Cafe Maplethorpe Blog :: PEI Restaurant

Welcome to Bedeque

Been a busy week in Bedeque.

With Jim gone for a bit visiting his father (turning 90 next week, the father not Jim) I have to do Jim’s chores plus mine. An early casualty of his absence were his plant plugs. He had a couple of flats of assorted greens destined for the garden up in his office—probably some cabbages, maybe broccoli, who knows? Well, no one will never know because 2 short days of no water and they are all gone. My bad. Too bad we don’t have a greenhouse for these plants…oh, wait. We DO have a greenhouse…hmmmm. I am going to sneak out to Kool Breeze and pick up 2 new flats of plugs and replace them. I am betting Jim won’t notice the difference. Thank God he doesn’t read my blog.

Chores Never End

I need to mow the grass because it is getting long and rain is expected for the rest of the week, but I really have no interest. I have a book to finish and with the cooler, rainy weather moving in, this is perfect sleeping weather. So tired. I also give the chickens short shrift this week. They are fed and watered, the eggs collected of course, but the interactions are as fast as possible and often occur in the middle of the night by flashlight when I am awakened from a deep sleep by my naggy little conscience, “Shit! I forgot to feed the chickens!” So Jim is being missed, although it is unlikely I will tell him so. The state of the place upon his return will assure him that he is needed here.

Summer is ON, baby!

Exquisitely brutal week at the Inn with gatherings every day, lots of food flying out of here. I love cooking for people but hate always feeling behind…running out of this or that, need to run to the grocery or liquor store, need to send e-mails or pay bills. Always wish I was spending more time with my friends. We had some lovely supper guests from Georgia, touring Prince Edward Island and loving it (of course), and we are thrilled to see the area cottagers back. An SUV pulled in the lot for supper and it was so huge I thought Mitt Romney was coming here for supper, maybe looking for expat votes. But there was no dog kennel strapped to the roof, so I realized it was John and Jeri, back again to their lovely cottage. They were asking about efforts to save the Sea Cow Head Lighthouse from the Federal government’s giant yard sale of historic properties.

Finding Local Products is Easy-ish

Spent Saturday morning managing the Summerside Market, one of Jim’s many jobs that has to be done in his absence. Everyone was having a happy day, so that makes it easy. Bought some parsley plants from Jen Campbell and she threw in a bag of arugula and another of bok choy. Some of the arugula went into a Greek salad for my supper—delish. I would have taken a photo of the dish but I sort-of hate people who do that and post them on the Internet. Also picked up a small wheel of “Sentinnel” cheese from Arthur Davies’ cheese stand. It is one of the few left from his last trip through Quebec’s Eastern Townships from the Le Detour Fromagerie. I can’t say enough about their cheeses, so outstanding. The Sentinnel is a soft goat’s milk, washed-rind cheese, at its peak right now. Made two mad dashes out to North Tryon this week to Tim Dixon’s farm to pick up fresh asparagus. I am running a tab that will be the size of a mortgage payment by the end of the asparagus season. We have fresh asparagus soup and asparagus tarts right now, plus we are serving it as a fresh vegetable on the supper plates. Tomorrow I am going to wrap some individual spears in puff pastry and bake them as a plate garnish.

Onward

Going out to mow the grass. Naggy conscience wins again. Hoping to hit the City Cinema tomorrow night for a movie.

This has been a pretty good week at Historic Maplethorpe Inn and café.

Milestone #1: I no longer have any children.

Celebrating Adulthood!

My last reached age 19 yesterday, legal adult age in Canada. Now all my offspring are adults. Doesn’t necessarily mean that they are off the payroll, but it does mean that Mommie can’t easily bail them out when they do something stupid. I bought her a drink, which she said tasted like Kool Aid mixed with gasoline. Good so far.

Milestone #2: Maplethorpe Café recommended in “Where to Eat in Canada 2011”

Great news! You can’t buy your way into this club—it is a mystery shopper sort-of thing. It is always nice to be recognized. We’re still spending most of our free time sourcing real food, grown right here on Prince Edward Island, and cooking it up in innovative and healthful ways. We work hard to price our meals reasonably so that working folks, groups of friends and extended families can actually eat out at Maplethorpe. It is a tough way to make a living but we are still having fun trying. We’ve got some changes coming in the near future, including a new chef (!) to help me out, but that will have to wait for another post.

Miilestone #3: My spices from Steenbergs arrived!

Steenbergs is a UK seller of spices, teas and bakery ingredients, all organic and top quality. It is hard to find good organic ingredients, so I was thrilled to view their product line at www.steenbergs.co.uk The Steenbergs site provides lots of information on the product sourcing, offers interesting recipes, andhave great blog posts—a totally class act.

