North End & The New England Aquarium

After returning from Maine, my body, in what was obviously a sign of disapproval, responded to me leaving that gorgeous town by getting sick. After a week and 2 days stuck at home, most of which were spent in bed, I was glad to be feeling better and eager to get out and enjoy the time I had left with Daph.

We searched and searched for restaurants worthy of a try before giving into the glowing reviews about the awesome food at Giacamo's in The North End of Boston.
If you live or have ever visited Boston and are familiar with Hanover St., you know you can't trip without falling into an Italian restaurant, bakery or eatery of some kind. Much to my gluttonous delight!

No special treatment here! You wait on line outside and are seated according to how many people are in your party and how many chairs they have available.
Being only two, Daph and I got seats pretty quickly overlooking the kitchen.

Giacamo's is a tiny space where our waitress, Jenny, encouraged us to "crowd in and get close like family."
They don't bother with menus either. Which I liked. You peer over to the left wall where the entire menu and daily specials are listed in colorful chalk on a large chalkboard.
















I started with a small fried calamari served with the house red sauce for dipping. This was my first calamari experience and I loved them.





















Daph ordered the caprese salad. This was standard, but he really enjoyed it.
















For the main course, I went with something else new to me, pumpkin tortellini, with sage and marscipone sauce. It was creamy and sweeter than you might expect. I thought the flavor was great, but after a few bites grew tired of the sweetness and wished I'd ordered something more savory.
















Daph ordered the fettucini with salmon in traditional red sauce. We both thought this was delicious. He was kind enough to share, so we ate from his plate together.
(I'll post a red sauce recipe you can make at home that rivals Giacamo's soon!)
















We loved our overall experience. We read reviews about rude waitresses/waiters, but saw none of that. Jenny, our waitress, couldn't have been anymore charming and welcoming. Giacamo's only takes cash.

As the restaurant is so small, no dessert is served. For dessert we walked up a block to Mike's Pastries for cannoli's. After pushing our way through the ravenous crowd (which you're encouraged to do), I called out my order from what I gathered they might have. Mike's is so crowded you can't see the cases, and you have to order quickly.

We came home with Pistachio, chocolate chip, and lobster claw cannoli's (the latter is filled with traditional lobster claw filling, not ricotta), a whoopi pie, a piece of Boston creme pie (which is actually custard filled cake) and an eclair for my grandmother.
The pistachio cannoli's were our favorite!


















































Later in the week we used the free passes I got from the Boston Public Library to visit the New England Aquarium. If you have a library card in Boston, free passes are available at the library to most of the Museums and other attractions in the city. You just have to call to request a day and pick them up!
















I hadn't been to the aquarium in years and didn't remember it being so small (the outside is misleading), but it was. The things we did see were beautiful, but unfortunately, we saw no sharks in the ascending spiral tank! That's what we were really looking forward to. And the penguins. No fear, the adorable penguins still greet you upon entrance into the aquarium.






























































































The month Daph was here was magical for the both of us. I couldn't imagine it was possible, but I fell in love with him all over again, deeper than ever before. He arrived the man I planned to spend the rest of my life with, and left...(after eloping November 5th), My Husband. And the man I always will.

I'm so happy I could share that month with all of you, My Blogger Friends.

So Good & Honey Oatmeal Wheat Bread

When I sent pictures of this bread to my husband, he asked which I liked best, the Honey Oatmeal Wheat, or the Harvest Squash Bread I made a couple of months back. Without hesitation, I answered: "They're both so good, there's just no choosing."
The Honey Wheat for its soft, chewy, ever so slightly sweet, perfect for sandwiches and toasting ability. And the Harvest Squash Bread for its rustic, overnight developed, hearty, earthy, perfect alongside or dipped into soups quality. I haven't been working with yeast very long, but I can tell you if you haven't yet, it's addictive. There's something primitively satisfying about pulling a loaf or two of bread you nurtured, developed and worked with your own two hands out of the oven, and confirming with each bite thereafter. If I haven't convinced you already, don't deprive yourself of that magic any longer.

