Greg took me to dinner at the Waterfront in Camden last night. We had a nice cozy table by the fire and I thought about what a treat it was to eat in a different place. Belfast sure does frustrate the foodie in one when there are only two places to go to get good food that isn't fried. I've been jonesin' for the Waterfront's roasted pear and cranberry salad. It kicks pear salad ass! I noticed on the menu that the prices had indeed dropped by a dollar or two on most items. In the summertime, the pear salad is $12 or $13 bucks and in the Winter, the price drops to $11. Its often what I say I would like to do if we opened a restaurant as a thank you to year rounders.
Anyway, Greg and I each had the pear salad and Greg had Oysters on the half shell which he said were fabulous. In my quest for the best Quesadilla around these parts, I ordered the chicken Quesadilla. It was so awful that I couldn't finish it. I think it was made with phylo dough as the "tortilla" was soft, flaky, and smooshy...now as some of my readers know, there is nothing I hate more in a quesadilla than a smooshy exterior. The whole thing was underdone, greasy, and the onion on the inside was so hard and almost raw that I burped it up most of the night.
Of course we will go back there, its one of my favorite places in the summer, but I do think the food quality in the winter goes down a notch or two.

Greg and I spent yesterday afternoon driving around doing things down in the Camden Rockland area. We decided to have a late lunch / early dinner around 4pm and pulled into Cody's Original Roadhouse on Ingraham Hill in Rockport. I had heard about this place when I was at Campbell's getting my hair cut several months ago and had pretty much decided to stay away. It sounded like a rib joint with picnic table style eating, not something that I would enjoy. I am not a bar-b-que sauce on my fingers and on my face kinda guy.

I was pleasantly suprised by the atmosphere at Cody's. We loved the gas pump handle as front door handle. It really got us in the mood for the interior of the place, which is thick with atmosphere. The front room is made from "old" white painted barnboards and the whole space is like walking into a huge old barn clubhouse decorated with old beer cans and bottles, hubcaps, license plates, with some vintage bikes, and other stuff thrown in.

We were shown to a small 2 person booth, which was a bit small. All the booths were decorated with "on the road" fabric, evocative of Route 66 in the 50s. Our window was actually an old loading dock door that had its paneled doors replaced with glass. There is a long straight bar with high stools and lots of beer taps. All in all a very cool space.

There were also crayons waiting at the table for us to draw with. We played hangman and tic tac toe while waiting and waiting and waiting for our burgers. Seriously, there were only about 4 tables full when we got there and our burgers took over a half an hour to get to our table. Our server Mel (who wrote her name with crayons on the butcher paper covering our table) seemed put out that we ordered water and tea and then only had burgers. Our food took over a half an hour to come to the table. It was good, though the buns were huge and so each mouthful was pretty much bun with some burger. And my tea was unceremoniously put on the table with tepid water in the mug and the Salada tea bag on the side....I hate that! The fries were tasty, so the food we good, better than fast food, but not as good as it sounded on the menu where the burger was described as a juicy steakburger. Its probably just a shade better than a Sizzler

When I explored the bottle of Cody's Original Roadhouse hot sauce on the table, I noticed that it was distributed by COR Enterprises of Clearwater Florida. The restaurant is part of a chain! Not that it matters much, but it did color our experience a bit.

So, the atmosphere is cool, a great place to bring your kids cause of all the stuff to look at. I fear that during prime dining hours, the place is loud and crowded. There are peanuts on the table that one is supposed to shell on the floor, so by the end of the night, one is walking on other people's food garbage, not a pretty thought. We would go back for early dinner I am sure, it might be fun with a big group of people. Perhaps our server was having an off day.

Enjoy!
Seth

Greg and I went down to Su Casa Mexican Restaurant in Camden last week before I drove to Portland. We were energized that there was a new Mexican place around to counter one in Northport that we don't like too much. Su Casa bills itself on its blog as an authentic Mexican restaurant. I like to refer to it as authentically mediocre. We were seated upstairs when we got there and I was pretty amazed that on a Friday night at 6:30, there were only 5 tables full..after dinner I think I knew why. The food was simply alright. the decor was laughable.

