Mainelife...thru the eyes of someone from away

Happy New Year

 

A bit more snow fell today, maybe 5-6 inches so far.  Just enough to make the trip to the grocery store dangerous--not the roads, the aisles in the store. Nothing like a little snow and a holiday to turn the store into a mad house. 

We'll spend a quiet night with a few friends, grilling steaks and boiling lobster, eating bacon-wrapped scallops drizzled in maple syrup (if you haven't tried the drizzle--you should) and sipping rose' champagne.  For dessert, I'm trying bumbleberry bundles.  Should they work out, I'll share the recipe. 

Tomorrow, Sarah and John arrive from the city of brotherly love and we'll spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoon deciding what place will be suitable to hold a wedding.  Then, on Monday, we turn our attention to the Buckeyes, hoping this year's bowl performance is a bit better than the last two.

Happy New Year to you all. 

In Ohio, We Train 'em Young.

My husband still claims that he doesn't understand why the entire state of Ohio is gaga over the Ohio State Buckeyes.  Even after seeing this. My 5 year old nephew got a little Buckeye uniform, complete with shoulder pads, football pants and a helmet (with three Buckeye leaves--he'll have to earn more) from Santa.  He wore the uniform all day, taking off the helmet only to eat his Christmas dinner.  He wore it to watch the Lakers/Celtics and to play a game of Speed Uno. 

No one in our family went to OSU,  and this little guy most likely won't either....but he'll be a lifelong die-hard Buckeye fan despite that because he's been properly trained :)

We had a lovely family Christmas in a snowless but very cold, Ohio.  I'm hoping that your day was filled with happiness and good cheer. 

Merry Christmas

From our house to yours.

Snow Anyone?

We may have just reached the snowfall total officially known as ridiculous.
That said, it is beautiful outside.

The View From Our Window

8 pm.  It's been snowing hard for about four hours now.  The wind has picked up and temperatures have dropped to single digits.  We've had a lovely dinner of Tuscan Chicken, garlic mashed potatoes and baby peas.  We paired it with a nice Robert Bruce Pinot Noir and are now finishing the bottle by the fire. 
All in all, this week's storm is far more civilized than last week's. 

And So It Begins

The first of our storms has arrived.  We're to get a series of three winter storms over the next five days.  Tonight's may bring as much as 10 inches of snow; Sunday's storm is still a little unpredictable but looks to be significant (they've uttered that magic word nor'easter) and it might be followed by another storm on Wednesday.  It looks like we're going to have a white Christmas in Maine--perfect.  

I'll be tweeting the storm over at twitter--or you can check out my updates in the sidebar. 

Spruce Creek

Winter sunrise.

Powered Up...Finally

 

It's been a bit wild around these parts for the past 38 hours.  The electricity went out at 11 pm on Thursday night and was just turned on about 20 minutes ago. 
An ice storm, the biggest since 1998, swept through NE on Thursday and laid waste to much of the Maine seacoast, most of New Hampshire and a good portion of Massachusetts.  Almost 1.3 million people in New England were without power for some portion of the last few days (at noon today, Central Maine Power reported that more than 169,000 folks in the state were still without juice). 

We lost a birch and large portions of most of our pines, and we also lost two gallons of Blue Bell ice cream (sent from Texas), but all in all, we were lucky.  The basement is dry, the trees that did come down did no damage and were easily removed with a chain saw and a bit of help from the neighbors and with the fireplace stoked up and the propane stove burning, we kept pretty warm (Ok, I'm still wearing my hot chilies, but it's not too bad in here--41 at the lowest temperature earlier this morning).  

The neighborhood Christmas party was canceled for last night--not because of the lack of power, but because the host's basement had three feet of water sloshing around.  No one's phone seemed to be working yesterday so RG and I hand wrote out 35 notices and distributed them to the neighbors, while the hosts bailed out. The party is rescheduled for tonight, power or no: "bring your own candle and a bottle of wine". 

