Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Fort Popham State Park

Fort Popham
Took a quick drive to the end of the peninsula and got a couple of pix of Fort Popham. It was Christmas Day so the grounds weren't open. It was easy to imagine, with the wind blowing and a high tide, how lonely an outpost this might have been a few hundred years ago!

For park info and an excellent aerial view from the water side of the fort, Fort Popham

For more info about the Popham Colony in Phippsburg, check the Phippsburg Historical Society.

Ft Popham




White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Lobster Trap Christmas Tree in Rockland

lobster trap tree
So, we've heard about this tree for years now and we finally had a chance to get up there and see it! It really is quite the structure! The green traps make a great base for the tree. Lobster buoys are the 'bulbs' and a giant lobster is the tree topper.

lobster buoy

If you would like a chance to win 100 of the lobster traps, here's a link to the 2010 raffle.

Here's more info and history on the lobster trap tree. (Very slow-loading photos, scroll down and read the text first.)

rockland lobster trap tree

Discovery Network was on hand this year to film the tree lighting which will be part of an 'extreme Christmas Tree' show to air in the 2011 Christmas season.

Rockland Harbor

rockland harbor
White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Kiss Pockets-December Recipe of the Month


Another embarrassingly simple recipe you can take along to any party at anytime of the year (just change out the sanding sugar color!)

Ingredients:

Frozen pie crust
Hershey Kisses (any flavor)
Egg wash
Sanding sugar in different colors, sprinkles, jimmies

Remove frozen pie crust from package and let soften enough to work with it. Unwrap kisses. Unroll pie crust on a floured surface or waxed paper. Roll out to even surfaces.



Starting along the outside edge of the pie crust & using a small (2 1/2 to 3") cookie cutter (I used the glass you see in the photo), cut out as many circles as you can from the pie crust. (Should yield about 16, give or take.) You may need to dust with flour if you work slowly as the cookie cutter will start to stick as the pie crust warms up to room temp.

When your circles are cut, place a Hershey kiss in the center of each circle and fold dough in half over the kiss, making a little pocket for the kiss. Take remaining edges, fold in half to meet other edge and press together over the kiss. Pinch edges together to seal.



Brush top surfaces with egg wash (one egg white mixed w/ one tbsp water).



Sprinkle on sanding sugar, sprinkles or jimmies. Or, change it up and use sea salt for the salty-sweet combo. Or, skip sanding sugar and use powdered sugar after baking.

Bake on parchment paper at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until pockets are lightly browned. Serve warm with lots of napkins!

Bet these would be good with a dab of raspberry jam in the pocket with the kiss. Notes from the test kitchen: Definitely add the jam, they are a little on the dry side otherwise.

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Monday, November 29, 2010

Beech Nut Hut

Beech Nut Hut
How could you NOT want to go to a place called the Beech Nut Hut? I first read about this trail in Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors (which I highly recommend you get yourself a subscription to if you love Maine!) It's taken us over a year to actually get there, but get there we did, just as the sun was setting- what were we thinking?!

It's about an hour and a half drive from here, so you might include this short detour (2 miles round trip) on your drive to Camden and points north.

on the trail

It's a short hike from the parking area to the top and most of it is on a packed sand driveway. The views are worth the walk, even at sunset and 35 degrees with the wind whipping around!

Blueberries are grown on either side of the path so dogs must be leashed at all times (leashes are provided at the trailhead!) and all walkers must stay on the path.

In the summer you can have tea inside the 'hut' overlooking sweeping views of Penobscot Bay and Mt Battie. For complete details on the hours, directions and a trail map, this is the website.

If you just want to go there, here are the directions: Rt 1 north to Rockport. At Hoboken Gardens (on the right as you are headed north), turn LEFT on Beech Hill Rd. Go approx 1 mile (you will take a sharp left corner in the road), pass the stone gates with fence and pull in at the parking area on the left. (If you get to Camden Village on Rt 1, you've gone too far.)

Penobscot Bay
The view from the front porch of the hut. I also took this quirky photo through the building (which is closed in the winter) but the windows line up pretty well! So you are seeing the trees behind me and the bay out the far window. (And those big, fuzzy things around the camera are my gloves!)