Honey Oatmeal Wheat Bread
Recipe courtesy and adapted from The Fresh Loaf And AllRecipes.com



















Ingredients:

2 Cup boiled water
1 Cup rolled oats
2 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 Cup honey or molasses
1/3 Cup warm water
2 packets active dry yeast
3 Cups white bread flour
2 Cups whole wheat flour
Plus Additional bread flour for kneading, up to 1 cup. If using all white flour, you may need more. If using whole wheat flour, you should need less.
2 tablespoons honey, warmed slightly. 2 tablespoons oats. (Optional)


















Directions:

1. In medium saucepan boil 2 cups water. Remove from heat (turn stove off), add oats, honey and butter. Allow to soak for 20 minutes. After the oats have soaked for 10 minutes, begin preparing remaining ingredients.

2. In large bowl, sprinkle yeast over 1/3 cup warm water. Let stand 5-10 minutes. While yeast is soaking, in separate bowl, measure out flour and stir salt into flour with fork. Once the oats have soaked 20 minutes and have cooled some, add soaked oats into bowl with yeast. Stir and let stand 5 minutes or until foamy.

3. Add flour, 1 cup at a time, into bowl with foamy yeast. With wooden spoon, stir ingredients to incorporate. (A lot of the flour will remain after mixing, this will be fully incorporated after kneading.) Turn ingredients out from bowl onto clean surface or countertop. Form into mound with hands. Incorporate ingredients and begin to knead. If dough is too sticky, add in additional flour 1 teaspoon at a time. (I needed an additional 2 teaspoons). Continue kneading dough for approximately 15 minutes, or until dough becomes smooth, soft and feels lighter.

4. Clean and thoroughly dry large bowl. Use canola or vegetable oil to lightly oil bowl. Place dough in bowl and turn to coat with oil. Use plastic wrap to cover bowl and allow dough to rise in warm place until doubled in size, approximately 1 hour.

5. Once dough has risen, punch dough down to remove air and turn out onto clean surface. Cut dough in half and form into 2 loaves, big enough to fit bread pans. Lightly oil two bread pans and add 1 formed loaf of dough to each pan. Cover and let double in size in warm place, for approximately 40 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Once loaves have risen, use serrated knife to make slits if desired and baste each loaf of dough with melted butter or beaten egg.

6. Turn oven up to 375. Bake bread for 30 minutes or until tops have turned golden brown and, when tapped with fingertip, bottom of bread sounds hollow. Remove loaves from pans and transfer to cooling rack. Brush top of each loaf with slightly warmed honey and sprinkle with oats, if desired.




















































Just out of the oven, still warm and covered in honey, this bread glistens and begs to be eaten.
































Toasted or plain, spread with Homemade Raspberry Jam, this bread really shone.

The Real Deal & Raspberry Jam

Just around the corner from my house is a great little fruit and vegetable store that sells most of their fruits, vegetables and herbs for $ 1. 50 or less. I usually bring my beloved "granny cart" and walk out with a big haul--cart filled to the brim for less than 20 bucks. I can't even look at produce in traditional grocery stores anymore without feeling like I'm being robbed. Charging four times the price! Ugh. Going to that jewel around the corner, especially in the summer, for peaches and berries, lemons and limes, melons and lettuce, et al., has got to be one of my single most treasured joys in life. And one of the greatest things about living just outside of Boston Proper, in the real Boston; The true heartbeat of the city. Sans the pomp, circumstance and ungodly prices. Whether they're in-season or not, I can't pass up berries at 1 dollar a box, so when I came home with 5 boxes a few weeks ago, I thought it the perfect time to try my hand at jam making. The end result is something more vibrant, magical and lovely than even the best jam you can buy in the store. And a great way to reinvigorate out-of-season fruit.
















Old-Fashioned Raspberry Jam
Recipe courtesy and Adapted from Epicurious

















Ingredients:

4 cups (1 liter) granulated sugar
4 cups (1 liter) raspberries

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Add sugar to shallow pan and place in preheated oven for 15 minutes. This step really helped the sugar to dissolve better.
2. Clean and dry large stainless steel or enamel pan. Add berries to pan. Allow berries to come to complete boil on high heat. Use potato masher to mash berries while they're heating, if desired. My berries fell apart on their own. Stir constantly as berries as berries come to a hard boil for 1 minute.

