Just got this in my inbox yesterday:

Portland, Maine — On Friday, October 24, at 6:00 p.m., Eve’s at the Garden will present its fourth annual “Caviar Dinner,” featuring exclusive caviars from Portland, Maine’s renowned Browne Trading Company. This multi-course dinner will showcase a variety of caviars including American spoonbill, Calvisius Italian White Sturgeon and Descieta Osetra caviar in a meal paired with select wines and prepared by Jeff Landry, Executive Chef at Eve’s. Tickets are $95 per person, including tax and gratuity, and are available by calling (207) 775-9090.

A highlight of the evening is an introduction to the caviars, led by Rod Browne Mitchell, caviar connoisseur and owner of Browne Trading Company. This event is perfect for caviar aficionados and curious “foodies” wanting to learn more about this luxurious culinary treat. Browne Trading Company has long been recognized as one of the leaders in selecting the world’s best caviars; guests at the dinner will have an opportunity to learn about the unique characteristics of caviar while sampling a range of some of the finest caviars available.

Portland Harbor Hotel has set aside a block of luxury rooms for the evening for guests interested in spending the night. When calling to purchase tickets to the “Caviar Dinner,” interested parties should inquire about room options and availability with the reservationist.

That would be a few days after our wedding anniversary, so we are strongly thinking of going to this event. If you’ve never been to the Portland Harbor Hotel, you should at least stop in for a drink and a peep around. We were there once when they had ice sculptures in the courtyard and it was awesome. They had a cocktail event indoors, and heaters out in the courtyard so people could stay warm while gandering at the beautiful ice sculptures.

What made it even awesomer was the array of goodies they offered during the event, including a chocolate fountain. I know they had lots of other great food there, but the chocolate fountain sticks out in my mind because, well, it’s a continuous supply of chocolate. I love waterfalls and fountains and I love chocolate, so whoever invented these things is #1 in my book.

If you can’t get to the caviar dinner, it’s the same weekend as Harvest on the Harbor, and there are tons of other great foodie events going on. I’m already salivating just thinking about Discovering New England’s Artisanal Cheeses, presented by Vincent Maniaci of The Cheese Iron, which is just down the way apiece in Scarborough, right on Route One. We have been to The Cheese Iron and a very friendly young man, maybe it was Vincent, led us through a cheese tasting and helped us select a cheese for our picnic. We also picked up a bottle of red and a loaf of bread, and I seem to recall that they had chocolate at The Cheese Iron as well. Hrm. I’ll have to go back and look, purely for research purposes, of course. Anyway, they are fine and knowledgeable folks down there, so pay them a visit and check out all the cool stuff at their store.

And hit up Browne Trading Company on Commercial Street while you’re at it, the staff there is also very pleasant and very helpful, and aside from their fish and seafood, they have a great selection of specialty foods, fine wines, and of course, caviar. Hey if Browne’s is good enough for Emeril, it’s good enough for me. My son met Emeril at a book signing once (of course, he said “bam!” to Emeril), and he is a future chef in training. So far he’s got cheesecake, perfect burgers and steak on the grill, and a few other things in his cooking repertoire, not bad for a teenager, huh?

By the way, some of the events at Harvest on the Harbor go up in price after a certain date, so make sure you purchase your tix in advance. You can get a pass to all the events for $350, and it’s well worth it for 3 days of food-a-licious tastings and info, including the opportunity to attend a taping of The Chef’s Kitchen, offered three times on Friday, October 24th. Some events are simultaneous, so you’ll need to choose from a few options when ordering, which can be done via the website.

Today I’ll be making my Whoopie Pies for Operation Baking GALS (Give A Little Support). I was gonna make them on Monday but the maintenance folk were here redoing some electrical outlets. One of them was the kitchen outlet where I plug my mixer in, so I decided to do my baking today, as hubby was off yesterday, so I wanted to spend time with him before he headed back to his office today to see clients. We took a walk around Mackworth Island and it was gorgeous as usual. So hold onto your hats, sailors, them whoopie pies are a-coming your way soon!

This past Spring, I decided to plant some seeds in pots to liven up the front porch. I had picked up a bunch of 10 cent packs at Rite Aid, including some morning glories.