Problem is, they don’t ship to Canada. Last December my pal Tina was on her way to visit family in England and happily she agreed to bring a shipment back for me. My plan was defeated by the rotten weather that gripped England and the package arrived at her daughter’s house a few days after Tina returned home to PEI. Lucky for me, she and her hubby are frequent fliers and her daughter held on to my treasure trove until they could retrieve it last week. Now that I have them, I can’t wait to start cooking so exotic dishes.

So, those are my milestones for the week. The weather is still cold and wet here on the Island. I am going to bundle up tomorrow morning and go looking for fiddleheads in my secret spot.

Feeling a bit strange, still far from home for a few more weeks.

2011 Winter in Prince Edward Island

It turned out to be  a great time to be away from Prince Edward Island and its ‘Snowmegeddon’ winter. My poor husband and daughter have been home battling the snow, day after day. Shoveling it. Blowing it. Cursing it.

I just read Mark Bittman’s rant on McDonald’s new oatmeal product.

McDonald's Oatmeal

Mark recently ranted on McDonald’s new oatmeal product, which the fast-food giant has turned into a highly-processed  nightmare of a breakfast.  More sugar than a Snickers bar, “cream” that actually contains 7 ingredients, only 2 of which are dairy. As Mark Bittman observes, McDonald’s has done everything it can to turn oatmeal into just another bad choice.

The answer is, of course, so don’t eat there.

Pick up a cheap sack or round tub sporting the happy Quaker guy at any grocery, then spend 90 seconds of your morning making breakfast at home. Period. Are we so pathetic that we can’t even feed ourselves any more? Do we really need a national discussion on this? Evidently so.

Okay, so I recently drove from Prince Edward Island, Canada to Billings, Montana. Yes, I know, it is sounds crazy, but it had to be done. Being winter, I was dodging blizzards and trying to move fast, but I had to cover over 2,800 miles—4573 km for my Canadian friends. And with a distance this great, eventually you have to spend the night someplace.

And therein the dilemma…how much to spend on a basic, no-frills, just-a-bed-and-a-shower motel?

It takes about 3 days to drive from Prince Edward Island to Montana if you are highly motivated. (Read ‘highly motivated’ as maniac road warrior.) So here’s how my trip went down.

Which way do we go? Which way do we go?

DAY 1: I left in the afternoon on a Thursday, waiting to be sure the highway in New Brunswick and further south in Maine had been cleared of snow. I drove until about 2am and stopped outside of Albany, New York. (1247km/774 miles)

Didn’t bother with a motel that first night—instead, pulled out the sleeping bag and had a nap in the car. Yes, I know, it sounds crazy, but it was already 2am and I just really needed a nap. And it was so cold that a nap is about all I got—woke up at 4:00 am freezing and warmed the car, then slept until 6:30 am when the cold woke me again. After a bathroom break in the rest area and a walk around, I was good to go for the day.

DAY 2: Drove. The nice thing about heading west in the USA is that you can get on the highway and never get off. In my case, I got on Highway 90 and stayed on it through New York, Ohio and into Indiana. Nothing noteworthy scenery-wise to report. Just drove. At 6:00 pm I decided to stop and found a Super 8 in Elkhart (1146 km/712 miles from Albany.) Indiana is still in the midst of a recession and the motel room was a major bargain–$39.95 for the night. They even mentioned free coffee and donuts in the morning, but I knew I would be gone before the doors were open. Decent, no frills room.

Driving through Wisconsin

DAY 3: Up and out of Elkhart at 6:00 am after cleaning a few inches of new snow off the car.

 Finished off Indiana, rolled through Illinois. (Why is Chicago always under construction?) I could tell when I passed into Wisconsin because of the trees and the cheese. Still on Interstate 90, but hardwood trees covered with a frosty costing lined the highway. Every town had a cheesecurd stand.

Wisconsin Cheesecurd Stand

By the time I crossed the Minnesota State line I could feel the gravitational pull of my people, maybe something like how my dog must feel when we he can smell the fresh salt air of the beach and starts jumping and scratching at the car window. Amidst the religious radio stations I found a countdown of the best songs from the winter of 1972. And you know I could sing along with every single one! Bread, Neal Sedaka, Chicago, The Temptations and the Carpenters.

It was late when I crossed the North Dakota State Line. I love the towns on the prairies, with names like Flaxville and Wheatland. Long, long trains transporting grain. I found the Public Radio Station and caught a live variety show called Dakota Air. Things were going so well that I thought about driving straight through to Billings, but it started to snow around Fargo. It was coming down heavier by the time I hit Bismark and by Dickinson I was ready to give up. North Dakota in a snowstorm is no place for a Honda Civic. (1673 km/1040 miles for the day.)

