Gourmet Brain Reviewing recipes once a week. One gourmet recipe that I cook in my little kitchen. A man who loves only meat and potatoes judges the dishes. Everything is written in light hearted humor, we have fun. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 0 1677

Articles from Gourmet Brain

Day 39 2007-11-22 21:45:09 Age 19 Ryan and I had been married about a month. My parents were off truck driving all the time so they let Ryan and I stay at our family log cabin until we got on our feet. My mum had a cat we called D.C. Dumb Cat. That is exactly what it was, dumb. Always doing stupid things, jumping on the hard wood stove burning it’s feet, jumping over candles and lighting up, this cat was getting old and very annoying.’d Ryan hated cats to begin with, the fact that this cat was superiorly retarded made him loath it even more. Every time mum and dad would come back home from a trucking trip I’d mention to mum that she should think about letting me put the cat up to the human society to find it a loving end of it’s life home. She agreed and told me to do whatever I needed to to get rid of that cat, but if anything ever happen to it, (dying from old age, or Ryan jokingly saying he was going to kill it) then I was never to tell her what happened, she didn’t like to know ...

Day 38 2007-11-22 21:13:44 Age 14 We were stopped at a red light in downtown Bangor. My mum, my cousin Janette and I. We were in the left hand turn lane stopped before the crosswalk. A lady on the right hand side walk making her way to the crosswalk caught my attention. She was black lady, looked to be in her late 30’s. She was walking with an angry stride, beating her fists into the air while she moved, screaming and yelling at something. No one was with her… We were not far from the Mid Coast Mental Hospital, we had just came from there visiting my Schizophrenic Aunt. I had assumed she had a nut loose and just watched in fascination as she was angry about everything, she dropped her bag, started kicking it towards the crosswalk, when she got there she bent down and violently snatched it up on her shoulder once again. Standing up she caught my eyes. She looked into mine. Her eyes went wide with wrath, she locked her eyes on mine and started pointing and yelling, screaming something inaudible through ...

Day 37 2007-11-21 16:25:26 Age 19. Ryan and I were engaged and moved to Maine for our upcoming wedding. After meeting my cousin Chris, Ryan was over at his house often. I was shocked Chris actually liked him, Ryan being a computer geek and all, I wasn’t to sure what Ryan’s hopes were of Chris’s approval, but they clicked and I was thankful. Since my early teens I hadn’t spent much time with Chris anymore and I had missed it. He was like a big brother, one of those brothers that were bad influences but protected you nonetheless. It was new year’s eve and we were at Chris’s house. His kids were in bed and the guys all sat around the couches playing the X-box. Since I had been really young Chris wanted me to somehow screw up my life; he would have been satisfied if he heard news of my getting drunk, crashing a keg party, or something else close to dumb. I was always someone who didn’t need or want any of those things and it frustrated him that I was so different. On this ni ...

Day 36 2007-11-21 16:08:41 Age 17 My cousin Chris is and always has been a character; cocky, dirty mouth, outspoken and above all candid. Everything went his way and nobody tested him, usually. You need to know this for the following memory. My Aunt Donna and Uncle Ricky were letting a friend of the family live with them for a bit, while her parents were in the middle of a bitter divorce. Her name was Debbie and only about a year older than Chris. They were probably both around 16 and 17…My mum and I were over visiting, I was helping Uncle Ricky with farm chores and my mother and Donna were probably inside at the table with Dawn chit chatting over coffee. I remember coming in and sitting down at the table with everybody when Chris comes romping into the room on his way to his bedroom after taking a shower. He had a towel wrapped around his man parts and naked elsewhere. Donna and Mum start whistling,” oooh nice titties…and so on and so on…” Chris hates to be teased so he was giving ...

Day 35 2007-11-21 12:09:37 Age 10. After moving from northern Maine back to midcoast Maine, my parents and I stayed at my Uncle Ricky and Aunt Donna’s house until we got a place to live. We were staying upstairs in a re-done part of the old garage attic. The chimney rose through this room so during the winter time while we were there we were very warm. I always loved waking up in the morning in my tiny bed set in a little room away from where my parents were. I could smell the hard wood stove through the nearby chimney and yet feel the chilly breeze cracking in from the old rickety windows. It was a glorious place, I loved it. Almost every night at the farm friends and family would stop in to gossip, chat and play poker as well as drinking lots of coffee. They would get really rowdy at times all angry at each other over cheating and what not. One evening after Ricky finished in the barn, he came in to enjoy the supper he missed out on,topping everything he ate in cottage cheese and Tabasco sauce. My couz ...

