Newfoundland Adventures

St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada

When considering where we wanted to go on vacation this year, Andrew's first suggestion was...Newfoundland!  Newfoundland?  I was shocked because he hates cold weather and I thought going 1500 miles northeast into Canada would be a nightmare - packing warm clothes, keeping him happy in the dreary, foggy north.  However, this turned out to be a dreamy vacation, full of adventure, cozy pubs, good food, traditional music, and relaxation...and a sunny heat wave to make Andrew happy.

Local food?

 Since food is normally the center of our lives, I had one thing on my mind: to eat as much cod as possible.  Andrew had something a little different on his mind: to sample as much local brew as possible.  Luckily, these products go hand in hand, especially in a pub's fryer!  As is reported in the news frequently, the Atlantic cod fishery suffered a massive crash in recent decades, putting northern fishermen out of work, changing international law, and pitting locals against scientists and government officials. While the cod stocks have not significantly improved (nor the lives of the fishermen) despite aggressive management, there was plenty of fish to be had on the island of Newfoundland (pronounced "Newfin-Land"). This region is surrounded by some of the most famous fishing banks in the world.  If you're interested and think it's incredibly cool that the Basques visited North America in the 16th century to harvest this fish, I highly recommend "Cod" by Mark Kurlansky - a fascinating read! 

A view of the city

I enjoyed cod poached, fried, pan-fried, and in chowder.  For those who haven't sampled this delicacy, it is slightly oily, but extremely sweet and buttery when freshly caught and properly cooked.  I vote for poached: it helped the fish maintain the sweetness and moisture, and I was in absolute heaven in Petty Harbour on the waterfront with my poached fish.

As for the beer, we sampled Quidi Vidi, a local brewery in St. John's, which actually makes beer from melted iceberg water!  How "cool"!  We also visited the Yellow Belly brew pub in downtown St. John's, a cozy brew pub with tasty beer and friendly staff...and central enough to shuffle home afterwards.

 We capped off the trip by camping in a National Park for several days and watching whales and puffins on the coastline.  We feel like we got just a small taste of what Newfoundland has to offer, and we will be back to explore more of this amazing place.

Okay, so maybe a little Molson made it in to the mix - seemed appropriate at the time, eh?

Growing potatoes

Growing potatoes.  I have always wondered what it would be like.  It's a bit silly, but gardening is a constant mystery to me.  My jade plant is currently in distress, so it's unlikely I can have a home garden - or so I thought!  No thanks to me, our Maine garden is flourishing.  Andrew has nursed it carefully during our few summer visits, and we are hoping to find a good harvest waiting when we return at the end of August.  One of his more inspired ideas was to plant all the potatoes I accidentally let sprout in the pantry.  After preparing the soil, he cut the potatoes in pieces, dug holes, and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  We were rewarded during out last visit to Maine when Mom suggested we dig one up to see!

Andrew thrilled with his harvest - a sign of things to come.

Inspired by our growing crop, we visited the Orono farmers market and purchased a bucket of beautiful, quarter-sized new potatoes.  Mom remembered buying these while camping in Nova Scotia on her honeymoon 40 years ago and cooking them Foster Style - this means my Dad mixes these with sliced onions, olive oil, and a splash of oil (or butter) and throws them on the grill in a foil packet.  They were, I can say with utmost confidence, the best potatoes I have ever eaten in my entire life.  Stay tuned for news of the autumn harvest!

Beautiful new potatoes - after cooking, they melted in our mouths like butter.  Like butter!

Breakfast on the farm

Our membership to the Waltham Fields Community Farm brings us so much joy and the farm is now a central fixture in our lives.  While we visit the farm weekly to pick up our CSA share, we try to participate in other activities when we can - tonight we're off to gaze at the stars with member Andrew West! 

Waiting in line for breakfast on the farm!

