So...whats for dinner?
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Eric and Nancy, you put me to shame in the cleanliness dept. I'll have to do better.
Forgot to google Bedo's tag trailer but if it's a teardrop camper, I've seen lots of those in rv parks. They're really cute. DH and I had a teardrop camper the first year we were married. It was home-made and painted bright blue. We bought it 2nd hand and it had fenders off an old-fashioned car. There was a door on either side where you could climb in and lie down on the mattress. No standing room. There were a couple of cabinets inside for clothes. The rear end was a kind of hatchback construction. You lifted up the hatchback and propped it up. There were places for the campstove and dishes etc. It was strictly a fair weather camper. When it rained, we had to go to a library.
Our tow vehicle was a bright red Triumph convertible. Were we ever cute driving through New England towns! We visited literary sites like Emily Dickinson's house and Walden Pond and the building where Nathaniel Hawthorne worked.
Have not heard of water spinach before.
Lunch today was a sliced tomato, two slices of bread and mayo. I had two open-faced tomato sandwiches and they were SO good. And satisfying.
We still have leftover potato leek soup for dinner.
I looked up a recipe for gazpacho that looks good. It's Alton Brown's recipe. I'll probably make it this afternoon with some modifications. He calls for red bell pepper and I don't have that on hand. I'll substitute banana pepper for jalapeno and omit red onion, which would ruin the taste for me. The important ingredients are the good tomatoes and good cucumbers. The rest are enhancers.
Nancy, hope you enjoy your excursion.
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Carole,
If you have shallots, they are much better than red onion. I love a bit of basil in the soup as well. Report on wedding venue lunch after a nap. I never eat this much at lunch and it has me wanting a siesta.
*susan*
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Susan - I think it was on Accuweather I was reading about the NE heating up a bit. Maybe hope for your peppers yet.
Eric - I forgot to mention your DD's head collision. Hope she is recovered.
My twitter weather just lit up. I hope you and family are safe inside from that monsoon hitting Phoenix. Seeing a water rescue on Fox right now in New River.
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Bedo---cats are lovely creatures. I highly recommend them...
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Thanks Redheaded one. They definitely have their personalities
Minus, I am glad you are finishing up. Hang in there and if I get my Tag trailer I would love to come visit you if that's OK
Money is fluctuating as usual. Never know what to expect with interim work.
PS Thanks Carol for your advice, I really appreciate it
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Eric, I like your kitchen clean up routine!
Wish I could be a bit less crazed when we need to use a plumber. I tend to wait as long as possible before tending to such needs....even let DH try his hand at fixing things, which is daring. Once his plumbing expertise resulted in my entire pottery studio (in the basement below a bathroom he "fixed") getting soaked.
Now I always check to see what is in harm's way.Yesterday was a gorgeous beach and kayaking day, so we did both, and connected with neighbors we have hardly seen all summer.
For dinner, I just wanted to have poached eggs....DH decided he wanted to make himself a BLT. I let him go solo, and stuck to my poached egg plan, which I had with leftover tomato from DH's creation, and a piece of Tuscan Rosemary/olive oil bread. It was just perfect after our pizza fest the night before.
Today is again beautifully sunny if not at all hot. I am sorry to hear about the terrible rainstorms you are having Eric. Sure hope it has all passed.
Bedo a little camper would seem to suit and serve your free spirit well!
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I've been making a salad with barley, corn tomatoes, red peppers, cucumbers, red onion white wine vinegar, salt and pepper and a bit of honey and green onions. It is very good but I am completely sick of it.
Got an email from a college today for a 10 month position with numerous "breaks" spring, winter, all holidays etc. they want my references after I went for an interview so it may be the perfect combination of time off and work and permanent until I quit/get laid of/retire. It is RI and our state motto is "You're Unemployed! " We've been #1 or 2 in the country since this whole recession mess started. Keeping my fingers crossed.
The kale keeps coming and now it's time to pull the beets. I envy everyone's tomatoes, my garden is over run with squash. and zinnias at present.