My notes: The original recipe advices against not reducing amount of sugar or changing cook time, Two things I did. After adding 3 cups of sugar, I tasted and found the berries very sweet, so I didn't add the 4th cup. As a precaution, I cooked the berries longer to help ensure they would gel properly.

3. Carefully add in warmed sugar (Again, I only used 3 cups). Stir. Return berries and sugar to boil. Boil sugar and berry mixture until gel begins to form, approximately 5 minutes. To test mixture for doneness, quickly insert then remove metal spoon into jam, flip spoon upside down; In the beginning, mixture will run down spoon thin and syrupy. A minute or two later, mixture will be thicker. Jam is ready when same test yields two thick drops more slowly running down spoon and coming together before falling off.

BE CAREFUL! Sugar gets very hot.

4. Carefully ladle jam into sterilized jars. Leave 1/4 inch between jam and top of jar.















































To Sterilize Jars:

Add amount of jars needed for canning (In the case of this recipe, I used 4 half pint (8 oz.) jars), to large pot, cover jars with boiled water. Boil over high heat for 10 minutes. Add jar tops to smaller pot and bring to a gently boil for 7 minutes. Drain water and use very clean utensils or canning kit jar remover and magnet to remove jars and tops from water. When safe to handle, empty to dry jars. If you have a dishwasher with a "sterilize" setting, this can also be used to sterilize jars.

5. After ladling jam into sterilized jars, clean any jam from outside of jars and rim. Cover jars by placing center round on first. Push down middle of center round while screwing on the cover ring. Add jars of jam to large pot of boiling water; One large enough to hold jars and cover them with 2 inches of water. Boil for 6-7 minutes. Placing a small round cake rack in the bottom of pan before adding jars of jam stops them from rattling.

6. Use jar lifter to remove jars from water and allow to cool overnight in a place with no drafts. Once the jars have cooled, make sure the lids have sealed by pushing the center top of cover. If you hear a "popping" noise, jars have not sealed. If you refrigerate jar right away, it's still eatable, but do not store this jar outside of refrigerator. Properly sealed jars should store and remain fresh for several months.

Lee's Cranberries & Cranberry Walnut Vanilla Coffee Cake

In my last post I mentioned my Uncle taking Daph and I to meet and say goodbye to the lovely Lee who, along with her husband Roger, own Blue Water Inn. While we were there I noticed sitting on her kitchen counter two very large zip loc bags filled with the plumpest, most beautiful cranberries I'd ever seen. I was not shy about asking if I could have some for baking. Thinking she would transfer a couple of cups into a smaller bag, I was surprised and so grateful when she flashed a big smile and happily handed over one of the two bags. "They're yours," she said. She went on to explain that a friend gathered them fresh that morning from one of his cranberry bogs in Maine. I didn't even know Maine produced their own cranberries, and such beautiful ones at that. You hear lots about Maine blueberries in New England, of which they're famous for, but never cranberries. We generally think of Cape Cod when talking cranberries. These particular berries were perfect for baking; Cooking down more than any I've worked with before. And sweeter. I've never really been much of a coffee cake person, but everyone in my house agreed, this one was really good.


















Cranberry Walnut Vanilla Coffee Cake
Recipe courtesy and Adapted from Gourmet via Epicurious

















Ingredients:

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups fresh or thawed frozen cranberries (6 ounces)
1/2 teasponn lemon zest (Optional)
2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened, divided
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (Optional)

Garnish: Dust with confectioners sugar






































Directions:

Place rack in middle of oven, close door and Preheat to 375 degrees F. Butter 8-by 2-inch rounded cake pan generously. Cut parchment paper into round to fit bottom of pan. Line pan with parchment and butter again generously. (It never calls for this, but I also make strips to line around buttered sides of pan with parchment then butter again, as well.)

To food processor, add sugar. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean pod and add to sugar in food processor. Pulse to combine. Add sugar to small bowl. Reserve bowl. In food processor, pulse cranberries with 1/2 cup of the vanilla sugar from reserved bowl just until chopped finely but NOT puréed.

