Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Eighty (Maine: The Way Life Should Be)

I should NEVER EVER complain about living in Maine, and, if I ever do during one of those long winters, remind me that I should NEVER EVER complain about this state.   It is simply beautiful!  We have incredible beaches just a stone's throw (If you have a great throwing arm) from where we live.  And, vibrant Portland with its cobble stone streets, world class restaurants, and bustling waterfront is just a 15 minute drive.  The Spelt Right bake house is in a historic mill enveloped by the Royal River which powers it.  And, if I were a skier and a hiker, I might mention the hills and the mountains, but I'm not so I guess I won't mention them....
AND, the LOBSTERS....I truly want to be vegetarian, but there are a few things that keep me from making the commitment.  Did I mention the LOBSTERS at $3.99 -$5.00 per pound, please.....AND, how about the fresh Haddock purchased at the Portland waterfront caught that morning?

Dinner on this beautiful Maine night.   Lobsters, Spelt Right Bread Sticks, Shipyard Beer (for papa).  The kids and mom were satisfied with filtered Maine tap water from Sebago Lake. 

Ingredients: Maine lobsters, Spelt Right Pizza Dough, powdered garlic (we love Frontier), extra virgin olive oil, grated Parmesan cheese, Shipyard beer

Directions:
Lobsters: We get the lobsters pre-cooked so will leave the directions for someone more experienced.  Spelt Right bread sticks: One Spelt Right Pizza Dough, fully thawed and risen, extra virgin olive oil, garlic powder, pre-grated Parmesan cheese.  Pre-heat oven to 450.   Roll out 10-20 dough sticks, roll dough in EVOO, then sprinkle with garlic powder, then roll in Parmesan cheese.  Bake until brown on bottom.  Turn over and continue to bake until lightly brown.
Beer: pop off cap

PS:  I might complain just a little bit about the mosquitoes, but then again, I can be thankful for the simple curing powers of Witch Hazel....ohhh, my kids just love that name.

Lunch Box Chronicles Day Seventy-Nine (Amen! Peanut Butter & Jelly Angels)

What to do?  Summer camp and really no sandwich food in the house.  And, we just don't do pre-made store bought lunches or anything with artificial ingredients.   We have learned to always, always, always having a Spelt Right pizza dough ball thawing in the fridge.   It gives us a great base for diverse lunches, especially for Picky Olivia.    Tim (the loyal spouse and devoted dad) looked slightly desperate yesterday.   "What are we going to make?"   I had two quick solutions:  Viola!  Angels descended with PB&J wrapped in Spelt Right pizza dough (Olivia loved it!) and Olivia's Garden's Pesto (different Olivia!), mozzarella wrapped in Spelt Right pizza dough.

Ingredients and Directions:  One Spelt Right Pizza Dough fully thawed and risen.  The ingredients listed above.  This can make at least 10.  Preheat oven to 400-450.  Shape dough in 10 small rounds.   On a lightly oiled baking pan, place what ever ingredients you think might be tasty inside and make a triangle with the dough.  BE SURE TO SEAL ALL GAPS or the ingredients will come oozing out during the bake.  Bake at 375 until lightly brown on top.  Check out post DAY ONE for clear instructions on how to make the triangles. http://speltrightbaking.blogspot.com/2010/04/lunch-box-chronicles-day-one.html.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Seventy-Eight (Beach Fare)

Well, I finally did it.  I took off a day and went to the beach and it was DIVINE.  Ferry Beach is Scarborough, Maine is such a magical place with its shallow pools and creepy crawly aquatic life.  And,  it is especially cool when the tides are high enough to jump off the sand banks into deep water.   Spencer and I had a blast jumping and diving off while letting the currents carry us.   It brought me back to childhood, though the water somersaults made me much dizzier than when I was a kid.   With the beach, comes summer fare, packed in a cooler ....In Scarborough, we call it Scarborough Fare (without the parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme)....I guess you need to know Simon and Garfunkel to appreciate that one.

We made some quick pizza triangles (fitayers) with Spelt Right dough, but also made some nice sweets with my favorite RASPBERRY CHAMPAGNE fruit spread from Fieldstone Farms.

Ingredients:  One Spelt Right Pizza Dough (fully thawed and risen), Fieldstone's Raspberry and Champagne Fruit Spread.

