Tag: Laurie Lufkin
Inspired Cooking Beauport Vodka Salmon Video Part II With Bobby Ryan
Inspired Cooking Beauport Vodka Salmon Video Part I With Bobby Ryan
Part I Click pic to play
Part II at 8PM tonight
Laurie Lufkin’s Inspired Cooking With Turtle Alley Proprietor Hallie Baker
We are Family!!!
There are so many good people here on Cape Ann. A big happy family!
To add to Ed’s thank you’s for the help on the Lobster Tree, I’ll add mine to Laurie Lufkin and her crew of people from Essex and Gloucester who made the GMG Cookie Contest a great success. She worked tenaciously to gather the prizes, choose the judges, prepare the score sheets and run the whole show. And SMILING through it all! Thanks also go out to all the prize donors including those that I was able to get – Friendly’s Restaurant and Cape Ann Lanes. A huge thank to Jim Montanginio and his daughter Marcy for donating the space at Brown’s Mall. All good eggs!
And from all of us at PRESENT -a big thank to the Common Crow for the yummy cheese platter on Ladies’ Night.
More huge thank you’s go out to everyone who works at PRESENT. Without the invitation from Amanda to join the artisans this year, I would have never been able to create (and sell) the calendars that have become a huge hit. I’ve been crazy working two jobs, but it’s all been worth it as I’ve met so many creative people who are as whacko as me! 🙂
GMG Holiday Cookie Contest- Slide Show From Thom Falzorano
Laurie Lufkin put together a fantastic program with some help from Sharon Lowe for the first annual Good Morning Gloucester Holiday Cookie Contest to benefit the Open Door Pantry. I’ll let Laurie do the honors of announcing the winners as it was her baby but in the meantime you can check out slide show from Thom Falzorano. Click the picture to view the slide show-

Pictured above is the entry by my sister Felicia Mohan, niece Amanda and Snoop Maddie Mad. (my personal favorite for obvious reasons) 🙂
Congrats to the winners! There were 23 entries.
Merry Christmas From GMG
We’re Bustin’ Out All The Moves For You This XMAS Season!
Unfortunately I don’t have pics of Mike Lindberg or Frank Gentile- but they are in here in spirit.
Send your own ElfYourself eCards
GMG Cookie Contest- The Bean and Mammaw Say Bring It On!
It’s official.
When picking up my mom at the airport for the holidays her and the Bean made a pact to enter Laurie and Sharon’s GMG Holiday Cookie Baking contest on December 3rd.
The Bean just loves to cook with my mother. They both need to have busy hands and love to create so this will be something special for them to do together.
I guess this excludes me from the judging. 🙂
How many of you are planning to enter? How many of you have children in your life and are looking for some actrivity to do together? Well come on down to Browns Mall and enter-
Click this text for the details

