Category: Fish

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Suddenly, A Wedding

This past Friday, March 13th, we went to a wedding. In Manhattan. In the middle of this insane Coronavirus outbreak!

Things being what they are (and changing every single day it feels like), our son Nicholas and his girlfriend (now wife) Shirley decided last Wednesday afternoon that they had to get married. As in as soon as legally possible.

Their original wedding was scheduled for April 3, 2020. It was to be a small affair with a trip to the New York City Marriage Bureau followed by a wine bar gathering on the Lower East Side with some friends and family.

We had rented a large hotel suite. We had purchased Amtrak train tickets to get down to Manhattan. We had made lunch and dinner reservations for the day before and after their wedding.

What happened on Wednesday you ask that moved up this event so suddenly? Two things: First, Condé Nast (where Shirley works) decided to close the offices in One World Trade Center because of the virus. So, upon hearing this, Nicholas met up with Shirley and they went to get their marriage license right away. After all, it was a mere 15 minute walk from her office to the City Clerk. Also their thinking at the time was if this gets much worse really quickly, that office might close as well. Therefore, after a minimal wait and a $35 licensing fee, the ball was set in motion.

By Thursday afternoon, Nicholas was calling us in the Mohawk Valley to let us know that he and Shirley were getting married on Friday around noon and they would “find” a witness somewhere. There was an urgency to his phone call which I understood.

A few hours after Mom and Dad had finished dinner (that would be Lynn and I) and a bottle of wine as well, this Mom decided she wasn’t missing her son’s wedding – Coronavirus or no Coronavirus. After all, I do the commute down to Long Island once a week anyway. Driving to NYC would be a no-brainer, right?

By 10 p.m. Thursday night, I had called Nicholas back to tell him we would be there and could be his “witnesses.” He was quick to agree to this new plan and had a single word for his father and I.

“Cool,” he said.

What to Wear!

We quickly packed some clothes – a dress, heels and stockings for me in case the bride and groom were “dressing up.” A jacket, shirt and tie for Lynn. I also packed some toiletries and a black frilly top. Last but not least, my favorite silk kimono jacket that I had bought one year when we were visiting San Francisco’s Chinatown. It’s a lovely shade of olive green with a hint of gold and some cranberry-colored appliqued velvet flowers. That would work, right?

Don’t Forget the Pearls!

Of course I barely slept that night! By 6:30 a.m. we were up and at the last moment I thought of Shirley. Would she have time to put together an outfit? What about flowers? Did she have pearls? I rummaged through my chest of drawers and found the (fake) pearls (now yellowed with age no less) that I wore to my own wedding 34 years ago – also on the 13th!

And I found some “real” pearls Lynn had given me either for a birthday or an anniversary one year. I thought of the saying: “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” If nothing else, the 34-year-old pearls could count as both “borrowed” and “old.” I put the two strands in a box and threw them in the bag we were taking down to NYC.

“Pepper”

It was damp, foggy and pouring rain as we drove down to pick them up in Astoria. They were busy getting dressed when we walked into their apartment. Lynn and I quickly changed too, opting for our more casual outfits. Their “baby” Pepper couldn’t have cared less what Mommy and Daddy were going to do that day! She was just chilling on the bed waiting for everyone to leave so she could get back to her nap!

From Astoria we drove into Manhattan taking the 59th Street bridge. We pulled into the first parking garage we saw that was closest to the New York City Marriage License Bureau. By now it had stopped raining but I took extra umbrellas anyway – after all we didn’t want the bride or groom to get wet!

Want to see what they were wearing?

The Bride and Groom

Here they both are waiting in front of cashier #7 (empty at the time) for their number to be called. First they had to pay the $25 marriage ceremony fee; then you wait some more to have the marriage ceremony performed. (Yes, it is in fact like DMV.)

Since we didn’t have time to place a wedding announcement in The New York Times (just kidding) here’s what I came up with:

Ladies and Gentlemen: For the early afternoon event, the bride, Ms. Shirley Cruz, wore a spaghetti strap black-and-white checked jumpsuit. On her head was a French beret – giving her outfit she told me a “French film noir kind of motif.” (I loved it!). Ms. Cruz will keep her maiden name.

P.S. Look at the pearls on her neck! Yes, she did in fact wear both necklaces! And wait, I think her blue beret qualified as the “something blue” she needed for this happy occasion!

Ladies and Gentlemen: The groom, Mr. Nicholas Parish, was outfitted in a smashing Liberty-print inspired floral necktie, suit jacket and gray dress shirt. On his head he wore his hair, still slightly damp from the morning shower. Mr. Parish will keep his name, too.

The Crowd

It was pretty crowded that day at the Marriage Bureau. We wondered whether others there had the same idea that Nicholas and Shirley had the day before. If they close down city buildings, how will people get married? The fun part about being in New York City (and one of the few things I miss now that we have permanently moved upstate) is that you get to see all kinds of things (and people) you don’t see anywhere else.

Okay, so the few women I saw wearing a white gown (or variation thereof), I figured were the brides. But then there were the other “couples” where I truly couldn’t figure out who was getting married to who! One guy I saw wore a top hat with a gray silk suit. He reminded me of a circus ringmaster or at the very least a lion tamer. I kept looking around to see if someone else would show up with some sort of exotic animal on a leash! I’m sure if such a creature did appear, they (and their handler) probably thought it would be perfectly normal to bring “it” to this particular “party.”

Then there was the couple who were in gym clothes and were waiting patiently for their number to be called while clutching their water bottles and their yoga mats. Even though I do have a VERY vivid imagination, I actually could NOT visualize what their ceremony would be like inside the clerk’s chambers! Dare I even mention the couple who brought their three children – all under the age of five?

Meanwhile, to kill some time we took pictures. Here’s Lynn and I with the groom. Lynn and I with the bride. This is what you look like when you don’t have time to “fix up good.” Us, not Nicholas or Shirley; they both looked gorgeous!

The Bouquet

The night prior, Shirley had the foresight to go out to get some flowers and make her own bouquet. She said she was lucky that a friend had told her how to bind the flowers together. They also were smart enough to put them in the fridge overnight to keep them as fresh looking as possible.

I love the white hydrangeas, the lilac-colored roses, baby’s breath and the dark purple freesia. This is an awesome bouquet! Do you know she told me it cost her a little over $20 to make it?

The Ceremony

Finally, their number was called (C66!) and we waited a few more minutes to go into a private room with a city employee. It was the four of us. The clerk read the script, the bride and groom said, “I do’s,” exchanged rings and kissed. The video I shot shows this took exactly 1:28.

Once outside the main waiting area we took a few more photographs. Nicholas lifting up his new bride! Don’t you just love Shirley’s boots? (I do!) And wait, weren’t those NEW boots? See where I’m going here?

And then outside the building.

Should I mention while taking this shot I was also on the Resy app trying to make a lunch reservation? Yep, I really am that talented!

The Wedding Lunch

We walked to Augustine. Chef Markus Glocker, who all four of us know from the Tribeca restaurant, Bâtard, was cooking lunch that day. Little did we realize that within 24 hours many NYC restaurants would be temporarily stopping service. By Monday evening (as I’m writing this post), Governor Cuomo would close all restaurants, bars and movie theaters in New York State!

