Stonewall Kitchen Cooking School, York, Maine

The rain held off long enough for my sister, our friend Mary and I to take a trip up to Maine for a cooking class this afternoon. We were celebrating Mary's birthday and the cooking class was her gift. Mary loves Maine, loves Stonewall Kitchens, and loves cooking so we thought this would be the perfect gift.



Today's class was all about British High Tea and the instructor was Ruth Kramer. Ruth endeared her audience with her wonderful British accent and humorous storytelling.

The cooking school can accomodate many students. The chef wore a microphone and there were two big screen TVs so even those sitting in the back row (like ourselves) could see and hear what was going on at the front of the room.



I asked permission to take photos and Richard from the cooking school happily agreed to it. We later found out he's from my hometown and I graduated with his sister!



The first dish Ruth made was scotch eggs. A medium cooked boiled egg was surrounded by meat and browned in a skillet then it was baked in the oven. At cooking school, you watch the chef prepare the dish and then the class gets to eat whatever was demonstrated. We all enjoyed our scotch eggs. We took home recipes for all the dishes too!




Ruth made some tea sandwiches. One with watercress, one with ham, one was a wrap. She made mini tarts with Stonewall Kitchen jams.




She showed us how to make scones and she made some with raisins but we could really use any dried fruit. British scones are usually small, American scones are large. Yum! The scones were delicious!




Ruth personally gave everyone a dollop of creme fraiche to top their scones. The Brits use clotted cream but it's hard to find in the states and it is expensive. I will stick with the mock devonshire cream my sister and I make for tea parties.



When class was finished there was time to shop at the cooking school shop and everything was discounted 10%. I got some lovely smelling hand soap called Coastal Breeze, Meyers Lemon hand sanitizer, and Key Lime Curd.

I took a few shots of the fabulous kitchen. I love a white kitchen. I was told by a staff member that the cooking school kitchen was modeled after one of Stonewall's owner's kitchens.



What a kitchen. I would love to see the owner's kitchen, was it Jim or Jonathan? I can't remember now.



Don't all the hanging pots look great? I want a little pot rack for my kitchen at home.



These cabinets are cool too. I am really loving that white. So clean, so cheery. Even on a dreary day.



After class, we went to the Main store where they had a larger selection of goods. I had had only one cup of coffee all day so I was in need of a little caffeination. We went to the cafe in the store and I had a mocha latte and my sister and Mary had hot chocolate. Don't the hot chocolates look tempting?

We had a wonderful day and a great time at the cooking school. We are already looking forward to taking another class, maybe in the Summer. When it might actually be warm and sunny.

Off to Maine

We're off to Maine on a girl's day out. Mary's birthday present is a cooking class at Stonewall Kitchen's Cooking School in York, Maine. The subject? Tea, of course.

I'll tell you all about it when I get back.

Cape Ann Daytrip

It was Saturday, 50 degrees and sunny. You know where I was headed, Rockport! I was going to enjoy my first sunny day by the ocean in approximately 5 months.



I bought a new camera two weeks ago but I was actually afraid to open it. It's a digital SLR and more complicated than my little point and shoot. I was intimidated by my own camera! I dreaded the thought of reading a manual to learn how to work the thing. By the way, "the thing" is a Canon EOS Rebel XS. Today, we became friends.



We went to Good Harbor in Gloucester. We watched the lusciousness of the waves. All foamy and white. The wind was whipping the sea around and 50 degrees? I beg to differ. Wonder what the wind chill was, my ears sure were cold!



We enjoyed watching the waves for quite a while.



The Atlantic was a beautiful dark blue. It still had the winter look to it. Not as friendly as in Summer.



The spray looked like a geyser!




After Gloucester, it was off to Rockport. I headed straight to the Bean and Leaf Cafe for some caffeination and a little Tiramisu. Well, a lot of Tiramisu. Don't worry, I planned to walk it off.






It was a day for foam. Foamy waves, foamy latte. Yum!



I loved the reflection of Bearskin Neck in the lantern.





More foam, there's a theme going on here!



The red Motif No. 1 is a famous landmark in Rockport. It was destroyed in the Blizzard of '78 and was rebuilt since then.




