last week of freedom?!?

It's been a few days, so I thought I'd give you all an update on the fun exciting things going on. Well, today was my last official work day of not working....I START MY NEW JOB ON MONDAY!!! I am so stoked to be working finally, although I have a lot of anxiety about how its going to go. But, I am super excited too!!

Here's a rundown of things I've been up to in my "last week of freedom":
1) Yogurt making! Attempt number two yielded great results.
Things I learned from this...my previous attempt to make yogurt in my crockpot is bunk. I was following this recipe but this time I got myself an inexpensive kitchen thermometer from the hardware store. What I found was that my crockpot was getting the milk barely over 120 degrees, and it needs to be heated to 185. So, I scratched that plan and threw it on the stove. And WOW how cool. When you heat milk, it pretty much just looks like milk the whole time...until it gets to 185....it starts frothing and all sorts of cool things. This is when you kill the heat, let the milk cool down to 110 and then add your starter (I used this sweet yogurt starter for this batch) and then put it in thermos or anything that is insulated overnight on your countertop. And voila! I had yogurt in the morning. I poured it all into separate ball jars (sterilized of course) and a few hours later in the fridge I had tasty yogurt. Homemade yogurt comes out a tad "runnier" than store bought....this is because homemade still has the whey in it (that is good for you....hence things like whey proteins and such) and commercial yogurts add all sorts of weird and awful things (like high fructose corn syrup and strange fruit) in it. You just mix it up and you're good to go. Plus, you can add whatever fresh fruit, extract (vanilla!), or granola you want. OR, it goes really well with your [Me] & Goji custom granola your bestie bought for you! It is SO good...but I realized I have insufficient containers for this process, so I need to get a larger thermos type contraption or just get a Yougurtherm.

2) Freezer Jam making! Friend Sue and I didn't do any canning last week as we said we were going to, but we did pick up some fresh strawberries. So, in lieu of getting all crazy with canning, I talked to my mom and got some advice from her, and went the route of making strawberry freezer jam. Mom: great suggestion, it is delicious! (by the way, I did end up using Splenda and it tastes great and firmed up well). Here is the progress pics of that adventure!





(you'll notice this last picture has the jam posing by the other most important items in my kitchen...the french press for 2-cup coffee making and my teapot which gets use multiple times a day....thanks mom!!)

So, everyone should make freezer jam! You can get these awesome little Ball plastic freezer jars in your grocery or online as can you get the freezer jam pectin.

The end product: I spent $6 of the jars/pectin and $5.50 (each, I bought one) a quart of strawberries and got 40 ounces of homemade jam. They can spend up to a year in the freezer and several weeks in your fridge. Lots of jam, locally grown, and now I am supplied until next year!

3) Identity found!!! My previous post that included pictures of mushrooms and other wild things got identified! The mushrooms were in fact chanterelles (agreed upon my three live source and one online friend, as well as guides online) and the other plant was Indian Pipe/Ghost Plant. One of my new faculty buddies here ID'ed both of them for me, and might go chanterelle picking with me soon. Yeah, that's right...I found a mushroom that goes for $22/pound in my grocery store!!! (dude, I need a dehydrator...)

4) Project completed! Though I was roughly eight months behind schedule, I finally finished my dad's Christmas 2008 present. A golf club sock, in Chicago Bears colors. I plan on someday making him a full set of these, since you can build in the stripes for the number of the club you are using! Moral of this story...get the next one on the needles to get it done for Christmas 2009!
I am now onto working on/finishing/working on more mom's delayed Christmas present, which is a much larger undertaking. I am hopeful that I can get it done for Christmas '09. The best part about these two projects, as well as the hats I made for my sister and brother in law is that they have elements and styles to them that require me to learn new stitches and ways of knitting....so its never a dull moment with my knitting (not that knitting is ever dull, though, its so much fun!!!). I really like that I am able to learn a lot about a craft that I've been watching my mom do all of my life. I can only hope I get to be as awesome of a knitter as her someday. In the meantime, I did manage to squeak out a coffee cup cozy for Marissa to keep her tea warm in the mornings and stop burning her hands. I think she likes it. She's already hinted at wanting something else with the yarn I made it in!

