Pools, lakes and oceans. Finding the perfect seashells, or a starfish, or even better, a horseshoe crab! That first summertime lobster roll, or cracking crabs over layers of newspapers. Local strawberries and then local peaches and corn…the best!
RVs, traveling, seeing new sites, camping, hiking, and lazing on a sunny afternoon while tubing down a lazy river. Campfire meals, and cooking the marshmallows for s’mores over a waning fire.
Going to summer festivals and fairs with games (gotta win the big teddy bear!), rides, tractor pulls, 4H competitions. And don’t forget funnel cakes, cotton candy, corn dogs, and caramel corn.
So what are you looking forward to this July and what are you hoping to enjoy foodwise?
Another mom favorite for dinner tonight — my sister’s vegetable noodle soup, aka ramen without most of the seasoning packet and with lots of add-ins.
Tonight’s add-ins were mushrooms, cabbage, spinach, carrots, and paneer. I was dubious about the paneer, but it was lovely. We decimated a giant pot full. Perfect for monsoon season.
We picked sour cherries at an orchard a couple hours north of the city today - gorgeous Montmorencys as well as a darker, more sour European variety (not Morello, those won’t ripen for another week or so). Dinner will probably be a bowl of vanilla ice cream with cherries, tbh!
And finally…the kitty adoption didn’t happen. He was still too feral. He’d bonded with his foster Mom, but wanted nothing to do with me. Wasn’t meant to be. So the search for a brother for Finn continues.
Brunch = 2 eggs side by each, bacon, hash browns, toasted English muffin(not shown) and catsup
Dinner = BBQ wings in the oven and Caesar salad with burger bun garlic croutons, classy eh?
We enjoyed another excellent dinner at Drew’s Bayshore Bistro in Keyport, NJ, including an excellent Heirloom tomato bruschetta, pork chop, tuna with coconut rice, crispy boudin spring rolls, steak tartare, and spicy BBQ shrimp. It all went great with a couple of excellent cabernets.
Well, we’re just two days away from our annual Berlin trip - leaving on July 4th, so that’s kinda The Plan for the next 8 weeks
I’d like to believe that we’ll do a tad bit more cooking at home than in previous summers… but who am I kidding? There are so many fabulous restaurants / holes-in-the-wall / beer gardens / food truck events to (re)visit. So many things we don’t have where we live: good Thai, Turkish, Italian, tapas, Greek, good sushi, not to mention supermarket items I can’t get a hold off here for the same price, i.e. buffalo mozz for dirt cheap, herring salad with red beets, onions, and apples, trout roe, teewurst, GOOD breakfast rolls - the list is endless. Are we exclusively traveling to Berlin to eat? You’d think so, wouldn’t cha?
While I’ll sadly have missed asparagus aka the white gold season, chanterelle season is in full swing, and I’ll be diving right in, as they are one of my favorite shrooms out there.
My Vespa is having some health issues (at 17 years she’s an old lady now), but I’m hoping to have her fixed ASAP: several scooter shops have closed in the last year, apparently, and as of now AUG 4 is the date I was given it can be done. That’s a whole month without
Lazy is the word. I made tortellini in brodo with packaged tortellini (not a brand I’d ever eat again ). The chicken broth was my own. Blanched asparagus with lemon caper butter sauce. Then there was kale. Loads of grano and pepper and I’ll really miss Brio (chinotto) when I leave Toronto.
Pan-roasted chicken, potatoes, and rice cooked in the chicken juices and fat for us.
Cannelloni freshly sauced and baked for mom.
I baked a small loaf of bread in the evening, so we had bread and butter on the side too, as well as avocado dressed with sesame oil and rice vinegar. (If you were counting, yes that was three carbs for the chicken eaters. That’s how we roll in this house.)
I made rib steaks last night, carrots-fava beans-green beans from the garden à la Polita (lemon dill), COTB, roasted new potatoes, cowboy baked beans (from a can, Sprague Foods.)
Madeleines from Pompette bakery , Baklava from a Turkish bakery called Liu and strawberries for dessert.
Friday was roasted salmon, Tomato pie, minus the crust , maple & butter braised parsnips, leftover Eataly salad misticanza (hazelnuts, lettuce, radicchio , arugula, pecorino, green beans and a Prosecco dressing I really like).
Creme Caramel from Pompette Bakery, which I believe is the best thing $6.50 can purchase in Toronto.
My trip envy has reached the next level. A friend has been posting photos from a trip to Copenhagen and Stockholm. I dreamt I was in Sweden last night. I haven’t been to Sweden in 23 years.
). The chicken broth was my own. Blanched asparagus with lemon caper butter sauce. Then there was kale. Loads of grano and pepper and I’ll really miss Brio (chinotto) when I leave Toronto.
