Archive for the ‘Food & Drink’ Category
Sunday, January 10th, 2010
For the longest time, we have been trying to throw a little holiday party. The idea usually finds its way into the house around the beginning of December and then disappears towards the end. It’s a shame really because we are semi-fun people to be around. I think we would be fabulous hosts.
Ever since this year’s party fizzled, I have been thinking. I figured out that we place too much emphasis on a one time event. The last time we did this, we were supposed to have a nice birthday evening out at Dave and Busters. Well, it snowed and we were forced to cancel. That was bad because we had some good old friends willing to meet us out. I was excited to see them. It wasn’t the most terrible thing, because we did have a nice Dave and Busters night the year before with some other good friends.
Anyway, my idea was to stop placing emphasis one one hit wonders. Why not have a get-together-like Sunday dinner every week? You know, good food, wine, beer, cigars… Like I explained a few days ago, I’ll put the invitation out there to a few people here and there. If everyone comes, then we eat, drink and have a good time. If no one comes, we have leftovers. I love leftovers.
We had a dry run tonight. We picked out a nice recipe for dinner from one of our cookbooks and another recipe for a dessert from the internet. Then, I ran up to Whole Foods to gather all the ingredients. I usually go to Whole Foods because I am fairly certain they will have everything I need. I don’t have that confidence in our local IGA. I know, I know…I am still a little mad at Whole Foods. Sure, they are expensive but they seem to be working on the personality thing. Also, they do have the stuff I need. I don’t see myself going to any of the other grocery stores besides Wal-Mart and I ain’t running over there on a nice quiet Sunday. Plus, I’m not even sure they would have what I need. You know those odd ingredients these cookbooks call for.
Tonight, I made Vegetable Crumble and peas. Talk about a meat and potatoes meal, without the meat. It was very filling. We made (which I have yet to eat) some sort of a pumpkin yogurt dessert. I tasted it and it seemed pretty good. We’ll see how it goes. The dessert we were supposed to make was Avocado Ice Cream. I think I told you that I now have an ice cream maker and am an ice cream making fool. I also have an ice cream recipe book. It’s pretty serious. I am going to have to wait a day or two to make this ice cream because the avocados need to ripen just a bit more. After that, I think I’ll be eating some pretty interesting ice cream.
I told my mother about the avocado ice cream recipe and she didn’t seem too enthusiastic about it. I then proceeded to tell her that salmon flavored ice cream was next. I admit that I was looking for a reaction on that one.
Okay, so the moral of the story is that Sunday dinners are on. These are highly exclusive events and very formal. Just kidding, but we do eat in the dining room at a table. That’s a big shift from our usual routine. I am growing up so fast.
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Thursday, January 7th, 2010
I am a firm believer of what you put in your body, you get out of your body. Haha. That was a joke. I have been coming up with tons of good jokes lately. It’s true that nobody laughs at them, but trust me, they are wildly funny.
Anyway, if you are over the age of, I don’t know…11 or so, you have probably figured out that fiber is wonder stuff. It’s what makes the world go round. Without fiber, we would all be in big trouble. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you can read about the benefits of fiber here. Fiber and tons of veggies are a big part of a good diet.
I have been raving about Fiber One cereal for years. This cereal has 14g (57% of daily value) of fiber per serving. Do you know how difficult that is to match? When people tell me they take fiber pills, I laugh at them and turn my face away. I can’t stand to hear it. Why take pills that only have 2g of fiber in them? You would have to take over 10 pills to get what you need per day. That’s crazy and a waste of money. Eat a bowl of cereal and at least get a snack out of it.
I started poking around online today in a search for foods that are even higher in fiber than my old friend, Fiber One. I am happy to report that I found such a list. You can take a look at it here.
If you’ll notice, many foods on the list offer a few grams of fiber, but the big whoppers are beans. Beans baby beans!!! Some types of beans offer over 19g of fiber per cup. Can you believe it? Peas are really good too. They come in at 13.4g per cup. That’s awesome.