When we walked into the nearly empty restaurant the hostess greeted us with, “Would you like to wash your hands?”

We absolutely did and followed her as she pointed out the restrooms in a different part of the building. (Augustine is located in The Beekman Hotel.)

Only then did we sit down at our table.

It was their wedding. We had champagne! We had oysters! We had appetizers! We had entrees – steak frites, arctic char, schnitzel, moules. WE DID NOT SHARE OUR PLATES. We had wine! And at the end, Chef Markus brought us out desserts on the house! Want to see our feast?

At the end of this very long but beautiful day, everyone decided it was absolutely the right thing to do. The best wedding I’ve ever been to! (Okay, I’ve only been to a handful of weddings but still.) Easy and simple. The way life should be.

Here they are:

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

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Teaching Myself To Cook One Pot Meals

Last weekend I challenged myself in the cooking arena. I pretended I didn’t know how to cook and found three New York Times recipes and one recipe from Food & Wine that I thought I would “try” to make. These were supposed to be simple one-pot meals, which as many working families know, is a blessing if you are trying to put together a quick dinner.

When we were living on Long Island, I would spend a good portion of every Sunday afternoon cooking for the kids (and us) to make sure there were at least a couple of decent meals I could simply warm up in the oven during the week. As a full-time working mother, I often wouldn’t be home until 6 p.m. and Lynn (when he was lucky) wouldn’t be home until nearly 7:30 p.m. In other words, I needed all the ready-to-go meal help I could get!

Over the years, I had developed a few simple meals that I would make repeatedly. Chili, roast chicken, meat sauce for pasta, and schnitzel. I was able to rotate these simple dishes for quite a few years until the kids grew up. Luckily for me, they both got after school jobs at an early age and often just ate whatever they could grab on the run.

I had learned to cook at an early age. I was not even a teen (12 to be precise) when cooking was an activity I really enjoyed. Even back then I could be trusted to put together some sort of chicken or pork dish in a mushroom cream sauce, make crepes (sweet and savory) and even dessert (usually cookies or a cake). Living in Munich, Germany, also had a lot to do with it. I wasn’t into sports, television didn’t come on until after 6 p.m., and there are only so many books a young girl could read!

To set myself up for this weekend challenge I decided I would try to follow the recipes exactly as they were written. This was a bit difficult for me because as I read through some of them, I knew not only was there a better way to do it, but sometimes even a better ingredient could have been included in the dish. Plus, since I’ve been cooking so long (over 46 years at this point – gulp!), I only follow a recipe when I have to bake.

First Dish – Shrimp Scampi With Orzo

I always have a bag of frozen shrimp in my freezer. This may have something to do with me always hoping for “unexpected” guests and being able to whip up some sort of shrimp dish in a hurry if I have to. The fact that I’ve never once in my entire life had an “unexpected” guest visit anyplace I’ve lived is irrelevant. Therefore, since I had the shrimp already, the only thing I would need to purchase for this first dish was a box of orzo. Everything else was already in my pantry, too.

I cleaned the shrimp and cooked the orzo. Luckily the night before I had watched a Jamie Olivier cooking show where he added raw shrimp to a dish of pasta he was cooking. I usually like to cook shrimp before I add it to any other ingredient that’s already cooked. The fact that he was so nonchalant about adding raw shrimp to the pasta gave me the courage I needed to do the recipe exactly as written.

The orzo cooked up very quickly as did the shrimp. When it was done, I thought there was a bit too much liquid. Yes, there was lots of parsley and white wine which I love but I found even the spritz of lemon at the end was overwhelming. I’ve made my own version of this dish in the past, adding some roasted tomatoes and chunks of feta which gives it the creaminess I think this dish was lacking. Here’s a picture of The New York Times version, followed by mine.

Second Dish – Cheesy Baked Pasta with Radicchio

The next night I put together a baked pasta with radicchio that I had seen in Food & Wine. The challenge here was two-fold. First, where the hell was I going to find radicchio in upstate New York without driving an hour east to a Whole Foods or an hour west to Wegmans?

Luckily, a 10 minute drive to the over-priced Hannaford supermarket in the next town proved they could sometimes surprise you. They did in fact carry radicchio and low and behold they actually had three whole heads for a mere $4.99 a pound! (Note the sarcasm here, please.)

I picked up the radicchio that looked the least wilted and was actually bizarrely happy that I found it so close to home. I mean really, look at the color of this vegetable! Yep, I did play around with this image courtesy of Instagram but it shows the layers really well this way.

The supermarket also had prosciutto on sale which was a plus since I needed it for the dish, too. I sauteed the red onions, sliced the radicchio into ribbons as instructed and added the garlic and red wine vinegar. I cooked the pasta and then poured it into a buttered baking dish. Normally, I don’t like any pasta (other than lasagna) that’s baked, particularly macaroni and cheese. I could never understand why cooks insist on putting a breadcrumb topping on such a classic American dish. To me, the whole point of mac and cheese is to eat creamy mac and cheese not breadcrumb-dry mac and cheese. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I mixed together the goat cheese but substituted gouda for the fontina cheese because fontina was nowhere to be found. I also omitted the nutmeg because I simply don’t like nutmeg. As I made my way through the steps of this dish, I thought cooking all of these ingredients separately was just WAY TOO TIME CONSUMING. I thought about how quickly I can usually put together a simple cheese and veggie pasta dish (which is basically what this dish consisted of). Had I not been doing this “cooking exercise,” I don’t think I would have baked this dish either.

Was it cheesy? Yes and it actually tasted better the second day because all the flavors had time to sit and simply blend together.

Here’s a picture of Food & Wine’s version, followed by mine.

Besides the pasta that day I also whipped together a “simple crusty bread” recipe that I hadn’t made in years. Originally, I thought it was the same recipe my Dad uses when he makes bread but alas, I was incorrect. This New York Times recipe got a ton of press when it came out in 2007 because it had four simple ingredients (yeast, kosher salt, water and all-purpose flour) that you just mix together. How could you go wrong?

As I was trying to maneuver the dough into the pan I was using, I remembered why I hated this recipe. The dough was so wet it was physically impossible to pick up! Plus, more than one-quarter of it kept sticking to my fingers, my hands and the countertop. Also, I really like kneading dough and this recipe omits that step.

The dough did rise however and I took it out of the oven when I “thought” it was done. Looking back it should have cooked about 10 more minutes to get a crispier crust and not have such a dense interior.

Meanwhile back on the farm (just kidding), it was really cold outside. So cold in fact that there were these really long icicles that were hanging off the roof of the house! In addition to the cold, the wind was howling outside, truly sounding like a freight train. When we woke up in the morning (after getting a nice glimpse of a crescent moon and Venus the night before), I opened the fridge and almost everything was frozen! What had happened overnight?

The only thing I can figure out is that the fridge is right next to a window and perhaps the cold air just kept blowing into that area all evening? This meant that the potatoes I had bought to make that night’s adventure in cooking dish had frozen, too! I tried to salvage some of them but just found myself getting angry that I had spent money on food I then couldn’t eat.

Want to see the icicles?

