I've got blue hair, and I talk like a puppet! I'm a freaking blueberry!

Apparently Maine is famous for blueberries, but who needs Maine blueberries when you can have New Hampshire blueberries?

We started out this morning for Emery Farm in Durham, NH. Established in 1655, you just can't get much more family farm than this place. We picked a pint of blueberries from several bushes and several different rows. Jon nearly picked a chipmunk! The store on the farm had a variety of fresh vegetables--potatoes, sweet corn(picked this morning in western Mass. NH corn won't be ready until August), squash, zucchini, raspberries, and lettuce. I also saw a hothouse full of tomatoes that were nearly ready.

We left w/ the blueberries and one squash and a zucchini and promised to return for all our vegetable needs. Our total bill $2.41. Fortunately we were not charged for the berries Jon ate while we were in the field. :)

Our goat friend

Before I arrived in NH, Jon told me about a goat he often saw at the park with its owner. He said the lady treated the goat a lot like a dog. The park is about a block from our house and the goat lives between our house and the park. Until this weekend, I had not seen the goat. I told Jon he was a goat story teller, specializing in tall tales about goats. Then I saw it--riding in the front seat of the lady's old Ford truck.

I have since apologized.

We would like to identify the type of goat, but I've only seen its head. Jon said it's short and has a long beard and it has a huge head and big horns. We will be scouring the internet to determine the species. Right now, I'm thinking mountain goat.

UPDATE: The Goat is already a Dover celebrity! His name is Binx, and he has a web site. I'll add some pictures, and he is not a mountain goat.

Seafood is A+ Food

We had a celebration of the sea this weekend with leisure-filled overtones. We started out Friday at Bob's Clam Hut in Kittery, Maine. Maine is very close to where we are, and Kittery is locally know for it's outlet shopping. At Bob's, I had the fried clam strip roll as recommended by the Phantom Gourmet. Jon had the famous fish and chips. Little more than a roadside stand, Bob's serves up some of the best fried seafood in the region.

We tried to outlet shop. We really did, but we're just not into brands and couldn't figure our where we wanted to go or what we wanted. The only store we really enjoyed was the Trading Post that is a lot like a Bass Pro Shop that features a huge Maine section with all things Maine for sale. We came back to Dover in time to hear a few songs at the Cocheco Arts Festival Summer Concert Series. Friday was the United States Air Force band accompanied by the American Belles, three singers from New York.

The real highlight of the weekend was our Saturday night date at Jumpin' Jay's in Portsmouth. We started the meal with the house specialty Steamed PEI Mussels with jalapeños, tomatoes, and garlic in a ginger saffron creme. I'll include a photo.

For the main course, Jon went with a house specialty again in the Haddock Picatta baked in breadcrumbs with a lemon, white wine butter sauce. I had a special of the night, Parmesan and Crab encrusted Blue Trout. All entrees come with lightly steamed green beans, vegetables, and lemon grass rice.
For dessert, "Portsmouth's Best Key Lime Pie," with fresh whipped cream and blueberries. It made for the perfect ending to a great meal.

After dinner we took in a local band with a New Orleans, blues sound that was playing as a part of the Portsmouth summer music series.

It was a wonderful evening.

The microphone was not actually open

Here are some videos from the last open mic I played a couple of weeks back. Sorry about the quality of the video, it was really dark in there, but I think the sound is pretty good.

Here's Ghost:



Here's Wait:

Flatbread

I must take a moment to blog about the Flatbread Company in Portsmouth. With a huge brick oven in the dining room where you can watch the grillman on duty shift your dinner around an open fire, the atmosphere of Flatbread is fantastic. Everything they serve is organic, free-range, local, made from scratch, nitrate free, etc. They keep it simple with three basic things on the menu:
1. A mesclun and sweet lettuce salad with an option for cheese and a house vinaigrette.
2. Flatbreads with garlic and herbs and toppings.
3. Flatbreads with wood-fired cauldron tomato sauce and toppings.

Simple and yummy. We shared a #1 (no cheese) and #2 with free-range, fire roasted chicken, black beans, corn, tomatoes, mozzarella,a sour cream dollop, and a lime.

We will be going back because they make their own sausage...

Sure, they look cute

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats are the Double-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, and they play in the Eastern League. I thought this was an interesting mascot, so I looked it up. This is a Fisher cat. This is what they do.

I will have a nightmare about a fisher cat.

Piscataqua is not a dirty word

On Sunday we started out the morning in Portsmouth at Friendly Toast. Jon had wonderful blueberry pancakes and I had the French toast. Probably the best French toast I have ever eaten. My mouth is watering thinking about it. The atmosphere was a lot like Lynn's Paradise Cafe in Louisville. (See pic of Jon with statue behind him). Our only complaint was the non-existent service. We had read the service was bad at Friendly Toast, but, wow, it was really bad. If we eat there again, which we might because the food was awesome, we will bring our own drinks.