1st Annual Good Morning Gloucester Holiday Cookie Contest!
Do You Make The Best Holiday Cookies Around and Want To Prove It?
Here’s your chance!
1ST ANNUAL GOOD MORNING GLOUCESTER HOLIDAY COOKIE CONTEST
When: Thursday, December 3rd (Ladies Shopping Night in Gloucester). Entry turn in 4-5:30 pm, judging begins at 6:00. No prior registration necessary
Where: Brown’s Mall, 186 Main Street, Gloucester
Why: Because we want to find the best cookies around, support the Open Door Food Pantry this holiday season and have fun with food at the same time in a contest that does not involve giant burgers or fiery foods for a change.
Entry fee: $5.00 and two non perishable food items to be donated to the Open Door.
Your entries will be judged on the following criteria by qualified food professionals and local notables, all with excellent taste buds:
Taste 40%
Appearance (of cookies and overall presentation) 20%
Texture 20%
Overall Appeal of cookies 20%
Prizes will be awarded as follows:
1st place, individual entry
2nd place, individual entry
3rd place, individual entry
One 1st place prize for a youth/family entry.
The prizes will be fabulous and available for viewing when you drop off your entry the night of the event–trust us on this one–and the bragging rights are just an extra!
And now, the particulars:
You may decorate and garnish your entries with holiday flair as desired, 12 cookies per plate please.
You may enter as many different cookie submissions as you wish but you must pay an additional $5.00 and two more non perishable food items for The Open Door per entry.
No professional bakers/chefs allowed to enter please.
No mixes allowed. All entries must be from scratch.
Three legible copies of recipe must accompany all entries. Please include name, address and telephone number on the back of each sheet. Recipes become the property of www.goodmorningloucester.com and may be reproduced. If your recipe is not original (your personal creation), please attribute its origin.
Judging will begin promptly at 6:00 and will conclude when all entries have been judged
You do not have to be present for announcement of the winners, but it will be more fun if you are.
The decisions of the judges are final.
All cookie entries will be packaged and donated to The Open Door the night of the event.
Tune in tomorrow for details!!
We’re cooking up something!
Watch for more information about another GMG event…yes, it involves food. No, it does not involve hot peppers. Keep an eye right here this week!
OMG Cookies!
Laurie posted a recipe a few weeks ago for Fall Fruit Oatmeal Cookies and I was dying to try them. So the opening of our gift shop,“Present”, last night gave me a good reason to make them. I found all the ingredients (including the cinnamon chips), but I decided to use dried apricots instead of the apples. Well I gotta tell you, they are incredible. I was lucky to get them out of the house with 2 guys (and me) sneaking cookies all evening.
Thanks, Laurie!!! Yum!
Caption Contest- Winner Gets Two Dozen Of Laurie Lufkin’s Cookies
Laurie Lufkin Has Agreed To Provide 2 dozen cookies to the winner of the caption contest for this picture. Laurie and her mom will be the judges.
Deadline 9AM Monday Morning for entry.

Open Door Food Pantry–It’s A Good Thing!

So yesterday, Lily and I went to the Open Door Food Pantry to shoot an episode of Inspired Cooking which will air next week and probably for a couple of weeks. The show was about fun and easy ideas to use your holiday leftovers in a cost effective manner because I feel that throwing away food is like flushing money down the drain–and I don’t want to do it!
Anyway, Julie LaFontaine, the Executive Director of the Open Door, Lily and I had a great time doing the show, the food came out delicious and a good time was had by all. The point of this is that there are lots of families on Cape Ann that need our help. Families have been hit hard in this economy and donating a holiday dinner to a needy family is the right thing to do if you can afford to help out.
This is what your $30.00 will buy for a family in need:

Holiday Meal Basket Donation Form
Each basket contains all the fixings a family of four will need to prepare a festive holiday meal. Just click on the link and everything you need to know is right there.
Baskets include:
- Turkey (14-16 pounds)
- Stuffing Mix
- Potatoes
- Carrots*
- Butternut squash
- Apples
- Cranberry Sauce
- Dinner Rolls*
- Gravy
Please help out our neighbors who might be struggling right now. According to Julie, those who are using the pantry are mostly working families who just can’t make ends meet. People are suffering everywhere and if you can help, please do. Here is the information below.
And if I can nominate a good egg, that would be Julie LaFontaine!

Inspired Cooking With Laurie To Air Tuesday Night
These recipe’s will be cooked on Tuesday night’s episode.
Due to some crazy circumstances about the Seafood Throwdown from September is finally airing tonight! Inspired Cooking airs on Channel 12, Cape Ann TV, on Tuesday evenings at 8:30, Friday afternoons at 4:30 and Sunday mornings at 11:30–I hope you will tune in! Here are the recipes for all of the components of the winning dish.

