Maine Bicentennial, A Cookbook, and Me

 I compared this recipe to another roll recipe (Tea Rolls and Bread, see blog), and there are two differences, well, three. This recipe uses shortening instead of butter. And, it has an additional ingredient of potato flakes. Also, there are only two risings, whereas Tea Rolls rise a total of three times. The recipe donor writes about memories of visiting her grandparent's farm in Hope during her childhood (Hope is right around the corner from where I live). I shall have to wander over that way and see where their family farm is. She says it is still there "humming along, as it has been for nearly 230 years." I had to cut down this recipe considerably, since it makes up way more rolls than our household of two could manage to consume. But no matter the quantity, these rolls serve up satisfaction with any meal. I do think the potato flakes contribute to making this a heavier roll, but that just adds to the satisfaction, in my mind. A great roll for all occasions. Slightly ...

Having already enjoyed Steamed Brown Bread and Aunt Geri's New England Brown Bread (see blogs), I was looking forward to trying this recipe. I like the choice of raisins or dried cranberries, but had to go with raisins, not having any cranberries on hand. I will try the cranberries another day. Of the three bread recipes in the cookbook, this turned out to be the heaviest. Which is fine, I think that is part of the appeal of a brown bread, and one expects it to be heavier. The lightest brown bread turned out to be the Steamed Brown Bread, and I suspect it was the All Bran cereal and the white flour that contributed to that lightness.  I'm quite fond now of the brown bread cooking method I've discovered to sort of "fix-it-and-forget-it"--pour your bread batter into a well-greased tin can, place tin can in crockpot and pour boiling water from your tea kettle into crockpot, about 1/2 to 2/3 up side of can. Turn crockpot on high for 3-4 hours. I learned to put parchme...

 I always say, if it works, and you're happy, don't mess with happy. I tried out Steamed Brown Bread (see blog) in a tin can in a crockpot, and it was delicious! So, why not try this brown bread in the crockpot, too, I said to self. And I am happy to report another delicious brown bread was the result of that baking decision! This brown bread does not have raisins. And no All-Bran. It does have cornmeal and bread crumbs. And what self-respecting brown bread can be without molasses? It steamed for hours and hours in the crockpot, and was done just about the same time as the Baked Yellow-Eye Beans (see blog). Making for a great meal that can be found in many Maine homes on a Saturday night (or any night).

 I had planned to serve these rolls for Thanksgiving dinner. The third rising of the dough threw off my calculations of when they would be ready. Oh well. Rolls are terrific hot out of the oven any time, with butter, right?! I recently figured out a new spot for my dough to rise. The pre-warmed oven didn't seem to be working well. So I studied the King Arthur Flour website for ideas and decided if I covered the dough carefully with a tight lid, or plastic wrap, I could place it above the heating grate on the floor, and rise it there.  The first rising was successful. The second rising, even higher! And the shaped rolls rose beautifully in the pan. No complaints about the new dough-rising location. I did have to squish the last three rolls into the pan, since I had a little more dough than the pan wanted to accommodate. This recipe was submitted by Paula Hopkins Dayboch, and it was her great-grandmother's recipe, Mary Lucretian Edes Hopkins. Her great grandmother lived in Green...

 There are three brown bread recipes in this cookbook. This is the first of the three. According to Lois Widmer, who submitted the recipe, her mother served it every Saturday night with baked beans. And it became a favorite at the monthly baked bean suppers at First Parish Church in Brunswick in the 70's and 80's.  I confess that I was a little puzzled by the first ingredient. I mean, when was the last time I ate All-Bran cereal? (Ah, that's right, um, Never). I wasn't even sure they still made the stuff. I had a great-aunt who ate it religiously, but that was eons ago. Will miracles never cease! There it was, on the grocery shelf, apparently selling to someone all these eons. Well, I was willing to try anything, once. Here goes! Turns out, the miracle ingredient is All-Bran. Who knew brown bread could taste so good? I always remembered it from my childhood as a rather sour-tasting thing. And as a child, I was not very adventurous with food, preferring my bread to be sq...

