This wonderful vegetarian recipe comes to us courtesy of Anne Mahle from her cookbook, At Home, At Sea: Recipes from the Maine Windjammer J. & E. Riggin. A perfectly savory way to utilize the bounty of your summer garden, (or that of your local farmers’ market).
Nowadays I tend to use brown rice for every rice dish because it’s “heart smart,” but I still prefer the way white rice looks. I make this to accompany baked haddock or similar white fish. The lemon flavor nicely complements the fish.
image: yummy4tummy.wordpress.com
A quick sauté of ripe, sweet cherry tomatoes is fun to make while a tenderloin roasts in the oven or fish cooks outdoors on the grill. Fix them at the last minute to ensure perfect roundness.
image courtesy of flickr.com
During the summer, I try my best to sample as many fried clams as possible at the seasonal clam shacks up and down the New England coast. Which is better—clams coated in batter or crumbs? Depends on a lot of factors, such as the freshness of the clams, the quality of the oil, and other things, but when everything is right I tend to prefer batter. If the clams are large, I like to “squeeze the bellies,” which means pinching the belly to get the gross black goo out, but truthfully, by the time the clams are coated with batter and fried, you can’t see the goo anymore and it really doesn’t taste bad.
image: nytimes.com
I can’t think of a better way to glorify a corn muffin than to add some juicy ripe blackberries. These are wonderful served warm with a pot of honey butter alongside. I heat a smooth rock from Boom Beach here on Isle au Haut while the muffins are baking, wrap it with a kitchen towel, and place it in the bottom of the serving basket to keep the muffins toasty warm.
image courtesy of themodernapron.blogspot.com Continue reading “Blackberry Corn Muffins” »
Ginny Maxfield uses canned stewed tomatoes, the kind with onions, celery, and peppers mixed in, to produce a cold soup that delivers all the advantages of gazpacho, but doesn’t require a whole lot of chopping. This was one of the slightly-chic-but-homey recipes that made Ginny’s restaurant, Maxfield’s, over the bridge in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, so popular for so long.
image: dailymail.co.uk Continue reading “Easy Chilled Tomato-Cucumber Soup” »
Many food chains make this thirst quenching summer drink with soft-serve ice cream; a reasonable facsimile can be created at home with vanilla frozen yogurt or regular vanilla ice cream. With a few creative additions, this would also make a fantastic summer cocktail. It’s the ideal refreshing pick-me-up to sip and savor after spending a day at the beach or in your own back yard.
image courtesy of partybluprintsblog.com
Continue reading “Orange Freeze” »
Iced tea has become an American tradition. To my knowledge, no other country prefers to drink their tea iced like the United States does. Most people don’t think they are having a tea party when they are drinking this thirst quenching beverage, but they are!
image courtesy of Lauren Rubinstein
Lauren Rubinstein, photographer of the beautiful images featured in the book The World in Your Teacup by Lisa Boalt Richardson, provided this delicious recipe. A great new 4th of July taste tradition!
The following recipe makes a great summer dessert using fresh carrots from your garden.
This recipe was shared with me by Grace Leeman and Harriet Huff of Orr’s Island, Maine, known as the Thelma and Louise of their island. And if they say it’s good, it’s good!
image: deepdishsouth.com
As a food magazine editor, I am always on the lookout for new and interesting cookbooks. I frequently receive queries from publicists asking if I’d like a review copy of this or that new book. This is one of the many parts of my job that I enjoy, receiving so many wonderful cookbooks to review. If I ever have time to read anything but cookbooks, I will dive into the guilty pleasure that is the Twilight phenomenon.
For now, I will cut my teeth on the idea by thanking Gina Meyers for my copy of Love at First Bite: The Unofficial Twilight Cookbook and share with you the following introduction and recipe for lobster. Edward says, “Hold the garlic on this one. Please.”
