Tag: cooking

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Visiting Naulakha

Last summer, I wanted to visit Naulakha, the only house that was built by Rudyard Kipling in Dummerston, Vermont. Unfortunately, the trip never panned out, so when tickets went on sale for this year’s opening, I didn’t waste any time.

Now owned by The Landmark Trust USA, the house is about a 10-minute drive from Brattleboro. Construction started in 1892-1893 and Kipling spent about $11,000 to have the house built. He was also adamant that the architect, Henry Rutgers Marshall of NYC, design it so the layout was similar to a ship. I didn’t really see the ship allusion, but the house is quirky, and the grounds are beautiful.

Manchester for Lunch

We had started this two-day trip the day before and headed to Manchester for lunch. I’ve written frequently about traveling to Vermont when we lived on Long Island, and how when our son was little, he called the state of Vermont “Mont.” Apparently to him, it was a magical place that Mommy and Daddy liked to disappear to every so often.

Manchester has changed in the 30+ years we’ve been visiting. Some of the old Inns are still there, but bigger chain hotels have moved in. There seem to be more places to eat now and less shopping. (That in my opinion is a good thing.)

Sunday lunch (not brunch) can be tricky even in major urban areas. My favorite thing to do is simply look at Google maps, click on some restaurants in the area I’ll be traveling to, and hope that their restaurant hours and website are up to date. Bonus points if they have posted a recent menu and not a “Mother’s Day” menu from 2022.

We ended up at a new place (for us), The Crooked Ram, that advertised their outdoor dining area – The Yard. Since I love eating outside on almost any occasion (well, maybe not when it’s snowing), this seemed like a lovely way to kick off our small trip.

The Yard has a fun vibe. You’re sitting outside but are covered under a mostly open wood beam structure. The menu is small plates oriented and creative. If there were any pet peeves on my part, it was their highly crafted, but limited wine offerings by the glass. This is partially my fault. I’m not up to speed on organic/natural wines and haven’t jumped on the orange wines that are very trendy right now. (I actually had to look up how that particular color is achieved. It’s wine made from white wine grapes, but they use the same fermentation process as red wine.)

We were going to get oysters to start. But when I learned they had been flown in from the West Coast, I balked. I really do try to stay local and not contribute to climate change problems. Hence, I don’t like to order things to eat that first had to make either a plane ride or long-distance truck haul in order to get on my plate. I did see other tables eating these oysters and hoped we could get some for dinner.

Tuna Crudo and A Pie

So, forgoing the oysters, the next best thing was for us to order a tuna crudo with dill fronds and thin slices of radishes with a diced fennel garnish. There were also some spicy red peppers thrown in with the vinaigrette and all I can say is “Yummy!” Could the tuna have been flown in from the West Coast as well? Possibly, but at this point I had already passed on the oysters, and the crudo sounded delicious.

You’ll notice in the photograph below that after much back and forth with our very patient server, I simply ordered us glasses of French Burgundy. Yes, I wimped out after trying to discuss the merits of a certain white or orange wine, and I wasn’t in the mood for beer.

After the tuna, we decided to split an artichoke and coppa-laden pizza that was pretty good. I say that because while the dough was thin and chewy, it was a little on the bready side for my taste. Still, it hit the spot and we had a nice lunch.

This was not an inexpensive meal, and I did read many of the Trip Advisor reviews online where people complained about the prices and the small portions. I don’t mind small portions and since I food shop almost every day, I know what good food costs. Factor in the price of staff to make and serve such delicacies and, yes, it becomes very expensive to eat out these days.

Woodstock Next

We didn’t remember ever visiting Woodstock, Vermont, and after lunch we drove to see “what’s there.” There were shops, a few hotels, a few restaurants, but the most popular place in town seemed to be the ice cream place – Woodstock Scoops. It was hot, it was summer, could we actually get a scoop of ice cream and break our record of only one scoop a year? (We already had ice cream last month after a day on Lake Ontario.) We did. Well, since we were in Vermont, I wanted something with maple syrup in it. Hence, my scoop of vanilla with maple syrup and walnuts. It was so good that I forgot to take a photograph! I just ate most of it myself until I handed the cup over to Lynn who had already finished his (boring in my opinion) chocolate soft serve in a cone.

