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Some Milestone Memories

Just a few weeks ago here in the Mohawk Valley we thought spring was upon us. The tulips were blooming and the bamboo started to grow back as well. Then we woke up one morning to snow.

It gave me time to reflect on how life takes unexpected turns and weather even more so. Since we have been sheltering in place like millions of people all over the world during this pandemic, Lynn and I have spent a lot of time together. Luckily, we never run out of things to talk about – mostly we discuss places we’ve traveled to with a couple of foodie meal reminiscences thrown in for good measure. It’s precisely because we have traveled so much that I’ve come to realize how many memories we have shared together.

“I spoke to you first,” my husband Lynn said to me at dinner the other night. “You know, I kept seeing you on the elevator but you ignored me.”

I had to laugh when he said this to me. I had heard the story before but now that we have been home together every single day and night (except for the occasional trip to the supermarket, liquor store or pharmacy), I actually had time to think about way back when. Full confession: I don’t remember seeing him on an elevator! I don’t think this makes me a terrible person or bad wife, it just means I remember things differently.

For example, I remember the day we met at a dorm party. It was October 6, 1979 and I even remember what I was wearing (white jeans, light blue top). But it makes me wonder, on the day we “officially” met, could we have ever envisioned 41 years later that we would be sheltering in place in a Big Red House a mere 75 miles from where it all started? Highly unlikely.

Want to see what I looked like back then? Yes, I did in fact prefer to wear peasant skirts and a BLOUSE!

Prior to our purchasing the Red House, we used to spend a lot of time in California; January after the holidays (our Christmas gift to each other) and again in September/October for our anniversary and hopefully also timing it with “crush” if we were in Northern California. Who wouldn’t want to look at beautiful vineyards filled with grapes, drink copious amounts of wine and drive the coast – especially with views like this?

If we weren’t in California, then we were in Europe. Often we even took the kids. The first and only time we have been to Berlin we took them with us. If I went back to Berlin now and revisited the Brandenburg Gate, I would probably wonder where they had wandered off to.

Lynn and I have also been fortunate to have traveled to Paris many times. But to this day, even if it’s just the two of us in Paris, I still think of Nicholas skateboarding in front of the Eiffel Tower!

And Rachel? Could she have posed for a picture any prettier than in Monet’s garden in Giverny?

During this pandemic, I started to think about all the family trips for other families that may never happen. What about first dates and chance encounters that are missed? Remember the scene in Back to the Future where Michael J. Fox (playing the character Marty McFly) realizes that if his parents don’t meet and you know, kiss big time, he, himself, would not have been born. And remember how he then spends a good part of the movie watching himself slowly fade away on a photograph he’s holding in his hand? That’s how I kind of feel these days about memories that aren’t happening.

Would our life together have been different if we had never gone to California? This picture of us (one of my favorites actually) wouldn’t exist. Would we understand and appreciate farm to table cooking and good wine as much?

What if we had never traveled with our kids? Rachel never would have been standing on a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

And what about smooching the Blarney Stone? There wouldn’t be a photograph of the four of us standing on the ramparts of the Blarney Castle in Ireland. (P.S. I didn’t kiss the rock, I just looked at it.)

These past few weeks I’ve started to think not only of trips we’ve made together but of birthdays we celebrated too.

Here’s the cake that I made for Rachel’s birthday 10 years ago!

That was the cake for the “family” party. She also had a sweet 16 and celebrated with some of her girlfriends with a limo ride and dinner at a popular restaurant in NYC. She’s so beautiful here in her dress!

How many of these milestone events now during our “stay at home” order will have to be spent at home and not celebrated according to plan? Will these celebrations ever be made up or will we just do something on a smaller scale or ignore them totally and move on?

One of my nieces, Daniella, shared some of her thoughts with me about not having the sweet 16 party she was supposed to have. She wrote, “I really wanted to go to school for my birthday to see my friends and everything but school got canceled 3 days before. And then we found out on my birthday that the restaurant was closed…so everyone came over for pizza that night. I was supposed to have a party and that never happened. And we were supposed to see a Broadway play and that’s been postponed. ”

She also mentioned other friends whose parties keep getting pushed back and knows friends who have “just sat at home on their birthday.” She told me she really “did luck out” with the small gathering she was able to have in her honor.