Third Dish – Salmon With Potatoes and Horseradish-Tarragon Sauce

At one point I owned Chef George Lang’s cookbook “The Cuisine of Hungary” but alas I think I lost it in the last move! That said, the fact that this was his recipe intrigued me especially since 1) I love salmon, 2) I love horseradish and 3) I love sour cream! (After all my great-grandmother was from Hungary.)

I sliced the few potatoes that didn’t have “frost bite” as paper thin as I could without the aid of a mandoline. (I’m terrified of mandolines.) I put them in a baking dish as instructed and added some shallots. This is what they looked like after cooking for about 20 minutes.

Then I mixed together some sour cream, tarragon and horseradish. I was supposed to “brush” the sauce on top of the salmon that would then be placed on top of the potatoes. When I did this, however, the sauce ended up looking like frosting and even after the salmon had cooked, it still looked that way! Which was really kind of weird.

See what I mean?

The salmon was very moist prepared this way though and I loved the sauce and the potatoes. Bottom line: I would make this dish again.

Fourth Dish – Dijon Chicken With Shallots and White Wine

Holy Moly. This recipe called for 12-15 medium shallots! I had bought six, used one for the above-mentioned salmon dish which meant I had five left. I thought five would be more than enough, after all these were kind of big anyway.

I melted some butter in a frying pan and sauteed the chicken as instructed. First problem was that the chicken thighs didn’t get as brown as I thought they should. Since I didn’t want to “cheat” by putting them in the oven (which would have given them the brown color I was looking for), I just left them on the stove and added the rest of the ingredients.

This recipe had a lot of wine, almost too much I thought. Ditto for the tomatoes. But the sauce, when it reduced, was really good and ultimately even though the bread didn’t turn out as planned, I grilled up a couple of slices and we ate it with the chicken. If I make this dish again though, it’s definitely going in the oven!

Ultimately, I liked making all of these dishes. It was actually kind of fun to pretend not to know how to cook and follow a recipe pretty much exactly. I do think, however, they might have been too difficult for your average person who doesn’t know their way around a kitchen or even how to shop for some of the ingredients. Luckily for me, this adventure was motivated by the cold weather outside and me wanting to stay inside. After all, we only turn the TV on at night and there really is only so much even this “older” girl can read.

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

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Philadelphia: Plus A Few Stops Before And After

Lynn and I had been to Philadelphia a few times. We had taken the kids to do the usual touristy things (Liberty Bell and Independence Hall) but we had never spent more than 24 hours there. This time would be different. There were a few new museums we wanted to see, restaurants we wanted to try and most of all a walking tour we wanted to go on.

First thing I have to mention though is how incredibly dirty Philadelphia seemed. I started researching this and it’s been an ongoing problem that doesn’t seem to have gotten any better in posts dating back over a decade. People complain about the trash but nothing seems to have improved! Driving into the city we were baffled by the amount of debris and plastic we saw everywhere. I mean people were even throwing out what looked like a brand new teddy bear! Truthfully it made NYC seem like the cleanest city on earth!

We had tickets to see a new play that weekend but first we visited the University of Pennsylvania to see Louis Kahn’s Richards and Goddard buildings – a medical research lab and classrooms. I’ve found that many of these so-called “modern” buildings of the time (1960) have not weathered well. This seemed in better shape than most but still cement does crumble and steel does corrode.

Dinner that night was at a restaurant we had eaten at before. Stephen Starr’s classic take on a French bistro, Parc, located on Rittenhouse Square, never disappoints. Yes, it’s crowded, yes, it’s noisy, but the food is consistently good. Dinner that night: escargots, lamb shank, cassoulet and for dessert a plate of profiteroles.

In the morning we headed over to the Old City and decided to go on a walking tour of the area. We had never done this before and our guide, Craig, was knowledgeable and fun to talk to. We also learned about some of the buildings we had walked by on previous visits. This time their importance during the creation of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution was explained to us.

Of course everywhere you go, the majestic tower of City Hall and tributes to one of the Founding Fathers of this country, Benjamin Franklin, are prominent.

There is also a lot of amazing Greek Revival architecture in Philadelphia. Plus, I’m partial to columns even though I tore down the ones in front of the Red House!

We were introduced to the Second Bank of the United States which now houses a portrait gallery.

And the site of Benjamin Franklin’s original house (now long gone) but memorialized by architect Robert Venturi as a “ghost structure” in Franklin Court.

And lots of statues.

Afterwards, when we went inside the National Constitution Center, there were even more statues! I have to assume these men, important leaders during their day, were built according to their actual height (most seemed quite short). It was fun to walk around their very lifelike forms and look at all the details that were incorporated into the sculpture. Buttons! Shoe buckles! And cravats! (Yes, that’s what ties were called back then.)

Afterwards we walked to Elfreth’s Alley, supposedly the oldest residential street in America. I was happy to see there was not a single piece of trash on this street! And the houses were nicely maintained.

I love the red shutters and matching doors on this house.

Betsy Ross And A Fifth Grade Field Trip

In 1971 after being in Munich for two years, we moved back to New York briefly. I happened to be in fifth grade on Long Island when we had a class field trip to Philadelphia. I remember very little about the trip other than visiting the Betsy Ross house. I found a couple of photographs that I took nearly half a century ago and realized that the decrepit building that was next to her house is no longer.

I also found a photograph of me in front of the house. Look at the blue “dress” coat with big brass buttons (although the sleeves do look a little short) I’m wearing. I decided to crop out of the photograph the other girls I was traveling with that day, but when I looked at the picture, I was the only student who had a camera in her hand! This photograph of me must have either be taken by a teacher or a parent who went along for the ride.

Here’s me today squinting in the sun with my hair nearly the same length! And wearing a blue (and much warmer coat) I purchased over the Christmas holiday.

After Betsy Ross, we grabbed a quick lunch (fish tacos and shrimp po’ boy’s) at Redding Terminal Market (no pictures it was too crowded) and then headed over to see the new Museum of the American Revolution. There was a lot of walking that day.

Dinner that night was at a restaurant I had been wanting to try for a while. High Street on Market is a cute little place with a small but very creative menu. Endive salad with golden beets, blue cheese, pistachios and blood oranges ? House-made agnoletti pasta with cauliflower, chili peppers and walnuts? Cherry pie? It was all pretty good and the only disappointing dish was a minuscule overpriced cheese plate which I won’t talk about.

Eastern State Penitentiary

We had never visited the famous prison and weren’t sure what to expect. They are doing extensive renovation work on the site which luckily didn’t seem to impact our visit at all. Once labeled the most famous and expensive prison in the world, what’s left is eerie and cold inside. Steve Buscemi, the actor, was the narrator on the audio tour as we walked around looking at the various cells and long hallways. We could only imagine what it was like being incarcerated back then.

Here’s a shot of the kind of conditions other inmates were living in (minus the peeling paint and debris on the floor one would hope). And here’s a cell that the museum staff decided to recreate based on newspaper accounts of one of their more famous prisoners – Al Capone.

I mean, look at these pretty luxurious accommodations. Mr. Capone even had a desk and a radio and clean sheets as well as a couple of throw rugs to cover the cement floor!

The prison was huge and I didn’t feel particularly claustrophobic when I was inside even when I looked out the windows.

