Wonton Soup

Today at the Kismet Inn bed and breakfast --- Chris Toy a local Chinese born raised in the States does cooking classes in Bath area as a hobby. We are thinking of having Chinese - Cantonese style dinners at the inn. Yesterday he came over and was kind enough to make some wanton soup with Chinese meatloaf for me to taste his cooking. It was delicious... thanks Chris. Here are some photos.

Vegetalbe Casserole

Tonight I made a wonderfully delicious vegetable casserole for my guests which was completely finished. I layered onions, beets, garlic, carrots, parsnips, salsify, apples and raisins. Added salt pepper and my home made chicken broth. Served it with fried rice to which I added just eggs, soy sauce and instead of ses...ame or peanut oil I added ghee which gave it a different flavor.

Tempe &

Well, first I want to say that I have been shoveling quite a bit of snow lately. Yesterday, two times and today once. It is 8:34 p.m. it is snowing again. I love snow it brings much quiet and peace. It gives lots of time to reflect.

After shoveling and clearing up the snow, I made spicy tempeh for my guests. It was my first time making tempeh. I have to say it turned out quite delicious, every single piece was eaten. I fried onions, garlic, ginger in coconut oil then added the tempeh which I had bought from Farmers Market in Brunswick. It is locally grown organic tempeh which was good. I added dried pepper, curry, turmeric and couple of other spices with a bit of water let it cook for about ten minutes then added dried coconut, roasted seeds let it simmer for just a few minutes turned it off added mango. Served it with white basmati rice made with saffron. The salad was 3 different kinds of cabbage, carrots, celeriac root marinated in salt, pepper, olive oil, one fresh lemon, touch of balsamic vinegar. Green tea was served as beverage.

MLK Weekend.

The weekend of Martin Luther King at the Kismet Inn Bed and Breakfast was a very interesting one. I had 4 guests (two couples) for one night who had dinner and their wives had the exfoliation.

Richard and Sue arrived exactly same time as Keith and Tiffany. They were both coming from Massachusetts, one from Boston area and the other more to the west of the state. I was busy baking chocolate chip cookies and lemon short bread. I had already put the lamb shanks on the stove with the spices, fresh garlic, onion, soaked the rice and prepared the other ingredients for dinner.

I showed Keith and Tiffany to their room first which was guest room 5 called Sleigh Bedroom then showed Richard and Sue to their room which was at the other end called Saffron. Once they settled in their room they came back down made themselves comfortable in the library and tearoom while I continued to bake. I took them some warm, just out of the oven cookies with green tea. Around 4:30 Sue went to soak in the Japanese style deep soaking tub, she soaked in nice warm water with radiant heat floor so the soaking tub was warm with warm water and the door closed there was quite a bit of steam in the room. I went to exfoliate/scrub her body around 5:15, my goodness the dead skin came rolling off in fat, long inches. The scrubbing/exfoliating took about an hour then she pumice her feet, exfoliated her face, washed and was done with the process. Before getting dressed she put some oil on her then got dressed came downstairs for dinner.

For dinner I served cheese, water melon radishes, they are really interesting, they look just like watermelon, red inside with white edging, the taste is sharp and delicious. The guests loved it. Misso soup with leak, roasted beets, parsnips and carrots. The entree was lamb shacked cooked for 7 hours on very low heat without adding any water or broth to it. I made sure all the fat is off the shanks, then added turmeric, curry, salt, pepper, onion, garlic, rosemary to the shanks put the lid on and left it to cook on very low heat for 7 hours. The meat was tender, flavorful and juicy. The rice was made with white basmati rice, added lots of saffron, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, slivered pistachio, slivered almonds, raisins, julienne carrots, orange peel and barberies. It was incredibly delicious. For desert I made blueberry crumpet with ginger and nutmeg.

Richard, Sue, Keith and Tiffany enjoyed dinner till late evening. They chose to eat together at the dinning room table conversing and enjoying each others company. The next day Richard and Sue wanted breakfast earlier so they had breakfast around 8:30, Keith and Tiffany had breakfast around 9:45 then. Richard and Sue left around 10:00, they were very happy with dinner, the exfoliation, breakfast and my hospitality. That is exactly what I am looking for.

Tiffany had her exfoliation around 11:00, she went up to soak in the steam shower, I went up to exfoliate/scrub her body. Just like Sue, dead skin came rolling off in fat, long inches. After the exfoliation Keith and Tiffany left. They too were very happy with everything. They had two young children both work so they were here to literally rest and they did. I loved meeting and serving them both as well as Richard and Sue.