White Cedar Inn Bed & Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Chocolate Bread Pudding-November Recipe of the Month


There are myriad variations on the recipe for bread pudding. The basis, tho, is stale bread and a few eggs. For this recipe (stolen directly from Paula Deen) the big ingredient is chocolate! Take a gander:

1 lb loaf of stale French or Italian bread, cubed
3 c whole milk
1/4 c heavy cream
1/2 c cold coffee
1 c sugar
1 c light brown sugar
1/4 c cocoa powder
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 tsps cinnamon
6 eggs, lightly beaten
8 ozs grated semisweet chocolate
whipped cream (optional) (Yeah, right, optional. Like you'd skip the whipped cream!)

Preheat oven to 325.

Lightly grease 13x9" baking dish and place bread in dish, covering the bottom. (I shredded the bread rather than cubing as it went faster that way.) In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, cream and coffee. In a second bowl, combine the sugars & cocoa powder and mix well. Add the sugar mixture to the milk mixture and mix well. To the beaten eggs, add the vanilla and almond extracts and the cinnamon. Combine egg mixture to the milk & sugar mixture, mix well. Stir in the grated chocolate (buy it grated, it's a bear to try to grate it yourself!)

Pour the mixture over the bread in the pan. Let stand for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to soak all of the bread evenly. All of the liquid should be mostly absorbed before baking. Bake for 1 hour or until set (no liquid should be evident). An inserted knife should come out clean.

Serve warm or cold, topped with whipped cream.

Notes from me: this was way too sweet and, I can't believe I'm saying this, way too chocolate-y. Next time I make it, I will reduce the sugar, probably by cutting out the white sugar altogether and reduce the amount of semisweet chocolate to 6 ozs instead of 8. I chopped the semisweet baking chocolate blocks rather than grating as the grating was taking damn near forever!

Guests told us they remembered their mothers making this with chocolate milk rather than the cocoa & semisweet, so that's an option as well.

You could also sub non-fat milk to cut a good chunk of the calories out. But, this isn't supposed to be a healthy 'meal', it's a comfort food dessert or breakfast starter!


 


White Cedar Inn Bed & Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Friday, November 05, 2010

Tales of a lost chicken


What do chickens eat? Have you any idea? Neither did we, so we figured the chicken that made its way into the yard last week would make its way back out when it realized it was slim pickin's around here. Au contraire!

I'll post more about the vacation later on, but suffice it to say we were leaving for a few days the day after this chicken made an appearance in the shrubs by the stairs. It seemed perfectly content to completely dig out my flower garden looking for bugs but we didn't relish the idea of coming home to find a dead chicken anywhere near the house. So, being totally not the farming types, we called friends who keep chickens (and goats and alpaca and rabbits) to ask if they wanted a go at catching this one and giving it a good home.

And off we went on vacation.

We called our friends a couple of days into the vacation to ask if they'd had any luck. Apparently this chicken is Houdini's reincarnation. No matter what they did or how far they chased it, it eluded capture. (Maybe it's a fan of the movie 'Chicken Run'.)

Today the chicken has been greeting guests as they come up the stairs. BA, BA, BA, BAAAAK! I was told this means it's upset. Our friends will be back when the weather is more amenable to chasing chickens.

We have fed it seedless grapes, which it really seemed to appreciate. Well, sure it did. After scratching and digging for a few days, here was someone tossing food right to it. It's rained since yesterday so there is plenty of water pooling up here and there. Still, I will put out a bowl of water tomorrow to go along with the blackberries that are on the menu for breakfast, for the chicken, not the guests!

My mother always told me to not feed strays. And here I go putting out grapes and berries for a chicken that clucks at me and the guests! Hopefully our friends will be by soon. Before I start naming the chicken. (Tallulah? I'm kind of fond of that name.) And building it a coop. And bringing home other chickens to keep it company. You see how this gets out of hand!

Got a video camera I can borrow? Chasing the chicken around should be interesting...


"If I tuck my head, they can't see me, I'm invisible."

