Tag Archives: maine

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Here a 🦀, there a 🦀.

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Every Thanksgiving I’m asked to bring my Crab Toasties appetizer. And since I rarely make them at home because my husband doesn’t like crabmeat… I’m happy to oblige.

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It’s a treat that takes a good chunk of 💰 seeing that fresh crabmeat is currently $30 a pound and I doubled the batch and needed two pounds, but holidays are made for splurging.

Use fresh crabmeat… do not, I repeat DO NOT! use canned… here’s the recipe.

It’s quick, easy to make and oh so yummy.

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** Crab Toasties **


1 pound cooked crabmeat
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup mozzarella cheese

1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 package Thomas English muffins

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Mix first 5 ingredients together

Quarter English muffins and arrange on cookie sheet.

Spread crab mixture on muffins heavily, sprinkle with paprika and parsley flakes if desired.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

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Easy peasy, nice and cheesy.

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper for quick clean up.

👍

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Royal River Grill House

15 Comments

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One of the few restaurants that rarely disappoints.

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Dead fish greeters.

What’s not to love?

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Their seasonal sangria is to die for.

PUMPKIN PATCH SANGRIA
white wine, vanilla vodka, chai latte,
cinnamon sticks, white cranberry juice,
topped with Downeast pumpkin cider

Mmm, mmm good.

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A tasty calamari appetizer with zucchini, onions and peppers with pepperoncini aioli for nibbles.

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For dinner we both had the same thing because it’s fabulous.

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PAN SEARED PANKO HADDOCK
almond compound buttered green beans,
confit garlic & parmigiano mashed potatoes,
crispy leeks, charred scallion aioli

If you’re in the neighborhood be sure to drop by.

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The next project…

36 Comments

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This is our living room.

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And as much as I shudder at the idea of another potential disaster, replacing this floor is the next project on my list.

The carpet is old and was put in by the previous owner in 2002.

It’s time.

We’ll be replacing the carpet in our bedrooms, but for the living/dining room and main hall we’re thinking luxury vinyl plank.

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Since I refuse to replace every baseboard, door and piece of window trim as well as the built in bookcases and fireplace mantle …. I’ll need to stay in that honey tone of wood.

Question is – do I go light?

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Or dark?

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I love online stores who have this app. Visuals are everything when choosing floors.

Our contractor says he might be able to install the floor in late December so I need to start shopping seriously now.

Armed with a broken piece of trim, my girlfriend and I hit a few floor retailers.

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Too grey.

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Too brown.

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The frustrating part? I came home with three samples that all looked different at home than they did in the store. Heck, they look different from room to room.

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Nope.

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Ugh. Even worse.

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This has the same hue, though it’s more rustic than I wanted. Pulling it up on the app, it looked muted.

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Though in this picture the color striations are more pronounced.

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I like the color…

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But I’m wondering if it’s too busy a pattern?

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The #1 reason you should not annoy your waitress at breakfast…

20 Comments

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My husband goes to breakfast with “ the boys” every Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. Three different restaurants, three different groups of “boys”. I don’t join him because they’re standing tall at the doors when the places open at 5:30am. That, and the fact they love to argue politics before the sun comes up is more than enough to keep me away.

The waitresses at all three restaurants know them, enjoy their business and treat them like family.

This is evidenced by one of the server’s response when a certain sarcastic fellow was giving her a hard time.

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No, it wasn’t my husband.

But he did take the picture of these anatomically correct eggs I’m sharing with you now.

Waitresses.

Ya gotta love ‘em.

🤣

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Because every now and then a girl needs a 7 page cocktail list with lunch.

10 Comments

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Replacement windows.

They’re enough to drive a girl to drink.

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And what better place than the Blind Pig with their extensive cocktail menu?

First up… a spiked pear margarita.

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In a word?

Yum.

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This isn’t one of my husband’s favorite places as the food is hit or miss, but the cocktails can’t be beat.

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Round two was the mad mojito, but I requested it without the coconut milk top.

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Mmm…. fresh strawberries and mint.

