Kevin only got one day off last week -- Friday -- so we decided it would be easier for the two of us to meet in Portland, rather than having him trek all the way up here to spend fewer than 24 hours. Portland is a fun city, and I'll use any excuse to spend a day or two there! I especially love the Portland Public Market and Wild Oats. I sure know how to live!
Friday morning, I Googled "Portland Maine vegetarian restaurants." I got a few good leads with the first couple of matches, but there was one match that really caught my eye: its description contained the word "falafel!" Falafel makes me very happy. The restaurant is called "Silly's." It's not strictly vegetarian, but it's considered to be "vegetarian friendly." I will blog lots more about Silly's later this week... but that entry is going to take some time to write!
After dinner at Silly's, we headed for Wild Oats. I am such a party girl! It's just so amazing to me to have so many natural and/or organic foods right at my fingertips... a whole store full! I bought some almond butter, Concord grape all-fruit spread, Terra Chips, ak-mak, and a few other small items. It may not sound exciting to you, but it was fun for me. =)
Then we headed for the Old Port section of town. It's on the waterfront, and has lots of old buildings full of bars, restaurants, and fun shops (most of which were closed by the time we got there!). We weren't in much of a bar mood, but I was dying for some tea. Do you know how hard it is to find an open tea room at 9pm? Quite. We finally happened upon one of Breaking New Grounds' shops. We've bought their coffee at the Public Market several times, and it's just plain fantastic. Coconut Cream is our favorite. Sounds a little gross, doesn't it? But is it so good. Fortunately, they have a great selection of tea, too. I chose the "BNG House Chai." The girl warned me that it "pretty spicy -- is that OK?" Hells, yeah, that's OK! It turned out to be very good, but not much spicier than most chai I've had. I think she overfilled the tea bag a bit, so the water couldn't flow through freely enough, but that's just a theory. It smelled spectacular. I think it had potential, and I'm a tea snob, and it just wasn't prepared properly. Anyway.
Saturday morning we headed for Boston. Kev had to work that night, but I wandered Harvard Square for a while and ended up at The Wrap. I'd been wanting to try it for a couple of months. This was my chance! I chose the "Bangkok --" a flour tortilla stuffed with rice, cucumber, onion, Asian slaw, baked tofu, and spicy peanut sauce. YUM! It was so good. I can't wait to go back and try some of their other wraps! The "Peking" sounds exceptionally intriguing. Oh, and the prices are great, too. I had a very satisfying wrap and a 20 oz. drink for not quite $6.
Sunday morning, of course, meant a quick brunch at Au Bon Pain before I had to head home. I know, it's a big, evil chain store/ French boulangerie wannabe, but we still like it. Kevin practically lives on their fruit, yogurt, and granola parfaits, and I love the cranberry-blueberry muffins and fresh OJ.
I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post, but I think I've mentioned before that I just can't bring myself to take pictures in restaurants. I don't want to see flash bulbs going off while I eat, and I like to extend the same courtesy to my fellow diners. But check out the links I've included, and some of the places I've mentioned if you find yourself in northern New England! It was a fun weekend with lots of fun food.
I bought the prettiest little squash the other day...
It's called a "carnival squash." I'd never heard of it before, but it was with all the other winter squash, of which I am quite fond. I couldn't resist that skin! It looked to me like it had been sponge painted. This particular squash was custom-made for one -- it's not much bigger than a grapefruit!
To me, the best way to eat sweet, orange-fleshed winter squash is to halve or slice it, brush it with a little olive oil, sprinkle it with a bit of salt and pepper, and roast it until it gets tender and caramelized. I didn't have the best of days today, so I thought a little caramelly roasted winter squash would be the perfect comfort. I sliced, oiled, salted, peppered, and roasted until I had this:
How could anyone resist that? I grabbed a fork, sat down, and scooped a bit of the flesh from its skin... and was gravely disappointed. It was nearly flavorless. It had none of that lovely soft, mealy sweetness that epitomizes winter squash. It had a taste and texture more like summer squash, of which I am not so fond. I don't know if this one was just too small, too "green," too young... but it just wasn't what I thought it should be. Maybe I'll try a bigger one another time... but for now, I'll stick to my tried-and-true favorite: buttercup squash. And the potatoes that are roasting in the oven as I write.
Hi. My name is Kelli, and I have a problem. I have been to Bed, Bath & Beyond three times in the past four days, and bought the following: two muffin pans, one 9x13 cake pan, one 8x8 cake pan, two 9x5 loaf pans, three 3x6 loaf pans, one silicone pastry brush, and two Kitchenaid heat-resistant silicone "grabbers."