We spent last evening at the neighbors, eating steak, cole slaw, rolls warmed on the grill and potato salad.  We made s'mores for dessert and they went very well with the tasty pinot noir we were sipping.

We walked home by the light of the biggest, brightest full moon that I can ever remember--or maybe it just looked that way because there was no artificial light to compete with it--and we stoked the fire up as big as we could, bundled up in as many blankets as we could find, gathered the animals in the study (one cat on each of our laps and Mac the Dog on his pillow by the fire) and slept in our recliners.  It wasn't too bad until we woke up this morning, middle-aged bones aching and sore and our fingers frozen from the cold. 

Coffee was the first order of the day, so we went for breakfast to Rick's Cafe in the village, along with three of the neighbors. We all cradled our cups and gazed at them as if they held the key to all happiness--oh, wait, at that moment, those cups did!

On the way back from the restaurant, we took a tour of town, checking out the damage, snooping in windows to see who had power (most of the town, it appeared) and we came across the CMP staging area.  About 40 trucks idling while a group of workers huddled around a map and looked to be making plans to deploy.  YAY! 

In preparation for the holiday party, we went to the neighbor's with a generator, took a shower and I did my 'do.  Back home, we huddled near the fire, split some wood and read.  Until, miraculously, the power came on.   

I'm now waiting for the hot water tank to finish heating and I'm going to take me the longest, hottest bath, ever!

Just a Dusting

We had a bit of snow today; not a lot, but enough to make decorating the Christmas Tree seem all the more festive.

Lobster Stew

We continue to help to keep the fleet afloat, by supporting our lobstering neighbors. 

A favorite Maine dish is Lobster Stew.  There are about as many recipes for it as their are fishing towns along the coast, but most are very simple--Lobster, Milk, Butter.  Nothing else required except oyster crackers, sprinkled on top. 

Traditional Lobster Stew

• 3 1-1/2 pound lobsters
• 1/4 pound butter (not margarine)
• 1-1/2 quarts milk

In a large pot, steam the lobsters until their shells just begin to turn red, about 4 minutes (the meat will be only partially cooked). Chill lobsters until cool enough to handle. Remove meat from tail and claws.

Melt butter in a frying pan. Add lobster meat to butter and simmer slowly. When done, the meat should turn beet red and be very juicy, and there should be no butter left in the frying pan. As the lobster meat absorbs the butter, heat milk slowly, making sure it does not boil. Add lobster to milk. If made correctly, this stew should not need any seasoning or any paprika for color. It will taste even better if refrigerated overnight and then reheated.

I'm not a big fan of the above recipe (RG loves it), as I like a little more taste than just the lobster.  I like some potatoes, a little more flavoring:

Lobster Stew

5  1-pound lobsters
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
3-4 bay leaves
10 sprigs of fresh parsley (for garnish)
1 tsp. fresh thyme
1 pint heavy cream
2 large leeks, white and yellow parts only, cut in medium (1/2 inch) dice
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced very thin (I don't include the carrots)
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted sweet butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper
cayenne pepper to taste

1. Blanch the lobsters for 4 minutes in a large pot of boiling fresh sea water or salted water. Allow to cool. Break off the claws and the tail. Remove the tomalley from the body and set aside in the refrigerator. Shuck the meat, chop into large bite-size pieces and set aside in the refrigerator. Be sure to remove intestinal tracts from the tails.  

2. Place all the shell and bodies in a large saucepan and barely cover with water (about 2 1/2 quarts). Add the onion, thyme and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, skim, and reduce to simmer.

4. After the stock has simmered for about 1 hour, add the heavy cream; simmer about 20 minutes more.

5. Simmer the leeks and carrots in butter in a soup pot until they begin to get tender (about 5 minutes). Now add the tomatoes and lobster meat and simmer 2 or 3 minutes more. Strain the creamy lobster stock into the soup pot (you should have about 6 cups of liquid). Season to taste with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper and sprinkle with parsley.