Gotham Gal

Portland, Maine

We had our map and off we went.  It is a really cute New England town although Portland is a city, to us it was just a fun place to explore for a few hours. 

Around the waterfront, local artisan stores, book shops, getting a vibe for the whole place.  We really stuck to one area which is the older section of Portland but it was fun.  The highlight was dinner.

We went to Fore Street for dinner.  The meal was fantastic.  The menu changes as the seasons and produce change which can be daily.  There is an old feeling to the place.  Lots of wood that has been aged.  A huge open kitchen where you can literally watch them call out the tickets and prepare the dishes and cook in the blazing hot wood oven.  A large windowed refrigerator is when you walk in to the right on the other side of the bar area where you can see all the fresh produce.  That alone makes a statement of what goes on at Fore Street.  The bar area is quite large with big comfy couches to hang out while you wait or eat off their bar menu.  The bar was already full to capacity at 5:15pm.  Wow. 

We went early because I had made a reservation for 2 at 6pm. Originally Emily and I were going to come up, check out Portland, have dinner, get up early and go get Josh.  Josh was raring to go home so I gave him the option of joining us.  He was psyched and I had problems changing the reservation so I figured we'd go early and see what they could do.  No problems.  So, it was 3 at 6pm.  We sat in the bar and hung out and deciphered the menu while we waited.

We weren't that hungry so we began with 2 appetizers to start.  Wood Oven Tomato Tart.   Every dish is made in small iron saute pans of a variety of different sizes.  This dish had delicious tomatoes cut up in pieces with an herb goat cheese over the tomatoes and a large puff pastry on top.  This is what comes out of the back kitchen.  When it comes to the front, the guy working the wood oven put it in the oven and when it is ready, they flip it on to a place.  The buttery pastry falls flat and on the bottom and the tomatoes and cheese melt over the top and the juices flow over the entire plate.  It was quite delicious.  We also had the mussels.  This was a serious butter fest.  The chef at the wood oven puts a huge scoop of butter in an iron saute pan and then tosses in a few handful of mussels.  Shoves that into the large wood burning stove until the mussels open.  The butter is already made with lots of herbs throughout.  They serve the mussels piping hot.  Really tasty.  The big basket of bread was key to sopping up all the butter from both dishes.

The food is simply made using a variety of fresh herbs and spices.  The way most everything is cooked, there ends up being a lot of broth which keeps the dishes warm and flavorful.  Old New England charm with an old New England kitchen with a twist of the French way of cooking.  Quite unique. 

For dinner we each had our own.  Lucky for us we got to taste 3 different things.  Josh went with the steak.  He was having a hankering.  No surprises there after being at camp for four weeks.  A wood grilled steak, served rare over a bunch grilled sweet onions.  So good.  Emily went with the scallops which seems to be her thing these days.  Pan seared scallops that were huge served over a creamy broth of smoked onions, English peas and bacon.  The bacon was just enough to make the sauce smoky.  Also a winner.  I went with the whole fish.  An entire European sea bass roasted in the oven ( in a iron pot ) that had been stuffed with a herb and sorrel stuffing sitting in a bacon/shellfish butter broth and cooked in the wood burning oven.  Wow.

Dessert was essential.  We hemmed and hawed but ended up with 2.  Roasted pit fruits served in a crumble.  Sweet yet sour with plenty of flavor and a crumbly top of brown sugar and oats.  We also went with the chocolate caramel espresso cake.  A small cake that was so rich and moist and gooey in the center.  It was a race to see who got the last bite. 

We really enjoyed the restaurant.  If I had access to a private plane, I'd fly up there any night for a meal.  Fore Street is a real gem.

Josh is back in town

Emily and I went up to Maine to pick Josh up from camp.  It was strange on one hand and bittersweet on the other. 

