Voila the carrot cake. I think I need a class in cake decorating, I am so bad at the whole piping frosting, etc. I can't even make those orange and green carrots that usually decorate carrot cakes! To compensate for this, I sprinkled leftover grated carrots over the top for a festive look.

Enjoy,
Seth

Tomorrow is my sister's birthday. Usually when someone tells me of their impending day, or if I happen to know, I ask what kind of cake they would have if they could have any cake. My hopes are that someone will come up with some big challenging cake that I can try, the reality is I usually end of making carrot cake. What is it with the popularity of carrot cake? No one eats my carrots at dinner time, why ask for them in the dessert instead? Do carrots taste better

with lots of sugar and frosting??? Well, of course they do, doesn't everything? I have a feeling that its my frosting that brings people back for the carrot cake. Come to think of it, my sister didn't seem to want the cake as much as she wanted the frosting. So here it is.. use it with your favorite carrot cake recipe or try it on something else. It really is good.

12 oz. of Philadelphia cream cheese, softened

one stick butter, softened

3 teaspoons orange licquor

zest of one orange

juice of one orange

2 cups of confectioners sugar + more if nessesary, added gradually.

Place all ingredients except sugar in a large bowl. Add about a cup of the confectioners sugar and beat until smooth. Taste. If the mixture tastes mostly of cream cheese, add another 1/2 cup of sugar and repeat taste. Use the remaining sugar to get the frosting to be tangy, tasty, but not overly sweet. (I hate that in a frosting) Beat until smooth, really smooth and creamy. Place frosting in a smaller metal bowl, cover and refrigerate until cold. Its like frosting with attitude, it sticks well on cake or cookies and should have the consistancy you see in the photo above.

This frosting spreads perfectly when done correctly. It has the added festiveness of white frosting with orange zest bits in it like confetti. Your dessert guests will rave.

Enjoy,

Seth

well, can you all guess what Greg and I had for dinner tonight, hmmmm? I'll give you a hint, goes down great with a big glass of cold milk! So much for giving the tart to friends...it was 1/2 gone in about 10 mintues

Sigh,
Seth

We saw friends of ours the other day and invited them to dinner tonight at 6pm. Around 3pm I get a call asking to reschedule. I'm a bit bummed, I thawed this big pork roast and was going to marinate it in shallot, sea salt, and rosemary infused olive oil (good thing I didn't) I guess that we'll just carve off a few pork chops per the next few days. I did, however, make the dessert and since I have my camera ready, I thought I would try something new and add pics of some of the things I am cooking here...though you'll only get the pretty things. Voila, a carmelized upsidedown pear tart. What the heck am I gonna do with this? The recipe for this is somewhere in the archives, this time I added a bit of port to the caramel to infuse some strong flavor. I'll probably give this away tomorrow to some friends who just got into town and will only be here a month before they return to Saudi Arabia. If you can't find the recipe for this tart and you are dying to try it out, let me know and I'll post the recipe...its super easy, but has a big bang appeal for guests....they think I worked for hours making it. Once you get the recipe down, it can take as little as a 1/2 hour prep time.

Enjoy,

Seth

An astute reader I'll call "Topher" suggested the Kennebec Tavern in Bath as an alternative hot lunch and dinner spot in that fair city. Topher writes "It's right on the water with an outdoor deck (weather permitting). "Pub" style food at lunch and dinner plus seafood and a few "upscale" entrees. Indoors, you can choose the bar area w/ booths or a separate dining room."

Disclaimer "Maine Foodie" has not and probably will not for quite some time visit, eat, imbibe, or otherwise make merry at the above establishment. "Maine Foodie" is simply passing on the sage wisdom of a reader who does not want his name used. The inclusion of this piece of eating knowledge does, in no way, constitute a review by "Maine Foodie."

