 Hi, and welcome to me on five with Derry Relic today's inaugural show is Mrs. Maine and Miss Maine for America at the my house in the backyard with two people and another dear friend that I am so proud to have on my show we have Mrs. Maine for 2020 and Miss Maine for America 2020 and the woman who made it all possible Debra Ponevost I'm gonna start off with you Deb this is like the third or fourth time we've been together pleasure a pleasure's mind because you asked me to judge this pageant last year one of the bucket list moments of life I also judge the Miss Maine USA pageant 20 years ago I called all my best friends in high school I go you're not gonna believe what I'm doing now and I feel the same way to have you back on the show congratulations Debra first of all tell us the difficulty of doing this show with a COVID thing going on how difficult was it so COVID-19 definitely created a few hurdles for us this past year we moved our pageant twice because you know the first one was just simply because it was just so new we didn't know what we were dealing with in April and then we moved it to June and in June it was when Governor Mills allowed us to go back in with 50 an audience of 50 or less however when I spoke with the hotel even though they were trying to do the best they could do I just felt they also didn't have the sort of precautions ready and it just was so new that I was afraid to risk certainly the contestants our volunteers and I didn't want to be someone who was responsible to you know we do so many things to raise great things for the community that I was certainly didn't want to be a hypocrite and then bring back something to the community that potentially was you know definitely was deadly so we you know I moved it again to September so I partnered with the CDC and through them and coming up with some safety protocols we really had a pretty safe pageant and Debra as we know from reading the papers those who held large events that ended up in massive outbreaks you definitely wouldn't want the Mrs. Main pageant cause so I want to start off with Mrs. Main if you don't mind and talk to you you where do you work so I work for Colby College in Waterville Maine so I've been fortunate because we are taking an aggressive approach towards COVID-19 and as our students are all back on campus but since the second week in August we are tested either two to three times a week all staff all faculty all students so I am being tested for COVID-19 two times a week two times a week two times a week every Tuesday and Thursday and that is because I am on campus two days a week if I was on campus any more than that it would be three times a week I also have an app that I have to go to daily and report any symptoms so I feel very fortunate where I'm employed because they are doing an excellent job and making sure that we're containing it but providing a safe place for our students to actually experience a liberal arts education and Megan what is your what is your your capacity at Colby so I am an associate director of alumni relations and director of 25th reunion now I need to share this two moments two friends first of all my grandson is a freshman at Colby just entered from Scarborough after hitting the state champion home run I'm always going to put that in he was going to go to Bowdoin but ended up at Colby and another dear friend Richard Whitmore a well-known name at Colby perhaps the winningest coach in basketball history in Maine he's called his coach Dick Whitmore was a fraternity brother of mine at Bowdoin he has a nice store in Scarborough and so I have a lot of Colby connections and the Bowdoin Colby rivalry was one of the most fun to deal with and now we're going to go to Miss Maine for America Nicole and Nicole this was the second time you've done this pageant yes it is and the first time was when I judged I remembered you when you showed up and where do you work Nicole so I work as a dean of students in Minot so it's an elementary school Minot consolidated school and you're the what the dean of students so first of all I got the dean of students I got Colby college I didn't have to and so one of the things I want to talk to you folks about is two musical icons passed away this week one was Mac Davis who I had the pleasure of meeting with Priscilla Presley five years ago lovely man wonderful man and also the icon Helen Reddy who did the song I am woman and I saw her sing that the other night on the news and can we agree I'll start off with you first Megan can we agree that that song became the forerunner for the women's movement when she says I am strong I am invincible isn't that pretty much what this pageant's all about absolutely could not agree more so like Nicole this was not my first year competing in the pageant I competed in previous years and the reason why I came back is because of what we're able to do with the community and the strength that you feel when you're around other women I think strong empowered women lift each other up they don't tear each other down and that is what this program is about