I think that’s a really good attitude to have these days.

This Memorial Day weekend is bittersweet. Usually by this time of year I’m struggling with the stress of what we call the “end of the school year finish line.” But since I’m working from home these days, the finish line is a lot easier. Normally, Lynn and I have already mapped out summer vacation plans or at least a road trip or two. This year we were thinking about going back to Nova Scotia – an area we haven’t visited in 30 years. We were also thinking about a repeat visit to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater in Pennsylvania on the way to Nashville.

Then there is Lake Superior. It’s the only one of the “Great Lakes” we haven’t seen together. And when I get an idea in my head about doing something or going somewhere, eventually I make it happen. Apparently, that won’t be the case this summer.

It’s probably the traveling part that I miss the most coupled with the knowledge going forward that there may be no travels whatsoever for us anytime soon. Does this mean we will simply be “camping” forever at the Red House?

I think this is actually okay. We’ve managed to finally catch up on some overdue home projects. After all, it’s been a little less than a year since we permanently moved up to the Mohawk Valley. And yes, believe it or not, there is still one box that hasn’t been unpacked because it’s filled with pictures and some art work that either needs to be framed and/or hung on a wall.

There has also been quite a bit of gardening. I even bought myself a new pair of gardening gloves which I found particularly charming in that they bizarrely had my paternal grandmother’s name stitched on the side.

I realize that this sheltering in place has not only compromised our lifestyle but made us redefine family and home. Now we spend days deliberately and carefully avoiding any contact with anyone. There are signs taped on the floor of one of the few stores we frequent – directing us where to stand and which direction to walk. And always reminding us to “social distance” and remain six feet apart.

Meanwhile, the deer on our property obviously aren’t following the “rules,” they are congregating in larger groups than we’ve seen before.

But I have to think that this pandemic has compromised so many memories. So much of our childhood and young adulthood relies on certain milestones – whether it be a sweet 16 or school graduation. To make matters even worse, it’s the elderly parents and grandparents who can’t celebrate these milestones with us. I’ve seen pictures of people waving to their parents and grandparents through a window. This saddens me. What about those folks who are deemed too “vulnerable” to even go outside to shop or take a simple walk in case they are exposed to the virus? What memories will they have other than of being stuck at home?

Pictures, of course, help immensely in trying to remember how life had been. But you can’t take a photograph of an important milestone if the milestone doesn’t happen.

I mean, look at sweet Nicholas when he won a plaque for competing in a karate tournament on Long Island!

Or Rachel on her first trip to France when I asked her to turn around so I could photograph her in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles!

Meanwhile, as we prepare for the summer months, it’s good to spend time outside; gardening (as mentioned) helps immensely. Most of the vegetables are planted and I’m working on a new planter box filled with herbs as well.

This is a photograph I took of a mural painted on a hotel room wall in St. Paul de Vence one summer when we were traveling through the south of France. It’s quite lovely isn’t it? Sigh, I do miss that life.

There’s a lot of time for reflection these days. Lynn and I have been lucky. We don’t know anyone personally who has gotten sick or died from COVID-19. We do know many people who have lost their jobs and are struggling with meager unemployment checks and countless bills to pay. We have tried to help our local farmers by purchasing CSA shares and shopping at their small farm stands when we can. We have tried to limit our online shopping, choosing instead to support local butchers and bakers and liquor stores. We play a lot of Scrabble. We have watched more TV than we normally do but we try to limit the amount of news we watch because it’s just too depressing. We have repeatedly cleaned the house and organized drawers and thought of even more projects to do both inside and outside our home.

Actually, like my niece Daniella wrote, I think we did “luck out.” And while I miss our travel life , I’m okay with this new “normal. ”

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

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Cooking, Baking and Some Reflections on Family Life During COVID-19

Since we have been sheltering in place since March 10 (the school district on Long Island that I work for was the first to close because of a confirmed Coronavirus case), it has given me ample time to reflect on the many things I’m grateful for.

