Maine Stay

Having business in Maine the last week of January turns out to be a great thing.  I've caught up with old friends and made some new ones along the way.  First in Orono where it didn't get above 9 or below -20 F and most recently in Camden where the skies are gray and the food was, again, tasty.  If you haven't figured it out, I tend to seek out good places to eat wherever I can.

Last night I ate at Long Grain.  Right on the main drag (Route 1), Long Grain has been open since last August.  Thai food in Maine, and was it ever good!   Probably the best spring rolls I've had, and I've had my share.  Good enough for me to order a second batch today for the road as I was leaving town.  Got the idea from my wait person/bar tender/all around server and good person last night.  She orders them for plane trips, and what a great idea that is!!   They are great - with caramelized onions and fresh basil, they are delicious and travel very well.  Long Grain is a local draw and at one point over half the tables were involved in a conversation giving me advice on where to go and what to do while in town.  I felt very 'In' there in local establishment eating great food and drinking some lovely pinot.  Apparently I look very much like I am related to some folks who live there - that may have helped :-).

All in all a great trip so far.  The snow storm and freakish cold weather has only made things more interesting.  Only once or twice have I feared for frozen toes or sliding off the road.  I hope the 1.5 feet of snow we received back home stays put until I can enjoy it all.  

Lovely, Dark, and Deep

Snow fell last night.  The estimates kept changing to the tune of expecting 18 inches, then only two, and finally what really fell was about 6. Six was enough to give us a two hour delay for work and I decided to just bag the rest of it and call it a Me Day.  A well-deserved Me Day.

The picture to the left is from the River Trail at Valley Forge this afternoon.  I took a 4-mile cross country ski expedition and it was one of the best skis I've had in a really long time.  I got new boots at the REI end of season sale last year and got out a few times but mostly in icy crunchy conditions.  Today the packed powder was perfect and the boots were awesome.   It is cold enough out there to not be melting the snow making it sticky and to keep my body cool but at the same time warm enough to not freeze my nose off.  Buffleheads and Coots floated down the river with Canada Geese.  A feeding flock of tufted titmice and chickadees chirped me along. It was fantastic. I am sore.

Extra added bonus:  I get back home and the smell of rising yeasty pizza dough wafts from the kitchen and it is Meyer Lemon season finally again.  Fresh pizza for dinner accompanied by a Meyer Lemon cocktail.   Happy day!

Bread Resolution

This January 1^st is grey and wintery in eastern PA and seems the perfect start to a new year.

Every annual turning of the calendar presents an opportunity for contemplation and hope.  The last year is over.  Let's move on.  For good or for bad, it is in the past and we have a brand new future staring us in the face wondering what we are going to do with it.  Countless resolutions are made and broken, but even so, those few that get through and inspire growth can be empowering.  I’ve learned to not shoot too high and to make plans for something fun.

My best New Year’s resolution to date was to braise more meat.  I had no idea what it really meant to work with shoulders and joints and shanks and connective tissues that needed long slow cooking.  I set out to learn.   I braised everything that year and made the technique mine.  Maillard reactions, fond, mirepoix, recalescent, collagen, gelatin.  It is now my favorite way to cook meats in the wintery months and allows for untethered creativity in the kitchen.

This year I have decided to tackle another unknown and somewhat scary (to me) process.  Bread-making.  And not the put-stuff-in-a-machine-and-turn-it-on kind of bread making… I mean the take-several-days-and-be-patient kind of bread making.  The working-my-arm-muscles kind of bread making.  I tried my hand at french bread many many years ago and failed horribly.  I can't make pizza dough - supposedly the easiest thing ever - to save my life.  It is time to get back on the horse.    

My good friend Dan,after hearing of my new resolution and goal, gave me a bread making book for Christmas .  It is a book he has used to some great success, and so I’m starting with Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day (you can check him out at http://peterreinhart.typepad.com/), and my first attempt:  French baguette.   I’m only just starting to learn, but already have picked up new vocabulary.  Bloom, boule, batard, banneton, couche, fougasse, cold fermentation, seed culture.    This should be an adventure. 

 

My first loaves just came out of the oven.   My place smells great.  Now this is a resolution I can embrace.