5) I think I had previously told you all that I have taken up the Couch to 5K podcast series and am learning how to run these days. Here are my sweet shoes I got based on Stephanie's diehard running advice:
Anyway, this program is pretty cool because it has you work slowly (over nine weeks) to doing a 5K (3 miles). The coolest part is the podcast that this guy made....he was turning 40 and decided he wanted to do a 5K, so he took his DJ skills and made a great podcast from it. I run on Mondays-Wednesdays-Saturdays. Pretty cool, eh? Well, I feel like I am going to die, and I can't finish the tiny intervals he has setup so far, but at least I am off my butt and exercising right? The best part about all of this? I fell down the stairs the other day! I was stupid and kept my shoes on when I walked into my apartment, and then went to go drop something off my my door and my wet running shoes completely gave out and I tumbled butt first down 5 stairs. Needless to say, I have a beautiful array of pinks, purples, yellows, and blues on my kidneys, buttcheeks, and a great lump on my head too. I hope there is more positive running karma in my future!


Today I finally got a DeLorme Maine atlas book, which will keep me all mapped out with the nationwide atlas Marissa got me as a "congrats!" gift a while back. I have been asking people where to go bass fishing around here, and were to find freshwater vs. saltwater, and everyone kept telling me to get the state atlas and go from there. So, I found one at the local True Value hardware store, went online and got my fishing license, scoped out some spots on the map, picked up a couple rods and some tackle from the storage unit and out I went! I found one good spot on a lake, threw my lure a couple of times, and caught a VERY small pickerel. He got off the hook before I could land him, which is just fine with me cuz I don't really like toothy fish. But, hey, the cool thing was that I found a TON of wild raspberry bushes right in this area, and its right by a public boat launch.
Then of course my fun was cut short by...you guessed it....rain!


OOh, I also got my birth certificate and my passport photo back in the mail today, so hopefully that means my passport card is soon to arrive too. In the meantime, check out this super cute passport photo of mine! That smile says "bring on New Brunswick" all over it!

Oh, and just in case you missed Betty the Cat, here's she is reading the paper:
I think this is where she wishes she was a Hemingway cat and had thumbs to turn the pages.

Well more updates to come in a couple of days....probably after my first day of work on Monday!!!! Any words of encouragement and excitement welcome!

A wonderful surprise in Lubec

I was up in Lubec tonight for Wags-n-Wool knitting night (they like to call it wool-n-w(h)ine )...and something miraculous happened! Well, something besides making awesome progress on my current knitting project.

I got out of my car, which was parked at the base (end?) of the Canadian/American dock (I love it....American flag on one side, Canandian flag on the other...we DO get along) and I looked out onto the water and saw this! (sorry, there is no zoom on my phone...)





In other news, I learned tonight that Wags-n-Wool will actually be closing for the winter in late November. Turns out they original plans to install a heating system in the store got set back so they won't have heat...AKA won't have an open store. So, somewhere late October to somewhere late April I will be without a Local Yarn Shop. Sad news :-( Good news is that Dee and Karen (the owners) promise to keep in touch and will sell from their homes. This is the second conversation in a couple days that I have heard from people starting to make preparations and plans for closing down for the winter in a couple months. Makes me really wonder what life will be like business-wise in the wintertime.

I also stopped and had dinner (I only eat dinner out once a week now, and breakfast once a week! The rest of the time I am cooking for myself!!) at Uncle Kippy's again...and actually was told I looked lonely at dinner tonight, which was funny because I was making a few lists in my little notebook. It is important to note, though, that this came from the late teenage/early 20-something hostess who is "forced to live in Trescott (next to Lubec) with my mom and her partner". The even funnier part was that she asked where my friend was (referring to Stephanie) and how my new job at UMM was going. SO, we just got to talking, and then she decided to bring her dinner over (the restaurant closed) over and eat with me.

Ah, small towns! I love it! Did I mention I love seals, too? They are SO HUGE!!! And evidently just before I got out there, there was a WHALE out there!!!!

READ ALL ABOUT IT!!! Midwestern transplant has many expeditions in a weekend!

So, it's been several days since I last wrote, and I have TONS of pictures for you all.

SO, I will *try* to keep the chatter to a minimum.

