Recipes for Seafarers and Landlubbers Alike

Sugar & Salt Photo: Elizabeth Poisson

Photo Credit–Elizabeth Poisson

Schooner owner publishes second cookbook, Sugar & Salt: A Year at Home and at Sea

ROCKLAND, Maine—Annie Mahle has two kitchens, one is a floating restaurant and B&B that sails as a Maine windjammer, the Schooner J. & E. Riggin, all summer long, and the other at her Maine home, where she cooks for her family of four.

Mahle’s latest cookbook release, Sugar & Salt: A Year at Home and at Sea, is testament both to her adventures and expertise as a chef and owner/operator of schooner—along with her husband, Captain Jon Finger—and her off-season family-style cuisine.

“This book and my life contain both sugar and salt; which is no surprise as they are basic ingredients in cooking,” Mahle says. “But my salt isn’t only the salt at the table or on the counter. It’s the salty ocean that surrounds my family, my work and my food as I cook for my passengers and guests each summer. The food that I create there, and just as carefully at home for my family in the winter, all becomes a part of the individual, indivisible, moments of my life.”

Mahle has honed her craft for more than 25 years. The J. & E. Riggin was named one of the Top Ten Places to have Dinner With a View in Maine by Yankee Magazine. Mahle’s first cookbook, the acclaimed At Home, At Sea, was featured on the Today Show and its recipes were highlighted by dozens of national media outlets including the Food Network and Traditional Home Magazine.

Her latest collection of recipes, along with crafts, thoughts and stories from her hilarious, sometimes frenetic life aboard her schooner off the coast of Maine, is sure to please seafarers and landlubbers alike. Sugar & Salt, organized month-by-month, extends from January’s Chicken and White Bean Chili to April’s Ricotta Gnocchi to December’s Potato Cilantro Waffles. Seafood? But, of course. There is March’s Pan-Fried Monkfish and August’s Lobster and Avocado Dip, to name just a few of her “salt” recipes.

After starting her windjammer career as a mess cook, Mahle quickly developed a passion for cooking. After graduating to head cook, she became a private chef on a Caribbean yacht. She further developed her skills as a sous chef with classically trained Swiss chef Hans Bucher and also at the Culinary Institute of America.

In her schooner’s off-season, Mahle writes a food column for the Portland Press Herald, titled The Maine Ingredient, and she also writes a recipe and lifestyle blog atwww.athomeatsea.com.

Sugar & Salt: A Year at Home and at Sea is available in local Maine shops and directly online at www.athomeatsea.com. For more information on the J. & E. Riggin and the cruises offered please visit www.mainewindjammer.com

Photo Credit–Elizabeth Poisson, photos from the book available upon request.

If you would like to receive a copy of the book to review, contact

Angie Helton, Northeast Media Associates

207-653-0365

nema@maine.rr.com

Angie Helton

Northeast Media Associates

141 Brigham Street

South Portland, ME. 04106

www.nemediaassociates.com

207.653.0365

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