Category: local fun

The honeymoon is over

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, fitness, health, local fun

Well, the vacation may have just started but….the party? It’s definitely over. What am I talking about?

I got off the scale a minute ago. It wasn’t pretty.

After I got over being mad at myself (you know, for getting on it in the first place) I decided to (try to) get real. I did a quick review of what I ate yesterday (vacation day 1; ice cream twice?? And one of those times I used it to dress up an enormous and amazingly good piece of strawberry rhubarb pie).

Pie a la mode

Steps:

  1. Start counting (ugh) Weight Watchers points again. I never did pony up the cash to re-join so that I could learn the new Points Plus system, so either I rejoin (joining fee is no longer being waived, of course) or use the old system as best as I can remember it from 4 years ago. UPDATE: Just saw an ad in the WW magazine that starting 8/28 they will be waiving that $29.95  joining fee again (for Weight Watchers Online, at least)…guess I got a week’s reprieve!
  2. Go back to getting up early and walking for 30 minutes every morning (maybe I’ll wait till after my vacation to start this one, since I’ll already be up early every day at 5:45AM when school resumes August 30). I stopped doing this after a particularly vicious horse fly attack.
  3. Stop wearing my cupcake necklace for a while . Hmmmm…I wonder if they make a carrot stick necklace?? Just in case there’s something to “the power of suggestion”.
  4. Drink more water, yada yada.

Note: It’s going to be a bumpy road; I still have 2/3 1/3 of that pie left.

Vacation week (continued, day 2)

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, friends, local fun, movies, tweens

Saturday (Day 2) was a full day.  Yoga in the morning at Windsong Yoga with my favorite yoga teacher Kristen. Then stopped in at Fetch’n Fun for their fundraiser for The Lucky Pup Rescue.

Chicken Parm made by the tweens

Then my daughter and I picked up her friend Madi for a tween day. Library first (the girls did a scavenger hunt and got a prize), then The Smurfs movie at the Wells Five Star Cinema. The movie was much less annoying than I thought it was going to be. I was even asked by my daughter to stop laughing so loudly, so there you go. The nice surprise of this movie was that I knew and liked some of the actors: Hank Azaria (where’s he been?) and Jayma Mays (Glee).

Next, we headed down to the Wells Harbor for the All Together Now concert. The bugs were out in full force so we left halfway through it (no reflection on the band; they were great!) and stopped at Big Daddy’s for ice cream, right on the way home. Good day. Got to do lots of stuff on my (vacation) wish list.  At the end of the day, I read an email from my cousin Kathy (who’s two weeks and two days older than I) asking me if I’d made a “Bucket List” for the second half.

Nope. Not yet.

(Just put that bucket list on my to-do list).

Then a quick stop at the grocery store to buy the missing ingredients for the Chicken Parmigiano recipe that the tweens wanted to make for dinner. Home to play some Wii Just Dance 2, then cooked dinner, which turned out to be wonderful (worth putting the oven on in the heat of the summer for).

Oh, and did I mention that I did two rounds of dishwasher filling and emptying and 5 loads of laundry as well? And my online class that I had hoped to do on the day it posted (Friday) is still not done. Here’s hoping for a Sunday completion.

Summer Vacation: What I actually DID do

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Date night, local fun, relationships

You know how they say, “The best laid plans of mice and men…” to paraphrase John Steinbeck? Well, true that.

Half Pecan Banana Bread, Half Cherry Vanilla Chocolate Chunk cone

Day 1: Friday:  The entire day did not end up being wasted waiting for the fridge to be delivered (and the accompanying emptying out and filling back up thereof) that I anticipated when the delivery window was given as “Between 2:30PM and 4:00PM” that day. Bright and early we got a call asking if they could come at 9:00AM instead. Hel-lo? Duh! Of course we said  yes. Bonuses: 1) I was on my way to the gym and got to–er, had to turn around and go back home.  2) My husband and I were both able to attend our daughter’s Culinary Camp presentation at YCCC which was scheduled from 3:00PM-4:00PM.

We also got to go out for dinner to Pedro’s in Kennebunk, noticeably missing from the planned vacation agenda. Later we got an ice cream cone at Arundel Ice Cream Shop, which was very definitely on the agenda! We popped in our Netflix movie when we got home: Take Me Home Tonight~Pass on this one; it was pretty awful.