Keep Off! How rude!



Helmut's Strudel shop, my most favorite shop in Rockport. And yes! It's open. I can grab some streudel for later.




I bought a box of streudel and made a new friend. He's a Schipperke. Cute, huh?



Closed for the season. I saw a lot of signs like this today. Good thing Helmut's was open!




I didn't walk the rocks today. Sometimes I go out to the end but it was pretty windy and I didn't want to chance falling with the new camera.



Anyone for lobster or lobstah as we say it round these parts?



This gallery has lovely photographs of Cape Ann and Europe. I think it is such a pretty spot, even prettier in Summer.



So here it is, the buttery, flaky, oozing with apple, streudel from Helmut's. Can you blame me for wanting to tear into this right now? Ok then, good night!

Tea with Susan Branch

This afternoon, I watched the movie, Julie and Julia. Am I the last blogger to see this movie? I think so. The Netflix DVD had been sitting on the table unopened for about 3 weeks so it was time.

The weather was snowy and windy. It was a perfect day to stay indoors and watch this movie with my mom at her nursing home.

As most of you know, in the movie Julie Powell loves to cook and Julia Child is her inspiration. So, Julie decides she will make every recipe in Julia's cookbook in 1 year. Julie also has hopes of meeting Julia in person.

I thought about a similar situation in my own life. Well, it's not all that similar but I'll tell you anyway. I collect Susan Branch cookbooks and I've made some of the recipes in them. They're more than just cookbooks to me. I love to look at Susan's artwork and read the quotes and read about the seasons in New England (even though I live here I still like to read about it). I had always hoped to meet Susan. After all, she lives part of the year in Martha's Vineyard and I live in the same state! So Susan inspires me like Julia inspired Julie.



I mentioned before that I am a member of an afternoon tea group. In November of 2007, two of our members, Pauline and Heather, arranged for the group to go to tea in Plymouth, Massachusetts. First, we were going to a bookstore in Plymouth where Susan Branch was doing a book signing then we would have tea at a tearoom in town. I was so excited, I was going to meet Susan Branch!



Susan gave a little talk before the booksigning and she was exactly as I hoped she'd be. She was funny and sincere and so unaffected by her success. She was upbeat and approachable. I loved hearing some of her life stories.



She spoke to each person who had a book to sign as if they were the only ones in the room. She didn't rush anyone, she listened to people tell her their stories.

Here's my friend Deborah getting my Christmas memories book signed by Susan. Susan did a little drawing of a holly leaf and signed her name. See she's looking at me saying oh this is your book? I had been standing at the side of the table furiously snapping photos of everyone in our group who posed with Susan. I was probably quite the pest but if Susan was annoyed she didn't let it show.



Susan had some of her friends with her that day. This is Margot. I love her sense of style. Margot was also very friendly and down to earth.



Susan posed for photos with everyone. The signing took over 2 hours. Lisa and Erica were happy to take a photo with Susan.



Roberta had her sign a few books.



After the booksigning, we went for tea. I wish I could remember the name of the tearoom. Anyway, it was lovely. Great food and the owners were so accomodating. Pauline told us she had asked Susan and her friends to join us for tea and they said they would! We were all so excited to have tea with Susan and her friends.



Here's Deborah, me and Kim.



I always take a picture of the tea tray. My friend Karen and I are the photographers of the group so we have a rule: when going to a tea, you must always take a picture of the tearoom or home, the teatray and a group shot. So there's the teatray with all the yummy treats.



It was Heather's birthday so we had to have cake too. It was a fattening day what can I say?




Here's Susan having tea with Amanda, Lisa, and Erica.

Back to the movie Julia and Julie, obviously Julie did very well after her year of cooking and blogging. They made a movie out of her story. I don't plan on anyone making a movie about me and my experiences but at least I got to meet someone who inspires me. That's a highlight in my life. (Now don't expect me to make all of Susan's recipes in the next year).
I do, however, plan to make Susan's baked apple crisp soon.

Now scroll back to the beginning to see the group shot! It was an afternoon to remember for our tea group.