I'm taking the Ice Bucket Challenge this weekend after my friend and I dump ice water over each other's heads to post to Facebook. I'm picking out a really big bucket for her. he he
I am glad that everyone seems to be enjoying their summers. It seems to go by so quickly we'll miss the quahogs.
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Bedo, hope you get to make that employment choice....college academic calendars are nice for travelers!
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Bedo - that sounds like the perfect job for you -- fingers crossed for you!
Carole -- were you writing when you made those trips? Sounds perfectly romantic!
The clydesdales were absolutely wonderful -- the casino, not so much :-( We got to see lots of colts as well as stallions, pregnant mares and the some "hitch" horses. We also got to meet the clydesdale in the bud "puppy love" commercial.These big guys have quite a life here. Not only do they have the cleanest horse barns and stalls that I've ever seen, each one equippped with several fans that automatically come on when the temperature reaches a certain index, but each of the yards has it's own sand pile in the middle that the horses can roll in, which we got to witness. All of my pictures came out blurry unfortunately (except for the one where we're all drinking the free Budweiser, oddly enough.) Very cool place. Btw, in case you were wondering -- no AI here, all the breeding is done au natural.
Tonight is chicken enchiladas with the leftover roast chicken and an avocado salad. Maybe some corn and peppers too.
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Oh Nance I want to go see the horses! Email so me pics.
Carol, I want one with a bathroom because I think some of the "longer tem" camgrounds require them?
Goats make Kimchi with bokchoy, it's ridiculously easy and you could eat it for breakfast.
Eric I'm glad DD is OK
Have to do a 1,000 errands
Not very imaginative, but cut up oranges and watermelon are really good in mason jars by the time lunch rolls around at lunch.
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Our lunch at La Voile happened to occur during Restaurant Week so it was quite the deal. The groom-to-be is "making weight" so he ordered a la carte to avoid all carbs. [He is getting grumpy as this hunger thing extends longer and longer.] We sat on the patio watching the very thin shoppers walk by on Newbury Street. The chairs were standard issue south of France bistro chairs. Starters around the table included a gazpacho, pork rillettes, and two quiche with salad. The gazpacho was deemed not up to mine, but the other two items were excellent. Been a long time since I have had a rillette, and this one was worth it. Main courses were skate Meuniere, chicken breast with sage butter, pollenata, mushrooms and jus, a chicken panini, and a frisee salad with a poached egg and dijon vinaigrette. I didn't taste the salad or the sandwich but the fish and chicken were excellent. For some reason, they brought an extra dessert so we were able to try the creme brulée, apple tart, cream puffs with chocolate sauce, and a berry tart. The thing they called apple tart,which was really an upside down apple cake was astonishing! So good. The creme brulée was good as was the berry tart. The cream puffs were just too sweet and there were too many of them.
We felt like we were in France.... it was wonderful! We booked the room, and have begun building the menu with the manager. Very pleased that Lacey reminded me of this restaurant. It will be the perfect venue for our post-wedding dinner.
*susan*
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Susan, what an elegant feast! The boy is trying to lose weight?
Bedo, I would expect the nice teardrop campers to have a bathroom. And probably standing room. The one we owned back in 1969 would be in a museum now!
I was not writing back in those days, Nance.
Lacey, I'm impressed that you and your dh kayak.
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Wow, Susan, now I'm hungry to return to LaVoile! I'm glad it passed muster for the culinary expert I consider you to be. And even better that you got to do the "try out" during restaurant week! Such a deal!
. I think I had the apple tart when we were there....nice! We are hosting our Parsien friend's daughter this Sunday for dinner, and she will be happy to hear your "review". She had selected that spot for her college graduation dinner, and it was lovely.Today was another beautiful beach day, and more catching up with neighbors. I've taken to bringing peanuts with raisins and cranberries to the beach for my lunch. Tonight we had leftover pizza and a baby greens salad with the one leftover Jersey tomato and feta. All's good!
We are FINALLY trying to find a cooking class in Lucca for our trip next month....and starting to think about this excursion more seriously, now that we have slowed ourselves down a bit.