First of all, my baking experiments are going at a lovely pace. On Friday, I make two more of the fridge boules. One for me, and one for my friend Sue I was visiting on Saturday! Incidentally, I also busted out a couple of loaves of the Fitch Family Banana Bread to serve as a "I've housewarmed my own place, but you didn't" gift to my neighbors. A college student (assuming, she wasn't home) lives in the studio downstairs, and the guitar professor guy and his partner/wife/girlfriend are moving out next week. Bummer.


Next was Saturday, where I went down to visit with my friend Sue. Sue and I taught together at ISU last fall. In a wild coincidence, Sue also moved to Maine at the same time as I. She lives down in Bar Harbor, and works for Healthy Acadia as their farm to school coordinator. Very cool! Our original intention was for Sue to teach me a thing or two about canning, but we got siderailed by 1) there not really being much going on in the berry arena for less than $6/quart and 2) we got excited about cooking seafood at home! Needless to say, one of the roadside stands we stopped at had this collection. It smelled like rotting death. Despite Sue's suggestion that I should buy a rack to decorate my cabinesque apartment, I decided to save my cash for another day.



We then went into Bar Harbor (BH) and found a lovely roadside house selling mussels and crabs. Mussels are what we really wanted since last time I came down we went to a local restaurant and had the most tasty (and simple) steamed mussels in beer and garlic. Yum. So, we bought two pounds of fresh, live mussels ($3 a pound...) and then we saw a sign for stone crabs for $2 each. So, we decided to buy a stone crab too (well, Sue bought all of this!) On top of that she had some beets/beet greens that she had picked up that morning from Mandala Farm....so we got it all a-steamin' and a-boilin'...




Of course, before we did that we had to 1) giggle a lot 2) gloat about our $8 seafood dinner for two and 3) take pictures with the crab.


So, in between Sue telling the crab she was sorry a few times, and us constantly checking the cookbooks (yes, multiple) to make sure we were cooking it right, we had a good chuckle about how hilarious we must seem to an outsider if we were being watched right now. I mean, two Midwestern kids transplanted to one of the arguably richest sea beds in the country...and we were so concerned about not cooking things right (which you should be!). It was just hilarious. I know my cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing so much!

But, presto chango, about 12 minutes later this is what we had:

And, for any of you parents out there that preach about how you shouldn't play with your food, this is for you:



Needless to say, there are no "in progress" pictures because...well, this dinner was a finger food dinner....and the iPhone deserves better than to have grubby seafood fingers all over it.

This was the remnants of our carnage. The stack of mussels there...Sue was going to pan fry them a little further at another time because we thought they weren't quite done enough for us. The best part is that Sue is going to use the shells from the mussels and crab in her compost, to eventually become fertilizer. This is very common here in New England, and is sometimes more effective than regular fertilizers...and certainly more sustainable!

We then decided to go walk off our feast some, and ended up at the bar in Bar Harbor. The cool thing was that we got there just when the tide was starting to go out. And over the....45 minutes we were there, it went just about all the way out. So, what did Sue and I decide to do? Well, roll up out pants, get our sandals went, and wade out into the receding tide of course! We decided to make this funny little video to help show you a few things about the Bar. First...it really does go from the main island to a mini island...it is absolutely AWESOME to watch the tide go out as fast as it does. Literally, you just walk out, meander around, check out the shells and such, and then you can move forward another 10 feet. But, beware, it is COLD cold water (we guessed it to be somewhere between 50-55 degrees. Makes your ankles kinda numb when you first walk out in it.



But, here's some of the cool things we observed out there:
1) We dug up some mussels, just like the ones we had just eaten...so now Sue knows were she can go get them on her own!
2) There are lots of beautiful little snails everywhere
3) The barnacles breathing as the tide goes out is such an awesome (wicked?) sound...its like thousands of little bubbles talking. Or Rice Krispies. Kinda sounds like Rice Krispies and how happy they get when you put milk in them.
4) The seagulls are enormous, and awesome hunters of little crabs. And not afraid to dive bomb to get one close to you.
5) Some people...are idiots. And can't just walk out on the bar. They prefer to stay in their cars, with their windows rolled up, and drive out on it just to say they did. Seriously people, you can only really understand and GET this place if you are walking it.
6) Salt water really really dries your hands out. And I ran my hands through my hair a few times...and was all snagglepuss hair later that night. However, it is very cleansing and awareness-orienting to any wounds you might have!!
7) Despite your urges (and boy did we have them, the water is SO clear) to just jump into the water....its adviseable not to unless you have a towel and dry clothes nearby. Next time! Polar dip!
8) The smell is amazing. I wish I could capture that and put that on the blog.

