Shaw's Fish and Lobster Wharf - They're Back!!!

UD and I vacationed on the Rocky Coast for about 25 year before we retired here.  We stayed in BBH each time, but always traveled around, exploring the area.  UD likes to drive somewhere we don't know, and sort of get lost.  One year we were here in late Fall, and we ventured out on a raw, unpleasant sort of day.  The perfect day to get lost.  Lo and behold, we came upon Shaw's Fish and Lobster Wharf in New Harbor, ME.  When we examined the menu, we both stopped short at the lobster chowder.  We thought it would be a wonderful way to warm up.  We expected a nice chowder, but what we got was heaven in a bowl.  The lobster was abundant, and the flavor could not be beat.  After that, we visited Shaw's every year and always looked forward to it.  Each time we got a bowl of lobster chowder, and sometimes added something fried and wonderful.  That is until about 2 years ago.  Now remember, this post is about the fact that they are back and going strong.  So don't worry.  The story has a happy ending.  So, we headed back, and were so very disappointed.  First, there were flies everywhere.  It was not a pleasant thing at all.  We ordered the lobster chowder, and it was bland and very lacking in lobster.  We thought, well, it must just be an off day.  We ordered some fried clams, and they were all clumped together and just not good at all.  We called it a day, and decided to return later in the summer.  Unfortunately we had another bad experience.  And again the next year.  We returned twice, only to be disappointed each time.  We were so disappointed.  It was such a nice trip there, through Darmariscotta and other quaint little towns.  And we always passed the most old fashioned and refreshing looking swimming hole in Bristol.  However, here is where I am happy to say, they are back and going strong!!!  We visited shortly after Memorial Day, and decided against ordering the lobster chowder.  Just in case.  I got the haddock with fries and a salad, and UD had the scallops with fries and coleslaw.  Both were terrific.  We were so relieved and happy.  Two days ago we went again, with the intention of getting the lobster chowder as the ultimate deciding factor.

Here is our return visit.

We walked in, and went up the stairs to the deck and the  picturesque views of New Harbor.  A very lovely grandmother was having a lot of fun with her grandsons.  They were laughing and having a wonderful time.  Everyone was.

We looked over the side of the deck and saw the men who probably supplied the lobster for the chowder we were about to order.  They were working very hard indeed.

This is where you order, and let me tell you, the menu is very extensive.  You can be bad and have fried everything, but they also offer broiled, baked and blackened options.

Here is UD with the menu.  Not so large you can't make up your mind, but large enough that everyone will find something they like.  Isn't UD the best model ever? 

And then came the chowder.  Nuff said?

Add the crackers and dig in!

We just got a cup of chowder each, so it seemed absolutely ridiculous not to get a little something more.  :)  So we decided to share a small onion ring and fried clams.  I think this picture says it all.  They were light and crispy, and no clumping whatsoever.

Thank you Shaw's Fish and Lobster Wharf.  We are so glad you are back, and we will be too.

Remember the swimming hole I mentioned?  We stopped on the way home.  These people were having a blast.  The young boy skimming the water here was having so much fun, and showing off for my camera a little too.  He was terrific.

He made a big splash with us!

A bientot!  See you soon.

The Proclamation

This month I declared to UD and whoever else was listening (which nobody was), that we were going use all the meats we have in the freezer downstairs.  We have Nellie's old refrigerator downstairs, which is great for drinks and overspill from the upstairs fridge.  It is also nice to have an extra freezer.  We went to Sam's Club the other day, and I bought a huge package of chicken tenders.  They are perfect for stir-fry and we love them.  They were $2.19 lb!  I know!  Can you believe it?  I get them on sale at Hannafords for $3.29 lb, if I am lucky.  But I digress.  So home came just about 6 lbs of chicken tenders.  I packaged them all up with my food saver vacuum sealer and brought them downstairs to the freezer.  Much to my dismay, I almost couldn't fit them in.  Hence the proclamation.  No more buying meat until we use everything we already have.  That's it.  I mean business.

That is where this ham comes in.  I know it is July, but I decided I needed to cook the ham.  It was taking up a lot of space, and I figured if I cooked it, we could get several meals from it.

The first meal is ham with sweet brussel sprouts and mashed potatoes.  I am going to use the rest of the compound herb butter, with the mashed potatoes.