and I just feel extremely honored to be able to now represent it as Mrs. Maine America 2020 well I want to say congratulations to you because I have to say I've been a pageant person all my life my cousin was Mrs. Maine quite a few years before Deb was and my niece was the first one up in the Miss American pageant I have loved these ever since I was a boy and it was a dream come true to have relatives in the family and to watch my niece on the Miss America stage so uh Nicole you're going to Vegas I am going to Vegas when's that going to be so it's going to be in January at the end of January the end of January yeah and so they think Vegas has opened up enough so you folks can go up there we're hoping so yeah yeah we'll get more details as it gets closer of course but right now we're crossing our fingers and hoping it all works out so did you go to Vegas to Deb when I won Mrs. Maine we actually went to Palm Springs oh it went to Palm Springs yes my cousin Jill went to Vegas and appeared at the same hotel that Elvis Presley had appeared at and and I'll tell you something when you go to Vegas and you're going in an official capacity and you're walking around with your pageant stuff and your your sashes you are going to be so popular they're going to have so many foil opportunities I mean first you know you're going to get hit on right you know that's going to happen her husband's like six nine so they might not want to so let me think your husband is a body guy my husband's a hockey player so my husband's a hockey player oh my god where did he play hockey so he went he graduated from St. Donne's High School sure hockey school and then he went to college he got a full scholarship for hockey and then he was actually signed out of college and played in the EJHL I am not a hockey person prior to meeting my husband so I could be giving you completely incorrect information and it was prior to me meeting him but he played in Pensacola Florida he played in Salt Lake City Utah he also played in Charleston South Carolina but he and eventually decided he wanted to come back to Maine settle down in Maine and raise his family in Maine and now he owns two hockey organizations yeah so he owns Maine Moose Hockey which has kids all the way from age eight all the way up to 18 and then he also has a junior hockey team which plays out of Auburn called Twin City Thunder I have a three-year-old daughter and a 16-month-old son I think the three-year-old girl is in a really hard way so my three-year-old daughter definitely we just bought her her first pair of skates no way for Christmas I still be a hockey player when hockey season was over to give her some ice time but obviously COVID hit and they decided to remove the ice from the rink for safety precaution so I'm sure this winter she will be making her way on the ice some of my very best friends from Bowdoin and hockey players Doug Brown who was actually from Waterville of orthopedic associates he was a hockey captain dear friend of mine and I've always been impressed with hockey players my friends at Bowdoin said do you want to play I went out and played one fraternity game and said you guys are going to be crazy and Nicole athletics and your family at all absolutely so my family is a big athlete so my uncle actually originally thought he was going to be an Olympic skier and then went into acting so it didn't work out for him but um and then I played I was an athlete my whole life I actually field hockey it's not quite ice but I did feel I never I never understood like being able to hit the ball on both sides because I'm field hockey it's just one so her basketball her uncle's a pretty small time actor though and who would that be Patrick Dempsey get that stop the interview oh my your uncle was Patrick Dempsey with Dr. Dreamy's yeah you have gotta be so oh my goodness yeah you know Nicole yeah I gotta tell you something I'm very impressed with yeah you definitely didn't drop that name on me in the interview last year thank you so much for mentioning it he is a wonderful person he is it's a wonderful family yes his her mom Mary Mary Dempsey has done a tremendous amount of things certainly for that and so he related to how he's your he's my mother's brother your mother's brother yeah and and originally from where they're from Buckfield actually they are yes yep and they created the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing and of course yes so the bike around me you got it yeah the Dempsey challenge we just had it last weekend but it was virtual due to COVID oh did you do it did you participate I did not participate this year but typically I run and sometimes I cycle it just depends but typically I do the 5k well you know I'm gonna be interested in bringing you in my house and showing the autographs of the famous people but I know what I gotta tell you Patrick Dempsey is pretty much the top of the food chain in terms of TV acting is he I don't know no no without without question a wonderful man Deb getting back to the pageant uh when they go to Vegas how many days will that be so