Trip to Ogunquit and last few weeks

So my plan to blog more often kind of fell apart. The problem is free time, and also the amount of time that I spend on the computer at work. By the time I get home, the last thing I want to do is log on and stare at a screen some more.

Ogunquit was a beautiful, charming town. The only problem was the hills... for this flatlander who is quite pregnant, they were a lot for me!

This was the view on our beach day. We had pretty much the place to ourselves! The water was freezing, but Jay jumped in anyway. I did manage to get in to about halfway up my thighs, but my legs were numb when I got out. The water there was unbelievably clear and beautiful.

I got to pick my dinner!

This is a view of the coast a little farther south

Another beach view from Marginal Way

One day we went to get ice cream at the Scoop Deck, where you also get a free pickle if you're pregnant. Their ice cream cones were HUGE and Jay and I both ended up throwing them away halfway through. Yes, it's true. I wasted ice cream.

This was the place that we stayed, Unit 303 in the Lookout Condos. We got to sleep on a Queen sized Murphy Bed, which was pretty cool. However, I was very happy to get back to my King Size mattress at home.

I finally had to take off my wedding ring while we were on vacation. One of the days was pretty warm and my fingers were swelling up. A bought a cheap band from Amazon when I got home because my finger felt naked. It's 1.5 sizes larger that my wedding band, so hopefully I can wear it for the rest of my pregnancy. It is pretty loose right now.

The weather was rainy and kind of crappy the day before we left, which drew some surfers down to the water. We spent a few minutes trying to watch them, but after seeing surfers in Coolangatta, it was pretty disappointing. Obviously not on par with the surfers Down Under. 

Wedding selfie from a wedding in NoVA at Zion Springs. Although the food and music were great, the layout was horrible. They only had two unisex bathrooms available for all of their 150+ wedding guests. So I spent the bulk of the evening waiting in line for the restrooms. It was literally a 20+ minute wait each time. So that sucked. The dance floor area was also open to the elements and was a brick patio, which I found a bit odd. 

And my first attempt at making a cake from scratch went awesomely. My mother came over this weekend and for dessert, I made Julia Childs's chocolate & almond cake from her book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The recipe can be found here. Yes, it's true. Until this weekend, I had never made a cake from scratch before (except for a pumpkin cheesecake that I made probably ten years ago). I'll tell ya what, the recipe says that it serves 6-8 people, but there's not much of that cake left.

I have a little less than two months left of my pregnancy. I'm tired of being pregnant for sure and am in some ways eager to get it over with, but I'm also rather apprehensive about becoming a mother, oh, and that whole process of getting the baby out. That's rather terrifying. We are also not done the nursery, which we have finally decided to decorate in a Star Wars theme, partially because of some awesome posters we found on vacation. Originally we hadn't planned on painting, since the room is already blue... but it's not a very nice blue. We are going with the color baby elephant, same color as this laundry room post. I will post photos when it's all done.

That's all for now, I suppose. Perhaps I'll have some time this weekend for posting, since it's a long weekend!

Wordless Wednesday - Holiday Edition

Mouse is a big chicken, bad hens, more eggs, and happy birthday to Julia!

For starters, we are finally getting the egg production ramped up, hurray!

We got 4 eggs on Tuesday, 3 on Wednesday, and yesterday we had 2 eggs. I've heard that production can be a little spotty until it gets going. So far, everyone has been laying in the boxes, except for one sans-shell egg that I found outside. It's kinda gross, but I have to show you what it looks like:

It looks like it's actually two eggs, one with a yolk and one with just the egg white. Pretty nasty. Hopefully that will be the only one!

This was the collection from Tuesday. It looks like one of the girls (I think it's the black stars) is laying an egg that is almost a pinkish hue. That is going to be awesome once I get some Easter Eggers (Americauna or Araucana chickens)... I will have quite the lovely assortment of eggs. The other eggs are a light, creamy brown color. Ginger's eggs continue to get larger. They're about medium sized now. She's continued to lay almost every day since she began. I think she's only missed a few days. 