Carole, our kayaking is the relaxed variety for sure....especially with my tricky shoulder. I doubt I could do anthing too rigorous...no rapids, thank you! I am pleased that all my ongoing work on strengthening my leg muscles to help my knees, has made it much easier to get in and out of the kayak without making a fool of myself in front of the beach sitters.
It is so peaceful to be out on the quiet lake with the mountains all around, and few motor boats.0 -
Very quiet around here.
At my request dinner tonight will be the prime rib special at Vacationer Lodge restaurant, about a mile from the campground. I love prime rib but I'm also looking forward to a baked potato with butter and sour cream.
For lunch today I finished up the potato leek soup. That recipe is definitely going into the notebook.
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Carole, you definitely got some good use out of that potato leek soup! It must have been so good!
Yesterday was DH's birthday, and we are home (beginning to feel uncertain of where that is these days!;). On the way back from the lake we stopped to get ourselves new cell phones, and are now strapped with all the tech changes one needs to do when you switch anything around!! DH curses but really, secretly enjoys the challenge. I just curse!! Fortunately he is around as my tech support.
So for birthday boy's celebration we went to Harvard Square for dinner and then to the nearby American Repertory Theatre to see Finding Neverland. It was an amazing production, and I'm not even crazy about those kinds of musicals. Diane Paulis is a creative genious! Apparently the show is heading straight to Broadway after the Cambridge run.
Our dinner was at Legal Seafood (mainly because we could easily get a reservation there, and I could have a light dinner after my two lb. weight gain from our "lake meals"), and tho I always think it is overpriced, the fish is very fresh. DH had bluefish, which was great, and I had a combo plate of crabcakes (which they made without the old bay seasoning after hearing about my celery allergy), grilled shrimp and scallops, which was more healthy than tasty, I thought. We had a side of kale sauteed with honey and a cheese, the name of which I can't recall, but it was a delicious way to serve kale. I must look it up! We also had a side of a variety of tasty sauteed mushrooms. DH was more than mildly embarrassed when the entire staff provided him with a resounding HB song....along with his free dessert, a wonderful key lime tart. Yum! I had some nostalgic moments while observing so many whole families at the restaurant, who were obviously dropping their freshman off to college this week. Sigh.....
So....continuing with our oral binging, tonight is the Volante Farms "Dinner in the Field". I am noticing that the skies look very overcast, and the temps are down, so it may well be dinner in the greenhouse! At least I know the food will be good! Their chef is great.
Tomorrow evening we are having our Parisien friend's daughter here for dinner. I'm thinking a cheese and fruit, olives, and nuts plate well as melon and prosciutto for appetizers (we're American, not Parisien, thus the cheese for starter;). Then we will grill marinated chicken and veggies, have wild rice, and an arugula/baby spinach/watermelon/feta salad. Not sure about dessert.....
Then for Monday, DS2 asked to get together for dinner (he is always attentive to our birthdays and other occasions...such a good guy:) so we are going to a place here in town, called Petit Robert Bistro, which has decent food and is quiet enough for us to have a conversation, and catch up on any new details about his long distance relationship. He just finished taking her up and down the East coast introducing her to relatives. It could be interesting!
I feel like I'm writing a food travelogue! Not complaining, but I really need to get my feet planted in one spot....that should happen after Italy.....and the one spot better be the gym!!
Talked to the Italy villa owner today, and he warned us of the unusually cool temps there....oy! Can't get away from it. I was hoping to pack lightly with just summery clothes....looks like that plan will change. He also advised us not to leave our luggage in our car if we stop for lunch on our way from Rome to Tuscany. I actually knew that since DS2's friends had all of theirs stolen from their parked car a few years ago. Oh dear.....and I was just worried about us driving our stick shift car up all the winding hills to the villa. Fun!
Yikes, another too long free association post....apologies.....
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Lacey, I for one, love your food travelogues! I covet those opportunities. And I'd say 2 pounds is pretty minimal for all the traveling you've been doing. Can't wait to hear about the Italy adventures in eating!
Food is much more pedestrian here. My beloved Cardinals are playing in Philadelphia tonight so the menu is grilled Phillly cheesesteaks, roasted potatoes and sliced tomatoes. God help me, I also baked a cherry pie in this weather -- the humidity is almost as high as the temperature. I made ice cream too, so dessert will also be part of the plan. Tried to do some yardwork today -- pulling lots of vegetation out of the fishpond. That about did it for me outside. DH is still out there trimming but I think I'll make him come in soon -- it's 96 here with 67% humidity. I know it doesn't compare with you Texans and Eric, but our summer has been so cool this year we really haven't had a chance to get used to the hot temperatures like we usually do. Can you say "spoiled?" lol!
Susan -- what is pollenata?
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Carol I am so jealous of your travels
Lacey I am jealous of you too! What an adventure
And Nance, what do you have in your fish pond? I would love to have one of those
Susan Does "anyone" have a recipe for pickled beets? I planted them because DD said she likes beets and today when I asked her how she liked them she said "pickled" If anyone can help, would you please start at the beginning, ie after pulling them from the ground... because I know, or think that you should not peel them and should maybe cut off the greens. She will be back from dropping of fiancé at Yale tomorrow to stay over. Also I really can't do the hot bath thing, so maybe a recipe for refrigerator pickled beets? I have plenty of mason jars. Thank you!
Went to Farmer's Market today and took The Beast a 140 pound Great Pyrenees, I think that's how you spell it. I wish a had a dollar for everyone who took a picture or wanted a picture of them with him. Sat under a tree to listen to the music and soon had a crowd of 15 within 5 minutes. DB's owner is in MGH and landlord's are watching him, but had to do errands, so I babysat him. He doesn't like to be alone. Poor baby. Even if you are huge, you can be a baby Chihuahua at heart
Oh, and thanks for your wishes, got the job at the university and now have guaranteed work only about 8 months total with summer off. Yippee!
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Bedo - congrats on the university job. What will you be doing? Is it "permanent" (assuming you like each other) or just for one year? Great schedule with the summer months free. Wonderful "beast" story.
Lacey & Nancy & Susan - thanks as always for sharing your adventures & culinary highlights. Carole - your post has made me hungry for a baked potato too.
Went to lunch today with an long time acquaintance who is relatively new to the BC journey & chemo. I hope I was able to answer some of her questions since we're both HER2+ & give her some tips. Food was greasy Tex-Mex and not so good, but the margarita made up for it.
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Option 1. Roast instead of boiling though; not really a pickle but delicious. Use a big spoon!. http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/recipes/displa...
Option 2: This is a very simple beet recipe from another Stage IV woman who is Turkish. Again, I roast instead of boiling. Very much an old style recipe.
After cooking the beets, slice and place in a jar. Fill the jar with water, garlic, salt, some apple cider vinegar & salt. I like very pickled, so I did half vinegar and half water. Most people would do 1/3 cup apple vinegar to 2/3 cup water. I smashed one clove of garlic, 1/2 tsp of kosher salt, and then added a bit of lemon zest. Eat directly, or, mix in some thickened yogurt, or tomatoes and sprinkle cheese on top. In fact, I haven't found a way I don't like these simple pickles. Most serving suggestions include dressing with a bit of olive oil before serving.
Hope this gets you started. Oh, and roasting the suckers. Cut off the greens [eat separately] and wrap the beets with a smidgen of olive oil and place in a 450º (ish) oven for about 45 minutes. A knife inserted into the beet should meet with just a big of resistance.
A famous turkish dish includes sautéing the beet greens, and then serving with some pickled beets and yogurt on top. To me this sounds wonderful.
*susan*
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Nance, <<Susan -- what is pollenate?>> To be honest, I think it might be a bit of creative French. This was like Italian polenta, but much creamier, with corn kernels. I suspect that the amount of butter per serving is out the roof!
My professional life is out of control right now. Add to that a wedding, husband's new computer, a fussing mother, and a woman could reach the end of her rope. Out of rope, my husband volunteered to make dinner. He went to the Farmer's Market this morning and the chicken store. He grilled/smoked the chicken with our favorite mustard sauce, which we had left over from a previous dinner, steamed up some green beans and corn. And, of course, the required three tomatoes.
Back to work.... can not stop. can not stop.