First and foremost that the house I live in now is the biggest house we’ve ever owned. There are lots of rooms to wander in and out of, plus a choice of where not only to work but read as well. I also, finally, have a kitchen that’s really big. This means that when I’m cooking, it’s perfectly okay for people to hang out and watch me do so. (Wouldn’t it be lovely to have a family party/feast right about now? I think so.)

There’s been a lot of cooking. There’s been a lot of eating. I have discovered cookbooks that I bought or were gifted to me over 30 years ago. I now have the time to read through them and I have even attempted to make some of the recipes. After all, who wouldn’t want to at least leaf through this giant “coffee table” book of Provence, especially when you can’t go there anytime soon!

There’s also been a lot of baking. Since I don’t particularly like baking and reluctantly do it around the Christmas season, this has become a revelation for me. Now I’ve finally come to understand why I originally hated it; it just takes way too much time to bake things. Suddenly, I’ve come to appreciate it! Why? Because all those steps that are necessary to get dough to rise or butter to soften, well, are actually perfect to follow now when all one has is time. So far I’ve made muffins and bread and a fairly simple Dorie Greenspan apple galette.

I even made my first tray of baklava! I remember years ago trying to work with phyllo and not understanding the concept. What do you mean I had to brush this very fragile dough with melted butter while keeping the sheets of dough I was not using under a “damp” cloth. Now I get it. Note to self: see you can teach an old dog new tricks!

I’ve also been making dishes that are labor-intensive. I’m not going so far as to pretend I’m Julie Powell cooking every single recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook (remember she wrote a cooking blog during the aftermath of 9/11 that became a book that morphed into a movie). I have, however, been attempting to cook things I don’t normally make – like challah. I mean come on braiding strands of dough? I could barely braid my daughter’s hair when she was little let alone some dough.

All this cooking by the way, if anyone has been married as long as I have, has made my husband very happy. Apparently, even though I’m a very good cook, he likes the fact that I’m making things I’ve never made or haven’t made in years. Most of which is not very good for him (or me). Case in point: Tempura Fried Shrimp.

And then I spent an entire Sunday afternoon (not that it really matters what day it is anymore) making a new meatball recipe. I know, I know, I don’t like meatballs very much either. But I opened a cookbook, Italian Regional Cooking, (seen here among many others on the shelf above my stove) that Ada Boni wrote in 1969 and I couldn’t resist trying her

Polpetta di Carne also known as “Meatballs in Tomato Sauce Neapolitan Style.” Why? Because I was interested in how combining chopped meat with golden raisins and nuts coupled with bread crumbs, parsley, garlic and “lard” (note: I substituted 2 slices of bacon) would taste. Dare I reveal you have to fry the meatballs and then simmer the whole thing in a big batch of tomato sauce? PS: They were good!

Besides the cooking I’m also working from home. This turned out to be much easier than I thought it would be primarily because our outside IT company was able to get me up and running very quickly. While there are certain components to the job that take 3x as long to do remotely, overall everything is getting done. And ultimately, that’s all that matters.

But working at home has also given me time to reflect on what it would be like if our kids were still young. When I worked at FIT in New York City (and before flex-time was even a concept), I managed to negotiate a four day work week so I could stay home when both our son and daughter were little. I would spend the extra day off (usually Friday) with our first born and sometimes we would go feed the ducks at a small pond in the neighborhood. Other times we’d visit a local amusement park (Nunley’s on Long Island before they tore it down to build a Pep Boys) so he could ride around in a little car.

After lunch and a nap (his not mine), we would color and read and sing songs. Later he would watch me make dinner and when he got older (like around the ripe old age of 3), he was able to make a sandwich on his own or at least pretend he could.

When our daughter arrived five years later, we would walk on the boardwalk in Long Beach, NY. Since my braiding skills even then were lousy, at least I managed to pull her hair back into what I consider a very posh pony tail.

And when she got older, she and I would walk on the sand, often slowly, so she could stop to pick up pretty shells and colorful rocks.