they're going to be there the 22nd to the 29th really they'll fly out a day earlier just because it's in January a little nervous about the weather so I figured it would be safer to get them out a day early and then they'll come back you know the day after the show so okay and they'll stay at one hotel the Westgate okay the Westgate oh my nice hotel because there's no back and they actually will visit the Elvis Presley suite that he he had the whole time when he was right by the way my last dairy runlet show two of them which Josh did for me was all about Elvis and my knowing Priscilla Presley and my knowing I interviewed Sandy Martindale Elvis's ex-girlfriend who was in several movies with him I did a live interview with Josh taping it I call I actually called her in California she answered the phone and we chatted for about 10 minutes so Elvis Presley by the way is still in Vegas but he's still there yeah it's amazing when people say well they people forgot about Elvis not in Vegas so when you're out there tell him I said hi because you'll see him about 50 times before we close I just want to say to each of you how proud I am to be associated with this show and how proud I am to have you be the first guest on my new show on channel five which is called me period on five me on five and I want to thank you so much for coming and so now we're going to head to the park for our lobster roll segment and I'm going to tell you this is going to be over the top no one has ever talked more about a lobster roll than I'm about to do today so we'll head over to the park yeah me too okay well folks that concludes the first segment of this show with my two queens and Deborah Pronevost and then we're going to go over to the park and I want to teach you folks how to do the perfect main lobster roll so we'll be back after when we go to the park okay so we're at Fort Williams which is where my father was stationed about 60 years ago and in the 40s and we're going to do the preparation of a lobster roll now the first thing you have to remember is cooking the lobster itself when you cook the lobster make sure you take the rubber bands off when you go to restaurants these days you'll notice they don't take the bands off because it takes them too much time but I want to tell you that if you don't take the bands off the taste of the rubber gets into the claw meat especially on soft shell lobsters now somebody might debate me on that but my daughter who was a chemical engineer told me what happens in the breakdown of the chemicals so first thing is take the bands off before you cook the lobsters also make sure you get fresh lobsters the fresher the lobster the better and make sure you cook them the right amount of time not too long not too short and when you get done with the lobsters let them sit and when you pick out the lobster meat make sure you dry it with a paper towel you don't want slimy lobster meat going into your lobster roll so ladies we're going to start off with we've picked the lobster and you got your gloves on and so the first thing we're going to do is is to chop the lobster now most of this has already been chopped but you want to chop it in pieces that are bite-sized for example these right here these this is a little too large right here so you want to make sure that they're in bite-sized pieces why do you want to do that because when you buy a lobster roll at some places and you take a piece of the lobster and you eat the lobster and you pull out you pull out some big giant piece and all you've got is a half a lobster roll left with no lobster in it just a bread so the pieces want to be bite-sized then we mix in the special mayonnaise ingredients and I use a an ingredient of two-thirds mayonnaise one-third miracle whip yes two-thirds mayonnaise one-third miracle whip and nothing else now there's something else that I put in the lobster roll which you can deny or say you'd rather not have it and this would be tamale this is the liver of the lobster I put in just a tiny bit of tamale which enhances the flavor of the lobsters okay okay and I also put in where you can either have lettuce on your lobster roll it's going to be crisp lettuce I'm going to tell you folks when you go to a restaurant and they serve you a lobster roll with some stringy piece of lettuce in there a wilted piece of lettuce what good is it it's no good you have to put fresh lettuce and crisp lettuce in your lobster roll but what I prefer instead of lettuce is celery which we have brought here today and the reason why we use celery is because as you know when you go to a pizza place they have celery salt you get a hot dog celery salt so we use a celery when you bite those celery chunks the celery bursts upon your palate and explodes both the lobster taste the lobster taste and and the celery into your lobster roll I had to do the palate thing and last but not least a few scallions in the sauce makes for the perfect lobster roll now this one I'm going to touch this one because you folks will not be touching it one of the things you have to know about a