Tallulah update: If you were keeping track of the daily tales of Tallulah you know we spent a few days feeding her while trying to decide what to do with her. We found a neighbor with chickens who was willing to take her in, if we could all catch her. ('Hell on wheels' is the best description of this chicken!)

Well, while trying to catch her with a fishing net (yeah, don't bother to tell me), we attracted the attention of a neighbor's cat. I ran to scare off the cat, which was not budging, and instead, I scared off Tallulah who took for the streets.

She was across Main St later on in the day and her real family was over there trying to herd her back home. So, happy ending, I think. After all, over here she had the run of the yard, all the worms she could eat, yummy leftovers and no work. But, she also didn't have her 'family' so I hope she's happy at home!

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Bowdoin College Coastal Studies Center- A Walk in the Woods

Info Station
Taking advantage of what is probably the last day of summer until next year, Bre and I headed out to Orr's Island for a walk in the Coastal Studies Center woods belonging to Bowdoin College. The land was a gift to the college from Irma & William Thalheimer to be protected and used as a research and teaching facility.

We missed the turn (so pay attention when you're headed out there!) and arrived at the cribstone bridge over to Bailey Island. We turned around and headed back, looking very carefully at the directions and realizing we (ok, you're right, the dog can't read) were looking the wrong way as we drove right by Bayview Rd.

You'll drive all the way to the parking area which is on either side of the road. Check in at the information station (pictured above) and then head out to the trails. Try not to do what we did, which was to get turned around immediately and end up in the 'Laboratory area- no access' parts of the trails. I'm still not sure where I went wrong! I could say I was following Bre. Once she picks up a scent and realizes I am going the same way, she'll follow that person, dog or other animal right off a cliff!

Stone Wall Loop
I was attempting to get to Dog's Head (appropriately enough!) following first the Stone Wall Walk and the Long Cove Loop. Got lost on the Stone Wall Loop and came out at one of the labs (pictured below). After wandering around, realized the sign at the 'end' of the trail showed 'Restricted Access' - but it was such a nice, mowed pathway!

Lab

Reoriented and headed down the Brewer Cove Trail which we stuck with until we came to a downed tree across the path. Bre is showing her age and did not want to jump that log. She climbed over and it was a pathetic sight to behold. She did not want to continue along if this was what awaited, so we turned back at that point. We did make it around to where the Brewer Cove Trail and the Pine Needle Trail intersect.

Brewer CoveThis is a similar walk to what you find at Wolfe Neck Woods Park but it is much more 'natural'. Trees that have fallen across the paths are cut and moved aside but there are lots of tree roots, rocks and wet spots to wade through. I would not suggest going out, as I did, after a hard rain. Very soggy in spots. Very slick with all the fallen leaves and pine needles.

OK, so that's the hard part. The easy part? The pine scent all around you. The salty, tidal flats scent. Being out in the middle of the woods with no one else around. The peace and quiet. The water lapping on the shore as the tide comes in. The woodpeckers. The deer (3 whitetails). The end of the summer, the end of fall.

Harpswell Sound
How to get there: Take Rt 24 from Cooks Corners and head toward Bailey Island. When you're on Great Island you will pass Mountain Rd (which, along with the bridge, connects Rts 24 + 123) on the right. Go 2.6 miles past Mountain Rd and turn right on Bayview Rd. It is 1 mile to the parking area.

Make a whole day of it and hike along the Giant Stairs Trail on Bailey Island, drive out to Land's End for fudge, have lunch at the Giants Stairs Seafood Grille and walk the CSC trails above.

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Let's hear it for the oaks!

Usually, at this time of year, it's the maples that get all the attention. Driving along the interstate earlier today, it was oaks as far as the eye could see. Came back and took a walk around town and found these...enjoy!



South Street in Freeport

Torrey Range Hill Rd in Freeport


OK, one maple.

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main Street Freeport, Maine 04032

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Peak Foliage along the Coast

Casco Bay Trail
According to the foliage maps, we're at peak foliage this week. Some trees have kept up with the news, but others are just biding their time!

