popovers take 2: they popped!

Continuing on my mission to make Jordan Pond House worthy popovers, I went online to see if I couldn't find Jordan Pond House's actual recipe. There are a few different recipes out there claiming to be the real deal and I was trying to determine which one to try first.  Then Lynsey recommended her mom's recipe, which I have on hand in the Waite Family Cookbook.  So, I combined the different recipes only to discover shocking results.

Here's how you make them:

Gather:

4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup all purpose flour (sifted, please!)
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking powder
2 tbs butter, melted (save some to grease the pan)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  (Mrs. Waite's recipe says to put the oven at 375 and others say to do 400 and then 350...I was cooking Shepherd's Pie at the same time, so I just left the oven at 400...oops?).  Put the popover pan into the oven while it's preheating.

Beat eggs in a bowl and whisk in milk.  Add flour and salt, most of the butter (don't forget to save some to grease the popover pan), and baking powder (I think this ingredient played a key role, as you soon will see) and whisk until smooth.

Take the popover pan out of the oven, grease it with the left over butter.  Then, don't take any chances and spray it verrryy liberally with Pam. There was no way I was letting the popovers stick to the bottom of the pan this time! Not only is it super annoying when that happens, but it also takes the fun out of eating popovers.  And then what's the point?   To top it all off, cleaning pans with popover stuck in the bottom is. not. fun. Nope! Not in the slightest. Once you're done spraying, distribute the batter among the cups.

Put the pan back in the oven and set the timer to 25 minutes. Then, if you're like me, giggle like a school girl while you watch them rise to ginormous proportions in the oven. Oh, and don't open the oven if you can possibly stand it! I couldn't. I opened it twice...in my defense, once was to put in the Shepherd's Pie. The other time was to take this picture, which doesn't even do the popping justice.

When the timer goes off...or the popovers look like they might explode...open the oven (finally it's allowed!) and prick each one with a fork.  Then cook for about 3 more minutes.  Get ready! Because when you take them out of the oven, they start to shrink kind of quickly.  They're still pretty funny looking though. 

Dan and I wanted to take a picture to give you some sense of proportion here.  I really, truly don't think these pictures do any justice to just how big these popovers were.  Dan thought that he could use his hand to show you...but if you don't know how big his hand is, well, it doesn't work.  I mean, what if he had really freakishly small hands? 

So, we grabbed something that was approximately the same size and something that you would all recognize.  Yes, these popovers were the size of soda cans.  Unreal.  (Can I throw in a rather long side note here?  I am absolutely obsessed with Polar Seltzer water.  So good.  I haven't been able to find it in Colorado, so drinking this and Dunkin Donuts are the two of my favorite parts of coming home to Maine. Trust me...I'm pretty sure Dan wished he could kick me out of the car the first ten or so times we passed a Dunkin Donuts on our drive east.  I usually started doing some horrendously dorky dance and rapping about how much I love "Dunks."  Thanks for putting up with me, Dan.)

And there you have it.  While my perfect popover search is by no means over, I feel like their sheer size makes these pretty good show stoppers.  I'll keep you posted as I test more recipes.  Also, check out that burn mark on the cutting board.  Apparently my grandmother had a close call back in the day.

as;lsdjfao;ij;oixj;oijads

If you know me, you know that the title of this post means I'm excited.  Really, really super-duper excited.  Too excited to type, in fact.  And if you know me, you know I can type pretty quickly and accurately. So writing something like this "al;skjf;ozijsdf;zdsifosdijf" is saying something.  Dan likes to joke that I can type faster in French than he can in English. (It's true.)

And just why am I oh, so excited?? Because the mailman just knocked on my door and left me a package.  It was from amazon.com and I had no idea what it was.  Amazon? Amazon? I didn't order anything from Amazon? Did I? Have I gone completely insane? What is this?

mystery package

I opened up the package and found....drumroll please....the Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook! Ah! You have no idea how thrilled I was!  Literally jumping for joy.  I have wanted a Barefoot Contessa cookbook for years now (yes, years...I am not joking).  Why I haven't bought one for myself, I do not know.  Some force of self-restraint that is otherwise completely absent from my life had apparently prevented me from it.  But now I have one!!!  And I could not be more excited about it! (Can you tell I'm really excited??)

there it is! mine, all mine! 