I have a word of warning. Eating a high fiber diet is not good for the social life. While it keeps many parts of your body in check and is great for dieting, it’s not going to win you any points in enclosed areas or large quiet classrooms full of students taking an exam. There is a certain risk to incorporating these types of foods into your everyday routine.
Even with these risks, I encourage all of my readers to eat tons of fiber. I think it will “enlighten” you. Ahhhh…another joke.
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Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
If you haven’t noticed, this new year seems to be all about weight loss. Everywhere I turn, it’s all about diets, nutrition, exercise and losing weight in general. We were watching the first “Biggest Loser” last night and a commercial for Jenny Craig came on. I turned around and said, “There is probably no better time ever for this commercial to air…New Years and during the Biggest Loser.
All this weight loss has me feeling a little guilty. If there is one weakness I have, it’s for dessert. I can’t take it. Sometimes I get in the car and drive up to Whole Foods with one thing on my mind. Dessert. It’s like I’m someone else. Strange, because I am so strong in many other areas. Put a piece of cheesecake in front of me and I turn into an idiot.
Oh well. I guess that’s what exercise is for. Like we always say round these here parts, “You can eat whatever you want as long as you burn it off.”
I think I may have mentioned that Whole Foods probably has the best desserts out of any grocery store I have ever been to. I think they make some stuff themselves and have some shipped in. My favorite by far is the tiramisu and second is the banana cream pie.
Just a few nights ago, I found myself in the middle of a plate of banana cream pie. I felt like Gilligan from Gilligan’s Island. I always wanted to know where the heck Whole Foods gets this pie, so I looked at the bottom of the container. I found out that “The Pie Guy” out of Salem, NH makes these little platters of heaven. I think the reason their stuff is so good is because they don’t cheap out when it comes to ingredients. It’s serious business for them.
Before I sat down to write this post, I realized how bad it was going to be without a picture. Trust me, I really wanted to take a picture, but that became impossible as I finished the last piece of pie. I am sorry for that.
Okay, the reason for this post – I just wanted to give a little mad peace big props word to big bird to the Pie Guy.
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Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
I hope everyone had a nice New Year’s Eve. We did. A funny one, but it was nice.
I kept telling people all day that I can stay up past midnight every other night of my life, but when it matters, I would surely fall asleep. Yup, I was woken up six seconds before midnight by a, “Bob, wake up, we almost missed it.” Bob is my nickname. Bet you didn’t know that.
At least I wasn’t alone in dozing off. Seinfeld put us both out.
So what was on our New Year’s eve agenda? It was simple and fun. The plan was to go out and grab some Chinese food, sit down in the toasty warm basement near the pellet stove and watch some episodes of Lost. When it got close to midnight, we would flip on something “New Yearsy” and watch that. We did that, but during the day, I got this crazy urge for Tiramisu from Whole Foods. Last week, I had the best Tiramisu ever and had to have more. It took me about 15 seconds of contemplation before I bolted out the door on my way to the store. Of course when I got there, they were out of Tiramisu. I got some weird milk cake and banana cream pie instead. I will write about the banana cream pie later.
The really exciting event of the evening was the pink champagne that we purchased a few days ago. There is a certain someone who has always wanted to try this type of champagne. I’m not sure why, but hey, if she wants to try pink champagne, who am I to argue? It’s not like she wanted to ride a pink billy goat down the street.
Since I had never seen pink champagne before, I didn’t know if it was going to be hard to find. I guess it’s more popular than I thought because the liquor store across the street from Whole Foods in Glastonbury had a few different brands of it. They varied in price from $14.99 to $18.99. I think the one we got was $16.99 and is called Vilarnau. The only reason we got the one we did was because we were fairly certain that what was inside the bottle was actually pink. We didn’t know if the other brands just had pink bottles.
Let me tell you, pink champagne tastes just like regular champagne. Two half glasses and we were done. The rest we will use for Mimosas. I have actually only had good tasting champagne once in my life and it was Asti Spumante. I liked that because it was sweet. I don’t get along well with dry drinks.
Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all made good New Year’s resolutions!!!
