We started last week with Prom–always a big deal. There was some extra drama because the dress that was purchased many, many months ago no longer quite fit. Because it had been altered by the previous owner, there were no seam allowances available to expand the narrow spots. Our options included some kind of spa wrap guaranteed to temporarily squeeze all the liquid out of the offending body tissue or perhaps wearing a big sweater all night to hide the unzipped back zipper. Hmmm…

Mayor of Bedeque Karen McLenithan to the rescue! Her expert and swift tailoring skills saved the day and Caitlin looked beautiful. No sweater or torso shrinking necessary.

Dressed for Prom!

Last week of school for the graduating class included a Grad Breakfast at Maplethorpe for the 44 students and a dozen staff.

The weather cooperated and we were able to set up outside and host a lovely final morning for the kids and their teachers. Thanks to the many volunteer moms, the kids feasted (quickly) on pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs and some awesome fresh fruit salad. Then they all sped away to graduation practice leaving us parents to tidy up the mess.

Been doing that for 18 years…why stop now?

Kinkora High Grad Breakfast 2010

Graduation was excellent!

Gym not too hot, speeches not too long, no one streaked the stage naked and all the grads were shined up and smiling. Parents were visibly relieved. Can’t really ask for more than that. Our little graduate is looking forward to a lazy summer before heading off to Halifax in September.

Got the diploma...NOW RUN!

Our herd of relatives visiting for the graduation are on the move back to the States. It was great to have so many of the people we care about visit and enjoy Prince Edward Island. We took in 2 shows in the Small Halls festival, fed everyone lobsters, fresh scallops and mussels and took everyone to the beach. Everyone went home (I hope) feeling like they really experienced Island life.

I have to go get ready to serve lunch! More to come…

We worked hard all day Saturday and were loking forward to a fantastic PEI Sunday in the summer. We were not disappointed.

Glorious weather for the CyclingPEI Sunday event, trail ride from the Emerald Train Depot to Borden-Carleton and back. The great thing about these rides is…everything! Well organized, a small entry fee to pay for the food and drink waiting at trail’s end, and the amazing diversity of people. There were parents with tiny kids all the way up to an 87 year old enjoying our magnificent scenery. (I fall pleasantly in the middle of the age array, thank you for asking.)

Melissa and Dianna on the Confederation Trail

I would really like a set of CyclingPEI bike wear…you know, those shorts with the padded bum and the really bright, tight-fitting shirts. First I need to lose about 20 pounds, though. Let’s not talk about that.

Off to Small Halls

PEI Festival of Small Halls June 11-20, 2010

After the bike ride it was time for a good shower, rustle up some grub for the family and off to a Small Halls Concert. We had tickets to the sold-out Songwriters Circle at Harmony House in Hunter River. I have driven past Harmony House for the past few years but this was my first opportunity to go inside. Great venue! Very beautifully transformed from a small church to an intimate concert hall. A lovely night of songs by an ALL-PEI line-up of songwriters, including Rose Cousins, Catherine MacLellan, John Connolly and Nick Gauthier.

Great music and lucky for us the Irving Station at the bottom of the hill stays open late for a quick fill before heading home.

All in all, a lovely PEI weekend, full of family, friends, outdoor recreation, great food and music!

We were called the Three Creampuffs

Normally baking day is Monday. Unfortunately I have been spending my Mondays–for several weeks in a row–at the Summerside branch of OKTire. The combination of 17-year-old driver and 10 year old car is not a good place to be, especially if you have limited funds and even more limited time. This winter we have replaced 3 tires, had the car towed twice and personally rescued the car and teen driver twice. It really helps to have a mechanically-inclined husband with lots of tools and gadgets.

Despite the aforementioned husband, I have spent so much money at OKTire this winter I should just give them my ATM card and pin number. This Monday was relatively pain-free, just an annual safety inspection.

So this week, baking day is Tuesday.

I am, as usual, already behind before I even get started. I have a LIST of things to complete before the restaurant opens, and it is long.  When the alarm clock rang at 4:00 am, I got up. Lots of work to do and no backsliding today.