We took off yesterday and met my sister at Reid State Park in Georgetown Maine for a romp with our two dogs and her yellow lab. The dogs had never met before and I was very impressed with how well they got on, especially Libby (the prey driven giant schnauzer) who was very polite the whole day.
After about 4.5 miles and 2 plus hours we all started fantasizing about having warm grilled cheese sammies with crispy fries..mmmmmm :-) I think we stepped up the pace a bit and put on our thinking caps as to where we could get such fare. We ended up deciding that we could live without the grilled cheese, but the fries were a definite must. Bath is the closest city and so we wheeled on over to the Beale Street Bar-b-que an Grille. We had a huge booth with very high backs for privacy that made me feel very hemmed in after 3 hours in the open. The special board touted a cheeseburger wrap with fries that sounded great! Ann and I both had that and Greg had a chesseburger with peppers and mushrooms. I ordered a small ceasar salad for the table too. The interior of the grille is just as expected, very bare bones with a definite grille/ bar feel to the place....there were lots of kids there though.
The food arrived and I must say, I got exactly what I ordered. A cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato in a tomato tortilla with great skinny fries. After a few bites though, I wished I had ordered a big heaping bowl of mac and cheese (I had order envy after I saw it delivered to another table) I think on another day my meal would have been satisfying, but after all that hiking, all I wanted was carbs and calories...and lots of creamy cheese! What I ended up with was pretty much shreaded lettuce with some meat and cheese in a wrap...nice, but not my brain wanted. The ceasar was excellent, nice strong cheese and dressing flavor..top notch. Greg loved his burger and his fries and Ann agreed with me that her wrap wasn't what her brain wanted. She also craved the mac and cheese. The menu also included lots of ribs and smoked stuff, so I can only imagine how the place is for bar-b-que fans. The bill came to about 13$ a person for lunch.

We skipped dessert in favor of chocolate bars from Reny's next door.

Enjoy!
Seth

Last night after going to the fridge about 6 times to see if something good to eat magically appeared while I was away, I decided to start with rice for dinner. I took a japonica mix that I got from the Coop in Belfast and sauteed it in olive oil, cayanne, salt and pepper, added water and let it cook for a while, added a can of black beans with the juice and let that cook for awhile, then added frozen squash and lima beans and came out with goop for dinner! It was really good rolled up in a tortilla. MMMM, just goes to show that you can make something good from nothing in the cupboard.

Has anyone noticed that Hannaford in Belfast has a sushi bar now? Kewl, if you're a sushi-type person.

Enjoy,
Seth

Thank you Cheryl for reminding me to blog about the reopened 3Tides. Since I did tell David that the newly stripped and waxed bar was blogworthy, I should mention it. We went down to 3Tides on Friday to celebrate signing and registering as Domestic Partners in Maine. I kept filling out the forms and signing them without a notary present, so we kept putting the actual Registering part off.
We wanted to get to the bar early to hang and chat with David and Sara, but alas, we didn't get there until 7 or so, by which time the bar was packed!!

All the tables had been reserved, so we stood and chatted with friends and hovered over our neighbors Deb and Laura at the bar until they left so we could have their seats. The bar top looked great. David had spent the previous week stripping it down and getting all the history out of it before smoothing it down and waxing it. I was really impressed by how clean it looked and how silky smooth the bartop was. David said that he will have to clean and wax it now about once a month, a small price to pay for the fantastic new look and feel of it. Of course he also cleans it every night as well, I know what a stickler David and Sarah are for cleanliness.

Dinner was great, the quesadilla was perfectly packed with goodies and Greg's new regular of tomato, basil and mozzerella topped with chicken and bacon on bread (his own creation) was great too.

Enjoy,
Seth

I made suprisingly good pork chops last night. Didn't think they would taste good at all since I was SOOOOO not into cooking. All I wanted to do was defrost and microwave something (I forgot that we almost never buy stuff that cooks this easily) So, I trimmed the chops, and pan-seared them in olive oil that I seasoned with sea salt, fresh pepper and cayanne. then added soy sauce and port, and a bit of powdered garlic. I kept adding a bit of water to the pan when the juices started running low and I think this helped keep the pork really moist. they were done cooking in around 10 minutes, and I kept turning the chops in the pan after they were seared because I think this also keeps them moist.
Served with buttered peas for lack of any imagination on my part.

Enjoy,
Seth

Went down to Portland for a weekend get-a-way and had a great time with my sister at the boat show there. We decided that we really loved the Hinkley picnic boat and will order one as soon as we can scrape together $750,000 from the loose change in our pockets! Ann took us out for lunch at the Flatbread Co., a wood-fired brick oven pizza joint on the waterfront. We walked from the boat show and came upon the block long St. Pat's day parade with the Governor leading along....kind of cool! Greg and I would have a chance to see the Governor later at a dinner we attended for Equality Maine.

