Tag: food

Fun with friends

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

What could be better than a great day spent doing fun things with your friends?  Not much; especially if it involves good food. 

friends

 

This past weekend, my daughter and I did just that. We started off at The Good Table, a wonderful restaurant in Cape Elizabeth.  Sunday brunch is the day to go; that is the day that you can have a cinnamon bun that’s (almost as) big as your head. Even if that’s the only thing you have, you will be very happy you went. 

Of course, it’s not the only thing that we had. Among us, we ordered an Italian Villa (an egg dish, not a house), blueberry crepes…home fries, toast, eggs, bacon were all present and accounted for. We had plenty left over; too bad I forgot it in my friend’s car! (yes, she saved them for me…). 🙂 

Next, being happily filled up with an abundance of excellent food, we stopped at Two Lights. We got out, walked around, took pictures of our kids and ourselves. Then we headed over to Fort Williams Park for a drive through…we didn’t have time to get out and walk around because the girls were anxious to get to the Maine Rock Gym. If you are bringing your tween to climb, please note that if they are under 12 then they will need someone to belay for them, so be prepared. About an hour is how long we (my 11 year old and I) usually last at rock climbing. 

climbing rock wall

 

The girls had been wanting to go to Coastal Maine Popcorn in the Old Port. This is a great place to take your kids. They have up to 30 different popcorn flavors, both savory and sweet. Some recent offerings are black licorice, buffalo wing, salt and vinegar, watermelon, Maine maple. You are welcome to try any flavors before you buy them. We tried, then we bought for others. 

After that, the girls (and of course, the moms!) needed a treat for ourselves. We had an “ice cream vs gelato” debate, and in the end, ice cream won. We headed to the new location of Mt. Desert Island Ice Cream in the Old Port. If you are an adventurous ice cream eater, this is the place for you. Like Coastal Maine Popcorn, they will happily let you “try before you buy”  (lavender? avocado? jack daniels? all these ice cream flavors and many more), like all good businesses do. 

This concluded our outing. We were tired, but happy. Consider your own “Fun with Friends” day in your own or nearby town.

Conscious eating (WF&G week 2)

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, education, family, health

There I was,  in week 2. Here is what I’ve learned:  conscious eating is hard. Applying those 7 principles is hard.

 Regarding principle #3:  It is very hard to not do another blessed thing when you are eating, ever. Plus, I totally miss reading while I’m eating if I am eating alone. Regarding principle #2:  It also is hard for me to always sit down while eating. I sit down for 10 hours (plus commuting time) every day that I go to work, so I always stand while I am eating on my lunch breaks.  Regarding principle #4: It’s not always possible to tell if it’s my body or my mind that wants the tiramisu.

I know now why author Geneen Roth gives workshops about how to eat consciously: I’m guessing that few, if any, people would stick with it if they didn’t have the structure imposed upon them by another (structure that they had to pay for; money motivates).

I briefly entertained the idea of applying the “80/20” rule to conscious eating, but decided that it sort of demeaned it. I mean, I could have lived with it if I eliminated numbers 2, 3 and 4….

So, bottom line is this: week 2 was a bust.

Blackberries!

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

After an exhaustive search of my own backyard for blackberries, my take consisted of a small handful of berries from 

Blackberries picked at Susan's "farm"

 

some low-growing vines that I discovered had wended their way among the blueberry bushes. These I ate before I even made it into the house. 

My friend took pity on me. She invited me over to her house to pick some blackberries, so on Sunday, my daughter and I headed over. Well, I found out pretty quick why I only had a handful at my house…it’s because Susan has them all at her house! It seemed like millions of them. My hour and half (give or take) of picking did not even make a dent in the bounty of the blackberries. 

Now. What the heck does one do with a gallon of blackberries? 