I planted the seeds amongst some pansies, in a few round pots, and a rectangular flower box that I set on brackets on the porch railing. One sprouted in a round pot on the porch and I trained the vine up onto a porch column. The morning glories in the flower box also sprouted, and reached for anything they could find, eventually grabbing the broom handle and using it as a catalyst for getting up into the pot of dark pink impatiens hanging from a hook. I sometimes sit on a chair in the corner near the railing, and they were even reaching for me a few times. It’s starting to remind me of the plant from Little Shop of Horrors:

Here it is up near the hanging pot of impatiens:

This is the plant that I trained to grow up the column, using a piece of purple yarn from a crocheting project that I started 2 years ago:

Yeah, that’s the ceiling of the porch. Here’s another shot of the same plant:

Meanwhile, down below, in the flower box, a few of the many pansies I planted are still plugging away:

I have some citrus marigold that I planted from seed in my clay strawberry pot, and it’s just about to blossom, finally! You can see it to the left of my basil (which has been heavily harvested this past week so that’s why it looks sparse):

And I have tons and tons of lemon balm, which grows like a weed because it’s a member of the mint family. You can use it for tea, and probably with fish. It really does have a strong lemon scent:

That’s a spearmint plant in the upper left, and more lemon balm in another pot in the lower left. My Provence lavender plant died due to all the rain. I kept heaving the pots up onto the porch every time it rained, and uh, guess I forgot a few times and it didn’t like being soggy. I picked up a thyme plant at Hannaford for $1.99 last week, so I’m going to dig out the lavender and put the thyme in its place. And hope we don’t get another deluge. I suspect thyme won’t like too much rain just as the lavender didn’t.

Maybe next year I’ll try growing some rosemary. I think I planted some seeds and they never took off, so I’ll look for plants at the garden store. I had a rosemary plant once, it was shaped to looked like a mini Christmas tree, but it didn’t like being inside my old apartment and either got watered too much or not enough. It croaked by February of that year, so I’ve been afraid of growing rosemary ever since. Outdoor plants I can manage (with the exception of the lavender), but I always seem to kill indoor plants.

Chloe contributed to the demise of my indoor mint plant last year. I had it in my kitchen, hanging near eye level with an extender hook. That way I could see if it needed water. One day I walked into the kitchen to see him on his hind legs, gleefully shredding the stems, which were hanging over the side of the pot. But of course, they were “cat toys,” and catnip is also a mint cousin, so no doubt it was like cat crack to him.

I removed the extender hook and the plant was safely out of reach. And I promptly forgot it was there because it was so high overhead. One day I saw little dry tan leaves littering my kitchen floor. I looked up to see a dead dried out mint plant. No amount of water brought it back: it’s really hard to kill off a mint plant, but I had managed it.

My neighbor asked me if I am going to bring my plants inside for the winter. Uh, no I am not. I am going to treat this like an outdoor garden, harvest what I can, and either dump them or give them away before we get a hard frost. Anyone want some pots of herbs for the winter? I’m not giving away my strawberry pot, but the other ones are up for grabs come October. Preferably to a good home without a plant-shredding cat.

Then look no further than Sengchai Thai. Food so good I had to podcast about it.

You can listen here: sengchaithai

The website I gave at the end, MaineTakeOut.com, can be a bit confusing, so here’s a direct link to Sengchai Thai’s menu page.

Hope you enjoy the addition of podcasting to my blog! Now that I’ve figured out the basics of recording and converting to MP3, maybe I can figure out how to add music and other things to the podcasts to enhance them. I’m using Garageband because Audacity refuses to open on this machine, so any Garageband tips welcome!

Okay, now I’m hungry after talking about food. Gotta grab some lunch. Enjoy!

Robert and I were invited to a pizza party last night, by our good friend and author, Bob. Bob knows his stuff when it comes to pizza. He had the dough rising and all the toppings set out, including his secret-recipe Sicilian homemade sauce. The first thing we did was take in the view of Casco Bay from the balcony:

Then Bob brought out a gutsy bottle of red table wine. I got down the glasses and poured, while he started preparing the dough:

We each had a turn or two at topping the pizzas. First was a drizzle of olive oil, then some of Bob’s special sauce. Then some mozzarella, and a selection of fresh veggies. I’d brought some fresh basil from my herb garden, so that went on too. Mushrooms, baby zucchini, olives, onion, even a bit of anchovy on one of them. Each pizza was different, but all were equally delicious.

Bob showed me how to slide the pizza onto the pizza stone in the oven and pull back the peel with a snap of the wrist. I did fine, except for the part where I let the peel hang down to the side and spilled cornmeal all over Bob’s clean kitchen floor (sorry, Bob, but that oven was hot and I was happy just to get it on the stone without mishap).