The restaurant owner's idea of decor run to a bunch of those cheap Mexican sombreros with sparkles glued all over them...kind of like what some dancing with the stars dancer would wear during a salsa dance. Or what bandoliers would throw down on the floor and stomp around. The other beautiful decor addition was a clear plastic sheet tacked to the wall with a silkscreened "mexican" couple walking in an outdoor scene...WTF? Classy, let me tell you. It seems that the owners took over the restaurant from a TGI Fridays and just changed the wall decor to hats and plastic sheets! There were booths and cheap tables and thats about it for the "decor" It was pretty sad. The music was certainly not authentic and featured semi-hard rock that was pretty annoying given the rest of the decor.

We were left with a big plastic tub of perfectly salted chips and cold salsa out of a jar. If the salsa had been warm, I would have loved it. As it was, the salsa was ice cold and didn't warm my heart. Since I was driving, we drank water. I asked for a hot tea, which they advertised on the menu, and was brought a cup of warm water from the tap and a lipton tea bag on the side. It was such a sad cup of tea. I have to tell you, as a tea drinker, I think we get shafted. Restaurants are well schooled in serving lattes, esspressos, and other coffee drinks, but when it comes to tea, the servers invariably put semi-cold water in a cup and serve a tea bag on the side...what is up with that? Tea bags need to be placed in the cup and HOT water poured overtop of the tea to let the flavor out......I was WAY disappointed.

Dinner for me was a Chicken quesadilla..I wanted to compare it to my favorite chicken quesadilla at 3TIDES. Didn't compare. For the same price, I received four wedges of quesadilla that had only pulled chicken and mexican cheese, no vegetables or onions or anything...the texture was squishy and not very appetizing. Greg had a chicken, meat and cheese roll up dish that was alright, but not the best.

We left feeling unsatisfied. We thought though that we might go back and give it one more try, perhaps with friends.

Enjoy,
seth

I made this great vegetarian dish last night. Its essentially vegetable lasagna without pasta.

Butternut squash and creamed spinach gratin

1 Large butternut squash, peeled, deseeded, and cut into 1/8 strips, lengthwise

3 lbs fresh spinach or 3 packs frozen spinach (I used the organic baby spinach)

olive oil

1 medium onion diced

3 cloves garlic

nutmeg to taste

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup half and half

lots of fresh grated asiago

wilt the spinach and squeeze out excess water

heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet

add garlic and onion and stir and cook over medium heat until translucent and cooked through

add spinach, nutmeg, salt and pepper and cream and mix together

butter and layer a 3 quart casserole with alternating layers of strips of squash, then spinach mix then cheese, starting and finishing with squash. layer on cheese on top and place in a 400 degree oven, with a foil covering for 30-40 minutes. Take off cover and let cook for another 20-30 minutes until tender and bubbly. Let sit for 5-7 minutes before serving.

This comes out beautifully and was extremely tasty. Suggestions for a bit of color by adding roasted red peppers were met enthusiastically by all who ate here last night. If one had the time, one could make a beautiful latticework lasagne with the strips of butternut squash and the spinach coming through underneath....hmmmm, I might just make this for Thanksgiving.

Other things at the table were: Homemade applesauce, a huge pork roast done up with rosemary and sea salt with little new potatoes and a rosemary white sauce made from drippings, white wine, and half and half.

UPDATE: So I made this the other night and it is gooooood! I ended up diluting the pumpkin caramel with a whole can of pumpkin, not just a cup, cause I thought it was too sweet. The finished product ended up having a very subtle pumpkin cream taste, kinda like I had topped the whole with whipped cream and then mixed it in before eating it. Very delicious. It was certainly not too sweet, which is good. I ended up making two single servings and one large casserole full, which I left on the front sttop of an old Irish guy in town who happened to turn 51 the day I made the dessert.

Enjoy!

Apple-Pear Crisp with Pumpkin-Caramel Sauce
3 large bosc pears, peeled, cored and cubed to make three cups
3 large Fuji apples, same deal as above
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter
sprinkled cinnamon and ginger


Preheat oven to 400 degrees, mix fruit in a large bowl with lemon juice and spices.

Melt butter and toss into mix. Spread mixture out onto rimmed baking sheet or large casserole and roast, turning with spatula every 10 minutes, for 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. Fruit should not be cooked through.