And thankfully the chicken tenders were amazing that day. Fresh and juicy with a nice crisp coating. Even the husband approved.

😉

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Thanksgiving fun.

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As I mentioned before, we spend Thanksgiving with close friends. So close we’re like family. The homeowner grew up with my husband, and his neighbor is my husband’s ex BIL.

A good time was had by all.

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Great minds think alike and there was twice as much Sangria.

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Though mine emptied more quickly.

😉

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My husband found the dart board before dinner and a close game of sharply pointed projectiles ensued.

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And then we all had to trot out to the garage to check out our friend’s new (old) toy.

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A fully restored 1972 Jeep.

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Later that afternoon it was time to carve the turkey and make the gravy.

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And sit down to feast.

I stopped taking pictures at this point and happily sampled a little bit of everything.

Hope your holiday was full of food and fun as well.

💕

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Ooh Babe-y.

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I love baseball.

Growing up in New Jersey, I was raised a Yankee fan and if my father’s office didn’t have a visiting client, we had free use of the firm’s box seats. Lots of good memories for me at that old stadium.

We moved to Maine in 1978 but I stayed loyal to the Yankees for decades… which did not endear me to New Englanders believe me. But by the turn of the millennium I gave in and switched my allegiance to the Red Sox.

I was a Sox fan in 2004 through Schilling’s bloody sock in the ALCS and the long awaited curse breaking World Series win. Good times.

It took us 86 years to break the curse of the Bambino after we sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1918. And growing up with that story from both sides, I always thought the Babe started his career with the Sox.

Turns out I was wrong.

He started with Baltimore.. and his rookie card is about to go up for auction.

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I have a handful of baseball cards, nothing special … just a few players I like. And I’ve never paid more than $20 for any of them. But boy, I sure wish I’d stumbled across this one in a box at a yard sale.

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My husband swears he had a Mickey Mantle rookie card as a kid. And he could have. The time frame would be right. But … are you ready?…. he says he put it in between the spokes of his bicycle tire to hear the nifty flapping noise.

$12.6 million.

Sigh.

🥴

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Finally!

29 Comments

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Thoroughly disgusted with everything about Hammond Lumber due to our ongoing window fiasco, we instructed our contractor never to buy anything from them for us again. This includes the back doors that poorly run excuse for a store couldn’t manage to find after 3 weeks of trying.

The mind boggles.

With those instructions… our poor, beleaguered, probably sick of us contractor went across town to another building supplier called Hancock Lumber and opened an account.

Within minutes they found the odd sized bedroom door with the decorative window we wanted in the correct size.

It’s a miracle!

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They actually laughed when told what an issue we’d been having with it.

And not only did they promptly order that door, but they had the full glass panel door with built in blind we need for the living room…the one that baffled the other place… on the display floor.

Another miracle!

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Our contractor was so thrilled he took photos and texted them to me.

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And that my friends is how it’s supposed to work.

You go to the store.

You tell them what you want.

They order it.

In a matter of minutes.

I’m not religious, but thank you Jesus!

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Oh, sure. We paid more than I expected…but the damn things will here in 10-14 days and with any luck will be installed before it snows.

Finally!

Some good news.

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The name says it all.

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It was a crisp fall day, so we headed down Route 1 south to Saco to try a brewery I’d been hearing about for years.

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It’s housed in a refurbished mill complex on the river…

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And the atmosphere was wonderful. Brick walls and rustic wood.

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Naturally my husband headed for the bar where we sat behind some fancy taps.

See who’s in the middle of them?

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Rex.

Bar dog extraordinaire.

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Being a brewery we had to try a flight of everything they had on tap.

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And I enjoyed them so much I ordered a strawberry basil vodka lemonade.

How can so many different beers be so bad? Lager, stout, ale, IPA, amber, brown. Seriously, they were all sub par.

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I really wanted to like this place, but it wasn’t meant to be.

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And while my crab cake appetizer with remoulade wasn’t bad…

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The husband hated his French onion soup so another pub will be added to our never return list.

I guess I should have paid more attention.

It was all right there in the name.

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🤣

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