And Now, A Very Special Semi-Homemade

I have been known to bash Aunt Sandy and post some of her more excruciating stuff on this blog - like shooting fish in a Cocktail-Tini-filled barrel.  And I know I just recently got my Aunt Sandy "not-love" on recently, I even admit: at times I feel bad for doing so.  But the Foodista blog posted something you all have just got to see to believe.  Video posted by YouTube user VideoDisorder.

Somehow seeing this makes her seem less irritating. Maybe she released this on purpose.

Trippel and Mighty Arrow (New Belgium)

Continuing through the bottles of New Belgium that I brought back from Cali this summer - which I don't have to do anymore as of this week - are two brews I haven't tried before.  As an intro to these beers for those of us in the Mid-Atlantic, here's what I thought of a few more ales.


Trippel - As New Belgium describes it, this Belgian-style ale starts with a "bold blast of hops" and a hint of coriander.  I taste the coriander, which is not something I expect in a beer (but I was looking for it since, well, it said on the bottle that it had coriander in it).  It's a complex and different beer that I will look for when I go beer shopping.

Mighty Arrow - This winter seasonal pale ale is a good beer.  It tastes like many of the craft beers that I have had.  It's a good, bitter hoppy beer and I would order it if available.  Mind you, it isn't anything I would go out of the way for. But I would order it if it was there.

Any more beers?  I will have to wait until the full line of New Belgium rolls out here.

Snacking State-by-State: Maine III - That's what you get folks for makin' whoopie

The last stop on my tour of the Down East takes me back to a topic I have visited once or twice over the last few years: the whoopie pie. Now found in various forms throughout the country, from the Mid-Atlantic to the West Coast to even the South (so long as you have a Starbucks nearby selling adorable little mini-whoopie pies for $1.50 a pop), it is still classic Yankee food.

Official Name: State of Maine
State Nicknames: The Pine Tree State
Admission to the US: March 15, 1820 (#23)
Capital: Augusta (9th largest city)
Other Important Cities: Portland (largest); Lewiston (2nd largest); Bangor (3rd largest)
Region: Northeast, New England; New England (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Maple Syrup; Clambake
Bordered by: New Hampshire (west); Québec (Canada) (northwest); New Brunswick (Canada) (north, northeast), Bay of Fundy (due east), Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine (southeast)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: wild blueberry (fruit); Maine wild blueberry pie (dessert); whoopie pie (treat); Moxie (soft drink); landlocked salmon (fish); moose (animal)
Some Famous & Typical Foods: New England foods; seafood, especially lobster, haddock, swordfish, salmon, clams; blueberries and apples; fiddle head ferns; whoopie pies; foods in common with southeastern Canada, including poutine

As I wrote a few years ago, the whoopie pie is relatively new to this side of the Mason-Dixon Line. Up until 2009, I thought it was just some type of Moon Pie, which it's not. It has its origins, it seems, in two cultures: upper New England (read: Maine) and the Amish. Legend has it that whenever New England children knew what their mothers had just made for them - or when an Amish farmer opened his lunch pail to see what his wife had put into it - a cry of "Whoopie!" would ring out, hence the name. I can't determine where it came from first, but Mainers love it so much that they made it their official state "treat" (since wild blueberry pie is already the official state dessert).

There are many variations on the whoopie pie, but most of them are still found in the Northeast: maple, vanilla, red velvet, peanut butter, and so on. Here in the Mid-Atlantic it's mostly just the traditional whoopie pie that you can find, and it's still not that common here (yet). I decided to do the standard whoopie pie and see how that turned out. For this, I went back to Brooke Dojny, who gives a seemingly pretty standard recipe in her cookbook The New England Clam Shack Cookbook, which I also used for my first New England recipe for this series, the semi-clear, very un-creamy clam chowder that you find along the coast of Connecticut.

Dojny gets this whoopie pie recipe, on pages 218-219 of her cookbook, from the Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster Company in South Freeport, Maine.

Recipe: Whoopie Pie

Whereas the previous recipe for fiddle head ferns was very simple, this is very not - there are a lot of steps, so block out a few hours in your schedule to make these things.


The ingredients and procedures are listed in two separate sections - first the cakes, then the filling. However, several of these ingredients overlap, so note that when you are shopping or searching for them.

