Good Morning

Cape Neddick, ME

Doozy of A Dinner Party

Thanks to (or is it because of?) my good friend, K. we threw a doozy of a holiday dinner party last night......K. brought her entire recipe file up from Manhattan and we cooked whatever sounded good to us. Luckily (and it really was blind luck) it all worked together well and it was all pretty easy to make.

Appetizers
Spicy Mixed Nuts
Roquefort Pinwheels
Little Sesame Dabs

Salad
Strawberry Romaine w/Poppy Seed Dressing

Maine Course
Roast Pork with Mustard Herb Coating
Green Beans with Crimini Mushroom Sauce
Cheesey Potato Bake

Dessert
Assorted Christmas Cookies

Recipes

Spicy Mixed Nuts
2 Cups Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts
1.5 Cups Planters Pecan Halves
1/4 Cup Planters Dry Roasted Sunflower Kernels
3 Tbsp Stonewall Kitchen Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp red pepper flakes (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix nuts in medium bowl. Combine remaining ingredients and toss to coat nuts.
Spread into a single layer on foil coated baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes or until lightly toasted. Stir at 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Roquefort Pinwheels
1 Sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
4 oz. Roquefort blue cheese
1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon cold water.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and butter a 9 inch baking dish.
Open the sheet of puff pastry and flatten with a rolling pin. Crumble the blue cheese on the sheet, leaving a good inch-wide border all around. Roll up the pastry the long way. Cut into 12 -14 1/2 inch thick slices with a sharp knife. Place the rounds in the prepared dish and brush with the egg wash. Bake until puffed up and golden brown.

Little Sesame Dabs
Sesame Crackers
Cream Cheese
Stonewall Kitchen Farmhouse Chutney

Arrange sesame crackers on plate. Spread cream cheese on the crackers and add a dollop of the chutney on top.

Strawberry Romaine Salad

1 head romaine lettuce - rinsed, dried, and chopped
2 bunches fresh spinach - chopped, washed and dried
1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced
1 Bermuda onion, sliced
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

In a large salad bowl, combine the romaine, spinach, strawberries and sliced onion.
In a jar with a tight fitting lid, combine the mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, milk and poppy seeds. Shake well and pour the dressing over salad. Toss until evenly coated.

Roast Pork

6 tablespoons coarse-grained Dijon mustard
6 large garlic cloves, minced
4 small bay leaves, finely crumbled
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 2 1/2-pound boneless pork rib roast

Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine Dijon mustard, minced garlic, bay leaves, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and rosemary in small bowl; whisk to blend. Dry pork with paper towels. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Spread mustard mixture all over pork. Place pork on rack in baking dish. Roast pork until thermometer inserted into center registers 150°F, about 1 hour. Let stand 15 minutes. Transfer pork to platter. Slice pork thinly and serve.

Green Beans

1 pound shallots, thinly sliced
1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Vegetable oil, for frying
Salt
2 1/2 pounds green beans
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Freshly ground pepper
1 pound cremini mushrooms, stems discarded, caps thinly sliced
2 cups chicken stock or canned low-sodium broth
1/2 cup crème fraîche
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

directions

1. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the shallots with 1/3 cup of the flour; shake off any excess flour. In a large, deep skillet, heat 1 inch of oil until shimmering. Add the shallots in 2 batches and fry over moderate heat until very crisp, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels, then sprinkle with salt.
2. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the beans until just tender, about 5 minutes. Drain and refresh under cold running water; drain and pat dry.
3. Melt the butter in a large, enameled cast-iron casserole. Add the onion and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the paprika, cayenne and a large pinch of pepper; cook for 1 minute, stirring. Add the mushrooms, cover and cook over moderate heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring, until browned, about 5 minutes longer. Stir in the remaining 3 tablespoons of flour and gradually stir in the stock until smooth.
4. Simmer the mushroom sauce over low heat, stirring, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the crème fraîche, lemon juice and beans. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the beans are heated through, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a large glass or ceramic baking dish.
5. Preheat the oven to 400°. Cover the casserole with foil and bake until bubbling, about 20 minutes. Uncover, scatter the shallots on top and serve.

MAKE AHEAD The assembled casserole can be refrigerated overnight. Let return to room temperature before baking. The fried shallots can be kept overnight in an airtight container. Recrisp in a 350° oven and let cool.

