team every year is usually military and those men come and go, you know, it's tough to try to suit too many of 'em, because at any given week you're gone for, a week or a month, you never know.

- So you've had to learn how to adapt.

- Yeah, well- - But you must get some good players.

- I get some great players, yeah.

- Very athletic guys in- - Yeah.

- The armed forces?

- Local talent right now is coming together more and more again.

And that's a nice mixture, so.

- Speaking of mixture, coach, you're gonna help me with the mixture.

Okay?

- Okay.

- We are going to make our stuffing for these jalapenos that I just cleaned out.

So let me see, I got my little fork here.

Here, you take this and add half of that.

That's ricotta cheese.

Okay.

Yum.

Okay.

Perfect.

- You want half of it?

- Now, half of that, coach.

Whatever you want, you can.

- That's good.

- All right.

- Yep.

- Now, half of that, coach.

- Okay.

- Awesome.

Now, give it a good stir.

So there's three kinds of cheeses we added here.

We did a little moz, a little parm, and a little ricotta.

And we're mixing it all together.

Then we're gonna take some garlic.

You like garlic?

- Love it.

It's good for you.

- It is good for you.

And we're gonna just smack it here like the defensive line gets smacked when the offense has got the ball.

Hey, you know what'd be cool?

I have some Murphy's Irish Stout beer and I have a lager, it's Harp.

We should make a black and tan for the Red and Black.

- There you go.

- All right.

We'll do that to drink when we, 'cause we need something with the hot peppers.

We're gonna add the garlic into the mix.

Keep mixing, coach.

- [Coach] Yep, yep.

- Good stuff.

All right.

And we're gonna line up our plate.

All right, now, I've opened up the pepper.

Go ahead.

Stuff it just like the quarterback gets stuffed when they try to run on the Red and Black defense - And they cry.

- And they cry.

All right, that looks pretty good on that one.

So like that, we'll just put that there like that.

Next one.

All right.

When's the season run for Watertown Red and Black?

- The last couple years we've been playing games in June, July, and by the middle of August, you're done, except for a very warm, quick season, when you're done in August, you know you get to enjoy a little bit of the summer.

- Yeah, that's good.

Now, you told me the Red and Black's been around since 1896.

Were some of Watertown's forefathers on the team?

- Alex Duffy played from 1903 to 1927, something like that.

20 some years and- - Wow, I love Alex.

- JB Wise was the mayor in 1903 when they played down in Madison Square Garden.

- What?

- And- - Watertown Red and Black played at Madison Square Garden.

- Yeah.

And they lost the game six to nothing, but it was quite a historic event and- - That's amazing.

- Yeah.

- Okay, next, coach, you can move that right outta the way.

We're done with that.

We're gonna take the bacon.

We're gonna wrap, wrap this right around here, just like this.

Make our little dogs in a basket.

Have you ever been to Wood Boat Brewery?

- Yes.

- They have an hor d'oeuvre that is much like this.

You wanna try it?

Wanna roll one up?

- Sure.

(upbeat music) - Okay, voila, here we go.

Now, we're gonna throw these in.

So we got our nice hot oven in here.

We'll give those a little time to brown up.

While we're doing that, let's make our next dish.

Got a favorite hot dog?

- Hoffman here.

- Hoffman, right?

North country dog.

- Yeah.

- No doubt, love Hoffman's, yeah.

Great, great hot dog.

This one is called Zweigles.

And this one's actually outta Rochester, New York where I grew up.

So I thought we'd try that today.

I didn't see any Hoffman's for sale, but they had those.

So what we have here is our dough.

And this is like crescent roll dough, right?

That you get in the tube.

We're making things we can roll up.

So we're gonna do the same thing like we did with the bacon around the pepper.

Except this time we're gonna wrap our little doggy.

You ever make these?

- No, I haven't.

- They're fun.

And you kind of get the bun baked right around the dog, which is kind of nice.

- [Coach] I've had 'em, I just never made 'em.

- (laughs) Okay.

All right.

Wanna do this one?

- [Coach] Sure.

- Here you go.

And while he is doing that, I will tell you at home, I don't know if you can pick it up, but I can hear our stuffed peppers sizzling in there.