Today during this state of “PAUSE” in New York, I think about parents who are at home with their school-age children and the very many demands that are put upon them. If the parents are trying to work remotely and the kids have school work to complete, too, well say no more. With probably limited outdoor activity and no fun excursions to a beach or boardwalk or local park, I can only imagine the high levels of stress for everyone in that household.

I’m also wondering how Lynn and I would cope with raising teenagers during this time. Both our son and daughter were very independent. Could we conceivably have asked them not to leave the house during this time to go hang out and visit their friends? If we had tried to make them stay home would they have listened to us? I think probably not.

In the meantime, my parents, now in their 80’s, are home on Long Island. Our daughter lives close by with her boyfriend and she does check in with them via phone and an occasional drive-by. Our son and his wife are in Astoria. They run every day to break up the monotony of being at home and trying to work from home. They not only call the grandparents but Facetime us frequently, too. For that I’m very happy. And while I love the tremendous amount of space and property we have at the Red House, I miss our children during these very trying times.

For now, I will keep cooking and baking and working from home. And for all the kids out there, the young ones in particular who are pretend doctors and bakers and carnival-makers (like the two you see below), you never know, some of them might actually remember this time fondly.

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

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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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Field Trip: Two Museums in Massachusetts

Since Lynn retired from MoMA we don’t visit as many museums as we had in the past. However, now that we live in Central New York, it’s much more convenient to get to places in Massachusetts and Vermont than when we lived on Long Island. Case in point a few weekends ago we decided to have a short overnight road trip to Wiliamstown, MA. We had never been to see The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown and if we had been to Mass MoCA in nearby North Adams, MA, we didn’t remember it.

The morning of our departure, we woke up to an ice storm that made even venturing out of the house difficult (slippery stairs and a car coated in a sheet of ice).

This gave us a later start than we wanted but eventually, after scraping off the ice and navigating some pretty slippery roads, we were on our way.

The Clark Art Institute

I didn’t expect the building to be modern nor the campus (140 acres) to be so large. Besides the museum itself there is a research center and some hiking trails. We were there specifically to see “Travels on Paper” since we are active travelers and like to see where others have been.

Had I paid more attention to the literature on their website I would have realized it was not a contemporary show but rather artists from the late 1770’s to 1880’s! Not wanting to discredit early attempts at photography or charcoal drawings, I was impressed by how difficult it was for people to travel back then. Often getting to such exotic places (Africa, Hawaii, Egypt, Italy) before decent means of transportation was not only lengthy but arduous and often dangerous.

I found myself focusing on the photographs or drawings of places I had been primarily because I was interested in what certain landscapes looked like 100+ years prior to when we had been there. Hence, this charming watercolor of the famous cliffs of Étretat in Normandy by French artist Eugène Edouard Soulès.

Since Lynn and I had been to see the cliffs and the Normandy beaches with our children one year (2003), I was delighted to see that the artist not only had a blue sky, but also a blue ocean view that day! I suppose he could have fudged a little; maybe it had been a gray day then, too, but isn’t it lovely the artist painted these scenes in various shades of blue?

This was our view that day:

A pink and gray sky with some moss-covered gray rocks and gray water. It was perfect.

Even the title of the show, “Travels on Paper” made me think of all the traveling we have done together. And most importantly, how we capture the trip both photographically and often with the written word in blogs such as this one.

As we walked through the show, I found myself repeatedly captivated by places that somehow looked familiar. Had we been there? Or was it a place that looked similar to other sites we had seen.

I loved this watercolor by a British artist I had never heard of, William Gawin Herdman (1805-1882). The piece is titled “Fantasy Archway with Strolling Couple.”

The arch looks almost like a stage set, a prop. Where does the arch lead to? What do the couple see on the other side besides the trees in the distance? The closest I came in my many travels of seeing a similar-looking arch was in Les Baux, in the Provence region of France.

I remember walking around Les Baux one very hot summer day overwhelmed by both the ruins and the heat. Truthfully, I would have preferred to be the woman in the painting, strolling leisurely through the archway, holding the arm of my beloved, even with the long dress!

