Happy Halloween!

Bret and I had a jam-packed weekend in Portland and Boothbay...and I will be writing about these Maine experiences all week!  Until then, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween!  We celebrated yesterday evening with a Halloween party in Boothbay.

I decided to dress up as....MUSTARD!  Since I'm a mustard hoarder, I thought this costume was pretty fitting.

Of course, one cannot live on mustard alone and Bret dressed up as a hot dog!

Happy Halloween!  Did you dress up this weekend?  If so, what did you dress up as?

Happy Halloween from Sanibel Island

We departed from West Palm Beach on Saturday afternoon and are spending the week with friends on Sanibel Island, located on Florida's Gulf Coast. (Recaps of days with Nanny and Grampy on the Atlantic Coast to come!)

Happy Halloween

Love,

Sexy Fireman, Vintage Mermaid, Luigi, Ninga Turtle, Beer Wench, Black Dynamite & Chilean Miner

Last night was a sh*tshow to say the least, so tonight we're taking it easy. You know, 5 beers in the Pool & Jacuzzi kind of easy. Tween Waters Inn on Captiva Island hosts a huge beach bash every year.

Told you it was nuts.

Tree lady walked around on stilts all night. Impressive!

Some fun costumes....

My people!

There are a lot more where those came from, it was such a great party! Here are a few scenes from the beach day 1:What did you do / dress up as for Halloween?!

Portland, Maine: Residence Inn by Marriott

Greetings from Portland, Maine! As I mentioned yesterday, Bret and I are spending this weekend in two of our favorite places - Portland and Boothbay, Maine!  Bret picked me up from work a little after two and we zipped (literally in a Zipcar) up to Maine in no time at all.

I am judging the Hood New England Chef's Challenge this afternoon and the folks at Hood graciously reserved a complimentary hotel room for me last night.  We are staying in the Residence Inn by Marriott Portland Downtown Waterfront. 

As its name indicates, it is downtown by the waterfront.  The hotel is comprised of suites and we have a lovely suite with a bedroom, living room (with pull-out couch) and a kitchen.  Although our kitchen at home is definitely a lot larger, I'm a bit envious of the stainless steel appliances (including a dishwasher, which we definitely don't have in Beacon Hill)!

After checking in and unwinding, Bret and I were both starving so we headed off to Nosh for an early dinner.  I'll blog about our experience there later but I'll say that I had the most ridiculously loaded burger there!  We walked around for a bit until we found ourselves a bit thirsty and decided to stop in at Sebago Brewing Company for some local pints.  More to come on this blog later but I'll mention that we stayed there for a bit to watch the first half of the Celtics game until we decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel for some R&R.  And by rest, I mean convincing Bret to go swimming with me at the hotel pool!

Bret and I both had a great night's sleep - something neither of us have had in over a week.  I'm feeling so relaxed and refreshed.  We've got a few things to do before my judging duties begin so I'll sign off now! 

How is your weekend going so far?

Boca Raton & Deerfield Beach

Hello friends! Vacation thus far has provided more time to blog than I expected!! This is a good thing, as it has been all about relaxation as opposed to "go-go-go". Plus, I love to keep ya'll up to date on the happenings. (Ok ya'll isnt really a Florida thing, but it's Southern so just go with it.) I am currently sipping a Yuengling Lager at Nan & Gramps, over looking Pelican Bay on the Intracoastal. Not bad right? We are having a ridiculously good time so far. On our first night we headed to Aunt Cheryl's house in Boca Raton where she cooked up an incredible Italian feast. Caprese salad and chicken, broccoli, sun dried tomato ziti. Tiramisu!We drank red wine, spent quality time with cousins, and the newest edition to the family, my cousin Carly's son baby Jett Joseph. He's actually almost 1, but this is my first time meeting him! How stinkin' cute? How about his little hands and feets?! His fingers and cheeks and legs are the chubbiest little things ever, I just want to eat him! Everyone knows when it comes to babies - the chubbier, the better. He is also one of the most well behaved and relaxed babies I have ever met. He's a bundle of joy, the absolute best.
After dinner Carly and Cassie took Adam and I bar hopping in Deerfield Beach. Carly, Cassie and younger sis Cayla spent every summer with us growing up on Cape Cod (usually 2 or 3 weeks in July, sometimes longer) and we visited them most winters down in Boca. It has been 3 years since we were last together at the family reunion in North Carolina, which is obviously way to long!
Lime in the coconut Mojito.On the beach, headed to the next bar.
And the third spot - rib rolls, nachos and good times at Flanigans. Be back!