(peppers sizzling) Are you one of those coaches that, you're on the sideline and sometimes you gotta throw some motivation out to the team and you gotta kind of let 'em have it.

Are you one of those coaches?

You know what I'm saying?

Like, "Come on, get it together."

- If I bark, it's usually a positive bark.

- Okay, okay.

- It could sound negative and I can look awful, mean at times, I've been told.

But that vein in my neck comes out about a half an inch when a referee makes the wrong call, I think he made one anyway.

You call 'em sir one too many times, they respect that.

- That's good, that's good, yeah.

You know, you've been along around long enough.

All right, so we got our doggies.

We're gonna throw those in next.

We're gonna put 'em in right beside our delicious stuffed jalapeno peppers.

(metal pan clangs) (upbeat music) Coach, everything, everything is done at the same time.

- I like it.

- Look at our little dogs.

Those are fun and our peppers.

So I want to create a little beverage for you and I to enjoy, a little black and tan.

- Awesome.

- All right, so we'll do that in just a little bit.

We'll do black and tan in honor of Red and Black, which by the way, coach, thanks for the shirt.

Now I can tell everybody that I played for the red bowl.

- There you go.

- (laughs) I'm just kidding.

I would never do that.

- A lot of people have.

- Yeah, I'm sure they have.

- They should, they come to one practice and they think they played.

- Yeah, I'm sure they have.

- It's all good.

- Do you guys bring back the old school players ever?

Do you guys have little reunion parties or?

- We do the Hall of Fame banquet.

There's gonna be one, I think this fall at some point later in the year.

- All right.

Now, I understand you're getting ready to celebrate your 130th year.

- 130 years this upcoming season, yes.

- That's amazing.

- It's gonna be a big, big, big thing.

We got a few things in the making right now.

In February it'll be, I'll start signing people up.

Every year we sign about a hundred to 150 people.

- All right.

What do you tell people who get turned away?

- I don't turn 'em away.

They turn themselves away.

I probably have cut five people in 34 years.

- Whoa, okay.

- 'Cause you give everybody the opportunity.

A lot of people leave because of work.

Military guys, their commitment is a lot different than the local guy.

We've got over 23 people right now that have been ducked into the American Football Association Hall of Fame for the Watertown Red and Black.

- That's great.

- Going back to JB Wise as being one of 'em from back in the early 1900s.

It's very rewarding.

It's needed.

It's very needed.

- It's needed and it's just, it is history when it comes to the North Country and Watertown, New York.

And the fact that I learned today that the Red and Black played at Madison Square Garden.

Years ago.

- In 1903, yes.

- 1903, amazing.

All right, coach, couple of things we're gonna do to doctor these up.

Okay?

First of all, what's hot dogs without a little cheese?

I happen to have a little warm cheese right here to put over that like that.

Does that look better like that, or not?

- Oh, look's great.

- All right, just a little bit like that.

Just help things out.

Okay.

Just go like this, that way.

I don't know, cheese just makes it better.

You know what I mean?

It fills the cracks of your heart.

- There you go.

(both laugh) - Okay, all right.

Now, let's talk about these.

You know what we're gonna do to these?

We are going to, because you got your hot, you got your spicy, right, you got your salty.

We're gonna add a little sweet to that.

So we're gonna put over the top just a little preserves.

And I mentioned before, wood boat.

This is how they make 'em over there.

Same deal.

Real good stuff.

I think they use more bacon though.

I think I kind of went light on the bacon.

Okay, so these are delicious.

So we're gonna serve these up.

You ready?

Okay.

Look at that, coach.

One dog, one spicy pepper.

One dog, one spicy pepper.

(spatula grates) Okay, now, we got a little spicy here, coach.

So I thought in honor of the Red and Black, it would be kind of fun if we made ourselves, move your hand, one second, I don't wanna burn anybody.

(knives clang) I'll move these over.

If we would make some kind of celebratory beverage to go with it, okay.

So we have a two kinds of beer here.

We have a lager.

Okay?

We're gonna pour that in first and we're gonna try not to foam it up too much.

- Tilt the glass.

- Tilt the glass, right?

Okay.

Like that.

And we're using mason jars, a little more.

