4/20/09 Happy Patriots' Day

Though April 19 is the real Patriots' Day commemorating the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War, it is now celebrated on the third Monday of April. It is a Massachusetts holiday but since Maine was originally part of Massachusetts, we get to celebrate, too. The University of Maine Farmington is closed today to commemorate the event. Of course, it fell during our spring break, so it's a holiday for staff who are on 12-month contracts but was already a holiday for students and faculty.

Wikipedia has a nice article with more than you ever wanted to know about Patriots' Day including its timing with the Boston Marathon and Red Sox games.

I was going to go into the office today (I have a key to my building, so even though the University is closed, I can get in) and get work done but I slept in this morning and am still in my pajamas at 12:30 in the afternoon. I have been busily working on our Maine Community Heritage Project over the weekend and am tempted to stay home and work on that some more. But I have a giant list of things to do at the office, too. Oh the dilemma!

4/17/08 Red Flag Warning

I just saw where Franklin County is under a Red Flag Warning. What is that??!!

From the National Weather Service:
...RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING...
A RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING.
WINDS OF 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 25 MPH ARE EXPECTED THIS
AFTERNOON WITH MINIMUM RELATIVE HUMIDITIES BETWEEN 15 AND
25 PERCENT. IN ADDITION... VERY DRY SOIL AND FUEL CONDITIONS CAN
BE EXPECTED. THESE CONDITIONS WILL CREATE THE POTENTIAL FOR
DANGEROUS FIRE GROWTH DURING THE AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING
HOURS TODAY.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A RED FLAG WARNING MEANS THAT CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS
ARE EITHER OCCURRING NOW...OR WILL SHORTLY. A COMBINATION OF
STRONG WINDS...LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY...AND WARM TEMPERATURES WILL
CREATE EXPLOSIVE FIRE GROWTH POTENTIAL.

Well now I know. I think in Texas we just called this a wildfire advisory. So did we have a different name for them in Texas than in Maine or has the National Weather Service come up for a new name and I just happened to be in Maine when the new name was used? Either way, I'm surprised with all the melting snow that we would be under any kind of warning (Red Flag or otherwise) related to wild fires.

4/12/09 Easter Dinner

Ashley invited me to Easter Dinner at her house. It was a Southern Style Eastern Dinner complete with fried chicken and "extra bacon in everything". (That's what her mother told her to do. However, since she had a vegetarian friend attending, she put the extra bacon in a dish and we could all add as much extra bacon as we desired to anything or everything.) There was Southern-style corn (Ashley personally husked and de-kernelled 16 ears of corn), fried okra, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, biscuits (I had to correct someone who called them rolls), fried cabbage, and I don't know what all else. We overstuffed ourselves and then out came dessert: 7-layer chocolate decadent brownies and a triple berry cobbler a la mode. It was incredibly delicious. And the company was awesome. Such fun people. The conversation and the laughter never stopped. What a glorious way to celebrate.

4/12/09 Easter Bunny Delivers!

After returning from the Easter Sunrise service, I took a little nap and when I awoke, I found this between my door and the storm door! There was a cute little white Easter basket filled with goodies (including my first Peep). I do not know if the Easter bunny purposely snuck up and delivered the basket anonymously or if the generous bunny attempted to deliver in person and I slept through the event. Either way, the result is, I do not know the identity of my Easter Bunny. It's almost like a May basket and an Easter basket combined.

Whoever you are, Thank you to my personal Easter Bunny!!!

4/12/09 Easter Sunrise Service

At 6:01 am the sun rose and the trumpets sounded at Farmington Area Ecumenical Council's Easter Sunrise service. It was awesome! The service is at the top of Voter's Hill. It used to be held on the side of the road and then a family in the area let the group use their driveway (and the trumpeters use the garage to keep their instruments a little warmer). Then after the service we went inside for a light breakfast (pastries and coffee mostly) and an opportunity for fellowship with fellow worshipers. It was a very very awesome Easter. The original family that hosted it has since sold their house and the new owners inherited the event but have continued being gracious hosts. The original family was in attendance! Andrea and her sister (who was visiting from Massachusetts) picked me up at 5:30 so that we could carpool and arrive in plenty of time to park and get to the event. The two of them have been attending since childhood and they knew many of the people in attendance.