Anyway, so then Sue and I walked through town and went to her favorite ice cream place, Mount Desert Island Ice Cream. Seriously. Wow. Homemade, small batch ice cream. I had a two scoop cone of blackstrap banana (bananas soaked in blackstrap molasses) and indian pudding (again, molasses and graham crackers or something....desparately needs a new name...Sue and I though India(n)...no, they meant Native American...). Sue had a two scoop cone of Salt Caramal and Carmelized Red Pear. Ok, so maybe it is high brow ice cream (um, hello, we ARE in Bar Harbor here...) but it was AWESOME.

And then I got back on the road for the 70 mile trip to Machias. Good news, though, is that Sue is coming to Machias next Monday (my first day of work!!) for a meeting, so I am going to show her around town and such! YAY! We did decide next time we would can some jams.

Today was an adventure, too! It was Open Farm Day in the state of Maine...where 100 participating farms across the state have open houses. So, I went up to Tide Mill Organic Farm (where my CSA comes from) for their open house. It was actually kind of disappointing, but I am glad I got to see the actual fields and such. I got to pet a baby cow (don't worry Stephanie, it is a milking cow)

When I was there, I got to meet some hot chicks too.


(haha, tricked you).

I also got to see how they pasture their chickens. This is a much more elaborate operation than I ever want to have (I want to have layers and maybe a few meat birds, which require less pasture space), but this was a neat pen on wheels so that they can move each group along each day and they peck/weed/eat grubs. In each one of these pens is about 80 chickens.


Then we got to eat some. With BBQ sauce (even better).


I left the farm then, and headed up to Eastport, Maine. This is where my nephrologist will be (well, either there or Bangor, I haven't decided yet)...which is about 50 miles north of Machias (stay healthy!). I was hungry (that little chicken wing didn't really TIDE me over) so I stopped at the Eastport Chowder House. I had a yummy BLT and a cup of clam chowder. Incidentally, it is important to note that almost 100% of the clam chowders I have had in Maine have the WHOLE clam in there, and are very authentic and tasty. I am not sure I can ever return to cubed clam chunk chowder. The other fun thing about this was that it was warm out, so I sat outside...and I was right next to the ferry landing for the Eastport to Moose Island, NB ferry. I have never seen or heard of a ferry that actually BEACHES itself, so I had to get video of it. What you hear is me talking to an older gentleman there who was equally enamored. I am TOTALLY going on this ferry as soon as I get my passport card in the mail. The other cool thing about the Eastport Chowder House was that there was an older gentleman singing and playing music through my lunch. I am DEFINITELY going back there if they continue to have old man cassette tape karaoke. That is my fave!


After lunch, I walked around Eastport a bit, where I found this interesting group. There seems to be a HUGE veteran population in Eastport, which is real cool. But if you look closely, you will find one being in there that probably is not a veteran. That's right, that lady has a pink cockatoo on her shoulder. Weird.

I never felt alone in Eastport.

I had the Black Sheep and the Border Patrol to keep me company.

After Eastport, I decided to head back towards Machias. I stopped off at Cobscook Bay State Park (which in Native language means boiling waters!). Gorgeous park, and tons of awesome secluded waterfront campsites. I am definitely going to go camping there sometime soon!! I also found a couple of really neat mushrooms that I haven't been able to identify yet (I need a mushrooms, plants, and edible wild foods of Maine field guide to keep in my backpack!)


The park was very beautiful, and I will definitely come back and visit. It's $3 for a day pass, or $30 for a person pass for a year. We'll see. The sights couldn't have been better, but the fog was starting to roll in.


And of course, one last hightlight from the park. To be honest, I was roaming around the park not only to take in the sites and maybe find a place to camp sometime soon, but I was also looking to see if I could find some blueberries. No blueberries, but I did find this!

MOOSE POOP! Don't worry, dad, I didn't step in it. Cool though!!!!