Maine Bicentennial, A Cookbook, and Me

I love discovering new foods, foods that people have brought to Maine, from their homeland. Juanita Cuellar Nichols submitted this recipe, and shares that her family came to NYC from Colombia. She has a childhood memory of her father flattening the balls of cornmeal dough into discs for stuffing with the meat and potato mixture. The recipe recommends Masarepa, a brand of precooked cornmeal, and for the life of me, I could find it nowhere. I was pretty sure that regular cornmeal would be too coarse to hold together for a dough. At last, I discovered Masarepa on a grocery shelf. So now I ran into a small problem with the dough. The recipe appears to indicate that you mix the cornmeal with Goya Sazon (I do think this seasoning is really meant to be used with the meat mixture) and salt and 2 tablespoons of oil, form it into a ball, knead, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest twenty minutes. But how does all of that cornmeal bind together with a mere 2 tablespoons of oil? After researching on...

Guess who woke up to a breakfast of Red Flannel Hash?! The Resident Archaeologist thoroughly enjoyed the New England Boiled Dinner last night (see blog for that recipe) and wanted to surprise me with breakfast this morning. He even remembered that I like my eggs sunny-side up. I, of course, was not feeling sunny-side up until I drank some of that liquid energy called coffee. He did have to add in the beets this morning, since we forgot to add beets last night in the Boiled Dinner. Heavens, this is a mighty fine way to greet the morning! Gives you the nutrients you need to tackle whatever is on your to-do list for the day.  There are numerous ways to use leftover corned beef brisket. And my sweetheart is having fun imagining the different ways...reuben sandwich, corned beef and cabbage quesadillas, and so much more. An easy meat to prepare, with endless leftover possibilities. I must admit that my childhood memories of corned beef hash come out of a can. Fresh is the way to go, with...

 Have you ever encountered a person who becomes your best friend, in an instant? And you think, how did I never run into this person before? Why is it that we are best friends now, when I wish it could have been forever? Well, "that" is the way I feel about a New England Boiled Dinner. I have lived in New England all my life. Yet, no one has introduced me to Boiled Dinner. Til now. No worries. I'm grateful to have the new relationship now. But I'm just a little amazed that I've missed out for all these years. It might be as simple as the clam vs mussel issue (see Beer-Steamed Mussels with Corn and Basil blog). Maybe I tried corned beef in a can and that ended our relationship. (I did encounter red flannel hash in a can, and that was problematic, for sure). But I'm grateful to have experienced this meal, and with the expert guidance of the Resident Archaeologist, who knows how to cut the meat to get the best taste/chew experience. You have to cut across the gra...

Hahaha! The cookbook editors tucked this apple pie in the pudding section, making you "think" there was only one marvelous apple pie recipe (see blog for Westport Island Upside-Down Apple Pie) to be had in this awesome Bicentennial cookbook. No worries! You get to bake another apple pie, and it is a pleasure for me to share that This Apple Pie Is Like No Other. You're gonna love it! Easy peasy recipe. It calls for both apples and blueberries or rhubarb. But I was hankering for apple-only. I mean, it's apple orchard season, not blueberry or rhubarb season. There is this terrific crumb topping that is perfect. What makes it perfect, you ask? What makes everything perfect, my friends? Butter. Yesssss! Melted and poured liberally over the crumb topping. Then, here is where the recipe and I parted ways. It says to sprinkle cinnamon lightly over the top. Hah! I don't keep a jar of mixed cinnamon and sugar on hand for nothing! The pie needs a generous sprinkling of cinna...

 Just the title alone conjures up a magical food that might give you wings to fly away into a forest glen for a tea party with miniature tea cups and wee little cakes made of sweetness and light. No? Okay, let's settle for a meringue nut topping that is easy to whip up, yet elegant, with a cake hiding underneath it that melts in your mouth. This recipe calls for crushed pineapple, but my sweetheart is not fond of that fruit, so I decided to go without fruit the first time around. It also calls for lots of whipped cream spread over the cake, but I just added a dollop on top of individual servings. I think this would be fun with fresh blueberries, and yes, I might indulge in more whipped cream, if we had guests over. This recipe has been in Uncle John's family for three generations, a beloved cake to celebrate family birthdays. Thanks to Brenda Maxfield for submitting this "magical" cake!

 Having tried the crockpot for the Worster House Baked Indian Pudding (see blog), I decided to go with a good thing. Especially when I read the details of the recipe. Eight to ten hours in a slow oven? This is what crockpots were born for. Of the two Indian Pudding recipes in this cookbook, I lean towards this one. Worster House uses raisins as the fruit sweetener, and this recipe uses apples. I just have a personal preference for apples. It helps cut the heaviness of the molasses. In fact, I think another time around, I'd cut back on the molasses, as it needs to be more balanced with the light sweet flavor of the apples.  Again, I am a cold pudding person, when I do eat puddings. So I ate this cold, but the recipe recommends hot, with vanilla ice cream, which sounds delightful!