Instructions: Cut dough into 4 equal balls.   On pizza peel, sprinkle finely ground corn meal generously (I like to use a an organic non GMO corn meal).  Roll doughto less than 1/4 inch thick on pizza peel.  Spread on fruit spread.   Roll and place on pan in 350 degree oven until brown on top.   Bring to beach!

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Seventy-Seven:The Perfect Maine Trio for a Very Hot Day (Spelt Right Sesame Bagel, Kate's Butter, and Fieldstone Farms Red Raspberry with Champaign Fruit Spread)

Today was HOT, is HOT, and promises to continue to be HOT.   HOT is not so great when you need to make 2,000 + bagels in a day in a non climate controlled bake house, but who is complaining?  Really, I'm not.  I'm just hot.  And tired, having worked a 9 hour day, packaging bagels, organizing the freezer, and cleaning the bakery.  But, the neat thing about today and this weekend is the YARMOUTH (MAINE) CLAM FESTIVAL.   I used to poo poo the Clam Festival, behaving a bit baahumbugish, but yesterday at the annual CLAM FESTIVAL parade, a change overcame me, a good one at that.

After another busy day at the bake house, I trudged up Bridge Street to Main to join my family for the PARADE.   I was preparing to poo poo the event, feeling really that I was above all this frivolity.  As I watched the bands, the kiddie paraders (keep on jumpin' Angus!), the endless mini cars and trucks from the Kora and Shriners, the pageant winners, the float winners, the emergency vehicles, the stilt walkers, the antique cars, the cheerleaders, and the various other ordinary folks entertaining the crowds, I could feel the PASSION.  And, I felt moved.  A little like the Grinch whose heart began to grow.  And, then looking around at all the vendors, artisans and craftsfolks (many of whom are friends and acquaintances) displaying all types of wares:  applesauce (Hey There Pastor Chuck), embroidered bird T's (nice work Whimsy!), Peace T's (way to go Meg + ALI), incredible fruit spreads by Fieldstone Farms (great to see you again David) it occurred to me that this annual festival is driven by passion.  And, passion is what makes the ordinary EXTRA-ORDINARY.   And, really, what is life without passion?

So, despite the hot and long days at work, I step back and realize I should stop kvetching about Spelt Right Baking because it is also driven by PASSION. 

And, today's dinner, a Maine trio, compliments of Fieldstone Farms, is a SPELT RIGHT sesame bagel (toasted), Kate's Butter, and Fieldstone Farm's Red Raspberry With Champagne, all natural fruit spread.  The perfect light meal for an extremely hot and busy day.

  I first tried Fieldstone Farms at the New England Products Trade Show.  I became a fan immediately. David Jones, who owns the company with his wife, Brenda, is a really nice guy AND this fruit spread is PHENOMENAL.  David and Brenda's niceness is somehow transferred into every jar of these amazing products.  If you haven't tried it, you should treat yourself (the Red Raspberry with Champagne is my favorite).   Here's their website.  Fieldstone Farms website.

Spelt Right Chronicles: Day Seventy-Six (Smiling Spelt Right Bagels by Steff D.)

Well, I typically do not post faces on this blog (have you noticed?).  Just hands and fingers and food, but I am making an exception here for Steff Deschenes, who posts her face on FACE BOOK nightly, opening her nightly dinner feats to her readers.  Steff is also the author of "The Ice Cream Theory," The reviewer in the Portland Press Herald is endeared to this book, calling it "a cozy, upbeat book that tells us a lot about people -- vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, even pistachio -- and how we often interact. Most of all, it offers fresh, insightful looks at ourselves. Seldom has a book with ice cream as its central metaphor been so endearingly warm."  AND, the book has won at least 10 indie book awards.   I haven't YET had time to read it, but it is at the top of my list. 

Steff is full of good energy, positive karma, and incredible drive for one who is 25 years young.   Imagine writing a book by 25 years young? 

Also, Steff is doing a little fund raising to help market her book.   Check out her site and, if you are so inclined, send her a buck or two or twenty.  Such good energy deserves support. http://steffdeschenes.blogspot.com/

Here's her Spelt Right Recipe for the night.

Cucumber and tomato sandwich with Vegenaise on a Sesame Spelt Right bagel.

PS:  Kind of curious that a vegan, or almost vegan, wrote a book about ice cream....more reason to check out the book.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Seventy-Five (Guest Chronicler Diana S.)

