Friday, April 1st at 7:00p
Day: March 29, 2016
AJ’s At The Harbor Menu- More At www.capeanneats.com
Rum Raisin Sweet Bread Pudding
Sometimes the best recipes are created with holiday leftovers!
Rum Raisin Sweet Bread Pudding!
Having fun in the kitchen this week creating new recipes using Easter Dinner Leftovers! Yesterday a delicious Cream of Roasted Veggie Soup made from a Roasted Veggie medley Kate made, and today Grilled Lamb , Artichoke and Roasted Red Pepper Salad was made with a leftover grilled lamb and artichokes! I encourage you to serve your leftovers in a more exciting fashion this week rather than the usually re-heat and serve it again we all seem to be guilty of more often than not!
Rum Raisin Sweet Bread Pudding
Ingredients
1 Cup golden raisins
½ cup Malibu Rum
1/2 cup hot water
12 cups Sweet bread torn or cubed into 1-2 inch pieces
3-4 extra lg eggs
5-6 egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoon rum flavoring
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh ground cinnamon, plus 1 teaspoon for top before baking
3 ½ cups half & half
1 tablespoon butter
Step-by-Step
1 Soak raisins in Malibu rum & hot water for 10 minutes, strain liquid; reserve
2 place bread in large mixing bowl; add soaked & strained raisins
3 whisk eggs, egg yolks,half & half, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, pure vanilla extract, and Rum flavoring together
4 Butter 12” round round dish
5 pour egg mixture over bread, using clean hands or large spoon toss well, transfer to prepared baking dish; sprinkle top with 1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 bake in preheated 350 degree oven 25-30 min
7 serve warm with scoop of Vanilla Ice cream
Note~ I’m not a big fan of super “eggy”Bread Pudding, if you prefer a more eggy version simply add 4 extra large eggs & 6 egg yolks( I used 3 & 5 and I found it to be perfectly pleasing to mytastbuds! )
Grilled Lamb Roasted Red Pepper & Artichoke Salad
MYSTERY AT LOBLOLLY COVE
Mystery at Loblolly Cove
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDfgvX0jyls/
Don’t you love the sound of the word loblolly? I am curious as to why Loblolly Cove is called as such. There is the Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda) but that is a species that grows in the the southern United States. Nautically speaking, loblolly refers to a thick gruel served on ships. Geographically, in some southern US dialects, a loblolly is a mire or mudhole. Loblolly Cove is neither of these. Perhaps the namer of Loblolly Cove just liked the name. To me, it sounds like the perfect setting for a mystery novel, the kind you read when a kid on summer vacation – “Mystery at Loblolly Cove.”
Scenes from around Loblolly Cove
You may have noticed odd-looking Common Eiders on our shores lately. They are juvenile males. It takes several years for the adult male to develop his distinctive black and white wing pattern.
Adult Male and Female Common Eider with Male Bufflehead in Flight
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDivKlQjynB/
Here and There
Here and There
When I was a kid, I spent my summers
near my grandfather’s farm in Port Benjamin,
in upstate New York. Port Ben wasn’t a port
anymore, not since 1900 when
the train replaced the D & H canal.
Anyway, the Rondout Creek ran near our house
and provided a great place to play, fish,
swim and have adventures that are with me
sharp and clear after more than sixty years.
To get to the creek, we had to cross a
hayfield, which, if recently mowed, was tough
on our bare feet , climb down the creek bank on
a rickety staircase and cross the muddy
bottom land on a wobbly wooden walk.
Here’s the point. While walking Atlantic Street
the other day, as in a foggy dream,
I found that old boardwalk spread over the
flooded soggy salt marsh, no doubt trod by
kids with sixty years of adventures remembered.
© Marty Luster 2011
Encore, first posted December 11, 2011.
Beautiful Sunday Morning at Cape Ann Marina
Cape Ann Forum Presents
US EFFORTS TO “MANAGE” MIDEAST FUTILE, SAYS EXPERT
Time to step back & rethink our engagement
National security expert Stephen Walt will tackle the question of whether the United States should keep trying to manage the rivalries and conflicts in the Middle East at a free Cape Ann Forum at 7 p.m. on Sunday, April 3 at Gloucester City Hall. His talk will be followed by a question-and-answer period moderated by popular journalist and radio commentator Christopher Lydon, the featured speaker at a 2014 forum on the future of global media.