MASS MoCA

From The Clark we stopped for a bite to eat at a local restaurant then headed into North Adams to visit MASS MoCA. We thought we had been there before but truthfully didn’t remember the building perhaps confusing the venue with Dia Beacon on the Hudson River. I was impressed with the use of the old factory buildings and wish in the town I live in now (on the Mohawk River) that some of the similar-looking factory buildings could be converted to art spaces, too.

Rainy, gray days are perfect for visiting art museums. I love walking through gallery spaces, looking at the often vibrant art on the wall only to peer outside and watch the rain fall or the wind blow things around. There were also old passageways the museum had retained when designing the space that led from one building to another.

One of its first tenants was a company called Arnold Print Works, a manufacturer of printed textiles. The floors we walked on and the big rooms that now house art held large scale equipment back then. We were often reminded of the people who truly labored here. After all it was a factory and accidents often happened with sometimes grave consequences.

We had come specifically to MASS MoCA to see the Annie Lennox show, “Now I Let You Go…” If you are not familiar with Annie Lennox, she is the Scottish singer-songwriter of Eurythmics fame. But first we wandered through some of the galleries. Here are some Sol LeWitt pieces which I’m fond of not only for the use of his bright crayon-like color palette but his geometric forms.

Then we walked into a large hall and got to look at the amazing sculptures of South African artist Ledelle Moe. Her large forms were so engaging and life-like (even in their reclining mode) that even though I know you are NOT SUPPOSED TO TOUCH THE ARTWORK, I struggled to keep my hands in my coat pockets. I wanted to not only feel the forms but run my hands over these figures in hopes of emotionally capturing the incredible strength of her work.

Her work in this exhibit entitled “When” reminded me of the countless monuments we would see not only when we traveled through Europe, but statues with water features we discovered closer to home. This funny looking guy is from a visit last summer to the Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion in Canandaigua, NY.

And then I saw the heads. They were just hanging on a wall, similar to death masks and looked to be randomly placed. I’m sure the artist wouldn’t welcome my thoughts on “random placement” but I liked this evocative piece immensely.

I thought of our own meager “head” collection at home. Simple clay or wood faces we had picked up along the way when traveling through Italy.

Then there was Jenny Holzer. Lynn was familiar with her work from MoMA but I was not. I found myself mesmerized by her repetitive texts in various languages. Particularly when she writes that “change is the basis of all history.” I love that line. Along with “stale food is repellent” which speaks to my love of cooking.

When we finally got to the Annie Lennox show, I had to walk around it a few times. First to really understand it. The obviously easy part was looking at the “trophy room” filled with awards and copies of her platinum and gold albums.

The more intellectually challenging component was to understand her “mountain” of collective things. There, assembled on what looked like a mixture of sand and gravel, were important pieces from not only her childhood but her children’s too.

The fact that the title of the show “Now I Let You Go” references our inability as humans to discard “things” that often have emotional significance wasn’t lost on me. Lynn and I have moved six times since 1985. Each time we have moved we have managed to throw a bit more away of our “significant things,” thereby reducing our clutter. Except a few boxes that are in the attic right now – our son’s Hess trucks, his wooden train set, our daughter’s favorite stuffed animals plus the dress she wore for her first Christmas. I haven’t been able to “let go” of their childhood just yet even though they are now both adults.

Case in point: how could we ever throw away this note our daughter scribbled on hotel stationery when we were traveling in Florence one summer? The answer is, you can’t.

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A Fun Cooking Class in Canada

I had only taken a cooking class once before on Long Island at a Viking appliance showroom. They were hosting cooking classes using the showroom’s equipment in hopes that after the class you would order a $6,000 stove because you had just prepared something on one and were impressed. I wrote a funny article about it over 11 years ago which I invite you to read. (Note to readers: this article was written before my cellphone had a camera. Imagine that! So there are no photographs accompanying the story, just text. Use your imagination.)

The Good Earth Food and Wine Co.

This past Sunday’s afternoon cooking class was at one of my favorite wineries, The Good Earth Food and Wine Co. It’s in the town of Beamsville, near Lake Ontario, and in a part of Canada known as the “Niagara Peninsula.”