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Champagne bottle cork
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Vilarnau pink champagne – sparkling wine
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Pink sparkling wine in air bubble glass
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Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
My lady and I have a nice little tradition going. We’ve been doing it for a few years now and it really seems to be working out rather well.
What’s the tradition? Well, it’s basically avoiding the world during the holidays and spending time with each other over a nice dinner. We’ve found some great restaurants by doing this. I hope the trend continues.
I bet people think we’re nuts. “What? How in the world can you not be with your loving family during these special times? Are you crazy?“ To that I say please stop asking me those kinds of questions. I like to think that our families are secure enough to know we love them. I mean, we talk enough. Like three times a week enough. Any more of me and they might specifically ask me to stay away.
Do you know what else we do? We don’t exchange gifts. Oh here we go again…I know, I know. “Why sir, do you not exchange gifts?” I’ll tell you why. Because I don’t need anything and neither does anyone else. Really. When my friends and I talk about this, we all usually end up in agreement. My sister and I were laughing about all the garbage people get each other during the holidays and she said something really funny. She said, “Do you know what I really want for Christmas? A house.” That pushed me off the deep end. I started laughing and replied, “Yeah, how about someone paying the electric bill or stopping by to shovel the driveway.” I mean really, I don’t think anyone needs more stuff to sit on a shelf somewhere for a year before it hits the garbage. Every time I head North on 91 past Hartford and look at that huge mound of dirt I feel horrible.
I know, I’m a Grinch.
But I’m not a Grinch when we’re eating mighty good food down at the Saybrook Point Inn in Old Saybrook, CT. As I mentioned in my post about our Thanksgiving dinner, I am diggin’ the buffet idea. All you can eat and the food is awesome.
It’s weird, whenever I think of the word “buffet,” I think of bad food in Vegas. Then I have to remember that when you go to a buffet style dinner in a real restaurant, there are real chefs making the food. From what I have experienced this year, it’s really really good.
The Saybrook Point Inn pleasantly surprised me. I just couldn’t believe how good the food was. I can still remember what I ate. Man…and the desserts. Holy mother. I ate this mousse cake that I had to hold myself back from. Oh yeah, the restaurant is nice too…but the food!
Okay, enough about the great dinner that I ate multiple plates of. Enough about that. We did other stuff too.
After dinner, I drove around a bit. My better half wanted to go back to the Old Saybrook town beach to collect some shells. Her collection is growing. Of course, I drove her there. I kept telling her that I always wanted to visit a beach with snow on it. I thought it would be cool and it was. Oh yeah…she got her shells.
Before we visited the beach though, I thought it would be fun to check out this one neighborhood that we passed the last time we were in the area. The area is called “Fenwick” I think. That’s what Google Earth is telling me. It’s sort of like a peninsula with a golf course on it as well as a bunch of really nice houses. This is the type of thing that gets my attention.
During our little tour of the area, we passed by the beach, the Lynde Point Lighthouse and some Monk Parakeets. Monk Parakeets? That’s right. Our jaws dropped when we saw about five bright green birds sitting on the branches of the tree that held their nests. It was so strange because I thought these types of birds only lived in the Amazon. Apparently not. They also live in Connecticut. You should have seen me fiddling around trying to get my camera out of the bag.
So there you have it. Our very simple Christmas of 2009. Just the way I like it.
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Saybrook Point Inn sign
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Docks at Saybrook Point Inn
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Looking East from the Saybrook Point Inn toward Great Island
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Looking North from the Saybrook Point Inn up the Connecticut River
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Monk Parakeets in Fenwick, CT (Old Saybrook)
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Lynde Point Lighthouse – Old Saybrook, CT
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Fancy chocolate from the Saybrook Point Inn
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Thursday, December 10th, 2009
Last night, we ate Chinese. While the food was good, the fortunes needed a bit more…how should I say…effort.
Here, take a look:
Funny fortune cookies
My favorite, by far, is the one that says, “You are going to have some new clothes.” That’s awesome.
I guess they ran out of fortunes over there in China. Now we are just getting statements. It kind of feels like my next fortune will be something like, “You have average hair.”
