Tag: food

Celebrating with the kids: Valentine edition, part 2

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, local fun, tweens
My Valentine's Day bouquet

My Valentine’s Day started off great with a bouquet of flowers, with yellow (my favorite) being the dominant color. from my husband. I received them on Thursday night, since he would be at work for the next several days. I love flowers and was completely surprised (and thrilled!) with my gift.

I got to take my tween daughter Izzy out for lunch to celebrate our Valentine’s Day in advance. We went to one of “our places”, the Weathervane in Sanford and ordered way too much (fried)  food, as we almost always do.  After that, we continued up Route 109 to the Cupcake Fetish Bakery where we got dessert for ourselves, and we also picked up a little something  for my son and his girlfriend (Chocolate Dream with vanilla buttercream frosting for Anthony, Strawberry Nirvana for Lauren). The baker made little cupcake bites up (see slideshow below) for free samples in honor of Valentine’s Day and they rocked!

We came home and Iz worked on  her valentines to bring to school for her friends tomorrow, an eleventh hour decision. “This will be the last year, Mom,” she said. I recall her making the same statement to me just about a year ago…

Hmmm…we’re sitting here eating cupcakes for supper…it’s starting to feel sort of like Valentine’s Week (is that wrong?)… 🙂

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February date night

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

Well, it’s been a while since we’ve been able to have a date night due to college classes resuming for our elder child (who babysits our younger child), but the planets aligned so we got our dinner and a movie.

The dinner part was at Ruby’s in York. We got the coupons from the SuperCoupons monthly mailer and I actually remembered to bring them this time and they even hadn’t expired yet, so we were off to a good start.

We ordered a McCann’s pizza which is bbq sauce, chicken, bacon, and cheese on a thin crust. We also got an order of fowl fingers with torch sauce on the side. These two menu items were the reason that my husband wanted to go there, so he was happy. The big letdown for me was that they were out of sweet potato fries, which was the reason that  I wanted to go there, so I wasn’t so happy

(NOTE: It’s worth it to go early for dinner since from 4-6pm on weeknights the appetizers are half price).

It continued to be a boy’s night because it was Bill’s turn to choose the movie. He chose True Grit, and just in case the title doesn’t tip you off, I’m here to tell you this: chick flick it is not. I actually (in hindsight) would not consider this a good choice for a “date night” movie…warm and fuzzy it also is not. Not one little bit. Not for one instant. It was all hard edges and angst. (Okay, there were one or two little laughs, but they were wrapped in blood and gore and so therefore hard for me to appreciate).

My husband thought that this movie was great. I thought that it was difficult to watch. It was violent, grossly (heavy on the “gross”) violent at times, and there were a couple of occasions of violence before which there was no fair warning (read: time to cover my eyes). My husband managed to tell me “don’t look” just in time for one of these, which I greatly appreciated.

We didn’t even agree on the ending. I said, “It didn’t even have a happy ending to make up for all of the difficult-to-watch parts!” and he said, “What? It did have a happy ending,” bewildered by my assessment.

And there you have it: men and women are different.

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So there you go.

National Homemade Soup Day

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, health, Karen's Kitchen, Pantry Project, tweens

This year, it’s this week (yesterday, actually) but hey, soup is forgiving! So….here’s some reasons to dive in:

Top 5 reasons to make some homemade soup:

  1. You’ve got some leftover turkey (or chicken)  bones from your Thanksgiving (or Christmas or New Year’s Day) dinner in your freezer.
  2. You are living in New England, it’s winter, and you are freezing your butt off.
  3. You are dealing with a head/sinus/chest cold (in which case, get someone else to make it for you).
  4. You picked up a rotisserie chicken for dinner, and want to get one another meal from it.
  5. You have a crock pot. Give it something to do.

You will find no shortage of recipes online (and probably in your own collection of seldom used cookbooks) for homemade soup, not to mention on the labels of canned or boxed broth.  Or just go on intuition and taste as you go…it’s hard to mess up soup.

Speaking of leftovers in the fridge, if you have any leftover pasta from another night’s dinner, use that in your soup (I happened to have some linguini). Don’t forget to forage in your crisper drawers for any (perhaps long) forgotten carrots, celery, onions, and other (still recognizable) vegetables to add to your soup.

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Whoopie!!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, books, family, quest for the best

Maybe you’ve heard this news already, but just in case you missed it: The Great State of Maine is considering making the Whoopie Pie its official state dessert.