 Indian pudding was never on the table at our family Thanksgiving meals, when I was a child. But I had a family member in my first marriage who felt that Thanksgiving wasn't complete without it, so he would bring a can of it to our table each year. I never tried it, as I'm just not much of a pudding eater. This pudding was offered at the Worster House in Hallowell between 1925 and 1960. The person submitting the recipe got it from her grandparents, Thomas and Pauline Worster, whose slogan, at Worster House, was "Where Maine Goes to Dinner."  Love that slogan! This pudding must cook in a slow oven for four hours. Being as how I didn't have four hours to babysit it, I decided to tuck all the ingredients in a small crockpot and do it the easy way. It worked great. It says to serve it hot, with vanilla ice cream. I'm accustomed to cold puddings, when I do eat puddings, and so I tried it first cold, and thought it was fine that way. But I look forward to trying it ...

 Here I am, in the kitchen, happily browning the lamb for this meal. I adore curried foods and my mouth is watering, anticipating the meal. In walks the Resident Archaeologist, to see what I am up to. I explain the recipe of the day, and mention that the recipe calls for browning the meat in ghee, but I skipped it, because who cooks meat in butter? This, of course, is my upbringing with a diabetic mother, who kept the whole family on a wicked healthy diabetic diet, which eschewed sauces and butters and whatnot. He stares at me. Erupts in laughter and explains that if I'd ever tasted a buttered steak, I'd know what I've been missing. Ah, the benefits of a childhood with buttered meat. So, except for the missing ghee, which by all accounts would make it taste even better, this recipe is marvelous. I did find that I needed to add sour cream to tone down the spice. I'm not exactly a hot spice kinda girl. This recipe introduced me to Garam Masala, which is a happy new relati...

 Okay, got the ginger. Check. Got the molasses. Check. Wait! What? No ginger in this recipe? No molasses? What the heck?! Not knowing what this dessert would turn out to be, I jumped in with wooden spoon at the ready, and was pleasantly surprised. It is, as the recipe title suggests, "white." Except for the color of the nutmeg sprinkled on top before baking. It comes out of the oven and I just look at it with some suspicion. I mean, it doesn't look anything like gingerbread cake. When in doubt, taste it! Glad, so glad, I risked everything and tasted. Really marvelous cake. But my taste buds recognized the flavor, yet couldn't place it. The recipe title continued to get in the way of going through taste bud files in my mind. When trying to remember a taste, what do you do to help you concentrate? Yes, that's right. Taste, and taste again! Aha! Got it! But just to be sure, I took a sample to the Resident Archaeologist, to taste. "Tell me what this flavor remind...

 We've all heard the wisdom: Life is short. Eat dessert first. The woman who submitted this recipe received it from her great-grandmother, Lizzie Abbott, or North Paris. At the holidays, the family enjoys this pie for breakfast the morning after the holiday.  I'm not sure I need permission to eat pie for breakfast, but I did feel that in the interest of scientific discovery (LOL) I needed to replicate this recipe in all its wonderful facets, including when it is typically eaten. Therefore, I "had to" try this pie for breakfast. Oh, Great-Grandma Lizzie, you have a winner! This pie, no doubt, won blue ribbons everywhere, at the fair or simply in the home with the "blue ribbon" awarded that is praise from family. And, if we had children in our home, you can bet this pie for breakfast plan would be quite the winner. I made mini-pies because, well, it's just myself and the Resident Archaeologist here, and if I made every recipe full-sized, I'm afraid at ...

 I've lived in Maine all of my adult life and much of my youth, however, mussels seem to have escaped my palate. I think I always looked at them the way I look at clams, with trepidation (had a very gritty clam-eating experience in my youth). Heavens, these little beer-steamed confections are impossibly exquisite! I adore them! And there is something about the sweet jumble of black and white and yellow and green colors on the serving platter, in a delicious creamy liquid, that makes you want to sit and enjoy a cold brew with your best friend, taking bites of the mussels, enjoying the flavorful corn/cream sauce, dipping bread to soak it all up. Sweet! And the best thing? It hardly takes any time at all to put it together and deliver to table. Well, two best things. It hardly costs anything. Now, keep in mind, this will not fill you up, unless you have some kind of enormous pile of mussels. This would be a starter for a meal, or a delightful way to take an afternoon break. The fellow...

