Lobster ravioli!

So much deliciousness to tell you about!

We had our first week of offering dinner at the inn. The response has been so favorable. One of my favorite dishes is Chef Devin's lobster ravioli. You know I'm a romantic... It's Chef Devin's husband, Luke, who is catching the lobsters and I think that is part of what makes this dish so good. He fishes out of Stonington and sends her pictures of gorgeous sunrises, like this one. This is the two of them when he popped in to see her at work. The ravioli she makes with his lobster has chunks of meat, perfectly cooked, embraced by pasta she has made. She bathes them in a parsley lemon gremolata, which magically transports me to the seaside. And here I struggle with how to describe it to you. I just have to say, make a reservation and plan for your own magical dinner.

A guest told me a story about his visit to the L.L. Bean mother store. He, being a good midwesterner, had a Cabela's cap on, which he sheepishly removed and crumpled in his hand while paying homage to the Big Bean. At the check out, the matronly clerk demanded, "What's in your hand?" When Jim showed her, she said, "Give me that!" In exchange for the Cabela's cap she took away, he got a new L.L. Bean one. I wonder how often she does that?

From the guestbook: "Comfy, friendly, tasty!"

How on earth do I manage to have time to read, now that it's spring, you ask? A few minutes with a book and early morning coffee (sometimes really early morning coffee) helps adjust my attitude and is almost mandatory as life gets busy. A friend picked up This Life Is in Your Hands by Melissa Coleman for me at the farmer's market. Elliot Coleman, her father, is behind Four Season Farm and has written numerous books on organic farming and sustainable agriculture. I'm only on page 40 but I certainly recommend Melissa's book. We get eggs from Four Season--gorgeous orange yolks come from happy chickens. You can visit their farm stand down on Cape Rosier when you come to visit.

See you then!

Our first dinner menu--for May 31st

We had such a lovely time at our Open House. The inn was filled with local businesspeople, some farmers, a fisherman or two, some musicians, friends from way back and from next door. Chef Devin created an amazing parade of goodies--potstickers, duck confit, tenderloin with pesto, and cakes, lemon and chocolate! She's pictured here with one of her sous chefs, Sarah Havener. People raved about the food, complimented the wines, and continue to tell us what a great time they had. Staff and friends made the inn look spiffy--look at this beautiful bouquet of flowers Millbrook Bakery sent us. I'm sorry you couldn't make it to the party but now you can make plans to eat breakfast here or dine here or sleep in one of our gorgeous beds.

Here's a look at a sample dinner menu. Items will change every week, and maybe even every night depending on what comes in, what's fresh, and what whim Chef Devin follows for the night. Prepared to be solidly delighted!

Asparagus Puree
Parmesan Crisp, Pea Shoots and a Chive Chip $6
May Spring Salad
Carding Brook Greens, Grilled Asparagus, and Shaved Pecorino with a Lemon-Vinaigrette $7
Lobster Ravioli
Stonington Lobster, Parsley and Lemon Gremolata, and Pea Green Salad
$12

Apple Smoked Ribs
Bourbon BBQ Sauce, Duck Roasted Potatoes, and Pickled Cole Slaw
$23
Pan Roasted Frenchman’s Bay Halibut
Buttered Lentils, Toasted Hazelnuts, and Sunflower Shoots
$26
Spring Risotto
Sauté of Fiddleheads, Butternut Squash, and Chives, Asiago Cheese and Arugula
$19
Seared Duck Breast
Parmesan Polenta, Rhubarb Chutney, Sauté of Spinach and Asparagus
$24

Chocolate Espresso Moulton Cake
with Ginger Ice Cream
Luscious Citrus Cheesecake
with Rhubarb Compote
Trio of Sorbets
with Maine Blueberry, Lemon, and Raspberry
Vanilla Bean Crème Caramel
with Hazelnut Chocolate Drizzle
Desserts $7

At breakfast this morning, Jack, a long-time returning guest, demanded to know why I hadn't told him and his wife how wonderful Nervous Nellie's is. I wonder how he and his wife have missed it for so many years! The tasting cafe is heaven and the artwork all around the property is creative and a bit crazy. Well worth the trip, especially when combined with a hike at the Tennis Preserve, or a longer one at Barred Island (pictured here). Deer Isle makes for a great day trip from the inn.

