Cardamom and coconut

Mondays are like a holiday for me. Liz has started to take on the responsibilities of work for the beginning of the week and I for the end. I got up late on Monday,6:30! saw the kids off to school and then it was a free day. While Owen was getting ready Liz signaled to me that she wanted to go somewhere. I wont say that I said oh great lets go, but we did go and I was happy about it. A nice morning drive up the coast would be beautiful. When I took that first left she said, "where are you going? " "To Reny's," I said. She seemed puzzled. "didn't you spell R-E-N-Y-S". I said. "R-E-N-E-E-S" She said laughing. Renee's is a new bad breakfast place in Somersworth, NH. Reny's is a fun discount store in Wells, ME. I guess I finished her spelling for her or maybe only half listened?

We went to Reny's. We still had to have breakfast. If we do not say what we are going to do when we get in the car we are lost, we are lost. Let's try here or here oh what about there. And it is drive, drive,drive. That looks expensive, where do we park, they are crowded. So we settled on finding the parking space first then we would look.

We found ourselves in downtown Ogunquit Me. in front of Bread and Roses bakery, who,by the way, has taken some business away from me at Robert's, I was curious. I didn't really care where we went I just wanted coffee. Naturally I saw some similar items to what the Black Bean carries, but this place is nothing like the Black Bean. Coffee was excellent, Carpe Diem. We got a cinnamon roll and whoopie pie. The roll was like hard white bread rolled in cinnamon sugar and with a glaze on it. I thought it was more suited for a pretzel. The whoopie (which we ate much later) was dry,dry dry. The filling however was a nice butter cream frosting. Of course we found our breakfast destination before I could finish my coffee. All in all a waste of $7.00.

Onto breakfast at Bessies's.  Per usual this was not the best choice.  At first when we walked in something was amiss.  It was bare and lacked a sense of success.  It was as if they were going out of business or just starting.  The waiter was of no help in figuring this out.  He did not know the history of the building or story behind Bessie's.  We would have to make up our own.  


Fact:This used to be a place that we frequented when we first started to "date". It was known as Einsteins. You could always get a great breakfast, coffee , and bagel. You could not always get a seat though! Not the case now.

Story: The place was sold in the mid 90's then sold at least twice. They tried to make it into a cool gay diner. It never quite worked. They focused more on  the track lighting and pastel colors than the food. Recently a southern family of color purchased the business. They sunk everything they have into the business and don't understand that the environment the food is served in is an important ingredient in the restaurant.

The confusion of the day continued as we walked to our booth or was it a table? We walked past the carpeted dining area into the counter area with linoleum flooring. On the way there Liz noticed the unavoidable smell of a dining area with carpets I noticed the Einstiens sign on the wall. In the lunch counter room I noticed the 1940's clock with Bessie's on it (similar in style to an old Borden brand clock?)Liz noticed the fabric corner decorative{?)thing a ma jiggers. We both noticed the homemade southern looking desserts in the otherwise sparse corner behind the counter. Where is this going to go? Yes coffee! Yuk coffee! Not weak, not strong ,just bad. Then the menu. I cannot read a menu for the life of me. This was one of the worst. Home computer generated, multi colored and just plain confusing. I just wanted 2OE/Saus/toast and home fries. By the time I found it I was already planning on the scramble with sausage peppers, onions and cheese. It was the same price so I got that. Liz got her usual 2scram/toast add cheese and sub bagel.

The food was delivered quickly and hot(how review like does that sound)and looked ok. It was ok. Liz did not get what she asked for. This took a while to figure out, actually when we got the bill. Her 2 egg scramble was clearly not 2eggs but maybe 5!! The cheese was american as requested, you could easily tell because it was placed on top of the eggs after cooking. They also contained cream cheese. Tasty. My guess is that they use eggs from a pourable container to fluffy and consistent in color. Homefries were good, they did include onion which is a good thing, but they needed to be cooked more. The bagel was clearly a frozen Lenders bagel.
The only thing different in my meal than Liz's were the ingredients in the scrambled eggs and my toast. As in the home fries the veggies in the scramble needed more saute time. Toast was country kitchen white served dry and there was no butter in site. I ate it all and half of Liz's. So it wasn't all that bad.
Remembering that we chose this spot because it did not seem as fancy as the others and would probably be less expensive. To sub the bagel for toast was $1 on the menu. The waiter did not sub he added a bagel $1.50 (we did not get toast too). So Liz's $4.95 2 eggs scrambled with cheese and bagel add $1 total $5.95. With their (I say convenient) errors came to $7.45. Mine was $6.95. Add the coffee, $2.00 and tx for a total of $17.65 plus tip (small tip to make up for errors!) equals $20.00. I left full but not satisfied. How much would it have been at the Bean? With the error being the correct order, total including tax $15.65. Tip is optional, so add $2.00 total $17.65. Save $2.35 at the Bean. I think that makes me feel more satisfied. Black Bean lower price, better quality and better taste. In my opinion!!

We got home. I had two errands to run and then we would just hang and watch a movie. One errand brought me to Mr. Lucky's for coconut and cardamom. Oddly enough Mr. Lucky is next door to Renee's, full circle. The movie was RUNNING WITH SCISSORS. We booth enjoyed it. Of course there was one thing said in the movie that struck us both. It had something to do with having a mom that would make hamburger helper for dinner. This was a good thing for both of us. Naturally we had hamburger helper for dinner. The kid's loved it we both added to it to make it seem more real (riccotta and tomato sauce). For dessert we had to have our favorite cupcake...Coconut and Cardamom.

It was an awesome day!









Recipe from Vanilla Garlic blog!!
Apple Cardamom Cupcakes
Makes 22 cupcakes / 350F oven

What You'll Need...
4 cups chopped apples (varieties that are good for baking - i.e. granny smith, gravenstein, Fuji)
2/3 cups vegetable oil
2 cups of sugar
4 egg whites
3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons of cardamom
1/2 teaspoon of ginger

What You'll Do...
1) Chop the apples and combine them with the sugar and let them macerate for one hour. Next add the oil and stir.

2) Preheat over to 350 degrees F (165 C).

3) Slightly beat egg whites just until a light foam appears. Combine them with the oil and apple mixture.

4) Sift the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices together. Stir into the apple mixture, and then place into cupcake papers about 3/4ths full.

5) Bake for 15 minutes undisturbed, then rotate the pan and cook for another 3-7 minutes, testing with a toothpick for doneness. Careful, as if the toothpick goes into an apple it will not come out clean, but cupcake may be done.

Salted Caramel
What You'll Need...
6 tablespoons of butter
3/4 cup of sugar or vanilla sugar
1 cup of heavy cream
1 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt

What You'll Do...
1) Melt the butter in a large, deep heavy-duty saucepan. Stir in the sugar and and stir until golden brown.

2) Take off the heat and pour in half the cream and whisk like a crazy person until the caramel is smooth. Whisk in the rest of the cream and the salt. Strain into a bowl and then spoon over cupcakes. (The caramel will thicken if you let it sit in the fridge, which is also yummy.)

Variations
Feel free to switch out the cardamom for cinnamon, or apples for pears. The recipe is flexible and forgiving. Freshly whipped cream is also an ideal pairing.