Boothbay Botanical Gardens

Taking home the lobster shells for broth..

A summer for Maine lakes

The heat wave continues.

Maine wild blueberry fields

Maine wineries 2: Savages Oakes

After our first impressive experience at Cellardoor Winery, we set off to our next destination: Savage Oakes Vineyard. The back roads of the Camden area took us around beautiful lakes full of swimmers and kayakers, and we ended up on a beautiful hill with a vista and a dead-end road. No vineyard in sight. Obviously, I should have updated my maps as the GPS. Friendly people sent us down the mountain and back on Route 17.

The tasting room was much smaller this time, but the focus of Savage Oakes winery is different – it is an working farm growing all the grapes that are used for making the local wines. As a family business they are the wine makers, the website and label designers, the business people and the farm people. They grow up to 8 different grapes, whites, roses and red grapes that grow in the Maine climates.

The owner, who also was our gracious, knowledgeable wine tasting host let us taste all the wines they make. Most have Maine names and antique photos of e.g. Katahdin, or self-designed labels. I mostly liked the Georges River white, their most popular wine,  and 2 blush ones, a sweeter on and a blush wine that tastes like a white wine. After much laugher and chatting (this comes with the territory of wine tasting), we bought some bottles, and ventured over to the vineyard, many rows of vines growing on a small hill.  I wish I could say we unpacked our tomato grueyere tart and opened a just bought bottle of wine, and sat down at the picnic tables next to the vines but we headed back to Camden. Next time!

Savage Oakes Winery:
Elmer & Holly Savage
174 Barrett Hill Rd.
Union, Maine 04862
(207)785-2828

Maine wineries 1 – Cellardoor Vineyard, the Barn

It is a quiet Sunday. The air is hot and it quelches any human (and feline) activity. A light breeze in the tree brings a welcome, short-lived reprive  from the 90s temperatures.

After driving on Route 1, and grabbing a tomato grueyere tart at Chase’s Daily in Belfast, we ventured off Rt 1 in Lincolnville and found ourselves on narrow streets through rolling hills, groomed cape cod houses and arrived in 15 minutes at this gem of a barnyard wine tasting place. The Barn is an original barn from the 18s century, recently renovated into a luxury wine tasting location, with vistas, decks, tours, and good wines, nothing short of a vineyard of Napa Valley proportions --- minus the actually vineyard, since Cellardoor imports all their grapes from Washington State, but has a vineyard for the atmosphere. The barn part of the building kept its rustic flair with a 2-story wine tasting bar area and store, and an adjacent, modern restaurant style area for wedding receptions, paella cooking classes and business functions. A store area combines both, selling all the necessity for a decent wine tasting, good cheeses from local stores like “Eat more cheese” in Belfast, platters with grapes, cheeses and nuts, even Cellardoor wine sorbets.

After taking in the spectacular set-up we set down for the wines. The first 4 wines are free when tasting but if you want to try 4 more, it is $5. With about 25 to choose from it was difficult to stick with 4, and I did find a few nice ones, especially the light whites. I bought a viognier, and I think I keep it for special dinners.

Cellardoor Winery,
Cellardoor Winery at the Vineyard
Hours of operation:
April through December, 11 AM – 6 PM daily
January through March: By appointment
367 Youngtown Road
Lincolnville, Maine 04849
(207) 763-4478






A motto I can easily sign up for.

A new love

My neighbors got a new kitten last November, a beautiful Maine Coon, fluffy, loving, gentle, outgoing and I enticed him to friendship already. His mom and dad  were a white cat and a gray tabby, I have to smile when I look at him. The cutest are his two white cheeks in the gray tabby head.  He comes over to me to be petted and cooed at and has dedicated his first summer to exploring his new neighborhood. At the moment he goes by “The Kitten”.

He still thinks he can be invisible by laying low in the lawn.

 

Grandma’s marbled Bundt cake

Grandma’s Bundt Cake
recipe for a small loaf form or a small bundt cake

• 150 gr sugar with a packet of Dr Oetker Vanille Sugar
• 150 gr soft unsalted butter
• 3 eggs
• 90 g light cream
• pinch of salt
• 180 g all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 ts backing powder
• 100 g dark chocolate (or chocolate chips)
• 20 g mini chocolate chips (separate)

Preparation

1. Spray Bundt cake form or loaf form with baking spray. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. With a hand or stand mixer mix the butter and sugar and the vanille sugar until sugar is dissolved.
3. Add one egg at a time, and mix well.
4. Add light cream and salt, and mix well.
5. Mix flour and backing powder, and carefully add to the dough. Now, separate the dough into 2 bowls.
6. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in a microwave-safe dish. To avoid burning the chocolate, microwave in 30 second intervals and mix the chocolate in-between. Should be melted in 2-3min. Mix the melted chocolate and the chocolate chips to one half of the dough.
7. Place some of the white dough first in the cake form. Add the chocolate dough, and finish with a layer of white dough. Draw a fork through the dough layer to get the marbeling.
8. Bake cake for 50 minutes at 350F. 
9. Remove cake from oven, rest for 10min and then remove and cool.
10. Add powdered sugar before serving.

Layering the chocolate and white dough.


Fluffy, light perfection!

Potatoes with Olives, Capers and Caperberries

For the dinner party, I studied a stack of my middle eastern cookbooks and found this wonderful recipe: potatoes, first cooked, then chilled, and stovetop browned with capers, caperberries, olives, fresh parseley, and green onions. – A recipe from the fabulous “How to roast a lamb” (Psilakis).

Potatoes, Olives and Capers With White Anchovy Vinaigrette

2 pounds fingerling potatoes, scrubbed, with skin on
salt and black pepper, to taste
3 to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/4 cup small sprigs parsley
1 TB dried dill

18 whole caperberries
1/2 cup capers, drained
18 mixed green and black olives, and pitted
12 whole scallions, sliced on a diagonal
White Anchovy Vinaigrette

White Anchovy Vinaigrette:
4 anchovies, soaked in hot water to rinse off some of the salt
1 tablespoon dried dill
1 tablespoon small sprigs parsley
8 leaves fresh mint
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon dry Greek oregano
1/2 cup champagne vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt, to taste
Cracked black pepper to taste

Put the potatoes in a large pot of generously salted cold water and place over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently until just crisp-tender, about 7 to 9 minutes. Drain the potatoes and spread out on a plate. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight. Cut into rustic, bite-size chunks and season with kosher salt and pepper.

In a very large skillet (I used the turkey roasting pan), heat the oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is very hot, add the potatoes (no crowding!). Roast the potatoes, shaking the pan, for several minutes, until most pieces turn a golden color. Add the herbs, caperberries, capers, olives and scallions, and shake the pan for 1 minute more; just to wilt the herbs and scallions.  Place potatoes on a serving dish, and drizzle with the White Anchovy Vinaigrette before serving. These are good hot or at room temperature.

For the White Anchovy Vinaigrette: In a small food processor, combine all ingredients, and serve.