Maine Bicentennial, A Cookbook, and Me

 This recipe is another first for me. It was rather fun to note that the recipe was submitted by Melissa Bailey of Penobscot, Maine. Not sure if we are related, but always interesting to encounter someone with my maiden name. I was a little nervous about attempting this recipe. I mean, there are gorgeous pictures of Yule Logs all over the internet and in glossy food magazines. Could I even get this cake to look anything like a log? I followed the recipe exactly, and was quite pleased with the cake result. After baking, I rolled it up, as directed, in a tea towel, to cool. Then I tackled the filling and, well, it just didn't work for me. I have no idea why. So I went looking for an alternate filling recipe, and found one with cream cheese, which seems to be just the right ingredient for the heavy cream and confectioner's sugar to blend with. I gently unrolled the cake, spread the filling, and rolled it back up. The recipe does not mention to do this, but I then wrapped the cake ...

 There were no lamb shoulders to be found at the stores where I shop. So I chose a semi-boneless leg of lamb. And kept the preparation simple. Gave it a good rub with freshly ground salt and pepper, and lemon zest and garlic. Popped it in the oven at 425 for about 20 minutes, then reduced the heat to 350 for about one hour and twenty minutes. My goal was to pull it out at 130 degrees (rare), but of course, the less-dense portions of meat were already medium or medium well. Which simply means there was meat to my liking (medium to medium well) and meat to my husband's liking (medium rare), depending upon where you slice. For a meat that I've never attempted before, I think this came out marvelously well. We enjoyed it for our Christmas dinner, and it was really delicious. I will, of course, keep looking for lamb shoulder. Perhaps more available around the Easter holiday? This recipe completes the Flesh and Fowl chapter in the Maine Bicentennial Community Cookbook. This is a grea...

 By the time I got to this recipe, we were past the "season" of green tomatoes. So, I looked for a comparable relish recipe that uses red tomatoes...and proceeded to purchase the "greenest" tomatoes at the market! Hats off to Etta Pratt McIntire. The recipe makes up tons of relish (also called chow-chow), so I had to cut back a bit.  We have yet to use the relish, and I think I read somewhere that it is best to let the flavors blend for a couple of weeks, so I'm reluctant to open a jar. I'm afraid my review of flavor will have to wait. I will say that relish takes patience and time. There is simply a great deal of chopping up to do. Even using a food processor, I still found that for canning relish, you just need to set aside a large block of time.

 This has been a great idea, cooking thru this cookbook...in great part because I have tried things I've never tried before, and have fallen in love with new-to-me foods.  Sure, I've had sausage before. But fats don't agree with me much, so I try to limit sausage in my diet. Truth is, I read this recipe and was somewhat intrigued and somewhat intimidated. I wasn't sure I'd be able to make sausage "from scratch." And what if it was too fatty for me? My first stumbling block was that we did not own a meat grinder. So I tried borrowing one. Not much luck. Was loaned one, but it was too rusty. By this time, the Resident Archaeologist was intrigued, and headed out to find one. They are just not that easy to find (the hand crank kind). But he managed to find one, and called it an early Christmas present for us. He even found sausage casings, which it turns out are shelf stable so they just hang on the rack at the store. The grinder attaches easily to the counter...

 Yia-Yia Stella travelled here from Kotronos, Greece. Her family settled in Massachusetts, and she eventually moved to Biddeford, Maine. I love the picture of her, and it appears she is frying something, maybe this very recipe? When I think of "fried dough" my mind naturally wanders to the summer fairs, where I get my annual treat of fried dough, the size of a plate, slathered in melted butter and sprinkled with confectioner's sugar. This fried dough is similar, but the recipe suggests twisting the dough into a cruller or wreath shape before frying. So I decided to try making a "cruller." I loved crullers when I was a kid...nowadays they have lost that fascinating name and are called "sticks." Wish we could go back to "cruller." This dough is not a sweet dough, so you definitely want to butter it up and sugar it up. You can also dip it in melted chocolate sweetened with sugar (maybe with a dash of almond flavoring). Or dip it in maple syrup. ...

 This is a "stand alone" recipe, in my opinion. It is originally paired with String Beans with Lamb (see blog), however, I decided it's such a great recipe that I wanted to be able to access it separately, as a side for other meals. And, since I didn't cook it with the Lamb recipe, I can make it tonite with chicken! I changed it up a wee bit. It calls for sauteeing the fine egg noodles in lots and lots of butter. I don't handle lots of butter well. So I chose to just cook the egg noodles quickly in boiling chicken broth, then I threw in bulgur wheat (at the health food store, or buy a box of Tabbouleh in the rice section at the grocery store), which is wonderfully quick-cooking, rather than cracked wheat. Then I took it off the heat, covered the pan, and let it sit for the bulgur to plump up in the hot broth. Added a little EVOO and a couple squirts of lemon, and served it with chicken thighs and a mix of broccoli and cauliflower, and rolls (see Aroostook County B...

 This recipe has been handed down through the generations in Phyllis Pruett's husband's family, and it is a Pruett family tradition to serve it at Thanksgiving and Christmas, with a hard sauce. I was a little hesitant to try this recipe. It seemed so similar to the Pop-Corn Pudding (same page, see blog) and I had managed to curdle the milk in that recipe. I did not want a repeat incident here. The recipe mentions crackers that are not widely available now (Common Crackers), so it is suggested to substitute Saltines. I used the mini-saltines, and crushed them. Where the recipe directs putting in the oven to cook with no oven temp mentioned, I became very wary. How could I prevent the milk from curdling? Not only that, the recipe also requires adding more milk at some point in the baking process, and stirring, then bake longer ("til spoon comes out clean"). Too little instruction here for my comfort level! I googled Saltine Cracker Pudding and Allrecipes.com came to the...