Potato Bake

Ingredients:
2 pounds frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed
1/2 cup margarine, melted
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
8 ounces cheddar cheese, grated

Directions:

Combine thawed hash browns with 1/2 cup margarine, onion, soup, sour cream and grated cheese. Place in buttered oblong glass dish. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Good Morning

Good Morning

Ogunquit, ME

The Gift of the Wreaths

Across America today, business travelers are waking up in hotels far from home, thinking about the ride to the airport, the business deal that they've got to get done. They are stepping out of their hotel room to pick up opening their complimentary copy of USAToday and seeing this image, thanks to Morrill Worcester of Harrington, Maine.

USAToday gave Wreaths Across America top of the fold coverage and a three page article, and the on-line edition has a wonderful gallery of 14 photos.
I just want to say Thanks, Morrill. I'm one of those business traveler folks, far from home in Maine, whose just got a little better and a little brighter because of your gift. It's unfathomable what this must mean to the families of those buried in Arlington and military families everywhere this holiday season.

Note: blogger (or user error) ate the last sentences of this post. I've inserted it above.

Potato Cakes For Brunch or Lunch or Dinner

I've been experimenting/foolproofing/testing recipes for Christmas Eve, Christmas morning and and I found this recipe is extremely tasty and versatile enough to be served as a breakfast or dinner side dish. My 10 year old niece was my sous chef last night and she decided that the results deserved a "quadruple gold star."

Potato & Onion Cakes

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more
to grease the tin
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon packed dark-brown sugar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary, plus 6
sprigs for tin
1 small red onion, sliced into six 1/4-inch-thick
rounds
4 medium Yukon gold potatoes, coarsely grated
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Generously butter a
large (six 1-cup) muffin tin. Sprinkle each cup with
salt, pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon sugar; drizzle each
cup with 1/2 teaspoon of each vinegar. Put a
rosemary sprig in each cup, and cover with an onion
round; set aside.

2. Toss potatoes with chopped rosemary and egg
yolk in a medium bowl; season with pepper and 2
teaspoons salt. Divide among cups; dot with butter.

3. Bake until potatoes are tender and well
browned, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven. Let
Cool 5 minutes. Run a thin knife around edge of each
cup to loosen; invert, and serve.

Good Morning

York River. York, ME

Idle Gossip and Random Speculation--Internets Style

There's been a bit of a kerfluffle going on in Maine this week. It seems that an unidentified woman in a light colored Cadillac made an illegal u-turn on I-295 and caused a 7 car pile-up.

The kerfluffle is because the authorities have not named the woman who caused the accident (she wasn't part of the pile up and drove away apparently unaware that she'd set off a chain reaction), they've only said that she's a Falmouth woman in her late 50's who was driving a light colored Cadillac. This reluctance to release the name and let's face it, the fact that she was driving a Caddie in Maine, has caused a lot of speculation that she's getting special treatment because she's special......who could it be? Who?

Wonkette had it solved:

Some lady in made an illegal U-turn last week, leading to a hilarious slapstick chain of misfortune and destruction. Her name has not been released to the public, the press, or the victims — possibly due to her “wealth” and/or “status.” All we know is that she’s in her late 50s, drove a “light-colored Cadillac,” and is from Falmouth, Maine.

Senator Olympia Snowe is 59, drives a silver Caddy, and lives in Falmouth, Maine.

We’re not sayin’, we’re just sayin’.

For about an hour that is--then they (sort of) retracted their statemen:

It only took one hour and nine minutes for Snowe’s flack to claim that the Senator was in Washington

The state police were quick to say that Senator Snowe was not involved in the accident:

"We have received about 20 phone calls because of the Wonkette posting today," Ferrier said.

"And we certainly wanted to nip that in the bud and let no one think that she had anything to do with that tragic situation." Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, was also fielding phone calls Wednesday about Maine's senior senator.

McCausland said Snowe was not involved, but he still wouldn't release the suspect's name. (emphasis mine)

The denials by the Senator's office, her husband and the rather strong statement by the state police aren't enough to stop the speculation on a couple of Maine's political boards...some posters to the boards smell a rat, and they're continuing discovery in this case. Updates to follow?

