Category: Stateside Cuisine

In Case You Weren’t Sold on the Blueberry Sauce

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I had planned to save my favorite Maine recipe for last. You know that old save the best for last thing, but this dish is just too good to hold back, and more importantly it goes perfectly with the blueberry sauce.  I’m calling it a handmade shortbread, which I again adapted from the cabin’s cookbook Lobster Rolls & Blueberry Pie by Rebecca Charles and Deborah DiClementi.

This recipe comes from the author’s grandmother, so I didn’t change-up the ingredients too much. I mean who am I to mess with a grandma’s recipe. In my experience, they know their stuff. Really the biggest change I made was in the preparation. The book uses a mixer to create the shortbread, but given the ingredients’ similarity to a pie crust and my love for making them…I decided to make this one by hand.

I started by cutting up two sticks of unsalted butter and sifting together the dry ingredients. The key here is to use room temperature butter for the shortbread.  Continue reading →

Shhh! We’re Looking for Moose. (And Eating Blueberries.)

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Shhh! No one make a sound!

Can something so good be so easy? Yes. So easy in fact, that every night we were in Maine, after the kids went to sleep — usually after a short drive to “look for moose” or “watch the sunset” since that was the only way we could get Miss A to fall asleep — I made dessert. As parents, when you’re on family vacations, you do what you need to in order to get your kids to sleep and enjoy a few hours of alone time; even if that means driving for an hour at dusk because otherwise you’ll be awake with a three-year old until midnight. After that night, we took no chances.

Prior to our visit to the Pine Tree State I could take or leave blueberries. I typically only eat them in yogurt parfait. The kids on the other hand, love blueberries. They’d eat them straight-up at every meal if they could. So since blueberries grow wild all over Down East Maine and the kids love them, I figured I’d feature them in a few desserts. The first one I tried was again inspired by the book, Lobster Rolls & Blueberry Pie by Rebecca Charles and Deborah Di Clementi – Blueberry Sauce. Continue reading →

Celebrating a Milestone Maine-Style

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On Friday we gave you a sneak peek of the lobster next to our slice of cornbread. We would have kicked off our Maine recipes with lobster, but then we realized how close we were to our 100th post. So we saved the good stuff for this special milestone – Boiled Maine Lobster with Butter Sauce.

When we were driving to our cabin in Maine we passed a fish shop that advertised fresh, live Maine lobsters for $4.99/lb. That was enough motivation for us – our first meal in Maine was going to be lobster! We picked up four Maine lobsters that afternoon and brought them back to the cabin.

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Any Way You Want It

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I doubt that Journey was referring to Cornbread in their 1980 hit. 

Just look at that hair! I love it! LOL.

But back to cornbread. Cornbread is one of those dishes that you can easily customize to suit your own tastes. Personally Mike and I prefer it spicy and cheesy, but the kids aren’t big fans of heat. So while we were in Maine we created a version that they would find more appetizing.

This recipe is a blend between one that Greg over at Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide created a few weeks back, and a the version that Mr. N and I made at his cooking class back in June. We started by mixing all the dry ingredients in one bowl – corn meal, flour, sea salt and baking powder. Then we mixed all the wet ingredients in another bowl – honey, eggs and buttermilk. Next we made a well in the dry ingredients, poured the wet ingredients into the well and combined.

For our “custom” ingredients we used what we had on hand, frozen corn kernels, Vermont two-year aged Cheddar cheese and chives.  Continue reading →

A Family of Four; 20 Days; 4,200 Miles…

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And countless memories! This is our summer 2011 road trip. Yes – we are road warriors. It all started with my parents. As a child every summer vacation we took was a road trip (usually to the Western U.S.). I treasure the memories of each and every one of those trips, the good and the “challenging.” (I was a teenager for lots of those trips. Enough said.)

A rare teenage smile caught on film. RMNP 1994.

Fast forward to adulthood. I met Mike and together he and I kept the tradition going beginning early in our relationship.

“Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. Such a fine sight to see.”

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Miss A’s Dream Come True

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It’s time for the birthday girl’s dessert and you’ll never guess what we found. Remember that Miss A requested (well, okay rather demanded) cookies for her birthday? Well when I pressed her on what kind of cookies she wanted she said, “balsamic cookies.” Mr. N thought she was out of her mind and was horrified at the thought, but Miss A kept insisting on balsamic cookies. So I did a search, and do you know what I found? Not just balsamic cookies, but Chocolate Balsamic Cookies! I thought Miss A was going to fall off her chair she was so excited – chocolate and balsamic and a cookie!

She most definitely was on hand to help (and sample) this recipe! First we sifted together the flour, salt and baking soda.

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