For a casual walk that requires minimal effort for gorgeous views check out Wolfe Neck Woods. (admission: $3 for Mainers; $4.50 for those from away) If you drive up and no one is there to take your admission fee, drop it in the bucket by the gatehouse. Really. It's good for your karma.

If you park in the first lot you can grab a map from the box at the head of the Casco Bay Trail entry. The second lot is closer to the restrooms (always good to know where they are!) and the picnic area.



In season, you can view the osprey and seals from along the Casco Bay Trail. Take a shaded walk along the Old Woods & Ledge Trails and enjoy an easy stroll on the White Pines Trail. We love to snowshoe here in the winter.

Some trails have a short, steep climb, steps down to the water, short bridges across wetlands and interpretive signs along the way. Here is Bre demonstrating the steps after taking a dip in the Bay!



The drive to the park is about 4 miles from here. If you can't get here in time for the late foliage, please enjoy the photos!



Above is the shortcut between the Old Woods Trail and the Ledge Trail.



White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main Street Freeport, Maine 04032

Mushroom colonies in Maine


Headed out the other day with Bre in tow to take a walk in the fall woods. Absolutely loved the Casco Bay Trail in Wolfe Neck Woods! Keeping in mind I know nothing about mushrooms, I found these colonies remarkably interesting.

If you know the names of them, let me know. Otherwise, just enjoy the colors and shapes and textures!






White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main Street Freeport, Maine 04032

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Things to do in Maine in the Fall

fall foliage
In the spirit of short lists, here are 10 things you can do in Maine every year in October:
  1. Take a foliage drive. Start as you cross the bridge in Kittery and continue on up Rt 1 until you get to Canada! Foliage drives are best during the first 3 weeks of Oct.
  2. Celebrate the bounty of Maine at Harvest on the Harbor. (Portland- Oct 21, 22, 23, 2010)
  3. Run (or cheer) the Maine Marathon. (Portland- Oct 3, 2010)
  4. Bike, walk, run (or cheer) the Dempsey Challenge. (Lewiston/Auburn- Oct 2-3, 2010)
  5. Shop at a Farmers Market. Gorgeous produce, craft items, soaps, specialty foods and more.
  6. Eat the last of the lobsters at any of the great lobster shacks along the coast. (Most close in Oct until next year.)
  7. Attend a fair- Cumberland County, Fryeburg and more local agricultural fairs
  8. Visit the kids at College!
  9. Take a hike- Bradbury Mountain, Wolfe Neck Woods, Winslow Park and more.
  10. Hit the waves- Casco Bay Lines, Portland Windjammer, Sail Freeport.


casco bay cruise
Bonus thing to do- Great Falls Auction and Flea Market at Owls Head Transportation Museum- Oct 30 & 31, 2010

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

B and B's for Vets Program


White Cedar Inn is participating in the B&B's for Vets program this Nov 10, 2011!

The program was started in WV in 2008 and has grown to almost 400 B&B's across the country and in Canada. Although the B&B's involved are all different, the premise is the same- a free night's stay for active, retired or separated (discharged) military personnel. A small 'Thank you!' for all the servicemen and women in this country do for all of us everyday.

The free night is available to all military personnel as described above. Even of http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifyou're a regular guest of ours, you are welcome to participate.

All we ask is that you have a valid military ID to participate.

Please call to make a reservation. Can't get to Freeport? Check here for other participating B&B's in different towns and states.

PS- Not limited to Naval personnel- that's just Rock's branch of service!

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Monday, September 27, 2010

Scratch and dent tomatoes

This has been the year for tomatoes! We get our veggies at Laughing Stock Farm and last week there was a box of 'scratch & dent' tomatoes. You know, the kind that just aren't 'pretty enough' but taste just fine when made into something that doesn't require 'looks'!

So, I got a bag and took home about 3-4 lbs of scratch & dents. All varieties. That's what makes this so much fun. You put in whatever you have! Cherry toms, heirlooms, beefsteak, whatever.

What can you make with them? Spaghetti sauce is what we've done in the past and may well do next week if the tomato overrun is still running over. This week, tho, I made tomato soup. There isn't anything much easier to make than tomato soup.

