Category Archives: News

News

The Ice Storm Didn’t Cometh—At Least Not Yet

A Christmas ornament from Ireland
A Christmas ornament from Ireland

This time, luck was with us in central Maine. Instead of two days of freezing rain and almost certain power outages, it was warm enough so that we got plain old rain that did not coat the trees and roads with ice. While the rain makes an awful drizzly mess, at least it isn’t an ice storm. How I hate ice storms.

I am hoping we can make it to the New Year without any major storms and power outages. We have lots of holiday plans, and much of it involves cooking and baking and visiting with family and friends. Once again our daughter Dee will be traveling from New York to Maine, and it would be great if wasn’t a nail-biter of a trip.

Winter, of course, will do what it wants, and all we can do is be prepared for terrible weather. The soup and beans remain in the pantry; the water is at the ready in covered buckets. The cookies? Well, I have to confess that Clif and I broke into the Pepperidge Farm cookies last night, and they are unlikely to make it to the next ice storm, unless—heaven forbid—we have one in the next few days.

In yesterday’s gray and gloom, I received a package from Shari Burke—all the way from Ireland—and in it was one of the sweetest Christmas tree ornaments I have ever seen. A little book dangles at the end of it, and this ornament was the first to go on the tree last night. Shari also sent us a coaster, which is under a candle in the living room, and a bookmark with blue embroidered Christmas trees. The bookmark is in the current book I’m reading.  All the gifts were homemade, and what a treat to receive them.

So for the moment,  all is calm, snug, and warm at the little house in the big woods. I am hoping it will stop raining this afternoon, and I can take Liam for a walk in the woods.

This might be hoping for too much, but you know what they say about hope.

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More Winter Bite

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IMG_7111Another storm is blowing up the East Coast, and the prediction for central Maine is sleet and freezing rain for the next two days. Oh, joy!

It wouldn’t surprise me if we lost our power again, and I am prepared. I’ve stocked up on canned soup, canned beans, bread, and, most important, cookies—Pepperidge Farm shortbread. We have lamp oil, propane tanks for our camp stove, and water in buckets in the basement.

But what a winter we’ve had so far, and it’s not even officially winter yet. Lord! When I was growing up in central Maine, I don’t remember the power going out at the farmhouse in North Vassalboro. I suppose we must have lost power from time to time, but it was not a regular occurrence the way it is now each winter. I think it’s because the nature of winter storms has changed in Maine. When I was young, we got lots of snow, but it was mostly light and fluffy and easy to manage. Now, all too often we get freezing rain or very heavy snow, just perfect for knocking down trees and big branches and power lines.

Onward! And thank goodness for the wood furnace and plenty of wood under cover.

The dog and I went for a walk before the weather got too bad.
The dog and I went for a walk today before the weather got too bad.
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Snowy Thanks

IMG_7055On this day of gratitude, I am thankful that my daughter Dee made it safely to Maine; that thanks to the crew at CMP our power was only out for twelve hours; that we had Little Green to help clean-up; that I woke up to a sunny day with a deep blue sky; and finally, that I am not hosting Thanksgiving this year. Between losing the power and cleaning over a foot of snow, Clif and I were tired by 11:00 a.m.

However, I did find time to take pictures. The day was just so pretty I couldn’t resist.

Big green and little green
Big green and little green
The backyard
The backyard
Birds and snow
Birds and snow
Snow owl
Snow owl
News

Just in Time for Thanksgiving—a Winter Storm

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For now, all is calm at the little house in the big woods
For now, all is calm at the little house in the big woods

Ah, the holidays. Yesterday I was brooding about the sheared bottoms of my pumpkin bread. Today I am worrying about a winter storm forecasted for Wednesday, when our daughter Dee will be traveling from New York to Maine. Last night, the prediction for snow was three to five inches, enough to make the roads a little slippery, but not enough for Mainers to worry about. However, overnight the prediction changed, and I woke up to hear Lou McNally, on Maine Public Radio, warn that we might get a foot of snow. Just what a mother wants to hear when her daughter will be traveling up the East Coast.