For the cakes you will need the following (I ended up having most of this on hand):

* granulated sugar (mostly have it, and picked up a little extra just to be on the safe side)
* unsweetened cocoa powder
* eggs
* vanilla and salt
* vegetable shortening (just enough in the pantry - I ended up using Crisco)
* white vinegar
* whole milk
* baking soda

In addition, you should have at least one cookie sheet and parchment paper, and at least one wire cookie rack.

For the filling you will need:

* confectioners sugar (picked up an extra one pound box - you will use the whole box)
* vanilla
* butter (one stick will do)
* vegetable shortening (again, Crisco)
* marshmallow creme (by most accounts, New Englanders use Marshmallow Fluff from Lynn, Massachusetts, which has several recipes for whoopie pies on its website)


Before all else, you will need to cover the cookie sheet or sheets with parchment paper.

First, the procedure for the cakes:


The first thing you need to do is combine whole milk and white vinegar.


After about 10 minutes, the milk-vinegar mixture should become slightly thickened and foamy (mine did not). You will then add baking soda to this mixture.

Meanwhile, cream together the sugar, cocoa and shortening.

Now creamed

Add eggs and beat until smooth.

Beaten!

Next, sift the flour and salt together, and add it alternately with the milk-vinegar mixture.

What I did was to add the dry, then the wet, then dry, wet and dry.

Blend vanilla into the batter.

When you spoon the batter onto your baking sheet, Dojny recommends using a 2 ounce ice cream scoop or a 1/4 cup measure, and keep the blobs of batter two inches apart from each other. I found the ice cream scoop to work better, as it yielded a smaller whoopie cake. (Did I just type that?)

Uhhhh....

Bake in a 350°F oven for 12 to 15 minutes, and transfer to wire cooling racks. Because my milk-vinegar mixture never foamed up, my whoopie cakes wound up being, well, flatter than I had expected. They still worked out fine, but they didn't get the visual puff-up that I was anticipating.

The filling was frighteningly sweet and fatty, and I could taste this even while I was mixing the ingredients.

First, mix together the softened butter and the Crisco.


You will next add the marshmallow creme. An easy way to measure this out, as Dojny notes, is to grease the inside of the measuring cup (the residual Crisco in the cup is really all you need). You will add this, along with the powdered sugar and vanilla.

This is not health food.

Now you are ready to assemble the whoopie pies.


Take a spatula and spread a more or less generous amount, to your liking.

When I got to my final whoopie pie, I decided to test out a different flavor, and added just enough maple syrup to get a maple flavor (to New Englandize the recipe even more).


What to say about this incredibly sweet dessert? When I made my first one, I ate it immediately. I gotta tell you: it made my teeth hurt. This is sugary and sweet, and tasty and delicious and evil all at once. This is a dessert that I have to eat in pieces - I have not been able to eat any of these whoopie pies whole, instead needing to eat a half a pie here, a bite there. But even as flat as mine turned out to be, these were still worth the effort. Will I do this again? Well, it IS a lot of work, and whoopie pies are becoming more common down here. Perhaps again, later on down the road. The end result is very tasty.

We have gotten to the point on this state-by-state journey where I am ready to explore the state whose food is by far the most familiar to me, not to mention many of my readers. In crossing back below the Mason-Dixon Line, how do I address the unique cuisine of my own home state? This is the issue I will tackle over the next few weeks, as I head back home, to the Chesapeake - to Maryland, hon.

Sources:

Dojny, Brooke. Dishing Up Maine: 165 Recipes That Capture Authentic Down East Flavors. Storey Publishing: North Adams, MA, 2008.

Dojny, Brooke. The New England Clam Shack Cookbook. 2nd edition. Storey Publishing: North Adams, MA, 2008. Portions also available on Google Books.

El-Begearmi, Mahmoud. Facts on Fiddleheads (Bulletin #4198, Facts on Fiddleheads). Updated by Alfred Bushway, Beth Calder and David Fuller. Cooperative Extension Publications (University of Maine): Orona, ME, 1995 & 2010.

Greenlaw, Linda, and Martha Greenlaw. Recipes From a Very Small Island. Hyperion: New York, NY, 2005.

Yankee Magazine. "Dijon Fiddleheads". From "Weekly Wisdom", May 2002. Copyright 2011 Yankee Magazine.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Maine" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Maine".

Cooking for Engineers

Have you checked this website out?  I was searching the internet for clam chowder recipes for an upcoming post about Massachusetts, and found the most geektastic food website ever.  Cooking for Engineers was started seven years ago (yes I am quite late to this bandwagon) by Michael Chu of the Silicon Valley.  He originally wanted a place to backup his recipes, and a server problem wiped out most of them.  Then he discovered Blogger and a whole new avenue opened up for him.