Then he showed us his trick for keeping the crust from getting soggy: remove the pizza onto a mesh tray and set it on two old chopsticks atop a kitchen towel, to catch the crumbs. Let it cool for a minute, then slice it up, and mangia! to your heart’s delight.

Here’s one of our creations, just before slicing:

We had a great time, and Bob sent us home with some leftover balls of dough, which I put in the freezer for future use. Maybe next time I’ll be able to wheedle his sauce recipe out of him!

A relative our ours was passing through town last night and asked us to choose a restaurant where we could have a wonderful dining experience. We chose Vignola in the Old Port, sure to satisfy any culinary desire to the hilt.

The evening started grandly, with a tour of the city, first the Eastern Prom overlooking Casco Bay, dotted with white sailboats and the occasional 3-masted schooner. Then down, around, and up to the Western Prom, with its fine old homes and views of the White Mountains in the distance. We descended to Commercial Street, and my husband planned to drop us off while he searched for a parking spot. Lo and behold, someone pulled out of a spot directly across from Vignola, which is tucked away in an old brick building on Dana Street. Ivy graces its walls, and large windows allow for a view of the street and activities.

The chandeliers are made of old wine bottles, which you don’t realize upon first glance. Lit with tiny bulbs, the unusual but elegant clusters provide the perfect ambient lighting over the tables. We had a table in the corner by the window, our favorite. The bench is cushy and it commands a view of the entire restaurant and the cobblestoned street below. People stop to examine the menu posted outside and peer up through the window, as if trying to guess whether or not it’s a good place to eat. Trust me, Vignola is not only good, it’s one of the best in the Old Port. Come on in, you won’t be disappointed.

We started with a flight of wines, red for myself and my husband and white for our relative. My husband chose the Kobe Beef Tartare, with fresh lemon, pecorino cheese, olive oil, and crostini, while our guest and I both had Bangs Island mussels, grilled scallion butter, white wine, crostini, and extra virgin olive oil. The sauce with the mussels was exquisite, and we both soaked some of it up with the crostini and what was left of our bread.

The entree menu was difficult to choose from. Should I have the Grilled Maine lobster, with fennel, marinated tomates, farm lettuce, citrus olive oil, or the Handmade Fettucini with pork in a delicate cream sauce? In the end, I chose Flat Iron Pork with herbed polenta and grilled summer vegetables. It was superb. We had a Spanish red with our meal, my companions both chosing the Handmade Fettucini, which they enjoyed immensely.

For dessert, the men had Meringa di Limone: toasted Lemon Meringue Pie, Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream, Sweet Plums. I was tempted to follow suit, but finally chose a ruby port accompanied by the Crostata: a Warm Black Plum Tart, topped with Cinnamon Streusal, and Fresh Ginger Gelato. Amazing. Dreams of sugared plums still dance in my head.

You can see a sampling of the menu here, just be aware that it changes based on what’s in season; however, anything you eat at Vignola will be sure to satisfy even the most demanding palate. How they do it and still keep the prices reasonable is beyond me. Most of the entrees were around $20 or under, and the quality of the food makes it a real value. The service is impeccable, waitstaff arriving as if on cue to remove used dishes, but as our companion said, “no one hovers, which I like.” When we arrived a little early, our table was set up within 60 seconds and we were seated right away. I only wish I’d written down the wines we had. My husband is the sommelier of the family, so he chose and we simply enjoyed, but I highly doubt there are any bad wines on Vignola’s menu.

Vignola serves dinner nightly from 5:00 p.m. to midnight, and is located at 10 Dana Street in Portland. Reservations are recommended. Call (207) 772-1330. Saturday and Sunday brunch are served from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

A friend of mine, also a writer, loaned me a book. It’s called “Writing Life Stories, How to Make Memories into Memoirs, Ideas into Essays, and Life into Literature,” by Bill Roorbach. Roorbach lives in Maine, and originally hails from Chicago, grew up in Boston and taught college in Ohio. I grew up in New England and moved to Chicago for twenty-some-odd years. All the good writers end up in Maine.

This book is really good for me, as I’ve been out of college since 1982, with a few creative writing courses here and here, but they assume you know basic grammar. Well, I remember English Composition at the University of Maine at Orono. But I don’t remember the mechanics of what we were taught. What I remember is that my professor looked like one of the main characters on one of my mom’s favorite soap operas: he was lanky, with a small scruffy beard, and always wore a worn dress shirt topped by an unbuttoned vest, and blue jeans. He talked enthusiastically about going smelting in the White Mountains. So I learned what a smelt was. My family weren’t smelting folks. We tapped maple syrup and sometimes fished for trout or perch, but never smelt.