Fun and Fearless Friday Five

Can I just say one more time how long this week has been?  I feel absolutely drained from the craziness of this week and I am so ready for the weekend!  So, I wanted to share five things that I'm truly excited about today:

1.  Breakfast tacos!  Back in August, Tristan of Enjoy Life With Breakfast asked me if I'd like to contribute a guest blog post for his blog.  Since I love whipping up a hearty breakfast on the weekends, I was definitely interested but traveling, work, and life in general had me put this guest blog post on the back burner.  Last weekend I finally decided to get to work on my guest blog post, which led me to make egg white and mushroom breakfast tacos!

If you love breakfast as much as I do, please head over to my guest blog post and check out my breakfast tacos!

2.  Hood New England Chef's Challenge: The folks at Hood have asked me (along with my fellow local food bloggers Meghan and Athena) to serve as judges for Hood New England Chef's Challenge.  From what I understand, a number of New England chefs will create a holiday-themed recipe featuring Hood Sour Cream.  They will be given 60 minutes to prepare, cook and serve their recipes to the judges.  It's a tough job but somebody's got to do it!  I've never judged a food competition before so this should be interesting and I'll definitely recap the event here on my blog.

3.  Portland, Maine:  The folks at Hood were gracious enough to give me a complimentary hotel room for the contest so Bret and I decided to make an entire weekend out of it.  Since we had such a blast in Portland during our last visit, we're planning on hitting up a few of our favorite spots, along with trying out some new food-related destinations!

We'll definitely be grabbing some more bagels from Scratch!

And we'll be stocking up on some oils and vinegars from LeRoux!

4.  Boothbay, Maine: On Saturday night, Bret and I are planning on heading up to Boothbay to visit our good friends Alan and Tanya.  From my first visit to trips where the car broke down, I've never had a bad time in Boothbay and I'm excited for a return visit.  I'm especially excited since Alan and Tanya are expecting their first child and I haven't seen them since we heard the good news!

5.  Halloween: Okay, I actually am not a huge fan of Halloween.  I hate dressing up in costumes and I don't find the appeal in dressing as a "sexy" ______ (fill in the blank) to be appealing.  That being said, Bret adores Halloween and in an effort of compromise, I try to cheerfully dress up when he coerces asks me to.  Since Alan and Tanya are having a Halloween party on Saturday night, I bought a costume.  I won't tell you all what it is but I will say that it is food-related.  Until then, I'll leave you with a picture of me from last year's Halloween when I dressed up as Britney Spears (a la Circus).

Happy Friday! What fun plans do you have this weekend?

Giveaway!

It's that time again. CSN Stores -- you know, where you can find everything from contemporary coffee tables to Le Creuset -- has given me the opportunity to do a giveaway. One of you can win a $75 gift card to use on anything you choose at one of CSN's more than 200 stores!

There are three ways to enter:

Please leave a comment on one of my Examiner stories, and then come back here and leave a comment letting me know that you did so. I'd also love it if you'd offer some suggestions of what you'd find helpful for me to post on Examiner.

OR

Please leave a comment about your favorite post from this blog. What was it? Why do you remember it? Why do you love it?

OR

Please post about Pie in the Sky with a link to my seller page, letting people know what a great cause it is. Many people will likely buy pies for Thanksgiving anyways, and for just $25, they can get a pie from a great Boston restaurant or bakery and provide a week's worth of food to a Community Servings client. I don't get compensated for this in any way. It's just a really great cause, and I'm sad that I haven't sold any pies yet. People who don't live locally can even donate a pie to a Community Servings client. (Leave a comment with a link to your post for your entry in the giveaway.)

I will count one comment per person per each thing above (so you have up to 3 chances to win), and I will only count comments that follow the guidelines above. You have until Tuesday, November 2, at 11:59 p.m. EST to enter.

Good luck!

A Journey to Ethiopia

Ever since my first taste of Ethiopian, I've wanted to try and recreate it.   Eaten with your hands, a spongy, sourdough flatbread (injera) is used to scoop up tasty dishes that get piled on top of it.   Beware...  monster post below ;)

Image Source

With some willing subjects in tow, I decided on several dishes...  doro wot (chicken stew), yekik alicha (split peas), atakilt (potato/carrot/green bean) and chickpea wot.    Yes, too much food for one meal!    Due to someone's dislike of alliums, I prepped all of the onions ahead of time and added them to completed dishes after reserving an onion-free portion.  My big fail for the evening was injera.   Barely edible, it's definitely something I need to try again.