The camp is pretty low key.  Nobody even said boo when I picked him up.   I walked into the office which was pretty busy and said I was there to pick up Josh Wilson.  No problem.  They called his name over the loud speaker and Emily and I walked outside to meet him.  His counselor came with him and a few bunk mates to say goodbye.  Then we walked back through the office.  I guess I was expecting someone to come up to me and shake my hand, ask me how Josh liked camp, where were we off to, how was our summer, something.  Not a word.  Considering this was Josh's first summer there ( and now his only ), I found the whole interaction kind of strange.  We left the office, backed up the car and I hauled his luggage in the car.  Nobody even asked to help and if you have ever seen the size of a camp bag, you'd understand why I needed help.  Perhaps the last camp they went to was so efficient and hands on in terms of relationships and marketing that I was taken back.  Regardless, I found the whole thing strange.

Bittersweet because that is it for us and sleep away camp.  It is incredible how quick the kids grow before your very eyes.  We had quite a sweet dealing going where they went away for 8 weeks together and left us to have our own camp.  That is over.  Josh did 4 years at sleep away and he has had enough.  I get it.  Emily did 6 and Jessica did 8.  They experienced it, they got out of it what they wanted and now it is time to move on.

Josh could not have been happier to see us.  We drove into Portland, went to our hotel, made Josh clean up and shower, and went off to explore.  First stop was a cup of coffee on the waterfront.  Here is a picture of Emily and Josh kicking off their second part of the summer.  They look pretty damn happy.

Really good summer salads

Unfortunately, no pictures but this past Saturday night we made a delicious meal. Korean Style Beef, spicy corn salad and watermelon feta salad.

If you love cilantro, I highly recommend the Korean Beef.  We used flank steak this time.  It was fantastic.

For the corn salad, I boiled 6 ears of corn.  Put the corn in a large pot of water, cove the corn with water, and toss in some kosher salt.  When the water comes to a boil, the corn is done.  I took the kernels off the corn and added a spicy dressing.  6T lime juice, 4T olive oil, 2T granulated sugar, 1/2 spicy pepper (jalapeno is fine), 2t. cumin and a couple of shots of a hot sauce (Tabasco works fine).  Mix is up and toss over the corn salad.  Adjust the seasonings to your palette.

Then we took a long rectangular tray and sliced the watermelon into small triangles.  We also took a hunk of French feta ( you could use any type of feta ) and sliced that into triangles too.  We layered it.  Two slices of watermelon, one slice of feta.  We then took a pint of the best yellow cherry tomatoes I have ever had - they literally taste like candy - and cut them in half and tossed them on top of the watermelon and feta.  We also made a very light lemon vinaigrette.  1 T lemon juice, 2 T mustard, 8 T olive oil, salt and pepper.  We slowly poured this dressing over the top of the salad and served.  We did not use the entire amount of dressing just enough to wet the salad.  Stuffed a few basil leaves around the edges for look and voila.  This is a big winner. 

Sorry no pics...camera was on the fritz.

Hairspray

Honestly, I can't remember the first time I saw Hairspray.  I thought the first time I saw it was in 1981 when I was living in Boston.  It was a terribly hot day in the middle of August and my friend Audrey and I (Audrey is a total blast from the past who I am not even sure where she is) went to see a movie to beat the heat.  Today, while searching IMDB, I realized that the movie I saw was Polyester.  Obviously John Waters films have not made such a big impact on me.  All I remember is a movie by John Waters. I didn't really like it but I totally loved the air conditioning and the popcorn.  Alas. 

Fast forward, many many years, Hairspray comes to the live theater.  Jessica and I go on a date night and go see the musical/play.  Glad I saw it but didn't love it.  I have never been a big fan of the actual script.  I like the premise of Hairspray but it never rocked my world.  For all of you who have never seen Hairspray, the story takes place in 1962.  The world is changing.  Integration is changing the world.  Heavy girl who lives in Baltimore and loves to dance and loves the brothers is enamored with the local dancing TV show (think Soul Train with white people).  She tries out, makes the show.  The TV manager is aghast that a fat white chick named Tracy Turnblad who doesn't fit in could actually be on her lily white show.  Not only that, Tracy, who is absolutely full of life and adorable wants to integrate her TV show because not only is she a good soul, she doesn't think color should make any difference.  A do good story with funny songs and bizarre characters who in the end prevail.

