Farmers' market on a stick

With the recent gorgeous weather, Adam and I have been spending quality time with our Weber grill. The compact unit is ideal for small city lots and works well with hardwood charcoal. Adam gets the fire going by lighting newspaper drizzled with vegetable oil. Once the wood begins to burn, the curling smoke lacks the acrid aroma of petroleum-laced briquettes, and instead matches the tantalizing smell of the ever-growing legion of Portland restaurant wood grills.

When the coals glow red hot, I bring down the food.

One of my favorite ways to cook on the grill is with skewers. Pretty much any plant can be pierced with a stick and roasted over flames. Mushrooms, tempeh and fried tofu all work well too. A set of metal skewers makes a good investment, and wooden skewers work in a pinch, but it's a good idea to soak them in water before you add the vegetables.

At this time of year, I pick up fingerling potatoes, red peppers, onions and baby squash at the Portland Farmers' Market. I head home dreaming about how they'll taste caramelized and infused with smoke. To me it's the sweet flavor of Maine's waning summer days, and a taste I'll recall fondly when the frozen days of February arrive.

Late Summer Farmers' Market Skewers

15 fingerling potatoes
2 red peppers
6-8 mixed baby squash
2 red onions
Extra virgin olive oil
Maine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Dried basil

Cut each to roughly the same size and place in a bowl (setting aside the onions so they don't fall apart). Coat the vegetables with olive oil and then toss with salt, pepper and basil. Drizzle olive oil over the onions. Using a metal skewer (or a wooden one first soaked in water) add the vegetables one at a time. Add to the grill and cook 15-20 minutes. Turn after 10 minutes. Test the potatoes with a fork to be sure they're cooked through. Serve hot.

Bayside rising

I can't wait for more buildings like this in the neighborhood. The dorms going up next door will be a welcome addition too. I'm so excited that new people will have the chance to live, work and shop on the peninsula. Living in Portland is such a treat!

Blood for oil?

Martha Piscuskas image

We'll ditch the car and head out on the First Friday Art Walk tomorrow night. Rain, snow or shine. (That's the beauty of living downtown.) One show on my must-see list is "Oil,"on view at 3 Fish Gallery. It's a group exhibition with a wide-range of work exploring the human relationship with petroleum. Good, bad and disturbing. (See above.) If you can't catch it on Friday, check it out on Saturday, during the official opening reception, from 5-9 pm.

New camera and Pom's for dinner

It's so awesome to live in downtown Portland.

Case in point: My camera broke over the weekend. (Obviously not awesome.) But yesterday my husband and I headed a couple blocks up Congress Street to Fotoshops to get a new one. The customer service was amazing.

The guy who helped us select our new point-and-shoot even programmed the time and date stamp and then set up the memory card. He stressed that the camera had a year warranty and that we should come back to the shop should anything go wrong. We were both super impressed.

Since we were in the neighborhood, it only made sense to stop at Pom's Thai Taste & Noodle House for dinner. (Twist my arm, why don't you.)

While I'm not a fan of fake meat, those of you who are will be happy to know Pom's is now offering soy chicken and other meat substitutes.

Urban vitality

I’ve wanted to live in Portland ever since I was in middle school and my parents first brought me and my sister down to the fledgling Old Port to go shopping. Exchange Street was stilled paved with cobblestones back then and, like today, dotted with funky gift shops and eclectic restaurants. All I cared about were the stores that sold stickers. They were offered on rolls and in strips, and I particularly loved the Toots, Mrs. Grossman’s and Boynton’s (I still think they're funny, even today).

But outside the neighborhood bordering Exchange Street, things got sketchy, quickly. My dad’s office, just a few blocks away at the corner of Commercial and India, was considered a rough part of town. Now there’s a gorgeous new cruise ship terminal, the Ocean Gateway, next door. We never went to Congress Street--there were porn theaters and god knows what else going on up there. Now it’s called the Arts District and is arguably the hottest scene in town.

I definitely never walked a mere three blocks into Bayside, where today I type these words. Of course, this neighborhood is changing too, with new apartments, offices and a ginormous Whole Foods. Since we moved in, we’ve brought our own changes, planting trees and removing trash. But back in the 1980s, this area was blighted from decades of young people fleeing the city for the suburbs and hinterlands.

Thank god we’re coming back to our senses and bouncing back to the city. I’m excited that Bayside is developing and more people will be able to experience Portland, Maine’s creative urban vitality. It’s a treat. And I’m willing to share.