North Stonington Fair 2010

We were out of town for the North Stonington Fair this year, but we did drop off a few entries for the homegrown produce competition on our way to the Adirondacks.  Our friends Eric and Jo took these pictures to show that we won prizes in the blueberry and raspberry categories.  Next year we'll be entering something larger and more impressive (maybe an enormous pumpkin?).

CD of the Month: High Wide & Handsome by Loudon Wainwright

We've been enjoying Loudon Wainwright's latest CD called "High Wide and Handsome - The Charlie Poole Project" for several months now.  It is a great selection of songs originally recorded by old-time musician Charlie Poole.  What great song writing, and inspired melodies.  This particular song is not the strongest example, but its one of the few available on YouTube.  We highly recommend this CD!

Langhorne Slim at the Iron Horse Cafe

We traveled to Northampton, MA on Monday night to see Langhorne Slim play live at the Iron Horse Cafe. We have been fans of Langhorne Slim for several years and were so glad he was playing the the Iron Horse. It is hard to describe his music other than high energy and a lot of fun. Seeing them live was all that we hoped for and more, but maybe just a little louder. The band had a special guest that played fiddle and only added to the fun. We came out with plenty of energy for the drive home, that's for sure. You can sample some music of "Restless", played live on David Letterman.

Quintessential Summer Weekend

It has been almost a year since our first dishwasher was taken from us following a brief illness, and at such a young age.   This happened at a difficult time (see "things that stopped working" post from August 2009). The weekend began here on Friday night with another repair to the "new" dishwasher.  Bruno bravely tackled this one after the repairman was a "no show".  He replaced the faulty parts with aplomb,  and we were washing dishes while drinking tea well before midnight!  Interestingly, Kokee is suffering from staph infection (see the "things that stopped working" post again).   Correlation or causation we don't know, but hopefully this is the last dishwasher repair and a break in the cycle of the 2010 "things that stopped working".

The rest of the weekend was splendid, with warm temperatures, some work in the garden and the usual activities to keep us busy.  We are harvesting green beans, blueberries, okra, and basil at the moment.  We shared dinner with Jo and Eric on Saturday, featuring steamed green beans and roasted potatoes, from the garden of course.  For dessert we had Peach Mabel, a HHR original (recipe included below), a GREAT way to serve fresh blueberries and peaches.  Thanks to Jo and Eric for the flowers from their garden! Following dinner (and a very speedy drive to Westerly), we enjoyed a fantastic play, The Perfect Wedding, at the Granite Theater.

Sunday was hot and humid, and we worked around house and garden and treated ourselves to a trip to the beach late in the afternoon.  We went to East Beach at Watch Hill where the waves were well suited for body surfing and the warm ocean temperatures were refreshing (rather than numbing!).  We swam, watched the sun set, and returned home to have grilled black fish from Stonington topped with a basil vinaigrette from the garden.  It was a great weekend!  

We have some fun activities planned this week.  Stay tuned... that is your hint.

Peach Mabel

Serves 4

Inspired by Peach Melba, which is made with raspberries

Ingredients:

1 c fresh blueberries

1 TBSP lemon juice

2 TBSP light brown sugar

pinch of sea salt

4 peaches, halved and stoned

1TBSP honey

1TBSP of melted butter

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place blueberries, sugar and lemon juice together in a small saucepan.  Bring the berries slowly to a simmer with occasional stirring. Simmer for ~5min until you have a thick sauce.  Add a pinch of sea salt, stir and allow to cool to room temperature.
2. Stir together melted butter and honey. Brush the cut sides of the peaches with the honey mixture and sprinkle with cinnamon (optional).  Grill the peaches skin side down first on low for ~5min, or until lightly browned, turn and grill cut side down for another 5 minutes.
3. Place peaches in a serving dish, top with blueberries and a scoop of ice cream.  A sprig of mint or basil goes nicely.

Wasabi and Ginger the Golden Retriever

We hope we can progress Kokee's dining skills to this level of refinement

Face-of-Produce for Hot and Steamy Weather

This weekend we had the hottest and most humid weather of the year so far, and hence we managed to pick hot peppers and okra in abundance.  Thus, we bring you the face of Senor Brocoli!

Camping weekend

This weekend we enjoyed a trip to Keene, NY for a few days of camping with several of our Canadian friends. We hiked, swam, rock-climbed, swatted bugs, drank beer, and ate ice-cream. Kokee hiked on real mountain trails and made many, many new friends. And we caught up on what had happened in all of our lives over the past five years since we were last there. Many thanks to Martyn, Michelle, Alison, Katrina, Brian, Damon, Jane, Evan, and everyone else who made the trip south. We had a great time! We should do it again very soon.

Happy July 4th

The US flag of produce with berries was previously featured so the July 4th Face of Produce features the peas which are currently abundant in the garden.  We planted only shelling peas this year with the hope we could stock the freezer.  We have enough for freezing and to try Jamie Oliver's pea risotto recipe for dinner this evening.

Bruno and Kokee shelling peas.  Kokee loves the pod casings, who knew?

The broccoli is also a success this year, thanks to BT, an organic repellant of the pests that have previously destroyed the plants.

We had the company of Sammy for about a week, but he seems to have found a better home.

Summer in CT

Last night we started the holiday weekend in traditional fashion.  We had a B-B-Q with our friends Eric and Jo, and then went to Ocean Beach in Waterford.  At Ocean Beach we played mini-golf, ate ice-cream, and watched a spectacular fireworks display.  What a great way to start the long weekend!

Happy Canada Day 2010!

In celebration of Canada Day this year we are presenting the "flag of produce".  This features raspberries picked in our garden today at the same time as the Queen was inspecting the Mounties in Ottowa.  We celebrated this special day with a glass of wine, dinner cooked on the grill, and ice cream with raspberries and blueberries.  We hope that you all had a great Canada day too!