Recently, we attended a fundraising breakfast hosted by the farm.  The stupendous meal was made entirely of farm veggies cooked by a local restaurant, Kitchen on the Common.  For a modest donation, we were treated to creamed kale with eggs, swiss chard fritters, pickled veggies, and cole slaw.  I know, I know.  We were skeptical about this selection at breakfast-time, too, but it proved to be a revelation!  The kale was softened by the cream sauce and the eggs, and the creaminess was balanced by the pickled veggies (though I don't think many guests to my home would welcome pickled beets at any time of day, let alone early in the morning).  While we were settled in a corner of the field sampling these goodies, we all agreed that it was the swiss chard fritter that beat out the competition.  It was flavored with scallions and had a little crunch, with the softness that comes from pancake batter.  I have tried to make this since, with varied success, and was thrilled when the farm sent out the recipe this morning.  So, now I share this fabulousness with you, fresh from the farm:

Swiss Chard Fritters

This recipe was provided by Chef Joh Kokubo of Kitchen on Common restaurant. He made these fritters for our 2012 Breakfast on the Farm event and they were a big hit! Recipe serves 8-10 Fritter Batter Ingredients

• Half cup All Purpose Flour
• Half cup Cornmeal, finely ground
• Half tsp Baking Powder
• 2 Eggs, beaten
• Quarter cup Milk
• 1 tsp Butter, melted
• Salt & Pepper

Garden Ingredients

• 1 bunch Swiss Chard
• Chopped Fresh Herbs, your choice - parsley, thyme, scallions, etc.

Directions
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal and baking powder. Add the eggs, milk and melted butter all at once and whisk to combine. The batter should be about the consistency of a loose pancake batter. Wash and dry the Swiss chard, remove the ribs, and cut into quarter inch ribbons. Using a spatula, fold the Swiss chard and fresh herbs into the batter until well coated. Cook the fritters in a pre-heated saute pan over medium to medium-high heat until lightly browned on one side, then flip and brown the other side. The fritter can be cooked in individual portions using spoon-sized amounts or in a larger pancake size and then cut into wedges to serve. Note: Smaller sized cooked whole grains like quinoa and kaniwa make a very nice addition to the fritter batter. I have not tried flax seed or cooked amaranth, teff, or millet but if you are feeling adventurous I think they would work equally as well!

Orono to Tuscaloosa

The University of Alabama, home of the Crimson Tide, has a spectacular campus!

I am a New England girl, through and through.  I always suspected as much, but my suspicions were confirmed during my recent research trip to Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  I am certain I was the only person who traveled Orono-Bangor-Washington-Charlotte-Birmingham-Tuscaloosa that day, and I felt like a bear just out of hibernation.  I was also in heat shock, since it was 50 degrees when I left Maine and 100 when I arrived in Birmingham...the "warmish" temperatures would also explain why I was the only person out on foot.

I visited the farmers market during the heat of the afternoon - and got a little sunburn along the way.

My local eating radar is always on, so I was determined to try as many southern treats as I could. As luck would have it, the University hosts a farmers market!  Expecting to find a little slice of Alabama life, I braved the heat to walk to the campus farmers market - and I was not disappointed.  While it featured local produce that New England won't see until August, it had the same, familiar feel of every farmers market I've been to:  friendly people, bountiful veggies, local honey, meat, and baked goods, and live music.   

My University of Alabama hosts made me feel right at home and - luckily - they were really interested in local products and cuisine, so treated me to some fantastic southern fare.  The barbeque was amazing, but my favorite thing?  Real grits!  I had never had real, creamy, southern grits before and they were incredible - nothing like we northerners make from the box, I'll tell you that right now.  They balanced out the savory crunch of the real fried chicken, too.  During our sublime dinner that night, my hosts asked me what I would include in a traditional New England dinner, and I was a bit overwhelmed by the answer.  So, I pose that question to you here:  what would you serve to this New England girl that epitomizes our cuisine?

Spring has sprung!

My yard is full of lilacs - and I have brought them in the house.  If I close my eyes, their heavy scent takes me to my Grandmother's back yard in Philadelphia. 