How could I have helped myself? They keep sending me coupons for $5 off a $15 purchase! And my mom never uses hers, so I get stuck with two of them at a time! And they expired today! I just had to use them! I am on a never-ending quest to find the perfect bakeware, and this was just such a great opportunity to replace the stuff I hate. Hopefully it will please me! It's a nice, light color, reasonably sturdy, and teflon coated.
I also have a coupon for 20% off any one item. It expires November 15. I have designs on a Bundtlette pan (I couldn't find it on BBB's site, but they certainly have it in my local store).
And guess what I found in my mailbox when I got home from today's little spree? Another 15% off coupon.
Does anyone remember that song from "Schoolhouse Rock?" I have the DVD set of the original cartoons, and a CD called "Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks," with popular bands covering some of the better-known songs. A group called Goodness did "Electricity, Electricity." It's a really fun CD for those of us who grew up with "Schoolhouse!"
I am such a rebel today -- not only am I not participating in IMBB?9, but I am posting without pictures! My reason for skipping IMBB? The theme is terrines, and I'm not saying this to offend anyone, but they're just not my thing. As far as I can tell, they tend to consist of pureed things, or jellied things, and I am not really into either. I have to admit, though, that Cathy's individual Potato and Garlic Terrines don't look half bad! =)
My reason for posting without pictures? I forgot to take any! Yesterday, as you may remember my mentioning last week, was "Thanksgiving" at my aunt's house. I, of course, am the designated bread maker for such gatherings, and yesterday was no exception. So I spent all morning making dinner rolls, got caught up in the excitement and wanting to get to my aunt's house, that I forgot to photograph my rolls! But here are the recipes for what I made... I decided on one batch of something sweet, and one batch of something spicy. Both were well received.
The first recipe comes from "Electric Bread" by Suzan Nightingale. It was one of the first bread machine books I bought. It has some great recipes, but a lot of them call for a lot of ingredients that I don't normally keep around. The book tends to come out only for very special occasions now.
Fall Harvest Rolls
makes one 1-1/2 pound loaf, or 12 large dinner rolls
1 cup water
2 cups white bread flour
1 cup whole-wheat bread flour
2 tbsp dry milk
1-1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin puree or canned pumpkin (plain pumpkin -- not pie filling!)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
3 tsp active dry yeast (or 1-1/2 tsp rapid-rise)
The original recipe calls for 3 cups of white bread flour, and no WW bread flour. I, of course, always try to replace 1/3 to 1/2 of the white flour in recipes with WW flour.
I mixed everything in the bread machine and let the dough rise for an hour. I chose the simplest dinner roll method for these -- I made 10 golf ball sized balls of dough and arranged them in a round cake pan. I let them rise again for about 40 minutes, then baked them at 350 for about 25 minutes.
These rolls didn't turn out quite as sweet as I'd hoped, and the ginger and allspice were barely detectable, but they were still very good. I love the crunch of the pumpkin seeds. And the pumpkin adds a lovely, festive, autumnal touch of color.
***
The next recipe, oddly enough, comes from "More Electric Bread." I haven't used these books in at least a couple of years, and now they've both reared their heads on the same day. =) This is a recipe I have made in the past. I'd forgotten how good it is!
Pepper Corn Rolls
makes one 1-1/2 pound loaf, or 12 large dinner rolls
1-1/8 cups water
2 cups white bread flour
1 1/3 cups whole-wheat bread flour
2 tbsp dry milk
1-1/2 tbsp sugar
1-1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp seasoned pepper (such as Lawry's)
1/3 cup cornmeal
1-3/4 tsp active dry yeast (or 1-1/2 tsp rapid-rise)
Again, I substituted whole-wheat bread flour for some of the white -- the original recipe calls for 3-1/3 cups white.
I made my own seasoned pepper, since I had forgotten to buy any. I threw some mixed peppercorns, crushed red pepper, and Jane's Crazy Mixed-Up Salt into my spice grinder and let 'er rip. It came out quite good, if I do say so myself. =)
For the cornmeal, I used about half fine and half coarse.
Same as above, the dough mixed in the machine and rose for an hour. After the first rise, I divided the dough into 12 equal pieces. I rolled each piece into a 7" rope, and tied each rope into a little knot. Eact knot went into a cup of my nice, new muffin tin. The rolls baked at 350 for about 25 minutes, though they probably could have come out after 20. They came out slightly crustier than I usually like.
I love this bread, of course, for its cornmeal crunch. I also love the pepperiness (is that a word? it is now!), having been a pepper addict for as long as I can remember. My dad was especially fond of these for that very same reason.
OK, so I told a bit of a white lie earlier in this post -- I do have a picture. I had a bit of the pumpkin dough left over, which I baked into 4 cute little mini-rolls this morning. It's not the greatest picture, but it at least shows off the pretty color:
