September 2015

Where’s the beef? The ultimate roast beef for grilling or roasting

September 9, 2015 / / Uncategorized

There was no dilemma in this omnivore’s delight: Roast beef is the ultimate joy, a universal fondness for red meat!

Back when my blog The Golden Dish appeared on Mainetoday.com I ran a series on beef, which delved into the return of the classic butcher shop, where to buy the best beef, and which, according to area butchers, was the best cut of beef to buy for roasting.  Readers are still clicking on those articles in amazing numbers.

So I’ve decided to follow my own advice and to offer here the roast that I favored the most. It wasn’t one of the more traditional cuts like tenderloin, prime rib or various cuts of round, rump or strip.  Instead it’s a cut that I devised when I asked the butcher at Bisson’s in Topsham to carve a roast out of a top sirloin.

Grill the meat to get great outer char

Grill the meat to get great outer char

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Summer’s finale: a labor day odyssey on North Haven Island and Casco Bay Dinner Cruise

September 7, 2015 / / Baking & Desserts, Discoveries, Mains, Restaurants, Starters, Travel

By all accounts it was a booming summer season in Maine with the state’s restaurants, hotels, waterways, mountains and coastal plains chock-a-block with the lolling tourist brigade.  I chose to end the summer’s calendar season over Labor Day weekend in the peaceful hamlets of North Haven Island where this coastal idyll didn’t escape the summer crowds basking in perfect weather.

Clockwise, Brown's Wharf, Ames point, picking corn at Foggy Meadows Farm, Main Street

Clockwise, Brown’s  Coal Wharf, Ames point, picking corn at Foggy Meadows Farm, Main Street

Pulpit Harbor was crammed with boaters, both local and summer residents.  The little village of North Haven was a bustle, too.  Of course all things being relative, you could still  hear a pin drop as the typical quiet of island life prevailed beautifully, with pristine weather–a balmy humidity-free 75 degrees.

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Bet on Boda for great food–if they’re up to snuff

September 4, 2015 / / Restaurants

Sometimes it depends on the dish you choose from a restaurant menu that makes or breaks the meal, and that was my recent experience at Boda, still one of the most popular Asian restaurants in the Longfellow Square dining loop.

Boda's bar captures a lively crowd from 20-somethings on up

Boda’s bar captures a lively crowd from 20-somethings on up

Getting in to this dining darling is not always easy as lines form out the door every night of the week.  When I arrived on Tuesday night there were plenty of parking spaces in the adjoining Joe’s parking area reserved for the restaurant.  But that belied the activity within. The place was packed.  (Ponder this: what happens  when the parking lot behind Joe’s is rehabbed into a high-rise rental and parking is lost?)

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End-of-summer supper on the terrace: A barbecue maven’s delights

September 2, 2015 / / Baking & Desserts, Mains, Recipes, Starters

This may not be the last time I’ll serve dinner on the terrace with a meal cooked almost entirely on my fire-pit style barbecue with its smoking woods and hardwoods aglow, giving off the aromas of fruit woods and real charcoal. But it turned out to be the essential summer meal, a great backyard barbecue with a menu of stick-to-the-ribs goodness.

It was a perfect night for alfresco dining

It was a perfect night for alfresco dining

With drinks I served guacamole from a recipe I’ve made for years adapted from cookbook author Rick Bayless.

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