However, once I went outside and walked along the very high stone walls, the feeling to “escape” (especially when I saw the watch tower) did come upon me.

What do you do after you visit a prison? You go to lunch!

We decided to stop for pizza at the nearby Pizzeria Vetri. We got off to a rocky start with the wait staff (couldn’t get anyone to even notice we were sitting at the counter for a good 10 minutes) but once I got up to make our presence known we had a lovely lunch. They make pretty decent pizzas – one we had was topped with crudo and chunks of mozzarella di bufala. The other was a pie with fennel sausage (and some fennel fronds scattered on top) which I liked. Plus we had a decent version of Caesar salad with anchovies, lots of Parmesan and a hard boiled egg.

Afterwards we could have used a nap (big lunch plus wine plus 60 degree weather) but instead walked over to the famous (or should I say infamous) “Rocky” stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We even saw a “Rocky” impersonator taking pictures with some tourists. Then we walked around the back of the building to get a view of the Fairmount Water Works complex on the Schuylkill River.

Frank Lloyd Wright

The next morning on the way out of town we stopped to see the only synagogue Frank Lloyd Wright designed. Located in Elkins Park, PA, the Beth Sholom Synagogue is very different (at least in my opinion) than any of his other work. Described as being designed in a “Mayan Revival style,” the roof rises up like a mountain with carved cement-looking stones jutting out on the sides. Unfortunately, there weren’t any tours scheduled that day so we couldn’t peek inside.

Henry Mercer and Fonthill Castle

We had originally intended to stop off in Doylestown, PA, on the way to Philadelphia but decided we didn’t have enough time so we decided to do it on the way home. I had seen pictures of Fonthill Castle and thought it looked a bit strange. Built between 1908-1912, Henry Mercer had the house built entirely out of reinforced concrete. He then filled the castle with Moravian tiles that he designed as well as other tiles and prints that he collected from around the world. There were so many rooms to look at that were literally crammed with (for lack of a better word) – stuff. There were also some amazing staircases, vaulted ceilings and a couple of built-in furniture pieces that I thought were pretty neat. I took quite a few photographs of this “house” so I’ll just share a few of them with you.

Here’s a panoramic shot of the house. Luckily we had a beautiful sunny day which really helped the gray cement structure stand out against the blue sky.

This was the “yellow” room, Henry’s first bedroom in the castle. I love the arches and the columns he made in this room. And look at this crazy ceiling in the next photograph with all those different types of tiles and ceramic pots he had collected.

Then there were the fireplaces, 17 in total I believe.

Besides his enormous display of books, my favorite room was his office. It held four desks! One for paying bills, one for writing (complete with a typewriter), one for drafting and the final one for correspondence. Guess which one this is? (Hint: drafting.)

In fairness, I found this house overwhelming, there was just too much to look at and digest. I found one small tile on the tour though that I found amusing. Was he making fun of himself? Or was it a literal statement of his love of letter writing? Who knows.

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

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Twelve Courses: Backhouse

We had been to Backhouse in Niagara-on-the-Lake for lunch last fall. The restaurant, set in a non-descript row of shops away from the main tourist scene, was a definite find. We enjoyed our lunch so much that October afternoon that I was determined to return for dinner, and so we did two weeks ago.

Backhouse, with Chef Ryan Crawford at the helm, focuses primarily on wood-fired cooking. This means if you have the opportunity to sit at the “kitchen bar” you will get a first-hand look at everything that is being prepared, sliced, roasted, grilled and plated. It’s basically like getting a front row seat to see your favorite rock band.

Cooking on the line that night was a young woman who answered by the name of Chef Ashley. She was very busy making pasta, checking to make sure the fire in front of us was at the right temperature and adding more chunks of wood when it wasn’t. She was also stirring soups, tasting the dishes she was preparing and plating, too! It was fun watching her focus so intently on her craft.

The Beginning

I will admit I do read TripAdvisor reviews before I visit a restaurant. I also discount the ones that many people write when they complain about portions being small, a menu being “weird” and dishes too expensive. I figure those people shouldn’t be at that restaurant in the first place. (I will confess I am both a restaurant and food snob.)

After we had decided we were going to do the chef’s tasting menu of yes, twelve courses, two gorgeous silk cutlery rolls were placed before us.

The fact that we were given numerous utensils to choose from (big and small spoons, knifes, forks and even chopsticks) made such incredible sense to me. Not only could we, as diners, choose how we wanted to eat a certain dish, but it freed up the servers from having to run back and forth to replace our silverware after every course.

While some people I have read complained about this “gimmick,” I actually thought it was brilliant. Plus I loved the Asian feel of the roll and I can’t say that I’ve ever eaten with brass-colored silverware!

First Course

We started with an amuse bouche of a single gougère stuffed with duck liver mousse. Not only was this bite a delicious savory treat but I loved the vessel it was served in. Look at the feet!

Second Course

Lynn had eaten this dish before – a creamy egg mousse concoction nestled in an eggshell and topped with gorgeous hunter green kale “pearls.” It was a melt in your mouth treat and we both wanted more of it.

See what good eaters we are?

In between courses we got to look around at the restaurant decor. There was lots of wood. And wine. And the roaring fire in front of us.

And there were knives!

Third Course

This course amused me. It was essentially a potato on a plate with some spicy crumbled sausage on the side. In concept it looked like a variation of a hasselback potato but these were cut in the shape of a mille feuille. Hence, when you cut into it, you could see the very thin layers of this perfectly cooked potato. I took two shots of this dish; the first one as it was served to us. The second one I tore apart briefly with my fork to show you the layers.

Fourth Course

Next up was bread and butter. Now normally this isn’t even considered a “course” in most restaurants since most places will bring a basket of bread to the table once you’ve sat down. But at Backhouse both the bread and the butter are homemade and of course baked in the wood oven. I think we ate ALL of the sourdough bread before I remembered to take a picture. Luckily, I managed to snap a photograph of the three butters served that evening before being devoured as well.

Fifth Course

I love soup. I especially love root vegetable purées. Tonight’s featured soup special was a squash purée that was topped with some crispy prosciutto, a few cubes of roasted squash and what looked like a sage leaf but might have been a piece of crispy kale. The fact that we watched one of the chefs slice the prosciutto on a handy Italian slicer, then crisp it in a pan to be used in the soup was mouth-watering. (I also on occasion have fried up some prosciutto for breakfast instead of bacon. I prefer the taste and try to tell myself it’s a “healthier” option.)

Look at this gorgeous slicer! It’s sharp! It’s red! There was a trend in Munich in the 1970’s where it was considered perfectly normal to have a meat slicer in your home kitchen. There you could buy large quantities of smoked meats (salami, ham, bologna) and slice them up to feed cold cuts to your family. Since Germans ate a lot of cold cuts this struck me as being both practical and economical. We never had a meat slicer but it was probably a good kitchen gadget to have if one was so inclined to eat that way.

Sixth Course

A play on words describes our next course which was a salad. In “Leaf it to Ashley,” the chef noted above who was cooking for us that evening, it contained some greens (including frisée which I love), croutons, more prosciutto and a couple of other items that are beyond my description.

