A few tips for successful summer grilling:

1. Clean the grates well either after each use or before beginning to grill.  They are easier to clean when still warm so you may want to get into the habit of brushing the grill just after you’ve finished cooking.  In either case, use a stiff bristled grill brush to do the job.
2. Gauging the heat is easy.  If you can hold your hands two inches above the grates for less than two seconds, your grill is on high heat, seven seconds for medium and somewhere in between for medium rare.  If you are building a charcoal fire or have a grill with more than one temperature gauge, give yourself an area with lesser heat so that you can transfer food if it starts to cook too fast.
3. There are several ways to insure your food doesn’t stick to the grill.  One is to clean it well as mentioned above.  Another is to oil it by lightly oiling a kitchen towel or paper towel and while holding the towel with tongs, rub it on the heated grate just before placing your grill items on.  The oil will burn off if you do this too early.  Also, if your food sticks to the grill, it may be that you need to leave it on longer before turning it.
4. Food safety is important when grilling.  When basting with a sauce, reserve some at the beginning and do not serve the sauce that has been touched with the basting brush.  When basting with a marinade, stop basting 5 minutes before you are done grilling.  When using any grill utensils that have touched raw meat or fish, either use a new utensil or clean the original one well with hot soapy water.  Do not transfer grilled food to the same platter that touched raw meat or fish, but again, either use a new one or clean it well.
5. For a comprehensive list of grilling techniques go to www.barbequen.com.

Grilled Chicken, Red Onions and Potatoes with Dill 

If you are like me, and can’t find the grill the first time you decide at 5:30 that you’ll be grilling, planning on dinner at 6 and then searching all over the shed and barn for the grill, finally finding it and don’t have a fresh canister because your husband used it for some such boat project in December and can’t find any more new canisters, then broiling is also a good option.

4 chicken breasts, trimmed (7 if you are planning on the salad recipe)
1 large red onion, sliced into 1 inch wedges
4 to 8 small or medium red-skinned potatoes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Mustard and Dill Marinade:
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire
2 tablespoons minced garlic or 3 cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup lightly packed fresh dill, minced

In a medium bowl whisk all of the marinade ingredients together.  Divide the marinade in half and place the chicken and 1/2 of the marinade in a zip lock.  Marinate for at least 15 minutes and up to 24 hours.  In a medium stockpot boil the potatoes in salted water until the potatoes are almost cooked through.  Gently drain the potatoes and cool completely.  Sliced the potatoes in half and toss gently with onions in the rest of the marinade.   Preheat grill to medium-high heat and grill the chicken, potatoes and onions until the chicken is cooked through and the potatoes and onions are tender.  About 5-8 minutes each side for the chicken.  The chicken will take the most time and the potatoes the least.  Salt and pepper while on the grill.  Remove from heat and let the chicken sit covered for 5 minutes before serving.  To broil instead, heat broiler on high heat and place chicken breasts, potatoes and onions on broiler pan 4 inches from heat.  Broil for 4-6 mi

nutes each side for chicken and remove potatoes and onions when they are tender inside and dark golden on the edges.

Serves 4

Chicken and Asparagus Salad with Dill

This is a great recipe to use with the leftovers.  Plan on extra chicken and add any leftover potatoes or onions if you wish.

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, lightly packed
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill, lightly packed
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 bunch asparagus, ends removed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
1/2 half head of Romaine lettuce, chopped and cleaned
juice from 1/2 lemon
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a small bowl, whisk parsley, dill, lemon juice, mayonnaise and Worcestershire.  Heat a medium sized skillet over medium high heat.  Add the olive oil and then the asparagus.  Cook the asparagus until almost tender and add the minced garlic.  Cook for another 30 seconds to one minute.  Combine asparagus with the chicken and dressing and chill.  Dress the lettuce leaves with the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Serve the chicken salad on a bed of the dressed lettuce.

Serves 4-6

Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches

There are so many chocolate chip cookie recipes out there, but I’ve tested quite a few and this one is really good.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups dark chocolate, cut into chunks
6 to 7 cups vanilla ice cream approximately, softened

Garnish:
Chocolate or rainbow sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350°.  In a medium bowl, cream together the sugars and butter.  Add the eggs one at a time until the mixture is fluffy.  Add the vanilla.  Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt and add to the creamed mixture.  Add the chocolate and stir only until mixed.  Using an ice cream scoop or a spoon, scoop 1/4 cup of dough into a ball and place six balls per baking sheet.  Bake for 9-10 minutes or until the edges are golden.   When the cookies have cooled, scoop the softened ice cream onto the bottom of a cookie and top with another.  Roll in the sprinkles and wrap in waxed paper.  Repeat with the rest of the cookies.  Freeze for at least 30 minutes.

Makes 12-14 cookies or 6-7 sandwiches

From Windjammer News /It’s All About the Food™: May 2011
Copyright © 2006 Baggywrinkle Publishing, Anne Mahle
For more recipes from Chef Annie visit her food blog at www.AtHomeAtSea.com

When Captains Jon & Annie took over stewardship of the Schooner J&E Riggin in winter of 1997/1998, as part of the package of boat and business, they inherited a one page website; that winter they upgraded to a multi-page site. A lot had changed on the web since 1989. Even 10 years later changes were still happening as travelers researched their vacations more online and less in traditional print – and it hasn’t slowed down since.

It was 7 years before the website would be worked on again. With the launch of a new and updated website in 2005 they were looking good on the web.

It’s now 6 years later. Looking back at the first website we laugh at how outdated it looks. Websites have come a long way since they first started appearing in the early ’90′s. As we went into this project we took years of notes, comments and recommendations into consideration. We wanted to make something functional, easy to navigate – a website that showcased the historic schooner, delectable food, breathtaking scenery and the camaraderie that is a huge part of our windjammer vacations. We hope you find this new site both helpful and easy to use.

What we love most about this site, it’s not just one thing. We love that every photo on the site was taken by one of our passengers; we love reading all the letters and emails you send us with comments and compliments about your sailing vacation and that now line the right side of every web page; we love the new colors reflect the warm feeling we get when you step aboard; and we love that we’re able to keep doing what we’re doing because you come back to sail with us time and again and recommend us to your friends and family (over 65% of you every year)!

So go have a look at the new Maine Windjammer website and let us know what you think.

If you have more than 5 photos you’d like to send us, please mail us a disk or thumb drive. (They also need to be fairly big as they may go into our brochure (yep we’re revamping too!)

We are also looking for your input.

• What is our site lacking that would be helpful to have available at the click of a button (besides a boat-cooked meal from Chef Annie?)
• When you come to Maine to sail with us where do you like to stay?
• Where do you like to visit? Is it different every time or do you have a favorite spot?
• Where do you like to eat?

From Boston up to Bar Harbor we are looking for your picks to share with your fellow shipmates!

Email us and share your thoughts and recommendations!

Tagged: Ann-Marie Trapani, Bob Trapani, Maine photographer, Maine winter photographs, winter in maine ]]> http://mainesailsblog.com/2011/03/03/winter-in-maine-part-2/feed/ 0 Lady E Sea Smoke Lobster Boats BobTrapani Wood Duck Napping in the snow Bob Trapani Snow Berries Ann-Marie Trapani Marshall Point Light in a snow storm Ann-Marie Trapani http://mainesailsblog.com/2011/02/28/winter-in-maine-part-1/ http://mainesailsblog.com/2011/02/28/winter-in-maine-part-1/#comments Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:30:55 +0000 J&E Riggin http://mainesailsblog.com/?p=1359 ]]> If you are a subscriber to our newsletter then you saw our segment on Winter in Maine. I wish I’d had more space in the newsletter to share all the photographs that we wanted to share with you. Since we didn’t we thought why not here! So for your viewing pleasure this post and the next will feature more photos from our contributing photographers Brian Willson and Bob & Anne-Marie Trapani.

For more images by Brian Willson visit his website Bird Report.
All of Brian’s photos are made from his daily walks on the Beech Hill Preserve in Rockport.

While I’m not going to spend time talking about how to use store bought dressing or packaged products in your meals, I also think it’s fine if your refrigerator door sports a few bottles of store bought dressing.  It’s just that for the purposes of this post, I don’t want to teach you how to use them.  I’d rather teach you how to do it right and then have you decide whether to take a shortcut or not.  I’d rather you use fresh vegetables from a farm stand, but if you happen to use frozen green beans instead, they are still green and good for you.

We want dinner to be easy and healthy and yet, as a culture, our buying choices show that we are willing to sacrifice healthy for the easy and the quick – the large frozen food sections in the grocery store and the fast food joints that pop up all over our communities are a testament to that.  I’m here to say that it doesn’t have to be hard and it doesn’t have to cost a lot to feed your family healthy, easy food.  You do, however, need to be willing to give it some attention before 5:30 or 6:00 rolls around and your family (and you) are tired and hungry.  You do need to plan just the tiniest bit so you have the ingredients on hand to make your healthy dinner.  As far as budget choices go, I’d bet that it doesn’t cost any more to buy fresh vegetables, dairy and protein as it does to buy Lean Cuisine, Stouffers or fast food burgers.

