A few weeks ago, I discovered the simple beauty of a homemade treat: milk oolong, honey & rose water tapioca. There was something so very satisfying about spending an hour in the kitchen sipping tea and handcrafting a simple sweet delight.
Craving the comforting sip of a matcha latte one evening, I decided to remix my first tea tapioca with a bit of the vibrant green Japanese powdered tea. While the first try at tea tapioca was subtly enhanced by the buttery milk oolong tea, this matcha infusion added its pronounced grassy and gently bitter flavor (similar to really wonderful dark chocolate) that balances the rich sweetness of the local honey and floral notes of the orange blossom water. And you can’t resist the rich green color that reminds you of freshly cut grass in the spring.
The trick to avoiding a grainy matcha tapioca is to take a few tablespoons of milk and add them to a bowl along with the 5 teaspoons of matcha. Stir in into a smooth paste to whisk into the heated milk. Just keep stirring throughout the hour and you’ll end up with a smooth, green spoonful.
With the weather being so indecisive here on the East coast—one minute it's hot and humid, the next it's cold and rainy—it's been difficult to fully fall into the pleasures of autumn. But with October just a day away, I've been starting to crave comfort foods, like soups, stews, and hot sandwiches. Lunches for me have been a mixed bag of sorts, I'm never sure what to eat, and I'm not always satisfied with what I get. But the sandwich shop near my workplace always seems to have the right sandwich for me. It's my standby.
Levi woke up a few mornings ago and the first thing he said to me was, “I really want you to make chocolate chip cookies”. I asked him what kind, what did he want in them, did he want them cakey or chewy? He looked at me as if I was speaking a foreign language. And then he looked at me and said, “just a plain and simple chocolate chip cookie – and mom, fill up the cookie jar with them!”.
This time of year in Maine the soft shell lobsters are “in” season and are very plentiful and inexpensive. You ask what is a soft shell lobster? Is it like a soft shell crab, do I eat the whole thing, shell and all? No, no, not all all similar. In order for a lobster to increase their size, ie. “grow” they have to shed their old hard shell. Two weeks before this happens they form a soft, thin shell under their hard exterior. Once the thin shell is formed under the hard shell they dehydrate, shrinking the soft membrane shell which contracts to the lobster’s meat, then the pressure builds until the old hard shell breaks open and the lobster pulls it’s new body out. First they pull out the claws then the tail and finally the body. Once this happens they fill themselves up with sea water. They balloon up with water, especially in the claws which are half water and the tail is about a quarter filled with sea water. The cooked meat of a soft shell is bright red and more tender then a hard shell lobster. The new shell looks exactly the same in coloration but it is as thin as syran wrap.
I am obsessed with shrimp tacos right now! We are eating them at least twice a week and even that isn't enough for me. They are such an easy meal to put together. Sometimes they are more fancy than others and other times it's just the tortilla and shrimp. 