Hairspray, the movie, just hit the movie theaters this week.  There has been a lot of good early press.  Rotten Tomatoes was giving Hairspray a 95% which is pretty incredible since the ratings are all user generated.   How could we not go?

Keep in mind that I am not a fan of musicals, at all.  But, regardless, we went.  As I said earlier, I never loved the script but I really adored Hairspray the movie.  Why?  For an endless amount of reasons.  First of all, it is beyond well cast.  Everyone is talented, they sing, they dance and they look damn good.  The songs are funny.  There are a lot of one liners that are so quick that you have to pay attention to hear them.  First time on the silver screen actress, Nicole Blonsky, lights up the screen.  Michelle Pfeiffer plays the ultimate bitch.  Christopher Walken, who would have thought he could sing?  I love Amanda Bynes and Queen Latifah belts it out and as we all now can act.  I could go on and on but my all time favorite is John Travolta.  I have loved Travolta since he swung those hips as Vinnie Barbarino on Welcome Back Kotter.  Then he went on to dance his heart out on Saturday Night Fever and Grease.   Travolta, acting as a large insecure woman, was brilliant.  He made me just laugh out loud.  Grease, which, in my opinion is the best musical ever to come to the screen has met its match with Hairspray.  Travolta was in both, quite impressive.

Would I tell everyone to run out and see Hairspray?  I am not so sure because musicals are tough.  But as I said, the casting was brilliant, the choreography was fantastic, the costumes were right on, the songs kept you entertained as they cut back and forth to different people singing them in different shots, the movie was less than 2 hours, the colors were bright as they should be for this film, it was so campy that I couldn't help but enjoy myself. 

This film could easily end up being a classic that is watched again and again by teenage audiences everywhere. Bravo to Adam Shankman, the director and New Line Cinema for putting this out.  Huge risk but it appears that the pay off is going to be bigger. 

Now vs. then

Emily and I have been hitting the local restaurants out east, sitting at the bar for dinner.  It is fun.  We have been into splitting a bunch of appetizers so we can taste a variety of different things and for the two of us, it is just the right amount. 

We started talking about what I ate when I was a kid when we went out.  Truth is, we only went out for dinner on Sunday nights with my Grandma and her husband.  We had dinner at the same place, generally.  Old Washingtonian spots where a lot of people ate dinner every night.  I usually had the prime rib with a baked potato unless we shook it up and went out for Chinese food.  Otherwise, we had dinner at home. The constant changing of restaurants and the new, new didn't really start to take place until the end of high school.   

We had the basics, roasted chicken, ribs, coq au vin, salad, etc.  My Mom is a really good cook.  When she couldn't cook, we would.  But the type of food that exists now did not exist then.  Although we all had a penchant for food, nobody ever though about giving one of us advice to go into the food/restaurant industry. 

My generation didn't grow up watching Food Network or scouring through food magazines or cook books.  We just learned the recipes handed down from our parents or grandparents.  I love that my kids relish these things and are interested in what is on the menu for dinner each night.  Also, what new and different places we can check out in the neighborhood.  The industry has changed so dramatically over the past 20 years, it is quite amazing.  Alice Waters was not only the impetuous behind the changes but she had a vision which she executed on in her restaurant, Chez Panisse, of what you could do with food.   

In the last few nights we had an Asian Shrimp with bok choy and fermented black beans entree, split a sushi/sashimi plate and a round of steamed veggies in a bamboo pot, baked crab cakes over sliced avocado and mango, small roasted beets of all colors with pieces of aged golf goat cheese and micro arugula and a light vinaigrette, summer succotash, ribs and coleslaw, tuna mixed with cilantro chutney, tomatoes and lettuce on brown bread and of course, frozen non-fat yogurt.  Quite an incredible mixture of food over the past few days.  Splitting everything helped out. 