See the ham bone in the background?  I am going to make UD some pea soup with that.  I have never done it, and I don't think I like it, but for UD, I will do it!  After all, "There is no remedy for love but to love more." -Thoreau.   Way to go Thoreau!

I am sad to see the last of the herb butter go, but it is for a greater good.

Delicious and rather decadent!

I know you have seen me make these brussel sprouts a thousand time.  Sorry.  As my father always said, "Marth, if I told you a once, I told you a million times.  Don't exaggerate."  He had a million of them.  I miss him.

Seriously, the chicken broth and the touch of sugar do so much for these little green lovelies.

Dinner is served.

Again, I know it is July, not February, but don't we deserve a little comfort food even in the summer?

I must interject a special shout out.  Happy Birthday Sister E!

A bientot!  See you soon.

It's The Little Things, Nes Cafe?

I love summer for lots of reasons, but a big one is because the farm stands open up.  I LOVE them!  This is the place I go to on the Rocky Coast.  It is called Brown's Farm Stand.  This is the first year they have had a little building.  Before this was a lean-to type stand with produce under a tarp that was erected to keep the elements away.  This building is very nice.  The neon sign blows my mind a little bit, but what the heck?

The little red potatoes looked really good, so I decided to make Herb roasted red potatoes.  So simple, and very delicious.

I washed them and let them dry.

Along with some Herbs.  Parsley, rosemary and thyme to be exact.  I still get excited every time I get to use my Herb garden.  It is the little things, nes cafe?

I chop them up roughly.  This will make the potatoes look nice and rustic.  Except for the rosemary.  That has a sort of "branchy" texture, so I always mince it pretty fine.

I cut the potatoes into 1 inch pieces.

Put them in a mixing bowl with salt, pepper and EVOO.  And of course the Herbs.  Mix it all up good.

Spill them out onto a foil lined baking sheet.

Cook them at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.  Then pull them out of the oven for a minute, and flip them around with a spatula.  Cook for another 15 minutes.

They will come out golden brown and delicious.

We actually snacked on these while hanging out on the deck for a while. It was so relaxing, and so much better than snacking on potato chips. The leftovers will be wonderful too. Maybe a kicked up potato and egg for breakfast soon.

A bientot!  See you soon.

Nice and Easy

Leftovers really make us happy.  Not only is it an easy assembly and therefore a quick meal, but we feel so good not wasting anything.  And if you enjoyed it the first time, the second time around is bound to be just as good, if not better.

A couple of nights ago we tried hanger steak for the first time.  I have often heard it referred to as butcher's steak, because years ago the butchers kept it for themselves.  They realized the flavor value, and since it didn't look like a hearty and significant piece of meat, people would be less apt to buy it.

Our original meal was very simple.  Just a salad topped with grilled steak.  I marinaded the steak in the following, for about 4 hours.  Two would be fine, but what's a couple of extra hours amongst friends?

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 large garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (I am in love with the Irish Stout Mustard, of the seemingly ever present potato salad, so I used that instead of Dijon)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary (Happily from my Herb garden)
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup dark lager beer (I didn't want to go out, so I used Miller Lite, because it was available)
• 2 pounds trimmed hanger or hanging steaks

It was a delicious marinade and the hanger steak was cooked perfectly, on the grill.

Since then we have had a couple of busy days, so I decided to use the leftovers and make ourselves a couple of wraps.  Nice and easy.

All I had to get was the wrap.  These are nice big whole grain wraps.

I sliced the meat into less than bite size pieces.  It makes me mental, I must say, when you take a bite out of a sandwich and half of it is in your mouth and half needs to stay in the sandwich, but doesn't.  Yuck!  Phooey!

This part is just in case you haven't wrapped a sandwich before.  Your best bet is to place the main ingredient to the upper right part of the wrap. Then you will have a flap on the bottom to hold all the ingredients in.

 Place the accoutrement on top.  In this case, left over salad.

Drizzle the residual juice over everything.

 I had my handy model, UD, demonstrate where to flip the flap!

Roll from right to left, somewhat firmly, and you will have a perfect wrap that holds everything.

Not a great picture, but you get the picture.  You get a little bit of everything, in every bite.

As a flavor boost, we drizzle a little of Newman's Own Light Raspberry & Walnut dressing, every few bites.  What a great combo with the steak and salad.