One Red Covered Bridge Needed

I wanted a picture of a red covered bridge so did a quick search on my phone and found one after our ice cream stop. The Taftsville covered bridge proved to be a popular spot with visitors that day, but I did get more than one photograph.

Waterbury – Hen of the Wood

We had visited Waterbury back in August 2021 and the reason for our visit this time (besides visiting Kipling’s house which at this point was now two hours south of us) was to have dinner at Hen of the Wood. We had eaten at their Burlington location, but never snagged a reservation at their Waterbury place.

Hen of the Wood is now located in downtown Waterbury, a move from their previous site. The space is modern which I wasn’t expecting but not cold. The menu and wine list were as inviting as their Burlington spot, and the service was probably some of the best I’ve experienced in a few years.

We were lucky that they had oysters to start. From Cape Cod! That’s only two states over, right? So, we ordered a half dozen. In perusing the menu, I was almost embarrassed to admit to our server, Maria, that I knew what “Fazzoletti” meant. (It’s handkerchief pasta.) Although I told her in jest not to tell anybody, even she couldn’t resist raising her eyebrows at my knowledge. That said, the pasta was a bit doughy, but the mascarpone cream sauce with spinach and breadcrumbs brought it all together. We ordered the ham-wrapped rabbit loin next and while it looked very appealing on the plate, it was a bit dry.

This location, like Burlington, has a wine list with lots of vintages you don’t see on other restaurant menus. We ordered an Austrian blend which was a nice accompaniment to the entree we split – a hanger steak with asparagus and grilled onions that looked like tiny trumpets on top of the steak. Heralding summer perhaps?

We weren’t going to get dessert, having already indulged in ice cream that afternoon, but they were offering a selection of Vermont cheeses. Perhaps I was expecting a cheese plate from days past. What we got was a wedge of cheese with some rhubarb-y purée and a few crackers. It was underwhelming.

After dinner we walked across the street to look at real estate listings since our table had been facing the window of a local real estate office. We aren’t looking for a house, but I always get a kick out of seeing how much people are asking for houses/land in the area. (Most of the homes were over $1 million.)

Back on the Road in the Morning

We had some time to kill before our timed ticketed entry to visit the house, so after we had a halfway decent hotel breakfast (bacon, eggs, toast, weak coffee, and even fresh fruit), we stopped to take a look at how Montpelier was doing. You may remember that the capital of Vermont sustained massive flooding last summer. The town was up and running but it looked like they were still trying to pave the road in front of the Vermont State House.

Finally, Naulakha

Here’s a photograph of Rudyard Kipling’s house as you walk up the driveway.

It was fascinating to walk inside the house and go through the rooms. While it’s now available for short term rentals (as a historic property through The Landmark Trust), I think they did a good job of trying to retain the authenticity of the house. The kitchen is equipped for modern day use (toaster, stove, fridge, etc.), but when you walk through the dining room and the guest bedrooms, I did get a sense of Kipling being there.

Couple of things I learned while walking through the house. I didn’t realize he was so incredibly prolific as a writer, or that he made a lot of money doing so. His wife, Caroline, kept a very detailed diary, not only of what their daily life was like up in Vermont, but of their finances. On December 31, 1894, Kipling wrote: “Carrie tots up the books and finds that I have this year earned $25,000. Not exactly a bad record.”

Here’s a picture of his desk and a bookcase filled with his work.

Besides the various small guest rooms (most with single beds), there were two rooms that were designated as “nurseries” for his three children. The plasterwork in the photograph was done by Kipling’s father who was also an illustrator/teacher and curator who spent most of his career in India. There was also an expansive loggia with lovely views of the garden and the mountains in the distance. I could imagine him sitting there during his residence. I could also imagine myself sitting there and writing…

The Attic

We went up to the third floor of the house to see the attic. In this part of the house, there was a pool table, but also a collection of Kipling’s golf clubs. Apparently, he enjoyed playing golf when Arthur Conan Doyle (author of the Sherlock Holmes books) came to visit him. Kipling, according to legend, is also credited with introducing “snow golf” in Vermont. (He painted the golf balls red so he could see them in the snow.)

The Rhododendrons

These were added by the subsequent owners, the Holbrooks, in 1903 but wow, they are amazing! They’ve gotten so large that the bushes have created tunnels where you walk underneath the flowers. I expected them to be intoxicatingly perfumy, but they weren’t at all. It was fun to walk through them and I would have gone back a second time, but there was a bit of a crowd. Lynn did manage to take a photograph of me, so you can see the size of the flowers after nearly 120+ years.

