October 15, 2023- on the road week 2

We are in Maine. We go home tomorrow. 

There is still limited technology. So I cannot show you videos. Next week.

I do so appreciate the replies and comments this past week. 

There were replies from Iowa, Florida, New York, and Minnesota. If you are in another state let me know.

Back to Maine.

The house is quiet, very early on Saturday morning. That will change soon. There will be the noise of little feet, running from one room to the next and then thumping down stairs and into our room. 

We arrived Monday after an uneventful trip north. 

Since then there has been cooking, and story reading, and plant acquisition, which then includes planting those plants.

On Friday, the children got to skip school (and preschool), and we took a trip to an apple orchard. The forecast was for 60 degrees and sunny. The orchards are about an hour north of Portland, back into very rural Maine. We got to the orchard and it was overcast and 48 degrees. We picked our two bags of apples and jumped back into the car with the heater. 

But there were inflatables for the children to jump around on. The children, of course, were nowhere near as cold as the grownups. 

After a shorter trip from the orchard, we stopped at a little farm store in Turner, Maine. Sometimes the really wonderful places are not on the agenda. There was lunch, but so much more. It was also a yarn store, where they made their own yarn. There were looms and a great big yellow cat plus several friendly dogs.

More of this week in pictures

Katie planted one of those flower seed mixes in her front yard. It is wonderful, particularly at this time of year. Here are just some pictures. Of course it helped that they had more than normal rain. While it was harder to determine just how much they have had, the best estimate is close to 50 inches. Iowa City has had less than half that amount. (Actually I understand that there has been over an inch of rain in the last few days in Iowa City. )

 

Perhaps most exciting were the fall crocuses. Katie had planted them last fall, and some had bloomed then. But this year they have multiplied and are just now starting to bloom.

These are Montauk daisies. They are everywhere here in October. They have enough buds to bloom until a killing freeze, which has not come close to happening here.

We took a ferry ride to one of the many islands in Casco Bay, which is around Portland.

Julia's recipe

Blackened fish with polenta

I have always equated "blackened" in a recipe with "charred." Turns out this is not true. Katie made this dish while we were in Maine. We have split a share of Sitka Salmon (alternating months), and so she had some sablefish on hand. Other white fish would work fine, but sablefish is what we had. The polenta was the base on which the fish was served, and the whole meal came together in about 30 minutes. The recipe is from the NYT, with a few alterations. 

1) The ingredients for the fish:

about 1 lb. of fish;

spice blend (see below);

1 tablespoon olive oil; and

1 tablespoon of butter.

2) The ingredients for the spice blend:

1-1/2 tablespoons regular paprika;

1 tablespoon black pepper;

2-ish teaspoons dried thyme;

2-ish teaspoons dried oregano;

1-1/2 teaspoons garlic powder;

1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt; and 

1/2-ish teaspoon cayenne pepper. 

3) The ingredients for the polenta;

2 cups polenta - fine, quick-cooking;

4 cups chicken stock;

2 cups water;

1/2 cup milk (not shown);

1 teaspoon kosher salt;

a bit of black pepper;

1-2 tablespoons butter; and

1-1/2 cups + shredded sharp cheddar.

As it happens, Katie had a little jar with the spice blend already on hand. Sped up the cooking process. The ingredents listed above will be more than you need for this recipe which means the second time you make it you will also have a little jar of the spice blend on hand. I don't have garlic powder, but I think I will have to get some, as it is important to the flavor profile. Smushed fresh garlic would not really work. 

We made a lot of polenta, enough for leftovers. Cut the polenta recipe in half if you do not want leftovers. Also we had fine grain dried polenta, which cooked and thickened in about 5 minutes. I assume coarser grinds would take longer to cook. 

Another picture of the ingredients at a less artistic angle. 

We unpacked the fish and patted it dry, then sprinkled it liberally with the spice blend and patted it in to help it stick. 

Sablefish is sold with skin on so we only spiced up the skinless side. 

Then the fish sat quietly for about 15 minutes. 

While the fish was resting, Katie made the polenta. She put the dry polenta, stock, water and salt into a saucepan and brought the mixture to a boil whisking as necessary to avoid lumps. When the mixture came to a boil, she turned it down and let it simmer and thicken.  

When the polenta was thick, she stirred in the milk, and butter and pepper and finally the cheddar cheese. And turned the heat to the lowest of low to keep the polenta warm.

Back to the fish. Katie melted the butter and olive oil in a non-stick skillet on medium-high. When the butter/oil was hot, she added the fish, spice blend side down. 

The fish cooked quickly - first the spice side, then the skin side. Maybe 4 minutes per side. The fish should flake when poked with a fork. Cooking time will vary based on the thickness of the fish. Sole would take less time. Cod or halibut may take longer. 

Plating. Katie divided up the polenta and added some extra cheddar cheese. 

Then added 1/2 of each piece of fish to each plate. She took the skin off the fish because we are not fish skin fans. 

Note the Encanto paraphernalia in the background: this season's Disney offering. 

On the way to the table. We had the fish with some nice late season green beans and green salad and berries and yogurt.

Truth-in-recipe disclosure: the children did not eat blackened fish and polenta. They ate fishsticks with ketchup. Artisanal organic fishsticks but still. Our children also went through a fishstick with ketchup period. 

Our response to Maggie and Katie was: "More  (of whatever yummy thing they did not want) for the rest of us." And eventually children outgrow fishsticks and start eating the good stuff.  

Odds and ends

There are many things that are odd when you are somewhere else.

There is the sound of a cheerio when you step on it. 

There the expanse of the ocean.

There are flowers that remind you of home.

Then there is the newspaper letting you know the greater world is in a lot of trouble.

Pray for peace.

Philip