This past Tuesday I helped out at the Orono Public Library by showing the teen group how to make video book trailers using Animoto.  Great group of kids who caught on very quickly and really enjoyed the pizza afterwards.  It got me thinking about pizza (surprise, surprise).  My Swiss Italian grandmother didn't learn to make pizza until she came to the U.S. and hers was very different from any I've ever had.  I have tried to reproduce the soft dough with a topping that was shy on tomatoes but included lots of sausage, fennel seed, rosemary and parmesan cheese.  Italians think American pizza has way too much cheese although you will see blobs of great fresh mozzarella on the famous "pizza margherita" named after a queen.  I usually make this on the grill in the summer.  I have my husband, Mark, (hereafter referred to as The Captain) start a charcoal fire on the old Lodge hibachi.  I roll out small, misshapen pieces of dough and oil one side with olive oil.  Lay it out on the grill, oil the top and turn it over in less than a minute - just as soon as you see grill marks.  Lay it off to one side of the grill and turn quickly a couple more times.   I use a plain passata (unherbed tomato puree) that I make with fresh tomatoes in the summer but you can use Pomi tomato puree or even fresh tomato slices.  Top with some great farmers' market mozz or slices of Italian burrata and some fresh basil.  Let the cheese just begin to melt and there 'ya go!  There is a great new cheese shop in Belfast called "Eat More Cheese" and they have burrata.  Appleton Creamery makes fresh mozz and Olde Oak has both regular and smoked mozz so stock up.  Olde Oak is at the Bangor Thursday market as well.   COMOC (Crown of Maine Organic Cooperative) now makes a frozen organic pizza dough which you can order if you are member of the Orono Local Buying Club but you can use any dough or make your own. I'll try to get a picture before I post this.  May not be my own if the weather doesn't cooperate!

On Sunday we are off for a week of vacation in SW Harbor.  For someone like me, the packing of foodstuffs is always a problem (well not really as much for me as for The Captain)  but since we go from SW directly on to our sailboat for a few days the dilemma is expanded.  How much to take?  How much to buy there?  What will the markets have?  What about our favorite quietside restaurants?  Will a gallon of olive oil be enough? I'll visit local farmers' markets and be on the lookout for great food everywhere.  Tough job but someone has to blog it.   Stay tuned for the play-by-play.

My love affair with the OFM

The Orono Farmers Market always makes me happy.  I think I was one of their first customers back in the day and, at one time, I had a booth with baked goods and appetizer spreads.  The fantastic array of locally grown and produced goods brings together friends, kids and dogs in a weekly celebration of community.  I always arrive with a feeling of expectation.  What new crops have ripened in the gardens of hard-working vegetable farmers.  What cheeses have been produced by our fantastic cheesemakers.  Chicken, eggs, meats, flowers, bread, milk, yogurt, maple syrup - I hardly ever go to the grocery store this time of year.  Well, maybe for toilet paper!  As I wander the stalls, menus begin to form in my mind.  Steak salad with Grassland flank, Peacemeal's greens and Appleton feta?  Pate with Mainely Poultry's chicken livers (never buy chicken liver in the grocery store!) on crusty french bread with a side of unsalted butter and radishes?  What's the weather going to do?  Should I make a rich chowder from Perley's beautiful white cod and  a few scallops or bake the cod with a buttery scallop and garlic scape
dressing on top? Kousky has greenhouse grown zucchini and Snakeroot has cucumbers.    I could slice them thinly lengthwise, spread with Olde Oak chevre mixed with dill and fill  with julienned carrots, green onions and radish. Roll it up for a vegetable sushi.  For dessert I could make another lemon cheesecake like the one being served at the Orono Public Library tonight for Artsapaloosa.  I used cream cheese from Tide Mill Farm purchased through the Orono Local Buying Club (more on this later) with farm fresh eggs, Olde Oak yogurt and lemon peel.  Schartner's strawberries mixed with a touch of limoncello on top?  Evermay Nursery still has beautiful plants and hanging baskets on sale.
I'll ask Kathryn what I should put in that shady bed I dug out next to the garden shed. It's going to be a great day regardless of the weather.  Better get cooking!

Strawberries are early this year.  I have a few plants in the garden.  I just learned that in addition to getting slugs drunk in a dish of beer, I can spray the plants with a hot pepper solution to keep the slugs away.
Supposedly, it will also work on my sunflowers and eggplant, etc.  Yet another use for sirachi!  I found great, overfilled quarts of low-spray strawberries at the Central St. Farmhouse in Bangor for $4.50.  I also admired the hops growing up the ropes in their garden and was told that they will have hops plants in the near future.  I think I will put up a small trellis in the garden and plant some.  The flowers are quite lovely and I remember seeing them in the garden at the Page Farm and Home Museum.  I turned some of the strawberries into a cool summer mousse.  Just blend four cups of cleaned strawberries with about a third of a cup of sugar in the processor.  I added a third of a cup of my homemade limoncello but you can add a quarter cup of lemon juice a couple of tbsps of any other liqueur.  Some recipes call for marsala but I think it takes away from the strawberries.  I mixed 1 1/2 pkgs of unflavored gelatin with a quarter cup of hot water and whisked it into the strawberries.  Then I whipped about 3/4 cup heavy cream and folded it in.  I put it in dessert cups and let it chill for about 5 hours.  You can put the filling into a prepared pie shell (regular or graham cracker) for a strawberry "chiffon" pie.  Add more whipped cream and few strawberry slices for an easy, elegant, cool dessert on hot summer nights.

A new beginning

So tomorrow is the my last day at the High School.  What better time to start something new! I've been cooking for as long as I've been a librarian and I'm passionate about both.  I am also passionate about buying and eating as locally as possible and it IS possible here in Maine, especially this time of year.  This blog will include my discoveries about great products from dedicated producers as well as ideas about how to prepare them simply.  I've been teaching Italian cooking for about four years and will travel in the upcoming year to hone my skills in Italy - so we'll chat about that as well.  Hope you'll come along.