One of the jobs I wrangle away from others on a pretty spring day is mowing the orchard. Yesterday I got to the mower first and so whiled the afternoon away under apple blossoms with fantasies of garden parties. We now have a table--the sort one could sit at and write in a journal, blog on a laptop, or (if you must) spread out some paperwork--waiting for you in the orchard.

Big news!

We are so pleased to offer guests and friends from the community a fine dining experience at the inn this year. Chef Devin Finigan has joined us and will be delighting diners with her food as she incorporates Maine fare—the freshest seafood, local free-range chicken and eggs, local meats and produce—into dishes with a European flair. Chef Devin is new to the inn but not new to the area. She has trained with Jonathan Chase, of Buck’s Restaurant in Brooksville, and traveled to Italy with him as a sous chef numerous times. She has also worked at the Lookout Inn and the Brooklin Inn. Growing up, she worked with her father, a chef at a Relais and Chataeaux inn in Vermont.

She was a guest chef with Thomas Keller (of the French Laundry and Per Se) at a charity event in Deer Isle and participated in an intense training week at Per Se in Manhattan, with other up and coming chefs in America. Chef Devin’s husband, jeweler Luke Hartmann, fishes in the summer and supplies the inn dining room with the freshest lobster available (and the innkeeper with handsome beach glass and silver jewelry, now available at Handworks Gallery in Blue Hill).

We'll offer dinners Monday through Friday nights, beginning May 31. Call and make a reservation now; we have an intimate dining room.

We attended El El Frijoles's season kick-off at Edgehill in Sargentville. Edgehill rambles along in the great Maine farmhouse style. It's available for weekly rentals--it sleeps 18!--and comes with a barn, a mill pond, and ocean access (check out the view down Eggemoggin Reach). Michael and Michele, of El El Frijoles, launched their catering company, We Bake!. We've loved their Latin-inspired food for years and now we're hooked on the desserts, the sushi, the garlic dip for the potatoes... I wonder if they offer chocolate-dipped macaroons by mail order?! You can see photos of the event on their Facebook page.

Farmers market season opened and I'm enjoying Millbrook Bakery's olive rolls. You can find Jill Smith's bakery offerings, both sweet and savory, at the Castine, Blue Hill, Ellsworth, and Stonington farmers markets.

Other than the Blue Hill Inn, breakfast choices have been fairly limited in Blue Hill. Friends took me to Marlintini's this weekend to try their new breakfast venture--delicious! Even the eggs benedict, which has many opportunities for less-than-perfect-ness, got raves. We also had dinner at the Fish Net one night. I adore their fried scallops.

All this great food and the beauty of spring with the fuzz of impending blooms, the forsythia and daffodil yellows against the increasingly more vibrant green. Life is marvelous here in Blue Hill. If it isn't where you are, let us share!

Have you checked out our newly revised website? I've collected the recipes you've asked for over the years and put them in our "online cookbook" for you.
I promise we'll be adding photographs. I think we've been too busy in the kitchen getting food out to you in the dining room to think about snapping a photo of the pretty dishes. I do seem to take photos of how we use technology in the kitchen. I think Stella, a long-time innkeeper from many years ago, would appreciate the dueling MacBooks and the iPad recipe book!

Have you tried the Blue Hill Co-op Café's new donuts? You may not want to risk it. They are so habit-forming, and so far, the co-op just makes them on weekends. I recommend the plain ones. The Co-op Café does a great job creating delicious choices for folks who want something gluten-free or sweetened with maple syrup. Artichoke season is definitely on in this area--Marlintini's offered them crab filled along side their Caesar salad and Seasons crisped them up and served them next to salmon.