There, see? It’s easy to write memoir style. I may not be a Bill Roorbach, but I can remember things and write them down. Maybe not as well as he does, but if I keep at it, I can come up with some stories that will amuse myself, if no one else.

My main problem with memoir style writing, and this is touched upon briefly in the book, is the fear of reprisal from my friends and family. Or my exes and their families. Especially them, because I wouldn’t be very kind to them. I am a nice person but I have a vindictive side as well, and they would make such great characters, each and every one of them. Especially the one who told me the fungus rings on his lawn were portals to another realm, through which shadowy demonic beings emerged in the dead of night to kill the kittens in his barn. No, I am not making that up. But crazy people with enough money for a libel attorney scare the bejesus out of me.

Maybe I can write about dead people, you know, like my great-grandparents. They wouldn’t care what I said about them. But unfortunately, I didn’t know them, so that’s not really a memoir.

One of the exercises in the book involves writing about the place where your first memories come from. Later on in the book, he asks the reader if they’ve done the exercise. Well no, actually, I didn’t, but how did you know that back in 1998, Bill? Oh, you mean I’m not the first person to skim over the exercise part and pretend I’ll go back later and do it? Really?

I remember reading a book on developing your intuition several years ago: that book had exercises too. I didn’t do those either. Nor did I psychically intuit the winning lottery numbers. I did win $10 on a scratch-off the other day, however.

Maybe authors should call them something else besides “exercises,” because most of us hate exercising. It sounds too much like work. After all, no one is grading me on this, and I don’t even have a bathing suit or little black dress as my motivation. I think Shakti Gawain, in her book, “Creative Visualization,” calls it “Treasure Mapping.”

Treasure. I like that word. It even rhymes with “pleasure.” We all imagine we can find treasure at some point in our lives, whether it’s from watching a children’s show on pirates, seeing someone with a metal detector, or finding an rare antique at a yard sale for 50 cents.

You can read a recent interview with Roorbach here, where he talks about the book and the new 10th anniversary edition, which contains even more exercises, as well as his most excellent essay, “Into Woods”.

We’ve had a bit of weather here the past couple of weeks: namely, tons of rain. But the skies cleared up over the weekend, so Robert and I decided to venture down to the Old Port for a burger. We like Norm’s on Middle Street for burgers, but they are closed on Sundays, so we chose the Dry Dock Tavern on Commercial Street.

Parking is free downtown on Sundays, but be warned: finding parking in the Old Port on any evening in the summer is an adventure. Just allow yourself plenty of time to drive around looking. If you can’t find a spot, there are usually spots on Middle Street near the north end, close to where it intersects with India Street. We were lucky to find one right next to the Dry Dock Tavern after a few passes up and down Commercial Street, however, so we didn’t have far to walk.

The Dry Dock sports two decks out back, and the upper deck was full, so we sat on the lower deck. The specials board was chock full of choices: everything from Cajun fish ‘n’ chips to an open-faced crabmeat and avocado sandwich, to a teriyaki steaktip sandwich with caramelized onions, topped by melted provolone and served on a foccacia bread bun with crispy fries. Yes, I chose the latter, and it was wicked good! The steak tips were tender, with just a hint of teriyaki flavor, which I was happy with, because I didn’t want it to overwhelm the other ingredients. Dry Dock also gives you a marvelously crunchy garlic pickle spear and a slice of cantaloupe on the side. Unlike some of the burger places downtown, they include fries with their sandwiches, which range in price from $7.50 to $10.50, lobster rolls being the exception at market price. I think the lobster roll was $18.95 last night, but I was in the mood for beef, so I didn’t pay that much attention. Softshells are wicked cheap right now, so I’m thinking a homemade lobster bisque would go down well tonight, as it’s cloudy and dismal again. I see Merrill’s on Forest Ave. has a few specials going on this week: may have to stop there on my way home from some errands later. One of our relatives gave us a lobster steaming pan when we were up near Acadia last month, so I need an excuse to try it out!