We had been there twice before, once for lunch and the second time for their harvest dinner. Andrew Thorne, the executive chef of the Good Earth Food and Wine Co., was the instructor that afternoon and I will admit the reason I even signed up for this class was to spend an afternoon with him and watch him cook. Andrew is not only an extremely talented chef but a joy to talk to.

Luckily, this class turned out to be vastly different from my experience 11 years ago on Long Island. This time around there would be no “hands-on” cooking from the guests. Instead, we were given a lovely menu of what Chef Andrew would be preparing that day as well as a list of ingredients he was using in each dish. Chef Andrew was joined in the cooking school “classroom” by winery owner Nicolette Novak. Together, the two of them made our class of 12 feel extremely welcome that day.

We sat on bar stools facing the kitchen area and for the next 2.5 hours watched as Chef Andrew prepared and cooked our four course lunch. Nicolette attended to the details of silverware and dirty plate removal as well as water and wine pouring all served up with some funny anecdotal food stories.

First Course – “Snow Stopper” Menu

Buffalo Shrimp

Now buffalo shrimp aren’t that difficult to make (think chicken wings with hot sauce) but these buffalo shrimp were given a new twist by plating them with a great combo of blended blue cheese and cream cheese. The shrimp, having been coated in a mixture of cornstarch and flour, were put in a deep fryer for a few minutes (three to be exact), then tossed with some hot sauce and butter.

Don’t they look delicious?

Now, I will admit that the dipping sauce looked a bit gray on the plate (because of the blue cheese) but it was absolutely finger-licking good and worked really well with this tasty shrimp starter.

The other great thing about this first course (and the subsequent other courses) was that each of the three savory courses was paired with wines from the winery. And since they are a very small winery (according to Nicolette they produce only around 3,000 cases a year), it’s wine that is both perfect on the palate and wallet-friendly.

Second Course – “Snow Stopper” Menu

New England Style Clam Chowder

I love heavy cream. It probably has to do with living in Munich for 10 years where 75% of nearly every German restaurant I frequented had a dish that included cream or mushrooms or both. There was A LOT of cream in this dish (and the following polenta dish, too) and it was really good.

First, Chef Andrew had par-cooked some Yukon gold potatoes to get a head start for our group. Into a big pan he put in about a pound and a half of thickly sliced chunks of bacon along with an onion, some celery stalks and a couple of cloves of garlic. He spent a good amount of time stirring this concoction then adding some flour and a generous pour of white wine (not icky cooking wine but wine from their winery!) until the mixture looked like this:

Only then did he add some cans of chopped baby clams with their liquid, tossed in the potatoes, added lots more cream and salt and pepper and let the whole thing simmer.

Thing I learned that afternoon: You can in fact make soup without using chicken or beef stock. And if you use canned clams instead of fresh ones, the food police will not show up with a warrant for your arrest!

A bit of red chili pepper was chopped and tossed on top of each serving at the end (along with some chives) which not only gave the dish a splash of color but really kicked up the heat level as well. Should I reveal that the 12 of us ate our bowls of soup in silence? Yes, it was that good.

Third Course – “Snow Stopper” Menu

Lamb Meatballs, Polenta & Rapini, Too

I adore lamb in any form. I’ve grown found of polenta but it has become an “acquired” taste. Most of the polenta I had over the years was either too thick and tasteless or fried and tasteless. One Christmas Eve I even jumped on the polenta bandwagon and made (drum roll please) polenta “stars.” When I look back at that dinner now I think I must have been out of my mind. First I had to make the polenta and then let it cool enough so I could cut out star-shaped polenta’s with a cookie cutter. Then I arranged the polenta “stars” around one of the seven fishes I was cooking for Christmas Eve dinner. If you know how difficult it is timing-wise to cook one fish, imagine cooking seven plus all the side dishes and then making polenta stars, too? After that one Christmas meal I decided polenta wasn’t going to appear on my table anytime soon.