Finally, finally, finally.  We have lift off!  Spring has come to Maine and it is very welcome.  After a relatively mild, but very long, winter, we are ready for spring flowers, new life, and warmer temperatures.  In the fall, my mom and I pruned and readied the garden for some new planting this spring...but, I know myself.  I am not a gardener, despite the influence of generations of master gardeners in my family.  However, I was unaware of the secret trick for successful gardening: Andrew West!  Also the product of master gardeners, Andrew has shown a very strong interest in the garden at 59 Park Street (he never, never ceases to surprise me).  Andrew recently spent a weekend preparing beds, turning and enriching the soil, and purchasing baby plants.  We are now the proud caretakers of a small plot of lettuce, potatoes, strawberries, chives, rhubarb, and brussels sprouts.  In fact, as I write, I am enjoying a bowl of rhubarb cobbler from the garden, and I am thrilled to say that homegrown lettuce was on last night's menu.  The future possibilities seem endless!

Red leaf and romaine lettuce leaves - tender and perfect with a light, homemade vinaigrette.

Rhubarb Cobbler:

I had about 10 small stems of rhubarb, which was about 1 1/2 cups chopped.  So, I halved the Joy of Cooking recipe for Cornmeal Cobbler Biscuit Dough - the full recipe is shown here.

1 1/2 pounds of rhubarb
1/2 c. sugar (or so...I sprinkle a bunch on 'til it looks thick with sugar)
Spread this mixture evenly in the baking dish

Prepare cobbler biscuit dough:
Whisk together -
1 c. all purpose flour (King Arthur from New England!)
1/3 c. corn meal
2 T sugar
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt (Maine sea salt!)

Add:
5 T cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (Maine's Kate's butter!)

Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut the butter into the dry mixture until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs.  Add:

1/2 c. milk (Maine organic!)

Stir together until a dough forms.  Separate into small balls and press these flat into biscuit shapes, then lay these on the fruit mixture.  You may brush these with butter or milk (I didn't, and they still browned beautifully).  Cook at 375 for 45 minutes, until biscuits are brown and fruit is bubbling.

A garden....at Chicago O'Hare?

The urban garden at Chicago's O'Hare airport!

 The last time I was stuck in Chicago's O'Hare airport en route to Seattle, I decided to take a walk.  En route, I stopped at Rick Bayless' new Mexican food stand for a salad and noticed a sign that said some of the produce came from the "O'Hare Urban Garden."  Well, wasn't this local eater intrigued?  So, I went on a quest to find this garden during my layover, and couldn't believe my eyes:  on a balcony overlooking the hallways, there is an actual garden.  It appears to be hydroponic and everything grows in columns, fueled by water and lamps. 

Each plant is labeled and the airport restaurants serving this produce are listed.

It's beautiful and very peaceful, and there are comfy chairs provided for passengers - it is certainly unlike any other airport waiting area I have ever seen.  I was a little torn thinking about the amount of energy required to grow these plants indoors, but the air there was very fresh and the produce very green!  A small oasis in the hell known as O'Hare.

Andrew was thrilled!

Here, fishy, fishy, fishy!

As good New Englanders, we are trying to remember to eat more fish. Now, this can be a problematic proposition here, given the overfishing that has occurred off our shores (a political and environmental discussion for another time...). However, our grocery stores are carrying many fish that used to be seen as inferior to New England's favorite Atlantic cod, such as hake, haddock, and pollock.


During our most recent visits to the local Hannaford's in Old Town, Maine, Andrew noticed that our fish counter labels those fish that are both New England-caught and sustainable. He made us some *spectacular* fish tacos one week, and last weekend we made pollock cakes.

These actually left us speechless.

We chose pollock because it was brought in that morning. Pollock is sweet, robust, and slightly oily, just like Atlantic cod. Andrew oven-roasted the pollock in lemon juice, pepper, and a touch of olive oil, until it was just cooked. When it was cool, we flaked the filet, mixed it with an egg (a Maine egg!), fine bread crumbs, Old Bay seasoning, sauteed Waltham Fields onion and celery, and formed this in to patties that we satueed in olive oil. With Andrew's homemade cole slaw, this was a killer meal and will no doubt stay on the menu for a long time to come - as long as the fishing is sustainable, that is.