Delicious food and Maine adventures!

There have been quite a few blog-worthy moments happening to me lately, so I'm not waiting any longer.  First of all, I ran the Boston Marathon a week ago today with some of my friends (and about 27,000 others!) and will write a blog about that very soon.  I'm still letting some thoughts percolate.
  

It was actually the 115th marathon

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon (literally, using the website) a recipe for sweet potato gnocchi with a gouda cream sauce.  Three thoughts popped into my head after I wiped the drool off of my chin-1) I want to make this. 2) I don't have a kitchen and 3) One of only two times I've ever seen my mother have trouble making something in the kitchen was when she tried to make gnocchi.  The other time I remember not being impressed with something my mom made was some Asian dish with rice and shrimp that just turned out horribly.  This is not me bashing my mom, this is me saying that literally there are only two times I can remember my mom not being able to create a masterpiece in the kitchen.  Lisa is a saint and routinely serves dishes that leave people stuffed yet wanting more all at the same time.

The first two thoughts that popped into my head were both easily resolved.  Luckily for me, my great friend from home, Emilie Bell, moved out to Boston after spending freshman year at Mizzou.  She is a wonderful cook and is always up for a new creation.  I made my way over to her spacious, North End apartment.  She's already blogged about this experience on her site which you can get to by clicking here.  I took the easy way out and waited until she did the hard work so I could just link to it.  Thanks Emilie!

Her apartment isn't actually spacious

This would not be the end of our adventures together as we had a camping trip to Maine planned for the weekend.  I went back over to the apartment Friday night so Emilie, Kaston, and I could get an early start to Acadia National Park.

  

 It was a very gray and rainy day in

as we    to Maine.

We had been checking the weather and thought the rain would be letting up.  That didn't happen.  It rained the whole way to Maine.  I checked the weather on my phone to see if the rain would be leaving anytime soon, and the weather report for where we were said it was only "cloudy and windy."  Tell that to the rain that was pounding down all around us.  After throwing the weather report out the window (figure of speech) the three of us went to go do what we do best, eat.  We ended up at a place called Geddy's right by the water.  While waiting for our food Emilie spent most of her time 

While Kaston and I took pictures of his

I only had a sip.

                              

Seafood was the obvious choice for me and I quickly decided upon an oldie but a goodie- fish 'n chips.

Rest be assured, that nasty tartar sauce stayed in its plastic container and the golden brown food was smothered in malt vinegar.  It was a great meal and left me quite happy.  Over lunch we came to the decision that camping would be miserable and we might as well just get a motel room for the night.  Emilie and Kaston had spent the night in Bar Harbor before, so they knew the sketchiest place in town.  Unfortunately this motel had been shut down and boarded up since the time they stayed there, so we had to find the second sketchiest place in town.  Aurora Inn provided us with exactly what we needed- a room to sleep in.  We spent the night watching Modern Marvels, taking a break to go get sweets (I had lobster ice cream), and talking with a Dutch couple that was staying in the room next to us.

I was a little bit groggy when Emilie woke me up the next morning at 9, but I got myself and my sleeping bag into the car as we headed into Acadia to cook breakfast.  The weather was beautiful on Sunday.

We went to Blackwoods Campground to cook our breakfast burritos.  We just threw a couple of eggs in a plastic bag with a dash of cream, a pinch of yellow peppers, and a handful of cheese.  After massaging all of the ingredients together, we just plopped the baggies into a pot of boiling water and waited 10-15 minutes for it to cook.  This gem of a recipe goes all the way back to my Boy Scout days (bring on the jokes, haters).  

The orange pot was where we boiled the eggs and we boiled water in the red pot to pour into the Frech press for our coffee.  Who says you can't eat well when camping?

We had planned on cooking dinner Saturday night, so we still had chicken teriyaki in our cooler and decided that we might as well gorge ourselves and go ahead and cook the chicken, too.  Kaston started a wonderful fire that had the grill sizzling in no time as the chicken breasts cooked.

  

Dig in!

             

Emilie's mom, Marcia, had sent out some s'mores supplies and even though we didn't come close to eating all the chicken, all of us had room for a couple of roasted mallows.

I find this picture hilarious.  It appears as if there is just a pile of smoking sticks that Emilie is trying to roast her marshmallow on.  I promise there was an actual fire at some point.

After packing up while groaning under the weight of two meals and dessert (gluttony?) we drove to Otter Cliff Point and had some amazing views from the cliffs.

He's so far down!

                                      

From here we hiked along a coastal trail enjoying spectacular views of the coast and ending up at a spot where huge chunks of granite made up the coast and the waves came crashing over them to make a tremendous sight.

Kaston couldn't dodge all the waves and ended up getting wet.

By the time we walked back to the car we decided it was best to depart Maine and head for home so we wouldn't get back too late.  It was a wonderful weekend with some wonderful people!

You have homemade blackberry cobbler?! I'll have some with ice cream, please.

Well this post is long overdue and a lot of it isn't that relevant anymore but there are definitely some meals I need to blog about. As far as my adventures in Charleston, after the first day I mainly just walked around the city during the day and ate at night. I went to mass at the cathedral on Ash Wednesday, went to the Old Slave Mart Museum on Thursday, and took a nap in the sunshine on Friday.

Jestine's Kitchen is a gem of a restaurant I stumbled upon.  It's a real life version on the Cracker Barrel.  Yes, I know Cracker Barrel's are obviously real, but Jestine's feels like you're walking into a real person's kitchen, not a movie set.  Jestine's embodies everything that is right about Southern hospitality; the delicious food, welcoming atmosphere, and cute waitress.   Jestine was the daughter of a Native American mother and a freed slave father. She died at the ripe old age of 102 and I'm convinced she lasted so long because she ate such delicious

and guzzled gallons of

 (sweet tea!)

The blue plate special that day was a whopping portion of shrimp creole.  After polishing that off I still managed to have room for some of that blackberry cobbler.







Jestine's was a late lunch for me so I didn't have any dinner, but did stop back by Manza for a little late night snack of gelato.

      Without a doubt my favorite part of the city of Charleston are its buildings.  They are very old and have a hint of Spanish influence in the architecture.  I was more than satisfied with meandering the streets and thinking about the many stories that had been told on the porches that every building had.



On Thursday I walked down the historic, cobblestone Chalmers St. to get to the Old Slave Mart Museum.  Even though it was $7, I knew that if my mom would have been there she would have gone for sure, so I did it for her sake.  It was a quite interesting place.  Turns out the most expensive slaves were sold for around an equivalent of $40,000 in today's dollar.  That night I stopped by Hyman's again for some delicious

After a shower I headed to a restaurant called Anson's that I had scoped out earlier in the day (always thinking ahead).  I started off my dining experience by enjoying a crispy risotto in a cream sauce.  My main course-crispy flounder-came highly recommended from the two cougars sitting next to me.

                                                              

My conversation with the creeping cougars eventually revealed that one of the ladies was the owner of the establishment, and her more...outgoing friend blabbed about her ex-boyfriend who was a lawyer and asked me to show her how to use her blackberry.  It was kind of an odd night.

The following day was my last in Charleston and I spent it napping in the sunlight at the battery and watching the dolphins hat the Harbor Park.

That night my friends Emilie and Kaston drove in to town and we went to Justine's together and enjoyed some hookah down by the Old Market before they were kind enough to drop me off at the train station to begin my trek home.  This blog has been sitting unpublished for weeks now so I'm sure there are things I've forgotten, which is probably a good thing.