Panko Crusted Haddock with Gremolata
For the fish:
2 c. panko crumbs
1 lemon, zested and juiced, zest finely chopped
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder (for the throw down I used fresh garlic, very finely chopped)
11/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk or light cream
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound skinless haddock or cod filet, cut into 3 pieces
In a medium bowl, whisk together crumbs, zest, juice, parsley, garlic powder. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in to a shallow dish, such as a pie plate and set aside.
In another shallow dish, whisk together egg and milk. Season with salt and pepper if desired.
In a large saute pan over medium high heat, combine butter and oil. Dip fish into the egg mixture to cover completely and then press in to crumb mixture. Turn fish over and repeat. Press crumbs into fish if necessary. When butter and oil is melted and hot, cook fish about 5 minutes until crumbs are browned and fish is partially cooked. Flip over and cook second side for an additional 3-4 minutes until cooked through. Cooking times vary with thickness of fish. Remove to serving plate and top with a drizzle of gremolata.
For the gremolata:
3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest, finely chopped
Olive oil (traditional gremolata has no olive oil but I wanted it a little looser)
Salt & pepper to taste
Combine parsley, garlic and lemon zest in a small bowl and add just enough olive oil to make the mixture liquid enough to drizzle on the fish. Season with salt and pepper to taste. This can be doubled or tripled as needed.
Grilled Vegetable Napoleon with Goat Cheese
1 ear corn, silk removed husk left on
1 tablespoon softened butter
Salt and pepper to taste
2 oz crumbled goat cheese
3 springs rosemary, leaves stripped from stem to within 2″ from the top, leaves finely chopped, stems reserved
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1/2 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 whole eggplant (about 4″ in diameter), sliced in 1/2″ in slices
1 whole summer squash or zucchini, sliced in 1/2″ slices
2-4″ diameter tomatoes, in 1/4″ slices
Preheat outdoor grill or indoor grill pan to medium high heat. Pull back husks of corn and rub kernels with butter. Season with salt and pepper. Pull husks back up over kernels and tie top with one of the husks to from a covering over the kernels. Grill corn for 10-15 minutes, turning frequently. Remove from grill and allow to cool. Using a sharp knife, cut kernels from ear and set aside to cool completely. When cool, combine with goat cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste.
In the meantime, prepare the marinade for the vegetables. In a large bowl, combine chopped rosemary, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Toss eggplant and summer squash with dressing and grill on preheated grill or grill pan about 5 minutes per side until softened. Remove from heat and set aside. On the serving plate, build your napoleons. Layer grilled vegetables and then one slice tomato, and repeat. Trim the reserved rosemary stems to the height of the napoleon and insert into the center of the stack. Sprinkle the stack with the corn and goat cheese combination and enjoy!
Sauteed Swiss Chard
2-3 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon shallots, finely chopped (for the throw down we used small Walla Walla onions because there were no shallots available)
1 bunch Swiss chard, chopped into 2″ pieces, stems set aside.
Salt & Pepper to taste
In a large saute pan over medium heat, combine olive oil, garlic and shallots. Cook until translucent, about 4-5 minutes.. Add the stems to the pan, toss in the oil and cook for about 5 minutes until slightly softened. Add chopped leaves and cover until wilted, about 4-6 minutes. Toss mixture again to flavor the leaves with the garlic and oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with fish and vegetable napoleons.

GMG Power Rankings #5
Laurie Lufkin pulls down the number 5 spot in the GMG Power Rankings. Laurie is GMG’s resident chef and comes through with her weekly recipe’s and occasional video.
Laurie is very community oriented and is filling a niche that I obviously couldn’t teh cooking niche. As much as I love food, cooking or describing how to cook is not one of my strong suits. She brings positive energy which is essential if you want to be a contributor on GMG and even when I try to get her to talk smack to hype the Seafood Throwdowns, she refuses because she’s such a good egg, lol.
I’m hoping to get Laurie to branch out a little more and be our voice from Essex, reporting on happenings in the Essex community.

GMG’s Laurie Lufkin and Chef Mary Hickey’s Seafood Throwdown Winning Dish Panko Crusted Haddock With Sauteed Chard and Grilled Vegetables
Would you just look at that presentation?
Seafood Throwdown Winning Dish Panko Crusted Haddock With Sauteed Chard and Grilled Vegetables, originally uploaded by captjoe06.








