Tag: food

Summer vacation (day 4)

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, family, italian, local fun, yoga
    1. Broke with routine and went to a second yoga class at Windsong Yoga.
    2. Housework (like taxes, no one gets a vacation from that!).
    3. Finished the book I was reading, Oxygen by Carol Wiley Cassella; didn’t like the ending much.
    4. Spent an hour at the library leafing through magazines. Fun for free! 🙂
    5. Sea Dogs game at Hadlock Field. Ate Italian Sausage with peppers and onions, french fries, 1/3 of a pretzel, ice cream sundae. Bleah.
    6. Found the copy of  The 17 Day Diet by Mike Moreno that I bought at the library book sale a few weeks ago. Sigh. Will peruse.

I’m finding that my lists that I made pre-vacation are a very useful if I use them as a guide, and very stressful if I use them as a directive.

Vacation week (continued, day 3)

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food

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Sunday (Day 3) started off great. Got up early but for a good reason: to meet friends for brunch. We were on the road by 8AM headed for Cape Elizabeth’s The Good Table. We are forging a tradition with our friends of semi-annual Sunday brunches at this lovely place. Our timing was perfect and for the first time, the place wasn’t already packed before we got there. Plenty of table choices; we chose the screened porch but the tweens were cold (sweaters in the car) so we moved inside, next to a sunny window with views of wildflowers.

Izzy was adventurous and tried the Blueberry Crepes, and I (a creature of habit, apparently, as well as a Lover of All Things Italian) ordered The Italian Villa. Appetizers were in order: one big-as-your-head cinnamon bun, which my daughter and I split (and we still had some left over to bring home!).

Dropped our friends off at home, then stopped off at Spiller’s Farm Store for a box of K-cups and a quart of their delicious peaches. Next, I buckled down to work on my Legal Nurse Consulting class, lesson 10 of 12. Sort of. (Actually, that is what I should be doing now instead of writing this…:) )

Talk amongst yourselves…be back in a little bit. 🙂

Finished the class and the quiz (but not the assignment, oh well) at 2:00pm and decided to get outside to see what was going on in the garden. Fast forward to 4:00PM: I have tomatoes (and the chickens got to eat their fair share while I was picking them…happy chickens!), string beans, eggplants, a few blackberries, blueberries…and found 3 strawberries! Yay!

I briefly debated watering before I came in but my daughter was asking for supper to be started (we ate the big brunch and skipped lunch) so I came in and we ate…and then the thunder rolled in. Glad that I didn’t waste time (and water!) watering.

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?

Working from home, week one

by Karen, posted in family, friends, Life in the cube, Work from Home, writing

At the end of my first week working from home, I thought I’d reflect a little on how it’s all going. There were several things that I knew would be different, but my days are shaping up to be much different from how I envisioned them. One of my friends said that she was worried that she’d be too isolated if she worked from home, since she lived alone. I never thought for a minute that I would feel that way, but it is sort of an isolated feeling to be sitting in your office alone all day, interacting with no one face to face. I mean. there are certainly people in the house sometimes while I’m “at work”, but I’m not a part of their activity, their day. I am APART.

What I thought I’d be doing once I started working from home:

  1. Exercising more, since I would have more time in the morning (you know, that part of the day before you talk yourself out of exercising?).
  2. Writing more. After all, I would be gaining more than 2 hours a day of not commuting and not getting meals packed and unpacked.
  3. Gaining weight. There is actually some walking involved in getting to and from Portland every day, parking the car, walking from the parking garage, taking a few sets of stairs…that would not be part of working from home.
  4. Seeing my husband and kids more.

What I actually am doing now that I am working from home:

  1. Turns out, I actually am exercising more. It will be 4 (maybe even 5!) days that I’ve done some form of excercise (yoga, beach walk, gym) by Saturday, versus the 1 or 2 days in a commuting week.
  2. Turns out, I’ve actually lost 2 lbs. Go figure.
  3. Turns out, I’m actually writing less. I really don’t have much downtime. I’m getting up later in the morning (which will end of course, when my daughter goes back to school in September) and pretty much going to bed shortly after I finish working at 9PM.
  4. I am seeing my family more, which is good. If I could only be right about one thing, I’m glad it was this one. 🙂

I’m missing a few things: seeing my friends at work,  the Wednesday Farmers Market in Monument Square, my audio books, the cupcake stores, Micucci’s pizza…

Pretty much, I’m still working on getting it together here, finding a new rhythm to my days.

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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Garden update: end of May

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

Everything plantedThe veggies are in! Found some interesting tomato varieties and practiced supreme self control by not buying all of them. New tomatoes (so far) for me this year are Taxi, Chiquita, Mr Stripey. Old standbys that are returning: Sweet 100’s, Lemon Boy, Brandywine, Black Cherry, a couple of Romas. I am told by the Master Gardner in residence (my husband) that I have room for only one more tomato plant.

Things could get ugly…

Eggplant: Japanese, Italian, and new for me this year is Rosa Bianca.

Peppers: Sweet Italian. Giant Marconi, Corno di Toro Red.

Zucchini: Spineless, Raven. Yellow Squash: Sunray…the usual suspects.

I’m giving onions a try for the first time (both red–thanks, Susan!–and yellow), as well as beets (both red and gold). These and the string beans and the sugar snap peas are being grown (hopefully) from seed. We’re going to try cukes again, even though we never have any luck with them. We’re also giving watermelon another try: some from seeds and 1 or 2 are starting out as seedlings that we purchased.

Here’s hopin’.

The blueberries and the strawberries are running rampant and aren’t pictured in this slide show but will certainly show up in future ones. The raspberries are kicking butt.