 Canning is a back-to-simpler-times activity which I really enjoy. I have to make sure I have time and space for it, but I truly enjoy it when I have a block of time to devote to it. I recommend it for anyone seeking to appreciate the basic gifts we have in this life, like food that nourishes our bodies and sustains us and the loved ones whom we feed. Fair warning, canning always takes twice as long as you think it will, so plan plenty of time. The simple act of washing, peeling, cutting veggies is meditative in itself. The joyful burst of the vegetable colors is happiness itself. When I gathered the peppers for this canning adventure, the recipe recommended half green, half red bell peppers. I could not find enough red peppers, so had to settle for a yellow and an orange thrown into the mix. It still looks red/green enough in the jars to make a pretty little present at Christmas time! I also added onions to the mix. I had all the diced veggies in separate bowls at one point, and i...

 At first, the recipe looked quite involved, and I waited on planning this recipe for a day when I had unlimited time to devote to it. Turns out, it is really just the noodles that require time and attention. everything else comes together pretty quickly. I used a durum wheat semolina and a "00" flour, mostly because we had them leftover from a cooking class I took with The Resident Archaeologist, learning to make pasta.  The filling mixes up easily. I chose to use cottage cheese and ricotta cheese, but the recipe calls for cottage cheese and shredded mozzarella. I think you could substitute just about anything. Next time I think I'll try spinach and ricotta. The sauce is a basic tomato sauce. The noodles (which look more like little crepes, to me) require a strip of filling then you roll it and place seam side down in a pan, and pour the sauce over it all and bake it. Really quite delish, and I will definitely plan on making this again. Will probably try it with a variet...

 This pie has got to be one of the most unusual pies I've ever had the pleasure of baking. I have never put a "batter" into a pie shell. I was most curious to see what transpired in the heat of the oven. And yes, the batter turned into cake. So it is sort of like eating a cake in a pie shell. I actually bet small children will get a kick out of such a curiosity. You have to pour a melted chocolate mixture over the top of the batter before baking. I wasn't sure what that would do, either, in the heat of the oven. It sort of crusted up a bit, so you get a very thin chocolate crust on top of the cake-ness. There, as my grandfather used to say, is the description clear as mud to you now?! I think it tasted okay, but my brain was expecting more chocolate, you know, maybe a nice chocolate cream pie. And that is not at all what happened. It ended up being a vanilla cake with a pie crust bottom and a chocolate crust top. I think it really needed some whipped cream on top. And...

It does seem fitting that as we near Election Day, I try Representative Chellie Pingree's recipe for Roasted Chicken. Over the past couple of decades, due to time constraints, I have often baked chicken in the roasting bags one can purchase at the grocery.  However, this recipe requires the time-honored practice of basting the chicken regularly, to keep it moist. So, I was a little anxious that it might dry out. No worries! It came out of the oven perfectly moist. I did find that due to the veggies and fruits in the cavity, it took a little longer to bake than usual. Normally, I do not stuff a chicken, but since I try to follow a recipe as closely as possible the first time around, into the cavity went the diced celery, onion, apple, and garlic. It smelled great while baking! The recipe calls for fresh herbs, but we've had a frost, so I just sprinkled Herbes de Provence liberally, and it turns out that was just what the chicken needed. Thanks, Rep Pingree! And btw, I voted by a...

 Baked beets, like cranberry sauce, have a mind of their own. They can be on the tart side, or the sweet side, and people tend to have a clear preference for one or the other. Myself, I like Harvard Beets, with a nice thick sauce.  This is the simplest of recipes, requiring only thinly sliced beets and onions, layered, with water to cover, then cover and bake in the oven. With salt and pepper and a little olive oil. I was surprised that the beets were not a deep red, like the jarred beets I purchase. The beets I purchased at the grocery were enormous. I might look for smaller ones another time.  My kids were a bit fussy about their vegetables when they were young, but I could always count on getting them to eat their beets. Odd veggie for kids to like, but they seem to have grown up healthy enough, in spite of the dedicated beet diet.

Now, cranberry sauce has a mind of its own, just like people. Some sauces are on the tart side, some are on the sweet side. And some people swear by the tart, and some by the sweet. Myself, I lean toward the sweet. So when the recipe claimed it was tart, I began to worry. Clearly, I worry too much. The maple syrup gave it a natural sweetness that made this cranberry sauce quite possibly the best I've ever made....okay, confession, I've never made cranberry sauce in my life, and when I saw how easy it was, I thought, where has this recipe been all my life?! I've always gone the easy route, at holidays, and used the canned version, which always seemed to satisfy everyone at table. But this is almost as easy as opening a can, and you will be happy when everyone raves over it. This recipe makes up about three cups of sauce. The recipe contributor, Peter Berry, of Bridgton, Maine, says that it has been a part of their family's Thanksgiving for over a 100 years. I can see why...