Walt’s answer to the question: An emphatic “no”. He argues that repeated efforts by presidents of both parties to meddle in the Middle East have failed, and it’s time to pull back and reassess, recognizing what we can and cannot realistically achieve.
“The Middle East today is riven by a series of overlapping conflicts along multiple fault lines, driven in good part by protracted government failures and exacerbated by misguided outside meddling,” says Walt. “When things are this bad, the need to rethink the entire U.S. approach to the region is hard to escape.”
Walt, who calls himself a “realist” in foreign policy, has little patience with interventionists on both sides of the aisle, criticizing “liberal hawks” and “neocons” in equal measure.
“The Islamic State wouldn’t exist if the neocons hadn’t led us blindly into Iraq, and Iran would have less reason to contemplate getting nuclear weapons if it hadn’t watched the United States throw its weight around in the region and threaten it directly with regime change,” he says.
But Walt is scathing, too, in his criticism of Democrats who supported the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya only to see the subsequent collapse of that country and the rise of the Islamic State there, and he dismisses U.S. attempts to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians while doubling as Israel’s “strategic ally” as contradictory and bound to fail.
“Instead of acting like a hyperactive juggler dashing between a dozen spinning plates, maybe the best course is to step back even more than we have already,” he says.
But Walt, who situates his thinking within the “realism” tradition of people like George Kennan, Hans Morgenthau, Reinhold Niebuhr and Walter Lippmann, insists he is not an isolationist: “Realists believe military power is essential to preserving a state’s independence and autonomy, but they recognize it is a crude instrument that often produces unintended consequences.
“Realists believe nationalism and other local identities are powerful and enduring; states are mostly selfish; altruism is rare; trust is hard to come by; and norms and institutions have a limited impact on what powerful states do. In short, realists have a generally pessimistic view of international affairs and are wary of efforts to remake the world according to some ideological blueprint, no matter how appealing it might be in the abstract.”
Stephen Walt, who returns to the Cape Ann Forum for the second time, is the Robert and Renee Belfer Professsor of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He previously taught at Princeton University and the University of Chicago, where he served as Master of the Social Science Collegiate Division and Deputy Dean of Social Sciences. His 2012 Forum on “The Twilight of the American Era” drew more than 100 people and sparked a vigorous discussion.
Walt has been a resident associate of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, and a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has consulted for the Institute of Defense Analyses, the Center for Naval Analyses, and the National Defense University. He now serves on the editorial boards of Foreign Policy, Security Studies, International Relations, and the Journal of Cold War Studies, and he is co-editor of the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs.
The outspoken professor wrote The Origins of Alliances (1987), which received the 1988 Edgar S. Furniss National Security Book Award. He is also the author of Revolution and War (1996), Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy (2005), and, with co-author John Mearsheimer, The Israel Lobby (2007), which generated considerable debate for its critical view of the lobby’s influence in Washington.
This will be the 93rd Cape Ann Forum since the organization was founded after the 2001 terrorist attacks to increase public awareness of international issues and stimulate discussion and debate. The last event of the Forum’s 2015/2016 season features West Point grad and career-officer-turned-security-analyst Andrew Bacevich at 7 p.m. Sunday, May 15, on the challenges the U.S. faces on the global stage in the years ahead: “Why the U.S. keeps losing wars (but fights them anyway).”
For more information, go to the Forum’s website at www.capeannforum.org.
AJ’s At The Harbor First Look On www.capeanneats.com
More Cape Ann Dining News-
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AJ’s At The Harbor is set for a soft opening this weekend and then opening next Tuesday for good. I spoke with AJ Gianakakis about the theme, the special menu items and more in this video-
The location is 23 East Main Street, Gloucester MA (The Former Location of Mooters, LaRosas, Cacciatores)
Click photos to enlarge menus-
Check out the Facebook page for more info here- https://www.facebook.com/AJsHarbor/
ROOMFUL OF BLUES SUMMER KICK-OFF CRUISE MAY 29 – Tickets already SELLING FAST
We just put tickets on sale to the public for our Roomful of Blues Cruise on Sunday, May 29 aboard the Beauport Princess Cruise Ship and they’re already selling fast.