Day 34 2007-11-20 12:45:26 Age 10. Our last year of migrant work my father met up with an old migrant working buddy, Dean, to take on a new job near a little town called Rosehill in Mississippi. Dean was a pot smoking thrills man. His home was his pickup, with a cap on the body he was set to go. Dean’s constant companion was a wolf mixed dog he called Bruiser. This dog was massive, and trained to be very violent. Dean would bring Bruiser with him at the work site and whenever a lone armadillo or some other animal would wander near, Dean would find pleasure in commanding his dog to tear the animal to pieces. Bruiser was a piece of work. I was immediately intimidated by how big and mean he was, sensing this Bruiser kept a constant eye on me and would occasionally try and attack me. I made sure to stay close to my mum at all times when Bruiser was around. He was allowed to roam freely wherever Dean went without any real care for what he was doing. Our dog Sophie was always a one family dog, never encountering ...

Day 33 2007-11-18 16:29:53 Age 21. My son was 3 months old. I was still breastfeeding so I had absolutely no time for myself…One night my sweet Mother-In-Law asked to watch him for a couple hours while Ryan and I went out for a much needed get away. I’m not one for fast food, I always am sorely disappointed with whatever food I end up ordering. After our movie this was just the case. I ordered a burger and while I ate, thoughts of food poisoning swirled through my brain. I’d never had food poisoning before but if anything could taste like food poisoning this burger surely did. I ate a full three bites of this awful food and let Ryan finish, while I explained, the entire time, that I never want fast food on a date again. The next morning I got up and fixed Ryan’s lunch for work, while wishing him a good day I began to feel my stomach churn thinking it was just hunger. I fed myself then fed the baby and put him down for another two hour nap. Through those two hours I found myself curled up ...

Day 32 2007-11-15 22:31:25 Continuation from yesterday’s memory of Warren Island. As we all were hauling our camp junk up the docks into the island we were immediately bombarded by mosquitoes, not a biggie in Maine. mosquitoes are a part of life in the Boonies; let me just say these particular mosquitoes from Warren Island were a breed of their own. They followed us like attacking bees, they were big and they were many. After picking a spot to pitch the tents and after we were all settled, Janette and I set out to explore. By the time we set out for exploration the time was around 6pm. We would be coming back to camp soon for some smores. We took a trail to the back side of the island, the opposite shore. The sun was getting lower and the sky turning a deep orange color. When we got to the back shore line it was so pretty, and the sun shone off from shells that were laying out exposed from the tide’s descent. Seagulls were out gathering mussels that were nakedly unprotected from the ocean’s bla ...

Day 31 2007-11-15 21:47:34 Age 14. Warren Island. A small island near Ilseboro Island, off the coast off Lincolnville Maine. This island should have been named, “Mosquito Mass Island.” Dad wanted to camp here, so this particular summer this was our destination. You can only get here by boat. The ferry only took people to Iseboro, so if you wanted to get to Warren you needed a boat that was fairly small. My dad had just the thing, his cheapo boat. He and my mother temped the Lincolnville seas with their small-fry boat…My Aunt Jeanne, and cousin Janette and I went on the ferry where mum and dad would meet us at Ilesboro and from there to Warren Island. It was thundering that day and from the fairy off in the distant I saw my dad’s tinsy winsy boat being bashed by the storm curled waves, I had to smirk, my dad was such a trooper. It was about three miles of stormy waves to Ilesboro, unabashed my father eventually puttered up to the Ilesboro shore…There were five of us, normally we woul ...

Day 30 2007-11-13 23:58:20 Age 13. My dad is a bargain shopper. No matter what the item it always has to be a low low low price. He bought his first boat. At a low price the boat was a total of 10 feet long, had old crappy seats that didn’t sit right on the boat bed board, and every time we took it out on the lake the motor leaked gas and crap into the water and left a terrible smell. One summer he had it out in the Belfast Bay area. We had an old sled that we thought would preform well as a water board. So with some makeshift rope tied to the back of his dinky boat we decided to try it. I of course jumped at the opportunity, I lived for cheap thrills like these. First off, I was excited but I had completely forgotten during the fun of the moment that we were in the ocean, salt water. A place where to many Jaw’s movies had caused me to abhor. I have always hated swimming in the ocean. This day though, it was a day for fun and past ocean freak outs were out of my mind…I climbed up on the sled an ...