lobster roll is number one this tamale here but there is a lot of wonderful meat in the lobster in this area here in between here these these places right here where the legs out there is there is a lot of meat especially on big lobsters and this meat is very sweet and it goes very well in lobster roll it takes a lot of time to pick it out but it's worth it trust me restaurants do not pick out this part of the lobster and these are also pretty good if you can split them up so the meat actually comes out didn't in this one they actually go well in these things because it's very sweet meat that will go inside this particular lobster roll okay so with that folks I'm going to instruct these young ladies on how to prepare this lobster roll and cut the things up and so we'll we'll take a break and and get into that part of it one other thing about lobsters folks and that is these things right here these things you find on the end of every every lobster and I'm going to tell you something folks there's not much flavor in these and they have a rubber consistency therefore when I have these I cut these in very very small pieces you can still use them but don't put them in the lobster like this because it's like eating a piece of rubber and if you go in and order a lobster roll from somebody and they serve you a lobster roll with a lot of these well you're going to know that's a problem the other thing is this it's different about my lobster rolls most of the lobster rolls that are sold around the portland area do not have tail meat they do mostly claw and knuckle but I'm going to tell you something the tail meat is very flavorful and if you cut it in small pieces as Deb's doing then you you'll find that the tail meat is excellent meat to have in a lobster okay okay last but not least folks we've got a little bit of these scallions in here there are a few of these scallions and they'll separate the flavor there and the celery little celery pieces oh perfect oh who did the celery here oh so well it's it's so well it's so well done i'm gonna add it to my resume yeah okay when you mix this all around there you go delicious and for those of you that want lettuce uh Deb I'll let you take the lettuce and cut it in little pieces if you want put it on a plate uh lobster roll uh feast has to end with whoopie pies and we have whoopie pies for you folks here take off a label and we have these delicious whoopie pies available for all of you what do you think I thought they'd be a little bigger and maybe dipped in chocolate but they look not bad well okay Deb but you could have one anyway if you don't mind I take that one out so folks that we end the meal with this little gadget that I bought in Grand Junction Colorado and you need this at the end of every lobster roll lunch this little character is a toothpick dispenser okay so I'll have you all you don't have to do this on camera okay but you will need these toothpicks of course because the lobster chunks end up someplace where they shouldn't be so this little character here I love this little guy bought him in Grand Junction and you can use him after we close this segment but I want to say to both of you Megan I have this gift certificate I'm going to give you to take to Vegas and I think you'll enjoy it and I just want to ask you so how'd you like the lobster roll I thought it was all right it was pretty good I'm a tough critic I grew up in Down East Maine so I've had a lot of lobster rolls in my life well I mean like do you have any like specific criticisms of it or just a you just I mean I'm not really a celery person so I think the celery might have just taken it down a notch oh really well thanks for that tepid review so Nicole I also have this gift certificate for you for Vegas and hope you'll enjoy it and and how did you like the lobster roll well first how much is the gift card for oh well it's enough to have a nice lunch in Vegas not dinner maybe but a nice nice lunch okay so maybe like 30 dollars 40 dollars no no Nicole it's like three figures it's three figures oh okay so like a hundred dollars well yeah it's a hundred dollars yeah I mean it's not six ninety nine but it's a hundred okay okay all right perfect that's great thanks dairy and how about the lobster roll what was that it was it was good it was okay yeah right okay well just let me tell you folks something okay if you don't mind sure there are not thousands but millions millions of people all around the world love my lobster rolls I'm telling you something I have people writing to me from Zimbabwe from France from Norway asking for my lobster roll recipe and when people walk around this park they come up to me they go I chew the guy that does those famous lobster rolls and I say yes I am that's right folks a little tribute to Donald Trump who by the way we found out has caught the virus and I want to close this show by sending my prayers my best wishes to the president to the first lady and his staff and I want to thank you folks so much for coming on me on five my inaugural show thank you so much thank you for having us