 I thought at first glance that these were "rolls." You know, dinner rolls. Silly me. Much to my surprise, they are a fabulous breakfast treat. Like a coffee roll. But with lemon and potato and pecans. Yum! It is a little time intensive, with the yeast dough rising, but well worth it. The dough kneads up easily and tucked in the oven on lowest temp, covered, gives it a good rise. And don't you just love the smell of yeasted dough and the anticipation of eating something yeasty-bread-delicious? There is a lemon glaze recipe attached to this recipe. Very simple, but necessary to this melt-in-your-mouth roll, to put it over the top. I do think I would add a dite more lemon juice to the glaze. But then, I adore lemon. This recipe won a blue ribbon at the Fort Fairfield Potato Blossom Festival, and I can see why!

 I don't know why, but I was imagining this bread would be extra heavy on the pear flavor. You know, kinda like banana bread is heavy on the banana flavor? And, I was having the devil of a time trying to get ripe pears. They were all hard as rock and didn't want to ripen worth a darn and I was tired of staring at the bowl of fruit in the kitchen, waiting til heaven knows when for those little pears to ripen. So, the recipe allows for substitution of applesauce, and I like applesauce. And while I was equally worried there might be a heavy apple flavor, I went ahead with the recipe. I substituted cinnamon, where it calls for ginger, since that would compliment the applesauce better. And I added a little extra honey.  The first rising was perfect, but it did take a full hour and a half, tucked in the oven on the lowest temp and covered with a dishtowel. The second rising in the pan also went well.  I always worry about yeast breads, that they might not rise well, but it's al...

 This is one of those recipes where I hunted high and low for a specific ingredient. I could not find Irish Moss anywhere in health food stores, so I finally settled for Alaria seaweed, which I knew we would also use in Miso soup. Seaweed/sea moss, same diff, right? I can substitute one for another. Right? Ummm, wrong. And I found out the hard way, since I made the recipe and noticed that the alaria did not appear to be acting as a thickening agent in the milk mixture.  Back I went to the health food store, and explained my dilemma to a very helpful staff person. She said, have you tried Agar-Agar? I said no, and I didn't even know what it looked like. She handed me a package, which is essentially Irish Moss reduced to teeny-tiny tapioca-sized pebbles, which acts as a thickening agent in puddings. The recipe does suggest agar-agar, if you can't get the sea moss, but I was focused on getting the "authentic" ingredient. Phew, this did the trick! The picture I took does ...

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...

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...

 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...

 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...

When my kids were little, I was an at-home mom doing freelance writing for a local paper. We lived out in the country on a dead-end dirt road in a small log-sided 2-bedroom home with a Jotul woodstove. I did a lot of home cooking, to save on grocery/restaurant costs, but also because I loved making sure my family ate healthy food. I especially loved to bake bread. There is something so relaxing about baking bread. Maybe it is the joy of witnessing that mysterious life that the combination of yeast and just the right temperature of warm water offer.  Perhaps it is the repetitive motion of stirring that yeast mixture with the flour, until the magical moment when it comes together in a ball and you turn it out onto a floured surface to rest. Yes, to rest.  Then there is the kneading, which needs to be steady and strong for a full ten to twelve minutes, to get the dough to that yielding softness that marks its readiness to rise. Greased and covered with a cloth in a draft-free, wa...

 Ployes are made from buckwheat flour. If you live in Northern Maine, you are likely already familiar with this food. Living in the mid-coast, it took me a little time to find buckwheat flour, having to go to a food co-op for it, since the major grocery stores did not carry it (in this era of COVID-19, it's not easy scoring any kind of flour and we learn to make do with whatever is on the store shelf). The buckwheat flour that I purchased comes from the Bouchard Family Farms, established in 1871 in beautiful Fort Kent, Maine. I like to research my food, if it is new to me. Buckwheat is technically an herb or fruit, related to wild rhubarb. So, it is gluten-free. It has twice the B vitamins of wheat flour. And just how did this crop become popular in the St. John Valley? Well, in the 1830s, wheat crops were devastated in the Northeast by an insect called the wheat midge, and a disease called rust. The wheat farmers turned to oats and buckwheat. By 1850, buckwheat became the most pop...

 This could not be an easier recipe. And every bite of egg has an exquisite taste of lobster in it! And to think that back in 1935, when lobsters were a dime a dozen at the coast, you could have your fill of them! The recipe originates in "Just a Few Maine Sea Food Recipes" circa 1935. The recipe is simply eggs and chopped cooked lobster meat. So if you were on a spit of land, waiting on a supply boat and tending the lighthouse, how do you feed your family if the supply boat can't get thru for weeks, due to weather? The lighthouse keepers might have had a few laying hens, and lobsters were plentiful, so much so that they were considered a "poor man's food." I think this makes for an elegant breakfast, and would only add one more food item to make one's breakfast "quintessential Maine." Popovers. Hot out of the oven. That would require flour, which a lighthouse keeper would have in the pantry. And if you've got hens, you've got eggs. Oh ...