Food like this wasn't so available growing up.  I am not sure it was available at all.  It is truly incredible what was then vs. what is now.

50 Most Recommended Restaurants.

Someone sent me a list of the 50 most recommended restaurants.  It is quite interesting.  Some I have heard of, others not. But I did enjoy reading the list.  Any foodie would. 

If you are interested, click here, (opinionated.com) and then just fill out your name and email address and away you go.

Bon Bons

Love bon bons.  What could be bad?  Chocolate covered ice cream.  We attempted to make them at home.  The problem I have always had with making food that is dipped in chocolate before setting is that it never comes out exactly like I envisioned.  The problem is the chocolate gets mushy.  After trying it out a few times, I believe the key is having about 4 times the amount of chocolate you need and a wok scoop that is good for deep frying.  But that tends to get pretty pricey. You'd take the ice cream balls in the wok scoop, dip it in the chocolate and then freeze them. Unfortunately, I figured out the huge amount of chocolate after the fact.

We bought four different ice creams.  Homemade ice cream wouldn't work because the ice cream needs to get really hard before making the dip.  We used melon ball scooper and scooped out the ice cream and set it on a cookie tray covered in parchment paper and then set it in the freezer to get hard.  We had put the tray in earlier to get cold. 

We melted dark chocolate although you could use whatever chocolate you like.  Once it was completely melted we let it cool down to the point where it is still creamy but not so hot that the ice cream melts upon entry.

Then we took the ice cream balls, in our hands, rolled it very quickly through the chocolate.  Put the balls back on the tray and back to the freezer. 

Taste, fantastic.  Presentation, eh.

What do to on a rainy day?

It is a miserable day today, but sometimes a nice break.  Emily and I decided it was time to take to the kitchen.  We'd make a variety of things to freeze so when everyone returns in August they can just go into the freezer, take out a treat, warm it up and enjoy.  Good for last minute desserts or people stopping by, etc. 

We made 4 pie crusts.  An essential part of summer baking.  A huge thing of lemonade ( just for the weekend) and 3 types of tiny treats with little muffin pans.  We wanted to make miniature bundt cakes but unfortunately the few stores out here with baking items didn't have what we were looking for so we stuck with the miniature muffin tins.

We made bite sized brownies, lemon pound cake muffins and gingerbread snacking cake muffins.  The brownies were a bit dense which we knew from the recipe but gave it a whirl anyway.  Pretty simple but the brownie is something to be eaten with whipped cream and berries or tea and coffee.  Very thick.

Brownies:
10 ounces softened unsalted butter (2 1/2 sticks)
2 cups superfine sugar
1 1/2 cups cocoa
4 eggs
2 cups self-rising flour

Preheat oven to 350.  Beat the sugar and butter until fluffy.  Add the cocoa, eggs and flour and mix until combined.  Spoon the mixture about 3/4 of the way into small non-stick muffin tins. I used non-stick but still sprayed them with a bakers spray to make sure they don't stick.  Better safe than sorry.  Bake about 10 minute or until a toothpick comes clean when you stick it in the brownie.    The tops are not that beautiful, kind of crusty looking but flip them over if you are serving them.

Lemon Snacking Cake

2 sticks unsalted butter
3 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
Grated zest of 3 lemons
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup nonfat buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350.  Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt).  Cream butter and then add the granulated sugar and continue beating until thoroughly mixed in then add eggs and beat.  Add zest and lemon juice.  Now add the dry ingredients about 3 separate times alternatively with the buttermilk and beat in between additions until completely combined.   Pour into small muffins tins about 3/4 of the way up, bake for about 10 minutes or until done.