He outlines his recipes in a way similar to how I outline mine in my State-by-State and Food Ethnography posts, only much sleeker and more streamlined than mine.  Then he streamlines the recipe even more by putting it in a nice neat little box (for example, his recipe for lemon bars).  I guess it takes an engineer! I wish more recipes were diagrammed out like these.

Remind me why this fool has her own damn show again. Go on.

Just searching for funny Sandra Lee stuff on the YouTubes and lo, Aunt Sandy reminds us that the two most important ingredients in every "cake covered with cookies" recipe... are cake and cookies.

If a 12 year old did this, I would have to say, "Aww, that's so creative! Good for you!" If a person with her own damn TV show - no, two damn TV shows - on a food channel did this, I would have to shake my head in shame, and wonder why they let her get away with this stuff.

Did one of these people actually just utter the phrase "Sweet baby!" early in the video?

Gino's is back

Brand new news about an age-old area food institution!  Gino's is back, and open in Towson.  In this day and age of the higher quality small chain burger (the Shake Shacks of the Northeast, the In N Outs of the West Coast), the time seems perfect for a Gino's resurrection.  ABC 2 News reports.

I remember Gino's from when I was a young child.  There was one open off Patapsco Avenue - and there was a Roy Rogers, too, I think.  Eh, Lansdowne and Baltimore Highlands were very large places for a 5 year old.  Anyway, Mom & Dad often took us there.  Then one day they stopped.  I didn't realize at the time that they had closed down.  You know the inevitable trip is coming sometime soon.  You just know it.  And you will read about it here.

Snacking State-by-State: Maine II - Fiddle Me This, Fiddle Me That

Since Maine is a place where people have been eating seasonally long after it fell out of fashion, it stands to reason that the next dish I am preparing isn't typically made year round. But even fiddle head ferns, with the advent of flash freezing, should be easier to find year round. At least in those areas where people are familiar with them.

Official Name: State of Maine
State Nicknames: The Pine Tree State
Admission to the US: March 15, 1820 (#23)
Capital: Augusta (9th largest city)
Other Important Cities: Portland (largest); Lewiston (2nd largest); Bangor (3rd largest)
Region: Northeast, New England; New England (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Maple Syrup; Clambake
Bordered by: New Hampshire (west); Québec (Canada) (northwest); New Brunswick (Canada) (north, northeast), Bay of Fundy (due east), Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine (southeast)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: wild blueberry (fruit); Maine wild blueberry pie (dessert); whoopie pie (treat); Moxie (soft drink); landlocked salmon (fish); moose (animal)
Some Famous & Typical Foods: New England foods; seafood, especially lobster, haddock, swordfish, salmon, clams; blueberries and apples; fiddle head ferns; whoopie pies; foods in common with southeastern Canada, including poutine

Being from Maryland, I have very little experience with fiddle head ferns. Family cookbooks in my part of the country do not feature fiddle heads because we just don't eat them here! The fiddle head is prepared like a leaf vegetable - though technically it isn't a vegetable but a fern. The fiddle head has historically been eaten in northern parts of France, Asia and North America. Today you can find fiddle heads eaten in Michigan's Upper Peninsula as well as in Québec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Within the US, upper New England is where the fiddle head is perhaps the most popular. The tender scrolls, which taste a little like asparagus, are fresh only during a short part of the year, and are harvested close to the ground before they open to release their spores.

I have had one and only one experience with fiddle heads in my lifetime prior to this. A few years ago I wrote about these strange things that I picked up at Eddie's of Roland Park on Charles Street. I stir-fried them, not realizing that one has to cook and cook and cook them before eating. One does not eat raw fiddle heads, because (as I found at the time) they will make you sick.

By all accounts, fiddle heads should be prepared simply. I am not finding many complicated recipes for these things, so why bother trying? In fact, the most complicated recipe that I found for fiddle heads comes from the website for Yankee Magazine - the "New England Website" - and all of the complexity goes into the sauce that you whisk up while the fiddle heads are cooking simply and all by themselves.