Back to the Dry Dock Tavern: I had a glass of the house cabernet, and Robert had a Shipyard Summer Ale with his burger, which he declared passable. After the delicious burgers my son cooked for us on the grill during his visit in July, everything else is held to a pretty high standard now. Still, it’s nice to get out and have someone wait on you, and even nicer to sit on a deck and look at the water while you’re eating. I had a nice view of Commercial Street from where I was sitting, and I snapped a picture of the Customs House with my cellphone:

We could see the Comedy Connection from our table as well, and Robert swore he saw Maine comedian Bob Marley unloading a van in their parking lot. I snapped a picture, but I think I only got the back of his head:

There’s a photo of Bob on the box truck, and our suspect in question is walking away from the camera in front of the white van, as I was hurriedly wiping french fry and sandwich grease off my fingers before opening my cellphone to take a photo. Of course, by the time he turned around and came back, I was eating again. Oh well, I guess my papparrazzi career has been put on hold yet once again. However, a quick peek at the Comedy Connection’s calendar shows Bob Marley is going to be there this Thursday through Saturday, August 14, 15 and 16, 2008, with several performances each day, so I might just have to get down there and check him out. Somebody leave me a parking spot.

I could not finish the enormous pile of fries, so I stuffed them in a napkin and put them in my purse. Yeah, I could’ve asked for a styrofoam box, but it’s more fun to feel like you’re stealing them. We drove up to the Eastern Prom and found a bench, and Robert tossed the fries to a seagull, who looked at us suspiciously out of the corner of his eye while snapping them up. This was unlike the other day, when we took a bunch of rolls I’d made to the same spot, and all hell broke loose.

See, I’d made these yeast rolls the night before, and thought in my infinite wisdom that letting them rise in the oven while it was pre-heating would be enough to puff them up. It was not. Poor Robert almost choked to death on one, so we decided to “donate” them to the gulls. They fought over them like crazy, and I swear one of them flew off with one in his mouth to see if he could break it like a clamshell by dropping it on the rocks. Or maybe he just dropped it in the water instead: if you see one of the suckers washing up on the beach… oh wait, they were hard as rocks and heavy as stones, so that won’t happen.

In other news, Round Two of Operation Baking GALS has commenced, and they even made the evening news in Virginia! I’ll be making some Whoopie Pies for some sailors and I’ll try to keep ‘em chewable, no worries, folks.

Portland Ballet is presenting its annual Portland Dances! New Works Showcase next weekend, Friday, August 15 and Saturday, August 16, at the John Ford Theater at 8:00 p.m. While Portland Ballet is known for its annual presentation of The Nutcracker, they also put on this exciting dance program, which consists of local choreographers staging a wide variety of dance pieces. This year, the number of choreographers increased from 13 to 20.

“I think this is reflective of the increased interest in dance overall, as seen by the tremendous following for the TV Show “So You Think You Can Dance,” said Eugenia O’Brien, artistic director for Portland Ballet.

If you can’t get enough of “So You Think You Can Dance,” which airs its finale tonight, you will not want to miss this performance. The twenty local area choreographers will be presenting works in genres ranging from hip-hop to modern, and yes, ballet.

I had the opportunity to speak to one of the choreographers, Jennifer Bourgeault, who is returning this year to present a piece called “Something You Can’t Leave Behind,” set to “Opus #4″ by Art of Noise. Bourgeault, a Maine native, graduated from DeSales University with a B.A. in Dance, and returned to Maine to practice her art upon graduation. She hasn’t let the grass grow under her feet, either: she formed a dance group called “Collective Motion,” which is comprised of some very talented dancers, some of whom are also choreographers in the New Works Showcase. Bourgeault is also a freelance dance teacher and choreographer for the southern Maine communities. I had the opportunity to see her dance at a student choreographer workshop in April at the Konservatoriet School of Dance in Alfred where Bourgeault also teaches part time.

Bourgeault has been dancing since she was 3 years old, and studied dance in college because she loved it so much that she couldn’t imagine doing anything else for a living. When she returned to Maine, she got a newsletter from the Portland Ballet, calling for choreographers to apply to the Portland Dances! New Works Showcase. She applied, and was accepted. I asked her what doing this show meant to her.

“I love it! The Portland Ballet is fostering local artists, which is very important, and it gives them a home base for the summer,” said Bourgeault.

She went on to explain the inspiration for her piece. The music, “Opus #4″ by Art of Noise, was something she’d had on her iPod for a while. One day, she was in her car and set it to random shuffle and the song popped up. The music stuck with her and she began envisioning the steps to a dance. “Something You Can’t Leave Behind” is a modern piece which will be “accessible to everyone, but mysterious at the same time,” she explained. “I like people to get their own meaning out of my work, it’s fascinating how each person comes away with a different sense of what it means.”