Gingerbread Snacking Cake

This recipe is a little strange but is worked. 

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup boiling water
1 T. ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. baking powder
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup unsulfured molasses
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine the boiling hot water with the baking soda, set aside.  In a bowl sift together flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, salt and baking powder.  Set aside. 
With an electric mixer cream the butter, then add in the dark brown sugar until fluffy (about 3 minutes).  On low beat in the molasses, then the baking soda mixture (yes, the water), then add the flour.  Once mixed up, put in the eggs and completely mix in. 
Now pour the batter, like the other muffins into the muffin tins about 3/4 of the way up.  Bake for about 15 minutes or until done.

We kept a few out for the weekend.  The rest we put into small zip lock bags and stored in the freezer.  My guess is by the end of August, the freezer will be empty.

Eat, Pray, Love

My friend recommended I read the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  So, I bought it and read it.  I am in  the reading groove right now.  This book is sticking with me.

The book is a year long self discovery of Gilbert's.  She finds herself at 31 living the life people dream of.  Married for years, doing the suburban/city thing, and getting ready for the next step, a baby.  She is semi-depressed realizing that this life that she is supposed to have, isn't the life that she wants for herself.  She is miserable. 

She goes through a nasty divorce which she starts, picks herself up and decides to takes a year to regroup and find herself.  4 months in Italy (Rome), 4 months in India (an ashram) and 4 months in Bali (Indonesia).  An interesting journey. 

What drew me into the book is her writing.  My guess is Gilbert writes exactly like she talks.  Clever, witty and insightful.  Even while meditating she writes about other things she is thinking about which made me laugh out loud.  Reading her is like chatting with your best friend.

Rome was an eating extravaganza, India was about praying and Indonesia was about finding love and herself again after coming full circle. 

Besides the fact that Gilbert draws you along on her journeys, the book made me think about expectations.  Here is a woman who supposedly came from a nice upper middle class and was doing everything that was presumed she would do.  Get a career, marry young, get a nice house and then have a family.  But for Gilbert the thought of living that life was like being trapped.  She wanted to bust out, travel, explore, meet people, have a completely different kind of life.  And why shouldn't she?  Why shouldn't anybody.  She instinctively knew what was going to make her happy through self discovery. 

I am thrilled with the life I chose and the path that has led to me to where I am but after reading Gilbert, I just wanted to applaud her.  She figured it out on her own terms and that is the perfect reason to pick up this book.  Also, reading about her eating her way through Rome is quite appealing.

GPS Systems

GPS systems are pretty sweet, if they work.  You can basically drive anywhere like a local.  A computer operated voice with a map gives you directions.  I have found, they work better outside of cities but I was game. 

I rented a car at Avis and decided that since I hadn't been in Boston for years that I'd get the GPS system just in case.  I didn't have my friendly co-pilot (Fred) to give me directions and although I basically knew where I was going, I hate (that would be in capital letters) getting lost. 

AVIS customers, for an added $10 a day, gets one of the worst GPS systems I have ever seen.  It is called Where 2.  You can't change anything on it or see the big picture map when you are driving because it won't let you.  You are driving. How about when your passenger is trying to figure stuff out.  Also, the delayed reaction is a killer.  It had me driving in circles in Boston.  Couldn't make up its mind on where to send me.  Thank god I had an idea of where I was going.  I told Fred about it that night when he got in.  Wasn't sure he believed me.  He attempted to use it the next day when we were en route to Maine.  Again, we knew where we were going but it is a nice back up.  Fred almost through the GPS system out the window.  Instead, pulled out his laptop, charged it up in the lighter with one of his many gadgets, stuck in his handy wifi card, got on Google maps while I am driving 70 miles an hour down 93, and tells me the way to go.  How sweet is that? 

I do like the GPS, particularly when you are solo.  But, if AVIS is going to give their customers additional options to make their car rental experience better, find a better GPS system or have some intelligent techies rebuild Where 2.