Evidently there is no recession in North Dakota.

 I drove into the Super 8 advertising the lowest price in town. It was $96 plus tax. I asked about wireless Internet and the kid behind the counter said I could steal wireless reception from a nearby business whose system was not secure. Nice. I was too tired to check my e-mail anyway. The room was cinderblock walls with a loud heater and a dripping faucet. By the time I woke up in the morning and cleaned the snow off the car, the free lobby coffee was over.

Medora, North Dakota

DAY 4: Blew past Medora, home of great outdoor musical theater with the badlands as the magnificent backdrop. Not in such a hurry now through Western North Dakota and Eastern Montana, beautiful and desolate ‘painted canyon’ country. A family of ringneck pheasants ran across the road in front of the car. Lots of coal trains, methane gas wells and pumpjacks. Turn-offs marked ‘NO SERVICE’ headed to places like ‘Bad Route Road.’ Got to Billings in mid-afternoon, 500 km /312 miles on the home stretch.

Being in the overnight accommodations business, I am always interested in the price of a good night’s sleep.

At our bed and breakfast on Prince Edward Island in the ‘low season’ a traveler can have a beautiful room with a gourmet breakfast for $80. That same room in mid-summer tops out at $120. Attentive hosts, travel assistance and a package of amenities are included with each room. We think that is a great value, but once in awhile we get a guest that feels our prices are too high. I know how they feel. On my recent trip, one night I slept in the car, one night I found a good ‘no frills’ bargain and one night I think I got ripped off, especially when I think about what we offer to travelers for less money.

Maplethorpe B&B/Cafe Today

I’ll be doing the trip in reverse soon, but this time I am going to do a bit more research on bargain sleeps and hope for better weather. The sleeping bag will be handy, just in case.

I received an interesting birthday present from my husband.

It was a subscription to Sirius Satellite Radio. But I am starting to wonder if he bought the present for himself or for me.

See, because I am a chef I spend most of my time in the kitchen. One of the things I miss about the USA is ‘A Prairie Home Companion.’ PHC is a radio show hosted by Garrison Keillor and broadcast across the USA on National Public Radio every Saturday night. I have been listening for years, maybe decades. Saturday evenings would always find me near a radio, listening to the show. Until we moved to Canada, that is.

The show is broadcast while I am preparing the Saturday evening supper. I can listen to it on the Internet, but the kitchen is no place for a laptop, so I usually miss the Saturday night broadcast and try to listen later in the week. I find this difficult and frankly, it just isn’t the same. And the idea of downloading a podcast of the show and listening on an I-Pod while jogging or something is downright depressing.

So I mentioned once–only ONCE–to hubby that it would be nice to be able to hear Garrison’ Keillor’s show in the kitchen on Saturday nights while I am working. That was it…just thinking out loud. Who knew he would be listening?

So on my birthday some weeks later there was no gift. “It’s coming,” Jim said convincingly. “You are really going to like it.” Time went by. Then last Friday Jim came home from town all excited carrying a little box. Sirius Satellite Radio! The best gift EVER. The solution to my longing for my favorite radio show. Happiness would reign in the kitchen on Saturday nights.

But first there was an antenna to install and wires to string around the cabinet tops and shelves. We needed speakers. We needed a place for the tiny controller. Jim was having a great time on a ladder figuring all this out while Shirley and I were trying to work underneath.

Finally installed, Jim turned it to his favorite station, Las Vegas Traffic. Being half deaf, he turned it up LOUD. I gave it a good ten minutes before  I protested mildly about his choice of stations. He turned it to Patriot Radio, the crazy ranting of the Tea Baggers just before election day. No thanks. Next station to catch his eye…Willie Nelson Radio. All Willie, all the time. I could see that this wasn’t going to work out–bad radio, volume too loud, Jim hanging around while we were trying to work. No, no, no.

With a few harsh words I banished Jim from the kitchen and turned the stupid thing off.

A few days later, alone, I took a look at the available stations. There is some nice stuff. A station that only plays music from the 1940′s and reminds me of home growing up where my dad would play phonograph records of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and he and mom would sometimes dance in the living room. I tried to listen to the BBC but couldn’t understand much of the show that was on. I didn’t realize how much I missed those nut-jobs on Car Talk until I heard the show again. And on Saturday night during the supper service I was able to listen to A Prairie Home Companion right in my Maritime kitchen, sang along to some sweet gospel music and got caught up on the news from Lake Woebegone.

Shirley muttered that she would sooner listen to Willie Nelson but I didn’t pay much attention. You either get it or you don’t. It is a pretty good birthday present if I can keep my husband out of the kitchen and away from the dial.