*susan*
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Bedo, congrats on the job! My fish pond has fancy goldfish (fantails), frogs, the occasional garter or water snake, a large water lily, water iris, water lettuce (inedible I think), a ferny plant known as parrots feather and oxygenation plants. The parrots feather and oxygenators go crazy in warm weather and have to be pulled out by the handfuls.
Susan, that's interesting about the pollenta, I just saw a recipe for polenta using fresh corn. I wish I had found it before the end of corn season.
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Bedo, congratulations on the job. Judging from how easily you get jobs, I'm concluding that you're good at whatever it is that you do.
The pickled beets should be easy. As Susan instructed, cut off the greens and leave the beets otherwise intact. Either boil or roast until you can stick something sharp--like a knife or cooking fork--into the center. Cool. Peel by pushing the peeling off. Slice and place in jar or other container. Use vinegar and water combination and whatever other flavorings you like. Garlic, small hot peppers, sliced onion.
We love fresh beets. I boil mine and serve them sliced on a salad plate with vinegar sprinkled over the slices. DH likes sliced sweet onions with his and he salts and peppers. But I don't even need the salt. Fresh beets have a delicious taste.
Last night's prime rib wasn't "prime," but I enjoyed the meal and ate all the baked potato. The jus was too salty but I still consumed part of it and mixed some sour cream with the horseradish to make a sauce. The meal also came with half a corn on the cob and a nice little bread bun.
Today we went to a bluegrass festival about an hour from here. On the way home late this afternoon we stopped at an Italian restaurant in the village of Dorset, which has several restaurants. It was hard to find a parking place. The Italian restaurant is called La Pasta. I was expecting American Italian (spaghetti, lasagna). I thought it was early for dinner but we had to wait a while for a table. The place is really cute with green checked tablecloths. The salad was too much like Olive Garden and it came with bread sticks, also reminiscent of OG. I ordered chicken Genovese and it was quite good. Chicken breast pieces sautéed in olive oil and served over linguine with pesto, toasted walnuts and toasted pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes. I have to admit I enjoyed the white flour linguine, which was cooked perfectly. I brought half of it home.
On the way to the festival we stopped at a farm stand that had beautiful veggies at reasonable prices. I bought gorgeous broccoli, a napa cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and corn. I eyed a large bundle of swiss chard but I left it there.
Susan, every time I see a post from you, I feel glad all over again that you've rejoined us! Good luck with all your work for clients.
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Ditto to Carole's comment about being glad you have rejoined our food pack, Susan! Hope things can calm down in one of your areas of life! Can you put any of your work people on hold until you have some wedding stuff out of the way? Sweet DH for pitching in when it is really important! You need a bit of nurturance given all that is on your plate.
Nance, I think your heat may be headed our way....and maybe, just maybe, I'll stop complaining about not having summer weather this summer! My DH was also out doing major yardwork today, with better temps than you for toiling. Can't say I joined him tho.....fall allergies have surfaced already.
Love that you made Philly Cheesesteaks (grew up on them) and cherry pie is my most favorite of any dessert....like the kind YOU bake! Not the bought kind.Bedo, Yay for you! A perfect work year for your extra-curriculars!
The Volante's Dinner in the Field tonight was delish and fun with the friends we were with. Too tired to post the menu, but I just finished putting pix on Facebook, so if anyone wants to see them, PM me and I'll share my F-book info. I was particularly happy that after threatening skies and cool temps all day, the sun arrived just before we arrived "in the field", and it was a beautiful evening, only requiring the assistance of a polar fleece jacket by dessert time.
Need to get some shut-eye so I can pull our dinner together for our friend's daughter tomorrow. Am hoping we can eat outside on the deck, so I don't have to move my sewing piles and machine from the dining room table. ;/
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The short answer to the work question is no. I am way behind my own schedule, much less the client schedules. I had one project that mushroomed, and one that became a volcano with a Sept 15th deadline. This one we have already moved to Plan B, and Plan C might need to be developed. Another company has auditors coming, and my work must be completed and auditable before they arrive. Can we all agree that Japanese auditors have no sense of humor? Oh, and then I accepted another project based on thinking these would all be done by now.