Guten Morgen

City Hall, Vienna Austria

Barefoot Contessa Visits York

York had a rare celebrity event today when the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, stopped in at Stonewall Kitchen for a book signing.

Even though Ina's departed the store, sometime when you're heading up the Maine Pike, exit at the Yorks/Ogunquit exit and head straight (literally it's a straight shot off of the spur road into their parking lot) into the Kitchen. They're almost always cooking up some delicious samples and the cafe has wonderful lunch and dinner selections, as well as take away. If you're not hungry, the home store has those lovely sachets and liquid soaps.
And for the holidays they're featuring a beautiful rasberry/ pomegranate holiday collection.

Yummy Christmas Cookies

I'm in a recipe exchange club, and one of my witty friends shared this delicious sounding recipe.

I noticed that she only sent it to two of us, and methinks me knows why.....I'm off to buy some Patron, so enjoy the cookies:

Tequila Christmas Cookies (recipe)

1 cup of water
1 tsp. baking soda 1 cup of sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup of brown sugar
1 tbsp. lemon juice
4 large eggs
1 cup nuts
2 cups of dried fruit
1 bottle Tequila
Sample the tequila to check quality. Take a large bowl, and check the
tequila again, to be sure it is of the highest quality. Pour one level
cup and drink. In a large fluffy bowl, add one teaspoon of sugar. Beat
again. At this point, it's best to make sure the tequila is still OK,
so, try another cup ... just in case.
Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and
chuck in the cup of dried fruit. Pick the frigging fruit and the damn
cup off the floor. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in
the beaterers, just pry it loose with a drewscriver.
Sample the tequila to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of
salt, or something. Check the tequila. Now shift the lemon juice and
strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink.
Whatever you can find.
Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.
Don't forget to beat off the turner. Finally, throw the bowl through
the window, finish off the booze and make sure to put the stove in the
dishwasher.
CHERRY MISTMAS TO ALL!

Hmmmm.

Brian Tardif of York, Maine, treads through a snow bank in order to reach the salt water at Long Sands Beach in order to take advantage of surfing in powerful waves Thursday morning.
File photo by Deb Cram

The Portsmouth Herald ran the above photo with the above caption today. We've only had about a dusting of snow this year, and that fell on Friday morning.
And now that I think about it, that photo looks suspiciously like the one that we had hanging on our fridge in 2003 (sent to us by a friend from who cut it out of his local paper in Buffalo).....

Juxtaposition

Have you read any interesting news today? A couple of items that I read were noteworthy. They might not be noteworthy as standalone items, but bundled together......I'll let you decide:

First, over at MaineToday.com I saw this:

Business leaders and community activists Tuesday launched a three-year fundraising campaign to help needy Mainers pay their fuel bills and stay warm during the winter.

The "Keep ME Warm" campaign, co-chaired by TD Banknorth President David Ott and United Way President Meg Baxter, seeks to raise enough money to provide more than 500,000 gallons of fuel to families with limited incomes.

Then I went on to read this:

Citizens Energy Corp. will provide discounts on 8 million gallons of heating oil to low-income Mainers under an expansion of its heating-assistance program made possible by a huge increase in cut-rate oil from Venezuela.

But the ties to Venezuela are creating a political controversy in the wake of a recent speech to the United Nations in which Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called President Bush "the devil."

Then I read this:

Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs is set to throw gigantic bags of money at its bankers, traders and stockbrokers this year - lavishing them with more than $16.5 billion in bonus loot, the most ever doled out by a Wall Street firm. Santa will bring Goldman's most senior executives - who are called "partners" and who bring in much of the firm's revenue - between $10 million and $20 million each, according to one executive recruiter.

And then then article goes on to say:

Between regular salary and bonuses, the average pay of Goldman employees will be a mind-numbing $622,000 this year - and that includes all the low-end workers.

Sigh. See Ya. I'm going to go make a donation to Keep ME Warm.

Elf Yourself

Really.
It's an excellent procrastination assistant and your niece will make an adorable Santa's Helper.
(Evidently, while enjoying life in Maine, I almost missed this little fad, as it's everywhere.....)

Good Morning

Does It Make you Want to Scream?

Google's best customization of their logo yet, I think, although not the best cause that they've supported.
(In honor of Edvard's birthday....is there a copyright infringement here?)