Chef Andrew makes his polenta thick and creamy by whisking the cornmeal into a pot of cream with butter then adding some Parmesan cheese to boot. He paid a lot of attention to the polenta until it became a delicious concoction similar to grits but without any lumps. Here it is already plated.

Meanwhile as he was doing this, he was also checking on the lamb meatballs before putting them in the oven.

He also started to sauté the washed rapini (what we call broccoli rabe in the States). (And in the previous photograph you also see him grating some lemon zest on top of the rapini.)

Thing I learned that afternoon: Put the sauce on top of the meatballs that are in the oven after they have been baking a bit. No need to take the meatballs out of the oven and put them in the sauce that is simmering on the stove. This was such a no-brainer I even feel like an idiot writing about it but truthfully, I never thought of doing it that way.

Finally, the meatballs were done after touching one and “feeling it” he said. But when I questioned Chef Andrew about not “cheating” like I do and cutting a meatball in half, he actually did just that. And it was, of course, perfectly cooked.

Here’s what the final dish looked like: Lamb meatballs simmered in a chunky tomato sauce and plated on top of some delicious polenta with a side of rapini. A generous grating of some Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of demi-glace over the whole dish brought it together.

Finally, in between all this cooking what is Chef Andrew doing? He is making dessert!

Fourth Course – “Snow Stopper” Menu

Chocolate Ganache Tart with Italian Meringue & Cranberry Orange Preserve

Because we were a crowd, he did have to make the ganache ahead of time because they needed to cool. He did, however, show us at the beginning of the class how he had made them and then proceeded to make some cranberry and orange preserves to serve with the tarts.

And then Chef Andrew made the meringue. This meant sugar and water went into a pot on the stove, egg whites needed to be whipped and somewhere in between these ingredients a great deal more heavy cream was added.

Notice how he really is a happy camper? He’s smiling as he’s baking! As my readers know although I can bake, I detest it and by now I would probably be screaming at the mixer. (Even though this mixer is much nicer than the one I have in my kitchen.)

Thing I learned that afternoon: A blow torch and a candy thermometer are things I should have in my kitchen. The candy thermometer will help you measure the temperature of what you’re cooking. And the blow torch will help you extract the delicate chocolate ganache tarts from their steel cells as well as “burn” the finishing touches on the meringue.

Footnote here: since I don’t like making dessert, I will use not having a blow torch as the perfect excuse for not making any dessert that requires one. I will buy a candy thermometer though.

Finally, the tarts were plated but not before a pastry bag for piping was found and perfect little dollops of meringue stood at attention on the luscious chocolate base.

Then when all was said and done, oops, the cranberry orange sauce was forgotten but carefully added on the side of each dish at the last minute. There was a lot more silence from my cooking classmates as we all dug into our absolutely delicious chocolate desserts!

More things I learned that afternoon: Cooking classes are more fun if you are actually not doing the cooking but watching someone cook for you. It’s like being at home but knowing you don’t have to do any of the dishes or have someone ask you to help them – whether it be chopping some parsley or stirring a pot on the stove.

It’s good to have a group of people you can talk to in the class but also more important, for me at least, is that no one was a picky eater. (I hate picky eaters.) The group size (12) was perfect and it was cool to be the only two Americans in the room surrounded by some pretty fun Canadians. (I went out on a limb with that one so I hope the group I was with shares my sentiment.)

Finally, Chef Andrew and Nicolette made Lynn and I feel very welcome and the food and wine were spot-on. Thank you both for being so nice!

P.S. While the menu was labeled as a “snow stopper,” we hit a “mini blizzard” in the Syracuse area on the way home. Luckily we had purchased some bottles of their Big Fork Red before the class. This was a welcome treat when we finally did pull into the driveway about five hours later. (We had to first shovel a bit in order to actually pull the car into the driveway.) And yes, if you don’t hit a blizzard and the line isn’t too long at the border, it really is only a four hour drive.

Wines poured that day: 2018 Betty’s Blend, 2016 Chardonnay, 2016 Big Fork Red.

Contact: goodearthfoodandwine.com if you want to know more about any of their cooking classes, bistro menus and winery hours.

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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.