The Years in Vermont

Rudyard Kipling lived in Naulakha for only four years (1892-1896), but it proved to be fruitful. There, he wrote, The Jungle Book, Captains Courageous and also portions of Just So Stories. I still have my copy of the latter. Did I ever think when reading that book as a child that I would one day be able to visit the house where the book was penned? I did not.

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

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A Very Long Year

I often find myself standing in front of the fridge looking at all the magnets I’ve collected on our travels. Sometimes a memory or two comes back from a city we’ve visited, a noteworthy museum or historic house we were lucky enough to see, or a certain dish at a restaurant that was really good. But the moment is fleeting and once I open the fridge, it’s all about business – planning breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The Fridge Door = A Memory Magnet Wall

As my past few blogs this year have revealed, there’s been a lot of cooking and a lot of eating. Lynn has learned how to make soup and pasta and perfected his pizza making. I baked more than I like to and what we didn’t eat, we froze. I finally got around to looking at old cookbooks that had been sitting on my bookshelves for years. And I read new cookbooks as if they were novels. I devoured each page as if it were a dish itself since my days were based on finding “activities” (i.e., making meals) that would not only pass the time but nourish us as well.

All Kinds of Goodies

Memorable Oyster Moments

I discovered my local supermarket carried freshly shucked oysters from Maryland swimming in their natural brine and bought myself a cast iron pan that I hope to eventually use outside on the grill (where it belongs) instead of in the oven. Taking inspiration from Sarah Leah Chase’s recipe in her New England Open House Cookbook, I learned how to put together a decent version of “Oysters Clark Rockefeller.” I made my own creamed spinach (using frozen spinach and half & half) and it came together beautifully with the addition of some grated Jarlsberg on top. Even as I was making this dish, however, I couldn’t help but remember one New Year’s at Leon’s Fine Poultry and Oyster Shop in Charleston, South Carolina. We spent a sunny afternoon there sitting at the bar and eating platters of coal-grilled oysters while sipping Spanish Cava!

It’s About Time For A Hike

In between all the cooking (and eating), we walked as much as we could before the cold weather and the snow started. We found trails in nearby marshes, walked around a few lakes, and into a lot of forests.

There were waterfalls to visit that were close to home and picturesque covered bridges to cross. All of this made me very happy that if we had to “quarantine” any where in the world this is a pretty nice place to do so.

Crackers and Butter, Why Not?

And then I made crackers. It seemed an okay recipe at the time but the dough was a bit dry and even though they came out fine in the end, the sesame seeds didn’t properly adhere to the dough. Guess what, we ate them anyway!

Then I heard about a shop that was making their own butter. I began to follow them on social media and subsequently paid them a visit even though it was a 45-minute drive away. While I thought the concept was unique, I was disappointed with their product. Consequently, a few days later I just whipped up a batch of my own “compounded” butter flavored with pink Himalayan sea salt. Full confession: I over salted my first batch but have containers of heavy cream sitting in the fridge waiting to be whipped into butter again.

Supporting Local Farms and Stocking Up!

Since March 2020, I have tried to support as many local farms and small businesses as possible. When the weather was warmer and we could have lunch outside at a restaurant, we did. Suddenly though, restaurants started closing. Either they weren’t making enough in takeout orders to keep their establishment solvent or unfortunately, they were forced to shut down because one of their employees had tested positive.

One afternoon we were craving a hamburger from a place we had been to before. I called to phone in an order only to listen to a recorded message that said their restaurant was closed “indefinitely.” So, we went home and for dinner that night I made the hamburger and tempura-fried onion rings we both wanted. (No, the burger wasn’t really this tall; I just wanted a dramatic photograph so stacked everything really quickly and hoped it wouldn’t topple over!)

As the weather got colder, we visited many local farms although Lynn gave a thumbs down to buying a pumpkin. Why? Because last year’s was torn to shreds by either a deer or squirrel or both so we bought tons of squash and apples instead.

I also bought a small freezer to stock up on butter and chicken and meat fearing we would face another round of food shortages going into the holiday season. We had absolutely no place to put an extra freezer in our house so it ended up going in the laundry room which works just fine for us.