The interior of the Flatbread Co. is largely built and decorated with recycled and reclaimed materials and the seating booths were beautiful and large and roomy :-) Lots of kid art on the walls and lots of yuppie granolas with their kids in attendance. The only things on the menu were pizza and salad, which really reinforce my thoughts on restaurants....make it simple! Have 4-6 things on the menu and do them right...too many places have pages and pages of things to eat and I think the quality goes down the more entrees there are from which to choose...but I digress, again!

One can order a whole or a 1/2 pizza and most if not all of the ingredients are organic (I'm sure a Portland reader will set me straight on this) I had a mozzerella and Asiago cheese pizza, Greg had mushroom and onion and Ann had the maple and fennel sausage pizza. I thought mine was outstanding, the cheese was a perfect mixture of strong asiago and melty mozzerella. Ann's pizza was too sweet, I would have liked an organic spicy sausage instead, and Greg's was nice, though not as strong as mine. Thin whole wheat crust was excellent too.

Greg and I had desserts which were alright..he the chocolate brownie sundae and I the apple crisp a-la-mode. Mine was very homemade tasting with excellent crust, though a kind of dry interior. Very cinnamon-y and warm...perfect for the 30 degree day. Greg's was warm too, but not as fudgy as you'd like that dessert to be.

Our service was a bit poor and our server kind of spacy. Ann's coffee was cold on the first cup and the server offered to make a fresh pot for her...nice save on her part..then she forgot to bring it out! She also forgot to bring back Ann's unfinished pizza in a doggie bag, so Chowder, Ann's new yellow lab, missed out on lunch. Our desserts took forever and after waiting for our server to come do the credit card thing, Ann whipped out her wad of cash and paid by greenbacks (so much for saving for the boat!)

So, we loved the place, the location, the food, but not the service. The bathrooms were kinda dingy too.

Enjoy,
Seth

missin' 3Tides...jonesin' for some extra crispy quesadillas. Opening day is Friday

:-P

Seth

Oh my God, Jack's totally rocks for sammies! In what seems to have become our informal tasting of sammie stops in Belfast, the all out winner so far is Jack's. We stopped for a roast beef and cheese with tomatos on fresh bread with mayo, and came out with a sandwich piled with about 3/4 lb of fresh red meat (sounds great huh?) cheese and fresh tomatos on squishy wheat bread....all for $3.50!!! Yea Jacks! Way to go......love it.

Enjoy,
Seth

I've been on this lunch kick thing lately...or it just might be that we are in Belfast usually around lunchtime and we might as well eat something. I guess we were going up to Bangor to test sit some more cars (not a lot up there suprisingly). So we decided on Belfast Bay Wrap on Beaver Street (say that ten times fast). Their website http://www.baywrap.com/gourmetWraps_w.cfm
to my suprise showed that they have two locations, one in Belfast and one in Augusta of all places. Charlie Laurel is the owner of both places and he came to Maine from Colorado to provide a better life for his kids. We met him at a wedding last year...a point about which he reminded us the other day. What we had a taste for was a "To Thai For" which is grilled chicken with a spicy red peanut sauce, jasmine rice, asian slaw ( green onion, carrot , cucumber) all “thaid” up in a cilantro tortilla. There was certainly enough in one wrap to feed the both of us. It was delicious, very healthy and juicy, but certainly a once a month treat as the wraps are pretty expensive at about $8.00 a pop. Charlie likes to think of these as a healthy fast food, and we certainly got out of there in about 7 minutes. I always forget that Bay Wrap is there, because I don't always walk down Beaver street, which is that diagonal street that runs from Post Office Square to the Co-op. Its a cute shop with two or three tables and several newspapers to peruse while you are waiting or when you eat there. Bay Wraps is a great alternative to a "normal sit-down lunch"

Enjoy,
Seth

We happened to be down in Rockland the other night and so decided to cruise the strip for dinner options. What I like about Rockland at night is that there are dinner options available for almost any taste buds. We looked into Amalfi, but the menu wasn't what we had in mind that night, so we bee-lined it to the Black Bull Tavern and sidled up to the copper bar where we proceeded to have an excellent dinner. The bar side of the tavern reminds me of places we frequented as youngsters straight out of college....one place in particular comes to mind: John Barleycorn's in Chicago where we used to go for all you can eat Lasagna on Wednesday nights.