I need to divert here a bit and talk about the greenhouses in this area of Ontario. Crossing over the border near Buffalo and/or Niagara Falls we see a lot of land and trees. Once however we drive closer to St. Catherine and Hamilton, we see greenhouses. Massive greenhouses. The bulk of many of the vegetables I’m buying these days seem to come from these big greenhouses. Case in point, at my local Price Chopper, a good 75% of the produce (Boston lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, green onions and tomatoes) have a “Product of Canada” sticker on them. Since we are closer to Canada now, I actually prefer buying these food items rather than an avocado that comes from California or an orange from Costa Rica.

Seventh Course

Before this course was served to us, we got to observe another chef who was rolling out dough to make what looked like handmade penne. I won’t have to tell you that pasta is one of my favorite things to eat – macaroni and cheese in particular. (And yes, I do believe it’s a cardinal sin to bake said dish in the oven and top it with breadcrumbs!)

Imagine my delight then when we were served some thick rigatoni-like noodles tossed in a kale and walnut pesto with some shards of cheese on top. While I’m not a big kale fan (I find the stuff tasteless and cardboard-like), this absolutely worked in this dish. I know kale is supposed to be healthy, but hey, a girl can’t like everything!

Eighth Course

Even though it was a prix fixe set menu, our server let me switch out the guinea hen course (aka “chicken”) and have the spring trout instead. Lynn’s chicken, I mean guinea hen, came with some lovely beets. It was perfectly roasted but truthfully my trout with more kale (!) and some grainy mustard and horseradish was better.

Ninth Course

I’m tired of seeing “pork belly” on a menu. First of all, you can swear up and down about how good eating “fat” is. It’s not. Perhaps it’s because I grew up with more than the occasional fatty piece of meat at the dinner table that I could barely choke down and inevitably would try to get rid of whatever I was chewing by doing the cough-in-the-napkin-thing. This is why to this day I always prefer to order fish rather than meat when dining out. This was the only course so far that was just okay. Don’t get me wrong I love pork and ham and anything pork-like that is pulled or barbecued. It’s just that me and pork belly, well, I just don’t get it..

Tenth Course

And then when asked what type of cheese was available, I was told they had over 25 varieties! We were brought out a selection of three firm cheeses (including an amazing cheddar) and one soft. Where’s the cheese you ask? Apparently I forgot to take a photograph BEFORE we started to dig in and all that was left were a few slices of sourdough walnut and raisin bread and the remnants of the cheese slate.

Eleventh Course

In this part of Ontario, ice wine is a big deal. Since I detest sweet wines (and any type of dessert wine for that matter), ice wine and I are never going to be a couple. The ice wine “float” that they brought to the counter reminded me of the old school lemon sorbets certain “fancy” restaurants used to bring to you between courses. This was supposed to “cleanse your palate” – or prepare it so to speak – for the next course. Luckily, this “float” wasn’t terribly sweet, and I loved the bit of fun this course brought to the bar.

Ice wine was poured into a champagne glass holding a dollop of sorbet and some carbonated water was spritzed out of a soda siphon into the glass right in front of you. It worked.

Twelfth and Final Courses!

Beet Cake and Roasted Squash Crumble

Besides switching out my entree, I was also allowed to choose a different dessert. I usually get away with this because I say something along the lines of “wow, I’ve never had (insert name of dish here) before and I would really like to try it.” This kind of menu enthusiasm has never failed me.

Let me talk about one review about the beet cake that I read on TripAdvisor. Someone absolutely hated it which is why I so desperately wanted to try it. In fairness, you have to like beets and be okay with the fact that sometimes dessert doesn’t have to be sugary, sweet or have chocolate in it. The beet cake they brought out that evening had the consistency of a pound cake but with an intense savory beet topping. Was it the best dessert I’ve ever had? No. Was it the most creative? Yes.

Lynn’s dessert was a slice of roasted squash with some crumble and a mousse-like cream. I had some of his, too.

Finally, we are not gluttons. Each of the twelve plates served was truly a small plate, think tapas. It takes a long time to get through this meal (3 hours!) but it doesn’t drag on. There’s a lot to take in visually since the chefs are working right in front of you. Plus, there’s lots and lots of good Niagara escarpment wine to drink. And to that we say Cheers!

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A First Time Visit to Prince Edward Island

Although we had traveled to Nova Scotia nearly 30 years ago, we had never visited Prince Edward Island. On the itinerary for last summers road trip adventures, it seemed like a logical place to visit since it would save us airfare. And now that we live permanently in upstate New York, it really is easier to travel places that used to take 8+ hours to get to. Particularly when one has to get off the “Isle of Long” first. (Shout out to Larry The Duck on SiriusXM’s First Wave station for getting me through the morning commute and his endearing giggle when he invariably describes Long Island that way.)

My initial impression of PEI was wow! That’s a really really long bridge you have to take to even get to the island. Case in point: The bridge, known as the Confederation Bridge, is the longest bridge in the world crossing ice-covered water. I’m not sure what exactly that means since there was no ice the day we crossed but that’s what a Google search revealed. It’s also really expensive. CA$47.75 to cross a bridge? Granted, it’s only a one-way toll (you pay on the way back) but still!

So once we got off the bridge, we stopped the car and walked around a tourist-filled rest area and then decided to grab a couple of lobster rolls for lunch.

On To Charlottetown

I was a bit disappointed with Charlottetown I have to say. A) It was a lot smaller than I expected and B) There wasn’t really a lot to do there. Yes, we could have gone to see “Anne of Green Gables: The Musical” (just kidding!) since it has been playing annually in Charlottetown since 1965! But since I was already dragging Lynn to see the author’s house the next day, I decided to spare him anything else related to “Anne.” Besides we were already being bombarded by Anne of Green Gables souvenirs and even “‘Anne” chocolates everywhere we looked.

Thing is, I never read Anne of Green Gables growing up. I actually went to my local library this summer before we set out on this adventure, and truth be told, I liked the book and the character. (And knowing how I was as a young teenager girl, I probably would have tossed the book in the garbage because back then I liked reading books by D.H. Lawrence.)

I’m really glad I read the book this past summer since so much of Prince Edward Island is wrapped up in the many stories that author Lucy Montgomery wrote. She managed way back then to create characters that one can emphasize with and the near fairy tale setting of her books on the island only adds to their appeal.

So our first morning in PEI we went to visit the very modest family house where she was born and where she eventually married, too.

Followed by a further drive down the road to see a “heritage place” museum that showcased many of her books and the inspiration for writing them.

Driving between these two places, we would catch glimpses of the water and marvel at the beauty of the countryside. I also didn’t know there were so many farms on Prince Edward Island. Or that their primary crop was potatoes. And why was the soil so incredibly red?

It turns out there’s a lot of iron in this soil and although it looked like “sand” similar to what we had seen in the deep red stones of Sedona, Arizona, this soil was lush and fertile. I stopped more than once to pull over to try and capture the deep color of the earth but the camera just didn’t do it justice.

We continued to drive a bit around the island when suddenly I saw a sign for “Malpeque.” Could it be the same Malpeque that was famous for its oysters? We journeyed on to find out.