I can't believe I'm showing this photo...  excuse my appearance, I was still sick ;)

It all starts with Berbere, a spicy mix that many recipes called for equal parts paprika and cayenne.  Yeah, I've definitely improved my spice tolerance, but I knew there was no way I could handle that.   Here's what I cobbled together...  I don't recall things being that spicy, just flavorful, but perhaps they had dumbed things down for American taste buds?    Feel free to play around with this mixture!!  I'm thinking maybe I'd cut back on the cayenne and add in more of a different (less potent) ground chile powder.

Berbere

Berbere Spice Blend
Yield:  ~1/2c

1/4c paprika
1T smoked paprika
2T cayenne powder
2t salt
1t ginger
1/2t freshly ground cardamom
1/4t garlic powder
1/2t ground nutmeg
1/8t cinnamon
1/8t allspice
1/8t cloves
1/t ground fenugreek seeds

Combine all spices and mix well.  Use cautiously, start with less than the recipe calls for and adjust from there!

Atakilt

And the rest of the recipes...  I used this recipe for Atakilt.  I used 2t of my berbere, which was a bit too much for me but enjoyed by others ;)

Doro Wot

Doro Wot/Wat/Wet/We't (etc...)
Serves 4-6

1T butter
1 lg garlic clove (or 2 smaller ones), minced/pressed
2" knob of ginger, grated
1/4t freshly ground cardamom
few grinds of pepper
pinch of numeg
1 clove
1/2t cinnamon
1-3t berbere (see above)
chicken stock
1lb chicken, cut into bite-size pieces (1" cubes or so)
4-5 hard boiled eggs

Melt butter in a medium dutch oven over medium-low heat.  Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally until they turn golden brown.   Add garlic, ginger and rest of spices (cardamom through berbere).  Cook until the onions soften and take on the color of the spices.

Add chicken and enough chicken stock to cover the chicken.  Bring to a simmer and poach chicken for ~15min, until chicken is cooked through.  Use a fork and prick the eggs (don't go all the way through the egg), then add to stew.  Season to taste with salt and keep warm until serving.

Yekik Alicha

Yekik Alicha
adapted from Wasabimon
Serves 6-8

2T olive oil, plus more as needed
2 yellow onions, finely minced
2 tomatoes, chopped fine
2T tomato paste
3 garlic cloves, minced/pressed
3" knob of ginger, grated
4-6c warm/hot water
1lb yellow split peas
2t tumeric
1t berbere
1/4t black pepper
1t cardamom
salt to taste

Rinse split peas in warm water, drain and set aside.

In a medium-large dutch oven (or other heavy-bottomed pot), heat 1-2T olive oil over medium heat.  Add onions and cook until translucent.  Add tomatoes and garlic and cook for 5min, adding more oil if they begin to stick or brown/burn.  Add ginger and cook for 5more min, again adding more oil if becomes too dry.

Add the rest of the spices (tumeric through cardamom), split peas and enough water to cover the split peas.  Cook for 20min (I think mine took 30-40min), adding more water as needed.  The goal is not to make a soup, but enough water to cook the split peas.   Cook until split peas are tender, salt to taste.  Let cool before serving.

Chickpea Wot (don't mind all the peas on top...  i forgot to add them earlier!)

 

Chickpea Wot
Serves 4-6

2T olive oil
1 lg red onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
1 potato, chopped
1t berbere
1T tomato paste
1c chickpeas
1 1/2c water
1c frozen peas, thawed

Heat oven in medium pot over medium heat.  Add onion and cook until softened.  Add carrots and potato, cover and cook for 10min, until softened.  Add berbere and tomato sauce, stirring until well inocrporated.  Add chickpeas and water, cover and bring to a simmer.  Simmer until water has evaporated (veggies should be tender, if not add more water).  Add peas and cook a few minutes more.  Salt to taste, cool and serve.

My plate...  Elina's plate

I think things turned out pretty well, my favorite being the chickpea wot (although I'd add more chickpeas next time!).   Like I said, I need to try the injera again so I'll be making the journey to Ethiopia again :)

Action shot!  Thanks Elina...  apologies for showing you my armpit :)

Have you tried Ethiopian cuisine?  Any good injera recipes out there??