I’ve been neglecting the bloggy because I’m presently staring down the last few days of a cookbook deadline—eek! But I did want to get one more ode-to-Maine post in before summer fades into fall. Because my brain is operating on fumes and tomato sandwiches, I will make this a mostly visual recollection of the food, shops, places, and things I fell in love with during our most recent stay in Vacationland:
1. One of the best stationary and craft shops EVER: Rock Paper Scissors in the village of Wiscasset. The only place where you can spend all of your lobster roll allowance on Japanese decorative tape.
(put a bird on it…)
2. The little cottage we lived in for two weeks, which has the prettiest aqua-colored door.
3. The rainy morning spent “craftinating” (get it? crafts + procrastinating = craftinating), with pens, paint, crayons, tape, markers, paper, all spread out on the kitchen table.
And using smooth, flat stones found at low tide to make these little paper weights with a paint pen…
4. Halibut. Seared quickly in peanut oil with a sauce made from reduced hard cider, maple syrup, and mustard.
5. Lobster dinners (obviously) and steamers eaten outside at Waterman’s Beach, while looking at the water. Also the synchronized plunking down of the iphone when we arrived (we were not texting at the table, I swear! they were being used to take pics of the beautiful food and landscape).
6. Finally going inside the beautiful Swans Island store after years of driving by, and then realizing that the Tim is not going to let me spend a small fortune on a handcrafted blankie.
7. Making fairy houses!
8. Getting lost in the stacks at The Lobster Used Bookstore.
9. I wish I had better photos (it was dark and the fog was so thick, it literally rolled through the restaurant window next to our table) but dinner at Bar Lola (run by a husband and wife team) in Portland was cozy, lovely, and delicious… and there was a guy parked out front with a giant hay ball strapped to the roof of his car, so that was interesting.
(a poached egg kelp salad…amazing)
1o. Tim’s 40th birthday dinner at Primo with pizza, bellinis, and deconstructed s’mores.
11. Maine Root ginger ale with BLTs for lunch.
12. Fondling soaps and getting inspiration from the Trillium shop in Rockland.
Thank you Maine for everything…see you next year!