Here’s a dozen ideas, ranging from easier to harder: 

  1. Eat them as is. No washing them off first; that’s for wimps.
  2. Stir them into your yogurt.
  3. Freeze them for use later on. You may have read advice about how you should place them on a cookie sheet in the freezer until they are frozen, the place them in a bag to prevent clumping, etc. I never do that; my freezer will not accommodate that on a good day (like, on the day before the food shopping). I just dump ’em all into a ziploc-type freezer bag and hope for the best. (It’s not ever a problem).
  4. Throw a handful into your (garden) salad. Really.
  5. Add some to pancake batter.
  6. Add some to a smoothie.
  7. Got a favorite blueberry muffin recipe? Try adding blackberries to the batter instead.
  8. Make a cobbler. Cobblers are pretty novice-baker-friendly. The Pioneer Woman Cooks has 2 versions of blackberry cobbler on her website.
  9. Make blackberry sauce for your pancakes, waffles, or other food of choice. This recipe has only 2 ingredients (one of which is the blackberries!).
  10. Blackberry pie would be great. If you use prepackaged pie crust, it’s even easier. Here’s a blackberry pie recipe from Mario Batali.
  11. Make a blackberry quick bread.
  12. Make blackberry ice cream. Okay, this is the most labor intensive, and you need (pricey) special equipment. Feel free to just look at the pictures of this one. 🙂

That’s it. That’s my top 12 list. I have done #1-4 so far (so many blackberries; so little time)…and I still have plenty left for other things on the list. And if I run out? Well, I know where to get more…heh heh heh…

Wells Harborfest: Straight Lace

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, local fun, tweens
Rotary Chicken Barbecue

This past Saturday was the annual Wells Harborfest at (you guessed it!) the Wells Harbor. There was a chicken barbeque by the Wells Rotary. This year it was extremely well attended. More than once during the time that my daughter and I were in line they thought they were sold out. We were lucky enough to get there in time. The dinner was $10 and consisted of a half chicken, scoop of cole slaw, soft white biscuit with butter, a bag of chips (which my daughter immediately appropriated, along with the roll), and a drink. The sodas were all gone, so we split a bottled water.

For dessert, Sundaes at the Beach was ready with a cooler and 2 scoopers of 4 flavors of their delicious ice cream: the holy trinity: vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry, but with a nice bonus flavor: kahlua chip, which is one of our favorites. One scoop was only a buck.

We finished just in time to grab a seat on a bench for the Straight Lace concert at the Hope Hobbs Gazebo. This has become an annual event for us also. Last year, Helen (one of the singers) even invited some of the younger fans (my daughter included) up on stage to sing with the band, and gave them a percussion instrument to play! This year that didn’t happen, but it was still fun to watch everyone dancing.

Have you been down to the harbor for any of the free concerts? They are every Saturday night at 6:30pm this summer. Pick a band and go! It’s free fun for the fam. 🙂

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Sad day for tomatoes

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, education, family, gardening, raising chickens
rescued tomatoes

Well, I have some distressing news today: they have come. The dreaded tomato horned worm has invaded my tomato garden. In all of the years that I’ve been growing tomatoes, this is a (terrible) first. I guess it’s true: if you plant it, they will come. 

It’s especially depressing because (for once!) this has such a promising year for tomatoes so far! They are plentiful, robust plants this year, which almost never happens. 

So, the time has come for me to admit the truth: I am a wimpy gardener. I hate picking the pests off of the plants leaves and fruits; it makes my skin crawl. Of course, that is the first line of defense against so many pests: remove and squish them. 

But I can’t really complain. I am fortunate. I am married to man who loves me more than he hates tomato pests. He is the one who hand-picked all of those repulsive, large, green wormy caterpillary horned creatures from my tomato plants and then fed them to the chickens (circle of life, baby; circle of life). 

Why not just turn the chickens loose on the tomato beds? Because chickens love eating tomatoes as much as the tomato hornworms love eating tomatoes, so there is a basic conflict of interest there. 

If you want to see what these disgusting creatures look like, click here, then scroll down for the pictures on the left side of the text. 

Of course, there are various and sundry poisons to use for most pests, but doesn’t it give you pause when you think about eating the food that has potentially internalized the poison that you are hoping kills some living thing? 

