Remember Them

All gave some.. some gave all.
Remember them this Memorial Day.

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Dilemma, Dilemma

Do I take the gamble, and in all likelihood a parking fine or keep driving until I locate a working meter? 😎😃 Hell, just give me the ticket! LOL I only want to collect a few sand dollars to bring down to the boys.. sheesh!

Sigh… shades of summer! And on the first busy holiday weekend of the season! LOL

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Honoring

Memorial Day 2022

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Caught Moby

Sweet Pea landed porgy Moby‼️🐳💕🤗 For the contest.. that’s 8 so far… Woohoo! A great day to be out on the water catching 🎣

Landed his first porgy

Lucky #8!

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Memorial Day

As you all celebrate this Memorial Day weekend watching parades go by, or having a family cookout and toasting marshmallows, please remember all those that have died for our country. We can never thank you enough for your ultimate sacrifice. A sincere thanks to you and all your families.
Have a safe & happy holiday all!

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Garden Panade

If you’re anything like me you hate to throw away food. I’m guilty of this more often than I’d like to admit, but throwing away wilted veggies and stale bread because I bought them for one recipe and never figured out how to use the leftovers in time just kills me.

But that’s where the ‘ pot luck’ method of cooking comes in handy (i.e. taking whatever random foods you have lying around and turning them into a delicious meal, like my pot luck soup made with leftover garden scraps, and seldom made the same way twice.

As much as I enjoy the colorfulness of calling a dish ‘ pot luck’, I love the fact that its official name is ‘panade’. Makes it sound all French and fancy doesn’t it?! And although delicious, it’s quite a humble dish… my kind of meal for certain. After so many colder months making casseroles and comfort foods.. this time of year is typically where my dinner fare moves outdoors to grilled meals, but as we’ve just had four long days of terrential rains and raw temperatures.. I was more than happy to turn my oven back on once again.

…. this dish would go great with some homemade french onion soup, especially when using gruyere as the cheese for the panade. I ran out of time and served with a large garden salad.

Garden Panade w Chicken Sausage

1 loaf crusty bread (~12 – 16 ounces) 

2-4 cups of filling, after cooking* 

1+ cups shredded cheese 

3-4 cups chicken or vegetable broth

a splash of Pinot Grigio

*3 previously grilled chicken sausage, sliced

*This is where the pot luck comes in.  I made my dish with ~1.5 cups of sauteed leeks and swiss chard, celery, bok Choi, and leftover grilled chicken sausage I had made Thursday, thinking we were going to be having a holiday cookout.. but hey, now my freezer is filled with homemade garlic and herb chicken sausage for another time. .. 😔 plus gruyere and fontina  as my cheese). Here are some suggestions for other fillings: onions/leeks, chard/ collard greens/spinach, bok Choi, celery, carrots, beans, sausage, chicken, nuts, etc. The 2-4 cups is roughly the amount you want after cooking the onions, wilting the chard, reheating  the sausage, etc. Anything really goes! But do try to use up what you have sitting on the shelf of your refrigerator.

To Prepare:

Preheat oven to 350°. Slice the bread into 1″ cubes. Drizzle or spritz them with some olive oil, spread onto a cookie sheet and bake for 20-40 minutes (until they are lightly toasted and completely dry). Note: I let my bread cubes sit overnight (uncovered) on a baking sheet to dry them beforehand so they took less time to toast in the oven. The time in the oven will depend on the freshness of your bread so just keep an eye on them.

While the bread is toasting, prepare your filling. Sauté your onions, reheat the meat, etc. Combine fillings together. Shred the cheese and place in a small bowl. Bring the broth and wine to a simmer (to give the cooking a head start).When everything is ready, assemble your panade in a 2-quart baking dish. Arrange half the bread cubes on the bottom then layer half the filling (pressing it so that it goes into the gaps between the bread cubes) and sprinkle with half the cheese. Repeat.

Pour the warm broth over the top of the panade. It should fill the dish to within a half-inch of the top.

Cover the dish with aluminum foil, making sure to seal the edges. Place the dish in the oven (still heated to 350°) and bake for 45 minutes covered. Remove the foil and continue baking for another 15-20 minutes, until the top is crusty and you can see the insides bubbling.Let the panade cool for ~10 minutes and then, dig in!

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Honor Our Fallen

Remember and honor our fallen soldiers. They answered the call and gave it their all. We are forever grateful.

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Beginners Luck

First time out fishing this year for Liam… Snagged a nice pickerel. Woohoo! Nice catch!

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Honor & Remember

You answered the call and gave it your all. We can never thank you enough for your ultimate sacrifice. Honor and Remember.

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Reason for Concern

Well, we finally made it to Memorial Day weekend. It was a whopping 88 degrees here yesterday… not unheard of in our neck of the woods, but unusually high temps for May.

We seem to be very much still up in the air as to opening things up around here.. but the locals feel it’s still to early, and frankly I’d have to agree. And because of our proximity to the other New England states.. it’s an easy drive, under two hours to get here on any given day. Businesses are yelling.. let them in, if we are to survive. We are dependent on the tourists!! Others, though they fully appreciate the

economic climate we are presently facing here in Maine are throwing up the red flags of warning! So on this very unusual holiday weekend here.. it’s very slow going, with very few of our beaches open.. and those that are, deemed only for walking, running, surfing or swimming… absolutely NO SUNBATHING! And no out of staters for this weekend! Officially they have decided to open up a little more, on June 1. That in itself you’d think would be deterrent enough to keep guests away for this weekend? Nope! The parking lots were filled to max yesterday. Very few masks, and little social distancing clearly was noted. 😦 Mostly out-of-staters. One little boy was overheard asking his Mom, “ do you think they will let me still build a sandcastle”? His Mom replying, “ let’s wait and see.” And heaven forbid you may need to use the restrooms! All closed! Until June 1.

What most out of New England visitors to our state don’t seem to grasp.. is all of these caution signs were employed purposefully, and with much thought.. and with only one priority in mind… curbing any further spread of COVID 19 to our state. Just Thursday alone we had an unheard of increase of 75 new positive cases overnight! Why in the world would we want to open our doors to visitors from other nearby states with thousands more positive cases than we have already to deal with?

Even the many out of staters that were interviewed on our local news Thursday night said in response when asked why they had traveled here… the answers were so familiar. “ We come to Maine every Memorial Day weekend “. “ We’ve been cooped up far too many weeks already “. “ We just needed some clean, fresh air and pristine waters and to cool off.”

When then asked, “will you abide by the state mandated, 14 day quarantine while you are here?“

…… Nope! We’re only here for the long weekend!! Grrr! It’s enough to make anyone crazy.

And this… to give you an example of the typical amount of visitors on just an average weekend here.. on our Main Beach and not a four day long holiday weekend! Simply an impossibility to maintain “ social distancing “ under these circumstances. 😦

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