Even though it was not even noon, we decided to have an early “snack” of some just-harvested Malpeque oysters, “from the source,” so to speak at the Malpeque Oyster Barn. Now that I’ve had the “real thing,” it’s very difficult to order fresh oysters anywhere else and expect them to be even passable.

Fresh and only slightly briny, they needed just a simple squeeze of lemon as shown here although the Migonette sauce and fresh horseradish were a nice touch, too.

Afterwards we walked around the dock area and looked at all the oyster/lobster traps so artfully displayed.

And then we went to find a lighthouse nearly an hour and a half away on the other side of the island.

Point Prim Lighthouse

When we drove down a sandy beach road looking for the Point Prim Lighthouse, we didn’t expect to find a long line of cars parked on the side of the road. We realized the real reason people were there was to eat at the Point Prim Chowder House.

Even though we didn’t have a reservation, they found a table outside for us. I have to say the view was delicious! The food was decent. And the mosquitoes! Boy, they loved my ankles that day!

So back to the view.

With these pretty white curtains (that they tried to tie back since they had a tendency to billow in the wind), I felt I was in a fancy Caribbean resort rather than PEI.

We had a bowl of chowder and two lobster rolls but genuinely had a hard time thinking who was enjoying their “feast” more – Lynn and I or the mosquitoes nibbling on us.

We ate quickly and then made our way over to the lighthouse where (drum roll) we were one of only two visitors.

After lunch, we decided a visit to the beach (and being able to dig our toes into that incredible red sand) would be just the thing to do.

We had packed bathing suits and borrowed some towels from the hotel (but boy do I hate changing in a toilet stall!) and then indulged in a beautiful afternoon at Brackley Beach.

They have dunes! They have crystal clear water! They have soft red sand! Really, it was very relaxing.

Dinner both nights in Charlottetown was pretty uninspiring but I have to assume that’s because the town was filled with tourists looking for a cheap hamburger and a beer. We did have some fantastic chowder at Brickhouse Kitchen and Bar. Loaded with fresh seafood (at least four different kinds from what I could tell) plus potatoes and cream, it was really good! I went back to check their website, pulled up their menu and this chowder is actually a winner! Named the 2018 PEI Potato and Shellfish Chowder Champion, this one dish has lobster, haddock, scallops, mussels, smoked bacon and PEI potatoes.

Don’t you just want to dive into that dish? I do!

PEI Potatoes and Charlottetown’s Farmer’s Market

Speaking of PEI potatoes, well here we go. Okay, so as I mentioned before, I was trespassing on farmland trying to take pictures of the soil and the abundance of potato plants when I thought well, I have to buy some. Luckily, we were in town for the weekend and Saturday mornings is where all the action is at the Charlottetown’s Farmers’ market. Unfortunately, we had already eaten a (mediocre) breakfast at the hotel, but we walked around the stalls and marveled at all the goodness that was being displayed.

Potatoes right from the earth!

Lettuce and scallions and squash, too!

Wait, are those just-picked Shiitakes?

And lots of different varieties of fresh baked bread?

Are you hungry yet? Because I am!

Needless to say, only three things would bring me back to PEI. The oysters, the farmer’s market and the beach!

Oh yeah, on the way home, guess what I bought?

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

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Campobello Island – But First A Stop In Saint Andrews, New Brunswick

Visiting Campobello Island to see Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s summer “cottage” (it has 34 rooms!) had been on my do-list for a while. I love visiting old houses and am fascinated by stories of how people lived during the 1930’s and 1940’s. This probably has something to do with growing up in Munich and being constantly surrounded by reminders of World War II. But first we needed a place to stay.

So, after we had visited PEI, we drove to Saint Andrews (also referred to as Saint Andrews By-The-Sea) which is a very romantic sounding name for this town in an area called the Maritime Provinces of Canada.

We were to stay one night at Rossmount Inn, a hotel I had read about that had travelers raving about the on-site restaurant. But first we decided to pay a visit to Kingsbrae Gardens. If you are interested in garden design and flowers and plants like I am, this is a must-see stop. Set on over 25+ acres in a residential area of Saint Andrews, they not only have lovely flower gardens but an interesting sculpture garden and miniature exotic pet farm, too.

To give you an idea of how much they love gardens (and gardening!) this was the first thing I saw walking onto their beautiful estate.

We walked around the gardens admiring all the flowers and the neatly trimmed hedges.

Plus they even made rows and rows of daylilies and assorted other wildflowers look civilized.

And then we saw the peacock! I mean, I had seen a peacock spread its feathers before but this bird decided it was going to give us a little fashion show. Look how it spread its feathers and strutted a bit so we could see both the front and back of this gorgeous bird – a member of the pheasant family I believe.

I actually thought the back of this beautiful beast was even more interesting than the front.

After more sculpture (see the food theme prevalent here with an apple core and an avocado), we went to the hotel.

A Night at the Rossmount

Chef Chris Aerni and his lovely wife Graziella are probably one of the nicest couples we’ve encountered on our many travels here and abroad. They are totally hands on with this lovely retreat they have created and love to talk to their guests not only about food but places they, too, have visited. (I’m now very curious about Hobart, Tasmania, because of my conversation with them that night.)

This is a shot of their hotel and the lovely pool area. Unfortunately, it was too late in the day for us to hang out by the pool, but this hotel is definitely on my “return for a visit list” so we’ll have to check it out the next time we go.

Dinner that night was exceptional. A multi-course tasting menu featured fresh Malpeque oysters (I will talk more about these beauties in an upcoming Prince Edward Island story) paired with a scallop ceviche.

Mushroom soup and bib lettuce and beets from the garden topped with edible daylilies (who knew you could eat those).

Followed by a roasted quail and potato salad. And then old school surf and turf kicked up a notch with succulent butter-poached lobster with garden fresh veggies and a killer Bearnaise sauce. The dollops of green pesto that were added to this dish just brought the whole thing together. It was tasty and absolutely brilliant!

And then there was dessert. Pea semi-freddo? You betcha. And it was delicious – sweet and savory all in the same bite. But then since it was my birthday (really, the actual day not the day before or after), I asked if they could bring me out something chocolate. And that’s exactly what they did. (I know it was so unlike me to order a second dessert, but I split the chocolate mousse with Lynn.)

On To Campobello Island

We started off the morning (after a lovely breakfast at the Rossmount) by listening to “Siri” tell us how we should “drive” to Campobello Island. Usually I at least take a glimpse at an old road map to make sure she’s heading us in the correct direction, but this time I didn’t. That’s why about an hour later we ended up somewhere along the coast near Passamaquoddy Bay (yes, that is exactly how you spell it). We were in the town of L’Etete and saw signs for a ferry that we thought was going to Campobello. Since there was no reason not to trust “Siri,” we drove the car onto the ferry. Who knew the ferry was free, too? (Thank you Canada!)

When the ferry docked, we realized we were on another island, “Deer Island” to be precise. There’s got to be a bridge, I thought that would get us over to Campobello, right? There is a bridge, but not where we were! We also discovered that we needed to take another ferry and had just missed the one that would eventually take us over to Campobello. See there it is pulling away!

