On Saturday we took a picnic lunch and drove through Harriman State Park in New York and up Bear Mountain. The weather was perfection: not too hot or humid. Just clear blue skies and a lovely breeze. What better weather for a convertible like Mia to stretch her legs in?

The view is beautiful no matter which direction you look.

What a great day to just sit on a rock and take in the beauty of the countryside and the Hudson River.

The next few photos were taken from the scenic view point.

A barge was nice enough to be heading up river while we were there.

Under the Bear Mountain Bridge it goes!

We stopped at roadside picnic area to eat our lunch. I just love our picnic backpack. It has everything you need: plates, cutlery, salt & pepper, cutting board, and even a tablecloth and napkins.

Lunch was chicken salad sandwiches. Cha-Cha-Chicken Salad has a can of crushed pineapple, cream cheese, mayo, a touch of curry and orange flavored cranberries. (And chicken of course!) Very tasty!

This tree was right by our picnic table. What makes people want to carve their names/initials into a tree’s bark? This one has certainly had more than its fair share of signatures.

A nice drive that didn’t take all day. We were back home and in the pool by two o’clock. We’ll do this again in the fall to catch the colors!

When we lived in Ft. Collins we had a peach tree that bore beautiful fruit each year. We made a lot of “pickled” peaches using Rick’s grandmother’s recipe. When we ate lunch at Penning’s Farm Stand this Saturday and saw all the fresh peaches for sale we decided to put some up. Especially when we saw that they were selling their own Spiced Pickled Peaches for $12.00 a jar!

It’s been at least six years since we’ve done this and I think we’ve pretty much forgotten how. Like how much work it really is. Like what kind of jars we should have purchased (the wide mouth kind). Like how the peaches really should be pretty darn ripe because if they are too big to fit into those narrow-necked jars you have to pit them which is not easy an easy process on an un-ripe peach. More like butchering instead of pitting. Like how you really should watch the sugar syrup closely so that it doesn’t overflow the pan and run all over the cooktop and make a big sticky mess.

First the peaches have to be peeled. Putting them in a boiling hot water bath for a minute or so helps to loosen the skins. Again, must remember to get riper peaches so the skins come off more easily to avoid butchered peaches.

After peeling they sit in cold water with some vinegar and salt added so they won’t turn a funny brown by they time you get them all peeled. Only thing is, here’s a hint. Don’t put the peaches in a double boiler/strainer because as the peaches displace the water it will begin to overflow—all over the cooktop and counter before it finally makes its way down the cabinets and to the floor in a big puddle.

After a quick dip in the syrup mixture they get put in clean, hot jars along with some cloves and a piece of cinnamon stick. Peaches just a tad too big to fit through the mouth of the jar? No problem! Just give them a good push and hope like heck you can get them back out when you are ready to eat them. Pour syrup mixture over peaches to cover within one half inch of the top.

Out of the canning bath and they are looking good!

 

For all our trouble we got four quarts of mostly intact peaches and one quart of butchered sliced peaches.

We can only hope they taste really good because after all the mishaps and an hour or more to clean up the mess, we are beginning to think that $12.00 a quart is not too much to pay after all.

Ever since fellow blogger, Lettuce Eating, visited New York City (she lives in London) and told me how she went on this food tour, I’ve been longing to do it. What better excuse to finally just “do it” than hosting a visitor over the weekend last week? Anne-Lise (the daughter of our dear friends in France) took a few days out from her busy college schedule in Quebec to come and stay with us. Since we had not seen her since she was 8 years old it was nice to “meet” the wonderful grown woman she has become at age 22! Where did the years go?

We drove in to the city and left early in case the traffic was all snarled up, which if course it wasn’t and we arrived at the closest parking garage to our meeting point in the Village in just over one hour. Amazing! It still seems unreal to me that we live that close to NYC and that Rick is brave enough to drive in Manhattan!

We met in front of Murray’s Cheese.