Call me old fashioned, but I kind of like the old fortunes that made people think. Something like, “He who throws dirt is losing ground.” Now, that’s a fortune.
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Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
The other day (the same day I forgot my wallet), I was driving around. I drove through our little town here because I needed to pick up some stuffing mix and vegetable broth. I stopped at the local food store and bought what I needed to buy. On the way back to the car, I turned around. Why did I turn around? I’m not sure. It was like something was calling me.
I put the food in the car and started walking back to the store. When I got about half way between the car and the store, I began veering to the left and ended up in the liquor store. Now I know how that happens. It’s involuntary.
I ran out of my Blackberry Brandy and needed to get some more. I’m not sure if you remember this, but a long time ago I told you that I really wanted to try Christian Brothers Brandy. For the longest time, I have been drinking the cheap flavored stuff and thought that I should probably up it a notch. You know, as you get older, you should probably get better things.
Well, just as luck would have it, while I was reaching for the Mr. Boston Blackberry Brandy, my hand swiped a nice shiny bottle of Christian Brother VS Brandy (which stands for very smooth). I picked the bottle up and almost brought it to the counter. Then I remembered back to the last time I did that. I bought some ginger flavored brandy and hated it. I put the bottle down and grabbed the big bottle of the cheap stuff.
On the way to the counter, I asked the guy if he had any little bottles of Christian Brothers. He said yes and grabbed me one of them. He also suggested that I try some Courvoisier Cognac. Since these were only those little mini bottles, I agreed.
When I got back to the house, I showed my little friend what I bought. She thought that was neat and watched me take two quick sips, one from each bottle. I closed them up and said, “Why does everything taste like Irish Whiskey? I didn’t like either of them. She told me that I should probably pour some in a real glass like a human and give it another try. I am actually letting some Christian Brothers breathe in a glass right in front of me as I type this.
I’ll taste it now.
Okay, I’m back. It’s actually very good. Of course, there is that twang of liquor, but they weren’t lying when they put “VS” on the bottle. It has such a smooth start and then tastes more like Brandy as it sits in your mouth. Interesting.
Tomorrow, I am going to try the Courvoisier Cognac. I hope that’s as good as what I just tried.
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Courvoisier Cognac and Christian Brothers Brandy
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Mr. Boston Blackberry Flavored Brandy
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Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
Isn’t November the perfect month? I mean, if you live in the New England area, you’ll surely agree that we have had the most spectacular weather.
I think Mother Nature is making up for giving us a lousy Spring. Oh yeah, I remember that. Rain, rain and then more rain. About half way through July it finally stopped raining. After that, I don’t think we got enough rain.
I’m actually kind of surprised that it hasn’t been raining all that much this Autumn. There has been a few rainy days mixed in here and there, but we have generally had perfect weather. When I say perfect, I mean 50s – 60s throughout the day and 40s overnight. It’s great walking weather.
For Thanksgiving, we are heading down to a restaurant near the water. I want to get down there early so we can visit a few beaches. I like going to visit places on the shore while no one else is there. It’s easier to breathe the fresh air.
Do you want to see what the forecast for this week?
Courtesy of Intellicast
Isn’t it always the way?
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Sunday, October 4th, 2009
On Thursday of last week, we decided to head up to the Berkshires for some apple picking. Every year, we end up going too late and are rushed by the end of the season. Of course there are still apples to pick, but many of the varieties are already gone. This year, we thought it would be a good idea to go apple picking not too early, but not too late.
I think we’ll stick with going at the end of the season. There is one reason for this…the Honeycrisps are ripe. I guess the Honeycrisp is a late season apple, because there were “Not Ripe” signs all over the place where these particular trees were. It’s funny because I tasted a few and they seemed fine to me. I grabbed about 15 of them. I have a feeling they will ripen up just fine. Just so you know, the Honeycrisp is the biggest and best apple there is. They are huge.