So we joined a growing line of cars and waited for the next boat. Since we were basically stuck on Deer Island, it’s not like we could turn around and go back. Nearly an hour and a half later (not the hour intervals as shown below), we drove the car onto ferry #2 and finally ended up where we wanted to be. And this time we had to pay about $27.00 for the crossing.

The Roosevelts

Once we finally got to Campobello we managed to finagle our way onto a tour of the house that had just started. I was impressed with the home and simple furnishings and the great lengths the Roosevelts took to spend summers there! (If it took us that long to get there from our morning start which was a mere 117 kilometers away, imagine what it was like for them to get to their summer home from New York or even Washington in the 1920’s via train and automobile!)

And since I love to cook and eat (as you all know), I particularly focused in on the kitchen. The stove Eleanor’s staff would cook meals on was still in the house. This is a thing of beauty. And looking at it, it actually has more burners and “counter space” than my current stove.

I also loved the bullhorn that was out on display. Apparently, Eleanor used it to call the children in for meals when they were out and about.

And with a view like this from the house, who wouldn’t want to be outdoors every single second of the day?

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

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A Trip To See Lucy, A First Time Visit to Chautauqua Plus A Dose Of Frank Lloyd Wright

While I wasn’t a big “I Love Lucy” fan, I did understand the appeal of the show and her character. Therefore, when I found out earlier this summer that there was a museum devoted entirely to her career in her hometown of Jamestown, NY, I thought it might be worth a visit.

The Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum is actually housed in two store-front buildings in downtown Jamestown, NY. I think the museum does a pretty good job showcasing not only her career but the relationship she had with Desi in producing the show. It was also fun to see some of the (recreated) stage sets they used during the filming.

Looking at the old issues of TV guide, I got a sense of how very popular she was during the 1950’s not to mention the countless movies (over 80!) she did even before the show!

I was particularly thrilled to learn she also was the first woman to run a major television production studio (Desilu Productions) that she retained even after she and Desi divorced.

On the way out of town we also paid a visit to the cemetery where she is buried. I have to assume the cemetery staff got tired of having to explain to countless visitors where her plot was located since they thought of a clever way to lead one to her. (Hint: follow the red hearts!)

Next Stop: Chautauqua Institution

While I had read about Chautauqua and all the programs they offer during the summer, until we moved full-time to the Mohawk Valley driving there from Long Island just wasn’t going to work for us.

Earlier in the summer I came across a play “One Man, Two Guvnors” that was being performed by the Chautauqua Theater Company and it sounded really fun so we got tickets for a Sunday matinee. (It’s a British play that premiered in London in 2011 based on a 1743 Italian comedy.)

Never having visited Chautauqua, I wasn’t sure what to expect. 1. I knew there was a religious component to the organization but I also knew there were lots of educational things (lectures, art classes, plus theatre and music events that one could attend. 2. I didn’t realize how big the place was (kind of like a small town) and that you could actually live there for the summer.

I did enjoy walking around and seeing the Victorian-style houses and we even walked into the Athenaeum Hotel to get a glimpse at the inside. (It’s less posh inside than it looks on the outside.

I also enjoyed looking at the flowers (lots and lots of flowers) that lined many of the walkways and in the gardens of many of the houses.

So bottom line, we enjoyed our visit and the play very much. And if next summer the theatre company puts on a play that we might like to see, I would definitely make the now not-so-distant journey. (It’s about a 4.5 hour drive as opposed to a 7 hour drive!)

Dinner on Lake Erie

I’m allowed to be a snob when it comes to Italian-American restaurants. My husband, Lynn, is first generation Italian-American (his mother was a WWII bride from Naples, Italy) and the true Italian food she cooked tasted nothing like what is being served in “Italian” restaurants even 40 years after I first met her.

So when I found a restaurant on Lake Erie that kind of had the feel of an Italian-American “red sauce” joint but the menu proved to be so very different, I was cautiously optimistic.

It was a Sunday night in the summer and there in the town of Hamburg, New York, with a view of Lake Erie is Lucia’s on the Lake. We had luckily made a dinner reservation that happened to coincide perfectly with the sunset that evening. Plus we were seated at a high table in the bar where the (noisy) party people were hanging out but at least we had a view.

Here’s our view that night:

And really, if you ignore the power lines, it was really very pretty. The food I have to say was amazing but pricey. So if you can skip ordering the high ticket items, go for some great cooking, a decent wine list and a view overlooking Lake Erie that can’t be beat.

I had the halibut, shrimp and clam special over linguine and Lynn, well, Lynn insisted he was ordering the beef “Stroganoff.” Last time I saw that on the menu was probably in the 1980’s at the original Russian Tea Room in New York City. That dish practically screams “winter” in my mind but sometimes the guy just has to eat meat. (I tasted it and the dish was really delicious but too heavy for me.)

Graycliff – a Frank Lloyd Wright Design

We had reserved tickets nearly 1 month in advance to tour Graycliff, a house that Frank Lloyd Wright built in the late 1920’s for Isabelle and Darwin Martin overlooking Lake Erie. We had visited the Martin house in Buffalo last year but never got around to seeing their “modest” lake home. (Mr. Martin worked for the Larkin Company which was a huge soap manufacturer in the late 1800’s.)

The house is now owned by a group called the Graycliff Conservancy. This non-profit was responsible for saving the property in the late 1990’s. It had been sold by the Martin family to a group of Hungarian priests in the 1950’s who established a boarding school on the grounds and the priests, unfortunately, took it upon themselves to make some cosmetic and structural changes to the complex.

Like many other Frank Lloyd Wright houses we’ve seen, there were massive renovations to be done to bring the house back to its original grandeur. While the Conservancy is not quite there yet (funding obviously being a big issue), they have accomplished enough I thought to give visitors like ourselves a glimpse into life on the lake during the “roaring 20’s.”

They’ve just started landscaping some of the front areas of the house and are still trying to furnish the house with authentic period pieces. A tour of the kitchen revealed this incredibly interesting sink. It seems that Isabelle was an avid gardener and loved having fresh flowers everywhere in the house. She had this sink designed so that when she was bringing in cut flowers to make arrangements, she could stand them up and give them a sip of water to boot. I think this is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.

So this summer our “bucket” list got a bit shorter by visiting this Frank Lloyd Wright gem. We loved touring the house and hearing all the tales of the family who lived there.

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

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Travels Through Upstate NY, Keuka Lake and Canada!

Although Lynn and I have lived in the Mohawk Valley part time for nearly 9 years and we lived in Syracuse, NY for nearly 3.5 years, we had never been to either Corning or Rochester, NY. So this past spring break, Lynn and I decided to visit both of these cities.

First stop Corning, NY, with a visit to the Corning Museum of Glass on a damp and rainy afternoon. This image of what I perceived to be a school of fish caught my fancy. When I researched the artist, Lino Tagliapietra, and the title of the work, “Endeavor,” he described it as a fleet of boats. I’m always happy when my understanding of any artistic endeavor is close to what the artist was thinking.

I was also impressed with not only the size of the museum but the hands-on demonstrations that we, as visitors, were able to partake in. We watched glass being blown into shape, fired and molded. We watched glass being broken (carefully) and how glass heated to a certain temperature mysteriously becomes Pyrex and transformed into casserole dishes.

