Incredibly tender and tasty, served here with rice, a carrot salad, and fresh parsley. In case you’re looking for a dependable holiday hit.
Tag: Food
Missing my ‘tinis …
We’re well into the annual Nativity Fast now, and that means going without alcohol.
I’m not bound by Greek Orthodox discipline, even though one year we did try to follow the Advent diet, which is largely vegan. It will be a while before we do that again, admirable as it is.
For me, the big challenge is in admitting just how much I enjoy martinis. Very dry, gin, with an olive. Some fellow Quakers would definitely look askance at me on that count, though I did have a good Friend who was a definite exception.
Alas, he passed over before I ever got to sample one of his legendary concoctions.
Growing up in a teetotaling household does throw a curve on my outlook. I’m repressed enough as a result, even after hippie liberation. But then came the yoga, which frowned on both meat and alcohol even before any tipsiness.
More recently, here on Moose Island, I’ve found myself indulging come late morning rather than closer to bedtime. OK, I’m usually up and working on the keyboard before sunrise, too, so there are some adjustments in the daily schedule, especially when I get an afternoon nap in.
So, to keep me in control of my imbibing, rather than the other way around, I haven’t touched a drop since November 16, apart from a glass of Cotes du Rhone on Thanksgiving, a nod to the Orthodox relaxations on designated feast days.
Drinking is, after all, something that can become habitual, and there are good reasons to break certain habits or to strengthen one’s self-discipline.
But still, I am counting those days till Christmas.
Cheers!
Back to the precarious nature of scalloping
The crews are out in our deep cold and often nasty winter weather, not just fishing but also shucking before landing their haul. Most of them head out before sunrise, as I hear from my home.
Are they crazy, as some of them contend, or just dumb, as others jest? Even both? It’s more than honest work, no question.
In our zone, boats are limited to a crew of three and a maximum harvest of two buckets of shucked scallops a day. That’s ten gallons, or nine to ten pounds total. Doesn’t look like much for a day’s haul, especially when you factor in paying for their labor, the boat, gear, fuel, insurance, and the fact it’s seasonal and very cold work, even before the regulations that hold draggers to three days a week. Try making a living on a three-day, limited season, income. Good luck!
Officially, ours is a 50-day run spread over four months, but in reality, an earlier cutoff kicks in on short notice to preserve the stock from depletion. In effect, “It’s over, guys,” arrives in the captain’s email, post haste. Last year, that eliminated 17 fishing days, a third of the season. More than an entire month, actually. By dumb luck, my daughter and I were at the docks just in time to stock up a gallon in our freezers.
At least we’re not managing a restaurant.
As this season? We’re holding our proverbial breath. My, those morsels do taste unbelievable.
(Divers have a different schedule, even more limited.)
Think of that when you wonder about the seemingly high price of heavenly shellfish.
At the noodle house
Have I mentioned I love Japanese cuisine? This is at the ramen soup restaurant in Bangor.
Remembered fresh tastes of summer
As fresh and sweetly tender as it gets.
This one’s with basil.
Even the croutons were homemade. Not so, the cheese or sunflower seeds.
$20 for a martini?
Sardi’s in Manhattan?
A legendary bartender, being quoted in his retirement story in the New York Times, was amazed.
I have always been shocked by prices in the City, but for once it doesn’t seem so far out of line. Not that I go out that often.
We were spared the full hurricane
Lee blew down
all
the wild apples
to ferment
for crows
and deer
to turn tipsy
Here’s how they’re grown
Cranberries are often grown in enclosures like this, which are then flooded. The berries then float for harvest.
One bed stands above the other.
This is Mingo’s in Calais, not the only one in eastern Maine.
Cranberries!
Not everybody loves them, but they are a Thanksgiving tradition, jellied or stewed or otherwise.
Here’s some background.
- They’re one of the few fruits native to America.
- They don’t grow in water but the berries do float, which is how many of them are harvested, starting with a machine called an eggbeater.
- They also bounce.
- Only five percent are sold fresh. And eating one raw will be unpleasantly tart.
- Americans consume 400 million pounds of cranberries a year – roughly a pound and a half per person – a fifth of that during Thanksgiving week. How do you measure up?
- A gallon of juice requires 4,400 berries. Did we mention it’s a great antioxidant and high in Vitamin C?
- The “Sex in the City” TV series in the 1990s boosted the popularity of the Cosmopolitan cocktail, which features cranberry juice and vodka. Well, there’s a classic version with gin instead. Cosmos are typically served in martini glasses, after all.
- I’m quite fond of Craisins, the dried berry version that goes nicely in green salads and yoghurt, at the top of my list.
- Seven out of every ten cranberries sold in the world today come from Ocean Spray, a farmer-owned cooperative with more than 700 grower-families.
- Wisconsin is the leading producer in the U.S., followed by Massachusetts. A few are even grown here in Downeast Maine.
Turkeys in the wild
Here’s how they look much of the rest of the year around here. And there are a lot of them who surprisingly disappear this time of the year.
Jnana's Red Barn 