Welcome Mountaineer Fans

The post on UMass that you're looking for is found here. Or scroll down a bit. It's now a few posts down.

Good luck on Saturday!

Good Morning

York Beach, ME 7:03 am

Reporting Live From Maine (For Once. At Last.)

Portland's WHOM is featured in a CNN.com report on 24/7 Christmas programming. WHOM is usually adult contemporary music but switches to all holiday music (someone from away wrote this article, as this being Maine, it's just fine to say Christmas) the day after Thanksgiving.

WHOM gets a 38% bump in listeners when it switches formats (count me as one of the switchers, but as soon as Christmas is over, I'm right back to FNX).

The top 10 Christmas songs played on radio the week after Thanksgiving:

1. Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree, Brenda Lee
2. A Holly Jolly Christmas, Burl Ives
3. Jingle Bell Rock, Bobby Helms
4. Feliz Navidad, Jose Feliciano
5. The Christmas Song, Nat King Cole
6. White Christmas, Bing Crosby
7. Please Come Home For Christmas, The Eagles
8. It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year, Andy Williams
9. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) John Lennon
10. It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, Johnny Mathis

The Minutemen Roundup

I'd do just about anything for my blog buddy Marie, and she's asked, so never mind that this is right up my alley and I might have done it anyway....here's a Yankee's eye view on the Minutemen,with a big thank you to my husband the talking sports encyclopedia.
Disclaimer: I have no rooting interest here, and if pressed to pick one, I'd be leaning Mountaineers all the way. I have had the misfortune of watching UMass beat UNH (my husband's team) twice and Montana once. So I know a bit more about them than I know about the Mountaineers:

• UMass has lost only one game. To Navy. By one point in a game that they easily could have won. That officially served notice that they were GOOD.
  
• The UMass Minutemen are FAST. Quicker than a fart in a skillet, now that I think about it. They have the best defense in the strongest league in the 1-AA division (that's not an opinion according to the TSE, that's a fact. The league is brutal and getting out of it undefeated is a huge accomplishment--which they did).
  
• They have speed at every position and have overwhelmed their first three play-off opponents with that speed both offensively and defensively.
• They blitz 75-80% of the time on defense, often bringing the house, so the receiver needs to get open quickly and the quarterback needs to check off to the open man faster than that goalpost ended up in up in the duck pond.
  
• The defense was successful in limiting UNH's David Ball (you know, the guy who broke Jerry Rice's all time 1-AA receiving record earlier in the season) to 54 yards in their quarterfinal game. They held UNH's offense to only 17 points.
  
• They wreaked havoc on Ricky Santos--not insignificant considering that he entered that playoff game ranked in the top 10 nationally in completions (22.7 pg, fourth), total offense (278.7 ypg., sixth) and passing yards (2,681, seventh). His 23 TDs through the air topped the Atlantic 10 and his 12 rushing TDs was No. 1 in the conference. Santos also had four 300-yard passing performances.
  
• Quarterback Liam Coen is smart and accurate. He's the 1-AA leader in pass efficiency.
  
• Tailback Steve Baylark dropped weight this year and gained speed and has rushed for 1,000 yards in all four years at UMass. He's bruising when he needs to be, quick when he needs to be, and always tough (he gained 169 yards against Montana after suffering bruised ribs. He gained 198 yards against UNH).
  
• UMass is hungry and wants this win badly. They are focused and driven. They've been counted out of most games this year and that motivates them tremendously.
  
• They won, on the road in Montana, in a stadium that has traditionally been a graveyard for traveling teams.
  

On the positive side for Appalachian State:

• UMass only scored 24 points against a horrific UNH defense. Seriously, my grandmother could score 38 points against UNH's defense this year.
• Coen isn't Armanti Edwards. Edwards is a game changer and he seems to be the kind of game changer that defies an answer.
  
• The Mountaineers appear to be every bit as fast as UMass and maybe a step quicker.
  
• The Mountaineers have way better uniforms, and way, way better fans.
  

Good luck. Marie and Gnumoon--please beware fans in togas and wayward goalposts on Saturday. We'll be watchin' and cheerin and lookin' for you'uns on the TeeVee. Ayeuh.
appalachian state
university of massachusetts