The Vacation Begins

11 Days.

Ahhhh....

Tiffanie is going to a wedding back home tomorrow and is taking the girls. She decided today to just go ahead and stay all week as well!
All the grandparents will get to see the girls, and I'll get a sweet vacation!

Tomorrow: the beach!

We Grilled

Chickpea burgers (we also had real burgers and brats)


Grilled corn with thyme, garlic butter


Grilled zucchini with feta, lemon, garlic and olive oil


Bacon wrapped jalapenos


Home made grilled rosemary flat bread. They were so fluffy and light!


Grady did a little helping and a little resting

We went to Haymarket on Saturday and got all our vegetables and herbs to feed 8 people for $8! Haymarket is kind of amazing. Well kind of.

Weekend Buddies

Bryan and I are house/dog sitting for Derek and Tiffanie this weekend!



They are getting the royal treatment, for sure.

Rainy Day

Adele and I have accomplished quite a bit on our rainy day indoors!
We made cookies this morning with all the extras we could find in the pantry. I just let her choose the fillers and most of them are really good! There are some with nuts, some with chocolate, and some with marshmallows--- marshmallows don't bake well FYI.


Then we made 'cupcake' crayons based on Mollie's instructions (can't figure out how to link it from my phone).








We peeled the paper off all our old broken crayons.


We sorted them into colors.



We mixed different color combinations.



We baked our crayons at 200 degrees for 15 minutes until they were just melted and then we let them cool before we used them!



They're actually quite beautiful and work perfectly in small hands!

Day 4 & 5

Not a picture in sight of our last two days but we went to Luna for brunch, went to the Cambridge Antique Market, took naps, then went to Craigie for dinner yesterday!
Basically we ate delicious food all day and took naps.

Today we shopped a bit then returned our friends safely to the airport!
We had so much fun and are so so glad they came up to Boston!!

Day 3

We went to Newport for the day today! (by 'today' I'm still referring to Saturday because I'm still awake)
We had a blast!



The wind was crazy!


There were so many people observing sailing races.





The red tide at First Beach


Under my favorite tree at the Elms

After walking miles in the sun and wind all day we finally hopped in the car and made it back to Boston by 9pm.
We picked up a few groceries,


Bryan taught Parker how to shuck oysters,


and had a delightful seafood dinner (scallops, mussels, oysters, green beans) in our jammies.




And now it's Bedtime for Bonzo! My Daddy used to always say that to me. Happy Father's Day, I love you!

Day 2

After biscuits and jam for breakfast we went to the Sam Adams Brewery for a mid-day beer tasting.
We walked most of the freedom trail afterword and then made our way to Fenway for a Red Sox game which we won!!!












While it was rather cool and breezy in the park it wasn't freezing. I think this poor girl who sat cloaked in a large black garbage bag for the entire game may have felt differently, though.

They're Here!

Parker & Lexie visit Boston:
Day 1



Island Creek Oyster Bar

I Love Brinner

Buttermilk Wheat Waffles


And home made buttermilk syrup. Thank you Tasty Kitchen! So yummy!


Hash Browns


Bloody Mary with Bryan's own Pepper Infused Vodka

The Dragon Boat Races

So we ended up wandering down to the river yesterday for a while to watch the Chinese Dragon Boats race and to eat some Chinese food for lunch.

The boat races were exciting because the course was only a couple hundred yards long so it was over pretty quickly once it started.
We found some yummy Korean tofu mandoos (Bryan had pork and I had tofu) which were just grilled dumplings and also scallion pancakes for our late lunch.

We ate at the Harvard bridge and watched the show of children doing karate moves with weapons on a big stage (to the tune of Kung Fu Fighting *seriously kung fu fighting*)


And now for some yet unanswered questions:
1. The pie bird is not attached to my pie plate and was not used it the making of my tart tatin. It is used for venting pies rather than having to slit the crusts like you normally would, you can just put the bird right in the middle!