Golf? Leaf Peeping? Day Trips?

We even bought some old golf clubs hoping to hit a driving range before it closed for the season even though we never did quite make it there. And we drove, sometimes hours, just to look at the leaves changing colors in a state park.

We visited places we had never been (Hamilton College Zen Gardens below). And went to see as many lakes in the Adirondack Park as we could. (And that’s beautiful Bog River Falls at the bottom of Tupper Lake.)

Picnics!

We often brought lunch with us after buying a really cool thermos that we filled with homemade chicken soup. To kick things up a notch, I also tossed in some store-bought tortellini at the last moment which resulted in a pretty decent version of “Tortellini en Brodo.” Lynn was so pleased that I had even packed a tablecloth on one such outing. He probably thought I was trying to be “romantic.” Actually, I was just trying to cover up any bird poop that might be splattered across the picnic table we were eating on.

Suddenly, Winter

And then it snowed. So we shoveled the snow off the deck and hauled the snowblower out of the garage. We just hoped it would start quickly so we could dig out our driveway!

The local kids started to sled down the hill next to our house and every day we would find another pair of discarded gloves or a hat thrown on our lawn.

The cold weather kept us indoors so I made stuffed cabbage and pulled out the sous vide machine to make chicken. I even ate cauliflower even though it has always been my least favorite vegetable. Hint: tossed with pancetta or bacon, some sliced olives, garlic, parsley and Parmesan it actually becomes edible!

TV Time

We started to watch cooking shows in the early evenings (before the grim newscasts about the number of COVID-19 deaths that day) just to get some ideas about different dishes we could make. This resulted in fish baked in parchment on a bed of slow roasted tomatoes with herbs and white beans. Oh and wine, you need lots and lots of white wine for this dish!

I also finally gave in and bought myself a non-stick frying pan just so that I could learn to make a “real” French herb-infused omelette the way I saw Jacques Pépin do on PBS! (It takes a lot longer to make an omelette this way, but I absolutely love the way it just slides out of the pan.)

I even made biscuits!

Then There Was The Meat Slicer

Yes, truly. I grew up in Munich, Germany, where cold cuts are “king” or at least “König-like” so I was comfortable with this new toy. I also wanted to wean Lynn off of unhealthy processed meat lunches and make my own ‘”healthier” protein for him to eat. After this purchase, we started roasting boneless pork roasts, center cuts of beef and huge chicken breasts. Sandwiches were topped with slices of unfortunately tasteless out-of-season tomatoes but spruced up a bit by a homemade mayo and horseradish spread. Salads were lavishly adorned with slices of chicken and ham was cut to order for leisurely and late breakfasts.

And We Talk and Talk (Childhood Stuff Is Frequently Mentioned)

Lynn and I have been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time together, now even more so. Luckily, we rarely run out of topics. We find ourselves remembering things that happened to us growing up. Lynn likes to tell me his “baked good” story even though I’ve heard it a thousand times before. Apparently when he was a young lad, a friend would entice him to go to a local shop to buy a “baked good.” Even though Lynn wasn’t quite sure what a “baked good” was, he went along for the adventure. (If you, too, aren’t quite sure what a “baked good” is, it’s simply something that was baked, i.e., a cookie, cake or cinnamon roll.) I decided to share with him a food memory from one of my many “summers in Whiting” stories.

Similar to his quest for a “baked good,” my summers in Whiting, Indiana, often involved a trip to a local supermarket with my maternal grandfather. There he would pick up some Hostess cupcakes and I learned from him the proper cupcake eating etiquette. One had to gently nibble first on the waxy chocolate frosting with the decorative white squiggle on top before digging into the cake portion beneath it.

Of course I overcompensate with all this nostalgic memory stuff by making French toast for breakfast one morning using leftover brioche and topped with some raspberries and local maple syrup. And for lunch? Well, I find a recipe I’ve been wanting to make for an Austrian apple cake and decide why make just one cake when you can make two? (We are not total gluttons, we eat one for lunch and freeze the other.)

These days we try to be upbeat but do worry about our adult children, my parents and other family members. To get out of the house we often visit a local farm. There we buy cheese, chicken livers if available, as well as lamb and veal. We freeze everything for future meals and on the way out, we take pictures of Jones Family Farm goats.