So, what do you do? Pick, squish, then hope for the best? or do you follow that with a good dousing with the poison of your choice?

Children’s theater

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

Consider taking a break from the movies this weekend. There are shows this summer at the Ogunquit Playhouse for kids of all ages. If you have some free time this weekend, head over to the Playhouse to see this week’s show: Jack and the Beanstalk. The show times are Saturday August 7th at 10AM and another show at 12:00 noon. On Sunday, August 8th there is one show at 10:00AM. The price is reasonable, and almost any seat will give you a good view of the stage.

You can order your tickets online at the Ogunquit Playhouse website (full disclosure: my daughter is in this play!).

Have plans already this weekend? There is one more event for children’s theater this season: My Son Pinocchio. There are 3 shows; the dates are August 28th and 29th (also a weekend).

After the theater, cruise (or crawl…it is a summer weekend in Maine, after all; traffic will most likely be heavy) on down route 1 toward Wells for lunch or a snack. There are so many great restaurants and ice cream shops that your only problem will be deciding which one to pick. 🙂

Grazing date night

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

For our wedding anniversary this year we had some big plans to eat out at a nice Italian restaurant near our home. We had been talking about it for several days, but when the time came to get ready to go, we hesitated. “I’m not that hungry”, my husband said. “We don’t have to eat big tonight,” he added. We don’t? Hmmmm….radical concept.

Jimmy the Greek’s on Saco Avenue, Old Orchard Beach was our first stop on our newly revised anniversary “we don’t have to eat big” itinerary. We ordered a Grecian Calzone, which contains sausage, spinach, garlic, feta, and mozzarella…and it is enormous. I was extremely grateful that we’d decided to split it instead of each ordering our own! It was excellent; I’d definitely order it again.

Next, we drove down to the beach and walked around, visiting the shops. We walked around for about an hour when we first got there. We bought some jelly beans from the candy store (pomegranate and cinnamon) and a couple of fruit slices (for b) and a piece of snickers fudge (for me).

Then, we sampled pistachio and banana pudding gelato at Dolce (something or other) Caffe, which were fine. Next, we went to get pier fries (don’t ask me from whom. I was in such a hurry to buy them that once I recognized the storefront, I didn’t stop to catch the name of the place but we go to the same one every year). Ah, pier fries. . .no further words are needed.

So, even though I’d been really looking forward to that annual  Chicken Braccioletinne at Varano’s, what we did (and ate!) instead was actually much better, and just perfect.

How do you celebrate your wedding anniversary?

Garden Update

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

Things are really doing well this year. I’ve been picking zucchini, yellow squash, string beans, and sugar snap peas for a while now. I thought I’d picked the last strawberry last week, but then the funky pink-flowered strawberry plant that I found at the Portland Farmer’s Market a few months ago produced a couple more!

Pink-flowered strawberry; still producing in July

The blueberries are in full swing and I can’t pick them fast enough. The black raspberries are coming along; only have a few plants this year but they are doing great, for the most part.

I’m eating the sugar snap peas and string beans as fast as I’m picking them. Good thing my family isn’t enamoured of vegetables.

The lettuces and basil is doing great; all of the herbs are kicking butt, actually, as usual. Herbs rock! They know what to do and they do it; they need very little help from us.

The bell peppers all look great. I have one eggplant that unfortunately has a hole drilled straight through the top. The pumpkins, winter squash, and potatoes (Yukon Golds) are doing well. Even the watermelon is still alive. That’s already better results than last year.

But here’s the real news: the first two (cherry) tomatoes have ripened! They are ready to eat! I can’t wait. Now, the bad news: one of the heirloom tomatoes has a disease of some sort. The bottom ends are blackened halfway up on two of the plum style tomatoes. 😦

I will be hitting the books tonight to figure out what to do, but I’m not optimistic. Other than removing the offensive tomatoes and keeping my fingers crossed, I haven’t found much that helps this.

Some of today's garden take (notice the first tomatoes!!!)