A word about Pedro’s: it’s great place to go. Simple, straightforward menu without too many choices to bog you down. Nice atmosphere. We sat outside on the patio this time (the first time we went there a few weeks ago we ate inside). We ordered the Flautas (which are great for sharing: an order contains two) and the Nachos Grande. The food was excellent (sorry, no pictures; my husband is getting sick of the food getting cold while I’m snapping pictures for the blog) and reasonably priced.

It was a fairly good start to my vacation. 🙂

Anyone else on vacation?

What (I think) I am doing on my summer vacation

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Date night, family, friends, Karen's Kitchen, local fun, restaurants, yoga

Nothing gets done without a plan, right? Write it down, make it happen, as the saying goes. Well, I’m writing it down. Universe? Make it happen!

First, the not fun, obligatory things:

  1. Friday: waste the day emptying out the fridge and freezer into coolers with ice packs, then waiting for Sears to deliver our THIRD new fridge in as many weeks (dont’ ask)…then putting it all back in. BONUS: I’m really starting to get the hang of it! Here’s hoping that the third time is the (refrigerator) charm…
  2. My online class will post new lessons on two Fridays and one Wednesday during my vacation. I plan to complete them on time. (Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!).
  3. Feed, clothe, launder said clothes, and in general care for the fam to the extent that they will let me (read: do things for them that they can’t or won’t do for themselves~reference laundry).

Okay, now for the fun stuff:

  1. Saturday: Yoga at Windsong Yoga in South Berwick. Yay! Then going to the Lucky Pup Rescue Fundraiser at Fetch’n Fun in Wells ( and yes, Annie, we are bringing cash for the raffles!). Then in the evening we’ll go see the free Wells Harbor Concert. This week it’s All Together Now, a band we’ve seen and really liked in the past. 
  2. Sunday: brunch with my friend and her daughter (who is my daughter’s friend) at The Good Table in Cape Elizabeth. We’ve been there twice before with our friends and all I can say is if you’ve never been there, GO! Go on a Sunday morning if you can. They will have you at ‘cinnamon buns’.
  3. Acton Fair. Not sure which day yet, but definitely going. Probably stop on the way to or from at Ted’s Fried Clams on Route 109 in Shapleigh. Stop in at Somethin’ Sweet to see Jen the fabulous baker of said sweet somethin’s. 🙂
  4. Try for a Sea Dogs game.
  5. Saturday August 27 is The Chili Fest at the Wells Jr High School from 11-3.

Miscellaneous fun stuff to fit in where and when possible: Read. Write. Beach. Garden. Not set the alarm for any reason. Glow bowling at the Bowl-a-rama in Sanford (call for times: 207-324-2401). See Crazy Stupid Love if at all possible at the Wells Five Star Cinema. Farmers Markets. Arundel Ice Cream Shop for Mounds Ice Cream (if I can tear myself away from the Pecan Banana Bread and Cherry Vanilla Chocolate Chunk…).

Oh yeah, and eat copious quantities of cupcakes and whoopie pies. Heh heh heh…(what can I say? I’m predictable).

🙂

Menaces in the garden

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, gardening, local fun, no fear, raising chickens, relationships

The garden is doing great. I might have even said amazingly great, if my husband didn’t find the disgusting green tomato destroyers munching on the vines this week. May I just take one moment to say ‘Ew’?  They are very hard to see (think Where’s Waldo); hanging on to the stems their gross little legs almost look like little leaves. If you find one, keep looking…there will be others. These yucky little encroachers travel in packs. Check the tomatoes themselves as well; we found teeny tiny little green devils on the underside of some of the cherry tomatoes. The green devil on the green tomato and tomato branches are nearly invisible. They also do not know enough to stick to their own territory. We actually plucked one of them off the eggplants! Talk about adding insult to injury!

Do you have chickens? Well, they need protein. Maybe that will motivate you to put your disgust aside for just one moment to pluck the suckers off of your plants and into your chickens mouths…hey, circle of life, babe. Or, make your husband do it. Do something nice to–I mean, for him later to make it up to him.

🙂

While you’re trolling for protein for your farm animals, don’t forget those equally gross shiny (but not happy)  Japanese Beetles. Check the leaves on your berry plants. These guys are brazen. No hiding and blending for them. If they had noses, they’d be thumbing them at you (you know, if they also had thumbs). Show no mercy. The bug traps might catch a few of them, but most likely you will be picking them off and disposing of them to save your plants.