Recipe: Dijon Fiddleheads

For this simple recipe, you will need the following:


* fiddle head ferns (well duh). I did not pick these up recently, but got a half a pound a few months ago at Graul's when they were fresh, for about $8 or $9 per pound, and froze them. The process for freezing is simple. I followed this procedure from the University of Maine:

To freeze fiddleheads, clean them as you would for the table. Blanch a small amount at a time for two minutes in 4 to 6 cups of water. Cool and drain in cold water or in an ice water bath (half water and half ice). Pack into moisture- and vapor-proof containers and freeze. Thaw and boil for 10 minutes before serving. [El-Begearmi et al 2010]

The blanching of the fiddle heads

And the drying of the fiddle heads before freezing

* Dijon mustard, mayonnaise and lemon juice (had them all)
* yogurt (picked up a tub of plain nonfat yogurt at Giant for $2)
* scallions (99 cents a bunch)
* salt and pepper


With that last experience with fiddle heads coming back to mind, I wanted to take no chances, so I steamed the fiddle heads in the pan with a little bit of olive oil for about 15 minutes.


Now for the difficult part:

Wow, this is hard.

Whisk together the rest of the ingredients to make a sauce, and spoon it over the thoroughly cooked fiddle head ferns.


This time, the fiddle heads did not make me sick. That is because I cooked the hell out of 'em! So this time I could actually enjoy them. They do taste a little like asparagus, which I do not enjoy, but I liked these. The sauce is sharp and tangy, and goes very well with many vegetables. I recently ate this sauce over broccoli, and I can imagine it as a dressing for salad, though depending on the salad, you may have to thin it out a little bit: keep it thick for a potato salad, or thin it out for a garden salad.

Sources:

Dojny, Brooke. Dishing Up Maine: 165 Recipes That Capture Authentic Down East Flavors. Storey Publishing: North Adams, MA, 2008.

Dojny, Brooke. The New England Clam Shack Cookbook. 2nd edition. Storey Publishing: North Adams, MA, 2008. Portions also available on Google Books.

El-Begearmi, Mahmoud. Facts on Fiddleheads (Bulletin #4198, Facts on Fiddleheads). Updated by Alfred Bushway, Beth Calder and David Fuller. Cooperative Extension Publications (University of Maine): Orona, ME, 1995 & 2010.

Greenlaw, Linda, and Martha Greenlaw. Recipes From a Very Small Island. Hyperion: New York, NY, 2005.

Yankee Magazine. "Dijon Fiddleheads". From "Weekly Wisdom", May 2002. Copyright 2011 Yankee Magazine.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Maine" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Maine".

New Belgium hits the Mid-Atlantic

Yes, microbrew lovers: we are just one short week away from New Belgium Beer finally hitting the Chesapeake region.  August 22nd is the day that Fat Tire and its associated beers finally come to Maryland, Virginia and the District.  I smuggled the above-pictured bottles in my checked luggage the last few times I visited California.  No need to do that anymore, or for that matter drive all the way to North Carolina.  Over the next week I will be drinking some of these beers, to give a taste of what we can expect. 

Already I can tell you about Fat Tire: this ale actually tastes fattening.  The first time I had one, in the company of my old grad school adviser and his wife (ah, social scientists like to drink, especially the anthropologists), I ended up drinking another.  Thus began a very long-distance love affair that led me to smuggle most of a twelve pack back in my checked luggage, and to get excited when I found it on tap at Flex, a Raleigh-area gay bar (er, "club" as they call them there).  Now all I have to do is head to the Wine Source.  Oh, that's right: I have to find out if they'll have it and when...

Snacking State-by-State: Maine I - Oh, there's more in the sea than the lobster! (Hey, ya!)

The next few posts take us back to New England, as far as you can go up the Eastern seaboard. We're gettin' down with the Down East (oh Jesus, I cannot believe I actually typed that).

Official Name: State of Maine
State Nicknames: The Pine Tree State
Admission to the US: March 15, 1820 (#23)
Capital: Augusta (9th largest city)
Other Important Cities: Portland (largest); Lewiston (2nd largest); Bangor (3rd largest)
Region: Northeast, New England; New England (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Maple Syrup; Clambake
Bordered by: New Hampshire (west); Québec (Canada) (northwest); New Brunswick (Canada) (north, northeast), Bay of Fundy (due east), Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine (southeast)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: wild blueberry (fruit); Maine wild blueberry pie (dessert); whoopie pie (treat); Moxie (soft drink); landlocked salmon (fish); moose (animal)
Some Famous & Typical Foods: New England foods; seafood, especially lobster, haddock, swordfish, salmon, clams; blueberries and apples; fiddle head ferns; whoopie pies; foods in common with southeastern Canada, including poutine