Day 29 2007-11-12 22:23:03 Age 22. The dawning of my twenty second birthday was such a memorable one. Ryan’s alarm goes off with light cheerful tunes from the classical radio station. In sweet delirium I wake up slightly and realize I’ve a bladder full of, well you know what. I throw my legs over the side of the bed, and gingerly stand up to avoid a sudden black out from standing suddenly. We cannot use the toilet that lays only 10 feet away in our master, it’s plugged and has been on Ryan’s to do list since we moved in, three months ago. So as always I begin my journey to the other bathroom on our second floor. I lumber through our door way and proceed to the hallway that will lead me to my destination. I forget that a couple days ago I had set up a baby gate in the hall allowing for me to watch my boy while I did the laundry. Clueless, I walk right into the gate, my walking is cut short at my waist causing my upper body above the gate to fall forward and ultimately crushing the gate wit ...

Day 28 2007-11-12 17:01:08 Age 17. Labor Day weekend my friend Alex invited me up to his families house in Rimrock Arizona. Growing up I was quite the tomboy and because of that dressed very casual, always having clothes on that let me do anything outdoorsey in a moments notice. For college I bought some nicer clothes. Things I could wear for casual dress. No dresses, but a lot of nice shirts and Capri bottoms and what not. Knowing this I packed what I could up to Rimrock knowing that with Alex and his friends and family I’d be doing some outdoors stuff. One outfit I brought was a little bit more dressy and thought I’d reserve it for our bowling or pool night. I woke up on Saturday morning on Nadia’s bed, went and took a shower and we had a quick breakfast. Alex and our friend Eric decided we’d go to some lake they said was really nice. An hour’s drive later I found myself staring wide eyed out the window at this amazing lake. The lake looked as though an underwater mountain was gro ...

Day 27 2007-11-10 23:38:08 Age 5-8. Living in Greenville Maine was a very high time in my life. I had some great little friends, our house was in a great area, and we had this awesome pond out back. Our pond was inhabited with not only great big blood suckers and some fish, but a family of beavers. Our dog Sophie was very keen on terrorizing them. The pond was surrounded by tall grass and an occasional alder here and there. In the North West corner of the pond there was a beaver den that I used to regularly investigate. It looked a lot like how Tolkien describes a hobbit’s hut; Branches were piled high into a dome like stick structure. A beaver’s architecture used to fascinate me. They had dammed up a little stream off in the north east corner of the pond allowing for them to have a great deep pond. I would sometimes take apart the dam and let the water freely flow into the outgoing stream to see what they’d do. The following day they’d have it rebuilt, like new and better. Crazy little b ...

Day 26 2007-11-10 10:39:53 Age 10. Rosehill, Mississippi. Our last year of migrant work landed us parking our big camper behind some old bachelor’s yard, I do not remember his name although it is at the tip of my tongue. He was a quiet old seventh day adventist man. He didn’t eat meat. His house was in constant renovation or was just never finished. The floors were a plywood overlay…His house and himself smelled like a health food store. This old gentleman lived near a dear old women who’s name I have again forgotten. She lived in a brown house with the biggest most beautiful magnolia tree. Her house always smelled of an ancient must. Which I found out later was somewhat due to a dish she cooked up called head cheese. I had never heard of this concept in cooking until meeting this dear old lady. When my mother explained the process to me I was utterly disgusted. After knowing she boiled down whole pig heads in her kitchen I was somewhat satisfied with distilling various horror stories co ...

Day 25 2007-11-08 21:13:14 Age 3-17. My uncle Ricky, not really my uncle, some sort of cousin but I grew up calling him uncle Ricky. He and my aunt Donna live in the family farm, the farm my father grew up in. Ricky and Donna switched homes with my father’s parents once all the kids were grown up. Ricky took over the milking so my grandfather didn’t have to. During November the days start getting shorter in Maine. The weather is crisp, fresh and chilly. While the sun set I’d scarf down my dinner in a hurry to go and help Ricky in the barn. I’d get all dressed in the breezeway, throw on an old dirty coat and some tall rubber boots. I’d trudge off to the milk house sliding door. The handle was always so cold. I always entered the barn through the milk room avoiding having to hop over the electric fence to get to the wide barn doors. Uncle Ricky always opened up the giant french like doors to the opening of the barn to let in some air while he milked. The milk room was a bright turquo ...