This cake is the reason I bought this cookbook. Well, no, not exactly. The person who submitted this cake recipe to this awesome Bicentennial cookbook, is the reason I bought this cookbook. She and her husband are longtime friends of mine. A shout-out to Karen and John Ellis, of South Paris, Maine. Love you both! I do own a large bundt cake pan. But I got into miniature pans some years ago, and prefer baking in miniature now, especially since there is just myself and The Resident Archaeologist in the home most of the time. I have what I would call "medium" sized bundts, and "small" bundts. So, I chose to bake the recipe in both medium and small sizes, and the smalls are bite-sized little wonders, and the mediums, well, I'm trying to be good and not touch them until the Birthday Girl comes over (she turns 22 this week, my youngest step-daughter).  The recipe does not have any particular frosting recommended with it, so I just made a simple glaze of 1 cup confecti...

 From what I can tell, researching a bit about this recipe online, spice cakes were popular during WWII, when there would have been shortages of some ingredients, and Campbell's Soup was the newest shortcut for home cooking. This is an easy recipe, with very few instructions to follow...just put all ingredients in a bowl and mix. So it is certainly good for beginners. I baked this at night when the grocery was closed. The cake really needs a proper frosting to compliment the spice. A cream cheese frosting would be my choice, but you could also just spritz a bit of whipped cream on top. This picture of a serving of the cake is plain, which is fine, but again, frosting would add to the enjoyment of the cake.  Just for fun, I'm adding a photo of my Campbell Soup doll, which belonged to my grandmother. Campbell's Tomato Soup and a grilled cheese sandwich is my go-to comfort lunch, dating to my childhood. Where would we be without Campbell's soup?!

 Get ready for the spiciest meat you have ever tasted in your life! I saw the amount of meat (one pound) in proportion to the amounts of spice (Tablespoons, not teaspoons!) and decided to downsize the spices according to what our taste buds could handle.  It's good stuff (see that play on words?!), and would be a great side for a Thanksgiving meal. We were not having turkey and all the fixin's the day I made this recipe. So, I punted and tried it on sliced baguette bread. I thought it was great, the only thing I would have added maybe was a dollop of spicy brown mustard on top to compliment the meat mixture. Where the recipe calls for turkey drippings, in a pinch, with no turkey on hand, Campbell's Soup makes pretty good turkey gravy and adds terrific depth of flavor. Merci, Grandmere, and Robyn Norton, of Berwick, who submitted the recipe.

I love the picture with this recipe. The grandmother who loved to make this recipe, and send family members home with containers of it at the holidays. And her grandson smiling, next to her, when he was a young boy. There is an inset photo of the grandson today, all grown up, and he hails from Portland and has submitted this beloved family recipe. Thanks, Chad Conley! Confession, I did not cook down a pork shoulder and a beef chuck roast. I took the short route and bought (unseasoned) ground pork and ground hamburg and mixed it together and cooked it in a fry pan, adding onions, (and garlic because everything is better with garlic, in my humble opinion) spices (I added ginger and nutmeg to the spices listed in the recipe), bread crumbs, (and milk to keep it moist while it cooked down).  I remember from my childhood that my mother used a meat grinder, but we do not have one, so purchasing ground meat was the way to go. I let it all simmer for a long time, covered, stirring now and t...

There is something about baking bread that is so relaxing and centering for the soul. In this time of a global pandemic, we need to find those activities that help us to relax and center. The activities will be different for each one of us. For me, baking bread is one of my happy places. It requires time and space and push and pull and rest and rise. The "push and pull" involved in kneading warm dough is just what the doctor ordered, to let go of all else, and focus on this dough that is shaped and warmed and coaxed to rise. The squash is a great flavor addition to the dough and lends a beautiful, rich golden color to the rolls. I like to make quite sure my yeast is going to activate well, so I grab my candy thermometer to check the heat of the milk/butter/squash mixture, before pouring it into the dry ingredients which holds the yeast. About 125 degrees does the trick. After a concentrated five minute kneading session, plop, and the dough is in the greased bowl. I cover it w...