We go apple picking at a place called “Windy Hill Farm Nursery Orchards & Garden Center.” I think that’s the official name. We just call it Windy Hill. It’s located on 686 Stockbridge Rd in Great Barrington, MA and really is a great orchard. They have hot cider inside and plenty of apples and pumpkins to choose from. I’m guessing when I say there are about 15 different types of apples to pick. We have been visiting this orchard during Autumn for about five years now.
The only problem is…it’s a little far away. I was thinking out loud on the way back from our exciting day when I said, “I think this is the last year for Windy Hill.” I got a funny look. I continued, “It’s just too far away. I can’t see driving for almost two hours to head up to the Berkshires when there has to be plenty of good orchards around where we live.” It’s true, there are tons of orchards around here, but we really like to make a day out of it. We don’t want to just run over to Glastonbury real quick, grab some apples and leave. That seems more like a chore. 45 minutes away is a good distance for an apple orchard. That way, we get to visit some town that we hardly ever go to and it makes the whole thing more fun. I like that. So, next year, I think we’ll head up to the “Quiet Corner” somewhere. I am sure Pomfret has an apple orchard. After all, Pomfret is an area full of beautiful rolling hills, a perfect place for apples to grow.
Thursday was fun. Not only did we visit Windy Hill, we also visited Yankee Candle in Stockbridge to gather a nice assortment of Autumn smelling candles and tarts. It wasn’t my idea to go there, but being the accommodating companion that I am, I agreed that it was a good idea. Now, every time I go downstairs, I think there is an apple pie or pumpkin bread in the oven. It’s really not fair.
Besides apple picking, another goal that I had for Thursday’s trip was to head up to Lenox to check out a really nice country house/hotel called Blantyre. I have heard great things about this place and wanted to see it first hand. I am always on the hunt for the next marvelous Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. The visit was supposed to be a surprise. I wanted to drive to Lenox in stealth mode and quickly turn into the Blantyre driveway. My plan was foiled when I got lost…again. For some reason, Lenox is in something like a spiderweb vortex. It seems like every road going into the town is identical and has the same left turn. Each time I go there, I find myself making the same mistakes, over and over and over. This time, it took a confession and use of the GPS to find our destination. It really wasn’t any big deal because I am used to my surprises being ruined due to lack of preparation.
When we finally made it to Blantyre, we were very pleased by what we found. There is a really long driveway that leads to a large English house type structure. It is secluded and absolutely feels like another land. I can’t compare it to Europe because I have never been there, but if I had been there I am sure the Blantyre would feel just like it. It was kind of like Robin Hood was going to walk out of the woods.
We walked through the front door and found a really upscale and formal cluster of rooms. We visited the main room, the music room and the dining room. I also peeked out to the terrace and the front lawn and gardens. It was better than I had imagined. (Don’t worry, I have pictures)
A woman came out to greet us and answered all the questions about holiday dining that we threw at here. We gave the desk gentleman my name for a return call after they had the menu and arrangements set up. We walked out and strolled around for a while and took some photos.
After we left Blantyre, we decided to head down to the Prime Outlets in Lee, MA. I had this strange desire to get slippers. I know, I know…I am a big burly man. What in the world do I need slippers for? Well, this Winter, I am not fighting cold feet. I do it every year and it’s just not going to happen this time.
We arrived at Prime Outlets and were disappointed by the lack of selection of slippers. The slippers that were there were all made from leather and cost close to $50. They also had no thick hoodies or sweatpants to be found. This isn’t the first time we have walked away empty handed from this joint. I guess it was a good idea while it lasted. By the way, I picked up a nice pair of slippers in Walmart yesterday for $11. I also got a pair of sweatpants for $10. That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout. This is simple house gear, mind you.
Lastly, we headed back to the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge for some lunch. This is quite the tradition each year to settle us down after some good apple picking. We even got the clover leaf on top of our Guinness.
Here are some pictures of our exciting day up in the Berkshires. The weather was good when we arrived, sprinkled a little bit while we were picking apples and then cleared up again. All in all, it was a good day – minus the slipper thing.