Here is the only photo I took while inside. It was really crowded, so kind of hard to get photos of all the luscious cheeses and other cool things they had to offer. You can buy these “gift” boxes!

Our first tasting stop was Joe’s Pizza. Did you happen to notice that pizza pie at the beginning of the post? Hmm ... how could you not? I hope it made you hungry because it was certainly delicious! I thought we would each get just a bite of pizza, but we had one whole slice to ourselves. Our guide, Barri, gave us the background history on Joe’s and how they make their sauce. No big list of topping ingredients here. Just your basic tomato sauce and cheese on top of a wonderfully thin crust. Photos of a younger Joe posing with famous people covered the walls. As we left the store we actually got to see “Joe” standing outside talking to someone. Hey, a “celebrity” sighting!

Next we sampled rice balls (or arancini) from Faicco’s Italian Specialty Food Shop (Previously Faicco’s Pork Store) which is right next door to Murray’s Cheese. That’s our guide passing them out. We ate on the street because the shop is just too small to fit us all in at the same time.

Even though they took the pork out of the name, the pig remains on the sign. *oink, oink*

Just look at this line up of wonderful food shops: Amy’s Bread, The Lobster Place (we just peeked in here—so much wonderful looking fresh fish!), Murray’s Cheese Shop and Faicco’s all in a row! Bread, fish, cheese and pork. The only thing missing is a butcher shop for beef.

Our guide told us a lot about the the area and different buildings. I even learned something new about how to tell how old a brick house was by they way the bricks are laid. She pointed out places along the way where a film or television series had been shot. We saw the outside of the house where contestants from the Next Network Food Star were housed a few years ago, the church garden where most of the garden scenes from the movie Doubt were filmed, and the outside of the building that was supposed to be where they lived on Friends. I never watched the show so I didn’t have a clue.

It’s quiet and lovely and at times hard to believe you are still in the city. And, from what we understand, extremely pricey to live here now. No more starving poets and artists. You pretty much have to have “made it” to live in the Village today.

After the rice balls we headed to Home (American Gourmet Comfort food). In this tiny little restaurant we got to sit down and eat in their little courtyard garden in back. By this time it had started to drizzle so the chef rolled out the awnings for us.

Our tasting here was none other than comfort food at its best: Mac & Cheese. This was not your average Mac & Cheese though ... yum. Go ahead, take a bite. You know you want to.

We visited the Cornelia Street Café which has club space downstairs in the basement for aspiring poets, musicians, and storytellers. It’s like a cave down there and very reminiscent of the old beatnik days. The stage is tiny. Our guide told us that Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick had their first date here. You can tell how narrow it is by looking at us all standing around. When we resurfaced, it was pouring rain! oh dear. Some people came prepared but others did not.

Our guide herded us back over to Faicco’s to the shelter of their large awnings as the rain continued to pour from the sky. While she went in search of some rain ponchos for those that were not prepared for the rain, we all got a chance to go inside the “pork store.” Those are huge “logs” of provolone cheese hanging from the ceiling!

Our next stop was another sit-down tasting which got us out of the rain. By this time I was so full I could barely put another bite of anything into my mouth. They say that the tasting tour is “enough for people to eat so lunch is not usually necessary afterwards.” Hah! That’s a slight understatement. Soy and Sake (Asian inspired Vegetarian Restaurant) was something completely different. We were presented with a beautiful little Bento box full of goodies: BBQ pork (really tofu but tasted a lot like the real thing), fried rice, a dumpling and some delicious fried seaweed.

The other nice thing was the chance to order a glass of wine or sake if we wanted to. (Cost not included in the tour price.) Rick was intrigued by something on the menu called Sake2me described as a “sparkling drink infused with all-natural Asian flavors.” He chose the pear flavor. Stupid me, since I don’t really care for sake I didn’t order one but had white wine instead. His Sake2me was absolutely delicious: light and so refreshing! My wine paled in comparison. I’ve since tried to find it around here but right now it looks like no one is carrying it. I highly recommend trying to find it! Where are Rowan & Martin when you need them?