Our family has gone over all sorts of contingency plans, from Dee leaving early on Wednesday, if her work allows, to having Thanksgiving later in the afternoon, which would be better for those of us who will have to clean our driveways and drive to Portland. What fun!

From now until late March, the weather in the Northeast will be unpredictable, and over the years this has remained constant, despite climate change. When I was young, there were plenty of storms and slippery roads between November and March. I should be used to this uncertainty, but I’m not. Somehow, I expect the weather to cooperate during the holidays. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t. (Last year our holiday treat was a mini-ice storm that knocked out our power during Christmas.) The weather does what it will.

Right now, the weather is calm, and the backyard looks deceptively peaceful. In addition, it is so warm that I haven’t started a fire yet in our wood furnace, and I am perfectly comfortable without the heat.

But all that can change in a day, and the sky’s hazy look portends that something is brewing, that something is ready to blow up the East Coast.

Good luck to all travelers who will be out and about during this storm. I know I won’t rest easy until Dee is safe in Portland with her sister.

 

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All Things Pumpkin

IMG_7006Yesterday, I baked two of the sweetest pumpkins I’ve ever cooked—thank you, Farmer Kev—and have enough pumpkin to make a couple of loaves of quick bread for Thanksgiving as well as a soup for our supper tonight. The bread will go in the freezer, which is too bad. However, with all the other cooking I have to do, there just won’t be time to make the bread close enough to Thanksgiving so that it will be fresh.

This year, Shannon will be hosting Thanksgiving at her home in South Portland. Along with the pumpkin bread, I’ll be bringing the gravy, a sweet potato casserole, and a green bean casserole. All these recipes are oldies but goodies in our family, and in the green bean casserole there will be no cream of mushroom soup or canned onions.  I promise.

One of the happiest recipe finds in my life has been Julia Moskin’s make ahead gravy. It is a long process, but the hands-on time is small, and it is more than worth it to have an utterly delicious gravy made ahead of the big day. This, too, goes in the freezer and comes out Thanksgiving morning.  This gravy can be made a week ahead, two weeks ahead, even a month ahead, and if you do this, there will be one big worry eliminated from your Thanksgiving list.  I post this recipe every year, for new readers and for those who might have overlooked it. The only changes I have made are to use chicken legs instead of turkey legs—chicken gravy goes just fine with turkey—and I also use more butter and flour for a thicker gravy.

Gravy is all very well and good, you might be thinking, but what about those pumpkin seeds? Never fear! They are spread on a baking sheet, where they will dry for a day or two, and after that I plan to roast them with butter, soy sauce, a little garlic powder, and kosher salt. I’ve never roasted them this way before—salt and a little oil are what I have used—but Dee has been raving about roasted pumpkin seeds and soy sauce, which she gets in New York. So this year I thought I would roast them with soy sauce and see how they turn out.

Somehow, I have a feeling that the problem will be to refrain from eating all the pumpkin seeds before Dee comes home. Therefore, I plan to put the roasted pumpkin seeds put into a jar and tuck them in a cupboard where I can’t see them.

This should do the trick. Out of sight, out of mind really does work at the little house in the big woods. Now, all I have to do is remember to bring the pumpkin seeds with me to South Portland  on Thanksgiving Day.

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November 14, 2014: More Snow

IMG_6995Time was in Maine when November was a cold, dry month, where the ground froze solid by the middle of the month, and as long as leaves were raked by Thanksgiving, you were pretty much all set. Hunters prayed for snow by Thanksgiving, to make it easier to track deer. Sometimes they got it, but more often they didn’t.

Nowadays, the snow can come as early as the end of October, and it falls on green grass and unfrozen ground and unraked leaves. As the snow melts, which it usually does, it makes a muddy mess, and the wet leaves are that much heavier to rake.

