I must have adult ADD because I have grown weary of the other blog and now feel that I must post here instead. I have stared at my blogger dashboard hard every time, I am there because I am feeling drawn again towards Maine Foodie. I have been cooking and baking a lot over the winter months and suddenly realized that I am not cooking too much right now, but I have had some triumphs and some near misses and some incredible failures in the food making department since I stopped blogging here over a year ago.

A friend gave me several bags of greens from her garden recently...some incrediblly tender baby chard and beautiful spinach. There was nothing in the house to eat last night and so I took some ground turkey and made meatballs, dropping them in some hot, canned chicken broth. To that I added a dose of rice noodles and let the whole boil for about four minutes...then I added the fresh baby kale, let it wilt down a might and a bit of sea salt and ground pepper and I was good to go for dinner. I was an awesome way to keep the old addage: "Keep it simple, stupid"

I have a quart of lobster stock left over from last week's shellfish stew. I simply broke up two hardshell lobsters and put them in a soup pot with celery, salt and pepper, some sage and some thyme, and about two cloves of garlic and covered the shells with five cups of water and 1 cup or so of Brandy. On high, I let the whole boil for about 20-30 minutes and then simmer for about an hour. Pour broth through fine mesh or cheesecloth to strain and then boil down by 1/2 again. The stock should be delicate, but flavorful. It really is to your own tastes.

I need to try the stew again before I post the recipe as I mistakenly added far too much cayanne and it completely changed the flavor of the broth overnight. Whereas Greg told me right after I made it that it was perhaps the best seafood soup base he had ever had. The next day it was almost inedible....so I added milk to tone down the flavor, thus masking all the rest of the very subtle flavors of the soup.

It is a challenge to make something that you cannot taste...I am allergic to seafood, so I needed a taster to guide me. I made the soup for a party, and will try again, probably with summer visitors, before I post it.

Enjoy,
Seth