Mainelife...thru the eyes of someone from away

November Sunrise

 
Sunrise 6:49 am as seen from the deck in my pajamas.  Not too shabby a way to begin the day after Thanksgiving and the day holds much promise.  After a dump run, we're heading to the St. George Yuletide celebration. We hope to time our arrival so that we have a soup lunch at the Oceanview Grange in Martinsville.  Proceeds will benefit the St. George Fuel Assistance Fund--last year the fund helped more than 20 families and this year, well, we think the need might be even greater.

Later today, we'll make a run up to Camden.  There's a wonderful second hand bookstore and I want to scout an original copy of the Beans of Egypt, Maine.  I reread the book in just about one sitting on Wednesday and was smacked upside the head (once again) by the genius of the author.  And now having lived here for six years, I see the honesty in her writing.    I read the original the year that I graduated from college and it made a deep impression--it also taught me Maine sayings like 'downcellah' and 'Christly' long before I ever moved here--but in 1995, Carolyn Chute released her "finished version" of the book. It's different-not better or worse, I guess, but edited.  I'd like to have a copy of the original as I first read it. 

Later tonight, we're goin' over the neighbors for a lobster dinner (the first of three meals of lobster this weekend--again, doin' our part and eatin' wicked many bugs to help the industry) and to discuss the letting of our place to them for Christmas. They've 20+ people coming in from Chicago for the holiday and need overflow sleeping, so.....

Thanksgiving

A steely sun rises over the river, touching a gray St. George--it's a Thanksgiving sky that reminds me of the Thanksgiving skies when I was a kid.   Maybe a touch of snow later in the day? Maybe not, but it's cold enough for it. 

We have a lot to be thankful for this year:  health, a happy, safe family, good and dear friends. 

This year we have one more thankful note: our oldest became engaged last night to a wonderful young man. We've watched their relationship grow and  develop for these last 3 years and they are a joy to be around.  They love each other in a way that's more mature than their years, and their happiness is infectious.  It's a blessing that her father and I might feel, even more than they, as we both realize how rare such a deep and healthy love is to find. 

Unlike yesterday (see above), it's a nasty, nasty day in the mid coast of Maine.  High winds (predicted gusts over 60 mph) and rain with temperatures in the mid-40's and gray. Grey, Charcoal,  meh. The ice on the rocks has melted off and the ocean is the exact color of the pewter sky.   The rain blows sideways past the window and it's not fit to be outside. 

I was up at 5, wide awake, listening to the wind howl and something banging into the side of the cottage.  At 6 I gave up, got up, made a fire, brewed coffee, cooked a mess of apple cider bacon and eggs for RG, and then started baking for the holiday. 

Mom's Apple Cake

INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 cup oil
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 TBS vanilla (I use a splash more)
1 cup chopped walnuts
2+ cups of sliced apples

Preheat oven to 375. Beat sugar, oil and eggs well.  Add the dry ingredients and then the vanilla.  Fold in the apples and nuts.  Bake in a greased/floured 9 x 13 pan for 45-55 minutes. 

Next up is a pumpkin pie and then possibly a raisin pie...but for now, I'm going to sit by the fire and pet Mac the Dog's ears and watch the white caps in the cove.  

A Picture Can Say It All

Helping the Lobster Industry

I've blogged it before, and most likely will blog it again....Maine's Lobstermen are in such dire straits that many fear the industry won't survive this recession.  But Mainers and Maine businesses have pulled together and are doing everything possible to help out.  Most in the state (including this blogger) see the lobster industry as an integral part of the state's heritage and neighbors helping neighbors (even including those neighbors you don't like too much...) in Maine is a longstanding tradition and a part of what makes the state such a good place to live.

