‘Armpit fudge’ food for thought

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My travels this week took me south, physically and by telephone, to the Other Maine we hear about every so often.

Wednesday I crashed the Marine Patrol-Coast Guard search and rescue forum at the Coast Guard Station, South Portland. (Actually, I got myself invited.)

Earlier in the week, I chatted with my older daughter, Jennifer, in Otisfield, to see how her weekend went with the Girl Scouts at the Apple Camporee 2003 in Freeport last weekend at beautiful Recompence Shores. She took her troop and joined some 190 other girls from the Bridgton, Sebago, Casco, Naples, Harrison, and Waterford area for a weekend of fun. On the West Bay side of Wolfe Neck Farm another 800 Girl Scouts from the Merrymeeting Bay Unit of the Kennebec Council gathered for their camping weekend.

I was interested on several levels, father-daughter, grandfather-granddaughter, Girl Scout, but mostly because I was eager to know how the armpit fudge turned out. I’d talked with Jennifer prior to her trip and she’d mentioned that the girls would be making this delicacy (which sounded really gross), so I couldn’t wait to see how well it was accepted. I’ll admit the no-bake oatmeal cookies she’d mentioned piqued my curiosity as well.

Last weekend’s weather wasn’t all that great, so I also wondered how the girls had fared.

It turns out Friday night’s rain provided a challenge, not insurmountable, for the girls as they set up tents. They simply held up tarps for each other to stay dry while setting up their tents. Domino’s pizza was the preplanned reward for a job well done. A screen tent came in handy as a dry gathering place around the picnic table, Jennifer said. Surprisingly, it wasn’t needed to keep the bugs at bay. It seems they weren’t invited and never showed up!

Other than some extraneous toilet paper that mysteriously appeared in the night to decorate one leader’s tent and a “Troop 745 Rules!” message written in sun block on a leader’s car’s window (and the usual insomnia that accompanies a gathering of kids on a campout), the night was fine. Even the rain took a break, Jennifer said.

Great, the kids stayed dry, they got no sleep, they conspired on some pranks – now get to the part about the armpit fudge, I urged.

“Don’t you want to hear about the little doughnuts, scrambled eggs, and bacon we cooked for breakfast?” my daughter asked. Or the swaps? Or the autograph books? Or the sand candles at the crafts station? Or the hay rides? Or the face painting? And didn’t I want to know about granddaughters Ashley and Chelsea and their muddy romp in the tidal flats?

Yeah, fine (yes, I did want to hear about all of that, and I did listen intently), but what’s up with the armpit fudge I wanted to know.

It was, as usual, Jennifer said, a roaring success.

I had to know more. What’s in it and how’d you make it?

Here are the ingredients and how to’s:

Armpit Fudge: 3/4 cup powdered sugar, 1/8 tsp vanilla, 1 tbsp margarine, 3 tbsp cocoa, 1/2 slice American cheese, 1 Ziplock bag.

Put cheese in bag (seal) and warm in armpit until melted or gooey. Add rest of ingredients to cheese. Mix and kneed until lumps of cheese are gone. Form into patty, remove from bag, and eat.

Except for the armpit part, it almost sounds palatable. Then again food always tastes better outdoors. So how does one make a cookie without baking it, I wondered.

Simple, Jennifer said, and rattled off the following recipe.

No-Bake Oatmeal Cookies: 1 stick margarine, 2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup milk, 3 tablespoons cocoa, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons peanut butter, 3 cups oatmeal.

Put margarine and sugar into saucepan and heat until melted, then add cocoa and milk and salt and cook to boil. Then cook one more minute, and remove from heat. Now add the vanilla, peanut butter, and oatmeal and stir until mixed well. Spoon onto waxed paper and let cool. Eat.

This one sounds like a sure thing, now all I have to do is head for the grocery store.

My physical trip south was much more taxing. I had to hit the road around 6 a.m. Wednesday to pick up Paul Travis, president of the Maine Association of Sea Kayak Guides and Instructors, at his house in Bangor and head south. It took more than one cup of coffee, I assure you, to get under way and remain alert.

Travis threw his kayak on my vehicle, loaded his paddling, gear and we were off, pretty close to schedule. Even after a couple of pit stops and a wrong turn in South Portland, we pulled up to the Coast Guard gates around 8:45 a.m., plenty early to register and get Travis’ boat down to the boat garage. He and another paddler were going to be the lost kayakers in an on-water rescue scenario with the Coast Guard.

The thrust of Wednesday’s gathering for police, fire, and rescue personnel was to emphasize the cooperation between the Coast Guard, the Marine Patrol, and municipal rescue squads, their respective areas of coverage, and their roles in locating and rescuing boaters. Marine Patrol Col. John Fetterman emphasized the importance of local knowledge when outside agencies are called in to help find a missing person.

Typically the Coast Guard takes the lead role in a rescue, assisted by the Marine Patrol and local authorities. If it looks like the hope of a rescue is gone, the operation becomes a recovery effort and the Marine Patrol takes the lead.

Another message, that of homeland security, was ever present. Harbormasters and police and fire officials attending were told to be wary. “If you see something that’s not right, call us,” said Lt. Carl Hinshaw, operations officer for Coast Guard Group Portland. There are numerous “assets” that can be brought to bear for both security and rescue. For instance, the Coast Guard has stations at Portsmouth, N.H., South Portland, Boothbay, Southwest Harbor, Rockland, and Jonesport that usually have (depending on homeland security assignments) a 47-foot motor lifeboat, a 41-foot utility boat, and the new 25-foot safe boat (in the process of being delivered).

Major “assets” (usually called in from out of state) include the HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter, the Falcon jet (quick response), and the C-130 Hercules transport that can drop rescue equipment to those in distress. Other big guns include the 110-foot and 87-foot patrol boats. A Jayhawk from Massachusetts was on station Wednesday morning to demonstrate its capabilities for hovering over a 47-foot motor lifeboat in a mock rescue operation.

The Marine Patrol has a fleet of 16 Whalers (21-footers), a 46-foot patrol boat, five 35-foot patrol vessels, three 25-footers, and eight ready boats (for year-round use). Most of these are used for fisheries enforcement, but any one can be called in for search and rescue.

As for Travis, he got to bob around Portland Harbor in his drysuit so those of us aboard a Coast Guard utility boat could watch the radar screen and see for ourselves that he was not showing up as a target. The point being that rescuers would have to rely on visual spotting to find a victim in the water.

To me the most disheartening message of the day came from various harbormasters, who faulted recreational sea kayakers (not guided tours) for: clogging launch ramps and boating channels; being ill- trained and ill-equipped for cold-water paddling; ignorance of the rules of the road; ignorance of tides and currents; and ignorance of the fact that other boaters may not see them. It’s too bad, because some common sense and courtesy would go a long way to erase the negative image a few have placed on many.

Jeff Strout can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangordailynews.net.