Much Ocean, No Moose

As promised, below is a selection of the five million pictures I took when the Boy and I drove up the Eastern coast of Maine and Canada to Prince Edward Island (PEI for the locals) and then back down again to Massachusetts. It was truly gorgeous, and though I didn’t catch a glimpse of the moose I was hoping for, we truly had a fabulous time.

The Boy flirting with danger before our first lobster roll at Red’s.

A friendly rooster on the door of the first bed and breakfast we stayed at, in Camden.

On the nearly-mile-long breakwater leading to the Rockland Harbor Breakwater Light.

We made it! The Rockland Harbor Breakwater Light itself. You can’t go inside, but the walk to get there is a lovely adventure.

Cairns on the (very steep) trail we climbed from Camden to the top of Mt. Battie.

0.5 miles can’t be that bad, we thought. Well, it was 0.5 miles straight up. This was towards the top of the mountain, where we were rewarded with a gorgeous coastal view.

A hidden trove of mushrooms. Don’t worry, we didn’t eat any…

But I did force the Boy to pull over to a roadside stand on one of our drives so I could purchase some wild Maine blueberries. When in Rome, right?

Visiting the sea caves in St. Martins – all red rock and moss. You had to walk out when the tide was low so you didn’t get trapped inside.

Speaking of moss…

The beautiful New Brunswick coastline as seen from a lookout on the Fundy Trail. A wonderful little national-park-like area which was driveable, hikeable, and had a number of interesting stopovers. We were a bit rushed as we were heading to PEI that day, but I for one certainly could have spent more time there.

An old sea captains’ graveyard discovered on a small windy path on the Fundy Trail.

A suspension bridge on the Fundy Trail. It shook when we walked across. Awesome. (But actually.)

The bridge to PEI.

Adirondack chairs on the coast near our incredible B&B.

A hidden lighthouse discovered during a day spent exploring PEI.

A view of the beach on the other side of the lighthouse. Can you spot it way off in the distance?

PEI is the proud home to three tremendous windmill generators. I find them rather beautiful.

Murray, the resident cat of the Johnson Shore Inn.

Gorgeous blossoms.

The Boy admiring the view in Acadia National Park. Doesn’t that distant building look like the lair of an evil genius?

Jordan Pond. We stopped at the Jordan Pond House for lunch, mainly to get their famous popovers. Other than popovers and lemonade, I’m not sure I’d recommend it…but it is a beautiful place. Beware the parking!

Some velvety-looking berries in the Park. Again, don’t worry, we didn’t eat them (though we did pick some wild blueberries and raspberries though at various points during the trip).

Atop Cadillac Mountain on our last day – the highest point on the North Atlantic seaboard.

And finally, a stop for dinner in Portland – a vibrant city with a lot of good eating. Here, a lock wall near the water…thanks for sharing the trip!

Eating Out (in Maine): Maine Beer Company & Red’s Eats

We took a trip! It was a multipart trip – the Boy’s brother got married, which was the impetus, and then we rented a car and drove up the coast of Maine and Eastern Canada to Prince Edward Island. It was beautiful, and I’ll be sure to post a non-food-related roundup of photos once I get my nonsense organized, but for now a teaser with a couple of our more palatable outings from the first day of the trip.

First up was Maine Beer Company, where we stopped for “The All In” – a tasting of all eight beers they had on tap. To my recollection, this included: Tiny Beautiful Something (pale ale), Lunch (IPA), Another One (IPA), Mo (pale ale), Peeper (ale), Zoe (hoppy amber), Red Wheelbarrow (hoppy red), and Mean Old Tom (Stout).

Their beers, we discovered too late, tended very strongly towards the hoppy side of things (both the Boy and I are slightly beer-wimpy about hops). We could tell they were good hoppy beers, for the most part, but still not particularly to our taste. Mean Old Tom, the stout, was our favorite, with Red Wheelbarrow coming in last (that one might have actually just not been very good). We nevertheless declared it an excellent stop!

Next up, and more to my personal taste, was Red’s Eats, maker of a famed lobster roll.

At $18 (the same cost as our eight-beer tasting), we were skeptical, but apparently we were just lucky not to have to wait an hour to try the thing (our line was mercifully short). The roll IS stuffed full of an entire lobster (two claws right on top), pretty much bare bones, and served with mayo and butter. You actually had to start eating by picking off bits of lobster to dip, since it was too big to bite. (The Boy, who is not the biggest lobster fan, had a little trouble with this.)

Once you did bite, the roll was deliciously buttery, and I appreciated the large amount of lobster. It seemed a good, pure way to start our lobster roll experiences. Was it worth $18? Eh, maybe…but you sure can’t beat the view.

And here’s the info so when you go to Maine, you can form your own opinions about hoppy beer and $18 lobster rolls:

Maine Beer Company
525 US Route 1
Freeport, ME 04032

Red’s Eats
41 Main Street
Wiscasset, ME 04578

All in the Family: The Boozy Newsie

I just realized you should all probably know – the Boy has his own much nicer but similarly sporadically populated blog, The Boozy Newsie! It’s pretty much what it sounds like – basically, he enjoys the art of mixology, and the blog has some fun cocktail creations tied to events and holidays and the like (original, unlike most of the recipes experimented with here).

Take in this beauty:

And I get to drink the results, so obviously that’s good. Check it out!