Embracing The Gray and the Holidays, Too

We spend Thanksgiving by ourselves, having decided as a family that it was too dangerous to get together now that we couldn’t totally socially distance or be outdoors. Since there was no need to make a turkey for the two of us (we had homemade lasagna instead), I suddenly had an entire afternoon on Thanksgiving Day with absolutely nothing to do! What did I do to pass the time? I decided to cut my hair!

As a woman of a certain age, I have embraced my gray hair and even more so since it’s actually turning a funky shade of silver! And since a visit to the hairdresser as well as a nail salon are big no-no’s for me, I just snipped off about two inches myself. Here’s the new me right after we put up our Christmas tree.

We celebrated Christmas alone as well which meant it was the first time we had spent a holiday without either of our children. We “make do” by eating platters of deviled eggs topped with salmon roe and some fresh dill. And the pâté? Well, that was tucked into little “nests” that I had crafted from the leftover sesame cracker dough.

See that mother-of-pearl caviar spoon? I was lucky enough to purchase it at a restaurant in Paris one year after a very delicious lunch. Sigh, I do miss our European adventures!

And Last But Not Least, Our Final Bathroom

Since we are home indefinitely, we also decided to tackle another (and hopefully last) big home repair project. Normally, this would not have been an article I would have covered here, but since we are not traveling or dining out, I think the “Let’s Go!” blog can make an exception to my own rule.

For those of you not familiar with my previous blog “The Red House Project,” I wrote about the renovation of our house for nearly nine years. Here’s the link to the story that describes how I tackled this very ugly bathroom by myself one summer. http://theredhouseproject.eathappy.net/the-beginning-of-the-red-house/learning-how-to-play-with-boy-toys/ .

We had put off renovating this final bathroom for reasons we can’t even remember. When the kids and their spouses/partners come to visit, it becomes “their” bathroom. It was functional but old and dated. It was time.

So, we went to the “Big Box” store one more time, bought some tile and a new vanity and toilet that will be installed by some subcontractors. When we approached one subcontractor about also updating our bath/shower combo and asked him for an estimate, he responded with a number that was astronomically high. (His fee for this small bathroom redo was about the price of a used car!) Obviously we said no and started to plan to demolish and renovate the bathroom ourselves. After a few false starts and a couple of returns (vanity faucets to be precise), we tallied up the receipts and have spent a little under $300!

The fake marble paneling on the walls came down, and after much trial-and-error we managed to remove the bathtub faucets, too. Hint: white wine vinegar and a special $9 tool! What to see the “Pro Puller?”

To this day I still marvel at Lynn’s drawings and am really truly thankful he can do most of this renovation with a little help from me. This approach also saves us a ton of money!

In the meantime since I’m a trooper, I’m outside in the freezing cold helping him saw pieces of wood so we can build a wall.

Which we did!

Eventually the old drywall will come down around the tub but we needed to put up the wall before the new floor is laid.

Would I rather be traveling and eating oysters at a bar somewhere rather than renovating a bathroom? You betcha! Do I need a few more magnets to add to the “memory wall” on the fridge? Absolutely! As a matter of fact, I hope in the years to come that we can add more than a few to our collection.

Here’s to a happy, peaceful, and most of all healthy New Year everyone.

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

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Shopping, Canning and “Hiking” As We Know It

It’s been a while since I have written. Our summer, like those of many people we know, was highly unusual. First and foremost, we tried to stay as close to home (within a three hour drive at least) as possible. I did miss “road trip” traveling this summer and being home more than usual, I found myself gravitating towards movies on TV that had scenes of Europe. (We were supposed to go back to Italy this year.)

One night Chocolat was on and I found myself looking fondly not only at Johnny Depp but also at Juliette Binoche who plays the character of “Vianne.” (Fun fact about Julie: I love windy days!) Consequently, when Vianne and her daughter Anouk travel to a new town “whenever the north wind blows” and somehow come up with a magic chocolate recipe that becomes their livelihood, well, that just made me want to travel even more.

I’ve always been a traveler and this blog was supposed to reflect that. Consequently, not being able to travel this summer because of the pandemic was a challenge. Therefore, we made do. Unfortunately, I traded in traveling for online shopping. Yes, I became one of those awful people who would eagerly wait every day for our local postman, UPS woman or FedEx guy to walk up our very long driveway, dutifully carrying the stuff we purchased.