Well, folks, I have officially crossed over into another plain.  Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

I have learned new vocabulary words these days as we try to figure out how to transport our GLORIOUS Spelt Right bagels to faraway lands.  First word: LOGISTICS - sounds complicated and it is, but in simple terms means "how in the hell do we get this bagel from here to there without flipping over trucks, thawing out product, or breaking the bank?"  The second word is "REEFER".  Now, when I was in college and someone said reefer, it evoked images of smoke and dreadlocks, and perhaps songs by Jimmy Cliff.   In my NEW WORLD, REEFER is another term for a truck with a cooling unit in it a/k/a a truck that will keep our product safe from thawing out.   And, the third word of the day is "SLEEPER", which in my other world meant a boring professor or a slow movie or some lecturer who was pontificating about this or that.  In my NEW WORLD, SLEEPER means the cab of a truck, perhaps a REEFER with a cozy compartment in it for truckers to sleep in.   I also learned that SLEEPER means that the truck is configured in such a way that it simply can't negotiate the windy driveway at the beautiful SPARHAWK MILL, which in turn keeps me SLEEPLESS.....and still trying to figure out LOGISTICS.   

So with all of this energy spent on logistics, reefers, and sleepers, I simply have not had time to cook.  My kids are getting a lot more 'away from home' meals these days.   Good thing we have good food choices in Portland Maine.   Also good thing that I have good friends, some new, some aged-well, who are providing wonderful incarnations with Spelt Right pizza dough and bagels to post on the Spelt Right Lunch Box Chronicles.   Tonight I will post two such recipes, one from Diana (a friend from high school with whom I reconnected on FaceBook) and the other Steff Deschenes (a friend made this year with whom I have connected on FaceBook).  Both are very neat woman.

Here's Diana's recipe:

Grilled Spelt Right pizza: fresh veggies & sheep cheese!  

Now, I can't tell you exactly how Diana made this, but I am going to guess that she let the Spelt Right Pizza Dough rise to double its size inside the bag, and then GENTLY shaped the dough into some free form shape (who says pizzas always have to be circular?) on a pizza peel dusted with corn meal.   Topped with grilled veggies of her choice and SHEEPS MILK CHEESE.   She then gently schooched the pizza on a grill which was about 400 F......What can I say, my mouth is watering!   We have been saying that Diana needs to come up to visit.  Perhaps, the time is now.  I am HUNGRY.

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Seventy-Four (Flayir bil-Flayfli - The Universal Language of Food)

I am so attached to food and eating and feeding anyone who crosses my path.   Food is the one link to my ancestoral past.  Imagine escaping your home, leaving all behind, and having family members scatter.  The images are lost, there are no papers, just memories.  But, when the memories fade, the languages are forgotten, and the generation who braved the escape is gone, those born into new generations have lost the links.  We are orphans longing for that connection.  But out of the gardens and bowls and ovens arise certain textures, aromas, and tastes that are like the spirits of our grandparents.  They linger; they evoke emotion and bring about comfort.

So it is.  My grandparents immigrated to the US around 1912 from the Middle East, leaving all behind, venturing into a new land.   Their children were taught to be "American" and to look whiter and dress cleaner, to lose the accent, and forget the language.   Their grandchildren so blended in the New World that there was barely a vestige of the past, except, that is for the flavors.

And, it is with these flavors, and the careful hand making of food that I channel my grandparents, thanking them for making the hard journey, for leaving their families, and for holding out hope for generations to come.   And, it is with these flavors that I feel so at home, so grounded and so connected to that lost world that I may never see and the language I will never learn.  And, it is with these flavors that I will pass on family history with tastes that no one will forget.

And, here I offer one of my situ's favorite recipes - yes, I know that I have posted this before, but good history should repeat itself.

And thanks to my cousin Donna who I saw at the Shogry Family reunion, I have found out the Arabic Name for these!!! Flayir bil-Flayfli

Two Spelt Right Pizza Doughs, fully thawed, double in size (we'll give you a picture this time)
Two cups walnuts (measure and then chop finely)
Two medium red peppers
One onion finely chopped
Juice from two whole lemons
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Mix all ingredients (except dough) in medium bowl
Cut 12-16 even dough balls (from two doughs)
Stretch or roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thick (more or less) rounds, place on oiled baking sheet
Place about 2 TBL of pepper, walnut mixture on rounds
Bake at 40-450 for 15-20 minutes or until dough is golden brown.

These are great hot or cold for breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner, or after dinner. Yum, yum, and yum. Always a two thumbs up.