But the most exciting part was solving the mystery of where this book came from.  The return address was somewhere in amazon.com-land (so, no clues there) and I was pretty sure (like 97% sure) that I hadn't ordered it for myself.  And it hit me! My friend Dinah and I had recently been talking about Barefoot Contessa and she asked if I had any of her cookbooks.  DINAH!! Oh, Dinah!  Dinah lives in Seattle and it was only 9:30 am here (aka 6:30 am there), so I texted her in fear a phone call might wake her up, "Did you send me the Barefoot Contessa book??? It just arrived on my doorstep!!!"  And sure enough, Dinah was awake (such an early bird) and she did send it to me!  I immediately called her to thank her for the book and was fighting back tears the entire time.  Haha, I'm such a disaster, I know.  It was just so nice of her to think of me and to go through all this trouble to send me a book, a book that I absolutely love.  She is such a great friend.

Dinah and me in Seattle last summer

Dinah and I became good friends when we were studying abroad together in Paris for our Junior year of college.  We both went to Colby and had sort of known each other since Freshman year, but our friendship was solidified abroad.  We had a French professor who once told us that a friendship made abroad is a friendship for life.  He was totally right.

Dinah and me in St. Malo, France, spring 2005

Thank you, Dinah!  Gros bisous!

on a mission: popovers

After visiting the Jordan Pond House, my newest mission in life is to make popovers that rival theirs.  It's a pretty lofty goal, I know.  I mean, I should probably take on rocket science next. In all seriousness though, if you've ever had the popovers at JPH, you'll know I have a lot to live up to.  For my first attempt, I used the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.

First, preheat the oven to 400. Then, grease or spray your popover pan or six 6 oz custard cups and place it on a 15x10x1 inch baking sheet.

Then mix 2 beaten eggs with 1 cup of milk and 1 tbs of cooking oil:

Next add 1 cup of flour and 1/4 tsp of salt:

Whisk the batter until smooth and fill the cups half way:

Bake for 40 minutes (ugh so long! such torture!) and prick the top with a fork as soon as you take them out of the oven:

Then serve them hot with something delicious, like Gordon Ramsay's scrambled eggs (did I mention I'm obsessed?) or just with butter and jam.  Yum.

While these popovers turned out quite well, I still don't think they're my rival to the JPH's version.  I'll just have to keep testing new ways to make them...twist my arm, huh?  I think the biggest problem with these popovers is that even though I thoroughly sprayed the popover pan, they still stuck to the bottom.  Bummer.

p.s. can you tell it was me taking the pictures this time and not Dan? haha, sorry!

catalog living

So, Sarah, my friend who made the out-of-this world challah in college and who taught me about Gordon Ramsay's scrambled eggs, showed me a new website tonight that I think is absolutely hilarious.  I mean, I was cracking up...all by myself...to the point where it would've been embarrassing if anybody else had been there.

(pottery barn catalog image)

The website is Catalog Living.  The schtick is mocking ridiculously staged catalog pictures.  Seriously, what were some of these people thinking?? I especially like the one about the q tips (because I had previously seen this picture in my Pottery Barn catalog and wondered what one would do with such a vast quantity of q tips), the one about the plate of figs, and they one with "grayer" sheets.  Hope you're all as amused by this as I was!

Sarah's also coming to visit me this weekend...maybe I can convince her to trade her challah recipe for a cinnamon roll making lesson?? Sarah??

Florence's Room and Bathroom: Before and After

Here are the pics!

BEFORE:

Uh-oh.  We never took a before picture of the bedroom.   Although it didn't really look bad.  It was always my favorite room in the house and I actually inherited this bedroom set when my grandmother died, because I liked it so much when I was little.  I thought it was a bedroom set fit for a princess. Seriously.  Don't you wish you'd been my friend when I was 8?

Here's the only before pic I can find.  It was actually taken a few years ago and for this picture the room had been set up nicely for a real estate photo shoot.  You do get a sneak peak into the old bathroom and can check out that wall to wall carpeting, which you'll notice is now gone.  Anyway, not bad, right?  I actually really like the wallpaper; I think it's very bed and breakfast-y.

AFTER:

I love that trap door! I think we should put something really exciting behind it, so guests can find it when they're snooping!  Or what if something popped out at you? Haha, that would be hilarious.  For me, anyway.

Don't you think princesses would want to sit at this vanity and try on their tiaras?  I certainly did.  Is that too creepy to write?  Hmm... 

If you look closely, there's even a little crown on that bowl.  Maybe I should move it to the vanity.

My grandmother was obsessed with Reader's Digest, hence the books.  At least, I think she was obsessed.  We never talked about it and I don't actually remember seeing her read one, but they were always all over the house.  And I mean, who buys Reader's Digest hardcover if they aren't obessesed, right?

Here's a good glimpse of what lay beneath the carpet.  It's the original wide, pine floorboards!  Aren't they pretty?  They're in different shades of stain (underneath that throw rug is not as pretty), but I think that's actually kind of neat.  Also, do you see those bricks? Those are/were a hearth.  Apparently all of the rooms had fireplaces back in the day, but they have been covered up in the bedrooms.  Such a shame.  If we were living here longer/had more money and time, I would totally try to unearth them.