Sure, cutting the tomatoes takes some time, but that's about it. And the great thing is, you get to control the salt, fat and sugar that goes into it.

This recipe works for about 2 lbs of tomatoes. Adjust accordingly for more or less tomato-age. You will find that very ripe tomatoes are really juicy, so adjust the added liquids based on how 'soupy' your soup looks when it's time to add the stock.

Tomato soup:

2 lbs of tomatoes, chopped.
1 large potato, cubed
2 tbsps sugar
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
8-10 basil leaves
1 c broth (chicken, veggie)

Put tomatoes, potato, sugar, salt, pepper and basil in a large, heavy pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes. Add broth, stir and simmer until potatoes are soft.

Get out the immersion blender! (You knew it was going to make an appearance, didn't you?) Remove soup from heat, blenderize. Run a spoon around in the pot to be sure all the tomatoes and potato chunks are blended.

If your fat calories are low for the day, you can top the soup with a dollop of sour cream!

Otherwise, serve up soup with some crackers and enjoy! This recipe makes about 6 servings.

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Thursday, August 26, 2010

My new best friend in the kitchen

Do you ever consider what the 'best' kitchen tool you own is? Yeah, me neither. However, after spending years (seriously, years) making a colossal butchery of brownies, I started asking around to find out how anyone cuts brownies without have cracked, chipped and otherwise nasty-looking edges on their brownies.

After all, I've been to bake sales with other moms' perfectly square brownies for sale and always wondered how they did that. Not enough back then to ask because I would never make brownies for a bake sale, we were a cupcake kind of family.

But, you know, presentation is sometimes 75% of how something tastes, so I figured I should master this 'square-edged brownie' phenomenon.

Voila! My new best friend in the kitchen arsenal:



Yes, dear reader- a plastic knife. Cuts through warm brownies like buttah. No more crumbly edges, no more cracked tops and chunks missing. PERFECTLY square brownies every time. Ahhh.

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Peachy Upside Down Cake- September Recipe of the Month




If you've read up on the blog, you know this came about because guests skipped breakfast one day. This was pretty yummy. The cake part is a bit closer to 'shortcake' in consistency, so make adjustments as you like.

Ingredients:

For the peach topping:

1/4 c butter
1/2 c packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
18 peach slices (fresh, canned, whatever you have)

For the cake:

1/2 c butter, softened
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/4 c flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 c milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

For the topping:

Melt the 1/4 cup of butter. Press the brown sugar into the bottom of an 8" square pyrex baking dish. Sprinkle the 1/4 tsp of nutmeg over the top. Pour the melted butter over the top, making sure you get all areas of the brown sugar covered (otherwise the peaches will stick). Lay the peach slices on top of the brown sugar in sets of two, 3 rows across, with a slight space between each set of 2 peaches. (makes it easier to cut into 9 servings).

peaches

For the cake:

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat in egg. Mix flour, baking powder and salt together and alternating with the milk, add to creamed butter & sugar. Beat well after each addition. The consistency will be thick.

cake batter

Spread batter over peaches in baking dish. Make sure you get it into all the corners.

Pop in oven for 45 minutes. (That's how long it took in my oven, you may want to start with 40 minutes in your oven.) Cake will be lightly browned on top and a toothpick carefully inserted will come out clean. (Don't poke the peaches when testing.)

cake

Let sit for 5 minutes and then invert on the serving plate. (Do not invert on another surface to take pictures. You really can't MOVE the inverted cake without it falling apart. Lesson learned.) Let cool and gently cut into 9 pieces, cutting between every 2 slices of peaches and along the edges of the 3 rows. If the peaches stick to the baking dish, don't try to get them off until the cake is completely on the serving plate, then you can slide a spatula under the stuck ones and peel them off and replace them where they belong. (I learned a lot making this cake, can you tell?)

Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Saturday, August 21, 2010

When guests skip breakfast

OK, I know those of you who have delighted in our breakfasts are staring at your computer screens aghast- skip breakfast? What were they thinking? Sometimes it's not planned, guests just realize it's farther away to wherever they are going than they thought or their flight leaves really early so they don't have time to stop and dawdle over the fabulous fruity french toast or the Irish scrambled eggs (BTW, now known as 'Tuscan Scrambled Eggs' after they were pronounced 'a taste of home' by one of our Italian guests. Plus, 'Tuscan' makes you think of tomatoes and 'Irish' doesn't, so it really does work out better. Sorry Nana.)

