Day 18.320: Thanksgiving #19

We celebrated a somewhat traditional Thanksgiving today. It is great to have the kids back from college and to be joined by Exile #4’s friend K who couldn’t make the journey home to Idaho so is settling for another potato producing state. Maine was the top state for potato growing until Idaho overtook it in 1957 but has since slipped to 8th place.

Here’s how the day went.

A game of Suspend

Thanksgiving dinner

A quick walk at East Point Sanctuary while the daylight lasted

Pies

We also played several other games and watched a few old videos and a couple of Thanksgiving episodes of Bob's Burgers. As ever, we have much to be thankful for.

Day 17.364: Birthday

Happy Birthday to me. 

I had lots of greetings - none of which I have so far responded to (but thanks!) and we went out for a very nice meal and I had a beer in a classic pint mug. 

Thanks to Exile #4 for the photo

Day 17.323: Thanksgiving #18

Turkey, pie and family time.

Exile #4 decorated this plate many years ago

At the table…

…about to eat some pie

Day 17.286: Hosting

With visitors from out of town in the office this week, we had an excuse - or even a duty - to sample some of the flavors of Maine. 

Day 17.091: Magic 6-pack 6-pack

I’ve been subscribing to alcohol-free beer from Athletic Brewing (as a supplement to the occasional alcohol-containing beer). One thing that amazed me was discovering that this packaging - for six 6–packs of cans:

…is folded from a single piece of cardboard:

Even having seen and documented it, I still find it hard to fathom. Maybe I need a drink. 

Day 17.064: Pi; pie

We were expecting company for dinner tonight but sadly our guests had to cancel. Fortunately, Exile #2 managed to arrange to send some of the food their way and we still had some date-appropriate dessert for 3/14. 

Day 17.051: Welsh (cakes)

Exile #2 has been sporting this all day:

And we ate these this evening. 

It must be St. David’s Day. 

Day 16.166: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #440

Exile #2 writes...

It’s been a humid, sticky day and it looks like it’s going to be that way for some time. It’s the kind of weather that makes you want to cook outside to avoid heating up the house. This weekend, we stocked up on wood chips and managed to do just that.

Fortunately, this was not the first outing for the grill this season, so we had already gone through the slightly uncomfortable process of finding out who, if anyone, had managed to move into (or under) the grill during the winter. Exile #1 has previously disturbed a vole and, less pleasantly, a handful of wasps but this time only found evidence of chipmunk excavations.

We also decided that the weekend was perfect for a cocktail. A Margarita for Exile #1 and a fake one for me - yum! Cheers!

Day 16.056: Dinner; roll

After an all-day meeting with a mixture of Maine and Midwest colleagues, I was the only local to join them for dinner. As a result, after a very nice and generous meal, I managed to come home with a very nice looking lobster roll (the lobster roll meals that I didn’t eat but several others did, came with two this size.

Living in Maine has its moments for sure. 

Day 15.318: Thanksgiving #16

Happy Thanksgiving! We enjoyed some World Cup football, some hanging-out, some video gaming, some family TV, a special meal together:

Before we started on turkey etc. 

And, a while after the main course, some desserts:

Lemon pie, pumpkin pie and chocolate cheesecake (all made with goats milk dairy products)

Day 14.349: Christmas; pudding

We had a lovely Christmas day - gifts and food and watching the snow fall, games and conversations (including video calls with family in the UK) - and of course, setting the pudding on fire:

Day 14.292: It could be a coincidence...

...that Exile #2 made cherry Bakewells after she's been watching GBBO (or the Great British Baking Show as it's called over here), but let's just say I don't think it was.

I'm also not complaining.

Day 14.006: Roast in the bag

Due to a slightly strange turn of events we found ourselves with a turkey to eat last weekend. It was a Butterball turkey that you roast in the bag. It was quite strange:

but worked out fine - and we had turkey soup and turkey curry over the following couple of days from the leftovers.

Day 13.337: Mince pies and mulled wine?

If you insist!

Exile #2 made them, but I helped out by enjoying them!

Christmas does bring out the Britishness in the household.

Day 13.327: Crazy suet lady

Exile #2 has been asking at the supermarket for suet for a few weeks - we watched Stir-up Sunday come and go along with the first Sunday in Advent but finally this week, they could satisfy the crazy suet lady and Exile #2 could make the Christmas puddings.

Here's the raw mix, it's now been steamed but the great reveal will wait for three weeks or so!

Day 13.321: Thanksgiving

For many Americans today was about what could not happen - large family gatherings of people eating and talking together.  For us it was about what could happen - a Thanksgiving dinner together.

Last year we spent Thanksgiving on a plane to the UK on a slightly crazy but happy jaunt to celebrate my parents' 60th wedding anniversary and the previous year Exile #2 was in the UK for a less happy reason. So it has been a while since we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving all together.

Some Thanksgivings over the years have involved invitations to larger gatherings, but we have on several occasions spent it at home like this. Our turkey dinners are probably more than a little influenced by Christmas dinners from our pre-Exile days, but we did hit some classic Thanksgiving notes including dessert!

We also reflected on how much we have to be thankful for even in this surreal year.

We also managed a walk, some games and started watching a new series for our family TV viewing. It was a lovely day.

Day 13.309: Take-out hold-outs

We've never been a family to eat out much compared with US families like ours, but usually summer brings a few excuses - day trips, vacations, visitors. Not this year.

As far as any of us can recall, today was the first time we ordered take-out since lockdown started in March (and for some time before that). We had a gift card for Yeto's in Biddeford and we had a very nice meal from there as a result - with very efficient curbside pick-up.

Day 13.224: The all-day sandwich

Vacation day seven was another stay-at-home day. The kids have been talking all week about the plan to spend all day making a sandwich and - with another hot day with the threat of some storms, it seemed like a good day for that.

The sandwich was a pulled pork sandwich - and the all-day part was smoking a big hunk of pork.

I didn't quite nail it, but in the end the pork was satisfyingly smoky and very tasty and we ate it in sandwiches at a fairly normal dinner time, so it was a success overall.

Day 13.221: On the wild side

Those of us who exerted ourselves yesterday were content to have a stay-at-home day - as were those who didn't.

Exile #2 baked some gluten-free wild blueberry muffins inspired by the ones she discovered in Bar Harbor several years ago. We ate them with a side of blueberries - of course.

Maine wild blueberries are highly prized and for good reason, but they are not - strictly speaking - wild. Rather they are "low-bush" blueberries as opposed to their larger, less strongly flavored "high-bush" cousins. Quite a lot of those are grown in Maine too, but today was all about dessert on the wild side.

Apart from this, Exile #2 and I sang some songs and did some crosswords and four of us had a game of Pandemic (non-Legacy-style) and a couple of rounds of cornhole (Steven Universe style).

Day 13.211: Grilling

Exile #3 is home from dog-sitting - for just over two weeks before her move-in date for college. We grilled some burgers and accompanied them with some of the fruits of the garden - some tomato and some pickled cucumbers.

The burgers were these "wahlburgers" Exile #2 said she bought them because "it's what was available" and in these days of pandemic, that is totally believable - unless you know that "Blue Bloods" is one of her guilty pleasures for TV watching - but fortunately none of you knows that!