This morning we woke up to snow, and after breakfast, I went outside to get some pictures of the snowy yard and woods. It is pretty. I will give it that. But I miss the old days of cold, austere November, which prepared us for December, where the snow often didn’t come until Christmas. I remember my mother and grandmother expressing the hope that we would have a white Christmas. Then, in January, the snow would come for real, and nobody worried about having a green landscape.

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We must take what comes, of course, and work around it. Still, it’s a little odd to be old enough to remember what was and note how much things have changed.

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New York Trip: Libraries

A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever.   

From the time I was a young child, libraries have been an important part of my life. In North Vassalboro, where I grew up, there was a tiny library made from a converted cottage that had been hauled by horses across an icy China Lake. My family regularly went to this library. Once a week, we also went to the Waterville Public Library, a bigger library with a much larger and more enticing selection of books. So I guess you could say we were fools for libraries, and this perhaps explains why I so enjoy seeing other libraries when I travel.

On my recent trip to New York City, Dee and I visited two libraries in the New York Public Library system—“the iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building,” and the much smaller Hudson Park Library. The contrast between these two libraries couldn’t be greater, but both have their appeal and place.

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A temple for books

The Schwarzman Building—the one with the lions—is nothing less than a temple devoted to books and words and learning. There are pillars and marble and frescos and chandeliers and statues, and as I tiptoed through the hallowed halls, I looked up, down, and around until my neck began to hurt. I’m sure my mouth was agape as I took in the splendors of this magnificent library. I felt like a country bumpkin in the big city. Is there a more splendid library in this country? I can’t imagine it, but I would certainly be interested in finding out if there is one.

Laurie by the lion
Laurie and the lion

At the Schwarzman Building, we saw two exhibits: Over Here: WWI and the Fight for the American Mind and Sublime: The Prints of J. M. W. Turner and Thomas Moran.  Over Here illustrated how posters, songs, books, and even movies, a new technology at the time, were used as propaganda to encourage the American public to support WWI. And apparently the public did need to be persuaded. On one side was the progressive activist Jane Addams, who maintained that war “affords no solution for vexed international problems.” On the other side was Theodore Roosevelt, who decried “flabby pacifism” and urged America to join the fight. We know who won that argument.

From a historic point of view, Sublime was interesting, but there is no way around it—the prints lacked snap. Both Turner and Moran had a vision of nature that hardly resembles nature at all. With only a few exceptions, the prints were stiff and lifeless yet over the top at the same time. A difficult combination to achieve, but somehow they managed. I’m not sorry I saw the exhibit—Turner’s vivid paintings are completely different from his prints, and I was fascinated by the contrast. Before this exhibit, I had never heard of Thomas Moran, and it is always good to learn about an artist, even if his work doesn’t exactly speak to you.

The next day we visited the Hudson Park Library, to see paintings by Elliot Gilbert. Where the Schwarzman Building is grand and imposing, the Hudson Park Library is small and humble. The Hudson Park Library is tucked on a tree-lined street in Greenwich Village. The reading room was small but filled with various people reading and using the computers. It felt cozy and homey and well loved, a community center for Greenwich Village, and while I admired the grander Schwarzman Building, I felt at home in the Hudson Park Library. In fact, given enough money, I could even see myself living in one of those brick homes next to the library, where I would be close to shops and good Chinese restaurants and cinemas that play foreign film such as the terrific Diplomacy, which Dee and I saw after going to the library.

Unfortunately, Gilbert’s paintings were shown in a little room where people where studying and reading, and we weren’t able to get a good look at the paintings. But that’s all right. It was still fun visiting the library and walking through Greenwich village, which is much more relaxed than other parts of New York City.

The little Hudson Park Library
The little Hudson Park Library

A final note: The quotation at the beginning of this piece appropriately comes from a fortune cookie I had the first night in New York. What a fun way to start a trip that was centered on libraries!