The garden is thriving despite them. At the moment. Here’s hopin’ we can keep ahead of them.

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Somethin’ Sweet Bakery in Sanford

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, family, friends, local fun, quest for the best
Jennifer, owner of Somethin' Sweet Bakery in Sanford

Maybe it’s Sunday afternoon and 86 degrees and the last thing in the world you want to do is hang around the house with your cranky kids, since you yourself are very cranky. Here’s an idea: throw…er, put the kids in the car and drive over to Somethin’ Sweet Bakery, 883 Main Street Suite 1 in Sanford, next to Get Fired Up.

Jen opens for business Thursday through Saturday  from 11:00am to 7:00pm and Sundays from 11:00am to 4:00pm.  She may open other days as well; for example last Monday Jen opened for the 4th of July to provide excellent edible support for hungry (for Somethin’ Sweet!) parade go-ers.

Jen has always loved baking and that fact comes through loud and clear to anyone who has been lucky enough to enjoy any of the Whoopie Pies (try the Coffee-filled Chocolate Whoopies! They are amazing!), cookies, brownies, and other treats that you can find at her bakery. She changes up the flavors and items daily but of course, like the ice cream parlors always have vanilla and chocolate on hand, you can always find the old standbys (vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting for instance) represented at Somethin’ Sweet! Jen is working on the new website for her business (somethinsweetmaine.com), but if you need a focal point for your (sweet) meditation today, check out the picture up there now. . . you will have no trouble sitting for 20 minutes if you are focusing on that.

Speaking of Somethin’ Sweet, the decor of the store, as well as the lovely store owner, are exactly that. Jen mentioned that she is working on some new offerings (this week she made caramel blondies..now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!), so keep coming back and check out what’s in the display case. You can also check out the daily flavors which she posts on Facebook.  You may find that, despite the variety of options, your tween will always want the Cookie Dough Cupcake. Let her have it, as long as she stays away from your Chocolate Whoopie Pie with Coffee Filling…

🙂

Jen is taking Somethin’ Sweet on the road tomorrow (Monday, July 11) night. She will be at the Sanford Mainers baseball game at 6:30pm at Goodall Park, Roberts Street in Sanford. Why not eat a light supper then pile the fam in the car for an evening of baseball and baked treats?

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The Donut Hole

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, chicks, family, local fun, tweens
Donut Hole

 The Donut Hole ((207) 929-5060) is located in Buxton, ME and is a cute little place with a variety of offerings…all good. I found it one day when my daughter and I were on an errand for my husband: a run to pick up baby chicks at Andy’s Agway, a truly taxing  job which required small baked goods be applied liberally post pick up.

My tween daughter and my husband had been to The Donut Hole before without me when they came to Agway on a similar chicken-raising related errand and had enjoyed their purchases very much.

Izzy got ice cream at her last visit, and even though it was only 10:30 am she wanted to order that again, so I said okay. Hey, ice cream has calcium, right?

I, of course, had to order a cupcake (all right, TWO cupcakes~they were too darn pretty to choose just one!) to try them out, as well as an eclair. Izzy and I took them home, cut them in half, and spread the eating of them out over a couple of days. Everything we bought was delicious…including the ice cream (of course she shared a little of her ice cream with me!). They make eclairs two different ways, so be sure to ask the staff what the difference is. 
I bet you’re thinking of excuses to run to Agway right about now, huh?  🙂

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Date night at the Ogunquit Playhouse

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Date night, family, local fun, relationships, restaurants, Someone's gotta say it

Summer of Love is the current show at the Ogunquit Playhouse. May I just say this: save your money. Skip this show and buy tickets to Legally Blonde instead, which stars Sally Struthers (among others) and runs from 8/24-9/17. I have seen Sally Struthers in two other Playhouse Productions and (both my husband and I agree on this) each one was excellent.

Summer of Love would have been better entitled Evening of Boredom. I liked some of the songs that the cast performed in this show so I tolerated it a bit better than did my husband, who was not a big fan (neither of most of the songs nor of this production). The actors were okay, but no one really stood out except for the singer who performed a cover of Janis Joplin’s Piece of My Heart. She did an excellent job; it was the highlight of the show.