Anyway, back to what happens when guests skip breakfast- we have a lot of fruit leftover. Generally, Rock has all the fruit courses made up by 6:30 AM so if anyone leaves after that we have extras. Today, we had 5 extra peach fruit plates leftover and this is what happened to them:

peach upside down cake
Yum-o! Peach upside down cake! I know most of you know that I am not the cook. I won't mention how old I am but this is the very first upside down cake I have ever made. I'll be tasting it once it has cooled. Hope it's worthy of the pretty photo it took!

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Crazy busy


You may have noticed the blogs are getting further apart as summer progresses. There is a really good reason for that...YOU!

I'll take just a moment here to thank all of our wonderful guests this summer who have made this the busiest summer we have ever had. I managed to update the website back in July (all new slideshows!) but I haven't sat down since. (OK, I'm sitting right now, but don't tell Rock.)

Rock has been working his magic in the kitchen every morning now since June 24. (June 23 was our last day with no guests in the house!) Looking forward, I think we might squeeze in a day off in September, just before the leaf-peeping season hits.

A hearty 'THANK YOU' to all of you who have visited us this summer, who have plans to visit us soon and even to those of you who are just thinking about making a trip to White Cedar Inn. We appreciate all of you very much!

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Grilled Eggplant- August Recipe of the Month

eggplant on the grill
So simple, even I can make this! And, eggplant is one of those healthy veggies. Vitamins K & B6, Folate, Thiamin, Potassium, Manganese & dietary fiber. And relatively low calories. (High in salt, tho.)

In trying to eat throughout the color wheel, nothing does purple like eggplant!

What you need to do this:

1 eggplant (medium size for 2)
olive oil
thyme (crushed or fresh)
salt
pepper

Slice eggplant into thick chunks. Slicing on a diagonal gives you nicer looking slices with a long eggplant. A bulbous eggplant will give nice slices cut straight on. Mix the olive oil, salt, pepper & thyme together in a small bowl. Brush both cut sides of the eggplant with mixture. (No specific measurements, just what tastes good to you.)

Preheat grill. Pop those eggplant slices on the grill and cook until the 'white' flesh is soft, but not soggy. This doesn't take long, so if you are having meat, too, you'll want that to be almost done before you start the eggplant on the grill.

We had our eggplant with lamb chops from the Friday farmers market at LL Bean.

eggplant
White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Roasted Root Veggies- July Recipe of the Month


With farmers markets in full swing everywhere, here is a great recipe for all of those wonderful root veggies you've picked up or will soon have on hand. This recipe can be adapted to ANY root veggies + squashes that you may find. It's very versatile all year long. It might be a little toasty on a hot day to have the oven running, but you can also try these on the grill, wrapped in several layers of heavy-duty foil.

Consider how many you will be feeding and whether or not it would be nice to have leftovers for lunch the next day to determine how much of everything you want.

Ingredients: (for 2)

4 small red potatoes (fingerlings are also a good option)
1 medium sweet potato
2-3 carrots
3-4 small beets
3-4 small hakurei turnips (small, white turnips)
3-4 cloves of garlic (the more the better!)
1 large red onion
1 delicata squash (or other squash type)
salt
pepper
olive oil
rosemary sprigs

Cut all of the veggies into small, bite-size chunks, toss with salt, pepper, rosemary and enough olive oil to coat them. Spread out on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake at 400 for 45 minutes, or until veggies are fork-tender. Enjoy!

This makes a perfect side for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner as well.

White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Sneak peek

We had all new photos taken of the inn and the breakfasts with Rock doing a marathon breakfast-cooking for the photographer. You have no idea how hard it is to pour syrup slowly from that height with your arm straight out across the table!

Here's a sneak peek...

blueberry pancakes
White Cedar Inn Bed and Breakfast 178 Main St Freeport, Maine 04032