What can one specifically say about the cuisine of the Pine Tree State? Brooke Dojny, author of The New England Clam Shack Cookbook, discovered this after moving to Maine from her native Connecticut. She compiled a cookbook that "captures authentic Down East flavors" in her Dishing Up Maine. Therein she lists many reasons why she has fallen in love with the foods of Maine. There are too many to list, though she definitely notes that it isn't all about the lobster. Mainers still eat by the seasons, and did so before it became fashionable everywhere else:

In winter, it's likely to be thick pea soup with smoky ham, vegetable-rich pot roast, rich and reamy seafood casserole, or cranberry-glazed meat loaf; in summer, thoughts turn to the likes of crab cakes, lobster rolls, barbecued chicken, and farmers' market pasta with Maine chèvre. [Dojny 2006: 11]

She also notes that the "artisan movement thrives in Maine" (Dojny 2006: 11) - everything from maple syrup to pickles to freshly picked blueberries and locally made sausages and cheeses are readily found in this Northeastern-most portion of the country.

A few months ago, I consulted this same cookbook when I got inspired to make myself a lobster roll for the first time ever (due in part to an exceptionally good sale on Maine lobster at the local Graul's). Why Dishing Up Maine for the lobster roll? Because lobster is one of the most iconic foods of Maine, and I figured a Mainer, even a new one like Dojny, would know what she was doing when describing this dish to a poor little ol' cook from below the Mason-Dixon Line like myself.

I am surprised in retrospect that I never wrote about this venture, but am happy to finally post some photos of the project here:

This little fella is probably not expecting what is about to hit him. At least I threw him in the freezer for a bit.

Nope, the little guy didn't see it comin'. Unlike in Cajun Country, where you never steam a crustacean, or the Chesapeake, where you almost never boil one, in New England - apparently - you can boil or steam your crustaceans. I went all Chesapeake and steamed mine.

The recipe is very simple: lobster, lemon juice and mayonnaise. That's it, plus optional salt and pepper to taste. And then you need something to put it in: a hot dog roll for each person, toasted and brushed with melted butter (the hot dog roll, not the person), and maybe chopped chives or parsley to sprinkle on top.

And the final lobster roll, on a buttered toasted hot dog roll, accompanied by my own wasabi mayo-dill potato salad with sliced chili peppers.

I liked Dojny's "classic Maine lobster roll" (found on page 49 of her Dishing Up Maine cookbook), but I knew there were other ways to prepare lobster, and other edible sea life around Maine. I found a whole new (albeit overlapping) world of lobster and seafood recipes in the book Recipes From a Very Small Island by Linda Greenlaw and her mother Martha. The "very small island" in question where the Mss. Greenlaw reside is Isle au Haut, floating smack dab off the middle of the Maine coastline. The elder Greenlaw (Martha) points out that "[w]e New Englanders are a sturdy breed and tend to stay pretty much where we're born. Nowhere is this more true than in Maine" (Greenlaw and Greenlaw 2005: 9). Martha's daughter is a cook, fisherwoman and lobsterwoman, and so neither has very difficult access to fresh New England seafood (the younger Greenlaw also has acclaim as an author, and as the only female swordfishing boat captain on the East Coast).

It comes as no surprise, then, that the Greenlaws' cookbook has an embarrassment of riches from the sea - a partial list includes not just lobster but also scallop, crab, haddock, halibut, clam, mussel, and (duh) swordfish. But to narrow down my choices a wee bit, I wanted a lobster dish that wasn't in "roll" format. I eventually went with a creamy casserole, the kind that Dojny says is more suited for winter. This one features not only lobster but also the humble and widely available haddock. The recipe, I think, is Martha's, and is named for Head Harbor, much closer to the easternmost point of the state (and of the United States).

Recipe: Head Harbor Lobster & Haddock Casserole

The authors note that "any mild, flaky white fish" can be used in place of the haddock, which I found during my shopping is not the most readily available fish down here. For the complete recipe, including exact amounts, check out page 55 of their Recipes from a Very Small Island.

For their lobster and haddock casserole you will need:


* lobster (As we all know, this is not cheap, so you have to find it as cheap as possible when you can. Ever the opportunist, I profited off the misfortune of Super Fresh, which shut down in Baltimore recently, by picking up two frozen lobster tails for half the price at $10! That said, it only afforded me half the lobster I needed for this casserole, which in retrospect would have worked as well had I halved it. To make up for it, I did buy a small pre-steamed lobster for $12 at Wegman's)

Hey, do you know a crawfish I boiled recently?