Okay, there.

Now, this is a stout.

(can swishes) It's a famous one too, from Ireland.

And what we're gonna do is we're gonna create a black and tan beer.

(mason jars clack) In order to do this successfully, I need to pour it over a spoon like this to kind of slow down the momentum.

So let's see if it works.

This is keeping it from mixing.

And when you go to your favorite bartender, this is how they make a black and tan.

- It worked.

- And it works.

I gotta try to get it in the jar here.

But you gotta pour it over the spoon, or it's gonna want to go right to the bottom of the glass and then you, it ruins the fun.

Okay.

Can you see it at home?

Coach, can we toast?

- Sure.

- A little black and tan to the Red and the Black.

- Thank you.

- Cheers to you.

Very refreshing.

(mason jars clack) (plates clacking) And I'm gonna give you this and feel free to take a bite and see how we did.

(plates clacking) Now, I expect you to serve this at the next Red and Black banquet.

- [Coach] Which all be very shortly.

- Okay, all right, all right.

Again, we got the cheesy center along with the delicious hotness of the pepper.

Mm.

- Mm.

- Mm.

- Very good.

- All right.

All right, let's try our dog next.

And you know what?

Sure.

These are things parents make for kids, but we're making it here 'cause we're big kids.

Mm-mm.

What do you think, coach?

Next concession stand?

- Now, we're an item, I'm a real cook, right?

- Officially you are a real cook.

I'm so, just like I'm a real athlete.

(laughs) I'm so honored to have you here, coach Ashcraft from the Watertown Red and Black.

Thanks for coming to my kitchen.

- Well, thank you for having me be a part of this.

- And I am honored to have you here.

You are a legend, sir.

And so is the Watertown Red and Black.

Thanks for watching.

Remember, you can catch all the back episodes on wpbstv.org.

Just search for Johnny On Fire.

I'll talk to you on the Border 106.7 weekday mornings and the Dinner at Johnny Podcast.

And I hope you have a great day.

We're gonna keep eating.

I'm going back for the heat.

Woo.

So good.

(upbeat rock music) - If you're looking for more great fire-grilled recipes from Johnny, just visit wpbstv.org and scroll through our library.

Also, if you'd like to be a guest on the segment, all you need to do is send us an email at wbpsweekly@wpbstv.org.

Make sure you include your name and your fire-grilled recipe idea.

Well, the Bloom Skills Center in Kingston, Ontario provides life and employment skills to young adults with intellectual and developmental challenges.

These skills are essential for personal growth, integration into society and the creation of a more inclusive and supportive community.

Continued learning leads to greater independence and employment possibilities, as the Bloom Skills Center is fond of saying, "In the right conditions, everything blooms in it's own time."

(bright music) (hands clapping) - [Gail] Every individual, regardless of their background, or abilities, possesses unique strengths and areas of opportunity.

Bloom's Skill Center recognizes and nurtures these attributes as fundamental for personal development, achieving potential, and contributing meaningfully to community.

- Our mission is essentially that we support young adults living with intellectual and developmental exceptionalities.

18 to 30 is our primary group right now.

We're hoping to expand in the future, but then we help them, support them not only build life skills that will help them for independence in their life, but also to help them transition into employment within the community.

- [Gail] Founder and executive director, Amber Potter's son, Bailey, is a young adult who lives with autism.

When he turned 18, they realized the lack of resources and services for young adults in trying to continue to learn and develop skills to find meaningful employment.

- When Bailey turned 18, my choices was to either do I just help my son, but I have the knowledge and the capacity to help his peers, right?

So then, and we as a family are able to accommodate that, right?

And not all families are, some, a lot of parents are just trying to get through and just trying to survive.

Our goal was when we opened this, we wanted to have an educational-based program to help work towards employment, which is what college is, which is what university is, right, is that you go to school in order to learn how to do a a certain job or profession.

And so that's what we wanted to build, but we also wanted to make it accessible to every young person.

- [Gail] Upon entry into the program, all participants start to learn the fundamentals of both gardening and kitchen skills.

The three B program teaches participants how to grow and maintain a garden from start to finish, including seeds starting, composting, companion planting, weeding and watering.

