SUNDAYS WITH CELIA VOL 89
Hello and welcome to Sundays With Celia Vol 89. Thank you for being a part of my Sunday. I hope yours is going great and that you are enjoying a terrific summer. I’m dedicating today’s post to food so I’m warning you right now, this blog post may cause your mouth to water, it may make your stomach growl, and it may cause you to make an unplanned trip to the refrigerator. I apologize in advance.
Looking Back On Sunday
As I’ve mentioned often here on After Orange County, all of our 5 children have decided to make their homes on the east coast, including our youngest offspring, Austin. He lives in the absolutely charming seacoast town of Portland, Maine.
Brad and I, along with Austin’s oldest brother and his family, visited him recently.
We are a family that loves to eat together, so we looked forward, with great gusto, to being able to enjoy the exceptional bounty of the wonderful restaurants in Portland, Maine. So this week I wrote a blog post entitled: How To Dine Deliciously in Portland, Maine, where I take you with us on our gastronomical journey through Portland. You don’t have to be going on a trip to Portland to enjoy this post, as it’s a feast for the eyes. Click here if you missed it.
Not only are we a family that likes to dine out together, we also love to cook together. So, on our last day in Portland, before departing for West Bath, Maine, (where we had booked a vacation rental home for a week) we visited the fantastic Portland Farmers’ Market for cooking provisions. Take that journey with us as well on this week’s blog post.
What We Cooked While Vacationing In Maine
It took a visit to the Farmers’ Market, Trader Joes, Stonewall Kitchen, the local grocery store and the liquor store to acquire what we needed to prepare a week’s worth of wonderful home-cooked meals. It was quite a feat putting all those groceries away in the kitchen of our Maine Beach Cottage.
Dinner The First Night
Once settled in we ventured down to the dock where we had made arrangements for the local lobster fisherman to leave us 15 fresh lobsters.
For us California natives, fresh lobster at $8.00 dollars a piece made my family and me VERY happy!
So, of course, on our first night in the cottage, we had delicious steamed lobster with drawn butter for dinner. The fixings didn’t get photographed but we served it with a salad, grilled asparagus and baked potatoes.
Breakfast The Next Morning
After our trip to the Farmers’ Market that yielded such a bounty of fresh veggies and delicious sourdough bread, my son decided to make vegetable egg sandwiches with goat cheese for breakfast.
He grilled the bread and whipped up a vinaigrette dressing…
added some hash browns on the side and topped things off with fresh goat cheese.
The final addition was scrambled eggs.
A bowl of fresh Maine blueberries and strawberries rounded out our breakfast. How’s that for a delicious and nutritious breakfast fresh from the farm?
Dinner Number 2
First things first. Cocktails in the adirondack chairs overlooking the beautiful bay are in order before the cooking begins.
After our refreshments everyone gathered in the kitchen to contribute to the preparation of the meal. We rigged up a fan in the window because without air conditioning the heat and humidity was stifling! That’s the only drawback to the east coast in summer.
We decided to change things up a bit so for night number two Vietnamese Chicken, Jasmine Rice and Herb Salad was on the menu. You may recall that I shared the recipe for these delectable dishes in this previous post.
The Herb Salad was loaded with mint, cilantro, radishes, shaved carrots, scallions and bell peppers, all from the Farmers’ Market.
The chicken, marinated in a fabulous sauce made with fish sauce, vinegar, garlic, chili paste and fresh ginger was grilled on the BBQ.
It made for a wonderful feast. Grab the recipes here.
Lunch The Following Day
What does one do when one has delicious Vietnamese leftovers? Make delicious Vietnamese Banh Mi Sandwiches of course! One of the most vibrant and delicious sandwiches in the world, Banh Mi’s are loaded with fresh vegetables, grilled meat, and are piled high on French baguettes. All of the fixings we just happened to have!
Dinner Number 3
Does one ever tire of lobster? Perhaps, but by this point in our visit to mid-coast Maine we surely had not. So, with delivery number 2 from our friendly local lobster fisherman, this time we decided to prepare Lobster Tacos. Another visit down to the dock yielded another bevy of bounty from the sea.
This time we grilled it on the BarB.
We whipped up some Guacamole, fresh pico de gallo and my yummy recipe for Lime-Cilantro-Cabbage Slaw. Click on the links for my recipes. Trust me, you’ll be so happy you did.
We even grilled up 3 different types of tortillas for our spectacular lobster tacos.
Dinner Number 4
Have you ever eaten Garlic Scapes? I hadn’t until I saw them for sale at the Portland Farmers’ Market. I had long heard about them and had always wanted to try them, but had never ran across them in the market. But voila, there they were for sale! I bought a few bunches and couldn’t wait to make them a part of one of our meals in Maine.
So, for Dinner Number 4, we decided on a meal of Surf & Turf that included fresh Grilled Shrimp, BBQ’d Tri Tip Roast, Grilled Asparagus and Grilled Garlic Scapes. Does that look good or what? Well, I have to tell you, it was! I am officially a fan of Garlic Scapes. Now I just have to find a place to buy them in California. As I understand it, they are very fleeting in the market, with a very short selling season.
For dessert I decided to prepare a Homemade Apple Pie.
I shot this photo before putting the pie in the oven and then never got a photo post baking. I think that was because we were so anxious to dig into it fresh out of the oven!
Dinner Number 5
Of course our last night in the cottage had to involve lobster because lobster makes everyone happy.
So, for our final spin on how to cook lobster we decided to make Lobster Mac & Cheese. After steaming more lobster than most people could ever dream of for such a dish, we filled a bowl with the meat.
Using all the remaining cheese we had from our week in Maine, I prepared my yummy recipe for The World’s Best Macaroni and Cheese and added about a TON of lobster to it.
To go with it my son prepared a Caprese Salad using all the tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese and fresh basil we had leftover from the Farmers’ Market.
Do you think we consumed enough cheese for one day?
Doesn’t it look delicious?
So, are you hungry yet?
As you can see, we are a family that values our meals together, loves food, and enjoys cooking. I’m so happy that I instilled a love of cooking in my children because it is an activity that we can enjoy together. We are now passing this down to the 3rd generation of the family, as the grandchildren also love to pitch in in the kitchen.
Bon Appetite!
So there you have it: SUNDAYS WITH CELIA VOL 89
Thanks so much for dropping in!
Express Yourself!
No blog post is truly complete without a word from you. I’d be so delighted if you’d leave a comment below.
All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Unless otherwise noted, all photos are the original property of Celia Becker @ www.AfterOrangeCounty.com and may not be reproduced without specific permission. This post contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. It’s what helps to make this blog possible. Thanks very much for your support.