* haddock (I almost got some on sale at Harris Teeter for $8 a pound, only to find that it was sold out. Eventually I picked up a 2 lb bag of frozen haddock for $12. I later kicked myself in the rear when I went back to Harris Teeter only to find haddock at the ridiculously good price of $6 per pound. Sigh.)
* Dijon mustard, ketchup, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce (These I already had)
* horseradish (I actually did not have this on hand, but I picked up a bottle of Inglehoffer's cream-style horseradish for about $5. I know I will get plenty of use out of this eventually)
* medium-dry sherry (If you don't have sherry on hand, no problem: a passable substitute is red wine, which I do have)
* salt (have it)
* all-purpose flour (have it, too)
* whole milk (picked up a quart for $1.30 - I don't drink a lot of milk. I later found that I left half and half off my shopping list, which I needed instead, but here's a trick I read about online: if all you have no half and half, an acceptable substitute is an equal amount of whole milk with one exception: replace one tablespoon of milk per cup with a tablespoon of butter. That is, if you need two cups of half and half, you can substitute two cups of whole milk, but replacing two tablespoons of the milk with two tablespoons of butter. This only works in cooking and baking)
* butter (have it)
* fresh parsley (got it from the garden)
* bread crumbs (it plays to freeze extra bread after you bake it - I had a lot of this on hand)

There are a lot of ingredients, but the procedure is relatively simple once you have the ingredients in place.


First, simmer the haddock until it is opaque (a little longer if yours is frozen). Once this is done, you will cut it into chunks and set it aside.


While you poach the haddock, tear into the lobster and remove the meat. Don't just use the tail meat, of course - you need the claw and leg meat, too, and if you can get to the tomalley (the green stuff that is analogous to crab mustard and crawfish fat) add some of that, as I did. This is not in the Greenlaws' recipe, but I don't think they would object.


Just to gauge your meat level: a small lobster, weighing a little over a pound, yields a little over a cup of lobster meat.


Take all your lobster meat - for me, that included the tails I bought separately and at a discount - and cut that up as well, and set it aside.


Next you make a roux. That next part seems almost Cajun in practice, but it should come as no surprise, given how close Maine is to Québec and to French Canada, where you often start with a roux. The roux comes from the butter and flour, which you will whisk together over medium high heat.


When you have the roux, add the rest of the ingredients except for the haddock, lobster and bread crumbs, and constantly whisk together until thick.


It will end up being very thick.


Add the seafood and pour into a 3 quart casserole dish.


Top with bread crumbs (note: if you are dealing with frozen bread, toast it first in order to dessicate it, and then throw it in the food processor for much easier crumbs).


Bake the casserole at 400°F for about 35 minutes.


If Maine is a hearty state, then this dish most certainly exemplifies that fact. This casserole is very filling, and you won't need a lot in any one sitting. This casserole, as a friend pointed out, combines a high falutin (to me at least, though maybe not to Mainers) seafood - lobster - and a very plebeian seafood - haddock. The two blend together nicely. It also gives a nice blend of textures - the hearty seafood, the creamy sauce, the crunchy bread crumbs, all making up a fascinating and lovely casserole. But next time, I will cut this in half. it's just too much food!

Sources:

Dojny, Brooke. Dishing Up Maine: 165 Recipes That Capture Authentic Down East Flavors. Storey Publishing: North Adams, MA, 2008.

Dojny, Brooke. The New England Clam Shack Cookbook. 2nd edition. Storey Publishing: North Adams, MA, 2008. Portions also available on Google Books.

El-Begearmi, Mahmoud. Facts on Fiddleheads (Bulletin #4198, Facts on Fiddleheads). Updated by Alfred Bushway, Beth Calder and David Fuller. Cooperative Extension Publications (University of Maine): Orona, ME, 1995 & 2010.

Greenlaw, Linda, and Martha Greenlaw. Recipes From a Very Small Island. Hyperion: New York, NY, 2005.

Yankee Magazine. "Dijon Fiddleheads". From "Weekly Wisdom", May 2002. Copyright 2011 Yankee Magazine.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Maine" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Maine".

Julia Child and the Perfect Omelette

Julia Child passed seven years ago today.  In memoriam, her classic omelette.  I learned how to make it from her.