Back out on the sidewalk again it had (thankfully) mostly stopped raining. Well, at least it wasn’t pouring. The dessert course was up next at Milk & Cookies where we ate huge still-warm-from-the-oven oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I ate half of mine and saved the rest for later.

But wait! We aren’t done yet! We still have the cheese and olive platter over at Murray’s Cheese Shop and last but not least, cannolis at Rocco’s Pastry Shop which have been voted the best cannolis in NY! Rocco’s is only a few doors down from Murray’s, Amy’s etc., and across the street. Good thing I don’t live in this neighborhood.

Whew! Are you full yet? Did you have enough to eat our would you like some lunch now?

Which one was my favorite you might ask? Well…a close tie between the pizza and mac & cheese. Least fav were the rice balls I think. They were good, but heavy.

Now that we’ve been on this tour there are so many restaurants we passed by and heard about that I want to go back to. Like Fish where for $8.00 you can get a half dozen oysters on the half shell with a glass of beer or wine. Uhm ... do I need to point this out — bargain!! And, I am certain that is exactly what they hope the people on the tour will do: come back and patronize their establishments. Works for me!

I’ll leave you with a somewhat hazy view of Manhattan taken from the Jersey side of the Hudson from Weehawken just as we got out of the Lincoln Tunnel. (Jersey really does have the best view of Manhattan—forget the Empire State Building!)

There are a few other food tours that we’d now like to take after having been on this one. The one to Chelsea Market and the one in Chinatown sound the best. It was so interesting to taste the food and get a lesson on history and architecture all at the same time. I highly recommend the experience next time you happen to visit the Big Apple!

Here is the link to the tour we went on. Other tours are listed on the page as well.

P.S. Be sure to click on all the provided links to visit each restaurant’s/shop’s web site. If there is no link there isn’t a web site!
P.P.S. If you have no clue what I am talking about in my reference to Rowan & Martin you are probably too young to be reading this blog.

No doubt about it. Summer has arrived in New Jersey. It’s HOT. Our pool is really getting a workout. This year the water is crystal clear and the temperature is staying above 80F. Sheer heaven! I am starting to turn a lovely nut brown with all this sun.

Our air conditioning is also getting a workout which isn’t so good for the electric bill. For the past two nights now we’ve opened the windows and slept pretty well with a fan in the window.

Having a second-story bedroom is not ideal in the summer! Add to that the fact that our main attic fan quit a couple of months ago, which makes it all that much hotter upstairs since all that hot air is just trapped in the attic. I waited for the roofer to call all last week for the installation of two new ones (the other one over the garage space makes a huge racket and need replacing too) but due to rain he didn’t make it. He was scheduled to come on Saturday, but of course he was running behind and it just got too darn hot. So he rescheduled for this morning, and of course, we had a thunderstorm! Hopefully he’ll still make it today. [Nope. He just called and will try again tomorrow.]

Which brings me to the thunderstorm topic. This morning’s storm gave a few rumbles of thunder before it arrived and only a few more once it got here. I think I saw one little flash of lightning. That was it. We haven’t had a “real” thunderstorm yet this year. Usually we get house-rattling storms with lots of lightning and thunder. Other areas have gotten them, but here at the house they just don’t seem to materialize. I know it’s crazy, but I miss them. Somehow a good thunderstorm just discharges all that energy and washes the atmosphere clean again. This morning’s storm held promise but in the end it did not deliver. At least it rained.

Another reason we know that summer is really here, the cicadas have taken up their summer buzzy songs in the trees. They sing a different song during the day than they do at night. They love it when it gets hot and humid. During the day their song is just a steady buzzy trill—one note. At night it’s kind of like this —CHE CHE CHE ... che che che—one set of “che’s” being lower than the other, almost like they are talking to each other. The frogs are still in the background too at night, so it’s like a nature symphony. Very soothing.

