Mahone Bay Humour

If you travel to Mahone Bay, you'll find that the residents have a lovely sense of humour. No, the funny part of the photo isn't John....read the sign!
A humourous nod to the historic plaques that are mounted on many buildings.
Carved into a dead tree by folk artist Garnet McPhail.

Keep your eye peeled...you never know what you will see.

Dining at the Seaside

Friday was a warm (well, John would define it as hot, hot, HOT) and gloriously sunny day. Unfortunately, we spent most of the afternoon at the car dealership waiting for some minor repairs to be done on our CRV.

But, as luck would have it, it was finished late in the afternoon...which just happened to be a great time to think about finding a place along the water for a drink and/or dinner.

We thought we'd try a place we hadn't been to before, so we headed east to Chester Basin.Frankly, The Seaside Shanty Restaurant doesn't look like much from the outside.But, what a lovely view from the screened in porch!John had seafood chowder, which was packed with all kinds of seafood. I chose a pasta dish with shrimp.I don't think it will go on my top list of places to eat, but the scenery makes it worth a visit.
In my book, you just can't beat the combination of warm sunshine & water views!

Hodge Podge

Several weeks ago we were visiting our neighbours and had a tour of their vegetable garden. It was quite early in the gardening season around here, and their garden was quite spectacular. It gave me some inspiration for creating a veggie garden at our newly acquired "farm" next year.

While we were there, our neighbour grinned and told me she had enough vegetables to make a Hodge Podge for dinner the night before. I smiled and said something like "that's great" but I actually had no idea what she was talking about.

Fast forward a few weeks and John and I were driving home after watching some sailboat races in Chester. We stopped at a roadside vegetable shop, and they actually had "hodge podge" listed as one of their feature items.

So...I just had to ask the owner to explain Hodge Podge. Apparently it's a Nova Scotia classic meal, but only in parts of Nova Scotia. It's particularly popular on the South Shore. She told me what was involved and here is the official recipe:

Ingredients:
15-18 new baby potatoes
1 medium onion, peeled, quartered
1 clove garlic, peeled, crushed with side of knife (clove should be intact)
1 bunch fresh new carrots
1 pound fresh yellow and/or green string beans
1 pound fresh peas
2-3 ears fresh corn, shucked, broken into thirds (optional)
2 cups light coffee cream
1/4 cup butter (not margarine)
salt and freshy ground pepper
chives to garnish

Instructions:
Rinse potatoes but don't peel. Cut tops off carrots. Rinse well, but don't peel. Tip and tail beans. Shell peas.

Put potatoes in large pot. Add just enough water to barely cover. Add 1 tsp salt, garlic and onion. Cover and bring to a boil, cooking potatoes for 10 minutes or until halfway done. Add more water if necessary, just to steam boil veggies.

Add carrots. Cover and turn heat down to barely boiling. Cook until carrots halfway done. Add beans, peas and corn. Cook until tender-crisp.

Check water level. There shoud be about 1 cup. Turn heat to low. Add cream and butter. Be careful not to curdle cream. Season with salt and pepper.

Ladle into bowls. Add garnish. Serve immediately.

I've been told that Hodge Podge is even better if refrigerated and warmed up the next day.
I've also been told that it's meant to be a meal....not a side dish.

I haven't tried it out myself. If you try it, let me know what you think!

Dublin Shore

If you want to see a small working wharf, take a drive out to the Dublin Shore government wharf. Someday I'll work up my courage to ask the men if I can take their photos, but for now you'll have to be content to see photos with no people in them! You'll find it on the Lighthouse Route, between Bridgewater and Crescent Beach.

Digby

Recently we ended up in Digby after a day of toodling around, mostly in Annapolis Royal. It was the start of Scallop Days in Digby so there were some vendors out and some grandstands in the downtown street awaiting the parade.

We didn't stay for the parade (it being late in the day and we had 1 1/2 hour drive to get home to feed the animals) but we did take a walk out on the docks.

Despite the threatening skies, it didn't rain and it was quite a pleasant walk. I love looking at the fishing boats (mostly scallop boats in this harbour I think).

After our walk, we stopped at a dockside seafood store and picked up a couple of pounds of scallops fresh from the ocean. Popped them into our trusty cooler for the drive back, and found a roadside stand along the way selling fresh corn, tomatoes and blueberries. We had a late night dinner of barbequed scallops wrapped in bacon, bbq'd corn on the cob, and sliced tomatoes. High bush blueberries (big fat juicy ones) for dessert. Yum.

We'll have to get back to Digby for another day out. Next time, straight to Digby and then out along the Digby Neck & Islands scenic drive.