Last year every one of our concert cruises sold out and it looks like this one will too. Please don’t wait … and then call asking us to break Coast Guard rules to let you on board a full ship.
GET YOUR TICKETS RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. We hate saying “No” to people we know on concert day!
What? You’ve never been aboard the Beauport Princesss Cruise ship? Well you’re in for a treat: The ship has 2 fully-enclosed decks with dance floors plus an open-air top deck.
We offer theatre seating on the first deck, tables on the second deck and couches on the top deck. Your ticket includes complementary light snacks, plus there are three full-service cash bars with beer, wine and top-shelf liquor.
Can you imagine a better way to kick off summer than partying with 5-time Grammy nominated national touring stars while cruising historic, gorgeous Gloucester Harbor! Here’s a taste of how much fun we had last year:
Gloucester Smiles ~ 203
Grant Circle has it’s own rules
The great Rotary debate. I know what the rules are for driving around a rotary but my kids and I had a conversation about how Gloucester’s Grant Circle has it’s own set of rules. So I’m wondering what everyone does when they drive on Washington St. from Friendly’s over to Washington St. heading toward the hospital. What lane are you in when you start? If you are in the right hand lane, you are typically only supposed to head up the extension, but most people in that lane are heading to the 2nd exit up Washington. If you are in the left lane and head up to the 2nd exit up Washington then you are playing drag race with the guy who is trying to beat you there. So here’s a quick poll on your driving habits because inquiring minds want to know! Safe travels!
Flowers in a Pinch
While I’m not proud of waiting until near to the last minute….it was only because I knew that I could score some really nice, fresh flowers on Easter morning by stopping at Shaw’s.
There are absolutely some local florists that I love and when looking for something really special I always head to one of them. That having been said, when looking for a simple bouquet, I always have great luck at Shaw’s. I really do.
So, on Easter morning…actually like 12:00/noon time….I stopped by, selected three different bunches of flowers, and asked the really nice young girl working the flower counter to make two arrangements by combining them.
It took all of five minutes and, if you ask me, they were perfect. To quote her, the little bouquets were “simple and sophisticated.” And, they were. When packaged in classic brown paper and a simple little ribbon they were totally charming.
Total cost for both: $24. I left totally wishing I had made a 3rd so I could bring one home to my own house….but, then realized the puppy would have eaten it anyway.
SEASIDE GARDEN CLUB PRESENTS SIMPLE STEPS TO ORGANIC LAWN CARE
SAVE OUR SHORES FUNDRAISER UPDATE!
FOB Susan from Generous Gardeners
Saw Susan from Generous Gardeners a few times on Saturday as she was beautifying our city.
Clouds Ripping By @CaptJoeLobster #GloucesterMA
Cape Ann Theatre Collaborative presents "Blithe Spirit"
Cape Ann Theatre Collaborative presents “Blithe Spirit”
Martini and Séance anyone? Blithe Spirit tells the story of
novelist Charles Condomine, a suave & dapper charmer,
who contacts the lovable & outlandish medium Madame Arcati,
to conduct a séance, as he needs material for his new book “The Unseen.”
As a result of the séance, Charles gets more than he bargained for,
when his deceased first wife, the ‘morally untidy’ Elvira, returns from the dead
to make mischief & create havoc with Charles & his rather staid,
& boring marriage to his second wife, the uptight & domineering Ruth.
What follows is a madcap, wildly frolicsome adventure,
full of aristocratic banter and brittleness, & a prickly menage a trois.
Of course, Blithe Spirit enchants not only because of the otherworldly plot,
but the playwright’s diamond-sharp wit.
SHOW DATES & TIMES
8 performances:
Thursday March 31st – Opening Night @ 7:30 pm
Friday April 1st & Saturday April 2nd @ 7:30 pm
Sunday April 3rd @ 3 pm
Friday April 8th & Saturday April 9th @ 7:30 pm
Sunday April 10th @ 3 pm
TICKETS SALES & RESERVATIONS
$20 general admission
Door sales cash/check only
Reserve at CatCollab@gmail.com
Buy tickets online at http://capeanntheatrecollaborative.com/
North Shore Acappella at Seaport Grille
More Cape Ann Dining News-
http://www.capeanneats.com
The crowd really had a blast the last time the North Shore Acappella performed here, join us!