Flags of the World - in Food!

A friend and Vibrant Colleague of mine recently sent me a link to the results of the Sydney International Food Festival.  They had an extraordinary competition that required people to make the country flags using traditional foods from the country.  The results are amazing - great food styling and creativity.


Here's the Brazilian Flag - banana leaf, limes, pineapple and passion fruit.

Here's the link for the rest of the flags - check them out!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is the first Thanksgiving that I haven't spent with my family - other than those times in college when I went home with a friend to share their Thansgivings.

Usually, for Thanksgiving, we all get together and cook and have a great time.  It's a great chance for me to really play with different recipes and experiment - with an incredibly appreciative audience.

But this year is different.  We're on the other coast and since we'll be heading back to California prior to moving to Brazil - it didn't make sense to take the time and the money to head west.  So - we stayed here.  We could have joined an number of potlucks - but since this year, Thanksgiving fell on K.'s birthday, we wanted to spend the day with the four of us.

And what a day we had!  First opening presents.  And then a great hike at Great Falls.  I just love that place.

Check out the high water mark for 1936!

We had a Thanksgiving feast at a local restaurant.  (I know - everyone is surprised that me, a chef, didn't cook.  But cooking would mean spending time away from celebrating with my family - better to purchase a dinner out). 

And then we had a rousing game of family Monopoly where I completely took advantage of my lovely daughter.  I was able to talk her into purchasing Indiana Avenue for me and then accepting Water Works for the $1000 rent that I owed her.  But eventually, my inability to land on Free Parking resulting in me forfeiting my two monopolies and K. and her winning the game.

A great end to a great day!

Old Friends and the Eastern Shore

Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit my friend from college at their place on the Eastern Shore.

Being from California, I'm always curious how other places "live on the coast".  I've heard great things about the Eastern Shore, but had never been there.

We had a great time and it was absolutely gorgeous!!!  Apparently there's more miles of Maryland coastline than there is California coastline.  This is due to the Chesapeake Bay and all the inlets and rivers that feed into it.  What this means, is that almost every home is on the water - and many with docks and boats.  It's breathtaking and really lovely.

My friends place is just wonderful.  We got there and were able to go in their boat over to St. Michaels for lunch. 

Along the way we got to see many of the homes that are on the water.  There's quite a variety - from simple, cozy cottages to enormous estates.  This is where they filmed the movie Wedding Crashers. 

The town of St. Michaels is quaint and historical - it reminded me a bit of Carmel or Mendocino in California.

We went to this great place for lunch - the Big Pickle! Great food - try the Duck Wings and the Pastrami Egg Rolls! 

O. got a hot dog and it was the biggest one I'd ever seen!

After lunch we strolled around town a bit and checked out the local brewery.  They make awesome beers! 

We also found a store that had a younger sibling of Beyonce!

We got our picture taken in front of the lighthouse and then headed back to J. & B.'s place.  After several rousing games of a new charades-type game, we built a fire in their outside fire pit and roasted marshmallows.  The stars outside were glorious!

Eventually we headed home.  As you can tell - it had been a wonderful - and exhausting day!

Crabs!

I've been wanting to have crabs since we moved here.  I remember having them with friends when I had lived here before and really wanted to experience again - this time with my family.

So this weekend we made the trek up to Cantler's for crabs.  

Of course - since it shouldn't just be about the food, we checked out the fall colors and the Chesapeake Bay as well.  First we went to drove out to Sandy Point State Park.  The drive was beautiful and the park was very quiet and peaceful.  When we got out of the car, we realized one of the reasons it was so quiet and peaceful - it was cold and windy!  But beautiful.

O. found a great "caveman stick".

And we saw some deer.














Then it was time to head to Cantler's.  It's down a windy residential road and sits right on the water.  The Chesapeake Bay has so many fingers of water throughout the region here.  It seems like everyone can get waterfront property and it's just so beautiful - especially with the leaves changing.






O. and I shared some crabs.  He had lots of fun using his mallet to crack open the legs.  K. was kind enough to clean the bodies for me to then pick out the meat.  Unfortunately, N. was feeling righteously vegetarian that day and was concerned about flying bits of crab from all the mallet action.

After lunch we walked down to the water where they bring the crabs in and sort them.  You can see why they call them Blue Crabs.

They were yummy and it was a good time.  Some time I'd like to do a side-by-side tasting of Dungeness Crabs and Blue Crabs.  We had Dungeness Crabs growing up and they are so tasty - and because they're bigger, there's more meat and less picking the small bits.

Of course I'll have to try the Stone Crabs in Miami sometime.

Well said

People say a lot of things when they're running for political office.

This was recently said  by a candidate running for President. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/07/perry-questions-intentions-of-american-diplomats/

I'm sure everyone has lots of thoughts and opinions on that subject.  One of my fellow bloggers has commented so well on the subject that there's not much more to be said.  Check it out here:

http://emailfromtheembassy.blogspot.com/2011/11/ill-bet-ive-met-more-diplomats-than.html?spref=fb