It is really dark at 4:00 am and the house is quiet. I enjoy this time of day, and I enjoy working alone. Once the bed and breakfast guests are here in the summer I will change my schedule and bake in the afternoons or be extremely quiet in the early morning and not wake anyone upstairs who is on vacation. But this morning I can bang around all I want. I weigh flour and start the mixer for a double batch of bacon bread first. While it is mixing I proof the yeast for 100 dinner rolls. We will need enough for the cafe for the coming week and extra to stockpile for a big supper we are catering a week from today.

CBC has interesting programming on in the middle of the night, broadcasts from the BBC  and Radio Australia, stories of the Roma in the Czech Republic and albinos on the run in Tanzania. Who knew that May is Zombie Awareness Month?

Bacon Bread dough ready to be panned

By 7:00 am when the rest of the family is getting up, the bread and rolls are ready to be panned and I feel accomplished. The bacon bread, in particular, is always a big hit for sandwiches. When you toast it for breakfast, it fills the house with a comforting bacony smell.   The recipe is surprisingly simple. (The hardest part is actually having some cooked bacon on hand–every scrap of ours is usually snarfed up as soon as it is cooked. Bacon leftovers? Never!)

Bacon Bread

makes 2 loaves

1 and 1/4 cup warm water

1 tablespoon dry yeast

3/4 pound cooked bacon, finely diced

3 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons salt

additional flour as necessary

1. Mix warm water and yeast, set aside 10 minutes to proof.

2. In the bowl of a standing mixer with a dough hook, put in flour, bacon, oil and salt.

3. Add water and yeast, then mix at medium speed for 5 minutes. If dough is too thick, add additional warm water. If too thin, add small amounts of flour until dough is smooth and elastic.

4. Transfer dough to a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Let rise to double in size. (How long this takes depends on the temperature in your kitchen-usually 1 to 2 hours.)

5. Punch down dough and divide into 2 pieces. These can be placed as free-form rounds on a parchment-lined baking sheet or placed in greased loaf pans. Let rise for 1 hour.

6. Bake at 400 degrees (F) for 30 minutes.

This recipe was adapted from The Easy Way to Artisan Breads and Pastries by Avner Laskin.

That’s it for now. More to do before we open at 11:00.

Bacon Bread

Now let’s put this into perspective.

Georgetown is about an hour and a half drive from Bedeque. As Islanders say, Georgetown is ‘down east,’ on the other side of the world from where we live. From our perspective as westerners, Georgetown is easily half the distance we often drove to watch a high school basketball game when our boys were playing in Montana. An hour and a half was a crosstown drive to work when we lived in St. Louis. For us, Georgetown just isn’t that far. And since Georgetown was the only place on PEI where we could hear the Men of the Deeps, well, that was that.

Date Night Thwarted…Again

We had planned to leave early, see the sights and get some supper in Charlottetown, but that was not to be. The restaurant was just swamped with people at lunch and the last ones didn’t leave until after our 3:00 pm closing. That morning I was informed the daughter needed to be picked up from school at 4:30. Husband Jim was tutoring a math student until 5:30. We had overnight guests expected for the B&B, and they got checked in at around 5:45. So, we snarfed down sandwiches while standing in the kitchen and dashed out the door at 6:00 pm. Story of my life.

But we had a nice drive and got to Georgetown at 7:30 for the 8:00 show. The place was mostly full, but not sold out. We ran into some people we knew and even people who don’t know you on PEI are friendly. We had great seats 4 rows back from the stage, right in the middle. The show started on time at 8:00 when the place went dark and the miners came in from the back, singing, their path illuminated by the lamps on their hardhats.

They were great.

Men of the Deeps

Well, you expected me to say that, didn’t you? We paid $35 a ticket and drove an hour and a half. I would never admit it if the concert was a disaster. The Men of the Deeps is a choir made up of professional Cape Breton coal miners–one requirement for prospective choir members is 2 years work in the employ of a mine. Most of the song were about mining work…loving the mine, hating the mine, mine disasters, mines closing forever. You could tell these guys were really singing from their hearts. At the end of the concert the choir members came out in the audience to shake hands and thank us for coming. We were touched.

