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.

Michael Pendergast at Avonlea Village

We are excited to have LIVE MUSIC at Maplethorpe every Saturday night during the supper service. Our musical guests will perform while you eat, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. There is no cover or additional charge for LIVE MUSIC!

Our first guest on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2010, will be Michael Pendergast. If you haven’t heard Michael yet, be sure to make a reservation now! He is a genuine Islander and a great entertainer!

Can’t make it on Feb. 8? Future musical guests include:

Saturday, Feb. 13     Ward MacDonald

Saturday, Feb. 20    Roy Johnstone

Saturday, Feb. 27    Jon Rehder

Grilled PEI Eel, Oriental Style

As promised, here are photos and the recipe for grilled PEI eels. They have been on the February supper menu as an appetizer and have been selling well! We’ll see the end of the eel at month’s end as spearing season is over. I prepare them (more or less) as you would enjoy them in Japan, with a rich, sweet kabayaki sauce. (Recipe for sauce below.)

Removing eel spine

Step 1: This assumes you have some eel. The eel should be skinned and gutted, with the head removed. You will need to remove the spine. To do this, insert the blade of a sharp knife under the spine. Run the blade along the underside of the spine from the head of the eel toward the tail.  (Where the head used to be toward where the tail used to be–they are long gone.) It may help release the spine to make lateral cuts along the sides of the spine down the length of the eel prior to running the blade under.

4 inch boneless eel fillets

Step 2: Once the spine has been removed, cut the flesh into uniform 4 inch pieces.

putting eel fillets on skewers

Step 3: Skewer the eel fillets. (This keeps them from curling during the cooking process and makes them easy to handle.)

skewered eel in bamboo steamer

Step 4: Steam skewered eel in a bamboo steamer for 20 minutes. (Put steamer lid on top first!) Check the water level in the wok occasionally and add more water if necessary to make sure it doesn’t run dry.

Kabayaki Sauce:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)

1/4 cup white sugar

Method:
Place all ingredients in a small saucepan. On the stovetop, bring the sauce to a boil. Let boil for approximately 5 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Cool and pour into squeeze bottle.

Forbidden Foods

For each of the banned foods, however, someone had come up with a clever substitute. For example, peanuts were forbidden, but we were given a recipe using canned button mushroom caps. You were to bake them in the oven until they became shriveled and dry, looking amazingly like a peanut! Then you sprinkle salt on the ‘mock peanuts’ and enjoy! I remember this so clearly these many, many years later because the taste was so bad that the adverse sensory experience is seared in my brain for all time, like a tiny internal tattoo.

I am sharing one of my best recipes for ‘gluten-free sandwich bread.’ As anyone who eats gluten-free bread knows well, it just isn’t like “real” bread. Gluten is the star of “real” bread, and this just doesn’t have any. It is really mock sandwich bread, sort-of like the mock peanuts of my early dieting years. BUT! It isn’t too bad. The flax seed is nutritious and gives the bread a nice look, but isn’t essential if you don’t have any. Hardly anyone has buttermilk any more, but adding some lemon juice to white milk works fine.

The usual disclaimers for gluten-free bread are necessary:

• For sandwich-size bread use a small (length) bread pan and mound the dough up fairly high–it is going to rise, but not much.
• If you have an old-style automatic bread maker that makes tall, round loaves, try that.
• Let the loaf cool completely before slicing.
• Slice it thin, and it helps to toast it.
• Freeze what you aren’t going to use in a day or two.
• Keep experimenting until you find the taste and consistency that you can enjoy for life.

And unless you have a life-threatening allergy, eat a peanut when you feel like it.  Canned mushrooms are for pizza.

Maplethorpe Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread

Ingredients:

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup warm water

1 and 1/2 tablespoon active dry yeast

2 cups brown rice flour

1/3 cup potato starch

1/3 cup potato flour

1/3 cup tapioca flour

3 and 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum

1/4 cup coarse ground flax seed

1 cup buttermilk (or 3/4 cup milk mixed with 1/4 cup lemon juice)

1/4 cup (2 ounces) butter, softened

1 teaspoon vinegar

1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 eggs

Method:

Grease one bread loaf pan and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

1. Mix warm water, yeast and sugar in a measuring cup. Let proof for 5 minutes.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix rice flour, potato flour and starch, flax, xanthan gum, tapioca flour and salt.

3. Pour yeast water into flour mix along with eggs, butter, rice vinegar and buttermilk. Using a dough hook, start mixing on lowest speed.

4. When wet and dry ingredients are mostly combined, stop mixer and scrape sides and bottom to make sure all dry ingredients are mixed with wet. Return to mixing on medium speed for 3 minutes.

5. Form dough into loaf with your hands and place in pan. (Wet hands make this easier.)

6. Place the loaf pan with dough into a large plastic bag and secure with a twist-tie or knot. ( This will help keep the dough moist during the fairly long rising time.) Put in a warm place for 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours. The loaf will increase its original volume by about 1/3.

7. Bake for 45 minutes. Cool completely.

Sliced Sandwich Bread

We are constantly experimenting with gluten-free breads, rolls and desserts to serve at the Cafe and our goal is to make these special products look and taste so yummy that everyone will want them!

Because I didn’t bring specific recipes with me to the studio for the call-in, I offered to post a couple of recipes here on the blog–recipes that actually work, that we make and serve.

Gluten-Free Muffins

These are nice for use as a dinner roll, but can also be the base of a sweet muffin with the addition of fruit or nuts. (Think about adding blueberries and almonds, cinnamon and pecan pieces, lemon and poppy seed…)

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Grease 6 spots in a standard muffin tin or use paper muffin cups. (If you add fruit and nuts, the recipe will make more than 6.)