The window in the picture above looks out onto this:

Downtown! That's how close we are...really, really close.

I know this picture looks crooked, but it is hanging on the wall straight.  I'm just a bad photographer.  Anyway, for some reason, I love this painting. 

Also, I love these shade pulls.  We bought new shades for all of the bedroom windows and I asked the saleswoman if she knew where I could buy new shade pulls.  She actually said that they don't make them anymore and that people come into the store all the time asking her for some.  I'll be holding on to them.  

Okay, and the bathroom BEFORE:

byebye fake tile and wallpaper, hello...AFTER:

We painted the walls a bright blue and installed new wainscoting.  The fake tiles were showing their years of ware and tare and water splashing.  The wainscoting is made for bathrooms, so splashes wont hurt it.  We also painted the clawfoot tub a glossy black.  I think that's my favorite part of the room.

Isn't this old sink cool? I like the drain.

Cat painting replaced with black and white trees.  Don't worry, I hung the cat painting in my bedroom.

I love the old key. 

Those towels in the background are embroidered with the letter G. 

And this final one is across the upstairs hallway into the other room. 

That's it.  What do you think?

sigh and chocolate chip strawberry banana nut muffins

I feel like a heavy weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.  Today, we finally, officially opened.  (Only a month after our projected opening date.  Geez, time flies.  But honestly, tourism season seems to be just starting to pick up around here, so I'm glad we took our time and did a good job on everything, instead of rushing to get it done only to sit here in a ghost town.) It feels so nice.  I know in my last post I wrote about how obsessive I am about making lists, but tonight is the first time in forever that I feel like I don't have a miles-long list running through my head.  I feel like I can finally relax.  The "no" is off of the vacancy sign.  We brought our flyers down to the Chamber of Commerce and invited them up here to see the place.  Ahhh.  Now...we wait?

My good friend Lynsey came up from Portland to visit us today.  She helped out with so much stuff including cleaning up the living room, which was a total disaster.  Any room that isn't directly related to guests has been utterly ignored and the living room was the worst of all.  We're thinking of letting guests use this area if they want, given that there aren't any other really communal sitting areas...although it's our only sitting area too.  But it was great to have Lynsey's editing eye to help me get rid of all of the mulch that had accumulated in here.  It feels so clean and open suddenly!  Thanks, Lyns!

I took tried to take some pictures of the second bedroom and bathroom to show you, but they came out pretty blurry. I went to take more, and the camera died.  Of course. I'm charging the camera now, but I'll probably wait until tomorrow morning when the sunlight's better to take more.  So, stay tuned!


In the meantime, those are some pictures of the flowers in the rain that's been here for the past two days.  Also, I used up some over-ripe bananas by making chocolate chip banana strawberry nut muffins.  Whoa, that's a mouthful.  Here they are all stacked up on my dining room table:

I used a recipe that called for 3 bananas, but I had only two.  So I substituted some strawberries, since we have approximately a gazillion of them.  I crushed some up and added them to the batter and also folded in some in bigger pieces.  The batter was bright pink and I really hoped the muffins would be too, but, alas, they are brown.

Still yummy though!

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Chip Strawberry Banana Nut Muffins

Loosely adapted from Wendy's recipe on Tasty Kitchen


1 cup unsalted butter aka two sticks (room temp)
1 cup sugar
2 whole ripe bananas
1 cup whole ripe strawberries (divided: half pureed, half in chunks)
2 eggs
4-5 tbs milk
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup chocolate chips (I prefer semi-sweet)
1 cup roasted nuts (preferably pecans or walnuts)

Preheat oven to 425.

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Mix in the bananas, the pureed strawberries, and the eggs.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Add half of the dry mixture to the butter/sugar/fruit mixture.  Then add about 2 tbs milk.  Add the rest of the dry mixture to batter, followed by remaining milk.  Mix well to combine.

Fold in chocolate chips, nuts and strawberry "chunks."

Fill muffin tins at least 3/4 of way to top, filling any empty left over muffin holes with water.  Put muffins in oven and reduce heat to 350.  Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden brown on top.

My muffins didn't rise as much as others and I think this batter might be too wet because of all of the added strawberries....you could maybe try adding a bit more flour or not adding the milk.  But, if you make them as I did, they will still be light and fluffy and moist.  They just might not rise up as much as you'd like.

thank you, person who invented dvr

Why is it that all of the good tv shows are on the same night?  Wednesday nights were already crowded, as far as our tv line up goes.  There are two shows Dan really likes to watch these nights and now a new season of Top Chef has begun.  I couldn't even schedule for it to record at 9 o'clock without bumping another show off of the record list (luckily it's replayed at 11).  And then, tonight I finally saw the Fabulous Beekman Boys on Planet Green.  I. am. obsessed.  I had seen the somewhat obnoxious preview for the show and still wanted to watch it, but then just seemed to keep missing when it was on.  Tonight, however, I channel surfed upon a mini marathon.

