About an hour after our visit to Southern Candymakers, we strolled through the French Market, and then through Dutch Alley.
Due to our very filling breakfast at the hotel, we wandered the streets of New Orleans for quite a while before making our first food stop. I wasn’t really hungry yet, but as we approached Southern Candymakers on Decatur Street, I was drawn into the shop by the sweet buttery smell that wafted out through the shop’s open door.
Whenever we explore a new city, we spend a lot of time wandering around before deciding where to eat. New Orleans was no exception. Since our hotel had an excellent breakfast included, we loaded up on make-your-own waffles, eggs, fruit and coffee (sorry, no pictures) before hitting the pavement.
The Lewiston Winter Farmers’ Market is more than just a place to buy produce; it is a community event with live music, craft tables, and of course the produce and other farm products that the event is built around. One can even enjoy dinner at the market: a large bowl of homemade soup, fresh salad, and hearty bread for only $6.00. In addition to enjoying the homemade soups, I purchased a few items to bring home. My first purchase was a maple needham from Terry’s Country Candies.
For my birthday, one of my teaching partners gave me a bottle of Thai curry sauce, Jasmine rice, and some other goodies from Trader Joe’s. I finally put the curry sauce and rice to use for an easy dinner in.
This Thai Curry Shrimp dinner was just as good as any Thai takeout, and was so easy to make. All I needed to do was chop an onion and a few red peppers, saute in a little olive oil, then I added the bottle of sauce and about a pound of shrimp and simmered until the shrimp was cooked. The rice cooked up more quickly than other varieties of rice I’ve made at home, which added to the ease of this dinner.
Garnish with a little fresh cilantro, and serve with chili sauce to kick up the spice a little as desired.
These pancakes transformed to an interesting shade of blue while cooking, which made me suspect that raspberries must have anthocyanins, the chemicals present in red cabbage, making it perfect for use as a pH indicator! Next time I might try using a bit less baking soda in the pancake batter to prevent this change.
One thing I can count on: If there’s a family gathering, someone is cooking something amazing. This time it was Mediterranean Shrimp at my brother’s house.
I found a recipe for a black bean and pork soup that sounded interesting, though I didn’t have any black beans on hand. I ended up modifying the recipe using dried pinto beans and ended up with a hearty, high protein, flavorful stew. We enjoyed it with fresh Miller’s Grain bread from the Bread Shack in Auburn, Maine.
Memere’s crepes are a special treat, usually enjoyed at our family holiday brunch. I’m still not quite sure how she makes these, though today I called her to get the recipe…
When makes these for a gathering, she prepares them a day in advance, and rolls them neatly as shown above for easy transport. They can be reheated, covered, in a warm oven and then gently unrolled, filled with brown sugar or fruits, and topped with maple syrup or whipped cream.
(makes 6-8 crepes)
Be warned, Memere started reciting the recipe with, “I don’t really measure, I just throw it all together.” Beat the eggs with the sugar and salt. Slowly beat in the milk, then slowly beat in the flour. It’s best to prepare the batter the day before making the crepes. Refrigerate overnight.
When you take the batter out of the fridge the next day, stir the batter well. You might need to add more milk to it if it has thickened. It should not be “soupy” like regular milk, but a little thicker.
Oil a pan while cold, and use a paper towel to rub the oil around evenly on the cooking surface of the pan. Heat the pan. When the pan is hot, pour 1/2 of a soup ladle’s worth of the batter into the pan, and pick up the pan tilting and moving it to move the batter around to create a flat crepe. The crepe will cook very quickly. Memere didn’t mention whether or not to flip the crepe, but I imagine you would…
I’ll end the recipe, in Memere’s words, “Good luck!” and “You might want to also make a fruit compote with the crepes.”
I recently bought this delicious loaf of chocolate bread at The Bread Shack. I was impressed with the not-too-sweet flavor of the bread, which complemented the sweetness of the dark chocolate chunks and cherries that had been mixed into the dough.
We enjoyed this decadent bread for dessert with Reed’s Ginger Ice Cream, which I found at Axis Natural Foods in Auburn, Maine. Note that Axis has recently relocated to a much larger space (formerly a Movie Gallery) in the Center Street Shopping Plaza.