I hope you, the reader will make your way to the Kismet Inn Bed and Breakfast sometime soon. It will be my honor to meet and host you.

Authenitc Food

Today, I checked out a book from the library called 'Bringing Food Home, The Maine Example' by Mary Stetson Hall.

It is quite interesting, talks about all the different food growers in Maine from Elliot Coleman the most famous one to less known ones. It notes Elliot Coleman does not call his produce or anything he grows organic even though it is hundred percent organic and environmentally sound but 'Authentic Food' Elliot believes the criteria set for organic has been too diluted so he prefers to call it 'Authentic Food' he actually eat mostly from his own garden and does not believe in delivering his food for more than 25 miles longer distance! Talk about being local ...

I so agree with Elliot in calling the food grown organically 'Authentic' and I so agree with him the word 'organic' being just diluted. I have never understood how foodies, restaurants can use some organic ingredients, some non-organic, doesn't it defeat the whole purpose of being organic. Are we not being organic because we want to keep away from chemicals that go into our body which are toxic for our body as well as our soil and the rest of the environment?

Getting Ready

Today has been an exciting day because I am getting the inn ready for couples retreat. Two couples will be arriving on Friday. Both couples will have dinner on Friday which will be the Kismet Inn's Bed and Breakfast signature lamb dish with jewel rice which has slivered pistachio, slivered almonds, barberries, raisins, julienne carrots, orange peel, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin and lots of saffron.

One of the couple's wife will have exfoliation before dinner on Friday to shed off the dead skin from 2009 to begin 2010 with fresh, soft, silky skin because that is exactly what the exfoliation of Kismet Inn Bed and Breakfast does. It relaxes muscles, circulated the blood much better while leaving the skin as soft as silk.

The other one's wife will have yoga on Saturday morning followed by exfoliation. One will be using the soaking tub the other will be using the steam unit. I am looking forward to serving them all.

Cabbage Soup

Today, I decided to make a quick soup to try as a recipe for my winter guests, it was cabbage soup.

I brought the chicken broth to boil, added the shredded cabbage, chopped ginger let it simmer for five minutes then added chopped onion, turned off the burner and let the pot sit on the burner for a few minutes. Added cinnamon when I served the soup into the bowl.

It was excellent, the onion tasted crunchy, sharp with fresh onion smell which I love. I highly recommend it for colds.

Turnip, carrot soup

I have had a cold for the past few days so I have been making different kinds of soups with chicken broth that I make myself. The chicken broth that I make is from the bones that I roast a whole chicken then simmer the bones for over 24 hours to the extent that the bones become soft. This way all the nutrients from the bone are extracted. Then I add different kinds of vegetables to the broth each day as a soup.

Today, I added turnips which is full of vitamin C, excellent for when you have a cold, carrots, fresh ginger, garlic and onion. Nothing else was added because the broth already had salt and other spices. It was wonderful for a cold, Maine winter with a soar throat. I must get well by Friday because I have a couple for one night stay with dinner and exfoliation to which I am looking forward to.

Sweet Potato Soup

Today, I made sweet potato soup. It was scrumptious, simple, tasty and warm for cold, winter in Maine. Cooked the sweet potato, onion, in chicken broth which is made by me, Shadi Towfighi, the owner and innkeeper of Kismet Inn Bed and Breakfast. All the ingredients were organic and local prepared from scratch at the inn. I never use any canned ingredients such as chicken broth or any canned, processed ingredients in my cooking.

Smoked Haddock

Smoked Haddock
January 9th, 2010

I got some smoked haddock from the fisherman at the farmers market today and decided to make it for dinner.

I left it to defrost when I got home. Around 4 p.m., started preparing it. I put it in a rectangular baking dish, added fresh garlic, ginger, cumin then poured 1/4th cup half and half over it put it in the over for 35 minutes baking 400 degrees. I made sweet potato which I mashed. The vegetable was asparagus which I had purchased from Farmers market in June and frozen it.

Let me tell you I have never been a fish eater nor cooked it much so I thought I should be daring and give it a try specially since I saw everyone circling Jack, the fish vendor at the farmers market. Heavens, am I glad I did, the smokey taste of the haddock mixed with the distinctive taste of asparagus, gentle sweet taste of sweet potato was indeed divine, when I say divine I really mean it because the guest finished it. There was not one spec of it left on the plate.

Maybe, one day I will serve it to you the good reader!!!