It wasn’t already? There are lots of places to get a great wh0opie pie, including your very own kitchen. If you take this route, here are two excellent cookbooks to consult:

  1. Whoopie Pies By Sarah Billingsley, Amy Treadwell
  2. Making Whoopies by Nancy Griffin

Did you know that there’s a Maine Whoopie Pie Association? Me neither!(Although a Google search of this phrase got me zero hits). I read about it in a Portland Press Herald Article on 2/1/11.

Did you know that there’s a whoopie pie song? Me neither!  It’s by John Linscott (see link to above article, right side of the page for the lyrics).

Want to buy your whoopies?

  1. Cranberry Island Kitchen
  2. Two Fat Cats Bakery
  3. Wicked Whoopies

No decisions were made at the first meeting. They will reconvene on February 9th.

Here’s hoping the whoopies win!

🙂

The first harbinger of spring

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

I have some  happy news for all of you that live here in southern Maine. Spring is nigh. How do I know this?  Because:

THE DAIRY QUEEN IS OPENING TODAY!!!!

If your family is anything like mine, you’ve been counting the days until the DQ reopened…well count no more.

Now, after Memorial Day weekend and before Labor Day weekend, there is no shortage of places to get your ice cream fix here in southern Maine, but after that, who’s got your back baby? Only DQ; they hang in there until well into December, so it’s hard to begrudge them their little break, but by February 1st, we are SO READY to see them again!!!

Actually, I wonder…maybe with the coming upwards of 2 feet of snow over the next two days…they may reconsider their plan. Probably best to check first. I did call the Wells DQ and they are currently open (today, 11:00AM) but said that tomorrow “is iffy”, depending on what happens with the weather.

You have two from which to choose: Kennebunk (985-3050) or Wells (646-8212). If you get the SuperCoupon mailer (and you didn’t throw it into the recycle already) there’s some good coupons in there so go get ’em!

P.S. Ask what the “Blizzard of the Month” flavor is!

My new year’s word: Part 2

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, Holidays, Karen's Kitchen, Pantry Project, writing

I finally did choose my one word for 2011; my word is:  EDIT. I’m loving this word for many reasons.

  1. I can actually remember it! It works its way up from my unconscious with very little effort on my part. Bam! It’s there, remember to ‘edit’!
  2. It applies to my Pantry Project: use the food I have already before going out to buy more food. I’m editing my pantry (and freezer and fridge) contents by using up what’s there already. Today: Chicken Orzo Soup in the crock pot; all ingredients already here in the pantry (orzo, bay leaf, parsley, chicken broth, onions, garlic) and freezer (chicken thighs, end of a block of parm cheese) and fridge (tomato paste, carrots).
  3. It applies to my book: I finished the book and now am working on the editing.
  4. It applies to my (and everyone else’s too, actually) closet. I’m working on whittling the contents of all of them (hint: do the tween’s closet when she’s not at home) so that we have more space. 🙂
  5. It applies to my diet: I’m trying to eat less. Editing the choices that are readily available makes eating better more likely (hel-lo….can’t eat the cookies at 10pm if there aren’t any in the house). Full disclosure: this one is one of those obvious things that my husband pointed out to me.

How’s it going for the rest of you with your new year’s word/resolutions?

Snow day! Top ten (fun) things to do

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, italian, Karen's Kitchen, movies, recipes, writing

I have not had a snow day for quite a while  (the Christmas Blizzard doesn’t count because I was too worried about my husband and son driving home from work in it to enjoy it). I decided to plan ahead for the next one, so I was ready to dive into distraction at a moment’s notice.

Stuff to do:

  1. a.Crack out the crock pot. The big one. Make soup. Here’s a recipe for Minestrone using whatever you have in the pantry and fridge. Whatever is left over can be frozen to bring to work to eat for lunch during the week.  b.Pull out the frozen gravy, meatballs and sausage from the freezer; place in crock pot. Add whatever odds and ends of meat you have leftover. Supper is almost ready!
  2. No crock pot? Here’s a great recipe from Stephen Lanzalotta (author of The Diet Code, and baker extraordinaire at Micucci’s on India Street in Portland) that uses stuff (once again) that you have in the pantry right now. Really. I’ll wait while you go check. It’s for Tomato and Tuna Soup for one. Not alone (or just really hungry)? Just employ a little math to double or triple the recipe. Done.
  3. Got Netflix? Load up your instant queue so now that the flakes are flying, all you’ll have to do is hit the “play” button.
  4. Bake! You can mix up a bucket of bread dough (keeps in fridge for up to two weeks) so it’s ready when you are. Not much gets those endorphins going like the smell of fresh bread baking.
  5. Read! Got a stack of books by (or under) the bed? A stack of magazines you’ve had no time to read? A Kindle? Go for it.
  6. Write! Keep a file that you toss your little scraps of napkins, post its, notebook paper on which you’ve jotted down ideas that came to you while driving, watching TV, listening to a boring lecture at school so you will always have your own prompts and projects ready.
  7. Got kids? Play Wii! (or Uno, or checkers, or whatever!)
  8. Take a nap. You know you want to.
  9. Virtually  visit with friends and relatives via FB or email. In other words…DON”T DRIVE!
  10. Be grateful the fam is all safe and sound.

