Clinton New Hampshire and Chicken Maryland

Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Bangor

Of course, daily reporting in to your spouse – who is keeping track of every penny of your joint budget – of how much money you spent is also a great strategy for cutting back. I might have easily spent double the amount I did at Frankskinsense this morning had I not known I would have to ‘fess up to Walt as soon as I got home. But I did find on her clearance table some essentials that we needed – shampoo, moisturizer, cleanser, bubble bath for Reed that smells like coconut, etc. Plus a few luxuries like salt and oil scrub that I think my almost 40 year old skin will appreciate. But in looking at the list of ingredients for this scrub, I think I might be able to concoct this stuff myself in the future for a lot less money. I’m sure there are recipes galore online.

The London newspapers all got it wrong this morning - although none of them were dumb enough to put that Obama had won in New Hampshire, they pictures were of him, and the stories were of Clinton switching to plan B in the wake of her almost certain defeat. The papers' headlines were already done at 11 pm our time last night, almost 8 hours before the decision was final in N.H. So tomorrow's papers will be more interesting. The press here really loves these stories, by the way, they're so excited at the prospect of the end of the Bush era, although the more thoughtful commentators seem to think that the wisest if less inspiring course of action would be to elect Clinton, who is a world-class leader and who will not inflict her political learning curve on the country and the rest of the world. I'm undecided. I want to vote for them both.

Next door neighbor June gave me quite a treat yesterday, taking me along with her church women’s group for a lunch outing to the Ramblin’ Rose restaurant, not too far away in Crawfordsburn, attached to a garden center. We were a crowd of about 40 mature ladies, in a restaurant considered an old ladies restaurant – according to Pearl who eats there every week on Sundays – because the menu is so traditional and homestyle. I examined the high tea menu for the restaurant, which is available on Fridays and Saturdays from 4:30 to 6:30 pm, and discovered a nice variety of traditional seafood and beef dishes – no surprises there, all you have to do is look around and you’ll see why Ireland and the British Isles are cow heaven – and some more ethnic chicken selections such as sweet and sour chicken, chicken curry, and something called Chicken Maryland, which was breaded and fried chicken accompanied by corn, sweet potato, banana, pineapple, and bacon. This was apparently very popular a few decades ago and to me it sounds sort of Caribbean/Islander/Southern and I need to find out if anyone else has heard of Chicken Maryland! Anyway, interesting how chicken was the dish with which it is acceptable to experiment, or at least slightly veer towards the spicy. No such flights of fancy with the haddock or the beef cutlets.

My lunch consisted of a chicken breast cooked with bacon, mashed potatoes, a roast potato, creamed leeks, and carrots, with apple pie and custard for dessert.