We had a lovely drive to the market in Warwick on Sunday in Mia. The morning was beautiful and we took all the winding little back roads. We ate breakfast outside at the little French restaurant, sharing a baked egg, potato and ham casserole and sipping a huge bowl of café au lait.

On passing one of the shops as we made our way over the market, I couldn’t pass up this straw market bag. I am thinking it will also make a great beach bag for toting towels, books and whatever else we want on the beach with us when we go down the shore next month for a weekend. I love it!

The market was very busy and we were surprised and delighted to see fresh Jersey sweet corn (white! yum!) and the first of the tomatoes. Peaches are also now in season and so juicy and delicious! It’s best to eat them over a bowl or something to catch all the juice that dribbles down your chin.

I also could not resist this gorgeous sunflower for $2.00.

We took the “long way home” from the market. As we drove up our street a doe and her two tiny fawns were in the road right in front of our house. So beautiful! They dashed into the woods all too quickly.

When we got home we grilled spicy hot chicken wings (our go-to Sunday lunch) and then into the pool.

We decided to eat outside by the pool last night even though it was still pretty hot. I moved the furniture out of the cabana and set up the card table.

Last night we tried a new recipe, a sort of deconstructed BLT sandwich in salad form. It was the perfect meal for a hot day. Romaine lettuce, chopped bacon, chunks of fresh watermelon, orange cherry tomatoes from the market (super sweet!), fresh baguette croutons (done in a little of the bacon fat) and topped with a homemade Parmesan peppercorn dressing. Very very tasty. We’ll be having this again.

It’s kind of nice to have summer (compared to last year’s summer-that-wasn’t) but if this heat keeps up we’ll be glad when it’s over! Like this blossom that fell into the pool, we’re just trying to stay afloat through this second heat wave.

Stay cool!

P.S. Have you checked out the “On this day ...” feature on the right hand side of the blog? It’s right under “My Favorite Links” and features blog entries from previous years that I wrote on or around this same date. Check it out!

Yesterday we worshipped in the Temple of Nature. Right here.

And if this little cove was our temple, then this was the altar.

It’s been extremely hot here this past week with no rain, temperatures in the 90’s and the heat index up to 107! Saturday morning the heat wave finally broke and we got over 2 inches of much needed rain.

We vowed to each other that when we woke on Sunday morning we would feed the dogs and cats, throw on some clothes, toss the canoe on top of the truck and head out to Green Turtle pond again. We were on the pond by 7:30 a.m., which is pretty good for us.

The morning mist was still hovering near the surface of the water, leaving an almost monochromatic look to the scene.

But soon the sun burned off the mist and we were left with beautiful blue sky and still waters.

And look who was back again: Mr. Great Blue Heron. Same bird (probably). Same rock. Only this time I had my zoom lens.

A morning perfect for paddling as no breeze had yet started. We’ve figured out that the breeze starts around 8:15 and it usually catches us paddling back up the opposite side of the pond. We timed this trip just right.

My muscles were still a bit sore from last week, but it still felt good. I can’t tell you how peaceful it is out there in the early morning. Birdsong floats down through the trees and bullfrogs croak from the reeds.

I liked the colors and reflection of this fisherman.

After our paddle around the pond we came home, took showers, and headed off in Mia to the market in Warwick. Goat cheese (for our lunch), bread, and blueberries were on our list.

Lunch was a new recipe of Planked Figs: fresh halved figs dipped in Calvados and ground pepper, left to marinate for about 20 minutes, then wrapped in pancetta and topped with fresh goat cheese and a little fried pancetta and cooked on a cedar plank on the grill.  After cooking they were drizzled with wildflower honey. Delicious!

Eaten poolside, of course.

The rest of the day was spent in and around the pool. All in all, another lovely Sunday.