Once again, the Blue Hill Inn is helping to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. The offer is very simple. Between April 25 and May 27 this year, we will offer rooms at half the regular rate, in exchange for a $35 check payable to Habitat for Humanity. Just mention the special fundraiser when you reserve and we'll work out the details with you.

These funds will be distributed among the ten local chapters of Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity International and its affiliates in more than 3,000 communities in 92 nations have built more than 300,000 homes for partner families around the world.

My favorite seaglass jeweler, Luke Hartmann, will be showing his baubles at Handworks Gallery this year! Handworks is less than two blocks from the inn and filled with arts and crafts. Owner-artist Marcia Stremlau painted the book shown here. Her art seems to really capture the feel of Maine.

Our annual open house is May 18. Please plan to come! We are very excited about our plans for the 2011 season and look forward to sharing them with you.

Spring in Blue Hill

I can title a blog post whatever I want, of course. By "spring" I mean widely varying temperatures, gorgeous snowfalls that stick around for a minute, and weather that includes sun, sleet, hail, and picturesque snow--all in one day! Bulbs are coming up, a bit disgruntled but showing good faith.

Maine artists talk about the light and this is the season of amazing light. As Ellen O'Neill says, "Maine and all of New England are my principal areas of interest whether it is the inland lakes and mountains, farmlands, the coast, or its people. It is the play of light dramatically affecting the color, atmosphere, and mood of a scene that first draws my attention to it. My challenge is then to convey to others, through my painting, what I felt, the story it may tell and my inspiration." "Fleeting Light" is one of her paintings.

I had a lovely dinner at the Pub at the Brooklin Inn the other night--surf and turf with fresh scallops (read this interview with a scallop diver and you'll appreciate your winter desk job a whole lot more!) and steak tips from Bianco's. The pub is casual and cozy. Someone else is feeding us and the woodstove... They have some fun beers on tap, too. And, best part of the whole evening, Brian, who works down the road at the Brooklin Boatyard, came in with his dog, Digby, part Bernese mountain dog. Heaven for me. Dining upstairs in their lovely Maine cottage dining room is an option as well.

If you're craving a water motif cup of coffee, C Shells is your spot. Shelly has the prettiest cafe on the peninsula, and you can get the Weekly Packet along with your breakfast, lunch, or coffee break.

Arborist Bob Salesi (aka Tree Bob) turned me on to free trees from the Arbor Day Foundation. A membership is very reasonably priced and you can choose 10 free trees! Tree Bob recommended Colorado Blue Spruce so that's what I went with.
He said I could grow them a few years and then have gorgeous Christmas trees if I wanted, or we could decorate them for the winter birds and have them for years to come. He and Matt came, in the midst of the latest spring snowstorm, to clean up some wayward branches at the inn. I would love to have a job where I smelled like sawdust, sap, and fresh air! Now there's a candle scent.

I hope your spring has been as interesting as ours!

The Snowy Winter Reading Pile!

Welcome to the snowiest winter yet! Blue Hill is gorgeous in white, just gorgeous.

I have the most luscious stack of books to delve into. I just picked up Ellen Booraem's latest at Blue Hill Books (they often have autographed copies of books by local authors). I loved the Unnamables. I also picked up Gonville, a memoir by Peter Birkenhead, I am giving to a friend. Next on the list to read, though, is Obsessive Genius, the Inner World of Marie Curie, so I'm ready for the Brooksville reading group.

I've been taking a Colloquy, Maine Painters, with William Irvine, but it was a January happening and now it's February so I have a pocket of time. (This painting is one of his, Dancing Sea.) Well, I had a pocket of time--now I have these books and plans to see films and the latest play at the Opera House, Dying City. The class about painters who loved Maine was great--Marsden Hartley, Winslow Homer, and William Thon, to name just a few of my favorites. So many artists catch the incredible beauty and light of the coast.