So far, we've collected nearly two dozen eggs in the past week. I hard boiled some last night and had them for breakfast today... they were delicious, but nearly impossible to peel. I've decided to put aside our pullet eggs to make deviled eggs for our party in October. I think they'll be a great conversation piece. And yes, they will still be good in October... eggs are good up to three months! The eggs that you buy in the grocery store are often already a month old. Older eggs are also better for boiling; they're easier to peel. 

Why are fresh eggs better?

Well, the naughty chickens that get into your garden and destroy your tomatoes! That is Queen Mab, perched on top of a tomato cage. We've probably lost a quarter of our crop to the chickens... not to mention that they've also eaten the tops off of the onions and garlic, destroyed the cucumbers and green beans and are now hard at work flattening my eggplant and zucchini. Naughty girls!!! I really need to find a way to keep them contained. We have a 4' high poultry fence AND we've clipped one of their wings. They can still fly. Ninja chickens.

I love them though... when I get home from work, they run up to greet me and they'll follow me around the yard. Of course, I always reward them with scratch or some kind of treat. They're oddly a lot like dogs, except that they don't sit and stay very well.

On to our handsome rooster Mouse... protector of the flock. We still have Dresden, but I can't wait for someone to respond to my ads. Dresden and Mouse both try to mate with the same hens at the same time, and I'm afraid my girls are going to get hurt. :(

He is definitely a gorgeous bird.

However, when it came to protecting the flock from a stray neighborhood kitten....

He was a big old CHICKEN!!!

This kitten was about 8 weeks old and a third of Mouse's size. First he puffed up and flapped his wings... then (above) he turned around and RAN! Of course the kitten gave chase, all he wanted to do was play with the feathery things! It was hysterical... I could not stop laughing. I wish that I'd had the chance to grab a real camera instead of using the camera on my cell phone.

And last but not least, I celebrated Julia Childs's 100th birthday by making Connecticut-Style Lobster Rolls for dinner. Simple and delicious!

Anytime I travel to CT or MA, I simply cannot leave until I've had a lobster roll... either Connecticut style (hot, with melted butter) or New England style (cold, mayo salad type).

Jay and I attended a wedding in the Berkshires last weekend, and I was determined to find a lobster roll while we were there. We arrived Friday night and by Sunday morning, I had resigned myself to not getting a lobster roll. So, thinking that it would at least be cheaper to buy lobster up there, we stopped at the local grocery store, first stopping at the deli counter to see if they sold cold lobster salad. They did not, so I proceeded to their seafood counter and bought 2 frozen whole lobsters (already cooked) for $20. Good deal accomplished. If I couldn't find the lobster rolls there, I would make them myself once I got home. We went over to the Great Barrington Bagel Co. for breakfast before we got on the road. I ordered an everything bagel with lox and red onion & chive cream cheese. We sat down to enjoy our bagels when I saw a huge sign:  LOBSTER ROLL SPECIAL.  You have got to be freaking KIDDING me. They sold them as a sandwich and also sold the filling by the pound. So I ordered a pound of New England lobster salad. 

I'm happy to report that all were delicious, although I think I'm going to have to give the edge to the CT style lobster roll. There is just something that makes me happy about hot buttered lobster, fresh, with nothing but chives and basic seasoning. Fresh food doesn't need a lot of other flavors to mask it... seasoning should enhance a dish, not overwhelm it.

To make 4 CT style lobster rolls, I did the following:

Clean meat out of two 1 1/4 lb lobsters, claw, knuckle, tail & whatever you can squeeze out of the legs

Roughly chop meat

Throw lobster in saucepan over low-medium heat (if cold - if hot lobster, melt butter first)

Butter 4 hot dog buns (I like using potato rolls) with 2-4T of butter

Lightly toast buttered buns under low broiler or in a toaster oven

Melt 4-6T butter in saucepan with lobster

Once heated through, toss with 1/2-1 T freshly snipped chives

Salt & pepper to taste

Throw it on a bun and ENJOY!