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What are you planting in your gardens this year?

The day I ate whatever I wanted: Part 2 A (the day prior)

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, friends, Life in the cube

Since my actual birthday fell on a day I had to work (and I had no way to get out of it!), my husband and I celebrated the day prior.  The weather forecast called for a bleak, cold, rainy day. Does the weather influence what you eat? It certainly does me, so I had made a pretty extensive list of ideas for meals  (as well as where to go for them!) and decided to see how the day actually turned out weather-wise before making any definite plans.

Well, the weather forecast was (as usual!) completely wrong. It was warm, sunny, beautiful. A day for eating outside, moving around, enjoying the sun. Based on that, here’s what we did.

First, split a bagel with peanut butter (him), almond butter (me), and honey. Went to gym. Ugh. Glad to get that out of the way. Similarly, got a few chores done (laundry, food shopping) so we had the rest of the day for ourselves.

For once, I had a coupon to use when I wanted to use it: we split a large coffee coolata with whipped cream from Dunkin Donuts. Next we went plant shopping for the vegetable garden.  We stopped at Riverside  in North Berwick and Gray’s in Wells. We bought some tomato plants, zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, watermelon, peppers.

With lunch in mind, we headed down Route One to Kittery. We decided to have a grazing day: stop at a bunch of places and eat a lot of food. First we went to Terra Cotta (no website) in Kittery. Everything there always looks so good that it’s hard to choose what to order…we settled on a Meatball and Ricotta Stromboli and a pasta salad, with one triple chocolate chunk cookie for dessert and ate it outside on their little patio.

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Next we looped back on Route One to Bob’s Clam Hut for fried clams. We briefly considered whether or not to order them crunchy or Bob’s way with a softer batter. We agreed on crunchy and it was a great decision.  Then we took the long way back along the coast to see the ocean (sigh; love the ocean).

Then we went to When Pigs Fly to buy a loaf of brown sugar cinnamon bread which we had a hunk of for an afternoon snack with some coffee.  Almost as good as my own bread. 🙂

Then home to get the seedlings in the ground. For supper, we decided to go to Big Daddy’s (no website) in Wells and have ice cream cones. I got what I always get, Kahlua Fudge Brownie, and it was as good as it always is. Bill got Coconut and Izzy got Maine Blueberry (in a wafer cone) and we switched cones periodically so we all got to try all 3 flavors.

Ice cream cones: they’re not just for breakfast anymore…

🙂

The day I ate whatever I wanted…Part One

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, local fun, Midlife Crisis, quest for the best, restaurants

What better day to do so than on your birthday? That was my thought process anyway.  As I started planning my day’s meals ahead of time, I recalled reading about this in a book by Elizabeth Berg, entitled (appropriately) The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted. I was a little disappointed that the whole book wasn’t about this; rather, it was just the title of the first story what turned out to be a book of short stories. Oh well. The book is worth reading for that first story.

I’m interested in seeing how close to the plan the day ends up going, so I’m writing a “Before” and an “After” post.

One of the meals that woman in the story ate was doughnuts (her first stop: breakfast). Not just one doughnut…one DOZEN doughnuts. (Well, she didn’t actually eat all twelve, but you get the idea). I didn’t want to be overstuffed (read: sick) at the beginning of the day!

This would not be conducive to a  successful day of Eating Whatever I Want.

So here’s my problem: there are so many options!!! How to narrow it down? Darned if I know.

Breakfast: Amore Breakfast, All Day Breakfast (the one in Kennebunk), Omelette Factory, Congdon’s

Lunch: Anthony’s for tried and true good food. Maria’s for dying to try, rumored to be good food.

Afternoon snack: Bread and Roses for an amazing array of baked treats.

Supper: It’s gotta be Varano’s. My favorite Italian…unless I get Italian for lunch…decisions! One thing is for sure: it is totally all about the food, isnt’ it? At least these decisions are happy ones.

Late evening snack: Big Daddy’s in Wells or Brown’s in York for a Kahlua Brownie ice cream cone.

So, this is the before post. Will write Part 2 tomorrow to account for what I actually did end up doing for my birthday.

How to plant asparagus and potatoes (spring garden part 2)

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, gardening
The asparagus

After the rototilling (thanks, Bill!) and the fertilizing and the leveling the soil in the raised beds with a rake was finished, we started planting. About a quarter of one of the gardens was planted with asparagus about 3 years ago, and we both love it so much we decided to expand that garden. We planted Jersey Giant, Martha Washington, and Purple Giant varieties, which were all the ones that we could find locally.

At first glance, the asparagus crown (as it’s called) is not attractive; it looked sort of like an octopus, actually. I’m not sure I would have known what to do with it, but fortunately  my husband did. After removing the rubber band that bound them, it became evident that the one big octopus was actually 8 individual octopi. We teased them apart and buried them in the raised beds about 8 inches deep then covered with 2-3 inches of soil per the package instructions. The crowns are spaced 8-12 inches apart. Water ’em in. Call it a day.

The potatoes are planted in a similar manner. These at least look like what they purport themselves to be. We planted Baby Yukon Golds. My husband said the package planting instructions usually say to quarter the potatoes before burying them but since this package did not, we didn’t.

Now we have 3/4 of one 8 x 12 raised bed planted with asparagus, and 1/4  with baby Yukon golds.  The books say not to harvest asparagus until it’s been growing for something like six years. This is supposed to help the plant get better established by sending the plant’s energy back into the roots (or something like that).  It’s been 3 years now for our first crop, and we’re going to be brave and cut a few spears in a day or so. We’ve decided that we’re willing to risk it, especially now that we have so many more crowns in the ground! 🙂

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