And how nice that all the profits go to charity!

A bientot!  See you soon.

Kicked Up Corn and Hot Ds

Tonight UD inspired me!  He reminded me that I have been wanting to try grilling corn on the cob.  I have always, always, always boiled it in a pot of water for 5 to 7 minutes.  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  So, I decided to start by making a compound butter with all the Herbs in my Herb "garden".

A little reminder of why I am pronouncing it Herb, rather than herb.  Please see "Side Note" after the first paragraph.

From left to right, there is thyme, rosemary, parsley, chives and basil.  Considering how how small they were when I got them, they have done really well.  And I use them all the time.

I decided to use all of them, with the addition of garlic, salt and pepper.  The two strongest are thyme and rosemary, so I am using less of them.

Basil is a very delicate Herb, so you will want to chiffonade it.  Stacking the leaves, rolling tightly and slicing with a very sharp knife.  This will result in beautiful green ribbons of basil.  If you were to finely dice it like the other Herbs, it would become bruised, and look very unappetizing.

You will need to plan ahead, so you can bring about a stick of butter to room temperature.

Put all the Herbs in the dish with the softened butter.  I probably have about a tablespoon of parsley and chives, a half tablespoon of basil, and a teaspoon each of rosemary and thyme.  There is also a clove of garlic, and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Mix it well.

Get every last bit of that Herby buttery goodness.  Place it on plastic wrap or parchment paper in a log type shape.

Roll it tightly so it mushes all together.  Once you have it rolled up, twist both ends to mush it even more.  Mush?  What up with that word?

I set some aside for the corn, and the rest I will refrigerate and use later on a grilled steak, grilled shrimp, or on delicious Herb crostini.

Now onto dinner.  One of UDs favorite meals is hot dogs and hamburgers.  Just ask Darling.  Every time we got together and grilled, UD would say, how about hot dogs and hamburgers?  Being the gracious hostess that she is, Darling would accommodate.  But Darling's husband J makes some of the best ribs around.  And Darling grills some mean steak tips.  Why did he always want hot dogs and hamburgers?  Well, now we are on the Rocky Coast, and Darling is 150 miles away.  I miss her.  And the rest of her pack.  So for UD and Darling, and the 4th of July weekend, tonight we are having hot dogs and hamburgers, minus the hamburgers. :)

I have the compound butter for the corn, but I also have plain butter at room temperature.  That's for the rolls.  I brush the hot dogs with a little Canola oil and season them with freshly ground black pepper.  They are already plenty salty for us, so I pass on adding that.

I coated the corn with the Herb-a-licious butter, and wrapped them in tin foil.  There was a discussion between us as to whether we should grill straight on the grill or wrapped in foil.  We decided to do the foil this time, and straight on the grill next time.  I will let you know which one we prefer.

The hot dogs went on the grill, which was manned by UD.

Oh, a tip on the hot dogs. Many, many years ago, Sister N introduced us to Deutschmacher hot dogs. You can usually get them in the deli department of the supermarket, and they are delicious. I was never a big fan of hot dogs, until these. So give them a try. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who is trying to reduce their plastic use though, because they come individually wrapped in plastic. Pardon Sister E! 

Now you might be surprised, but this is exactly how we like our hot dogs.  Crispy and charred on the outside.  Yup, that's a thumbs up for us!

You may have noticed that I made mention of my sandwich abilities in a previous post.  Well one of the things I have come to realize, is that the bread, or roll can make or break a sandwich.  Let me speak to the ordinary hot dog roll.  It is squishy, plain and let's face it, boring.  But not when you add the magic ingredient of butter!

Using room temperature butter, liberally spread it on both sides of the hot dog roll.

Preheat a dry pan over medium high heat.  Add the hot dog rolls, and check periodically for golden goodness.  Flip it, and do the same to the other side.

UD cooked the corn for approximately 10 minutes and then pulled them off the grill.  It was delicious.  The corn had steamed in the Herb butter and was deliciously tender crisp.  As I mentioned, next time we will grill it unwrapped and let it get charred a little.  Then we will slather with the Herb butter. 

I actually don't want to talk about that any more.  I want to concentrate on this corn, at this moment.  Ahhh.  So good.

Dinner was simple, and a success.

A bientot!  See you soon.