For Pumpkin-caramel sauce:
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 can pure pumpkin

Melt butter and sugar in a sauce pan until mixture is a deep amber color, stirring constantly, about 8 minutes.
Reduce heat to medium low and add cream slowly (mixture will bubble and sputter)
stir until caramel bits dissolve, about 2-3 minutes
Add pumpkin and stir until heated
chill to cold (about 2 hours)

Stir fruit and sauce together and place in large casserole. Top with:

1 cup quick cooking oatmeal
1/2 stick butter cut into small pieces
1/4 cup brown sugar
ground ginger and cinnamon to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl with your fingers until it resembles coarse meal
sprinkle over fruit mixture and then bake in the oven for 30-45 minutes at 350 until golden and bubbly.

I'm going to a symposium next weekend in Salem, MA and staying with friends. My friends are having a dinner party the night before the symposium and the list has grown into a cast of thousands. As of tonight the speakers for the symposium are all coming too, so its a gathering of colleagues. I volunteered to make dessert. Casting about for something different, I thought about making a trifle in the traditional 19th century manner, but then thought better of that...who has that much time. I did find a recipe for trifle that I am going to use, but to make a fruit crisp instead. The recipe calls for roasting pears and apples and then mixing together with a pumpkin-caramel sauce. I will then add a good traditional crisp topping to that and call it good, but probably will also make a bunch of lemon squares and cookies to suppliment.

Hey All: I'm a bit late with this post, but Marshall Wharf Brewing Co. has produced their first brew, Tug Pale Ale. Its available at 3Tides. Go check it out and report back. I liked it, and I don't even like beer.

Lotsa people have dropped food off in the last few weeks for us to try and we are very fat and appreciative. Kim, I LOVED the chicken stew and those lemon ricotta cookies didn't last very long. Brian at the Edge gave Greg and fantastic soup to bring home to me: cider turnip and bacon soup. It was so good, I had it for breakfast.

Haven't had much time to cook these days. We did order out from Seng Thai on our way home from the museum yesterday. It was our first time ordering out from there and the food is still just as good. We had a 4 star hot green curry, which I have been thinking about all week and a beef and broccoli with cashews. The curry rocked!

A reader emailed me a link to The Smitten Kitchen. Now I have blog envy. Her photos and tales of woe and wonder in the kitchen are great. Apparently, Martha thinks its a cute web site.
If I only had the patience to do the same, I might have a steady readership! I think I started out on the right foot, but I always forget to photograph the things I am making or to even photograph them in progress. Perhaps the key is to write my tales out in word and then post them, rather than writing them out directly to the template. Do you want my recipes? I suppose I should get back into posting those too. Sigh...my kingdom for a life assistant, or at least a secretary!

OK, so the hors d'oeurves musta been kind of good because all of them were gone by the end of the dinner party last night. I was just bummed that they all looked the same, but were different things. The pastry flour worked wonders on the crust for the leek tarts as they were melt in your mouth good. People seemed to like the shape and feel of the "potato cookies" which were essentially spoon dropped onto baking sheets and left to melt into a puddle shape. The gruyere really made the potato puffs excellent.

Ok, ok, so its been a while since I made fancy food. I spent all day cooking and came up with two hors d'oeuvres for this fancy party and they both look the same!!! Luckily, they do taste different, but both are essentially mini quiches. What was I thinking!! But, as we learned last weekend in Kansas City: "cheese rules the world" put enough smelly cheese in something and it will taste delicious.

So, I now have six dozen potato quiches and 3 dozen Tarte St Germaines (a fancy term for quiche with leeks!). After all that trouble, I learned that I need to start experimenting again.

s

I had a bit of a kitchen tragedy this afternoon. I may have lost one of my AllClad pots :-( I was cooking potatos and decided to go have a bit of a toes up on the couch....I woke thinking...hmmm, whats in the oven??? Oh shit!! I ran into the kitchen to see that I had left the burner on HI and all the water had boiled off and the potatos were burning in the bottom of the pot. I thought all was lost for my planned potatos and gruyere in puff pastry! OH no, its time for another WWJD moment. Personally, I think Julia woulda been proud of me. I let the potatos cool and then I cut the burned bottoms off, carefully testing to see if the interior of the potato tasted faintly like carbon...No? it was a go! Then I made a big batch of garlic mashed potatos, ensuring that I used a hell of a lot of butter and cream. However, its going to take some muscle scrubbing to get the burned area on the bottom of the pot cleaned. Thank the gods for AllClad though, any other pot and it woulda melted on the stove.