Sunday afternoon we returned to Portsmouth for the harbor cruise. The cruise starts in the harbor on the Piscataqua River and makes a loop around the small islands off the shore. We saw submarines at the Naval shipyard, a couple of forts, whaleback lighthouse, and Wentworth by the Sea, an historic hotel.

The harbor has held significance throughout American history, and with a facility to build nuclear submarines it maintains its importance. During World War II, many German u-boats tried to enter the harbor to steal Naval secrets, some succeeded in entering.

We saw an old military prison, as well, where Walt Disney once served as a guard. No one ever escaped from the prison, and guards were told that if someone did escape on their watch the guard would have to finish out the sentence.

Toward the end of the tour, several helicopters flew over, which may have been Marine 1 carrying the President and Russian President Vladimir Putin who spent the weekend in Kennebunkport, Maine.

A little more Boston

Hahvahd and The Green Monstah

We made a second trip back to Boston on Saturday to see a few things we didn't have time for on our first go round.

We started the day at Harvard Square where we took the Unofficial Hahvahd Tour. The story of how the unofficial tours got started is interesting. The company is student founded and student run. The students had to jump through some hoops to be able to give their own tours, which is what led to the name, "Hahvahd." The students had to give their tour a name that didn't infringe upon the copy write the University has on its name.

The tour uses a two person team to lead you around campus. In the top picture here, Jon and I are near the new yard with Memorial Hall behind us. There is also a picture of Memorial Hall without us. The Science Center is the crazy looking building made to look like a Polaroid camera.

There is also a shot of Memorial Church where the names of every person associated with Harvard who died while serving his country is memorialized.

After the tour, one of our guides, Megan, recommended B. Good as a good place to grab lunch. The restaurant is a burger and fries joint that uses good, healthy ingredients. Jon's burger, El Guapo, had bacon, ranch, and only 486 calories. It was good, and not bad for us.

We then took the T to Fenway to take the afternoon tour. The 2 o'clock was leaving and the 3 o'clock was sold out, so we ended up on the 3:30 tour and the last tour of the day before the game. The last tour before a game is an abbreviated tour. Oh, no! You may be thinking, but it was actually, oh yes!, because we got to watch batting and fielding practice while we toured. The park is so small, third smallest in the majors. The tour takes you to sit in every section in the park and gives all types of insider info like what the hidden messages are in the green monster scoreboard. Did you know there is no air, heat, or plumbing in the scoreboard den behind the monster? Did you know the monster used to have advertisements all over it? The players complained about not being able to field the ball, so Mrs. Yawkey, (the owners wife), suggested they paint the wall to match the grass. The green color is now owned by the team as Fenway green.

We struggled, and I mean pained, over the decision to go to the game or not. Tickets are hard to get and those you can get are expensive. ($80 each for standing room, $125 each and up to sit far away). Jon read about all the ticket getting strategies and how to haggle with the scalpers, but in the end we decided to save our money for our NYC trip in August.

We went to Faneuil Hall in downtown to browse and enjoy the people. We ate dinner at a Panera Bread like place called, Au bon pain. We ate on the sidewalk in a very commercial area in downtown just off the Freedom Trail. We then walked back to Boston Common, the best place to park in town at $10 for all day on the weekends, and turned toward home.

BBQ in NH

We had a huge weekend. One I shall divide among multiple posts. For now, I shall focus on the front half of Jon's days off.

So let me first say that Jon was suffering from a serious barbecue jonesing. This led us to try to most reputable bbq joint in Portsmouth, Muddy River Smokehouse. Now, knowing this area is not known for barbecue, nor really has any barbecue restaurants, we proceeded with caution. Mistake #1, Amanda assumes they will have real ice tea. There is no such thing as fresh brewed, ice tea here. It just does not exist, even, apparently at a bbq joint. It was Nestea with lemon...eww. Our first good move was ordering the Gator Eggs as an appetizer. The jalapeños stuffed with cream cheese, battered, deep fried and served with a sweet vidalia sauce were a hit. As an entree, Jon ordered a pulled pork sandwich. Muddy River uses a whole pork shoulder and a tomato based sauce that they put on the pork post smoking. It had a hickory, smokey flavor. (Our favorite place in Lexington, NC also uses only the pork shoulder, but also uses oak chips and is smoked for 3 fewer hours than that at Muddy River). Jon said, "The meat was very tasty. There was too much sauce. The sauce was very sweet and very tasty, but there was too much of it. But overall, I give it a positive."

Jon, how does is compare to Lexington? "It doesn't."

The sauce totally hid the flavor of the meat.

Because I very seldom will even eat bbq if we aren't at my dad's or in Lexington, I played it safe with a catfish sandwich (after the tea incident), which was really good. The batter was described as "seasoned." I describe it as delicious.