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I believe these are Empire apples at Windy Hill Orchard in Great Barrington, MA
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Looking up between two rows of apples trees at Windy Hill Orchard in Great Barrington, MA
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Simon the house cat at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, MA
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Entrance to Blantyre in Lenox, MA
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The Music Room at Blantyre in Lenox, MA
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The main entrance room at Blantyre in Lenox, MA
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The patio area at Blantyre in Lenox, MA
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Half of the building at Blantyre in Lenox, MA
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The other half of the building at Blantyre in Lenox, MA
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Tennis courts at Blantyre in Lenox, MA
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The grounds at Blantyre in Lenox, MA
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Friday, September 4th, 2009
I am really doubting that you remember last year’s tomato adventure. If you don’t, you can read about it by clicking the link right before this sentence. It was so much fun that we decided to do it again.
I bet this is going to become a yearly thing. Hey, that’s fine with me. I like tomatoes. I like tomato sandwiches and I like tomato sauce. As a matter of fact, I had some tomato sauce just this evening. I made it from our new tomatoes.
Anyway, yeah, so it’s September. The nights are getting chilly and some of the more exciting fruits and vegetables are ready to be picked. Laura has asked me a few times over the course of the Summer about the date we got the tomatoes last year. Since I have this handy blog, I just looked up the date of my previous tomato post. Doing that is getting much easier now that the blog is a few years old. Trying to do that the first year…umm, not so much. The second year…a little bit. The third year…now we’re getting somewhere.
Before we got in the car yesterday, I gave Gotta’s Farm down in Portland, CT a call, just to make sure that had tomatoes available. They told me that they did. They call them, “Canners.” I think that’s because some of these tomatoes are a little beat up. Some people prepare them and put them in cans or jars. I think that’s the reason. Tell me if I’m wrong. They made sure to ask me, “Canners?” I said, “Yeah” wondering what the heck they were talking about. I don’t care what type of tomatoes they are, they just get sliced up and stacked on a sandwich over here on my end.
Large ripe red tomato
I hooked the trailer up to the car before we left. This was a multi-purpose trip. I wanted to pick up a bunch of bales of peat moss and I needed to bring Laura to the bank. We were going to drive in a big circle. Off we went.
When we arrived at Gotta’s Farm, we pulled up along-side the building. I felt like a trucker because I was pulling a trailer. I should have had a cigar in my mouth. We parked right next to a pallet of peat moss. Who knew? I had planned on getting the peat moss from Paul’s and Sandy’s Too, but since this stuff was sitting right in front of me, I decided to buy them out. That’s right, I stacked all 17 bales of peat moss in the trailer and then went inside to check out the tomatoes.
When I got inside, I was reminded that there was more than just tomatoes that ripen this time of year. There were also peaches. Oh yeah…mmm…mmm…mmm. How I do just love peaches. We agreed that it would be a good idea to get a box of peaches as well as a box of tomatoes. Now, let me tell you that a box is like ten pounds. It ain’t no little box of peaches. It’s a big box of peaches. So many peaches, in fact, that I believe we might have to make a peach pie or two. Now, that wouldn’t be me making the peach pie, that would be Laura. She is much better at making pies. I just know how to screw them up. Plus, it’s much more fun to come inside to a nice warm peach pie after trying to spread peat moss over freshly seeded lawn than to have to make it myself, but that’s another story for another time.
Okay, so just to wrap this up. I had the first of many tomato sandwiches yesterday. It was good. I forgot to put salt and pepper on it, so it was basically just toast, mayo and big thick tomato slices. Like I said, it was good. Tomorrow’s sandwich is going to be better.
One last little thing that was pretty weird. While Laura and I stood in the farm stand yesterday, I looked at her and said, “Isn’t this strange? We stood in the exact same spot a year ago almost to the day doing the exact same thing. We’ll probably do the exact same thing next year.” Okay, that kind of took me by surprise. I am not a real fan of having year’s fly by without any huge memorable events happening (like sailing across the ocean). How many years like this can go by? I am going to have to ponder this and then write about it. I’m sure it will be very deep. And then I am going to have to do something to make these years much more memorable.
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