- We actually had a young person, well, I shouldn't say that, we've had several that really enjoy the outside aspect.

And in addition, we have a lot of students that, because of their exceptionalities, there's a lot of sensory overload and the garden's actually quite a peaceful place.

And we notice that even from a therapeutic perspective of having it in combination with our cooking program where this can be quite busy, a lot of people, a lot of sensory input, but starting off a day in the garden can sometimes help someone mentally set, right?

But yes, we've had students that are interested strictly in agriculture.

Actually one of our students, we transitioned after our program into the Loving Spoonful Community Farm Training Program.

So for those that are interested in continuing agriculture, we definitely encourage that.

And then we work again in conjunction with other community for them to be able to expand and learn that knowledge.

- [Gail] The Community Cafe is their social enterprise, which also provides the opportunity for skills-based programming.

It is a community space to grab coffee and a healthy lunch for park and ride commuters, welcoming hub for local residents and a healthy refueling option for sports teams that use the arena.

- The food is amazing.

So one of the things we do with food is that we stick with a vegan, vegetarian diet.

That's for a couple of reasons.

Meat is hard to learn with because it's very precarious.

So because we're a learning center primarily, we wanna make sure that we're creating a safe area for them to learn without posing any risks to anybody.

So removing meat from the equation really helps to take away some of that pressure so it makes it an easier learning environment.

Plus we get a lot of customers that are really excited that we have vegan and vegetarian options.

You should see people's faces when they're like, "I don't suppose any of the pastries are vegan, are they?"

And we're like, "Oh, they're all vegan."

And they're like, "Oh."

And then they buy like 12 of 'em.

They're so excited.

(laughs) - [Gail] This program is run through community cooperation and support.

Volunteers, teachers and parents are crucial to the success of the program.

This is also a great opportunity for high school students looking for community hours, or a job through the Canada Summer Jobs Grant.

- I thought it was such an amazing concept.

Yeah, I just think it's an amazing opportunity to build my skills and just develop as a person if nothing else.

No one in my family has any of these exceptionalities.

And so being able to work and build relationships with all of these students has been amazing to me to sort of gain perspective on how they see the world and how I can help just general people in society that I might encounter.

It's just teaching me a lot of patience.

And then working with the students, I am also getting to know a lot more about how different people can interact with each other.

- [Gail] Encouraging environments like Bloom's Skill Center provides the necessary support and resources to help individuals harness their strengths and work on their opportunities for improvement emotionally, physically, intellectually, and socially.

- For a lot of these young adults, they're not only coming out and getting this training for the first time, but for a lot of them, this is their first experience out of high school and this is their first experience where they're not depending on their immediate support network, they're coming out independently.

So because of that, we also see a lot of people that are coming into their own awareness of themselves at the same time.

- The biggest thing that we see is what we call immeasurable skills.

And so a lot of students come in and you're talking about a population of people that have often been discouraged in their life.

And so being able to come in, you see then a sense of pride, a sense of accomplishment as they learn skills.

And so that's what we do it for, right?

Is that piece where they're part of the community, right?

That's what a community is, is contribution from everyone.

- [Gail] For WPBS Weekly, I'm Gail Paquette.

(light music) - That does it for this Tuesday night.

Join us next time for a fresh look Inside The Stories.

Old Phone Works in Kingston is one of the largest suppliers of antique phones in the world.

You'll be surprised to find out just how popular this nostalgic technology really is.

Plus how the workplace in Watertown helps residents through a variety of government programs will help you navigate which ones might be right for you.

Meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, we would love to learn more.

Drop us an email at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.

That's it for tonight, everyone.

On behalf of everyone behind the scenes here at WPBS, I'm Michael Riecke.

Thank you for watching, have a great night.

- [Narrator 2] WPBS Weekly, Inside The Stories is brought to you by.

(bright music) - [Narrator 3] When you're unable to see your primary care provider, the Carthage Walk-in Clinic is here for you, located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and Healing close to home when you need it most.

- [Narrator 4] North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports-related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same, or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us.

North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

(light music) - [Narrator 5] We are the North Country where protecting one another like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North Country strong @claxtonhepburn.org today.

- [Narrator 6] Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.

(light music)