While I remember the tuna casseroles my mother used to make for dinner fondly now, my preference these days are layered vegetables (notably eggplant, zucchini, roasted tomatoes and mushrooms) in a Pyrex pan topped with some cheese. Anyway, I thought this “tower of Pyrex” was pretty cool. And speaking of vegetables, on the way out of the museum we stopped at the gift shop and picked up this glass cutting board. I think it will fit perfectly in the Red House kitchen especially since we grow garlic on the property (and the Mohawk Valley has both the perfect soil and climate for growing garlic in New York State).

Dinner in Corning that night was a pleasant surprise. We visited “The Cellar,” a downtown wine bar with an interesting menu which they describe as “global fusion.” Since Lynn and I frequently refer to ourselves as “professional eaters,” we usually get 3 or 4 different dishes and share them. That night didn’t disappoint with some oxtail tacos, spicy chicken skewers and pad thai to start. Tasty lamb chops and charred brussels sprouts with walnuts were a delicious finish.

Retiring back to the hotel, we stopped at the bar and had to persuade the bartender that he wouldn’t get in “trouble” if he served us the wine we wanted in the “pretty” glasses that supposedly were just on the counter as props.

What troubled me from a marketing point of view is that we were a mere 45 minutes from a Finger Lake (that would be Keuka) and there was not a SINGLE Finger Lakes wine to be had on their beverage menu! Shame on them.

Keuka Lake Tastings

From Corning we drove to Keuka Lake to visit two wineries in particular – Domaine Leseurre and Weis Vineyards. We started with Domaine Leseurre trying a few of their varietals. I really wanted to like their wines but truthfully was pretty disappointed. I’m always looking for the “wow factor” in a wine and those we tasted fell short. However, literally right next door is Weis Vineyards, a winery founded by German-born winemaker Hans Peter Weis. He’s the guy to watch out for in the next few years because the wines we tried (Dry Riesling, Gewurztraminer and most notably his Schulhaus Red) were absolutely delicious. Had we had a bit more time we would have visited a few other wineries around the lake.

On To Rochester

Here’s a photo of the outside of the George Eastman Museum. Pretty impressive, right? It actually reminded me of some of the big mansions during the “gilded age” in Newport, Rhode Island.

While there were exhibits to see and display cases filled with early camera prototypes (remember the Brownie? – it’s the camera in the middle), I was more interested in the house and the gardens. Unfortunately, the gardens didn’t open until May but we did get to see the rooms and the grandeur in which the family lived.

From the George Eastman Museum, we ventured downtown to see the falls. Kind of cool I thought to have the Genesee River mosey on down through the city to end in an old industrial area (which they have started to revamp) and culminate in the High Falls. The water looked pretty muddy that day (perhaps it’s always like that?) but I did manage to capture the rainbow that just happened to appear when we were walking along the bridge.

Italian For Dinner

If you haven’t been to Rochester and are in search of some really decent Italian (and pizza!) I recommend Veneto. True to form we split a Pizza Margarita, had a green salad and a caesar salad, then split a bowl of Rotini Bolognese. I hate to use the word “delish,” but in this case, that’s the most appropriate word for that meal.

From Rochester we drove to St. Catharines, Ontario, in search of their downtown farmer’s market. We parked the car, went to the ATM to get some Canadian $, found the farmer’s market but were disappointed in that we only found a couple of vendors selling smoked meat-products and/or lunch sandwiches. (We were on the quest for Canadian maple syrup.) Since my forte is planning ahead, I had already found a maple syrup farmer 15 minutes outside of town so that’s where we headed – stocking up on maple syrup that sells for half of what we pay in New York State.

Time For Lunch – The Good Earth Food and Wine Co.

There are some meals Lynn and I have enjoyed more than others over the many years we have traveled together. Lunch that beautiful Friday afternoon at The Good Earth Food and Wine Co. was one of them.

Nestled in what at first seemed like a residential area in the town of Beamsville, we came upon the winery and restaurant.

While it seemed like a gray and chilly day, actually by the time we sat down for lunch in their indoor/outdoor patio, the sun came out and it was quite lovely. Needless to say the food and the wines we had to go with our lunch dishes – pea shoot salad with yellow and red beets with goat cheese, lamb meatballs with cheesy grits, broccoli and roasted tomatoes, and finally the chef’s pasta special of the day -a rigatoni in a vibrant green spinach sauce with red peppers were exceptional. To say I was super impressed with Chef Andrew Thorne’s cooking skills is an understatement. I wanted to move into his kitchen and never leave!

We passed on dessert, taking time outside the winery (after buying a few bottles to go after chatting with the chef and I believe, the gracious owner, Nicolette Novak before leaving) to snap a few more pictures of some flower arrangements and a neat sculpture.

Now that we had not only seen “the fork in the road” but taken the fork too, we had time to kill before dinner so we went to Ikea!

Side Trip – Ikea!

I have to say that Ikea has come to our design “rescue” in every home we have ever owned. We’ve renovated TWO complete kitchens using their cabinets, purchased kid’s bedroom sets, TV stands, bathroom vanities, and even a dining room table and chairs. Really, the list of things we’ve bought from them over the years is endless. This time on our shopping list were temporary clothing racks (we have no closets in the Red House) so we at least have a place to hang up some clothes before we go into the closet-building business. What I particularly liked about this Ikea (actually 3 things):

  1. You can take your shopping cart loaded with all the stuff you bought directly to your car!
  2. There were associates on the floor who were available to help you find a product.
  3. The prices were cheaper than in the U.S.

Overnight and Dinner in Niagara-on-the-Lake

We had been to Niagara-on-the-Lake twice before. What I liked about going off-season was that you could get a hotel room for only half an arm not an arm and a leg, there weren’t hoards of people blocking the sidewalks licking ice cream cones and there was loads of parking.

Dinner that night was at Treadwell’s. We had discovered Chef Jason (Jay) Williams at the Inn on the Twenty the summer prior, and wanted to see what he was up to in his new digs. He and his crew didn’t disappoint.

We were lucky enough to get a seat at the bar which meant we got a bird’s eye view of the chefs cooking and plating. Let me mention that the service at Treadwell’s is top notch with a much-appreciated wine list that is heavy on the local wines and a Sommelier, James, who made some remarkable recommendations.

What did we eat? House-cured smoked salmon with hand-picked fresh herbs.

Whitefish with a creamy potato “chowder” and chunks of lobster claws.

Arctic char with roasted beets and tiny baby radishes and greens.

And while we also watched them put together an amazing charcuterie board, we only feasted with our eyes. However, we did end the evening with a lovely cheese plate.

Plus, look at all these greens! Truly farm/garden to table.

What I took away from this short get-away is there are many talented chefs who are not working solely in urban areas but all over New York State and Canada. When we first started traveling to Canada (albeit when we were in college 40 years ago), the Canada food scene, unless you were in a major city, was dismal. I remember driving in search of anything that didn’t resemble fast food and more often than not came up “empty-stomached”. Since then, the food scene in Canada has exploded with chefs and restaurants and wineries bringing creative and fresh food to the consumer. I am so happy to see and appreciate this development. Going forward, since we are now within a shorter driving distance to the Niagara wine region of Canada, we will hopefully be making many more trips to that area.

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.