Governor Baldacci  announced on Friday that the value of October's lobster catch was less than $20 million. In October of 2005,  the industry had a record setting haul of more than $60 million and in most years, the October sales are more than $50 million.  The average boat price per pound is $2.50 and lobsters are still selling at $3.99 retail in many locations.  Our local grocery store, Hannaford's, is selling cooked lobsters at $4.99 a lb.  More efforts include:

• Downeast Toyota in Bangor has promoted Maine lobster in its automotive advertising, while a full-scale community lobster bake was spearheaded by Heidi Stevens, co-owner of By George Jewelers in Rockland.
• Lobster appreciation events in the coastal Maine communities of Georgetown, Rockland, Stonington and Boothbay Harbor have resulted in the sale of over 10,000 lobsters, with additional lobster bakes and promotional plans in the works in other communities (which I blogged about a few weeks ago).
• Maine state representative Leila Percy of Phippsburg wrote and recorded a lobster jingle featured in the PSA campaign.
• Major markets are stepping up to the plate. Hannaford, Shaw's and Wegmans supermarkets are featuring Maine lobster promotions in their stores in New England and New York.
• Restaurants, including the Weathervane seafood chain and DiMillo's Floating Restaurant in Portland, also have launched lobster promotion efforts and advertising campaigns.
• Lobster retailers are donating back proceeds from their sales to the Maine Institute  and Grudens, who make the foul weather gear and overalls worn by almost every lobstermen, is donating a portion of the proceeds from their "eat lobster" t-shirts back to the institute as well. 

Recently,  we've been invited to and have eaten more lobster dinners than I care to count.  Everyone is buying lobsters having friends over and doing what they can to help out.  Others are shipping lobsters to friends and family far and wide

If you don't live in Maine and would like to help, you can order the Bailout Blowout, frozen lobster tails (or live lobsters)  from Lobster Gram.  Lobster Gram has great prices and is donating back to the Institute. You can also purchase the Eat Lobster shirts from Hamilton Marine.  

Blog Design

For those of you with an eye for design and for those of you with good taste, I apologize for the funky font in my posts right now.  It's totally offensive.
Something seems to have gone out of whack with my template and it may or may not have started when I began posting with the Typepad iPhone app.
Anyway, I'll keep trying to fix my template and in the meantime, please accept my apologies for offending your design sensibilities. 
Sincerely,
The Blogger

Moonrise at the Nubble

I took this photo with my iPhone after my late-ish afternoon walk on Wednesday and then I forgot to post it. They say that the day before the full moon is the best day to photograph the moon and the lighthouse. In this case, it proved true, as we've not seen blue sky since then. 

Off The Grid in York County

The part of Maine we call home isn't considered to be part of Maine by most of the rest of the state. 
York County is officially part of the Boston television demographic, our neighbors commute to Boston, and our seacoast towns are called The Gold Coast by Downeast Magazine.  It takes more than two hours of driving for us to get to the state capital of Augusta, and that's not even half way up the state, geographically speaking. 

In our little village, in this rough economic time, we're still seeing new development, houses selling for more than $1,000,000 and the Stonewall Kitchen store is packed with tourists who think nothing of paying $6.50 for a small pot of jam. 

I only point this out to set the stage for what I'm going to tell you next.  Carolyn Chute, Maine's second most famous living story teller, lives in York County, not so far from us over in the hills to the west, near the New Hampshire border.  But she and her second husband, Michael Chute, live off the grid and lead a life unlike most York County residents and polar opposite to those of us who live east of the Maine Turnpike. 

They live in a small two building compound at the end of an unpaved road with no running water and an outhouse.  Mr. Chute is illiterate (I point that out, not to judge, but because I find the irony delicious. The mate of a writer doesn't read or write), and like his wife, he is an artist.  He sculpts and draws.  He's a high school graduate who has worked in a junkyard, sold firewood and snowplowed to earn money, and who made it through our educational system without learning to read. 

Ms. Chute, who wrote what is considered to be a classic of American literature, The Beans of Egypt Maine, on a typewriter, lost a child at birth because the Chutes were too poor to afford adequate medical care.  Her books tell the story of the rural, working poor who are beaten into despair and anger by continuous poverty. She grew up middle class but dropped out of school and has made a conscious decision to stay out of "the system."  Recently she founded The 2nd Maine Militia, or "Your Wicked Good Militia".  It's  progun, anti-corporate lobbying and campaign contributions, and opposed to tax subsidies for big business (and yes, she's holding an AK-47 in that picture).

