Destination: The Union Fair, Union, ME

Best of Show: Steamers at The Boathouse on the harbor

The best steamers we'd ever had, served with draft Allagash White Ale - heavenly!

Destination: Provincetown

Best of Show: The Beehive Tavern

Any summer sunday expedition to Cape Cod must take into account that you won't be getting off-Cape before the traffic subsides, you may as well plan to dine well and slowly.

The Bee-Hive is a homey, comfortable place with local Cape Cod Beer (a vacation in every pint!) and Cape Cod comfort food.

See also the very excellent Dunbar Tea Room.

Destination: Bennington VT and Hoosick Falls, NY

Best of Show: Peppermills, Bennington

Destination: Boothbay Harbor, ME

Best of Show: Cafe Mirabelle, Portsmouth, NH

Another honorable mention to Becky's Diner (nothin' finer!) 

Destination: Woburn, MA

Best of Show: A Sazerac at the Sichuan Garden bar

We went to Woburn for dinner this Friday after dropping Melissa off at Logan Airport.

I had wanted to come here for the highly-regarded authentic fare ever since visitng the Yin-Yu-Tang House at excellent Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, and listening to a series of lectures on 5000 years of Chinese history. The classic cocktails were a very pleasant surprise.

Destination: Bar Harbor, ME

Best of Show: McKay's Public House, Bar Harbor

In a departure from our usual routine, we actually spent the night on the road. well, not on the road exactly, but at the Anchorage Inn in Bar Harbor.

We had breakfast in the morning at the Cafe this Way, another charming place.

Destination: Martha's Vineyard, MA

Best of Show: oysters and stout over politics with the locals at Offshore Brewing Company

Destination: The July Brimfield Antiques Fair

Best of Show: memories of 25-cent cider donuts

With hospitality and authentic Greek New England pizza from Costa at the Brimfield House of Pizza.

Destination: Boothbay Harbor, but weather aborted that mission so we went inland

Best of Show: A Sazerac and creative cuisine at the Pepperland Cafe in South Berwick, ME, across from Sarah Orne Jewett's house.

With honorable mention to Becky's Diner (nothin' finer!) in Portland

Destination: Provincetown, MA

Best of Show: the mussels at Bubala's in P-Town

Study choreography here.

Billy and Sonya the bartenders know their stuff, too.

Destination: The Champlain Valley

Best of Show: Dinner at the Black Sheep Bistro, Vergennes, VT

Martini & Rossi Dry Vermouth

Destination: Farmington, Ct

Best of Show: Hard Cider at a farmstand in Litchfield, a Greylock Martini at Sullivan Station in Lee, MA

We went to Hillstead House in Farmington, CT.

When you are planning a fancy dinner for friends or family, there's nothing like a visit to one of the many preserved mansions around New England to inspire you to reach for something special. I look at the grand dining room, the dishes, the kitchen, and I think "What could I do with this kitchen and a handful of servants? What would I set on that table?"

After leaving the house/museum, we headed west and made an adventure of it, including finding farm-fresh Strawberries that ended up in a Frozen Strawberry Cream Torte for Richmond's birthday!

Destination: Trenton NJ Amtrak Station

Best of Show: Cherry Grove Farm bacon and cheeses

Lorna's roadtrip done, I retrieved her at the Trenton Amtrak station and took a long, leisurely drive to New Hope, PA, up the Delaware Water Gap, across NY and CT (with dinner at Elizabeth's in Tarriffville, CT) then RI and finally home to Plymouth!

Destination: Worcester, MA
Best of Show: Armsby Abbey

I had just set Lorna and Melissa off on a roadtrip to Florida (Lorna can tell you about those adventures) and I was at loose ends in Worcester. Of course, there's no shortage of fine foodie adventuring to be had in Worcester, but loading up the car had been thirsty work so I met my old pal Bill at Armsby Abbey.

Destination: Mid-Coast Maine

Best of Show: Boynton-McKay Coffeehouse, Camden, ME

retro look, great local coffee, people-watching in a great location

Destination: The lower Maine coast, southwest of Portland.

Best of Show: Gypsy Sweethearts restaurant, Ogunquit, ME

Lobster Taco, for starters... people watching, too.

We went to North Hero, VT, on an island in Lake Champlain beyond Burlington, on the NY state and Canadian borders.