In separate smaller bowl, add 2 cups flour, baking powder, salt and whisk until combined.

In medium bowl, add 1 stick butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 cup vanilla sugar from reserved bowl of vanilla sugar (1/4 cup vanilla sugar and 1 tablespoon butter should be remaining). On medium-high speed, beat until light, fluffy and pale in color. Add in eggs one by one, beating to combine after each addition. Scrape down sides of bowl. While mixing on low speed, alternately add in flour mixture and milk, starting and finishing with flour mixture, just until combined. Gently fold in chopped walnuts to batter, if using.






























Add half of the batter to lined cake pan and spread evenly. Just before adding cranberries to cake, mix in lemon zest if using. Leaving 1/2 (one half) inch border around edge of batter, spoon cranberries over-top of batter. Completely top with remaining batter, using knife or back of spoon to smooth.

Add tablespoon butter to remaining 1/4 cup sugar and use fingertips to blend. Sprinkle crumbled mixture over the top of cake.

Cake should be baked when sides begin to pull away from sides of pan and tester inserted into cake (not cranberry filling) comes out clean, approximately 45 to 50 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 30 minutes before removing. Allow to cool completely on cooling rack, crumb side up.

I'm Back & Ogunquit Pt. 4: Coming Home

I know I've been pretty sparse over the past month. As some you already know, my husband was here, in Boston, visiting from France through November 7th. Alas, Daph returned to Paris on Sunday. As broken-hearted as I am, I will not let the amazing time we had while he was here be overshadowed by the small matter of a thing that will heal.

I want to thank everyone so much for your patience, support and kind messages. It meant a lot to me that my blogger friends from around the world kept in touch while I was away.
I'm eager to see what everyone has been up to over the past four weeks!

You may notice the words on my blog posts' appear to be out of sequence and running alongside pictures, as opposed to on top. A couple of weeks ago I had Windows re-installed. When I got the computer back I was frustrated to see my blog had changed. Please bear with me as I try to fix the problem...Hopefully soon.

Okay, Okay, so technically it took me for weeks to re-cap a four day getaway in Ogunquit, but you know how sometimes life gets busy, unforeseen thing occur and before you know it, a whole month has passed? Well, that's what happened.

Ogunquit Pt. 1

Ogunquit Pt. 2

Ogunquit Pt. 3

Without further ado, the fourth and final Ogunquit post.

Located next to the beach is a quaint little joint (best way to describe it) called Blue Water Inn. It's a popular bar among the locals in Ogunquit owned by two of the loveliest people you'll ever meet, Lee and Roger.




















My Uncle took Daph and I there to have a few drinks and enjoy a low-key evening before leaving for Boston the following day.
We all had Mudslides, Daph and I for the first time. Since Daph doesn't like the taste of coffee, I was happy to help him by finishing his before ordering a third of my own.




















Our bartender, Ben, was super nice about posing for pictures when I slurred at him to hold still so I could take his photo. Again, I had three Mudslides. The sixth time was a charm. What a Cutie!




















Earlier that day my Uncle was so kind to take Daph out for a few driving lessons. In the first Ogunquit post I told you about our ordeal at Hertz. This time, it was a success! Daph grasped the German engineering a lot better and managed to take over driving duties all day. Okay, I'll be honest, he was our sober driver.

Here's my Uncle John after a few of the aforementioned Mudslides. Hence the need for a sober driver.









































The next day we said goodbye to the house before heading off...








































Before taking us to the train station, my Uncle stopped by Lee and Roger's house (they own Blue Water Inn) so we could meet them and say goodbye. My Uncle was heading back to Florida the next day. Lee is a bundle of energy and what a spitfire! Her Husband, Roger, is fluent in French and spoke with Daph while I snapped pictures of one of their gorgeous apple trees.




















Randy's dog Bubbles accompanied us to the train station. We took care of her over the weekend, so it was sad saying goodbye.
















As it was just about to leave, we made it to the Downeaster just in time to buy our tickets and board.
















It's a beautiful train ride when, before you know it, you're pulling into Boston's North Station.
















What an awesome four days. So long, Maine...