4/10/09 The Easter Event

Wow! I had the opportunity to attend "The Event" at East Auburn Baptist Church. It was incredible. It really put Easter into perspective. Over 4,000 people see it, they put on 8 shows, and they don't charge admission. There were 130 cast members, all volunteers and all members of the church. Amazing. Here's the local news station's report:



Just so you know . . . I know Randy Corey, the director of the whole thing. :-) You should be impressed. I am. I sat with two of his brothers, one sister-in-law, and a niece and her husband. I pretty much know most of the Corey family now. They are a really special bunch and they include me in lots of family event, like saving me a seat at this production.

catching up

I finally had a chance to post some blog entries . . . there are 7 new ones that go back to March 12. There are some old ones interspersed in there, so don't be lulled into thinking "Oh I've read that one so I must be caught up."

Thanks for being a faithful reader, even when I'm not a faithful blogger. I hope to get even more caught up (can you do that?) over spring break which starts April 20. Don't get your hopes up, but maybe . . .

4/3/09 Salt and Vinegar Chips

Have you ever had a salt and vinegar chip? I had my first one today. They're a little spicier than pier fries with salt and vinegar but it's the same delicious combo: potato, oil, salt, vinegar. I'm guessing it's a New England thing, but I really don't know. I'd love your comments about this!

4/3/09 Flood Watch

This was an interesting email to receive. It was actually the first notice I had received (since I don't watch or listen to much news) that we were in a flood watch, much less that it was this close. I've heard stories of a flood a few years back where this parking lot was pretty instantly flooded and a bunch of students lost their cars to flood damage. It must be spring time. Rain and melting snow will overflow a river pretty fast.

Date: April 3, 2009 3:34:46 PM EDT

To: <students@umf.maine.edu>, <staff@umf.maine.edu>

Subject: [staff list] Flood Watch

FLOOD WATCH - PRESCOTT FIELD LOT 18

Students parked in the Prescott Field Lot 18 should move their cars as a flood watch has been issued by the National Weather Service and the river is rising.

Please do not leave campus while your vehicle remains in the Prescott Field Lot 18.

Student who move their cars can park in lots 21, 22, and 26.

Thank You!

Chief of Police

Department of Public Safety

University of Maine at Farmington

207-778-7400

4/1/09 Spring is coming

The snow is really melting. It's not an April Fool's Day trick--spring time is really coming. Here are the view from the veranda and the view out the front door.

3/29 More Needhams and More

It's Needham making time again! Only in this photo, we are not making Needhams. This time we added toffee making to the agenda. Here is Karen following Sara's directions for toffee. You can't see the brown paper bag that is critical for successful toffee, but we had it out. We made two batches of toffee before we tackled the Needhams. The toffee turned out perfectly! Thank you Sara for the private tutorial session in Oregon back in January. It paid off!

We didn't do our usual Jackson Polock signature on the Needhams this time. There wasn't time. We did make a triple batch. Karen wanted to take hers to a convention she was going to in Boston. She was going to share a hotel room with 3 other women and she was taking Needhams for the slumber party crowd. I wanted to make some for my Our Cabana buddies who are having a reunion coming up. If I can't be there in person, i can be there in spirit AND in Needhams.

This was our third Needham event. We definitely have this down to a fine science. It's a blast. And now we know how to make yummy toffee, too. Who knows what we'll expand into next.

Karen's a blogger, too. Here's her much more detailed version of the story, including the toffee recipe:
http://thirdfury.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/2009-03-30/

3/29/09 Easter Penguins

You can tell we haven't had as much snow this winter as last winter because you can see the penguins this year in time for Easter. Though I do think they're on pedestals this year that they weren't on last year. Anyway, here they are in their finest Easter attire. Notice that they are still wearing red and green Christmas mufflers around their necks while sporting their pastel-colored Easter Ears. It's a fashion statement only a penguin could pull off.