2. Strawberry-Lemonade Icebox Pie Recipe!

• For The Crust

  • Vegetable oil cooking spray
  • 9 to 10 graham crackers, broken into pieces
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • Coarse salt
  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

• For The Filling

  • 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
  • 2/3 cup strained fresh lemon juice (from 4 lemons)
  • 2 large egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue), plus 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  • Coarse salt

• For The Topping

  • 12 ounces strawberries, sliced (2 cups)
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
  • 3 large egg whites, room temperature (2 reserved from filling)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make the crust: Coat a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray. Pulse crackers in a food processor until finely ground; measure 1 1/3 cups, and discard excess. Pulse cracker crumbs, sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in food processor to combine. Add butter, and pulse until mixture is moist and holds together when pressed between 2 fingers.
2. Press crust evenly into bottom and up sides of pie plate using the bottom of a dry measuring cup. (Make sure the sides and rim of the crust are firmly pressed so they don't crumble when pie gets cut.) Freeze for 30 minutes.
3. Bake crust until firm and turning darker around edges, 10 to 11 minutes. Remove from oven, and reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.
4. Meanwhile, make the filling: Whisk together condensed milk, lemon juice, egg yolks and egg, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
5. Pour filling into warm piecrust. Bake until center is set, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
6. Make the topping: Sprinkle berries with 2 tablespoons sugar and the lemon juice. Let stand for 30 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, heat egg whites and remaining 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar in the heatproof bowl of a mixer set over a pan of simmering water until sugar dissolves and mixture is warm to the touch, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to mixer, and whisk on high speed until medium peaks form, 8 to 9 minutes.
8. Spoon berries over pie. Spoon meringue over top. Place pie under broiler, with rack in lowest position, until meringue is just browned. Alternatively, use a kitchen torch to brown the top.
   
   
   My notes:::
   Don't cook the egg whites. Just beat them in a cold bowl with the sugar. Mine, when cooked, turned to marshmallow goo consistency.
   You may not use all the berries and don't pour the strawberry juice on top. I used all the berries and juice and it was a little liquidy once sliced
   Definitely make sure your custard is completely set in the center before removing it from the oven. It can't support the weight of the berries if it's not completely set. I would also recommend refrigerating the custard overnight before adding the berries and meringue on top (which makes this an easy make-ahead dessert!)
   
   
   Recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart Living June 2011 issue!

Strawberries

I got the best surprise phone call yesterday! A friend of Tiffanie has a huge strawberry patch in her back yard and wanted to bring me a big bag of them to make jam out of! She brought me 6 1/2 pounds of fresh strawberries (that equaled about 300 strawberries) and I'm making Classic Strawberry Jam and a Strawberry Marsala Jam with Rosemary! The classic jam turned out really delicious! It's bright and tastes just like a fresh, summer strawberry. I'll be starting the other one today!

Now that breakfast is done we are headed to the river to watch Chinese Dragon Boat Races this afternoon!

(these weren't even the strawberries from the big bag, these were from the farmer's market that Adele and I went to this week--- we have Strawberries coming out our ears this weekend!)

I hope you've had a lovely weekend as well.

Dessert, Anyone?

My sweet Mama sent me a happy from the beach!

A Le Creuset pie pan and pie bird!

Isn't that little pie bird cute?

We had people over for dessert so that I could use it.
I made Apple Tart Tatin with the pie pan and because I also LOVE cake I made a Tripple Lemon Chiffon Cake. It might be my new favorite and I think it would be really good with raspberries or blueberries on top!

Scooper Bowl

Adele and I spent all morning in the city. I would venture to guess I've walked about 7 miles so far today--- good thing I got a few extra calories when we attended Scooper Bowl! It was an all you can eat ice cream event to benefit the Jimmy Fund & the Dana Farber Cancer Research Center.


We got spoons...



Ice cream...



And we left with full bellies and chocolatey faces!

Now making it home should be interesting... It's 100 degrees today and I just ate 4 (small) scoops of ice cream (don't judge and don't forget to subtract what Adele helped with).

***don't throw up***
***don't throw up***

A New Adventure

A new friend taught me the basics of quilting last week and because I can't do anything without doing it the most creative (aka difficult) way possible, I immediately decided I wanted to dye all my own fabric.
Have I ever dyed fabric before? No. Have I ever quilted before? Nope. Well let's give both a try!

My goal this weekend was to do some test strips and see where I stand:






This is the basic range I've decided to go with!
I'm excited! Soon I'll be undertaking the large (and daunting) task of dying 10 yards of cotton!

And then cutting out several hundred tiny squares.

And then sewing them back together.

And then quilting them.

What am I doing again?