So, I went to defrost my puff pastry and found that I'd grabbed puff pastry shells!!! DAMMMMNNNN. My hors d'oeuvres were not to be tonight, its karma......yet another episode of WWJD so soon?? Well thats what I'm trying to figure out right now. Do you think if I combined my recipe for cheese puffs with my mashed potatoes that I could possibly make something good that is passible? More from the "What Would Julia Do" test kitchen tomorrow.

I did make the best miniature Tarte St. Germains. I was able to find Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour at Odd Balls in Belfast. It really does make a nice flakey crust.

oops! My last post was meant for the other blog

Rumor has it that Nealey's, the gas station/ convenience store/ hardware store that has dusty food, stoned employees, and the wierdest assortment of stuff I've ever encountered, has been sold to the owner of the Swan Lake Grocery Store. We are quite excited here in the hood, as we would love some place to go where the food is not past its expiration date and the people behind the counter are not slurring their words and drooling.
Yea for progress in the 'hood!

We had a big family dinner at Greg's sister's house last night. I offered to make baked zucchini while most everyone else was at church. I got raves and was commended by the moms for making something their children would actually eat. Leave it to me to make something healthy like zucchini into something decadent and fattening.

I quartered all the zukes, there were like 15 of them. Tossed them with olive oil, garlic, minced onion, salt and pepper, dried basil (I missed the fresh basil in the garden, damnit!) and a pinch or two of red pepper. Then I arranged the zukes in their baking dishes and sprinkled liberally with grated parmesan and topped with bread crumbs.

We also had smoked pork and turkey that Greg's dad had done in his smoker and that was warming at 200 degrees, so I popped the zukes in the same oven and slow roasted for 30 minutes, then bumped the temp to 350 for another 20 and then broiled to brown the top for 5 minutes. Everyone went back for seconds.

An old friend of mine from high school came by yesterday on her way from Northeast Harbor to Philadelphia (they don't call NEHarbor Philadelphia on the rocks for nothing!) She arrived with her three year old son and ex-husband in tow. Her ex doesn't speak English very well, so he was pretty silent, interjecting a bit of Spanish here and there.

I made a great soup for lunch: Leek, buttercup squash and apple soup with fresh parmesan. It has some pretty complex flavors, but they all work together very well.

Two large leeks, cut up (just the whites)
one buttercup squash, peeled and cut into chunks
1 red delicous apple cut up, skin on (its all I had, a gala, macintosh or granny smith might be better)
fresh chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
a dash of curry powder
couple of cloves of garlic

in a soup pot, sautee the leeks in oil and then add the buttercup squash and apples, add diced garlic and sautee a bit more. Add chicken broth until vegetables are covered and simmer until squash is soft. add salt and pepper and curry. Stir and set aside to cool.
Working in batches, transfer soup to blender and liquify. Soup should be pretty thick...add more broth if you want it less thick. Add parmesan and stir to melt. Serve with crusty bread.

I made a loaf of Irish Soda Bread from a Bob's Red Mill mix that I got at Ocean State Job Lots. It was really good.
Served both with a spinach salad and some curried chicken salad with grapes.

We had a wonderful time, it was great to see my friend and her son, whom I had not met.

Enjoy,
Seth

We had a glorious boat ride to Castine on Saturday. The bay was dead calm on the way there and on the way back. Not too many boats on the water this time of year, but there was a lot of activity in Castine harbor. We tied up to the public dock and went to Dennetts Wharf for lunch. Dennetts has been a fixture on the Castine waterfront for 20 years. We've been over there at least three times this summer. The food is great, the atmosphere is second to none as you can sit and watch the sailboat races in the harbor and the Merchant Marine ship docked up the way. They have inside seating and a long bar for nighttime gathering. I'm sure it gets a bit rowdy at night as there are hundreds of dollar and five dollar bills stapled to the cathedral ceiling...there has to be some history there that I don't know. The seating outside is under an awning or out of the deck in picnic tables with umbrellas. Saturday I had the grilled chicken ceasar salad and Greg had a burger with curly fries. The fries were nice and crispy and well seasoned and the salad had beautiful fresh parmesan cheese and a nice tangy dressing. We seem to always have the same blonde server and she is perfect for the place. Always a wonderful smile, and a bit chatty about the weather and all. She flirted with my dad when we took my parents there....he loved that. Dennetts also has a great bar and one can get tall vodka lemonades and then sleep in the cutty cabin on the way back home! (Not that I did this, of course, but one could!)

