Sunday, July 15, 2012

Summer snacks

It's been hot around these parts and my kids have been going through growth spurts. This means that they eat a lot, which means there needs to be a lot of food around. Luckily, food comes in many forms...

We just got back from a beautiful week in Maine on Deer Isle.
We were lucky enough to have to lots of seafood at our finger tips - lobster was only $3.59/lb! I'm not happy that the lobster men (lobster fishermen? lobster people to be PC?) were making so very little off of their hard work, but I am happy that we had access to so much of it. Unfortunately, one lobster man told me that they were only getting $1.50/lb for the lobsters they were hauling in... and I heard rumor of a potential strike. But if you can enjoy some of those delicious creatures, please do.

Lobster wasn't the only good food we ate.
We met a local on the dock of the small town near where we were staying - he was impressed with my 5 year old's ability to cast with his fishing pole. I guess he liked us because we walked away from there with the generous gift of 15 - 20 pounds of free crabs.
The crabs were a lot of work for the little bit of (delicious) meat they have, but we were able to get 12 good crab cakes out of them - and with mostly crab meat, not filler.
 We fished a lot too, but didn't catch a thing.
However, we did successfully collect many delicious clams. I had never really had clams before, they kind of grossed me out... but it's amazing how good something can be when you harvest or grow it yourself. I enjoyed these clams, but my muscles are still a bit sore from all of the hard work.


And now we are home, looking forward to a very hot week with all 3 kids home while I am at work. My job today (besides lots of vacation laundry and house cleaning) is to fill the fridge with lots of easy to grab things to eat and drink for kids when the temperatures soar into the 90s.
I've already made the iced tea, lemonade, hard boiled eggs, dog food (not for the kids but it still had to be done), and I will continue after my blogging break with ready to eat chopped veggies, something with lentils and anything else that I can pull together that they might like.
I had to make sure there where popsicles of course.
AND I tried out a new snack too. I bought this nori from a man at the farmer's market on Deer Isle just 2 days ago - he had harvested it himself and was selling it for cheap.
I fried it up with some raw butter that I made before we left on our trip and it is really good! It is crispy and delicious enough to eat like popcorn. My youngest just devoured the bowl that I made so I will be making more of this snack as well and will probably keep it in a jar so that it stays fresh.

Most of these snacks are things that only come with hot summer days... or they at least make us think of hot summer days. I'm enjoying our summer very much and look forward to more family fun, as well as fun with friends.

And just so you know, I've been taking a break from using a computer when I don't have to so blog posts have been and might be less often, but I promise to at least have some good pics when I do post... Instead, I'm picking up a book.

Happy summer!