I also hear often enough that buying fresh vegetables and proteins (I call this shopping the perimeter of the grocery store) is more expensive than fast food, but I’m not convinced that this is actually true.  If a family of four spends $150 per week on groceries from the perimeter of the store, we’ve got healthy and not too expensive.  Compare that to, just for sake of argument, seven nights of $20 pizza or McDonald’s.  That’s $140 without eating breakfast, lunch or a snack.  I’ll grant you that getting out of the grocery store for less than $200 per week takes planning and focus, but I know it’s possible as it happens every week in my house.

This meal is one that you should be able to get on the table in less than 45 minutes.  Start with the risotto and once that’s going, move on to the shrimp.  Toss a salad and you are good to go.  If it seems to rich for your family’s taste, you can omit the butter at the end of the shrimp recipe.

Maine Shrimp with Lemon and Capers

1 pound Maine shrimp
4 tablespoons minced garlic (half for marinade and half for saute)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup capers
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup white wine
2 tablespoons butter

In a medium-sized bowl, combine gently with your hands the shrimp, 2 teaspoons minced garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the marinated shrimp.  Sauté for 4 minutes or until one side of the shrimp turns pink.  Toss or stir with a wooden spoon and add the capers, white wine and lemon juice.  Bring to a boil and cook until the shrimp is almost all pink.  Remove from heat and add the butter.  Swirling the pan to incorporate or using a wooden spoon.

Serve immediately with risotto.

Serves 4-6

Parsley Risotto

4 tablespoons butter, 1/2 stick
1/2 cup diced onion
2 cups Arborio rice
4 to 5 cups low-salt chicken stock
1/8 teaspoon salt
pinch of white pepper
1/4 cup minced flat leaf parsley
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the onions and sauté until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes.  If the onions begin to brown, reduce heat.  When the onions are done, add the rice and stir for one minute.  Add the salt, pepper and 1 cup of the stock and stir.  Continue to add the stock, one cup at a time until it is all incorporated, stirring frequently.  The rice is done when the liquid is completely incorporated and the grains are just the tiniest bit al dente in the center.  Add all of the parsley and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, reserving the second 1/2 cup for garnishing at the table.  Serve immediately.

Serves 4-6

From Windjammer News /It’s All About the Food™: February 2011
Copyright © 2008 Baggywrinkle Publishing, Anne Mahle
For more recipes from Chef Annie visit her food blog at www.AtHomeAtSea.com

In recent weeks Captain Jon has started on a few projects.

In the barn Cap has started sanding and staining the forward skylight and adding window bars.

The forward skylight that's been sanded down. Cap made these rails to cover the glass area for an extra layer of protection.

What happens to the oak when water and iron seep in around the glass window.

After bleaching three times and a round of and Oxy-type cleaner

Cleaned up and with a fresh coat of varnish

On the boat he has started the process of adding in a deck beam on either side of the main mast (in front of cabin 9 and 11) to give it more support. In the photo above the blocks that you see below the skylight are the new sections of deck beam that will recieve a coat of paint and then be placed as additional mast support.

While Captain Jon is busy in the barn and on the boat, Annie and Elizabeth are busy in the office working on marketing, reservations, testing recipes, and writing – lots of writing. And then there is family life.

For as long as I can remember when it has frozen over it’s only been in the inner harbor. I remember my grandfather sharing a story about how one year the harbor froze almost the entire way over to Vinalhaven. Now my grandfather is quite the wonderful story teller so I haven’t any idea if that is true or not, but in a book about the history of Rockland and Thomaston there is an expert that reads:

1849 – The year began with fine sleighing and severe weather; the harbor, Feb. 22; being frozen over further than the eye could see.

This year in our area of Lermond Cove the ocean did freeze. There area closest to the shore froze the most and tapered off as you got closer to the channel.

While this photo doesn’t show you that it’s snowing at a good pace its good we snapped it when we did because 2 hours later we could hardly see the shed and deck – white out! And now the yard is perfect for snowshoeing!

To get the search for underwriters started Annie has been making the press rounds including a cooking demo making Lobster & Mushroom Mac & Cheese on 207, a news magazine show produced the local NBC station, and then a radio interview with Irwin Gratz on MPBN Morning Edition.

If you haven’t seen the trailers for The Galley Chef be sure to check them out.

Photo by Greg Roscoe