Her newest book, The School on Heart's Content Road,  published on November 11. Ms. Chute says that she doesn't write to make a political statement, she just writes to tell what people are experiencing.  Some might call her an eccentric, but here in Maine, there are many just like her. Artists and activists who choose a life untethered from the system and living off the land by choice, not always by necessity.   Ms. Chute's work advocates for those who live hand to mouth by necessity. 

 

Nothin' But Blue Sky On York Beach

  

Mac the Dog is exactly right.  I've been enjoying life post-election, very much.  Part of that enjoyment was a prix fix Merriam Vineyards Wine Dinner at Blue Sky on York Beach, Lydia Shire's local restaurant, with Lydia in the kitchen and co-host of the evening, along with Peter Merriam, who summers in our village. 

Before we get into details, let me just say, it was a divine evening.  We went with two of our favorite people, so the company was perfect.  Plus, there's a reason that Lydia Shire is one of the original celebrity chefs and she pulled out all the stops for this dinner.  After dinner, she shared that one of the challenges of this dinner was to provide outstanding, unique dishes within the price ($65.00) point that had been set.  With rising costs, even using local foods, it was difficult. 

The first amuse, served while people were finding their seats and finishing their pre-dinner drinks, was a tempura sardine accompanied by a fresh tomato puree.  I'm not a sardine fan, but this was light and crispy and very tasty.  I finished off RG's. He promised to taste everything, but he did not agree to clean his plate. 

The "official Amuse" was one chilled Maine oyster and a Hot Buttered Oyster Stew, served in a demitasse cup.  The oyster was (as almost all oysters one buys in Maine are) exceptionally fresh and served very cold.  The buttered stew was divine.  Rich, with one large oyster in the bottom of the cup.  We all agreed that the stew should be added to the permanent menu. 

The First Course was Trotter Ravioli with Truffle Foam and Purple Kale.  It was accompanied by an '03 Windmere Merlot.  The truffle foam paired well with the delicious complex tastes of the ravioli filling and the kale.  The Merlot was more rich than many Merlots, a bit heavier (a plus, I thought) and it held up well with the trotter. 

The Second Course was my favorite.  It was a Halibut with a Porcini Crust and Garlic Sauce, topped with the thinly sliced potatoes, crispy fried and accompanied by an '05 Cabernet Franc.  The halibut was divine.  The garlic sauce added enough 'zing' (very technical term there--can you tell I'm no food critic?) to the dish so that the wine didn't over power it.  As for the wine, this was also my favorite of the night. I love BIG wines and for years, Cabernet Sauvignon was my wine of choice.  This wasn't as big as a cab sab but it had definite overtones of cherry and raspberry, a wonderful complexity, and fine finish.  Delish, delish, divine. 

The Main Course was a Venison Loin with a Risotto of Pear and Taleggio Cheese, paired with an '03 Cabernet Sauvignon, Block 21.  Venison is one of my favorite dishes and I almost always order it when it's on a menu.  This was not my favorite venison plate.  It was topped with a pom sauce that was too tart for my palette and I didn't think that the risotto was flavorful enough.  The Cab Sab was good, but not great.  It finished well, without over-much tannins, but it was too young, I thought. Overall, it was a good plate, and had it not been served after the perfection of the previous three courses, it would have been very good.   But never mind all that because we were on to dessert:

Chocolate Souffle with perfect raspberries and creme' fraiche.  Lordy, I have never had a dessert as wonderful as that. I told my husband that now that I've been introduced to a perfectly prepared chocolate souffle', I'm hooked.  Oh, I've had them before, just not done as well as this. 

The 'boys' had coffee and Jameson Whiskey.  We had another glass of red wine to pair with the chocolate.  Happily, there was some of that Sauvignon Frac left over. 

And at the end, the one Republican and we three Democrats toasted President Elect Obama and agreed that it was a great moment for our country. 

Mac The Dog Here!

Hi There Blog Readers.  It's Mac the Dog here.  I'm commandeering this thing while my mom wallows in her  post-election euphoria.   I haven't seen her this happy since I was a little puppy and I learned to stop  chewing the baseboards, but it appears that in her state of bliss she can't be bothered to write up anything and the dog is getting worried about this here blog.  So I'll tell you a bit about what's been going on around here lately. 