(Josh and Brent)

In case you aren't familiar with the show, these guys used to live in New York City, but bought a farm in upstate New York and are trying to run it (with help from a guy named Farmer John).  Josh still commutes to the City for work every week and comes home to the farm on weekends, where Brent (a former VP of Healthy Living at Martha Stewart ) is busy doing what I could only describe as Martha-fying the farm (i.e., he washes the pigs).  Hilarity and drama ensue, obviously. (If you don't get Planet Green, you can still watch the first episode for free.)

First and foremost, I love the show because what they are doing is basically my dream on steroids.  Except, if I were them, I would turn that mansion into a bed and breakfast too.  How awesome would it be to have a working farm bed and breakfast?  Then guests who are interested in starting their own small farmsteads could come to stay and learn about farming.  The guests would help you with the farm chores, but you would teach them along the way.  Granted,  I would probably have to be a guest at first, given that I am struggling to keep my tiny garden alive.  You could even do certain crafts classes, like re-purposing old furniture...and cooking classes too!  Using all ingredients from the farm, of course.  And people could look at a calendar of classes offered to decide which weekend they'd like to come stay.  Whoa, tangent.  But seriously, wouldn't that be so fun??  The Beekman Farm would be the perfect place...just look at how gorgeous it is:

 (photo credit: Beekman 1802)

Second, Brent and Josh kind of remind me of Dan and me, well minus the fact that they're gay and have tons of money and are a doctor and a New York Times bestselling author...okay, so we're pretty different.  But, I am amused by how Brent makes lists for Josh.  I am obsessed with making lists.  At the beginning of living here, I had so many lists that I needed a list just to keep track of all of my lists (not really, but come to think of it, that would have been helpful).  When Josh comes home from a long week of work in the City, Brent shoves a to-do list in his face...well, that's me with Dan.  Except Dan is coming downstairs from sleeping...so I don't feel so bad.  (Also, I have only actually made one THREE listS (Dan swears this is true) for Dan so far...although I am in the process of making another one...whiiiich he doesn't know about yet.)  Josh said something about how if he were to make a list for Brent, it would include sitting back, relaxing and not stressing out so much.  I'm pretty sure that's exactly what Dan would put on my list.

 (photo credit: Beekman 1802)

Third, they make cheese!  And I L-O-V-E love cheese.  I want to order some to eat right now.  They ship it all over the place!  Yum.  Anyway, I think the show is great and what they are doing with their farm is great, too.  My only wish is that they would put in some more details about farming and how to farm, or how they make the cheese (haha, can you tell I'm stuck on the cheese?).  Looks like I just might have to add another show to our already long list of Wednesday night DVR or, better yet, force Dan to watch this with me in real time. Maybe if I give him a long enough list of things to do, I'll have the tv all to myself....?

p.s. they have a goat cam on their website! okay, it's not quite puppy cam, but still amazing in that ridiculous sort of way.

pictures of acadia

Monday was spent in Acadia.  We were celebrating being essentially done with the renovations and took the day off.  Isn't it nice that we can go up there for just a day?  Considering that from most places (in the northeast even) it would take at least a day to get there!?  Fom Camden it's only about an hour and a half...as long as you don't hit tons of traffic that is.  Yes, there can be traffic in Maine.

Jordan Pond

A stone bridge on the carriage roads

Jordan Pond House--where to go for the best popovers. ever.

View from Cadillac Mountain

Atop the highest point on the East Coast...it was such a tough hike. Haha jk! We drove!

Another view from the top of Cadillac

Sand beach--you can't tell from the picture, but it was 90 degrees and sunny!

Thunder hole was disappointingly quiet, but still beautiful.

Rocky coast of Maine

I love this house! Isn't it so cute?! Love the dormers, love the porch, love the yellow. Ahh.

Out of Acadia National Park and along the waterfront in the town of Bar Harbor.  We didn't get any pictures of the shops, because Dan took all of these pictures and he cares very little about shopping, but does love a good vista.  If I'd been taking the pictures, they'd be a) not nearly as good and b) of a lot of trinkets I found and now covet :)

Another view of Bar Harbor's coastline

The Margaret Todd.  You can go out for an afternoon sail on this beaut.  Actually, when we were at the top of Cadillac, we watched the Margaret Todd leave Bar Harbor and raise her sails, one by one.  It was really beautiful.

Holy yacht!

It turned out to be a really fun, much deserved day away from the house!