I digress again. We ordered and I had pork potstickers and an excellent ceasar salad..perfect mixture of cheese and tangy lemon dressing. Greg had the fresh dipped and deep fried haddock with crispy fries and thank god the fries were perfectly done! He loved the haddock, but said it was a bit dry (I pointed out that he asked for it extra crispy, which tends to dry things out a bit) The place was just what we were looking for, that is until the drunk came in for dinner at the bar and kept making no sense. We left soon after his arrival. The black bull is a tavern experience. Its a better interior than, say Rollies in Belfast...more of a Boston or other big city pub with big windows out to the street.

Enjoy,
Seth

Got called for Jury duty today in Belfast. The way it works here is that you are required to serve for no longer than 15 days at a stretch every 5 years. They call in 150 potential jurors and we sat there all day while they picked six juries to handle the six cases they were hearing this month. I have not getting picked down to a science. I got dressed in casual chic (something that I NEVER do) goldtone cufflinks, buttondown shirt, nice pants and nice shoes (no tie) and a blazer. I also bring a big book to read and sit in the front row. I was called to potentially sit on four of the juries and never got picked for any of them....I've served my sentence for the next five years.
During our lunch break, I decided to try the Belfast Soup and Sandwich Shop in Post Office Square. Now it was 12:30 and the guy who runs the place was sitting at a table reading the paper....not a good sign. I hope for his sake that he isn't the owner of the shop, cause I recognized him from working behind the deli counter at Hannaford and I would want him to do really well if it was his place of business.
That said, I ordered a stuffed turkey sandwich which came with cranberry sauce, stuffing, turkey and cheese on chewy middle eastern bread. I have to say, the concept is great, but put some mayo on the sandwich and add more stuffing. There are a lot of restaurants that serve this sandwich and they are reallllllllly good when done right. I loved the bread on this one, but that and dry turkey were the only ingredients I tasted. Too bad. At $8.95 for a sandwich and an ice tea, I can go back to Bell the Cat and get a similar sandwich melted, with better cheese and pesto along with chips or pretzels..for 50 cents less. The guy has a great location downtown, he just needs to bump up his quality a notch or two.
The interior tries to be quaint with old repro photos of Belfast from the 19th century that you can't quite see when you are sitting at your booth. Booths are really small and hard to get in and out of if you happen to be 6'6" I didn't try the soups, and I might go back if only to give this struggling place another try.

Enjoy, Seth

Turkey Sammiches

On our way to Augusta yesterday to test sit cars (being 6'6" makes car shopping quite a different experience, I test sat in about 40 cars and actually drove just one, the Saab 9-3 sport-combi wagon which gets 32mpg on the highway!) we stopped for take out lunches in Belfast....Greg to McDonalds of course and me to Bell the Cat where I had a roasted turkey and munster melt with pesto mayo and lettuce and tomato on rye. It was delicious, but cost me almost $9.00 with a bottle of water. Great place for complicated sandwiches and nearby shopping at Reny's, our favorite. Greg says that he got a kick ass fresh made turkey sandwich at Jack's on High Street for about $3.50 the day before...Jeez with the savings, I'll be able to afford that Saab in just about 10 years, or at least be able to afford to fill up my hugh honking SUV !

Enjoy,

Seth

I've been asked to provide the recipe for my sausage puffs. I know the recipe is on here somewhere, but who knows where that might be! They are always a crowd pleaser and are super easy to make, if you like folding hundreds of little pieces of puff pastry over mounds of ground sausage....

1 sheet puff pastry (available in frozen food section)
1 roll of Jimmy Dean Sausage (50% less fat version so the puffs won't be so greasy)
1/2 cup yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspn cayanne pepper
couple of pinches of dried thyme
perhaps some rosemary or oregano

Thaw 1 sheet puff pastry. Preheat oven to 350

Saute onion and garlic together until transluscent (about 7 minutes)
add sausage and brown and then add spices. Cook sausage until done
allow mixture to cool completely.

Roll out puff pastry until thin and pliable. cut into squares. Take square and add heaping teaspoon of the sausage mixture into the middle and then fold corner over top, completely sealing mixture, place seam side down on baking sheet.

Bake in the middle of the preheated oven until pastry is golden brown. Serve with a mustard sauce or on their own. Makes about 3 dozen

Enjoy,
Seth

We had a fabulous Mardi Gras party last night and Greg made seafood jambalaya and a sausage chicken jambalya that were fantastic. Everyone raved and I was a little jealous that he made everything.

