Category Archives: Family
Maryland Meat Run
This past weekend, we made a road trip to Maryland to pick up meat. This wasn’t just ordinary meat. In keeping with our efforts to connect with farmers and know where our meat comes from, this meat was sourced in the family. My sister’s father-in-law has been raising a small herd of Angus for the past few years. This year, two steer were up for “harvesting”, so we decided to buy a hindquarter.
How much closer to the farmer could we get? We’ve met the cows in their infancy, checking them out on every visit. We know they had a great life, spending their days grazing in the hilly pasture. Donald cared for them well. The cow was slaughtered about a month ago and aged until they cut it up on Friday, the day before it got picked up.
The steer was about 1300 pounds at the end of its life. Our hindquarter weighted 187 pounds before it was cut up. We learned a lot of about the anatomy of a cow when filling out the cut sheet that specifies how we wanted the meat cut up. The front quarter (which is what we didn’t get) is where the ribs, chuck and brisket come from. The hindquarter is where most of the steaks are, which is why we picked it.
Our quarter yielded about 100 pounds of meat, about 60% steaks and roasts and 40% ground beef. It looks gorgeous. We also got a big bag of soup bones, the oxtail (after last year’s successful stew, we wanted to try again), and liver. Actually we got extra liver. We knew most people wouldn’t want it, so I asked for it. The butcher gave us 10 pounds. All I wanted was to make some dog biscuits with it for Bella. Now, we have a liver bonanza!
This much beef will last us at least a year. It’s all frozen, so that shouldn’t be a problem. There are lots of cuts I’ve never really cooked before, so it will be another series of kitchen adventure. What fun! If you have any favorite beef recipes to share, do let me know.
Driving back and forth to Maryland, a 450 trek each way, was an arduous way to spend the weekend. We spent over 18 hours in the car. The reward was a wonderful visit with family. We stopped in New Jersey to see Howard’s sister and her family on the way south (a much too brief overnight stop). Then, in Maryland, we not only saw my sister Jane’s family who lives there, but also my father and stepmother, plus my sister from Pennsylvania came with her family to visit too. Highlights were: watching my nephew Brett’s last baseball game of the season, delicious home-cooked meals at Jane’s, and an adventure in a very muddy corn maze.
The best part of the corn maze was something called the “Pumpkin Cannon”. It was a hydraulic contraption that you point and shoot pumpkins out of. They had giant “transformer”-like creatures to shoot at like targets. My nephews and nieces and Howard all had fun taking their turn.
All in all, it was a fun-filled weekend, making me wish I lived closer to family than I do.
My Family: A Motley Crew
Musings on Marriage (and Meals)
Last week, Howard and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. It seems that in the Hallmark world, 25 years is the more significant milestone, but we think two decades is worthy of a big celebration. We’ve been married longer than my own parents were married to each other before they divorced. On the other hand, we have some catching up to do to match my in-laws who have been married for 55 years.
So far, it’s been a wonderful journey, as long as you don’t count that first rocky year. An initially rough road is probably not unexpected when you take two people, relatively independent by nature, both of whom have each been living own their own for a while. Have them combine households into a 687 square foot apartment with a baby grand piano in the living room. Does that sound like a recipe for happiness and bliss? I don’t think so. If we could make it through that, we can probably make it through anything.
The Happy Couple
Two decades, we had two dinners to celebrate. The first was on the actual day. We went to a local favorite, Daikanyama, a Japanese sushi and noodle restaurant in our town. We usually have a taste of sushi as an appetizer and then have big bowls of noodle soup for dinner, and that’s what we did. It hit the spot.
We also like having special dinners for special occasions. For our “real” celebratory dinner, we picked Hugo’s in Portland, Maine. We went there about five years ago, and that meal has held a place in our Hall of Fame for incredible meals (there are currently only 5 spots, you can see the list here). Our anniversary seemed like a worthy reason to splurge again.
The chef at Hugo’s is Rob Evans. His food is creative, challenging, and interesting, all at the same time. Though I’ve never eaten at the French Laundry, based on what I’ve read about it, his past training under Thomas Keller shows in the menu at his own restaurant, Hugo’s.
We opted for a six-course blind tasting menu with accompanying wine matched to each course. That means we didn’t know what we were going to be served. As each course was served, the delivered dish was described in detail. The ingredients are sourced 98% locally, with all the seafood coming from the Gulf of Maine, so the meal, which changes daily, was about as seasonal as you could get. Many of the courses were things I wouldn’t necessarily have selected from an à la carte menu.
Amazingly, there wasn’t anything served that I wouldn’t or couldn’t eat. (I don’t willingly eat organs, other than the occasional chicken liver, but none were served.) I enjoyed it all. Howard can almost say that too. The only hiccup for him was the final dessert course which was chocolate (good) served with banana cake (not good). I ate his banana cake, so together we finished every morsel. (Teamwork = good foundation for happy marriage)
Certainly, a restaurant like this isn’t for everyone, but we weren’t disappointed by our choice. We were thrilled. It was a worthy spot to celebrate the milestone of two decades of marriage.
Here’s the menu we enjoyed:
Amuse
Korean BBQ Winter Point Oyster, lightly poached with basil oil, fried garlic and daikon
Wine: Brut Cava (Spain)
1st
Blue Fin Tuna Tartare with tomato water and tomatoes, black trumpet mushrooms, and fennel
2nd
Key Lime Cured Sardines with nasturtium, cucumber, radish, and olive oil ice cream
Wine: Albariño (Spain)
3rd
Cod Head Stew (cheek, throat, and tongue) with udon noodle, cipollini onion, and maitake mushroom
Wine: Versi Bianco (Italy)
4th
Second Change Farm’s Veal with wild mushrooms, potatoes, consummé, and kohlrabi
Wine: Pinot Noir (New Zealand)
5th
Late Harvest Strawberry Salad with spicy bell pepper granite, mint, and tarragon
Wine: Moscato (California)
6th
Banana Chicory Cake with warm chocolate panna cotta, mascarpone, and curried hazelnuts
Wine: 10 Year Old Malmsey (Portugal)
A Plateful of Happiness 