“The international phenomenon known as Twilight fever has ignited excitement in the kitchen. Delectable delights to satisfy the appetites of the humans can be found in the fictional book Twilight. Love at First Bite: the Unofficial Twilight Cookbook is meant to offer a satisfying array of warm, lovely dishes that anyone of any age can cook with ease and enjoyment….Filled with forbidden love, action, and danger, so brace yourself, and bring your very best table manners and your appetites!”- intro from Twilight cookbook
This is a great-tasting mussel dish. I make it often, either with the wild mussels that live on our rocks and ledges or with Dave Hiltz’s rope-grown mussels from his float in the harbor. It’s also a nice recipe to know about if you happen to have cooked mussels left over from a mussel feast.
This recipe was handed down through my family from my grandmother Agnes Schmoker, who was from Austria and lived to be 101! Her recipe lives on in this book. You see, it truly is a family affair. Thanks, Grandma!
image: farm2.static.flickr.com
Feast on fiddleheads year round, and learn how to do it with ease. Maine author and forager Tom Seymour offers tips, techniques, and recipes for this delicate and versatile fern in the new issue of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine. You’ll be able to ‘freezer forage’ and enjoy this harbinger of Maine spring anytime.
Tom Seymour’s column includes tested recipes for fiddlehead and cheese casserole, sauteed fiddleheads, and fiddlehead salad. If you’ve never tried them, this column will entice you to explore a unique Maine green, and for those already fiddlehead savvy, you will have a renewed appreciation!
Fiddlehead ferns are available for a limited time only in Maine during the spring. Check out how you can enjoy them year round in the new issue of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine. Order your subscription today!
Issue Number 11 of Maine Food & Lifestyle pays homage to one of Maine’s finest coffee roasters, Rockland’s own Rock City Coffee. In preparing an article for this issue, we had the pleasure of working with Rock City’s owner and Master Coffee Roaster Patrick Reilley. Patrick brought his extensive knowledge and expertise in coffee roasting to Rockland, establishing Rockland’s now famous coffee roasting operation.
Patrick helped us organize and describe our coffees in a special coffee cupping we did at Rock City Coffee Roasters for this issue. This will always be a special memory to us, as it was not long after that Patrick lost his long struggle with cancer. Our sincerest condolences go out to his wife and business partner Suzanne Ward, their family, and many friends.
In our new issue, the article entitled “The Science of Coffee Cupping, ” we took a lesson from Rock City Roaster’s Yvonne Smith as she shared her knowledge, talents, and techniques with us. Yvonne had been hired by Patrick at Rock City back in 1998, and in 2005 she became his assistant roaster. Now Yvonne is an award-winning roaster in her own right.
L to R: Patrick Reilley, Yvonne Smith, Melanie Hyatt, Eric Hopkins
How do you prepare for a cupping and go about analyzing different samples? What are the variables to consider when evaluating different coffees? Just what is “slurping?” And is there such a thing as “bad coffee?” All this and more we answer for you in the new issue.
And as an added note, our From the Pantry column in this issue gives you a sampling of some of our favorite Maine roasted beans.
Get perky! Wake up and smell the coffee…and subscribe today!
“By the cup, by the teapot or by the pitcher, specialty teas are more than just an occasional splash of flavor in our culture. They are a sign of our culture,” Lisa Boalt Richardson says, “and I’ve built my career on sharing my knowledge and enthusiasm about specialty teas to the tea industry professionals and the buying public.” Below is one of Lisa’s great tea time cookie recipes.
This is a deliciously different salad you’ll definitely want to try!
image: pinchmysalt.com
For this dish you need one of those deep-frying baskets, plus a bit of skill with a chef’s knife. And you thought the only way to cook asparagus was standing them up in an asparagus steamer or simmering them in a reclining position, in an inch of water in a skillet.
image: flickr.com
“Tea time is anytime,” states Lisa Boalt Richardson of Lisa Knows Tea. Ms. Richardson is the author of the award-winning book Tea with a Twist; Entertaining and Cooking with Tea. She travels the country speaking at conferences and special events focusing on her culinary arts and specialty tea expertise. She has spoken for the World Tea Expo, Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show, Kashi, Emory University, and many other national venues. Here she shares her recipe for Savoury Honey Scones.