🙂

The (other) cure for what ails you

by Karen, posted in health, quest for the best
Kamasouptra Chicken Noodle Soup

Apart from the ocean, the other cure for anything is homemade chicken (or turkey) soup.

Who supports using chicken soup as a curative? Well, besides me and most of the mothers and grandmothers in the history of the world, The Mayo Clinic sings its praises.  Chicken soup acts as an anti-inflammatory and it also speeds up the passage of mucous…good if you have a head cold.

Now, don’t get me wrong; you will still see me going to bed clutching my bottle of (generic or otherwise) NyQuil if I have a cough that’s keeping me (or other unsympathetic spouses who shall remain nameless) awake at night.

For today, I’d like to sing the praises of Kamasouptra’s Chicken Noodle Soup, which I had the great good fortune to eat this week. I was sold as soon as the counter person told me that they cook the noodles separately and add them into the soup when they serve it on a bowl by bowl basis so that “they don’t get overcooked”. I told him,  “That’s exactly how I make it at home!” (he didn’t seem impressed when I told him this though).

Got a cold? Get some soup!

Winter bounty

by Karen, posted in chicks, raising chickens

Lately we’ve been getting so many eggs because we’ve (well, full disclosure: it’s mostly been my husband) been working on the timing of new chicks. . . the September 1st chicks have now begun laying brown eggs. In the spring, we will refresh the white and green egg layers.

We used to only get new chicks in the spring; now we get new chicks in the fall as well.

Eggs, ready for bagging

The girls have been working overtime producing up to two dozen eggs per day, depending on variables, some known (like availability of water, food, and light, the presence of predators nearby),  and some we can only imagine (“She’s touching me! Make her stop touching me!”).

Some credit must be given to the boys, too.  We have a few roosters, one dominant, and a few lesser that know to stay out of his way. Right now, they have a good balance of boys to girls, so everyone is getting along. Harmony in the flock is most certainly conducive to good egg production.

Basically, chickens are happy campers. They eat, sleep, lay eggs, and peck the ground and each other. If they have thoughts, our consensus is that this it is one, shared, universal thought. Here it is:

“I’m a chicken! I’m a chicken! I’m a chicken!”

For all of the people who wonder why we bag the eggs: it’s for health reasons. It just seems more hygienic than reusing the egg cartons. Also, it keeps costs down.

:>)

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My New Year’s Word

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

I’m sorry, but I have to ask: is there a more thankless job than deconstructing Christmas? I mean, touring the house, scavenging all the nooks and crannies for the little Santas, Nutcrackers, and whatnots that have been stashed hither and yon, all in the name of festivity, inevitably finding one or two refugees after all of the boxes have been packed away in the closet, back under other things?

Does anyone like taking the decorations off the tree?

And then there’s the back of your mind, New Year’s Resolution thing lurking, lurking… I don’t typically make New Year’s resolutions, actually. I make birthday resolutions, a plan for the coming year that begins and ends with, you know, me (as in, “it’s all about me”). When I heard about a twist on the resolution thing, choosing just one word, rather than making one list, to focus on in 2011, I was interested. One word? That seems much easier to remember and actually do than one list. But what word? “Focus” was the first one that came to mind…then about a billion other words joined it. It wasn’t pretty.

One of my goals for 2011 is “REDUCE” … as in CLUTTER (and WEIGHT, too, come to think of it, and TIME-WASTING…). Hmmm, I guess that might be a good word…it just sounds so negative, though.  Guess I’ll think about it some more, maybe try on a few of those billion other words on for size to see which one is the best fit…maybe “DECIDE” should be my word? 🙂

If you’re interested in doing this too, here’s the website: myoneword.org.

I’d love to hear what words any of you choose if you decide to try it this year.