The very fine art of Tubing…

(photo © kiwidutch)

We are at Camp by the Lake in Maine, when our friends ask us if we might like to go tubing?. Ok, first off, what they actually asked was ” would we like to go toobing” . I had no clue what was being offered here and so had to admit that maybe I might, if only I knew what a “toobe” might be.

Ah Ha.. it’s ” tube” … and a tube turns out not to be particularly tubular at all anyway. It’s a doughnut shaped tyre that has a canvas cover over it and a canvas bottom on one side. The Tube name originates from a tyre ” inner tube” , and if you go ” toooobing” then you get towed behind the motor boat on this contraption. There are handles inserted into the canvas to hang onto, but ultimately the speed of the boat is what determines the smoothness of the ride or if you get unceremoniously tipped off into the drink.

We accept the challenge and Hubby is first to have a go… he’s 196 cm tall ( which I think is roughly 6 feet 5 inches in non metric speak) so there was no way in creation that he would ever be able to fold his legs into the inner space that was the hole in the doughnut… so he hung them out over the front of the tube, parked his rear end into the middle space and hung on for dear life.

(photo © kiwidutch)

He made the mistake of telling my friend that she wouldn’t be able to get him to fall off, a challenge she took up with great relish, and his ride got rougher and rougher with many a close call. Amazingly she didn’t succeed , simply because he was strong and determined enough to hang on with sheer brute force… (this time at least LOL), but later she managed some excellent boat moves that sent him flying off the tube and into the lake.

Tubing is excellent fun and if you ever have an offer to go ” toobing” then you should take up the offer and hopefully like us you will find it a brilliant experience.

Maple Sugar in Maine…

(photo © kiwidutch)

It’s not only Canada and Vermont that make excellent Maple Sugar…. it’s a famous product of Maine too.

There is a Sugar House in Dover Foxcroft called “Bob’s Sugarhouse” and we went in to see what was on offer.
Yum! an excellent selection of Maple items, and Maple syrup in all sizes, even small ones that will make great gifts for us to take home for friends and family.

Very good quality maple syrup needs to be found from specialist sources in the Netherlands and as usual for quality items, it isn’t cheap.

But… it is worth it …
We noticed in diners that often what was touted as ” maple syrup” was actually ” maple flavoured syrup” .. so basically it was corn syrup with a little bit of flavouring added, in one instance I picked up a bottle of this in the supermarket and it did say that it contained ” flavouring” but maple wasn’t listed as an ingredient. Ouch… this is definiately a case of “ you get what you pay for“  ( or .. what you don’t pay for).

I would rather pay more for a small bottle of  pure , real , genuine Maple syrup and enjoy a very small amount, used sparingly and savoured, than an inferior quality product that  gives a very small hint of the true flavour. For this reason I don’t mind to pay for a small quantity of real Maple syrup….

So if you have never had the delight of looking inside a sugar shack,… here’s a look inside a Maple wonderland….

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

So now you have seen into a real Sugar Shack !    We loooove Maple syrup !

Cooking up a storm in Maine.

(photo © kiwidutch)

We are having a great time at Camp…. cooking is one of our hobbies  and we have certainly been enjoying  some excellent food. American style  cooking is very different to European style cooking and we are enjoying the temporary change and new experience of cooking on the big outdoor BBQ, and in the ” summer kitchen” at Camp.

For the Kiwiduch family, living in an apartment  in The Netherlands,  it’s also great for the kids to be outside, swimming in the lake and burning off all their excess energy. Since we have arrived we have had one short cloudburst of rain, and two rainy days. The rest of the time the weather has been fabulous.

We have been very lucky indeed… up until the day we arrived,  Maine had had a rocky start to the Summer, a month and a half of rain preceded our arrival, not the usual weather pattern at all.   meanwhile, back in the Netherlands  for the past month and a half, the weather has been unseasonably warm, we had been enjoying sunny days with long walks to the beach and back, frequent  walks around the city.

We liked to joke that we  packed the sunshine into our suitcases and bought the good weather with us from The Netherlands.. which would normally be a double joke  indeed  even if it were possible, as it’s usually a national pass-time of the Dutch to complain about their lousy weather!

I find cooking relaxing and enjoyable and it’s wonderful to stay with people who feel the same way, needless to say we have been having an amazing time in the kitchen together!