I was given the task of the appetizers, so I found a recipe on Epicurious that really seemed the say New Orleans. Apparently it is from Emeril's kitchen. I couldn't eat it because of the crabmeat, but I got my own raves last night for it. A friend who is originally from New Orleans said that it tasted just like aligator pie she used to get in her favorite restaurant. Another friend said we should open our own restaurant. I toyed with the recipe and added more of the goodies like mushrooms and crabmeat and sprinkled in some cayanne for a bit of a bite. It makes an enormous amount of food, so have extra bread around. Here is what I came up with.

Crabmeat and wild mushroom cheesecake

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped onion1 cup chopped red bell pepper
4-5 coarsely chopped assorted fresh wild mushrooms (such as crimini, oyster and stemmed shiitake)
32 oz of cream cheese softened
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cayanne
4 large eggs
1/2 cup whipping cream
12-14 ounces crabmeat (about 2 cups), drained well, picked over
1 cup (about 4 ounces) grated smoked Gouda cheese
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2-3 French bread baguette, sliced, toasted

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion and bell pepper and sauté 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and sauté until liquid evaporates and mushrooms begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Cool.
Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese, salt and pepper in large bowl until mixture is fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then whipping cream. Mix in vegetable mixture, crabmeat, smoked Gouda and chopped parsley.
Pour filling into 9" springform pan. Bake until cake puffs and browns on top but center moves slightly when pan is shaken, about 1 hour 30 minutes. Transfer pan to rack and cool. (Cheesecake can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)
Run small sharp knife around pan sides to loosen cheesecake. Release pan sides. Transfer cheesecake to platter. Serve cold or at room temperature with baguette slices.
Serves 16 to 20 as an appetizer.

I also made my special sausage in puff pastry nibbles and those were gone on the first round.

Enjoy,
Seth

Greg brought home take out from Hellen's kitchen in Northport (its attached to the Mobil Station on Rte 1) Take my advice and stay away from here! He brought home philly cheese steak sandwich and chicken tenders and I must say that I can buy better low end frozen food and cook it myself. What a horror this place is.

Be afraid, be very afraid

Seth

Greg was "rich for a day" a few days ago...thats what we call it when we're flush with cash , cause thats about how long it lasts. I was having a bad day with pot hell (ever have a cupboard in your kitchen where all the junk goes? Its where we keep the baking and springform pans as well as the storage jars and lids...always like socks, you can never find the right lid for the container) and so was yelling up one side and down the other...his solution was to bring me a dozen long stemmed roses...good boy, Greg, gooood boy! and take me to lunch on our way to town for errands.
We decided on the Summer House Cafe on rte 1 just south of Belfast. Its been reviewed here, but not in a long time and not by both of us. First, what irked me about the place the first time we went in happened again right off the bat. The first time we went in, we must have been told 9 times by passing servers and other employees "someone will be with you in a minute." We finally left and went to Dudley's for breakfast that day. A year later, two people ran past us spewing out "someone will be with you in a minute" as they flew by...what I want to know is "who is this mythical someone???" Strike 1 Anyway, the place was pretty empty for lunch and our server came to ask if we wanted to try the black angus burger with steak fries, which Greg ordered, along with extra, extra, extra, extra, extra crispy fries, his usual. I had a chai and a chicken salad sandwich on marble rye. The server ran off to put Greg's fry order in pronto so that they would be done in time for lunch...which puzzled us at first...until the burger and fries arrived. {inserting a Greg says:} "Never offer fries on the menu unless you actually have a frier. Putting potato wedges or even "steak fries" from Sysco on a baking sheet and putting them in the oven is not fries, its roasted potatoes." Strike 2 The potatoes came out seasoned, somwhat brown on one side and raw on the other...it was just too sad to see happen to a good steak fry. My chai was good, but arrived luke warm and I could tell that the water hadn't boiled before it was added to the chai (tea drinkers are constantly disappointed in restaurants where we feel we get shafted..no one pays attention to the proper way to make tea...though the restaurant may have 12 different varieties of coffee) But I digress. My chicken sandwich was perfectly fine and tasty as was Greg's burger. We weren't blown away and probably will not make this place a destination. I will say that the place is at least bright and cheery, but for the same price, there are much better places for lunch in town.

Enjoy,
Seth