Blueberries and Lobster is about living and eating in Maine’s largest city. It’s about eating from my kitchen, my friends’ kitchens, and good local restaurants. It’s about fresh, local produce from my friend’s farm, and random gifts of baked goods from neighbors.
People who like good, simple food: This blog is for you. Planning to visit Maine for the first time? Read on to learn about my favorite food-related haunts in and around Portland. Looking to move to Maine? Buy a snow shovel and a good winter coat, then read about what it’s like to live here and how to live among Mainers as someone from away.
You might also be interested if you just like pretty pictures. I like to take pretty pictures, too.
You can either read here or via my RSS feed.
About Jan
When I moved to a vegetarian co-op in the summer of 1998, I had access to a well-stocked industrial kitchen. We had a walk-in cold room, gas stoves with huge and dangerous flames, and large metal refrigerators with latch handles. In the center, a large wooden butcher block where we chopped, minced, and kneaded. And boy, did we knead: Every day, six loaves of fresh, handmade bread, made with flour scooped out of large plastic barrels.
That’s where I really began my love affair with the kitchen. When I left the co-op, I learned to scale down my recipes to feed four instead of forty, although it did take some practice. (There was that huge batch of ill-fated black bean chili that sat in the two-dollar stockpot for ages until we finally threw it out, pot and all.)
These days, it’s just the two of us, me and Barb, with the occasional dinner party. But boy do I love the kitchen. The kitchen is therapy for me, a place where I can create something beautiful, delicious, and usually healthy. I also like to eat local food — here in Maine, the locally-grown beets, chard, kale, and potatoes are particularly delicious, whether they come from the farmers’ market, our local CSA share, or a neighbor’s garden.
When not in the kitchen, I’m a freelance web developer, a student of massage therapy, and a dancer. And I’ve been keeping a LiveJournal for years, which has many public posts you are welcome to read if you’re interested. Contact me anytime, at jan AT blueberriesandlobster DOT com.