Consider going to  The Blue Elephant  if you are going out for dinner before seeing a Playhouse. It’s close enough so that you don’t have to rush to get there and the service and food are excellent. I don’t have pictures of the dishes that we ordered for once because I decided to give my husband a break from having to wait to start eating (while the food cools) so that I can take pictures. We were out to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary that night so priorities came into play. We ordered the Appetizers for Two, Drunken Noodles (which came with beef and chicken), and Hot Basil Stir Fry with beef (which came with way too many onions~and I like onions). Note to self: beware ordering menu items which mention onions in the future.

This picture is of me and Bill taken shortly before we got married…we really haven’t changed a bit.

🙂

Date night at the Ogunquit Playhouse

by Karen, posted in Date night, family, local fun, relationships, Someone's gotta say it, tweens

Avenue Q opened up the season at the Ogunquit Playhouse this year. The show is sort of a perversion of Sesame Street that is funny as hell and certainly worth seeing. The night we went was during one of the Bruins’ Playoff games (season ticket holders have only limited say over what night the tickets are for) and was the first show in years that my husband and I could remember that wasn’t sold out. It was still impressively full, though, considering (reference: Bruins’ Playoff game).

This show’s ticket has the warning not to bring children under 17 due to the explicit language and, um, live (puppet) sex onstage (two darn good reasons, don’t you think?) but then I read an interview with Brad Kenney this month in the York Independent and became confused. He is quoted in the article as qualifying the aforementioned good advice by saying:

“Well, we recommend parental discretion for anyone under 17–but, if you do bring them, you will be considered VERY cool! And they probably know all the songs anyway!”

Huh?

I attended a Playhouse show a couple of years ago (The Full Monty) which was a show (obviously) intended for adult audiences.  Parents in the front row somehow thought it would be okay to bring their kids to see it too, one of which looked to be about tween-aged. Not only was the poor boy uncomfortable, but the actors on the stage were uncomfortable as well! How do I know this? Because one of them gestured to the boy in the front row and made a comment about having a child in the audience cramping his style, or words to that effect.

Parents? Leave your kids at home for adult-themed live shows.

Brad? My 12-year-old does not already know any of the words to any of the songs in Avenue Q!

All things cupcake

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, friends, local fun, Midlife Crisis, quest for the best, restaurants
PB&J cupcake (CFB)

My friend Charlotte asked me a question today: ” Who has the best cupcakes?” On the surface, it seems an easy enough question, right?  Wrong! I tried to apply my “Keep it simple” philosophy to this question but found I was not able to.

I mean, come on!

So here goes my attempt to answer this question:

  1. Cupcake Fetish Bakery, Main St. in Sanford. which has the best variety and most interesting flavors. Hello, The Elvis? Peanut butter, banana and bacon? Plus Tiramisu, Pink Lemonade, Drop Kick Murphy, Chocolate Kahlua…and I’m barely even getting started here. Plus the store has a little window into the kitchen so you can watch the actual cupcaking process as it happens! And the inside of the shop is decorated with cute cupcake paraphernalia that gives it a very fun atmosphere.
  2. The Village Cupcake, Kennebunk. Owner Kristy Douglas was recently at the Keys to the Kitchen in Kennebunk to giving out cupcake decorating tips. She also brought along some mini cupcakes to sample. SO GOOD! Kristy sells her cupcake wares from her home so if you want to pick up a cupcake on a whim, this will not be your cupcake go-to person…I don’t think. Call her though; maybe she does keep some on hand for when the whimsy hits. Also, they have many interesting flavors (amaretto, hel-LO) and are open to creating new flavors at your request (Green Tea cupcakes? You betcha!).  They also offer gluten-free cupcakes. 🙂
  3. Tulips Cupcakery, Portland. These cupcakes can be purchased at Kamasouptra in Monument Square; check the website for other locations to buy. They describe themselves as  “from farm to cupcake”, since they are inspired by and use local, seasonal ingredients in their recipes. If you are a person who loves strawberry cupcakes with strawberry frosting but doesn’t want any of those annoying strawberry chunks in the batter–you like ’em smoooooth–then these will be the answer to your strawberry cupcake prayers.

This post covers the above 3 businesses because they are the first 3 that came to mind!  Apparently, I’ve never met a cupcake I didn’t like…

🙂

Of course, cupcakes made at home or by friends are really the best of them all!

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