Here are some of the highlights of our home-made cooking frenzies… fresh green beans…

(photo © kiwidutch)

Sweet corn that had still been on the stalks in the field early this morning… my eight year old set a record for eating 7 of these !  Dutch corn isn’t half as good, if she would eat one at home we would be going well ! (or did this have more to do with beating the kids of the family were were staying with in a sweet-corn eating race? …. Kids!)

(photo © kiwidutch)

… coleslaw, a very American dish. Hubby is slowly getting used to it.  I love the stuff.

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

and of course…    pie !

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Cooking local treats,  fresh and in season and with friends… wonderful ! That’s one of the things that really makes a holiday brilliant 

Boston Baked Beans and Brown Bread… a traditional Maine treat.

(photo © kiwidutch)

We are in central Maine on holiday and after our sojourn into Canada we are now back at “Camp” and back to our own home cooking. Now we are treated to a traditional Maine favourite… Boston Baked Beans and Brown Bread. (maybe I should call that “B to the power of 5” )!

Now, here’s another instance of ingredient confusion: European cultures abound with dark breads, …from every shade from very pale tawny brown hues to very solid sliced thin, dark mahogany coloured rye loaves full of grains, “Brown bread” to me means a wheat flour with various amounts of whole grains, yeast etc baked in a loaf, comes out in neat square, round or rectangle shaped loaves with a crust and is sliced for morning breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, toasted with your favourite filling in toasted sandwich maker, but basically it’s white bread but brown or browner, with or without extra grain bits in it… …right?

The surprise here, was that the Brown bread here in Maine,  that traditionally is paired with Boston Baked Beans comes in a metal can, is round in shape, doesn’t appear to have a crust like conventional bread and looks nothing like any brown bread that I have ever seen before in texture.

(photo © kiwidutch)

Well, that’s not quite true… I do know something that looks very similar to the texture of this, but it’s something Dutch call “ontbijtkoek” and has a similar cake-like texture but ontbijtkoek is not something that we would even contemplate calling “bread”. I’m confused.

(photo © kiwidutch)

The beans for this recipe are cooked in a  bean crock, …

Here is  Recipe  Number 218828 “Grammie Bea’s Boston Baked Beans” from Recipezaar Member ” Linda’s Busy Kitchen” which can be found here: http://www.recipezaar.com/Grammie-Beas-Boston-Baked-Beans-218828
SERVES 6-8
If you make it, then I’m sure that Linda would appreciate it if you would Write a Review!

Ingredients:

(photo © kiwidutch)

3 cups dried white pea beans or dried navy beans, cleaned
1 large onion
1/2 lb salt pork
1/2 cup sugar, a little under
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons mustard-seed-and-powder dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt, (if salt pork has mostly meat in it) or
1 tablespoon salt, (if salt pork has mostly fat in it)

Directions:

1. Clean beans of pebbles and rocks.
2. Put cleaned beans in pot. Set aside.
3. Mix sugars, molasses, and mustard. Add salt and pepper. Mix into beans.
4. Add enough water to cover beans.
5. Place salt pork down into beans. You can opt to cut it up, or leave it whole, like my gram used to do.
6. You can also put the onions in whole, or opt to chop them up. She used to keep them whole, so us kids could fight over them lol.
7. Bake in bean pot, at 200F degrees, ( all night or 8 hours If not done, finish in the morning.
8. When beans are ready to be eaten, turn oven up to 450 until beans start to boil, then turn back to 200, until ready to serve.
Note: If beans look like they are drying out, just add water as you are cooking.

My friends say that these beans are often  eaten with sausages….

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Your step-by-step guide to cooking Lobster, Maine style…

(photo © kiwidutch)

OK, Let’s be honest, if someone asked you to name the State symbol of Maine, you might be forgiven for making “Lobster” you very first guess.

Yep, it was my first guess and I was surprised too to find that Lobster wasn’t the State symbol, and that the Pine tree was. As soon as you leave Boston it’s clear that there are a lot of trees in this States, and I mean a LOT of trees. It’s become a game in the van that as soon as a kid says’s : “I’m bored” that I quickly reply, “Good, I have something for you to do, please count all the trees!” you can count about 2.5 seconds until the replying sigh of disgust and although I’m sure they must know that I’m joking, they invariably start some game or activity of their own in order to instantly change the subject. That’s called a whine-free Result !

Back to the topic of Lobster… me, I kind of like them, I especially  with garlic and butter, but plain steamed I’m not so fussed. If I had to rank my food preferences in order of “top 100” Lobster might well be in my list, but maybe it would be somewhere at the end of the list.  Number 99 or number 100.

