Quote of the Day

From my desk calendar:

"Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap."
quote by Barbara Jordan

Happy St Patrick's Day

Sorry, I don't have any images of Ireland to share. I travelled to Ireland in 1985 and again in 1996, but, that was before the digital age so all my photos are in albums.

The photo above was taken outside a bakery called Breads 'N Bits of Ireland in Melrose, Massachusetts. I suspect they will be quite busy tomorrow.

I want to share one story from my first trip to the Emerald Isle. My friend Debbi
and I went on a jaunting car ride in Killarney. I wanted to get some great photos so I told Debbi I wanted to sit right behind the horse in the first row. Debbi, who knew a thing or two about horses said, "Are you sure you want to sit RIGHT behind the horse?" I said, "Yes, I want to see everything!" Oh yeah, I saw EVERYTHING and I smelled everything too! Oh the smell of the poop! Disgusting!

I grabbed the nearest blanket on the wagon and covered my face with it shielding my nose from the smell. Later I wrapped the blanket around me since the weather got cool. Now, picture me all wrapped up in this blanket with my face buried in it up to my nose.

The ride ended, the wagon stopped, and the driver turned to me and said in his thick Irish accent, "Now you be sure and give the horse back his blanket, ok?"

I nearly died and Debbi had herself a real good laugh. I hope you did too!

Happy St Patrick's Day! Join the blog crawl at Cuisine Kathleen and visit other participant's posts.

Got water?

The rain has finally stopped! I guess Mother Nature decided three days of rain was enough punishment. More than enough I say.

Throughout New England, we've had flooding, loss of electricity and heat, a little snow, some sleet, downed trees, and backyards that look like ponds. Basically Mother Nature hit us with her best shot.

In my own little world, things aren't that bad. Made it to work this morning without incident. Came home at lunchtime to check on the basement. Yes, there was water but not that much. By dinnertime, there was lots of water, some of the small rugs down there were floating. One of the guys in the building had lent his mother a pump so he got it back so we could pump out our basement. Hopefully, it works.



With such bad weather, there was not much opportunity for trying out the new camera. So I took some indoor shots of the lovely Molly.



She wasn't too thrilled about being my model but she did do a few poses for me. We will put these shots in her portfolio.

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.