Summer

It's the last week of summer.

True, there is still more of summer-like weather and school does not start for Adelaide until the day after Labor Day, but for me this feels like the last week. We had an unusual summer because we have been away for just about all of it. We spent the first 6 weeks in Lake Placid, living in three different houses, then two weeks at our cottage on Lake Michigan (Adelaide spent one of those with her Dad in Cape Cod), and then one final week--this one--back in Lake Placid.

We've been away for 9 full weeks! And then on Sunday we head back to a place that had barely begun to feel like home--Granby, Connecticut, where we will gear up for Adelaide's final year of high school.

I've never been on the road for so long before and I have to say--it's been great! Even though I have been working throughout, and Adelaide even more so--skating and working out for 5 or 6 hours every day that we were in LP--it has really felt like Summer, with a capital S!

True, I have pretty much had it with packing, stuffing the car to the brim, unpacking, and packing up again. But we have been privileged to be in beautiful places, surrounded by nature. No, I never made it to the ocean this summer, but I have lived right on other water for most of the time. My spirit has been soothed by its sounds. I've played in and on the water and hiked in the woods.

Adelaide has made several leaps up in her skating ability and that has been so exciting to watch. She had a late start in the skating life, but through incredibly hard work she has managed to pretty much skate as though she has been doing it since she was 5. She is ready to find a partner and compete for real!

Yesterday I made one last trip to the Lake Placid Wednesday farmer's market and picked up fresh vegetables and local cheese and meat. Going to the farmer's market really feels like summer. Tonight I will make sauteed greens, Portuguese-style, and savor the taste of a great summer.

Soup Imposters

I love coincidences.

photo by savannachik

Last week I wrote an article for About.com that was a cookbook review of Ana Patuleia Ortins' Portuguese Homestyle Cooking. One of the things I like about her book is her detailed attention to writing recipes that are authentic.  She says, in her book, "While I encourage substitutions when necessary, keep in mind that if you substitute a different ethnic ingredient--for example, kielbasa instead of linguiça--the dish can longer be considered authentic Portuguese cooking; it is now fusion."

And I agree with that. There is nothing wrong with experimenting, blending cuisines and using the ingredients one has on hand, and I do that all the time. In fact, I had leftovers from making the very traditional Arroz de Tomate (Tomato Rice) and discovered that is is excellent mixed with some smoked Lake Michigan trout. This combo is not in the least authentic, but it was good!

A couple of days ago my daughter and I took a day trip to Petoskey, which is about 45 minutes away from our Lake Michigan cottage in Mackinaw City, Michigan. Petosky has a downtown area full of small restaurants and cool boutiques.

We started off with lunch at the Mitchell Street Pub. "What's the soup of the day?" I asked. "Portuguese Soup," said the waitress. "It has cabbage, potatoes and sausage in it." Well, bowl me over with a Petoskey stone! This area is not known for its Portuguese anything, so I was surprised, to say the least. And of course I had to order it.

While I waited for it to come I pondered the soup's title--"Portuguese Soup." That's kind of like calling a dish "Italian Pasta." It could mean one of hundreds of dishes. Portuguese cuisine relies heavily on soups and stews, and there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of varieties. Even just using those ingredients--cabbage, potatoes and sausage--there are more than one kind of Portuguese soup recipes that make use of precisely those items.

When it came, I took a tentative bite and was pleased with the flavor. In the second bite I got a piece of sausage and was well rewarded for my sceptical ponderings. It was kielbasa. There are some Polish restaurants around here, most notably the famous Legs Inn in Cross Village, and it is easy to find kielbasa in the grocery store. But authentic Portuguese sausages are either linguiça or its spicy hot sister, chorizo. Both have a very different texture than kielbasa. They are meatier and more chewy. The spices are entirely different.

Nonetheless, the soup was tasty and in some way was reminiscent of Portuguese soups. But really, it  was "Portuguese Inspired Soup."

Even up here in the North Woods, you just never know when you will come across a real Portuguese person who is going to know real Portuguese soup from an imposter. So, watch out!

Fudge and Fish

Mackinaw City, Michigan (photo by Larry Page)

From one resort area to another! Two days ago I traveled from Lake Placid, New York, where we stayed for 5 weeks through Canada to Mackinaw City, Michigan to our cottage on the lake.

Although both are, as I said, resort areas, they are quite different from each other. Lake Placid is situated in the Adirondacks between 2 lakes, Mirror Lake and Lake Placid. As you can tell from their names, they tend to be, well placid. Lake Michigan, on the other hand, is always moving, with waves constantly hitting the shore. It's my favorite noise to fall asleep to. Of course it can't beat the sound of early morning garbage trucks in Brooklyn, but hey, you can't have everything.

Both areas are wooded, full of beautiful pine and white birch trees. Both areas have bears and other wildlife in abundance. But Lake Placid is surrounded by the tallest mountains in the Northeast, whereas Mackinaw City is in a fairly flat area. There are some bluffs and big limestone formations, but the nearby ski area would make most true skiers shudder at the puny size of the hill.

Lake Placid is a good deal more upscale than Mackinaw City. In the middle of Lake Michigan, and viewable from my beach, is Mackinac Island. There are more well-to-do summer spots around here, such as Mackinac Island, which I can see from my beach, and Harbor Springs and Petoskey. But Mackinaw City has a grittier aspect to it. Here on my beach you can't see the fudge stores and the souvenir shops, but I kind of like knowing they are there. In equal parts I enjoy the kitchier aspects of the town, while also despising the tackiness of the whole thing. Go figure.

One of the things I am most looking forward to is that I can finally make my favorite trout dish--the one I learned from my long-ago trip to the Pousada de Såo Lourenço in Portugal. I thought for sure that I would find trout in Lake Placid, which is a fisherman's mecca. But it was nowhere to be found in any store and I wasn't desperate enough to go catch it myself.

Here there is an abundance of Lake Trout, along with the famous Whitefish that is also caught here. You can buy both of them fresh or smoked and I love it both ways. At one of the stores in town they even make their own version of Fish 'n Chips, lake style.

Yum. Who needs fudge?