3/21/09 Maine's seasons

Today I posted this as my Facebook status: "Sunshine today, sunshine all week. yea! Of course it does mean melting snow and a great mud season. (Maine has 5 seasons.) But then comes spring and summer."

I then received the following comments:

Misty: Technically, it's winter, mud season, black fly season, summer, fall ... no spring. But it sure is beautiful through all of them, whatever they are called, isn't it!

Wendy: 4 seasons - winter, mud, 4th of July, construction....repeat

Elizabeth: When I lived in Vermont I was amazed to discover this entire season that we missed out on in Texas!

Cassie: Back in the County we have two seasons - winter and potato season :)
[Note, the reference to "The County" is Aroostok County, which is the largest, northernmost county in the state. They're famous for their potatoes and very cold winters.]

3/18/09 Whoopie Pies make the New York Times!

March 18, 2009

Whoopie! Cookie, Pie or Cake, It's Having Its Moment

By MICHELINE MAYNARD

FOR generations, vacationers in Maine and visitors to Pennsylvania’s Amish country have found a simple black and white snack in restaurants and convenience shops and on nearly every gas station counter: whoopie pies.

They were found in other pockets of the country, too, from New England to Ohio. But in most of the United States, people could be forgiven for not knowing that the whoopie pie is not, in fact, a pie at all. (It is sometimes described as a cookie, but that is not quite right, either. The closest description may be a cake-like sandwich, or perhaps a sandwich-like cake.)

Now whoopie pies are migrating across the country, often appearing in the same specialty shops and grocery aisles that recently made room for cupcakes. Last fall, they even cracked the lineup at Magnolia Bakery in Manhattan, which helped turn cupcakes into a national craze thanks to the bakery’s exposure on “Sex and the City.” Under the name “sweetie pies,” heart-shaped whoopie pies showed up in the February catalog from Williams-Sonoma. Baked in Maine with local butter and organic eggs, they sell for $49 a dozen.

In their traditional round form, whoopie pies can be found at Trader Joe’s supermarkets, at Whole Foods in Manhattan and at small bakeries like Kim’s Kitchen in Evanston, Ill., outside Chicago.

Kim’s Kitchen (soon to be renamed Fraîche) was an early adopter, first offering its hockey-puck-size pies seven years ago. The cakes come in chocolate and pumpkin, which remains a popular flavor long after the autumn leaves are gone, according to the shop’s owner, Susan Friedman.

“If we took them away after it stopped being fall, there would be a riot outside,” Ms. Friedman said.

Whoopie pies have been on the rise for several years, and nobody can pinpoint the reason they finally broke into the national consciousness. But the snacks evoke a more homespun era that seems to provide some comfort amid the economic gloom. “Pure edible nostalgia,” the Williams-Sonoma catalog calls them.

“Especially now, when people are so stressed out, they are going back to whoopie pies,” said Emily Isaac, owner of Trois Pommes Patisserie in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Ms. Isaac had never heard of whoopie pies before she was asked to make them as wedding favors three years ago. Entranced at first taste, she put them on the menu at her bakery when it opened in May 2007.

There are dozens of variations on the shape, flavors and fillings. Trois Pommes serves what seems to be the classic version: two round mounds of chocolate cake, about three inches across, with French vanilla cream filling.

The whoopie pie sold since last fall at Zingerman’s Bakehouse, in Ann Arbor, Mich., sports a chocolate glaze on its dense chocolate cake and is filled with Swiss buttercream filling.

The basic elements of the whoopie pie turn up in many other snacks that might be considered its far-flung relatives. Amy Emberling, a partner at Zingerman’s Bakehouse, grew up in eastern Canada eating a similar cookie called a Jos. Louis. Oreo sells a whoopie pie look-alike called the Oreo Cakester, while the Hostess Suzy Q is a square version that vies for space on some store shelves with whoopie-esque Little Debbie snack cakes.