It doesn't get any better than a Tanqueray 10 Martini in an Adirondack chair looking across Lake Champlain to Mount Mansfield and Stow. For dinner, a burger of local grass-fed Canamak Farms beef. The coffee is excellent too, which is a good thing when it's 280 miles home to Plymouth!

The Farmer's Diner in Quechee, VT is a great place for me to sit and work while Lorna shops in the huge nearby antiques co-op. The diner is devoted to local farmers and their fare, even proudly posting lists of their suppliers for almost everything on the menu.

I like to sit at the end of the counter by the window with a bottomless cup of locally-roasted coffee. When Lorna comes to fetch me, we eat and then press on with our adventure.

Like Boston, Portland, and many other fishing ports, Gloucester has a sizable and old Italian population, and the restaurants and markets to support it. This means you have a good chance to find real Italian products and authentic Italian specialties.

The Cassata alla Siciliana is a revelation of the baker's art. It's a Sicilian cake made from a sponge cake with a cannolli filling, covered with fondant and candied fruits, and sometimes wrapped with a band of pale green marzipan. It is difficult to make, and because it is sometimes imported frozen by Sapori di Napoli, few bakeries actually make it.

Lorna had tried the imported Cassata at La Trattoria, just a few doors down, and fallen in love with it. Naturally I decided I had to make it myself. I carefully deconstructed a slice, observed the cake in the pastry case, and asked where I could find one. The hostess directed me to the Caffe Sicilia.

Well, I spoke to the owner and it did not go well. He told me I cannot make the Cassata because I am not Sicilian! (I have a Neapolitan last name, but three of my grandparents were Irish...)

Challenge accepted.

I am not the most talented baker in New England, but I did my research and gave it the old college try.

Our first expedition of the year was a great success.  We had a nice drive and we dined at a restaurant with good food of the sort that inspires the dedicated foodie!

It was a typically cold New England January day but we were refreshed from the previous day's holiday rest and fully recuperated from the evening that had preceded it. My birthday was fast approaching, so I got to choose that Saturday's expedition: exploring the shops and eateries of Portland's Old Port District followed by a French dinner at Cafe Mirabelle in Portsmouth.

Portland's Old Port has a number of places of interest to foodies, from the big Shipyard Brewery to the excellent Italian groceries at Micucci Market to the big kitchen store on Front Street and all the little places in the grid of shops that slopes down to the waterfront. We had a great late lunch at Norm's East End Barbecue, where I could not resist the Pepperoncini Martini (a vodka Martini made like a dirty Martini with pepperoncini juice and garnished with a vinegary yellow pepperoncini) that was an inspired complement to the rich smokey brisket I was enjoying.

Best of Show, though, has to go to the Coq au Vin at Cafe Mirabelle. I had long planned to make this dish, but was concerned because I could not picture how it is supposed to look and taste when it is done. It was fabulous with a little carafe of Cotes du Rhone! Now I have no excuse - I must make it myself!

We explored the "Quiet Corner" of the Nutmeg State, from the Rhode Island border south as far as Route 6 and west as far as Willimantic. This area is home every August to the Brooklyn Fair, the oldest agricultural fair in the country, in bucolic Brooklyn, CT.

We had lunch in Putnam, a cute little town known for its antiques shops.

The downtown area of Putnam centers on a crossroads on Rte 44. On the south side is a short block of restaurants and shops, including 85 Main, a wonderfully creative locavore establishment.

I enjoyed the cutest lightweight summer salad: a slab of ripe seedless watermelon grilled and drizzled with balsamic vinegar, served with caramelized shallots and medallions of chocolate goat cheese from Capri Farm in Hubbardston, MA. This would be excellent at a late summer afternoon tea!

We drove out to the wilds of Franklin County for the annual CiderDays festival.

This event is distributed all over Franklin County, but we typically use quaint little Colrain as our rally point.  That's because I really enjoy seeing the table outside the brick meeting house (shown here) with samples of scores of different heirloom apples. This is where you can try little-seen heirlooms like the Sheepnose, Twenty-Ounce, Winter Banana, and  Chenango Strawberry, as well as old classics like the Roxbury Russett, Northern Spy, Winesap, Baldwin, and more.

We also enjoy the (sometimes testy) cider panels and the tasting salon, where you can sample hard cider from some of the many cidermakers in New England and beyond.

The events include sessions about types of apples and cider, pairing cider with cheeses, cooking with apples and cider, growing apples, and making cider. It's really an eye-opening experience.