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