They, invariably, wore a smile as they worked and I would thank them profusely for delivering all the things we ordered. Granted, some of the items purchased weren’t necessary but ultimately some of them came in very handy.

Two summers ago I had bought Marisa McClellan’s book, Food In Jars , but had not attempted a single recipe! When I tried to order the jars that I needed, I found that all the mason jars to be had in the entire Northern Hemisphere were back-ordered for at least 2 months. This would have been fine had it been May (the beginning of the growing season) but not August when suddenly I had tons of green beans that would be perfect to “put up!” Beets and garlic were showing up in the farmer’s markets, too, and tomatoes, well, let’s just say there were lots and lots of tomatoes that were waiting to be canned.

One day after my now nearly daily visit to the supermarket, I found some amber-colored jars and even though they were “wide-mouthed,” I bought them anyway. I learned to can “dilly” beans and ginger-infused beets but when I put them in the dark jars it came to me. The reason no one buys dark canning jars is because you can’t see what’s inside! Luckily, a couple of my beans managed to edge their way to one side so I could at least distinguish between the beans and the beets.

I also finally got to use a huge pot I had bought years ago with every intention of perhaps trying to steam my own lobsters. I never actually did that, preferring to buy them already cooked but luckily this pot turned out to be the perfect size and height for submerging mason jars in preparation for canning. When I realized you need lots and lots of mason jars when canning enormous amounts of produce (not just four!), I went back online and found some pint-sized ones with a delivery date of only three weeks. (A month later those same mason jars had also doubled in price but I ordered them again anyway.)

I also learned to make my own lobster rolls (buying the aforementioned lobsters already steamed for the awesome price of $5.99 a pound). Then I began to wonder why all these years (last summer in particular when we were driving through Maine towards Prince Edward Island) we were paying $25.00 or more for a mediocre lobster roll for lunch! (Second photo is one of my really yummy lobster rolls not an over-priced restaurant version.)

Then there were the tomatoes! Yikes, I think I now know why people easily can cucumbers to make pickles and buy tons of berries to make jam but do you know how many tomatoes you need to make sauce? You literally need a box full of tomatoes that will (if you’re lucky) yield less than a dozen jars of delicious, but thin (imagine V-8) sauce.

Besides canning, Lynn and I decided to start hiking. Since we live a mere 30 minutes from one section of the Adirondack Park, there was really no reason not to walk. Problem was, everywhere we went, there were tons of people hiking as well. We decided to try and limit our outings to only going out during the week (weekends being verboten) only to discover that many others had a similar idea.

We walked up Kane Mountain – a challenge for me before I bought a good walking stick since I’m not only afraid of heights but I had trouble catching my breath when hiking up and down the mountain. (I was never a smoker just out of shape.) I also didn’t expect to find all those tree roots! If you are as inexperienced a hiker as I am, one little root could definitely send you falling either on your face or your behind!

But as they say, if you don’t do the climb, you don’t get the view. Here’s the tower I managed to climb!

And here’s the reward:

After that challenge though, we opted for more sedate hikes. We sought out rail trails and easy paths always hoping for something with a view.

We bought hiking poles, an insulated backpack for these journeys and always made sure to have a cooler in the car for unexpected farm stands.

We visited numerous state parks and collected many rocks on the shoreline of Lake Ontario.

We revisited Chimney Bluffs near Wolcott, NY, and discovered Tibbetts Point Lighthouse which overlooked the Saint Lawrence River.

We hiked quite a few trails in the Adirondack Park but also drove miles both north and south of us in search of the perfect waterfall.

The summer had been very dry so every time we drove two hours plus we were happy if the water was actually cascading over the rocks and not just a trickle.

We frequently packed a lunch, usually a sandwich or bagel (plus I would begrudgingly pack potato chips for Lynn since he loves chips) but made sure to also pack some fresh fruit. We would occasionally try to visit a winery during the week (thinking that weekends would be more crowded) only to find that similar to our hiking adventures, many of these establishments were just as packed on a sunny Tuesday!