Design Dilemma

I just did my taxes and yippee, I'm getting a refund! So I thought it might be time to address the issue of my living room windows, specifically the fact that I need drapes or some type of covering. As you can see, there are three windows and they are fairly close together.



Right now, there are just blinds on the windows. I don't like blinds but they
serve their purpose. I'm not sure what to do to make the room look more cozy
and stylish.



I really like the mouldings so I don't want to cover them up completely. So what would you do? Any ideas from my blogging friends would be greatly appreciated.

Olympic Memories

The first time I watched the Olympics was in 1972. My dad called me into the living room. "Lainey, come look." He was watching the figure skating competition and Janet Lynn was performing. "Isn't she beautiful?", he said.

She was radiant, gliding over the ice effortlessy, big smile on her face, I was mesmerized and I became totally hooked on figure skating.

Fast forward sixteen years to 1988. The Winter Olympics were to be held in Calgary. Canada is not that far from New England! I signed a reservation form for 2 sets of tickets and my sister and I made our plans. We picked 11 events. We were going to see several figure skating events, ski jumping, hockey, and a bobsled event. Would you believe the whole ticket package was only $325? This was before the days of exhorbitant ticket prices.

We got paired with a Canadian family for a Homestay program for $25 a night, bed and board. It turned out the family was originally from England. What a lovely couple,they took us touring on days we didn't have events and gave us meals for no charge. We even had the bottom floor of their house as our own little apartment. They were like family to us.

Although they lived in Calgary, they were not able to get tickets to any events. There was a lottery for local residents and they didn't win. The wife had sewn some of the costumes for the Opening Ceremonies and still no tickets. The husband was an avid hockey fan so we gave him our hockey tickets for one of the games.



Here's the program. Yes, that is my chair from the original Boston Garden but that's for another post.



I kept a copy of the final standings. These were printed for each competition.



We bought some photos from the Calgary newspaper. This is Liz Manley, a surprise medal winner in ladies figure skating. She was from Canada so the country was ecstatic that she won.



Brian Boitano took the gold for the men. We were overjoyed to see his spectacular performance. His warmup was scary and we were worried he would not do well.



Here's my sister at the Saddledome, a very cool arena. You can see the Calgary skyline in the background. Look at her 1980's big hair!



My sister took this photo of the leading Russian ice dancing Team.



Another photo by my sister of Liz Manley at the exhibition of champions.



This is Peggy Fleming and Dick Button. We had phenomenal seats for the men's event.
We had a clear shot of the ABC booth. I swear we got our tickets upgraded because of an incident with the reservation form. It seems the Canadian ticketing manager was doing something fraudulent with the American requests for tickets. I don't remember the whole story but they impounded my personal check and I never got it back. I received a letter saying it was evidence in a court case. I didn't care, we were in something like the second row for the men's long program. In fact, if you watch a video of that event you'll see my sister and me on camera!



Remember the Jamaican Bobsledders? They were the talk of the Olympics in Calgary. My sister was able to get this shot of them as they whizzed by. They sure go fast!The chinook winds had blown in during the Olympics and the temperature hit 50 degrees. That makes it a little slushy for the bobsleds.



After our Olympic experience in Calgary, we were obsessed with the Winter Games. We wanted to go to Albertville, France in 1992 but it was expensive and we didn't get to go. However, my sister made a couple of Olympic connections. Paul Wylie was on the men's tean in 1988 and 1992. He was living in Massachusetts at the time, in Somerville. The post office wanted to do a commemorative stamp for both Paul Wylie and Nancy Kerrigan since both had medaled in Albertville. My sister was called upon to do the design for the postmark. Here's the poster of the postmark.



This is the envelope from my collection of Paul Wylie's stamp.



I had this one autographed by Nancy Kerrigan. She was living in Stoneham, Massachusetts with her family and my sister and I also were living in Stoneham.
We went to Nancy's parade and reception. My sister also did a painting of Nancy
which is now hanging in the Stoneham Public Library. When I find the picture
I'll post it.

So there you have it. I am off to watch the ice dancing original program tonight.
I'll be wishing I was there in Canada watching in person. Well at least we'll always have Calgary!