I did find time to take a cooking class--in potstickers!
I thought they would make a fun offering during the hors d'oeuvres hour. All winter long I'm collecting recipes and ideas. Come May I'm bursting for the main inn building to open up again so we can start serving guests pancakes and cookies and savory nibbles. This time of year we deliver muffins and sweet breads and cookies and chocolates but it's not quite the same as the cookie tray in the parlor and then the table of hors d'oeuvres before dinner.

I'm starting to wonder if Blue Hill is the greeting card capitol of the world--the Barnacle has a great line of handmade cards as well as Maine-based cut out cards (the lobster trap is perfect!), and New Cargoes has lots of cards by Maine artists, and Fairwinds Florist has a very sophisticated line of cards that are perfect for my friends as well as Maine art gift cards and Blue Hill Books carries perfect cards to add to the book which they will giftwrap for you. The Blue Hill Inn has always offered to stamp and mail correspondence for guests, whether our postcards or others. I only just realized how perfectly this amenity fits into Blue Hill as a whole!

And if all of that weren't excitement enough, the Packers won! I am from Wisconsin, after all.

I hope your February has just the right the ratio of snow to hot chocolate, delicious reading and scrumptious outings. If not, come see us and we will adjust as necessary!

The Holidays in Blue Hill

Although a part of me keeps wondering, "Where did August go?!" we are firmly into our quiet season. This time of year, November to mid-May, we offer lodging in our Cape House, in the Suite and the Studio. We leave snacks in the rooms, some savory, some sweet, and some healthy. The baking elves leave scones or muffins or coffee cake. And of course the rooms are supplied with our organic, free trade coffee. Although we are in the middle of town, deer short cut through the yard, the pileated woodpeckers visit the trees, and other birds feast on the berries. The sun rises this time of year at a reasonable hour. The sunsets, though very early, often bathe the whole town in pinks and purples. And the full moon, well, it's practically a Blue Hill citizen.

Halloween at the inn has adults enjoying adult beverages (we don't make the grown ups say "trick or treat" on their way to the bar) and kids selecting treats from the big silver bowl. This year's silly non-candy option--toothbrushes! (These went over well, to the amusement of a dentist-guest attending the festivities.) I dare you to try it at your house!
Thanksgiving always includes some dining out--Cleonice, the Arborvine, and Table all remain favorites, but we've added the Lookout, at their winter digs. Seems like such a Maine thing--a restaurant moves up the hill to a cozy house with a central woodstove and continues to offer incredible options. We are still dreaming about corn chowder with Maine shrimp (just coming into season--so fresh!), the seared scallops with creamy risotto, the steak au poivre (with wee shoestring potatoes), and the crème brûlée and chocolate mousse. Call them now!

My favorite Christmas event, the Bagaduce Chorale concert, was better than ever this year, with a Fred Waring toast. Nothing gets holiday spirits up higher!

I've told you each year that you must come for New Year's Eve in Blue Hill. The line up of music and entertainment--all completely free--delights even the sophisticate. We have loved Scott Howell because he's a great carpenter and has helped us at the inn with many projects, and because his daughter Ellie has worked at the inn for the last few summers, but now we love him because we love his Loose Cannon Jug Band! The evening hosts over a dozen performers at locations all around Blue Hill (and within easy walking distance of the inn). We caught some steel drum music, our local pastor and his wife singing together, and our own Mesa Schubeck. We didn't make it to the New Trad Trio or Black Tie Fiasco--next year I hope.

You might be thinking, "Ah, but now it's after the holidays, and Blue Hill gets dull," but no! Now it's time for the first El El Frijoles Salsa Night! And by salsa they mean a three-course dinner and a salsa dance lesson followed by music, dancing, and carrying on. And the Blue Hill Concert Association starts their winter program this weekend with the Lefthand Canyon Trio.

I hope you had magical holidays, filled with laughter and wonder, and that January has you marveling at the cold crisp clarity of the winter world and snuggling under the covers! (Photo credits go to Lisa Peschel, a pal of mine since 7th grade, who was here for New Year's, and Julie Jo Fehrle, who manages to be in Blue Hill for epic full moons and festive pumpkin carving. Thanks!)