Actually if I actually start to think of all the fresh fruit and veggies that I adore, then I think I might need a “Top 200” list… and then lobster would certainly feature somewhere below the 100 mark… after all it would be competing with items like freshly picked asparagus, direct from the garden  and ditto tomatoes, green peas in their pods,sweet corn,…. or the mango and papaya I used to get from my parent’s garden for breakfast for breakfast when they lived in the tropics, …. or bread fresh from a Portuguese or French bakery, … or the loaf of bread that you pull out of your oven or bread maker , let cool and then slap a large pat of butter onto.

Heck, “butter” would make it onto my list as a food item complete and wonderful just by itself… as would  Garlic, or Basil or Coriander (Cilantro).

Hubby on the other hand loves lobster, actually he likes all the slippery beasts of the sea but the mention of the word “lobster” makes his eyes glaze over with a special kind of dreamy anticipation and appreciation. I will therefore leave it to your imagination the expression on his face when our hosts announced that another  family member would be joining us later in the day and that he would be bringing fresh lobster with him for a lobster feast, Maine style, later that evening.

So.. lets take you though a Lobster feast in true Maine tradition.

First, you build a fire…

(photo © kiwidutch)

Let the fire burn for a while and die down so that there are lots of hot embers…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Put on your Lobster Kettle.. they come in various sizes but even the small one we are using tonight is not what I would call a “ small” pot ! Inside it is a wooden platform with slats, there will be a little water below the platform and the lobster will be on top of the platform so they will be steamed and not boiled in the water.

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Put in your lobster and close the lid. No, for the squeamish amongst you , there were no screams or claws clambering to get out… Me, I’m not really squeamish, but that said I also didn’t want to be the one to actually tip the lobsters into the pot and close the lid. So, Squeamish, No, Wimp, Yes. (there’s a subtle difference LOL)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Steam them…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

The Lobster are ready, they are now bright red in colour… the small amount of water from the bottom is drained off and the lobster are left to rest a little moment whilst the rest of the food is bought out…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Hubby is in food heaven… lobster and lobster and lobster! ….Just another reason to love Maine.

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

.. but that’s not all…  we finish the meal with an amazing Pie… Yum !

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

So … according to hubby, this is  Maine perfection !

More Road Journey photos, Part 2…

There were too many photos from my last topic to post in one thread so this is Part 2….

More photos from on the road in Maine and Canada…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

..some lovely building decoration…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

I love the forest…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

.. a storage shed that is like a little barn…

(photo © kiwidutch)

the wilderness is gorgeous…

(photo © kiwidutch)

A lovely drawing on historical Acadia…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Signs leading to Prince Edward Island…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

..a postcard I bought shows the Confederation Bridge to PEI far better from the air than I could manage on the bridge itself…

(photo © kiwidutch)

Crossing the border in St. Stephen and back though Maine…

We have been visiting the Ganong Chocolate factory and museum in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada. Now it’s time to cross back into the United States again, so we approach the border on the Canadian side…

(photo © kiwidutch)

..and then across the bridge and  approach the American Customs point…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

We are now back in Maine and our short visit to Canada is over. Wow, what a beautiful country we have just seen a little snippet of.. we have already decided that we would very much like to return to Canada if we can mange it next trip in the future.

The afternoon is wearing on and we have some serious kilometers still to cover until we are back at “Camp” on the lake.

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

The way back is filled with small towns, a few zillion trees and happy chocolate filled children in the back of the van.

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Eventually darkness falls and we are treated to a beautiful Maine sunset…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Finding Inspiration in the woods…

(photo © kiwidutch)

Our daughter has a school holiday assignment… she has to show an assortment of  “patterns” and she has to hand it in the first day back in the new term. She doesn’t know where to start and she’s fishing for me to do it for her… instead I explain that if I do it then it would be my homework and not her homework and what would she learn that way? Nothing.

So I set her a challenge, she needs to find things that make or have patterns so that we will have them ready as soon as we are back at home. I tell her to try and look for suitable  things and leave her to it. She comes back with pine cones, some tree bark, leaves and a general selection of items from the woods. We quickly realise that importing all this stuff back into the Netherlands will be impractical, so Plan B. is that she makes a selection and I will photograph her choices.