Will be consulting these books: Terrific Tomatoes (really old, found used copy at a bookstore years ago) “By the editors of Organic Gardening and Farming”, and Garden Primer (revised edition) by Barbara Damrosch…basically it comes down to a watering problem: too much after too little, or perhaps too little calcium. One book has the nerve to say a solution is to “choose disease-resistant plants”…OY! Are you kidding me?

Okay, note to self: next year, consult crystal ball to rule out plants that will likely develop blossom end rot due to watering problems.

In the meantime, I’ve thrown those two rotted bottomed tomatoes as far away into the woods as I was able. Hopefully the rest will be okay.

Now if i can only figure out what ate the hole through my eggplant…

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Backyard date

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

Maybe you leave for work very early in the morning, and return home late in the evening…and maybe you have a significant other that you would like to have date-time with, at least once in a while! What do you do?

Well, the situation demands creativity on the part of the couple, no question. Tonight, what we’re doing is date night on the deck. I’m at work all day, but my husband is going to get things ready for us for when I get home.

Steps to readying your backyard for a date in the summer:

  1. Use a leaf blower to blow the dirt off your back deck/porch/stoop. No leaf blower? Get a broom!
  2. Spray some Cutter Backyard Bug Control well in advance of your time outdoors. Nothing will make you more miserable, ruin the mood, (and drive you back inside faster) than getting swarmed by mosquitos.
  3. Light some Off! bug candles. Couldn’t hurt.
  4. Place some cut flowers from your backyard (daisies work, or sweet peas) into a milk bottle (for the daisies) or a drinking glass (for the sweet peas) and place them on the table that you hopefully have out there, or the railing, or just next to you on the steps.
  5. If you haven’t had dinner yet, cook out or have the working spouse pick up something (pizza? chinese?) on the way home. Did you eat dinner already? Share a dessert.
  6. If it’s still enough light out, take a walk around the block, or around your yard. Do a little light gardening (if you like that sort of thing). Those blueberries (unfortunately) won’t pick themselves.

Hopefully your kids will be in bed already (hint: don’t let them see you preparing; don’t tell them about it ahead of time. Good luck getting them to go to bed if you do!).

Don’t stay up too late!

The best birthday cake ever

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, italian
Italian Rum Cake with peaches and strawberries with whipped cream frosting
The best birthday cake ever!

So, why am I still talking about (and eating!) birthday cake in July when my birthday was in May? Because my brother and I are Irish (and Italian!) twins, born just 13 months apart…and where there are birthdays, there must be cake!

Besides having our birthdays at the end of warm weather months, another thing we have in common is this: we both LOVE Italian Rum Cake, especially if it’s made by La Cascia’s Bakery in Burlington, MA. Alas, our respective family members do not. We therefore typically do not indulge ourselves with our favorite cake on our birthdays in the interest of the family as a whole. It’s not that much fun eating your birthday cake while the rest of the family (who really wanted ice cream cake/chocolate cake with vanilla frosting/yellow cake with chocolate frosting/chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting like his girlfriend’s mother used to make 25 years ago…) looks on, having no cake at all. Or worse, having a bite of your beloved Italian Rum Cake and barely making it to the kitchen barrel in time to spit it out, saying, “Eeeeeewwwwww! This cake is gross!”

The upside of this though is that we get to have our favorite birthday cake for breakfast every day until it’s gone. 🙂

If you are in the neighborhood and just stop by LaCascia’s for an Italian Rum Cake, they will usually have a few made up ahead of time, one of which you could take home. These have strawberries in the filling of pastry cream and chocolate pastry cream, frosted with buttercream; slivered almonds are arranged around the outside of it. This cake is very, very good.

If you have time to plan and order ahead, however, you can have your cake made the way you want it; you can have the birthday cake of (my brother’s and) my youth. The way we wanted it was with peaches and strawberries in the filling, and whipped cream frosting, hold the almonds. Not that we don’t like almonds, but our dad never wanted nuts on anything since he had a great deal of trouble eating them. This cake is amazingly excellent.

Enjoy!