It's been years since I've had cast iron frying pans in my kitchen. I can't remember if I gave them away or if they are just in a box that never got unpacked in the new parsonage. Anyway, had to improvise with something else. Enter the Blue Souffle Dish. I figure if such a dish is used to "puff" other recipes, perhaps it can "puff" this one as well! This could not be an easier recipe. Just whisk those eggs and milk and a little flour and sugar, and pop the souffle dish in a very hot oven. It took longer to rise than the recipe called for, but maybe that's because the souffle dish has a higher side than a cast iron frying pan?  It rose about an inch higher than the dish. But by the time I managed to get the picture, it had settled down to the rim of the dish. It still looked mighty tasty. In addition to sprinkling some powdered sugar on top, I poured maple syrup on it. No pancake is complete until it has maple syrup! It tasted a little like a popover,...

Printed in "the first cookbook compiled and published in Maine," this recipe comes to us thanks to the Ladies of State Street Parish in Portland, who compiled recipes for "Fish, Flesh and Fowl: A Book of Recipes for Cooking" in 1877.  Being such an old recipe, there are virtually no instructions, except to scald the milk, and allow it to cool before stirring in the eggs. It is mentioned as a flatbread. So I was puzzled by the proportion of eggs and milk to dry ingredients. I cut the recipe in half, and used 4 eggs and 2 cups milk, plus a full cup of cornmeal and a little sugar and salt. I chose to add 1 t baking powder, although that was not in the recipe. All it says is to bake "in high oven." So I figured maybe I should treat it like I do a custard. I baked it at 450 for 15 minutes in a lightly greased glass pie dish, then dropped the heat to 350 for 30 minutes. The result was a thick polenta base with what amounts to scrambled eggs on top. And the fasci...

Good things come out of all regions of our state, but this recipe comes to us all the way from the beautiful northern city of Caribou. Senator Susan Collins submitted this recipe, which she credits as her mother's recipe, from a family cookbook entitled "Fifty Years of Cooking: 1948-1998."  Well, Senator Collins, if you are reading this blog, hats off to your mother's recipe, it's a keeper! Senator Collins writes in the description for the recipe (p.17): "I started making muffins for my husband almost every Sunday night a few years ago. It made me feel that I was doing something special for him to compensate for the many times that one or both of us had evening events that precluded our having dinner together." I hear you, Senator Collins. I'm a pastor, with evening meetings, so I understand how you have to find times/ways to connect with your spouse that are special. And these muffins fit the bill! I taste tested these muffins on my husband this mor...

These turned out to be more biscuit-like than roll-like. I do like the convenience of prepping the dough, then tossing it in the fridge till a more convenient bake-time. I found the directions for bake-off to be a little different than what I'm accustomed to. It says to remove dough from fridge, roll out dough, and cut in triangles. Truth be told, I wasn't especially interested in doing special geometric shapes for my rolls, leave that for fancier chefs than I. So I just did quick square cuts, still trying to adjust to the fact that I had just rolled out a yeast dough like you would roll out sugar cookie dough. It was not at all a "spongy" dough, like I'm used to for yeast bread. And I had carefully put at least a 1/2 cup less flour than what the recipe called for, just to be sure I didn't get a dry dough. I'm guessing "Aunt Bernice" could tell me where I went wrong, were she alive today (according to the contributor, Bernice had this recipe publ...

It is mid-July here in Maine, and the humid days can make you feel like baking is just not the right thing to do. But this morning, we had a break from the humidity. It was a cool night, in the 50s last night. This morning, the kitchen was bright and airy, with a cool breeze moving through. What better weather in which to bake blueberry muffins?! Hmmm, there are several blueberry muffin recipes in this cookbook. I've already tried the one with molasses, and much to my surprise that was moist and wonderful. Time to try a recipe which is typed on stationery with a United States Senate letterhead. From the office of Margaret Chase Smith. It's a fine recipe, although I'm not sure why the tops of the muffins didn't brown properly. I could tell that the bottoms were done, so had to pull the muffins. Who ever heard of a dry blueberry muffin? Not out of my kitchen!  I saved them in the nick of time. Not too dry. And I appreciate that she doesn't use too much sugar in the re...