I did find some lovely champagne glasses for the wedding toast at the house on Friday at the Crate, and cheap too! They are only 7 oz which is perfect for how little this group will drink. Last piece is figuring out how to get all these city-phones from our house to the restaurant and then back to the house. Of course, this is a problem that money can solve. The question is how much!
Very cool here today. I am have on long pants and a sweater. Lacey is right. We never had a proper summer, though for the most part, I love that we didn't need air conditioning.
*susan*
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Not having a "proper summer" is the reason we leave the comfort of home for 3 months! It is quite gloomy here at Pine Hollow Resort this morning with a forecast for possibility of thunder storms. It rained heavily last night for a brief time. Being snug in bed feels so cozy when it's raining!
My cooking motivation has ebbed with more "eating out" than usual of late. I think we will have the leftover prime rib as the meat for dinner. Thinly sliced. Two ripe avocados in the refrigerator will be used for guacamole if they haven't gone bad. Some diced tomatoes and chopped lettuce. Sour cream. White corn tortillas. Grated cheese. I think we have a jar of bought salsa for dh. Sounds like the makings of soft tacos. And easy!
Our time here is short. We'll be pulling out and heading to the northshore, Grand Marais, the day after Labor Day. We'll set up in an rv park on the shore of Lake Superior and the next day will drive the truck to Thunder Bay, where we'll visit a bc sister I met on BC.org in 2009. DH and I have gotten together with her and her dh most years since then.
Sept. as planned will involve travel from here to there and visiting friends and relatives as we head south. Time does pass quickly.
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Carole, sounds like a yummy dinner and interesting itinerary! Is your "proper summer" the cooler Northern one?
Interesting sermon this morning at our summer service, by a young Harvard Divinity School student about "selfies". It was thought provoking and inspired me to be less judgemental about all the selfies the milennials (and others) post on social media.
On our walk home, we came across a sign being made by two women who were sponsoring/holding a hands on creative workshop (several different art media offerred) for cancer survivors. They will be doing weekly workshops with the various artists we met today.
Interestingly, last night we also met a man at our dinner table who runs an organization for male cancer survivors, "Reel Recovery", that sponsors these men to have a fly fishing weekend together to share experiences and learn the relaxing skill of fly fishing. Apparently there is a group like this for women cancer survivors, too. Both of these efforts are so worthwhile....and I hope the folks running them can garner financial support. There is so much focus on fundraising for research and treatment, which is important, but quality of life is also really essential, and often missed in the effort for medically based interventions. Just saying.....it was interesting to come across both of these efforts in less than 24 hours in our own little town!
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lacey - Casting for Recovery is the women's breast cancer fly fishing group, here is the link - my BIL was a volunteer one year as the Florida program is where he lives - he is a physician and avid angler - his former boat was named Dr. Hook (after Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show - the band). He thought it was a great program - I am trying to convince DD to participate too - she is quite a good fly fisherperson. The commercial linked below shows her at the beginning walking down the dock and then casting - you can see a quick shot of her face, the first 30 seconds of the commercial is all her. There is also a fishing tourney locally called Hooked on Hope that raises money for equipment for my BS, he has his own operating theater and is on the cutting edge (no pun intended) of the latest technology, and also has an outreach program for underserved women to have the latest surgical techniques. As soon as she has her captain's license she can take a boat of anglers out for that tourney and help raise funds.
http://castingforrecovery.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nlh8Ezj5SHE&feature=youtube_gdata&rel=0&showinfo=0&autoplay=1
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Special - fun to see the picts of your DD. I'd love to go out with her once she has her license.
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Hope Debbie & Chuck are doing OK. Anybody heard?
How about Laurie & kiddos? I think she was posting on Facebook but I don't do that.
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minus - she is pretty excited about being a captain - she is about 2/3 of the way through the program. If you are ever in the area I am sure she would enjoy taking you - she can put you on the fish! It was amazing when she was home recently to watch her and her dad with the charts spread out on the table and he was teaching her to plot. He learned that many years ago when learning to fly so it was fun for both of them, and for me to watch them.
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