Men of the Deeps

We’ll give the kids the url and tell them to google it.

I wondered most of the drive home how much longer the Men of the Deeps will last. Several of the singers looked to be in their 70s. With the Cape Breton coal mines long ago closed, I wonder where the group will get replacements when these elders are ready to pass the torch. Maybe this will become another story we’ll have to tell our grandkids to imagine, like where fishermen used to be and where farmers used to be. Where coal mines used to be and where miners used to sing harmony together, celebrating a communal life above and below the ground.

We’ve been in Canada full-time for about 8 years now.

Honestly, I find that American values and actions aren’t as different from Canadian as many Canadians seem to think. And I find that Canadian values and actions are not as different from American as most Americans seem to think. (Except for Ann Coulter, who was recently in Canada on a speaking tour. THANK GOD Canadians do think and act differently than you.)

Sometimes, just sometimes, there is a clear differences in the way Canadians and Americans operate.  Sometimes the differences are pretty squarely in favor of one place or the other. But some are just differences.

Easter was this past weekend. In Canada, Good Friday is a national holiday, and in Canada, a holiday means THINGS ARE CLOSED. That means:

• Stay home.

• Do things with your family.

• Sleep all day.

• Do some yard work or throw some dead animal flesh on the bar-b-que if the weather is nice.

No Good Friday Blowout Sale. …No Holy Week Buy-One-Get-One Free Sale. ….No Passover Midnight Madness.

You know why? BECAUSE IT’S A HOLIDAY.

Remember those, America?

Wal-Mart was closed on Good Friday. The grocery store was closed. Ditto for banks, postal delivery, you name it. A holiday in Canada is not an opportunity to hit the mall. On a holiday, we’re kickin’ it old style up here.

We operate a very busy restaurant and bed and breakfast. The telephone normally rings constantly for reservations, cake orders and accommodations inquiries, plus the personal calls, mostly for our teen.

On Good Friday the phone rang exactly ONCE. We are scheduled to bake the cake for a beach wedding in July and the bride was on the Island visiting relatives. After repeatedly apologizing for the interruption of our HOLIDAY, she asked if it would be okay to get together over the weekend to finalize her cake details. She stopped by briefly on Saturday and made her decisions about flavor and frosting and cake stands and then she was off to enjoy her Easter holiday. We were happy to interrupt our holiday to put her at ease.

Our first “We’re Not in Kansas Any More, Toto” Award goes to Canada, where a holiday is still a holiday.

May it ever be so.

Katimavik Volunteers at Maplethorpe

It was a pleasure to recently host a group of Katimavik volunteers at Maplethorpe for their ‘Lunch and Learn’ session.

Uniquely Canadian

As an import to Canada from the United States, I am occasionally confronted by cultural practices or ways of seeing community life that really embody the difference between being ‘Canadian’ and being ‘American.’ Katimavik is one of those. It is a volunteer experience for 17-21 years olds. Canadian youth volunteer for this service opportunity that lasts 6 to 9 months. During that time, Katimavik volunteers live communally, frugally,  and provide their labor and expertise to community and not-for-profit organizations that need a helping hand. Through these service opportunities the Katimavik youth volunteers get to see and explore unfamiliar parts of this vast country as they are posted far from their homes. They practice group living skills  and are exposed to a rich variety of possible future endeavors through volunteer labor opportunities. Katmavik volunteers can ‘try out’ a variety of possible future occupations before making a final decision about the future.

Onward and Upward

The youth that were here were near the completion of their service obligation and talked with animation of next steps…university or college,  work, and happy return home to waiting family.  They also talked about how much they enjoyed working in daycare centres and with the elderly, how much they enjoyed snowshoeing through the Prince Edward Island countryside and the lasting friendships and impressions they were each taking away from their collective experience.

