September 8, 2007Parkdale/Maplewood Community HallMaplewood, NSThis is one of the annual suppers I look forward to. This year, we had some extra family friends 'in tow' which always makes it more fun. We met up at the hall, surveyed the parking lot flush with Buicks and found our way to the ticket table.We found our way to the Parkdale/Maplewood museum to purchase our tickets. We had a bit of a wait ahead of us so we meandered around from building to building. The museum is an interesting slice of local history, and there was live music inside all afternoon. That Saturday was particularly humid so we quickly escaped outside and checked out the lovely perennial gardens surrounding the building.There were several other small buildings with craft vendors (I'm guessing selling hand knit wool goods on a hot day was a hard sell), demonstrations (i.e. snowshoe making) and of course food vendors. Everything looked amazing, from the sweaty squares in their plastic bags (actually, everything was sweaty), to the lemon loaves, the pies and all manner of pickled and jellied goods. Eventually our numbers were called and we entered the hall. How the work staff survived that heat all afternoon is beyond me! We only had to endure ~30 minutes and some in our party were feeling like fainting....The set up was different than the usual long tables, and sit where you can sit ordeal. This year, there were numerous tables to seat 10 or so, which I'm sure made sitting groups together much easier for the staff. Also a lot of fun for groups of 5 like ours!Food service was luncheon style and we inched down the line getting a little bit of everything on our plates as we went. Eventually, it looked like this:
Delicious! Lunenburg sausage and pudding (I believe the cheese was meant to be eaten with the pudding), sauerkraut and sauerkraut salad, smeltz potatoes, hodge podge and solomon gundy all fit on this plate. The brown bread was moist and sweet with molasses, I couldn't stop helping myself to another piece....Smeltz potatoes are so good, they consist of potatoes, pork scraps, onions apples and blend. Man, I'm hungry.....Hodge podge is usually an early summer dish made with the first crop of carrots, peas, beans and potatoes, all cooked until tender and served with cream (and lots of salt and pepper). Saurekraut salad is like.....coleslaw minus the mayo? Here's a recipe:Sauerkraut Salad1 quart sauerkraut (rinsed and drained)1 cup celery (chopped)1 medium onion (chopped)green and red peper (chopped)Dressing:1 1/4 cup white sugar1/2 cup cider vinegar1/2 cup salad oilStir dressing ingredients until sugar is dissolved. Add to other ingredients. Mix well. Keeps for several weeks in the fridge. Easy, eh?Last but not least was dessert. I had to try the blueberry grunt. This consists of small dumplings covered in cooked blueberries. The pie also looked great and both were obviously made from scratch. Hard to declare a winner, but my personal fave is the grunt, just because it is uncommon. Stay tuned for a picture of the grunt, blogger is being...ehem...unresponsive to uploading pictures at the moment...
Another day in paradise on the South Shore!
Sunday, what a scorcher of a day! Earlier forecasts of a dismal weekend were soon put to rest once the +30 degree weather arrived. A small group of hopeful beach goers headed down to Cherry Hill Beach Sunday afternoon. In typical South Shore fashion, the weather by the coast was a good 10 degrees cooler than inland and the ocean much colder than that. A brisk onshore breeze didn't help matters either. A few were lucky enough to have wet suits so the rest of us were content to enjoy the sunny afternoon and watch the others frolick in the small wind waves. I don't think anyone was sad when they had to leave for the supper, both due to hunger and the temperature.
I was anticipating the usual hordes that accompany the Conquerall Banks planked halibut supper, but when we arrived the parking lot was somewhat sparsely filled with the usual domestic automobiles that populate these events. I am aware of at least one other supper that was happening on the same day that possibly drew numbers away from this event. And I'm sure many people were enjoying the hot weather at home or at the cottage, either way, missing this supper was their loss!
There was an uncharacteristicly brief wait after we purchased our tickets and amazingly, our large group was able to sit together! Our meal followed shortly thereafter, served up by some very hot and sweaty volunteers. To say that the hall was muggy would be the understatement of the year. A 21 degree afternoon down by the beach turned out to be a 31 degree day further inland! I can only imagine the heat in the kitchen with sinks full of hot dish water, and food cooking on the stove(s).
Supper was as amazing as I recalled from previous years. The mashed potatoes were 'potato-y' and perfect, the coleslaw was home made and a welcome side dish to the plate. An obviously home grown tomato and decoratively sliced cucumber graced the edge of our plates, if only there were more of them to nibble on, they were delish! Pickles were notably absent from the table, apparently a popular item at this supper. And the halibut, what can I say that hasn't been said before? Amazing, some found it a bit dry, but I enjoyed the meaty consistency. I can only imagine how hard it is to time the cooking of that much fish outside, in front of a fire. Given the circumstances, hail to the chef!
It was fun to be around a group of younger folks at the supper, as we took in the surroundings and chuckled at some of the 'fixtures' (love the brand name of the air cleaner) and let the local 'flavour' sink in...All in all, a great day for all, by all accounts. Hopefully the turn out was sufficient to raise funds for the Conquerall Banks Fire Department. Big thanks go out to all who helped put on this event!
The title pretty much says it all. New pavement on the bottom of the New Cumberland Road has provided a new 'palette' for brake burners to dip their tires in, and paint on the 'ole Mt. Pleasant Rd....
Seems like this year's salmon supper and last year's were both roasting hot. Let's just say that the a/c was a nice break from the sweaty, muggy air outside...
As usual, it was a big crowd at this annual event. We got our tickets and this year we were smarter about waiting....we took our folding chairs and waited down by the river for our numbers to be called. It was really nice by the river in the shade, with a cool breeze blowing. Time flew by and before we knew it, we were heading in to get our grub.
The same faces greeted us, doing the same jobs each year. The same woman wiping off plastic trays, the same woman with her hand painted "planked salmon supper quality control" hat handing out plates of salads and bread, soon to be loaded up with the 'good stuff':
What can I say about this supper that I haven't said before? The fish is obviously the reason to show up, the rest of the stuff on the plate....I could take it or leave it. The McD's orange drink is fun for nostalgic reasons, but kinda tastes like ass....the potato salad and coleslaw taste like they came out of a big bulk bucket...but that salmon, the fire braised surface of that meat, amazing!
Stay tuned for the upcoming planked halibut supper at the end of August, a must attend event!
On the way back from the Greenfield Planked Salmon Supper, I took a detour down the New Elm Road to find some burns I discovered while bicycling a couple weeks back:
I think I'll call this one....'two face'
Burn 'till the road turns black!
I think a local Acura tl I spotted down the road was responsible for this patch....just a guess...