Of course the most enjoyable part of going to Dennetts is the trip over in the boat. They are closed for the season now...sigh...its getting darker here too....a sign of the season changing.

Enjoy,
Seth

I guess I didn't post the banana zucchini chocolate chip bread recipe...ooops! Well here it is,. A moister bread, I couldn't find. Doesn't need butter and is so good warmed up with tea in the afternoon.

Banana Zucchini bread

3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
pinch ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup raw zucchini, shredded
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
6 oz chocolate chips

Shred zucchini and set aside.
Mash bananas and set aside.
In large mixing bowl, beat sugar and oil together until well combined. Add eggs one at a time.
Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, vanilla and nuts.
Mix together.
Add zucchini and bananas and continue to mix until blended.
Pour into 2 greased and floured loaf pans.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 45-55 minutes or till tests done in center with toothpick.
Remove to wire rack and cool for 10 minutes before removing to completely cool on wire rack.

So the big local gossip is that Dos Amigos is for sale, the whole thing, restaurant and property. The price is a whopping $600,000. Which, when you think about it, isn't that much for a restaurant that seems to pack people in while putting out consistantly crappy Mexican food. Why anyone would overpay for food that makes you come home and sit down on the pot for hours, I'll never know. I know a lot of full timers in Bayside go there for the convenience and I think a lot of them sit at the bar there and get their gig on. If their menu changes for the better, it would be a welcome change here in ole Northpoke.

For the money and with a bit of renovation, I still think the better bet is Willy World, the closed down restaurant south of Dos on Route 1. The price there is around $185,000, but I'm not sure if the restaurant gear is included. I think the right peole could make this place into a gold mine. Switch the parking lot to the front of the building and create a big deck with a very cool garden in the back. There are over three acres to work with here and a slight expansion out the back would make room for more music and tables. Voila, the Northport Roadhouse!

In other news: I was barreling down Route one the other day when I saw a bunch of free zucchini on the side of the road. So I mashed on my brakes and pointed the Saab towards a ditch at the side of the road....I can never pass up free stuff on the side of the road...its The power of free. Anyway, what am I to do with all this zucchini? I also have all these frozen bananas too, so I thought I would make a zucchini banana bread, never heard of such a thing, so I googled it and found several very tasty recipes that people were raving about, saying how moist is was and how easy it was to get the kids to eat zucchini this way (Hey Kim...Wes could use some of this to get the daily veggie requirements down his gullet!) I'll blog about it after I make a batch.

Enjoy,
Seth

We went to a cook out last night that was really fun. Four chefs from local area restaurants were there, all standing around the grill watching the hot dogs cook. It was beautiful! I made chipwiches using my toffee cookies with milk chocolate chips recipe and Gifford's Old Fashioned Vanilla ice cream. Giffords is a Maine company, so I feel good about shopping locally. Our freezer doesn't really freeze well sometimes, so when I pulled them out to take to the party, I saw that the chipwiches were kinda melted. I think its time for a new fridge / freezer.

We had to go fit a coat for one of Greg's clients after the party, so we didn't get to stay much longer after having dogs and salad. We were bummed about not having some of our own chipwiches for later and thought about going back to the party, but I was sleepy....

The host told us there would be about 16 people there, so I made probably 2 dozen. About 12 people came, so I think the hosts are pretty long on chipwiches!!! I hope there isn't too much of a sugar buzz in that house for the next few weeks

Back from New York, where it is not quite Fall yet. Today, I went to the store and was attracted to sweet potatoes, winter squashes, Great Northern beans rather than black beans, stewed tomatoes, and other nesting, cold weather comfort foods. It felt good to be back into thinking about making stocks and simmering things on the stove all day; of fires in the living room and naps on the couch with the mail opened around me. I wasn't ready for Fall and Winter a few weeks ago, but now I have transitioned and the grocery store had a lot to do with it. I am planning a bannana cooking day since I have a load of them in the freezer (instead of throwing out bannanas that are too far gone, I shove them into the freezer for use later) I may make a bannana coffee cake for tomorrow or for next weekend when Greg has friends here. Then its back to New York for work...I just hope its not Winter by the time I get back!

Have you transitioned to Comfort Food cooking?

Enjoy,
Seth