Eating In: Taco Salad

The Boy and I periodically decide we are going to be healthy.

“We’re getting on the salad train,” we announce. “No stops for donuts! No stops for cheese platters!”

This usually lasts until the next time one of us is presented with the opportunity for a donut or a cheese platter, but hey – three days of healthy eating is better than none, right?

This awesome salad, courtesy of Shutterbean, is something we discovered while riding said healthy train – but it actually tastes really, really good. (Not that healthy food doesn’t, I just generally hate all salads because my lettuce repertoire is limited to spinach and, more recently, butter lettuce.) It’s easy, once everything is chopped, and fully customizable. It also can be made to look really, really pretty to impress other people. So what are we waiting for?

If you are one of those people who’s good at thinking ahead, you’ll start by chopping everything and having your mise-en-place all ready and feeling like a fancy French chef. If you’re me, you’ll start by making the dressing and then realizing how much you have to madly chop to get the salad ready. Dressing is made in the blender:

Then, once dressing is made and you’ve gotten everything chopped…you’re basically done. The only decision left is how to serve it. I opted for Shutterbean’s fancy-schmancy way to impress the Boy.

Sure, that might be a beer in the foreground. Sure, we might have added cheese. But hey, overall this is pretty healthy and very vegetable-filled. So modify to your liking and enjoy guilt-free!

Taco Salad

Adapted from Tracy Benjamin of Shutterbean

This is mostly Tracy’s original recipe with a few to-taste and by-necessity substitutions. She used Chipotle Tabasco, I only had regular. She added red pepper, the Boy hates them. She made a vegan salad, I like cheese. But however you choose to make it – make it. You’ll feel good, and it’s not hard. And it even lived another day for leftovers (I dressed the portions individually).

Yield: 4 Servings

Ingredients

Dressing

1 large avocado, pitted with flesh scooped from skin

1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro

1/3 cup water

4 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 clove garlic

8-10 dashes Tabasco

Salad

1 head butter lettuce, roughly chopped

1 ear corn, shucked & cut from the cob

1 1/2 cups canned black beans, drained & rinsed

2 cups cherry tomatoes, chopped in half

2 green onions, chopped (both white and green parts)

1 jalapeño, thinly diced (seeds removed)

4 radishes, thinly sliced

1 avocado, pitted and cut into chunks

3-4 handfuls tortilla chips, for serving

1/4 cup cilantro, roughly chopped, for serving

1/2 cup shredded cheese, for serving (optional)

Directions

Dressing

Combine all ingredients together and blend until mixture is smooth and creamy. Add additional water, lime, and or hot sauce to taste. Transfer mixture to a jar and keep chilled until use.

Salad

Toss lettuce, corn, black beans, tomatoes, green onions, jalapeño, and radishes with enough avocado dressing to fully coat the mixture.  Fold in chopped avocado and divide salad between 4 large bowls. Serve with a handful of crushed tortilla chips in each bowl and top with cheese and additional chopped cilantro for garnish.

Eating In: Sweet Breakfast Risotto with Berry Compote

I am (if I haven’t mentioned this before) a great lover of breakfast. It used to be an exclusively sweet-tooth driven love – pancakes, french toast, waffles, crepes, chocolate croissants, and anything you could cover in piles and piles of berries. More recently, however, the Boy has brought me with him over to the savory side, so my breakfast affair stretches far and wide.

This particular breakfast (largely based on this recipe) was born of hunger, intrigue, what we had in the pantry, and the sweet-toothed side of my breakfast romance. It’s a sort of breakfast risotto, and while I am not sure it is my most favorite breakfast, it is certainly something different and could lend itself to umpteen variations.

You begin by boiling some stuff on the stove – fruit for the compote, and rice and milk for the risotto.

Once your rice has absorbed all the milk, making it look just like risotto (or rice pudding, I suppose), you throw in some sugar, vanilla, and yogurt, stir it up, and plop it into serving bowls.

And finally, you top the risotto with some more milk and the compote, and enjoy! It’s an unusual breakfast, with a mix of hot and cold textures, but though it takes a minute on the stove it’s actually quite easy. In the end, it feels rather high-end and special if you enjoy rice-pudding-like creations. Give it a try and let me know what you think…

Sweet Breakfast Risotto with Berry Compote

Adapted from Marta Greber’s Milk Rice with a Cherry Compote

I really liked this upon the first bites, and became a little less enamored of it as time went on. I think the reasons for this was twofold – one, I turned this recipe into two servings, which was a bit much – it’s filling! So I’m suggesting 3-4 servings here. Two, Marta Greber suggests adding lemon zest to the risotto and orange juice to the compote – I didn’t have either, but they might add some nice brightness.

Yield: 3-4 Servings

Ingredients

Compote

Handful of berries

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Risotto

1 cup arborio rice

4 cups milk

Pinch of salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons yogurt

Directions

In a small pot, place the berries with the brown sugar. Bring to boil and then lower the temperature and cook for about 15 minutes until the sauce gets thicker, stirring occasionally.

While berries cook, place rice in a pot with 3 cups of the milk and the salt. Bring to a boil and then lower the temperature and cook for about 15-20 minutes until the rice absorbs all the milk. Stir it so it won’t burn. When milk is absorbed, add sugar, vanilla extract, and yogurt.

Divide rice between bowls and add extra milk. Top with the berry compote.