The night of the election, after mom got home from canvassing for Obama, mom and dad watched the TV all night, like way past a dog's bedtime, and at 11 pm, they both jumped up and shouted for joy and they danced around the living room and then they watched some more TV. And when the man and his family came onto the TV (the man that mom and dad wanted to be President-not the other man who is a war hero but who has that funny laugh that makes a dog's hair stand up), both mom and dad cried.  Happy tears, not tears like mom used to cry when I ate her cashmere sweater.  The dog was pretty happy about it, too, because that nice man is getting a puppy for his girls to take to the White House. 

The first day after that man, Barack Obama, got elected to the White House, mom and dad would just spontaneously hug each other--that was a pain in the dog's backside, let me tell you, because I'm old and getting up hurts my hips, but I'm not so old that I'm going to let the opportunity to get in on a hug pass by--so there I was all day, up and down, sticking my head in between mom and dad's legs and reminding them that a dog needs some love too. But I digress.  So that first day was lots of hugging, but they got over that and went back to normal amounts of hugging.   

Then that night they went out to a big fancy, schmancy dinner with their friends, Machias's mom and dad. They had (from what I could smell on them when they got home. Not much gets past this dog's nose) champagne--for celebration purposes I'm sure--they had haddock, and oysters and chocolate mousse and they also had venison.  Yup. Deer. I love deer and they didn't even bring me home a bite. Sheesh. So much for this I said to myself.

So I looked mom right in the eye and I told her "Uncle Todd (that's mom's brother. I don't like him much because he calls me a window licker, but on this point, his words can aid the dog's case, so I'm quoting him) says that Comrade Obama is going to redistribute the wealth.  And Uncle Todd's probably right on this because he's married to that nice economist who's really smart and who loves the dog. So if Comrade Obama is redistributing stuff, I suggest you follow his lead and BRING THE DOG HOME SOME VENISON next time, Mom."  She got the point, I'm pretty sure, because she packed up the dog's Kong with extra biscuits and peanut butter and then the next night I got almost a whole piece of their pizza. 

I can't remember what happened the next day, but the day after that, the nice man had a "presser" where he got on TV and talked (that man sure does like to talk, but he's a good talker so I don't mind it at all--Unlike that guy named W. who lives in the White House now and can't talk too good and who makes Mom crabby when he talks)  and Mom came out of her office to watch it. She came and sat on the dog's couch and I got to put my head on her lap and get ear scratches while the TV was on.  So the man talked about stuff for a while then they asked about the puppy, and I got so excited that I jumped off the couch and told the man, Barack, "get a chocolate Lab--get a chocolate Lab. When we're little we have really beautiful blue eyes and when we grow up, we're just the best dogs in the whole world and your girls would love to have a dog just like me, Mac the Dog!!"  I'm not so sure that he heard me, because the dog's pretty sure that the TV is only one-way communication, but I tried to help him out.  Based on what the dog is seeing in the papers that Dad reads and then throws on the floor for the dog to read, that man's going to need a lot of help. He's inheriting a big mess.  But Mom and Dad seem pretty sure that no matter how big the mess, this man Barack, will be able to handle the mess in a way that's better for America and better for this world.  I sure hope they're right. 

Ok, so Mac the Dog signing out. It's almost breakfast time and I've got to wake Mom up by padding back and forth in the downstairs hall for a while and making my toenails click.  I used to go right up to her bed and put my big head on it and give her a lick, but this dog is way too old to be climbing those steps every morning.  I've had to devise new methods.  It's just not true that you can't teach an old dog new stuff.  Heh, heh.  Oh and  I'm going to tell Mom to at least take the time out from her euphoria and celebration to tell you  about that fancy dinner, because she got to meet Chef Lydia. 

Now I've really, really got to go. The Orange Cat, Spikey, is barfing on the oriental rug and all heck's about to break loose. Dad hates it when Spikey barfs and he does that a lot and every time there's a big commotion about it.  Dad's patience is just about worn out with the cats, but he still loves The Dog.  See ya.