 

 

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New York Trip: Food

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IMG_6901Now, I would go visit Dee wherever she lived, even if it were in a place where chain restaurants reigned supreme, and the Olive Garden was the height of culinary attractions. (Actually, that description could apply to central Maine.) But Dee lives in New York City, where terrific food can be found on nearly every corner. Some restaurants are very expensive, but there are also restaurants that offer great deals, and every time I go visit Dee, we find good places to eat at a reasonable price.

This time when I went to visit Dee, I was on a Chinese food kick, and I have just cause. In short, Maine is a Chinese food wasteland. The state has many, many Chinese restaurants, but the ones I have been to can’t even be called fair, and some of them are outright terrible. (If anyone reading this knows of a good Chinese restaurant within driving distance of Augusta, then please, please let me know.) Chinese food, along with Italian food, is one of my absolute favorites, so it is especially discouraging that I haven’t found any decent ones in Maine.

As it happens, less than a block from Dee’s apartment is a little Chinese take-out, and it has been our tradition to get food there on the night I arrive. This time was no different, and we ordered steamed vegetable dumplings and mixed vegetables with bean curd, otherwise known as tofu. For the two of us, the meal came to $16, and that included drinks. The dumplings were moist and tasty, the vegetables were crisp, and the sauce was good. Can it get any better for that price?

It seemed that it could. Two days later, on our way to the Hudson Park Library, in Greenwich Village, we passed a little Chinese Restaurant—Grand Sichuan—and I saw a Zagat endorsement sticker on the door.

“If there’s time  before our movie, maybe we can come here after we see the exhibit at the library,” I said, even though we had already eaten Chinese food twice in two days.

“You’re just going crazy with the Chinese food,” Dee said.

I agreed and reminded her of the Chinese wasteland I live in. Dee, who knows very well what the situation is with Maine Chinese food, couldn’t argue.

As it turned out, the exhibit at the Hudson Park library was very small, and there was plenty of time to have lunch before our movie started. We were seated by a window where the light was great should I want to take a picture of my food. And I most certainly did. I ordered vegetable lo mein, and it had the kind of sauce that I crave but never get in Maine, a rich brown—but not sweet or cloying—sauce with a slightly smoky taste. The vegetables were cooked to crunchy perfection. The meal came with an appetizer, and we both ordered vegetarian egg rolls, which were all right but certainly not outstanding. Never mind. The lo mein was so good that the egg roll really didn’t matter. And the bill? A little over $13 for the two of us.

Lovely lo mein
Lovely lo mein

However, it wasn’t all Chinese food on this trip. The day before going to the Hudson Park Library, we did take a break from noodles, rice, and crunchy vegetables. After visiting the main branch of the New York Public Library, we went to Broadway Bites, “a seasonal culinary pop-up market in Greeley Square Park…” A friend of Dee’s had suggested we go there, and Dee knew it would be right up my alley. Indeed it was. Lots of little stalls selling different types of food? For me, it doesn’t get much better.

Everything we got was delicious. From the donuts made fresh on site

The birth of donuts
The birth of donuts

to the flaky, crunchy cheese sticks

Those cheese sticks!
Those cheese sticks!

to the hand-cut fries, cooked to order, with garlic and truffle oil.

Fries, fries, fries
Fries, fries, fries

What a way to spend the afternoon.

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New York Trip: City Birds

Yesterday, I returned from my trip to New York City, where I visited Dee. As is always the case after I travel, I’m completely bushed—too little sleep, an ongoing issue for me even when I’m home, and too much stimulation. Therefore, in this post I’m not going to write much about New York, and I’m going to divide the trip in three sections—birds, food, and libraries.

City Birds

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Finally, here is a sign in Greeley Park, and it seems to me this is certainly a case of the pot calling the kettle black. After all, who is the most invasive species of all? Not pigeons, that’s for sure.

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