Bourgeault is indeed capable of evoking feelings in others, and not only will she be a choreographer for this event, but she’ll also be dancing in some of the pieces too. Which ones? You’ll have to go see to find out! I’ve seen her dance, and you don’t want to miss it, she has an innate sense of grace and poise, which makes routines that are physically demanding look effortless.

Photographs by David Bates.

Tickets are on sale now and are available at Bull Moose Music or directly from Portland Ballet, 772-9671. Advance purchase tickets are $15 for general admission and $10 for students and seniors. Tickets purchased at the door will be $18 and $13, respectively. For further information on Portland Ballet’s school and dance company, visit their website.

Konservatoriet School of Dance in Alfred has been teaching students in Southern Maine for over 22 years. It was founded by Lynne Penn-Davison, who trained with the Bournonville Schools in Denmark, a foundation of the prestigious Royal Danish Ballet. Penn-Davison is also the Principal Director, and the studio offers classes in jazz, modern, children’s classes, pilates, stretch, and ballet, including en pointe. For more information or to sign up for one of Bourgeault’s classes, call (207) 324-6391 or email konservatoriet (at) verizon.net.

I was reading blog posts on BlogHer recently, and came across a post by Kalyn Denny on Operation Baking GALS. It’s about food bloggers baking treats for troops in Iraq.

I figured we gotta get some Whoopie Pies over to those guys and gals to represent Maine! So I signed up. I may be on a diet (in my head, anyway, my hips tell a different story, but they are lying, I swear!), but I still love to bake. And politics and feelings about the war aside, those folks are there, and they’ve gotta eat! I somehow doubt the military is giving them homemade cookies, let alone whoopie pies.

Now I just gotta figure out a recipe that will keep during shipping. It’s not the filling I’m worried about, as that can be made with Crisco, and Crisco will hold up for 50 years or so without spoiling. But the cake part of the equation, that may take some thinking.

There’s a segment on the Operation Baking GALS blog on how to prepare packages for shipping, such as tucking apple peels in between paper towels to retard spoilage. You learn something new every day.

I have to await the next round of baking/sending, so that will give me a little time to experiment, using Robert as my guinea pig… I mean, taste tester, of course! Any suggestions welcome, I normally eat my whoopie pies right away, so I’m not usually concerned about how long they’ll hold up.

If you want to get in on it, visit the Operation Baking GALS blog for details.

We went to a summer wedding yesterday, two good friends had decided to tie the knot outdoors, and then had a lovely reception at the Falmouth Sea Grill, overlooking the water.

It was a beautiful ceremony, intimate and personal, with a crowd of people sitting and standing on a deck at a private home. The bride wore a full-length white satin sleeveless gown with sparkling bead embellishments and a dainty tiara. The groom sported a navy blazer with a pink rose on the lapel. A woman played a wooden flute for the procession, and people were handed little bubble wands to blow after the ceremony.

We then all headed to the Falmouth Sea Grill for a truly wonderful meal. They offered many choices on the menu, and I opted for the crispy trout with a garlic butter cream sauce. The cake was a lovely confection of white tiers with pink flowers and two whimsical penguins as toppers in lieu of the traditional bride and groom figurines. It was cloudy, but the rain held off until evening, and the view of the water and boats was refreshing as we drank cocktails and had scrumptious appetizers of tomato and fresh mozzarella bruschetta, as well as thinly sliced beef with sauce atop little slices of bread. The freshly baked rolls and salmon cream cheese spread were also delicious. The appetizers were a choice of a house salad or a cup of clam chowder and we both opted for the chowder, a perfect starter for a rainy evening.

If you’ve never been to the Falmouth Sea Grill, I highly recommend it for a special night out, you won’t be disappointed with either the food or the service. The waitstaff was pleasant and efficient. We finished the evening with wedding cake and coffee, I had a slice of the chocolate layer, and was pleasantly surprised by the delicate orange flavor in the frosting.

Our friends are taking off for a honeymoon today and I hope they get clear of all the rain we’ve been having since last night. I was awakened by a severe thunderstorm at 1:30 a.m. and hastily threw on a housedress to run out and pull my potted plants in under the eaves of the porch. I dozed on the couch after that, and got up only to be greeted by downpour after downpour. The radar looks like there will be a break in the storms, but we’ll be getting more as the day goes on. If you don’t like the weather in Maine, just wait a minute! It will be sure to change. We’ve had more than our fair share of sunny days this summer, and I’m sure after the next few days we’ll all be at the beach once again, forgetting the rain as we bask in the sun on Maine’s beautiful coast.