A new group of Katimavik volunteers will arrive shortly to replace these graduates and we hope to see them soon. More information on this great program is available at their website.

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

But in January, my stove is OFF.

My family is totally sick of pizza, Subway, Wendy’s, Tim Hortons, KFC, take-out Chinese, grocery store deli—you name it, we’ve carried it home and wolfed it down. It has actually been a good exercise in remembering why we decided to open a restaurant 3 years ago. And why we decided to specialize in cuisine that is fresh, local and organic.

I broke my January NO COOKING rule over the weekend, though, when our next door neighbor brought us a “feed of smelts.”

Feed of Smelts

Smelt are tasty little fish that are speared through the ice from inside ice fishing shacks, and a “feed” is just what it sounds like—enough to feed your family. At one time this winter fishery was no doubt essential to family survival, but now smelt fishing is mostly recreational. Bags of fresh smelts are sometimes sold, but more often are given away to friends and neighbors.

When you are lucky enough to receive a bag of smelts, they have to be dealt with. Like fresh corn on the cob, smelt taste best when they are cooked and eaten quickly after they are caught. The ones Brian handed me in the driveway were mostly still alive, just pulled from Bedeque Bay a few short kilometers from our home. Talk about being a locavore!

Ice Fishing Shacks

Cleaning smelt isn’t too bad, but cleaning fish is cleaning fish. Heads and tails off, guts out, ready to go. I used several old newspapers under and around the cutting board and sharpened my knives before I started. It took me about a half hour to get them ready. Take out the trash immediately after or you will regret your laziness—guts get stinky fast.

I ran across a website that claimed 36 ways of cooking smelt.

It made me start thinking of Bubba in Forest Gump reciting all the ways to cook shrimp. But you know, smelt need to be fried. Smelt is not for fancy dining. Although we don’t normally deep fry around here, we make an exception for smelts. Once only, then we have had our smelts for the year.

I decided that since I was going to waste a quart of cooking oil, I would also make some homemade potato chips. Talk about simple—slice a potato thin! Throw the slices in the hot oil! Fish the chips out and add salt!

Awesome Homemade Potato Chips!

It helps immensely to have a thermometer to determine when the oil is hot enough. I use an ancient thermometer from my dad’s kitchen that has an arrow next to the word ‘fish’. It doesn’t even have numbers, just words on the dial like ‘hard crack’, ‘potatoes’ and ‘fish’.

Cleaned Smelt

I mixed a cup of white flour with salt, pepper and spices and dredged the smelts through it. Tossed them in the hot fry oil and waited for them to turn brown. About 5 minutes.

Smelts in the Dutch Oven

We drained them on paper towels and ate them as standing up in the kitchen, burning our fingers, washed down with cold beer.

Smelts all ready to eat!

It was worth breaking the January NO COOKING rule.

Ready to start a baking lesson!

And one of the most fun activities has been providing culinary tourism experiences for Japanese tourists through our partnership with Prince Edward Tours.

Preparing fresh rhubarb for a pie

During our afternoons at Maplethorpe, we have concentrated on pie making. Although we North Americans might view making a pie as fairly mundane, this is a new and interesting experience for most Japanese!

Making pie crust

The type of pie we make depends on seasonal availability of local fruit. We started out in the Spring making rhubarb pies. Our Japanese guests did it all, from picking and cleaning the fresh rhubarb through to the finished pie. We have followed PEI’s seasons, moving through strawberries to raspberries and presently are working with blueberries. I can’t wait for the Fall to bring us fresh PEI apples…maybe I can come up with a recipe for cranberry pie, too!

Finishing the decoration of a rhubarb pie

Through the afternoon at Maplethorpe, our tourist guests truly become friends! As the pies bake we talk about the differences and similarities in our lives. We share a pot of tea and take a tour of our home, including the    vegetable garden, chicken house and (of course!) the bed and breakfast rooms.

All ready to eat!

Surprisingly, our guests report that they have been able to take their pies home to Japan! What a great way to share the authentic taste of Prince Edward Island and truly share their vacation experience with friends and family.