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter, softened

1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup gluten-free flour mixture*

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup milk

Method:

1. Put the soft butter and sugar in a stand mixer and beat with paddle until light and fluffy.

2. Add eggs and beat on low speed to mix.

3. In a separate bowl, add all dry ingredients. I used a combination of soy, rice and tapioca flour. Feel free to use what you have on hand or experiment with the taste and color of the muffins using various gluten-free flours.

4. Alternately add dry ingredients and milk to the egg mixture while the mixer is running on the lowest speed. Stop mixing as soon as all ingredients are incorporated.

5. Fill prepared muffin cups to 2/3 full. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes.

These muffins will stay fresh for a few days and freeze well if wrapped individually in plastic film.

School is closed today, courtesy of a big dump of snow last night. It was closed last Thursday as well, that day because of an ice storm. Winter on Prince Edward Island.

Shoveling Snow….Again

I don’t mind school closure, especially on days when it seems obvious. We had enough snow last night that there is a 6 ft wall around our property created by the snowplows. But having a teen around the house all day is inconvenient. When I need to check e-mail on the laptop I have to evict her from her Facebook pals. Then I have to repeat—once again—that no, I am not going to buy her a laptop for her exclusive use. And while we are talking, how can you watch television, chat via the computer and text on the cel phone all at once? She’ll wander into the kitchen several times today begging for food. For some reason, a 16 year old is utterly incapable of putting together even a sandwich if the Mom is around the house.

Dianna shoveling snow

I like a little bit of new snow, partly because of my dog. He has a routine that involves access to food—first thing in the morning he goes outside to “take care of his business.” When that is done, he can go in and eat. And he really likes to eat. At about 5 a.m. if he hasn’t been crated the evening before, he will jump on the bed, lick our faces, gently bite our hands—anything to get us to take him out.

Tonks was groomed a few weeks ago, slick shaved. When his fur is longer he likes a long romp through the pines behind the house but hairless he sticks close to the house. He has a specific spot that he likes to head for to make his deposit every cold morning. And after a few weeks we give a new meaning to the ‘House on Pooh Corner,’ if you get the picture. A little new snow covers up the sad fact that I need to spend more time outside with the pooper scooper.

Jim clearing show with the loader

Simple, basic ingredients for a killer slaw

It is the middle of winter on Prince Edward Island and what’s a locavore to do? Well, we’re trying to find ways to use locally-grown root vegetables in an interesting, new way. Maplethorpe Apple Slaw is a cool pick-me-up for your plate. The ingredients are cheap and the entire dish is surprisingly easy to make. This recipe will serve 6 or 8.

Ingredients:

1/2 medium green cabbage, washed, cored and outer leaves removed

1 large carrot, peeled

2 apples, peeled, quartered and cored

2 tablespoons whole grain mustard

1/4 cup mayonnaise

handful of dried fruit, cranberries or dried cherries, raisins or dried blueberries

Method:

1. Chop the cabbage to the desired fineness and place in a large mixing bowl.

2.Chop the carrot to same size as cabbage and add to the bowl.

3. Dice the apples. Any kind of apple will do, but some tend to turn brown–a splash of lemon juice will help keep them fresh. Add to the carrot and cabbage and mix.

4. Toss in the dried fruit, if using.

5. Final step! Mix in the whole grain mustard and mayo and stir well. Adjust the quantities to achieve the desired level of creaminess–exact amount needed depends on the size of the cabbage and carrot. If you prefer something sweeter, add a tablespoon or two of sugar.

Finished Product!

Well. We Used to Just Go

Handmade Bread from the Shipwright's Inn

Summerside steps up!

The one-year old Spring Street Farmer’s Market is keeping us closer to home these days. And by all measures, keeping lots of other western Islanders out of Charlottetown on Saturday mornings.

What a vibrant market!

Emmerdale Eden Stall

The Spring Street Market is a beautiful year-round space in the historic downtown Holman Building. Exposed brick and stone walls, upscale vendor display areas and plenty of space for shoppers to linger and mingle have created a Saturday morning destination for hundreds. (Really–hundreds!)

Greg Stavert Sells Eggs and Beef

This morning I picked up certified organic pork, a week’s worth of locally-grown root vegetables, 5 dozen free-range eggs and a big package of fresh hand-made pasta. Then I sat down to visit with people I haven’t seen since last Saturday.

Locally-Grown Vegetables

Ranald MacFarlane's Pleasant Pork

Sushi at the Spring Street Market

Guest Chef

The Spring Street Market just launched a new program–weekly cooking demonstrations featuring local chefs. And guess who got to be the first guest chef!

Chef Dianna in a Really Big Hat

My job was to offer some new cooking twists on seasonal foods…root vegetables, locally-produced meats–anything currently on offer by Market vendors. I met lots of our regular restaurant customers wondering when we are going to re-open (THIS TUESDAY!) and gave out samples and recipe cards.

We made two of our signature dishes, Apple Slaw and Country Mushroom Soup. (Cabbage is one of the “11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating.” See the whole article here.) In honor of the Chinese New Year, we tried a new recipe as well, Chinese Five-Spice Braised Pork Loin. What a hit with the crowd!

Thank you, Emmerdale Eden Farms, for the donation of organic pork loin for this demonstration.

We signed up a whole sheet of e-mail addresses for our monthly restaurant updates and recipes. It was a really fun morning and a great way to ease back into restaurant cooking after 4 weeks off.

Still Off to Charlottetown…Sometimes

We are still visiting our friends at the Charlottetown Farmer’s Market once in awhile. But most Saturdays we’ll be supporting local growers even closer to home at the Spring Street Farmer’s Market in Summerside. Hope to see you there, too!