Food historians believe whoopie pies originated in Pennsylvania, where they were baked by Amish women and put in farmers’ lunchboxes.

Tired from a morning’s work, the farmers purportedly would shout “Whoopie!” if they discovered one of the desserts in their lunch pails, Ms. Emberling said.

In parts of Pennsylvania, whoopie pies remain a celebrated sweet. The annual Whoopie Pie Festival at the Hershey Farm and Inn in Strasburg, Pa., features a whoopie pie eating contest and the coronation of the Whoopie Pie Queen.

The whoopie pie would probably be Maine’s state dessert, if the state had one. The filling is generally of one of two types: a thick, sweet frosting made from Crisco shortening combined with confectioners’ sugar, or, more conveniently, a dollop of Marshmallow Fluff.

The cake itself is typically not especially sweet, and is often on the dry side, since the frosting lends plenty of sugar and a gooey consistency, said Sandra Oliver, a food historian and columnist in Islesboro, Me.

How the cookies traveled to Maine is a mystery, however.

One theory holds that whoopie pies were brought north during the Great Depression through the Yummy Book, a recipe pamphlet first published in 1930 by Durkee-Mower, the Massachusetts company that makes Fluff.

Don Durkee, whose father co-founded the firm, discredits that notion. After checking the company’s collection of pamphlets, the earliest appearance of whoopie pies he found was during the 1970s. “I’m baffled,” he said.

Leslie Land, a Maine writer, said her research showed that the recipe might have been popularized by one of the many local radio programs aimed at housewives during the 1930s.

No matter how they arrived, they have been eaten by Maine residents for at least eight decades, said Ms. Oliver, who publishes Food History News, a monthly newsletter. Labadie’s Bakery, in Lewiston, Me., which sells whoopie pies as big as 16 inches across, claims to have sold them since 1925.

Many of the whoopie pies sold in Maine come sheathed in plastic wrap. Generally sold for less than $2, they can be found stacked next to cash registers, the dry cake growing moister by the hour. “If you peel the Saran off and half the cookie doesn’t come away, it’s not a real whoopie pie,” Ms. Oliver said.

Ms. Friedman, in Evanston, agreed that her whoopie pies have a rustic image rather than a luxury one, although they sell for $3 each.

“They’re not as perfect as a lovely cupcake that has a beautiful swirl of icing on top,” she said. “They’re a little more handmade looking.”

At Magnolia Bakery, maple-cream icing is sandwiched between two brown-sugar cakes. Sina Clark-Murphy, the head baker, said that the whoopie pie’s humble appearance may help it come across as less of a dietary threat than a frosting-piled cupcake or a serving of banana pudding. Unfortunately, they are no less caloric.

At the other end of the simplicity scale are the heart-shaped versions baked by the Cranberry Island Kitchen in Maine, which supplies Williams-Sonoma. The pies wound up in the catalog after a friend of one of the company’s food buyers sampled them at Bob’s Clam Hut in Kittery, Me., and recommended that the catalog stock them, said Carol Ford, one of Cranberry Island’s owners.

Cranberry Island’s whoopie pies, which start at $28.75 for six, are made with chocolate cake or vanilla and are available in shapes like scallop shells and pumpkins. Filling flavors include rum, peppermint, Cointreau, raspberry and espresso.

To Ms. Oliver, the food historian, that upscale approach misses the point.

“It’s like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with almond butter,” she said. “It’s not meant to be fine cuisine.”

retrieved 3/18/09 from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/dining/18whoop.html

3/15/09 Countdown to Spring

5 MORE DAYS until Gifford's opens for the 2009 season! A definite sign that spring is on its way (though they've been known to serve their free ice cream on opening night to folks standing next to 3 foot snowbanks). Looks like this year's opening might be wet and cold but not snowy.