 When was the last time you heard someone exclaim, "Wowie!" Right, it was back in the early '70s. The recipe donor says that this recipe was popular back then, and became a favorite in her family. Once she had her own family, she added a cocoa peanut butter frosting.  I chose to make just the cake, skipping any frosting. Keep it simple, with a little confectioner's sugar sprinkled on top.  It was so easy, I'm wondering why in the world cake mixes in a box were ever invented. Baking this cake "from scratch" was, yes, you guessed it, a piece of cake. (Hey, I couldn't resist.) This cake is moist and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I used Lake Champlain Chocolate unsweetened cocoa powder, from Burlington, Vermont. BTW, this is my fav chocolate company, and could be yours, too, once you taste their excellent chocolate. When we crave a chocolate cake, this is the recipe I will use from now on.

 Fall might be the time of year for "pumpkin spice" in your coffee. Myself, give me squash (seriously, if you've seen "squash spice" available in the grocery, do let me know). I've had a love affair with squash ever since I can remember. I like it in a pie, but my all-time fav is simply cooked and mashed with butter. So when I found this recipe, you can bet I was some excited!  Muffins are just about the perfect breakfast food. You can add or subtract any number of ingredients, and the muffin will adjust to your every whim. Want blueberries? Pour them in! Experimenting with chocolate and raspberries? The batter is ready and waiting. Have a child who never eats veggies? The batter willingly conspires with you to hide the squash. Muffins are quick and easy to prepare, and while squash is not as quick and easy to prepare, it was my good fortune that the Resident Archaeologist recently cooked a butternut squash, with plenty of leftovers. So I was happy to use so...

 Okay, so I'll admit it. Cooking meat is sort of intimidating. I am never quite sure how to go about it. What if it overcooks? What if it undercooks? I much prefer baking, as there are toothpicks and the browning of the crust, and so forth, to determine doneness. Meat has been rather a mystery to me, since it is all about the interior, and who knows what goes on in there, right? So, have I ever baked a picnic shoulder? Heck, I didn't even know what one looked like until I was pleasantly surprised, while browsing the meat display, to discover a package labeled "boneless smoked picnic shoulder." I decided to try the very smallest package, about 1 1/2 pounds. I was not interested in boiling it, then baking it. A small note at the bottom of the recipe indicates that these things can be quite happily cooked in a crockpot. Hallelujah! Then I decided that the yellow mustard/brown sugar/milk bake was not quite the taste I was going for. With a nod to Lauren Webster's gram...

The donor of this recipe speaks of this recipe belonging to her maternal grandmother. It was printed in the "Cookbook of Tested Recipes" produced by the women of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Boothbay Harbor in 1937. I love the family story behind this recipe, which describes how her grandmother grew up on Barter's Island, went out to North Carolina to work in a resort hotel, where she met her husband. They married, she got homesick, and talked him into moving to Maine, and so they settled in Maine. That is true love, to settle halfway across the country, because your beloved is homesick for the state she grew up in.  I like the simplicity of this cake. I made a half-recipe, which fit fine in an 8x8 pan, altho an 8 inch round cake pan might be prettier. The part I rather liked best in the preparation was how to melt the chocolate. You take a square of Baker's chocolate (I used the semi-sweet) and pour a 1/4 cup of boiling hot water over it, and stir. So quaint.......

 Sometimes I'm in a hurry to get a meal on the table, and this looked like an easy meal to prepare. I like to bake meatballs in the oven, so those came together pretty easily. The sweet peppers and onions I chose to separate. I roasted the peppers in the oven and sauteed the onions in olive oil in a saucepan while the tomato sauce was heating in another saucepan. I did step out of the kitchen for what I thought was just a minute, but note-to-self, onions can burn in a heartbeat if you don't watch them. Yup, they got black pretty darn quick. I took them off the heat and when I called my husband downstairs to supper, I just explained that the onions were supposed to be "charred." (Did he buy it? well, no, but all the more onions for me, right? I don't mind a little "char.") I remember enjoying dynamites in my childhood when my family lived in Bangor. Some of our friends introduced us to them. My mom was a great meatball-maker, and we all loved her meatball...

 I try to follow a recipe first-time-around as closely as possible, unless, of course, my pantry is missing ingredients and I'm impatient to cook and the store is closed and I can't wait to jump into the recipe. So I do substitute upon occasion.  This was not one of those substitute occasions, but I rather wish now that I had... We have no food allergies in our household, but I do keep almond flour on hand for special recipes. This recipe called for almond flour, so I grabbed it off the shelf. In retrospect, I wonder if regular, gluten-laden flour would have worked better. I certainly liked the prep 24 hours ahead of the meal. Easy peasy. Just put the ingredients together in a bowl, cover, and tuck in the fridge.  I heated the waffle iron 24 hours later, and noticed the recipe contributor cautions that one should use a Belgian waffle iron not a small round waffle iron. Maybe that contributed to the "waffle fail" but not sure. I burned the first waffle, even tho I open...