“Patterns” or “Art” …. whatever you call it, it’s interesting and we find ourselves inspired by nature…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

and her favourites  from the Children’s Zoo…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

Home cooking on holiday in Maine…

(photo © kiwidutch)

Of course we are not eating out all the time. In fact we cook every day when we are at the “Camp”with our friends and hosts.

Fresh corn on the cob, picked and bought the morning of our meal is inhaled by my picky children… the perfect-in-season freshness and sweet taste do more work to inspire them than any Mama cajoling to eat vegetables.

Most of the time when the weather is very hot and humid we eat outside at tables under the covered BBQ area  in the cool falling darkness of evening.

Our Hosts also have other visitors come to stay so we up the food production to cater for the crowd. Some of these visitors bring home made pies and baked goods to share too… a large outdoor BBQ cooks up meat in minutes, and we eat royally. Most of the photos were taken after the sun had set, so I did my best with the flash…

Here are a few photos of our  cooking for a crowd:

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

And now the delectable desserts…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

The photos don’t do it justice… this was all yummy!

Restaurant Review: Abel Blood’s, Dover-Foxcroft, Maine.

(photo © kiwidutch)

We are back in Maine…  and after a few days we decide to go with out friends and eat out, they choose a well known local place called “Abel Blood’s”  I suppose the most fitting way to introduce this place would be to simply tell you what they told us per the front of their menu:

” In 1811 Abel Blood, Dover-Foxcroft’s first pioneer, took off for reasons unknown to this day.

Was Blood a scoundrel who was run out of town?

We will never know, but one thing is certain, he was an entrepreneur.

Whilst he was here Blood felled the first trees, grew the first crops, built the first grist mill and dam and fired the first bricks.

It’s easy to imagine that if he had stuck around that Blood  would have started his own pub, a comfy place to kick back with friends and enjoy a brew and some grub after a hards day’s work.

Since he never got around to it, we decided to do it or him, and you. After all, some things never change!”

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

We find a table in one of the nooks by the window… it’s midday and with the heat of high summer but inside is cool and dark… the kind of dark that is a the bane of photographers who abhor using  the Flash. I’ll warn you in advance that some of the photos came out better than others… photographing food quickly in less than optimum conditions is hard then hungry people want their plates back so that they can start eating.  How terribly  unreasonable of them!

No, I take that back.. because in truth they are actually very accommodating  and will wait patiently whilst a mad foodie waves her camera over their food… I just try and not let it all take too long so that their patience doesn’t wear thin.

(photo © kiwidutch)

Usually I keep a note of the names of the dishes ordered… this time I failed to sort out what was what… I’ll just show you the photos and maybe you can guess what it was LOL.

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

The kids had Chicken Tenders…

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

I had Nachos Grandes…

(photo © kiwidutch)

At the back of the restaurant hungs a magnificent Quilt.. it’s a handmade effort by several local ladies and they have even taken old photos of well known antique boats from the nearby Sebec Lake, transfered the images onto fabric and incorporated them into the quilt. Their 4-5 months of work will be raffled off for charity. Of course I buy some tickets.

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © kiwidutch)

(photo © Kiwidutch)

Our hosts like this restaurant a lot, and enjoyed their meals. I thought that our meals were nice enough but I found that  for instance in my Nachos, that everything was a bit dry and bare by the time I got towards the end of the plate.

I would have happily paid for a far meatier meat sauce too. Hubby also said ” nice enough, good food, but nothing particularly outstanding”  …maybe the extensive cooking that we do at home has spoilt us.

That said, no one hated their meal, our fussy kids were happy, everyone left full and staff were friendly.

If it’s Beer you are after in this area then I think it would be rather safe to assume that this is the establishment in the region to come to to find a beer that suits your fancy. To say that the variety of Beers on offer is extensive, is an understatement. A definite  stop for anyone who likes to sample drop of the brown stuff…  Note that in the following photo there aren’t just one or two taps at the bar…

(photo © kiwidutch)

Hubby quickly ascertains that the staff  do actually know their stuff when it come to beer, and show  competence in their knowledge of the  different styles and character of  European beers, which impresses him quite a lot.

A quick look at the Beer List  tells me that ” Belgian Styles, Ale, Lager, Stout/Porter, Pilsner, Dark, Wheat, Non alcoholic  as well as Domestic and Light Beers” are all on offer here… so if you are a connaisseur  of the  Pint, then Abel Blood’s will definitely  be able to make your meal memorable.

My rating would be 6 out of 10 for the food and 9 out of 10 for beer selection and knowledge.