When we ate out, we would only eat at establishments where we could sit outside. And the menu had to have at least one item that I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) make myself. (See the problem with being a decent home cook?) Most of the time we got lucky; look at this beautiful version of a “Falafel Scottish Egg” as the topping on a bed of arugula encased in a cucumber “ring” while lying in a pool of Romesco sauce! (We had this lovely appetizer for lunch one day at the Otesaga Hotel in Cooperstown. )

When we weren’t out “wandering,” we would hang out on the deck. We would fight (yes, literally) over who got to water the vegetable garden in the back of the house and the flowers and bushes in the front of the house. (Hey, it was an activity.)

In between I baked. A pound cake baked in a Bundt pan seemed like a good idea at the time even though it was big enough to feed eight! A quiche is always a welcome lunch addition and I even tried to make chocolate-filled brioche courtesy of a Dorie Greenspan recipe. (They were belly-bombs!)

We bought a new grill which resulted in me trying to find something to grill that I hadn’t made before. Wait! Want to see the instructions on “how to put the grill together?”

How about an Eric Ripert recipe for grilled romaine that’s slathered with mayonnaise, Parmesan and some anchovy paste? What about a Mediterranean spin (that would be olives and tomatoes) on some home-grown asparagus?

The few times we did take-out, we often had to drive 60-70 miles to bring home sushi or oysters on the half shell. (That sounds reasonable, right?)

And on those days that I was working, we would have salad, or my old 1970’s standby, tomatoes stuffed with homemade tuna salad.

And then there was the sand box. I decided we needed a swing so Lynn built a sandbox, too. We hung up the swing (also purchased online) and one windy day (scenes of Chocolat perhaps?), the branch snapped. In hindsight, was I perhaps trying to swing my way to a make-believe travel adventure? Of course, it wasn’t a clean break but a messy, dangling break that required an amputation!

We even blew up a large kiddie pool complete with beach balls and a couple of “donut” floats. (We never did get the pool level even after three months!)

And purchased some new chairs and a fire pit!

Our children came to see us a few times this past summer and we were careful to social distance and eat outside. When we were inside, we kept the patio doors wide open and they, and their respective partners, were kind enough to get COVID tested before they came up for a visit. Each and every time after they left though Lynn and I both felt sad. (We miss them!)

Going into the fall season, we’ve been hiking a bit less but at least trying to walk closer to home. We walk along the Erie Canal nearly every day (even in the rain) and try to find some paths we haven’t explored yet. One day, we found the remains of an abandoned building, reminding us just how prosperous the town was way back when.

In the meantime, the minute the weather started to get colder, I made dumplings and my version of Ramen.

Now that we are a few days away from turning back the clocks and going into true fall season, we’ve started to put all our outdoor “toys” away. We got the snowblower repaired (it broke last season) and put extra mulch on our rose bushes.

We visited an orchard the other day to get some apples since my second order of mason jars finally arrived and making apple sauce is on my “to do” list. I was also very tickled at the sight of our Amish farmers stack of pumpkin decorations.

Is it too soon to look forward to next summer? I believe so, especially “whenever the north wind blows.”

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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Moving

On June 27, 2019, we moved permanently up to what I affectionately call “The Red House.” I spent nine years writing about the home renovation project and now it’s time for me to write about something else. (You can check out previous posts about The Red House renovation on http://theredhouseproject.eathappy.net/). Hopefully this blog will also capture your attention and be a fun read.

We hired the same movers that we used the last time we moved. Three years prior, three guys showed up, two of whom were from Hungary. I was horrified that the truck they drove had some really ugly graffiti scrawled on it – not even funky graffiti!

This time around, three weeks before we were scheduled to move, I received an early morning phone call from the sales guy. “Could we possibly move the weekend before?” he inquired. I told him “no,” and then asked why? Seems there’s lots and lots of traffic on Thursdays in and out of the city. I reminded him we were not going in or out of the city. We were moving from Long Island to upstate New York and avoiding the city at all costs. I further reminded him I had booked his services 3 months in advance (April to be precise) because they had done a good job in the past and June 27 was the only day I could reasonably move. He said he would talk to his dispatcher and get back to me.

By the time I got into my office, I was seething. Obviously, he had received a more lucrative gig on that particular Thursday than a measly house move with a 4 hour there, 4 hour back commute and he just wanted the bigger sale. I sent him a not-so-kind letter indicating that I knew this was in fact the case and if they were going to cancel on me, I needed to know ASAP so I could hire a different mover.

When all was said and done they didn’t cancel. There was some hemming and hawing about talking to the “dispatcher.” And that was that.

This time one guy showed up around 9:15 a.m. and said the truck was about an hour behind since they had to leave Brooklyn and could only take local streets to get to us. I said I understood and he began taking things apart and carrying them down to the driveway. He was Russian but spoke English with only a slight accent and talked to me about working as a photographer in between moving gigs.

About an hour later, two other guys (one Russian who barely spoke English and the other American) showed up in a rented truck that was bright yellow and surprisingly clean.

We had done quite a good job of packing up plates and glasses, books and pictures and taking them up to the house ourselves so the sole box they had to carry was the TV! We had even managed to put all of our clothes (still on hangers no less) into our luggage! All I can say is I’m really glad we have so many suitcases!

If you’re wondering why we have so many suitcases (eight to be precise), it’s because one year we decided to train travel between London and Paris rather than fly or rent a car. Since I will splurge on restaurants and decent hotels but not on cabs or car service, I knew we would be schlepping luggage up and down subway stairs. I needed a suitcase that could hold enough clothes for a week that I could carry up and down a flight of stairs without asking Lynn for help. Hence, I kept buying suitcases in different sizes until I found the perfect one (hint: it’s the purple one.)

Besides the luggage, we decided to keep only a few pieces of furniture since the Red House was pretty much furnished already (we did keep our living room set and our bedroom furniture.) Therefore, I thought this was surely an easy peasy move. Then there was the piano.

We had debated whether to even take the piano with us but the fact is it was more difficult to try and sell it then to take it with us. Factor in that no one played the piano (except our son Nicholas) and that was usually only on Christmas…it did seem dumb to take it with us.

The movers saved taking the piano down the stairs as their last item. It had made it up the staircase, surely it would make it down, right? Three guys, much grunting and a baseball size hole in one wall when they misjudged the turn and finally the piano was out of the house and onto the truck.

The movers left at 11:30 a.m. We stopped to get gas and a sandwich for the road and followed them about 1/2 an hour later. Of course there was traffic all the way up. 1. It was the start of summer vacation (myself included) and 2. There was no 2. There was just a lot of traffic.

Around 3:45 p.m., we were still on the road with nearly an hour to go when I got a phone call from one of the movers to say they had JUST reached the Thruway in Yonkers and it had taken them nearly 4 hours and 15 minutes just to get to that point! Yikes I thought. He then said Google maps said they would be at our house by 6:10 p.m. but he would call to let me know.

We arrived at the Red House, briefly started putting some stuff away and because I am ALWAYS THINKING ABOUT FOOD, I got back in the car and drove down to the supermarket to pick up some steaks thinking we could always throw a steak on the grill no matter how late it got.

Then we sat and waited.

It’s lovely we have a decent deck with pretty flowers and bamboo to look at when we’re passing the time especially since we obviously didn’t want to start happy hour BEFORE THE MOVERS SHOWED UP. At 6:45 p.m. I called the movers and asked them where they were – 20 minutes I was told.

Let me preface this by saying I showed the movers a picture of the Red House since everyone simply drives by it. There are two reasons for this. 1. We live right next to a community field so you come upon the Red House suddenly. 2. We live halfway up a pretty steep grade so the inclination (for any driver I would think) is to keep on going to make sure your vehicle makes it up the hill.

At 7:10 p.m., we saw the yellow truck whiz on by. Lynn and I stood up from our comfy chairs on the deck and started to wave. We heard the truck stop and slowly back down the slope and finally, pull into the driveway. One of the movers said, “I’m glad you showed me a picture of the Red House!”

An hour later they had unloaded the truck, put all the furniture where we wanted it and were back on the road. They had started before 9 a.m. this morning and were facing easily a 5 or 6 hour drive back to Brooklyn. We tipped the two guys generously (case in point: the lead guy had already advised me when we were still on Long Island what his minimum acceptable tip would be for this long trip so we upped it). I also gave them a couple more bottles of water and a container of bakery brownies I had picked up when I went to get the steaks for dinner. They were appreciative of all the goodies and the tip. We were finally moved and I did not envy their 16 hour day. Did I mention it was the hottest day of the year to date?

As the steaks grilled, we opened a bottle of wine and other than a quiet “cheers,” we were actually speechless.

And that’s the beginning of our “Let’s Go” adventure.

Here we are a week later (July 2019) still smiling!

Photo: Nicholas Parish